While scouring the waiver wire, fantasy general managers will usually look at recent success, but that won't necessarily give you all the information you need to be successful.

Generally speaking, you want to find players that, all of a sudden, find themselves in an excellent opportunity to succeed. This might mean fourth-line players getting top-six roles, or healthy scratches arriving back into the lineup and getting power-play time.

Look at last season. Bryan Rust started the season in a bottom-six role, but was producing. When injuries hit Pittsburgh, Rust was promoted to a top-six position and continued to perform well. When the injured players started getting back into the lineup, the Pittsburgh coaching staff couldn't demote Rust. Now Rust is a fixture on the top power play and in a top-six role.

Of course, not everyone makes an impact with that opportunity. To use another Penguin player from last year, Dominik Simon played quite frequently with Sidney Crosby but couldn't produce. Now he's in Calgary struggling to get into the lineup, and when he does, is barely playing (his last game on March 1 saw him play fewer than six minutes).

Someone once said, "The door of opportunity is wide open if you are prepared." Below are 10 players that now have that door of opportunity. Some may see the opportunity last for the rest of the season, while others just a game or two.

10. Rasmus Ristolainen

At first, many fantasy general managers focused on Dylan Cozens possibly taking over Jack Eichel's spot on the top line, but that quickly petered out. Don't lose sight of what Buffalo has chosen to do with their power play without Eichel. Before the Eichel injury, Buffalo went with the four forwards/one defenseman deployment for their top power-play unit. In the last three games without Eichel, Buffalo has experimented with three forwards/two defensemen. That extra defenseman has been Ristolainen, who hasn't been producing offensively but is still a beast if your league counts blocked shots. If Buffalo can get anything going, Ristolainen might be able to benefit from the uptick in power-play time.

9. Matt Grzelcyk

The Boston Bruins threw the adage "if it's ain't broke, don't fix it" out the window. Grzelcyk has missed a lot of time this season, and by March 2, he had played only six games total. Up to that date, Boston scored on 26.8 per cent of their opportunities and was ranked sixth in the league. Grzelcyk got back in the lineup on March 3, and after a couple of games, took over the power-play duties on March 9. In the three games since, he's got two power-play points. If he can stay healthy, he might be able to deliver on that sleeper status many pegged him for before the season began.

8. Riley Nash

The results aren't there for Nash, but the opportunity sure is as he's turned into Columbus' first-line centre (although no power-play time keeps him from being ranked higher). Up until the end of February, Nash was mostly playing with Eric Robinson, Liam Foudy and Emil Bemstrom while averaging 12:21 per night. In seven games in March, Oliver Bjorkstrand and Patrik Laine have been on the ice for 40.7 per cent of Nash's even-strength minutes, which is up to almost 15 minutes per night in March.

7. Evan Rodrigues

This has been going on whenever Rodrigues gets into the lineup, but many fantasy general managers might not be aware of the opportunity Rodrigues has right now as about 80 per cent of all of Rodrigues' even-strength time has been alongside either Sidney Crosby or Evgeni Malkin. However, Rodrigues needs to start producing. Three points in 11 games in this spot isn't going to cut it and he looks close to becoming this year's Dominik Simon. The team is winning, so they won't want to mess with their lineup, but whenever Jason Zucker is back from injury is going to force Rodrigues potentially out of the lineup.

6. Jesper Fast

Fast missed a few games at the start of the season, but when he got back into the lineup on Feb. 7, he had three points in his next eight games while averaging 12:35 a night and 1:05 on the power play. Worse, he was stuck with Jordan Martinook, Cedric Paquette and Steven Lorentz as linemates. In his last 10 games, he has seven points while averaging 15:40 a night and 1:38 on the power play. More importantly, he's been promoted to top-six duties with Jordan Staal, Andrei Svechnikov and Sebastian Aho.

5. Daniel Sprong

This is a strange one as Sprong has been a healthy scratch at least 10 times already this season. However, he's finally getting an opportunity in a larger role and he's taking advantage. In 10 games from Jan. 17 to Feb. 7, Sprong had three points while averaging nine minutes of ice time and 19 seconds of power-play time. His most frequent linemates were Michael Sgarbossa, Daniel Carr and Conor Sheary. He has three points in four games since March 7 while averaging 12:39 minutes a night and 1:15 of power-play time. More importantly, his main linemates are Evgeny Kuznetsov and Jakub Vrana.

4. Nikolai Knyzhov

Once in a while, I come across someone I had never even heard of while researching for this column. That's the case of Knyzhov, a 22-year-old undrafted rookie defenseman who won't show up if you're looking for points. However, the San Jose Shark could provide some needed peripherals depending on your league's settings. Just look at how he started the season versus recently:

First 11 games: Minus-two, 8 PIM, 10 shots, 10 hits, eight blocked shots, 10:51 average time on ice

Last 14 games; Plus-three, 21 PIM, five shots, 20 hits, 16 blocked shots, 17:39 average time on ice

The stay-at-home defenseman has moved up to the second unit alongside Erik Karlsson. In theory, this should allow Karlsson to be more offensive and take more chances. Maybe there's a chance that Knyzhov can pick up a few extra assists if Karlsson can start to turn his season around, but that would be a bonus.

3. Brett Ritchie

Ritchie is not a sexy name, but he might be the type of player that new Calgary coach Darryl Sutter will love. Ritchie is big and loves to throw his weight around. In the four games since coach Geoff Ward was fired, Ritchie has 19 hits, so it looks like Ritchie is out to prove himself. Even though he's only played seven games this season, the majority of his ice time has been with Johnny Gaudreau and Sean Monahan. While averaging 9:17 ice time per game, if he can endear himself to Sutter, Ritchie could find himself in this plum role for the rest of the season.

2. Eeli Tolvanen

Thanks to his recent play with the man advantage, Tolvanen should have his role cemented on the top unit for the rest of the year. From the start of the season to Feb. 18, Tolvanen played in only seven games, notching one goal (on the power play) and zero assists to go along with seven shots and 12 hits. Playing with Nick Cousins and Erik Haula, he averaged 12:16 per night with 1:51 of that on the power play. On Feb. 20, he was promoted to the top power-play unit. In the 12 games since, he has four goals and seven points to go along with 23 shots and 21 hits. Six of his seven points have come with the man advantage. His ice time has gone to 14:49 per night with 2:59 on the power play. He has also been elevated at even strength, playing with Mikael Granlund and Filip Forsberg. 

1. Janne Kuokkanen

The Devils rookie has been moving up the lineup as the season has gone along, and he's been rewarding his coaches and fantasy general managers with the increase in ice time. In the first eight games of the season, Kuokkanen averaged 11:33 per game with 12 seconds of power-play time. He had just two points and five shots while playing with Miles Wood, Nathan Bastian and Michael McLeod. In the last 12 games, he is averaging almost 14 minutes a night with 1:37 of power-play time. In that time, he has nine points (including goals in each of his last four games) while playing alongside Travis Zajac, Yegor Sherangovich and Pavel Zacha.