Lining Up – Low-Owned Options from the Waiver Wire

Ryan Sheppard

2021-11-02

The NHL season has been trucking along and while not much has changed since last week, we are starting to see things level out a bit. Teams you may have expected to struggle this season like Arizona, Chicago, Ottawa and Seattle sit among the bottom five teams in pure points this season. On the other side of things, nobody would be too shocked if after two weeks Florida, Carolina and Edmonton were the top three teams in the NHL. Perhaps THE top three would be a bit of a surprise (where are Colorado, Tampa Bay and Vegas?), but they were always projected to be elite. Injuries have destroyed the Golden Knights to start the season with Mark Stone, Max Pacioretty and William Karlsson without seeing anybody stepping up much.

Adam Henrique (38 percent rostered on Yahoo) – The line of Adam Henrique, Trevor Zegras and Sonny Milano has been solid this season with the trio making up three of the top five on the Anaheim Ducks in Corsi For percentage (CF%). Milano leads the way with 54.8 CF% followed by Henrique's 52.7% and Zegras' 52.%. Henrique has stepped it up offensively as of late with three goals and five points in his last four games to go along with 17 shots on goal. He plays not only on the second line at even strength but also on the power play. Technically Henrique plays on the second power play unit, but the distribution of ice time with the man advantage is pretty similar across the board so I would not necessarily distinguish one unit as the first or the second.

Michael Rasmussen (2 percent) – Short-term (at least tonight) Michael Rasmussen is centering the Detroit Red Wings top line with Dylan Larkin out for personal reasons. While this may only last one game, it's a great opportunity for him. However, his most frequent linemates over the last three games were Filip Zadina and Vladislav Namestnikov, which is still a pretty good position for him to be in. He doesn't play much on the power play, but as long as Larkin is out — which again could be just one game — he may get a shot on one of the units.

Rasmus Asplund  (8 percent) – The 23-year-old second-round draft pick has been off to a solid start for the Buffalo Sabres this season. He has a respectable four goals and six points in the first eight games along with 14 shots on goal. Asplund is second among forwards in time on ice per game with 17:07 and fourth on the power play with 2:28 which puts him squarely on the top unit. It has been a situation that Asplund has been thrust into given the lack of talent on the Sabres and he has thrived and completely taken advantage of the situation. He leads the team with a very good 54.3 CF% as the Sabres continue to be one of the early season surprises. There is little to no chance this continues, but keep this train rolling while you can.

Alex Iafallo (18 percent) – Alex Iafallo has been incredible this season. He is second on the team in goals with four and points with eight, behind only Anze Kopitar in both. Additionally, his 30 shots on goal put him top three behind Dustin Brown and Viktor Arvidsson. Iafallo has taken a big leap forward so far this season as his spot on the second line is solidified. He's playing with Adrian Kempe and Phillip Danault right now and the trio have been incredible, especially from a possession standpoint. Kempe leads the forwards with an impressive 63.1 CF% but his linemates are not far behind. Danault and Kempe have a 60.2 CF% and a 58.4 CF% respectively, putting them at the top of the Kings forwards and their most dominant possession line. 

Evgeny Svechnikov (0 percent) – Evgeny Svechnikov has awesome linemates in Pierre-Luc Dubois and Kyle Connor and with minimal power play time, it's too bad he hasn't been able to convert that into a lot of points like his line mates. Connor leads the team with 7 goals and 14 points with Dubois sitting second in both of those stats with 6 goals and 10 points. Svechnikov sits way back with just 1 goal and 3 points. However, if he remains with them at even strength, he should be able to chip in a little more. Svechnikov has been among the best on the Winnipeg Jets — second to be a exact — with a 53.1 percent CF%, let's hope that he can convert these in to points in the coming games if he remains with them.

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Data from Frozen Tools

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