The Immediate Fix (Grab this guy and use him for the next several days)

Mikael Granlund, C/RW, Nashville Predators (Available in 75% of ESPN leagues, 40% Fantrax, 64% Yahoo) – Coming into this season I don't think that any of us saw Mikael Granlund as a 20-minute-a-night top-line center, but this season has been full of the unexpected. Granlund has five points in his past six games and 11 points in his last 12 and is tied for the team lead in points with 16. Even with a shorter season last year, Granlund should smash the 27 points he put up. Currently he is averaging 2.4 assists per 60 minutes and has excelled on the first line paired with Matt Duchene and Luke Kunin, who has filled in on the top line in the absence of Filip Forsberg.

Nashville has a busy schedule coming up next week, so if you're in need of offense or just filling roster spots in the short term, Granlund makes for an easy add with him being both center and right wing eligible. We've all been there trying to compare players on your roster and players on waivers that are only eligible at one forward position, having any flexibility (especially in leagues with smaller rosters) with more than one position helps tremendously.

The Building Block (Buy now, sit back and enjoy the production)

Nils Hoglander, LW/RW, Vancouver Canucks (Available in 91% of ESPN leagues, 43% Fantrax, 81% Yahoo) –It's been a night in and night out of letdowns in Canucksland, but if there's one positive it's Nils Hoglander. You don't need, oh say, a sit down with the owner (Mr. Canuck?) and GM to come to the conclusion that he should be seeing more time on the ice. Nope. Definitely not.

This is a player to get excited about here, Hoglander has excellent vision on the ice and has been fantastic thus far creating chances in the offensive zone. He has five points in his past four games and five goals on the season, that's more goals than Brock Boeser and Elias Pettersson who were most likely taken higher than him in your fantasy draft…much higher. He has 3.64 individual expected goals created and 23 high danger chances for 5v5 since the start of this month (eight games), and in that timespan also leads the Canucks in rush attempts (three) and shots (36).

Now, the only downside is well, it's Vancouver. Somewhere Forrest Gump is sitting on a bench telling a lady waiting for the bus that the Canucks lines are like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're going to get and if there's going to be any power-play correlation. The latest iteration has Hoglander alongside Tanner Pearson and Bo Horvat and over the past three games he has also seen time with JT Miller on his opposite wing. The positives though besides the offensive upside are that Hoglander is at seeing time on the top six and does generally see time on Vancouver's second power-play unit. The Canucks typically aren't one of those clubs that only runs one power-play unit throughout the duration on the man advantage, the second unit sees about 23% on the man advantage. In deep 14-person leagues there's a good chance Hoglander is somewhere on your waiver wire, there's a chance by next season he becomes the "sleeper" pick in fantasy drafts if he continues playing well.

The Odd Man Out (His short-term value is cause for concern)

Jamie Benn, C/LW, Dallas Stars (Owned in 73% of ESPN leagues, 62% of Fantrax, 64% Yahoo) – The Odd Man Out Committee has been watching this one closely and I think it's about time that captain Dallas Jaimie Benn is your Odd Man Out. I feel like in the drafts I'm in, it's Benn the same every season (see what I did there), for about the past few years. He's usually available in the mid to late rounds, people draft around him, eventually he's taken off name value and past performance.

Let's look at this closer, Benn has been starting at third-line center for a couple of weeks now, currently between Michael Raffl and Denis Gurianov. The Stars offensive troubles doesn't help with this club having the second-lowest goals for at even strength, and despite changes in in line combos Dallas is still struggling to get going a month into the season. Benn still has some value if you're in need of a player that hits but if all you're looking for is hits, there are plenty of other options. I'm not saying Benn and Dallas alike can't turn it around, but given the ownership there may be other places to look for offense.

The Anchors (They’ll do nothing but disappoint even over the long haul)

Jean-Gabriel Pageau, C, New York Islanders (Owned in 73% of ESPN leagues, 33% of Fantrax, 30% Yahoo) – Pageau has no points in his past five games and as a whole my worry with the Isles is as what's it's always been, if they're down two goals late in the third, where is the offense coming from? I just don't see JGP put in a role where he'll be able to generate enough offense to garner a roster spot on your fantasy team.

Last season Pageau had a career high shooting percentage of 17.3% and was a fantastic addition to any fantasy roster. If you're in a league that counts hits and blocked shots, his value was even greater with 111 hits and 58 blocks. Moving onto this season and the story is a bit different, he has the lowest goals per 60 minutes in his career and his constant changing of wingers doesn't help. He has been paired with Oliver Wahlstrom at times which I'm a fan of, but he has also spent time with Zach Parise and Kyle Palmieri as his wingers and that doesn't really move the needle as far as offensive production. If you're a JGP owner and are on the fence about dropping him, I always like to think it's better to move on from a player a game too early instead of two games too late, but this could be a situation where he lands on waivers and will still be available months from now.

Love ‘Em (These squads are sure to pay dividends in the coming days)

This period runs from November 19^th to December 1^st

Pittsburgh – Pittsburgh is back for the second straight week as a love with a nice busy schedule coming up. Their first line of Jake Guentzel – Sidney Crosby – Bryan Rust is now back together which is always in play for any fantasy or DFS lineup, but their second line and depth lines have also been good so far this season. Their power-play percentage is a league lowest 10%, but look for that number to come up.

Nashville – The Preds have a nice three-game homestand next week, which makes Nashville fans and Saros owners alike very happy. Juuse Saros has not allowed more than three goals in his last eight games.

Washington – The Caps have a busy weekend upcoming which will be followed by three games next week. It's the Caps, for DFS you could power-play stack them whenever they're on the slate and I wouldn't begrudge it. For fantasy they are a higher-owned club, great news for helping set a lineup upcoming. 

Leave ‘Em (These squads will leave fantasy owners sorely disappointed in the short term)

Los Angeles – I feel like we were just getting in the groove of playing Los Angeles two a filler stack and Arvidsson just came back this week. Only two games next week is taking me off the Kings in the near future.

Calgary – Playing the Flames in the near future is going to be few and far between, only two games next week with the latter on a very large slate. I have really enjoyed watching this team's six, but it'll have to go on hold. Did anyone out there have Andrew Mangiapane leading the NHL in road goals on their 2021-22 season BINGO card?

Vegas – They'll see St. Louis, Nashville, and Edmonton next week which leaves matchup nightmares for the club that already leads the NHL in high danger chances against.