Lining Up: Schmaltz and Arizona’s Schedule; Resurgence for Benn and Seguin; New Role for Nichushkin
Peter Ryell
2022-02-01
Welcome back to the latest iteration of Lining Up. With the upcoming All-Star weekend, the next few weeks are going to be thrown into a state of flux with some teams making up games while others taking it easy for the majority of the time. Be sure to take a look at the Schedule Planner section in Frozen Tools to determine which teams are playing when.
This week will focus on a few players to consider adding if you find yourself holding onto someone that only plays once or twice over a two week period. Let's dive in.
Travis Boyd – Nick Schmaltz – Clayton Keller
Normally players from ARI would not come highly recommended, however aside from a few hot streaks, the main reason for featuring them in this column today is the upcoming schedule. ARI is one of only a handful of teams that plays five games or more this fantasy week. By comparison, three teams play once and another three teams play twice during the same span. While you should not drop your star players for the names listed here, consider replacing your depth options for someone on a hot streak playing double the games.
Overall, this line has been together for nearly 80 minutes of playing time and currently have a CF% of 50%. Over the last two weeks though they have been playing particularly well with six GF and four GA. Nothing to celebrate over but considering the team expectations it could be worse. Keller is the well-known commodity of this line and has been having a decent season so far. He is currently pacing for a respectable 67 points and has 16 goals and 35 points in 43 games. Keller is also firing the puck at nearly three shots on goal per game. He is currently riding a hot streak with five points in his last four games and still receives a good amount of PP time, averaging nearly three minutes per game. Plus at only 41% rostered in Yahoo leagues, he may still be available to scoop up for the upcoming five game stretch.
Schmaltz has been riding shotgun with Keller for the majority of the season but is having less success with only five goals and 15 points in 24 games. However, he is also joining Keller on a hot streak with five points in four games, continuing the recent strong play of this line. If your league is deep and again, you are in need of making up some games this upcoming fantasy week, consider taking a look at Boyd. He currently has ten goals and 20 points in 35 games but most significantly, Boyd has been getting time on the top PP unit in ARI over Schmaltz. Both players are less than 5% rostered in Yahoo leagues and so should be readily available if you need help.
This pair features a few familiar names that have been awfully quiet this year, shadows of their former selves. Yet in the last few weeks they are showing signs of life, particularly Sunday against BOS.
Benn has been streaky this year with two or three games of four to five points before going quiet for several afterwards, but on Sunday he posted a goal and an assist so perhaps the start of a new streak. Otherwise, Benn still contributes in the peripheral categories with over two shots and two hits per game and is 57% rostered in Yahoo leagues. Seguin however has been a bit more revitalized lately with nine points in his last eight games, including three against BOS. After a long recovery and slow start to the season, he might finally be getting back on track.
Along with Denis Gurianov, this line has been performing well over the last two weeks and with four games remaining this fantasy week, they could be worth rostering over a depth player from L.A, NYR or S.J as those three teams only play once during that same span.
With the injury to Nathan MacKinnon, Nichushkin has stepped into a huge opportunity lining up beside Gabriel Landeskog and Mikko Rantanen. On the season he has been performing very well and above expectations. He currently has 12 goals and 23 points for a 70-point pace in addition to over two and a half shots on goal and one and a half hits per game. Recently, he has six points in five games and he is only 32% rostered in Yahoo leagues. Was it mentioned that he's between Landeskog and Rantanen? Tonight COL will square off against ARI so take a flier on Nichuskin while his deployment is looking extra favourable.
Sam Reinhart – Mason Marchment – Anton Lundell
This line is getting a quick mention here as they are red hot at the moment. Over the last two weeks they have six GF and zero GA with a CF% of 62 but last night they absolutely went off against CBJ, combining for five goals. They play again tonight before being off for the remainder of the fantasy week but will return the following week for three games. CBJ are no NYR but consider adding one of them in your lineup if you can tonight, Reinhart, Lundell and Marchment in that order. Keep an eye on this hot line when they return to see if the break did anything to cool them down or not.
Stay safe.