Clubs have started to come back from various breaks, as well as playing in games that were scheduled around Christmas time. Your fantasy lineup may vary from day to day without much regularity in it, but let's try to navigate some spots to help get ahead this week.

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

Laurent Brossoit, G, Vegas Golden Knights (Available in 93% of ESPN leagues, 65% Fantrax, 78% Yahoo) – Knights head coach Pete DeBoer told the media that Robin Lehner was evaluated by doctors and will be back, "sooner rather than later." Whether that means early next week or into next weekend, this gives us a chance to grab some starts from a very low-owned Brossoit.

Although Brossoit is a backup, I think he's one of the better ones in the league and could probably start for at least four or five clubs right now. Seriously, I recently watched Filip Gustavsson versus Sam Montembeault, so there's two right there. Even though the Knights fell short on Wednesday night at home to the Avalanche, I thought he had a strong outing and that's been the trend when Vegas goes to him in net.

In 17 GP this season (14 starts) Brossoit has nine wins, eight quality starts, a .906 save percentage, and 2.62 goals against average. That's not too shabby and for a backup. While Lehner is out I think taking advantage of starting Brossoit is a great way to get some spot starts here in the short term.

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

Noah Hanifin, D, Calgary Flames (Available in 90% of ESPN leagues, 57% Fantrax, 84% Yahoo) – Hanifin has been a player I've had on my watch list for a while now and the one thing keeping me off adding him to any of my fantasy teams was that he just didn't have the offense at times. That's not so much the story the past couple of weeks and I think this is a player worth putting in a claim for or making an add/drop.

Hanifin has five points in his last five games which is good but what makes him such an intriguing addition is that he plays on Calgary's top defensive pairing which means he plays even strength time with Calgary's top line. Buzzsaw, wagon, juggernaut, whatever you want to use to describe how well the Gaudreau – Lindholm – Tkachuk line has been playing is probably fair and Hanifin playing even-strength time with them only ups his fantasy value. In 200 minutes played that forward group has 32.8 expected goals for and in the last ten games have 11 goals. Looking more into his even-strength time, the Rasmus Andersson – Hanifin duo has been exceptional as of late, with a 7.4 percent shooting percentage in their last ten games.

On the man advantage sure, Hanifin sees time away from Calgary's top line and is paired with Calgary's second line, but that's not much of a downgrade with that grouping also scoring 11 goals in their last ten games, along with 21 shots for in their last three games. I think adding Hanifin moving forward can only help your fantasy team playing on a club that has not slowed down yet this season.

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

Evgenii Dadonov, LW/RW, Vegas Golden Knights (Owned in 49% of ESPN leagues, 34% of Fantrax, 15% Yahoo) – When Mark Stone landed on the LTIR with a back injury it led to Dadonov taking his spot on the top line for Vegas. That alone helps his fantasy value, but I think we need to address how this could play out here moving forward. There's also been a small addition to the Knights roster at center too that could be driving ownership on Dadonov up in the coming days.

In deeper leagues and rosters looking to grab value, I can see where rostering Dadonov has been beneficial. He's seen time on the top power-play unit and has a fair amount of time on the Vegas top six. For right now I think more fantasy owners will be looking Dadonov's way because of the addition to Jack Eichel, and I get that 100 percent adding a player like Eichel playing along with Dadonov on the Vegas top line can only add to his offensive upside. Where I'm concerned though is if Dadonov remains on the top line for Vegas.

On Wednesday's game vs Colorado, Vegas did a fair amount of shuffling their forward lines and I think they're looking to find a RW to replace Stone until playoffs. If Dadonov and Eichel have any chemistry at all, I think he could very well stay where he's at, but I could also see Vegas giving time to Nicolas Roy or Nolan Patrick at the top right-wing spot (although Patrick was injured on Wednesday). I don't think is a scenario where if I have Dadonov on my roster I look to drop him. This is more along the lines of just keeping an eye on where he's skating in the Knights' next couple contests.

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

Evan Rodrigues, C/RW, Pittsburgh Penguins (Owned in 31% of ESPN leagues, 63% of Fantrax, 41% Yahoo) – From an Immediate Fix, to an Odd Man Out, and now to an Anchor, this is a tragedy of Shakespearean proportions here in the fantasy hockey world. We now dive into the rise and fall of Evan Rodrigues.

Okay so maybe not that dramatic. I still like Rodrigues as a player and what he brings to help generate offense. The problem is since Pittsburgh has gotten healthier on their top six, it's forced Rodrigues down to Pittsburgh's third line centering Brock McGinn and Kasperi Kapanen. Not the worst line you could be on, but that's a long way from playing alongside Sidney Crosby.

His time on ice has gone down as well, averaging just 14:31 in his last seven games and that's impacted his offense with just one point in his last eight games played. Rodrigues also doesn't see much time on the power play, with just 2:12 played on Pittsburgh's second power-play unit in the last three games. If there's a player you're watching on your waiver, this might be a good time to make a move. I don't see much value coming from keeping Rodrigues on your roster moving forward.

Love ‘Em (These squads are sure to pay dividends in the coming days)
This period runs from February 18 to March 2

Toronto – Full send the Leafs upcoming! Toronto has a busy schedule as well as a lighter one matchup wise with games vs Montreal, Columbus, and Detroit on the horizon.   

NY Islanders – New York is still trying to play catchup from their COVID-postponed games, and just like at the beginning of the season, the Isles are going to see lots of games all on the road. For a club that could be a sneaky DFS filler or those with Isles in fantasy or wins pool this is a great stretch to gain some ground.  

Florida – Florida may just be a permanent resident on Love Em Street, but it's the number of games they'll play that's interesting to us as they'll play five games in the next seven days.  

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

New Jersey – Leave Em last week, Leave Em this week. They just don't have much of a schedule coming up and that's what's taking me off them. Well, doesn't help it's New Jersey as well.

Tampa Bay – Bolts as well are a back-to-back Leave Em. They're a higher-owned fantasy team but with not much upcoming for them it's going to be tricky to fill a roster if you have any Tampa.

Ottawa – The Sens played five games two weeks ago and four games this week. Ebb and flow, they're only going to play twice next week. It was a good run rostering low owned Senators while we had it.