Every Sunday, we share 21 Fantasy Rambles from our writers at DobberHockey. These thoughts are curated from the past week’s 'Daily Ramblings'.

Writers/Editors: Ian Gooding, Michael Clifford, Alexander MacLean, and Dobber

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1. If you haven’t already, get in on the latest Roos Let Loose poll in which you can pick which five players have the best chance to salvage their seasons. So far there are some clear favorites, but you’ll still have a chance to weigh in until early Tuesday morning. And of course, you can read about each player in the article.

The obvious one is Cole Caufield, who might be the most-added player in single-season leagues over the past week. In case you’ve missed it, Caufield has six goals and 10 points over his last seven games. Suffice to say he’s a brand-new player with Martin St. Louis as the coach. [Fantasy Take: Montreal Replaces Ducharme with St. Louis]

One of my other votes went to Elias Pettersson because, well, he’s already turning it around. With two goals and an assist on Thursday, Pettersson now has 20 points (10 G, 10 A) in his last 16 games. As well, he’s been on fire recently with multiple points in each of his last four games, with 10 total points over that span. He recently admitted that his wrist was still bothering him (taped up) earlier this season, which explains the earlier struggles. Given the more recent results, it’s safe to say he’s back to being the old Petey. As I’ve said about many slumping stars: Hopefully you didn’t sell low. Agree? Disagree? Vote in the poll and comment in the thread! (feb26)

2. If you ask me who my top waiver-wire add of the season is, I’d tell you it’s Jesper Bratt. And with back-to-back two-goal games following a return from injury, Bratt is back above the point-per-game mark (48 PTS in 47 GP). Yet there’s another player that I added during the season who is giving Bratt a run for his money right now. That player is Adrian Kempe.

Kempe scored a pair of goals on Friday, giving him three 2-goal games over his last four games. Add in a pair of assists over that span and Kempe has eight points over his last four games. Kempe has now reached 25 goals, which is easily a career best for him. He’s been both good and lucky, taking nearly half a shot more per game this season over last (2.9 SOG/GP from 2.3 SOG/GP) while benefitting from a higher-than-normal 17.4 SH%. Kempe has also been playing on Anze Kopitar‘s line, which is the fastest way for any Kings player to earn points. (feb26)

3. Filling in for the injured Elvis Merzlikins, Joonas Korpisalo and Daniil Tarasov, J-F Berube deserved a better fate on Friday. Even though he posted his fourth consecutive quality start, Berube was tagged with the loss because the ice was tilted in the Columbus end, which resulted in him yielding four goals to Carolina. The Jackets were outshot 50-19 in this game, even trailing 38-9 in shots after two periods. Getting pounded with shots has been a way of life for the Blue Jackets recently, with Berube facing 50, 42, 42, and 36 shots in each of his four quality starts. The previous three games all resulted in wins, though.

Merzlikins was recently activated from IR but served as the backup on Friday, while Korpisalo was recently placed on IR with a lower-body injury. While Korpisalo is still sidelined, the 30-year-old journeyman Berube has put himself in a position to challenge Elvis for starts. Berube might need a longer rest after exerting himself on Friday, but don’t be surprised if Brad Larsen turns to the hot hand again on Sunday against Pittsburgh. If Berube is starting, he might be worth rolling the dice on. He’s rostered in only 9 percent of Yahoo leagues and 8 percent of Fantrax leagues. (feb26)

4. With Tony DeAngelo expected to miss the next month with an upper-body injury, Jaccob Slavin has been promoted to the first-unit power play. Although he didn’t record a point on Friday, he entered the game with five points in his last five games. He’s already rostered in the majority of leagues, but is currently worth a pickup if he is still available in yours. (feb26)

5. Yegor Sharangovich is a super-popular Frozen Tools search, so many of you will be interested to know that he scored again on Friday. That gives him goals in three consecutive games and a six-game point streak in which he has nine points. He’s benefiting from playing on the Jack Hughes line. Rostered in just 12 percent of Yahoo leagues, Sharangovich is definitely worth an add. Hughes picked up a goal and two assists of his own on Friday, giving him back-to-back three-point games. He also has a six-game point streak and 16 points in his last 12 games. 

All these positive vibes from that line can’t overshadow the fact that the Devils have dreadful goaltending right now. Because Mackenzie Blackwood has been injured, they’ve been forced to turn to Jon Gillies, who has allowed six goals in back-to-back games and three of his last six games. Unless a goalie faces something like 100 shots in a game (okay, I’m exaggerating a little), six goals is enough for a really bad start. If you play the matchups or daily fantasy, start your Canucks on Monday and your Blue Jackets on Tuesday. Oh, how New Jersey fans must long for the days of Martin Brodeur. The Devils allowed eight goals in total on Friday. (feb26)

6. Do you know which Coyote might be worth adding now? Nick Schmaltz. He scored a pair of goals in a surprising win over Vegas, giving him nine points over his last six games. Only linemate Clayton Keller has a higher point-per-game average among Coyotes than Schmaltz (0.76 PTS/GP), who is rostered in a meager 6 percent of Yahoo leagues and 24 percent of Fantrax leagues. You probably didn’t even remember he was still alive because a) he plays in the desert, and b) he has missed 19 games this season with an upper-body injury. (feb26)

7. According to Evolving Hockey, Yanni Gourde has dropped off across the board in impacts, though he’s still been good defensively. It is the offense that has taken a hit, which makes sense when we see just how little of it has been generated with him on the ice. The whole team is like that, outside of Jared McCann, so it’s a wonder if there’s not something deeper going on than Gourde just having a bad year.

Regardless, it doesn’t seem as if he’ll hit highs we had for him in the offseason, much like the rest of this team. At least there’s still hope for them to really start re-tooling this young team and looking to the future. Gourde is signed for a few years yet so he’s in it for the long haul, let’s hope things do improve next year. (feb25)

8. Josh Bailey has had a very bad season at both ends of the ice and was a healthy scratch this past week. Players rebound all the time, but there are two more years left on this contract and the Cup window for this team looks to be closing. It really does make this team interesting because it seems they’re caught between two worlds, with guys like Wahlstrom, Dobson, and Barzal presenting very good young players right now, but guys like Bailey and Lee perhaps starting to fall off due to age/injuries. No easy decisions to be made for the Islanders. (feb25)

9. It makes no sense for the Wild to be trading Kevin Fiala, who scored 13 goals in his last 20 games entering Saturday. Fiala is on fire, and is finally on pace for a 70-point season after a slow start. All of his underlying numbers are extremely consistent with previous years. On top of that, some players on the shorter side don’t fully hit their stride until game 400, Fiala just hit game 385 this past week and may be looking at hitting career highs in the next season or two. (feb23)

10. With the St. Louis Blues chugging along, carried by their offence (and I guess Ville Husso as well), no one has really looked under the hood at a couple of the worrying marks for the team. Specifically, David Perron and Ryan O’Reilly have been disappointing this season to say the least. The two are on pace for their worst seasons in the last five years (eight for O’Reilly), and they aren’t getting any younger.

I have found for centers, you can tell when their offense is going to drop off (or if it is going to stay depressed) by looking at their faceoff percentage. ROR is a historically dominant faceoff man, and this year he has still been good, but his win percentage at the dot is also lower, the lowest it has been in… eight years. Coincidence? I think moving forward, we need to look at the 31-year-old O’Reilly as a 55-point forward, without exceptional peripherals, though he still wins 900+ faceoffs, for those of you who count those.

Perron is a free agent this summer, and where he signs will affect his value, but conservatively we need to look at him as a soon-to-be 34-year-old who saw his point totals crater from an 85-point-pace to a 53-point-pace. Fortunately, he gets to pick his own situation, and if he goes back up above 18:30 minutes per game (where he has been the last two years) then his scoring could rebound. On the Blues, he’s currently playing third line minutes (under 17 per game), and seeing fewer starts in the offensive zone. (feb23)

11. Looking at other older players, we are seeing Joe Pavelski thrive as a scorer, Patrice Bergeron leading the Selke conversation again, and a 44-year-old Zdeno Chara who continues to defy time. If you look at the list of 35+ year-olds signed to NHL contracts right now, there are plenty who are still thriving, and they have at least one special skill that has kept them relevant.

Those skills, be it Pavelski’s net-front abilities, Blake Wheeler‘s passing, or Marc-Andre Fleury‘s poise and reactions, are ones that can keep a player from dropping off when their physical gifts aren’t quite able to keep up with the 25 year olds. There are unfortunately tons of players who are either too run down, or just completely unable to keep up with the game that have already faded out by 35. Players like Alex Radulov, Patric Hornqvist and Anton Khudobin are less able to keep up, and they don’t have one or two high-end skills to keep them as relevant.

As an owner of Anze Kopitar, Brad Marchand, Patrick Kane, and Roman Josi across a few leagues, I’m not too worried about what the next few years will bring for them. However, a few players like T.J. Oshie, Pavel Francouz and Nazem Kadri are guys who may feel a bit more of a steep drop off. Knowing what to look for makes a difference when you’re coming up to the trade deadline, and managing who you can keep, and which players you should be going after. (feb23)

12. Two weeks ago, Dobber had Thomas Chabot (just turned 25 and recently returned from an injury) on his list of defencemen who could reach 80 points in a season, while another month before that, Rick Roos was praising Chabot and his upside, and pegging him to increase his production in the second half. As Ottawa has more games remaining than most of the rest of the NHL, he makes a great target for you. (feb23)

13. Looking through some data on defensemen since Christmas, and something stuck out to me: Ryan Graves is having a pretty good fantasy season.

On the year, Graves is sitting with 0.43 points per game, a career-best mark. He has seen a drop in some stats like penalty minutes, but he’s averaging a shade shy of two blocks per game, 1.7 shots per game, and the plus/minus isn’t even that bad at minus-1. But he’s also one of 15 defensemen to have double-digit shot attempts per 60 minutes at 5-on-5 since Christmas, but also at least five blocks per 60 minutes as well. But it’s the fact that the numbers are improving that draws us here; he averaged 1.44 shots per game leading up to Christmas but is at 2.0 shots per game since. The ice time per game mark is within 10 seconds so it’s not a TOI spike, either. He is just getting more shots, though he hasn’t scored since early December.

Maybe something changes now that Dougie Hamilton is back from injury, but Graves has been a good fantasy asset this season. 

14. Ryan Dzingel was picked up by San Jose off waivers. Coach Bob Boughner said that he’ll come in on the wing and could see some PP time. This is kind of interesting, at least for deeper fantasy league.

Dzingel is a guy who converts on a very high percentage of his shots, so if he can climb into the top-6 with the likes of Hertl, Meier, and Couture, there could be something here. At the same time, if he slides in on the fourth line with secondary PP time, this isn’t much to write home about. We’ll have to see where he ends up, but this is not nothing.

15. Coach Mike Sullivan is trying to find the right linemates for Evgeni Malkin, desperately trying to get something going that’s as great as the Sidney Crosby line. He really wanted things to work out with Kasperi Kapanen, but finally had to pull the plug on that idea. It would have been nice to have Jeff Carter as the third-line center, but instead, Carter was put on the wing with Malkin and Danton Heinen. (feb21)

16. The most disappointing player for me this season has to be Anthony Beauvillier. Only 24 years old, coming off an amazing second half and strong playoff production – I honestly had visions of 60 points with an upside of 70. In the Fantasy Guide I projected 54, but in my head I really felt like 60 was gonna happen. In the Guide I had him as a sleeper for 62 and gave that a solid 15% comfort rating.

 Entering Saturday, he was on pace for 35. Only a trade or a new coach (and I guess a trade means a new coach) can salvage his upside. I just don’t see it in this Barry Trotz system. (feb21)

17. Is the Hamburgler back for a second surprise run? Haha! Well, okay, we’re just one game in (entering Saturday), but Andrew Hammond stopped 30 of 32 shots faced early this past week. Montreal has been dying for good goaltending and he gave it to them. It was his first start in four years. Hammond is 34 now. (feb21)

18. Jonas Johansson is basically just a benchwarmer so that Spencer Knight can find his game in the AHL. Knight got roughed up in his first AHL outing back in December, but since then has a 5-2-0, 2.80, 0.908 slate. He’ll put together a great season there and rebuild his confidence. He should get in a couple of cups of coffee this season to give Sergei Bobrovsky some rest (because I suspect Johansson won’t be used much, barring injury).

Next year, my guess is that there will be more of the same – Knight getting time in the minors, with a bunch of recalls for NHL starts. He’ll be 21 next year and the Panthers won’t rush him. Not after seeing the Carter Hart fiasco, and not with Bobrovsky back to Vezina caliber. (feb21)

19. You might not have projected it before the season, but Buffalo’s top line of Tage Thompson – Jeff Skinner – Alex Tuch is fantasy relevant. Yes, all three players. Tuch has scored at a point-per-game pace since he arrived. Skinner is already 22 points ahead of his production from all of last season. Then there’s Thompson, who is on an 82-game pace of 35 goals and 65 points. It’s easy to dunk on the Ryan O’Reilly trade from a Buffalo standpoint, but you may recall that Thompson was a piece in that trade. O’Reilly may have won a Stanley Cup after he left, but he’s only reached 63 points twice in his career. (feb20)

20. Is it time to drop Jordan Binnington? Depends on what else is out there, of course. Ville Husso has been far, far better this season – I’ll say that much. I’ll also add that Binnington has allowed 5, 7, and 6 goals in each of his last three starts dating back to mid-January. But as I’ve said before, if Husso falters for a few games, it’s back to Binnington because, well, follow the money. (feb20)

21. I have to say that, personally, I’m not sure of the viability of head-to-head fantasy sports anymore. Allow me to explain.

Has anyone had fun playing H2H this month? The last couple weeks, plus this one, have been a lot of make-up games. These are all weeks that count towards the final standings, and yet we have a stretch where Tampa Bay plays five games in a month, Detroit plays seven, and Ottawa plays 13. There is also the absurd travel we’ve seen with many teams playing back-to-backs while border crossing, which can be a nightmare these days. Teams are running third-, fourth-, fifth-, and sixth-string goalies for reasons other than COVID, though at least two goalies have had issues returning because of longer-term health problems relating to the virus. Among a number of other issues that are on the more speculative side, we should also mention that we don’t know what the landscape of the league will become in October 2022. Just look how much has changed over the last two years.

This isn’t a “H2H is for bad fantasy players” screed or anything like that. I am of the opinion that as long as the league mates agree on the format, players should play whatever format they enjoy. None is superior to another. I just personally think that with all the new challenges we’re facing, it’s making H2H less fun. (feb24)

Have a good week, folks – stay safe!!

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