Now that the NHL trade deadline is over along with your fantasy league's trade deadline, us fantasy owners are now divided for what we are looking towards as the season is soon coming to a finish. Some of our teams are excited for our league's draft, while the others are looking at coming home with their league's hardware. Possibly some extra cash and the thing that us armchair GM's value more than anything else: BRAGGING RIGHTS!! This week's installment of 'Capped' is going to be more directed towards those that are in the hunt for the championship, as most leagues have either begun their playoffs this week or will be starting them next week (most of my league's start next week, but there are a couple that have wild-card rounds so they have started earlier).

The playoffs are an absolute marathon, there are lots of things to consider and a lot of tough decisions to be made once you're in the playoffs. Things like player pick-ups and making sure you're not wasting the pick-ups because some leagues may have a certain number of guys that you can pick-up each matchup, how many times the players play, what weeks have what teams playing more, etc.

In my opinion, the playoffs are won and lost through free agency and making the right pick-up. I've seen plenty of teams lose because they chose the wrong guy to acquire.

* Not done in a particular order, the positions come from the official NHL website and your leagues may have players listed differently, so make sure you pay attention as to what positions are listed on your platforms before making any transactions! *


#1) Brock Nelson – C – New York Islanders

Contract: $6M – 4 Years remaining
Roster Percentages: 79.2% ESPN, 44% Yahoo, 67% Fantrax

Currently scoring at a rate of 0.86 points per game, Nelson is currently on track to have a career year having already shattered his career high in goals (26 goals in the 2015-16, and the 2019-20 seasons in 81 games and 68 games respectively). He has been bumped up to the first line in favor of Mathew Barzal and plays on a line with Anders Lee (another excellent pick-up down the stretch) and Anthony Beauvillier. Combined with being on their top powerplay unit, Nelson should be considered. Something to note is that he also has 14 points (9 goals, 5 assists) in his last 10 games. The Islanders play 4 times this upcoming week, 3 times the next week, and then throughout the last two weeks of the season he plays 8 times. For playoffs, I enjoy having quantity, it means you have more chances at getting support from your players. Over the last 10 games, the Islanders have been scoring three goals a game on average, with an impressive 26.1% on the powerplay throughout that span.

#2) Marcus Foligno – LW – Minnesota Wild

Contract: $3.1M – 3 Years remaining
Roster Percentages: 30.2% ESPN, 45% Yahoo, 56% Fantrax

Foligno may not be an offensively dynamic player, but he is someone that is having a career year when it comes to total points scored, with 34 total across 61 games (0.56 per game). While he may only have 3 points (all assists) across his last 10 games, you wouldn't be looking to add him for that necessarily. He is the kind of player that if he scores for you, it's great, but if not, you still get to add a pile of hits and an amount of time on ice per game where it may not cause you to get dragged down in that category. With 199 hits, he is among the league's top producers in that area. While he may be on the 3^rd line (playing with Eriksson Ek and Greenway) and on the secondary power play unit, Minnesota is still a deep team talent-wise, and Foligno is a key member to that. Minnesota plays three times this upcoming week, four times the week after, and then eight times throughout the last two weeks. Foligno is a cheap player to add to your team for the playoffs if you're facing injuries, or if your current players are starting to slump.


#3) Erik Haula – LW – Boston Bruins

Contract: $2.375M – 2 Years remaining
Roster Percentages: 2.2% ESPN, 8% Yahoo, 21% Fantrax

While as a standalone asset, Haula isn't much to write home about outside of being a cheap addition from the free agent market with a low cap hit. For how much of your salary he is going to consume, he can help keep you afloat when it comes to the faceoffs, hits, shots, and assists. All of this is very contingent on if he is playing on the 2^nd line or on the 3^rd line. In the last little bit, the Bruins have been alternating Charlie Coyle and Erik Haula between the 2C and the 3C role. At this moment he is listed between Taylor Hall and David Pastrnak on the 2^nd line, if he is playing with those players, he is worth rostering. Within the last 10 games, Haula has 7 points (1 goal, and 6 assists). The time on ice is lower than what I would normally advise going for as that is on the lower side, but when you're playing with a former Hart Trophy winner in Taylor Hall and one of the best, if not the best right wing in the game in David Pastrnak, you have fantasy relevance. With 14 games to play starting next week and running through the end of the season, they have a good number of games left to play. Plus, Boston is battling for seeding for their playoffs, expect them to try and finish the season strong.

#4) Dylan Strome – C – Chicago Blackhawks

Contract: $3M – 1 Year remaining (RFA this summer)
Roster Percentages: 16.6% ESPN, 32% Yahoo, 49% Fantrax

The former 3^rd overall pick is looking like he may finally be hitting stride, the big playmaking center currently sits on the top line with Alex DeBrincat and Patrick Kane on his wings. While Strome isn't a big producer when it comes to putting up big volumes in hits and blocks, he can effectively come in and become a depth scorer for your squad. Through the last 10 games he has 15 points (7 goals, 8 assists) with only 1 of those having him go pointless. The average ice time may be just above 16:30, through his last 10 games his ice time hasn't been less than 17:32 per game (three games under 20 minutes, and four games with over 21 minutes a night). While Chicago may only play two times next week, and 13 times from next week onward, they also play teams that are beneath them in the standings four times, and play seven games against non-playoff teams (I'm not counting Vegas because they're 1 point out and I think we all expect them to bounce back into shape sooner rather than later, and it's their 2^nd last game of the year, so there is a lot of time between now and then).


#5) Sean Durzi – D – Los Angeles Kings

Contract: $809K – 1 Year remaining (RFA this summer)
Roster Percentages: 8.9% ESPN, 19% Yahoo, 44% Fantrax

With Drew Doughty likely being out for the remainder of the season, Durzi has seemingly taken over Doughty's role as the team's number-1 defender. While Durzi may not be a household name like Doughty, he is still being effective given his inexperience at the NHL level. Durzi has 7 points (1 goal, 6 assists) in his last 10 games. The Kings have an interesting schedule to finish the season as they play teams who have been struggling in their last 10 games to keep the puck out of the net. They play the Anaheim Ducks twice who have allowed 41 goals in their last 10 games, Chicago twice and they've allowed 37 goals, they play Columbus once who've allowed 40 in their last 10, and Seattle once who've allowed 34 in that same span. That's 6 games of their final 13 games (13 games starting next week) where they play against teams who've been struggling to keep the puck out of their net. Durzi's numbers may not seem super impressive, but he's hitting just over one time per game, and blocking a total of 1.6 shots per game, he can get a powerplay point occasionally (four in his last 10 games) as well. The real value that Durzi adds is that over his last 10 games, he has yet to play under 20 minutes. Through that stretch, he has had five games with over 23 minutes played, and to make things even better. There were three games where he had just shy of 22 minutes of ice-time, he missed hitting that threshold by 2, 8, and 3 seconds respectively.

*Honorable Mentions*

* Charlie Coyle, Anders Lee, Viktor Arvidsson, Tyler Toffoli (has low-ish roster percentages somehow), Tanner Jeannot, Jakub Vrana, Jared McCann, Valeri Nichushkin, Ivan Barbashev, Michael Bunting (still has low-ish roster percentages). *


Overall, the playoffs are some of the most exciting and the most nerve filled weeks of the fantasy season, I for one am super excited to get back to the playoffs this year. This is where legends are born, and this is what we all want, we want to win championships! I wish everyone the best of luck in their playoff series next week!

If you want to have any questions answered or interact with me please feel free to interact with me on the forums or in the comments of the articles, or on Twitter @JamieMolloy_DH.