With the NHL playoffs looming, most fantasy hockey seasons are either over or down to the final week or two. If you are in a roto league, you are probably chasing down a category or two that could put you in the money before the season reaches its end. Meanwhile, if you are in a head-to-head format, you've reached the playoffs and are battling to stay alive for another week. I personally only have one league still on the go now, and it looks like I am off to the semi-finals next week thanks to solid weeks from Aleksander Barkov and Jacob Markstrom! Pretty much the only thing left to do now is search for possible supplemental guys who could get you some additional value on off-nights for the next week or two. Let's take a look at a few guys who could be worth picking up next week!

Ivan Barbashev

Barbashev has quietly broken out this season for his best campaign in his six-year career. He has gone from being mostly a bottom-six grinder to a dynamic two-way player with some real offensive upside to complement his gritty play. In 71 contests this year Barbashev has amassed 23 goals and 30 assists for 53 points. Barbashev's emergence has really helped make St. Louis have a three-pronged attack as far as their forward lines go. While he has been on a number of different line combinations this season, he has found some good chemistry alongside Brayden Schenn on the Blues' third line as of late.

Despite his third line deployment, he is still seeing a healthy amount of ice time with an average of 16:34 this season, which is by far the most he's had in his career. And while he isn't going to crack the team's top power-play unit, he is on the second unit with some pretty capable scorers and has actually netted nine power play points this season.  One of his major short-comings is that he doesn't shoot a ton, only averaging 1.4 shots per game. But where he lacks in shots, he more than makes up for in hits, where he has racked up 141, which is just over two per game.

The Blues play four times next week, with games against Boston, Buffalo, Minnesota and Nashville. Three of those teams are playoff caliber clubs, so while it's nice that Barbashev will play four times, it certainly won't be easy sledding. Hopefully he can stay hot as he has accumulated eight points in his last six games. While most of the guys I recommend are pretty easily rostered, you may need to act quickly on Barbashev if you want to get him on your squad for next week. On Yahoo he is getting snatched up pretty heavily right now, as he has gone from 33 to 43 percent rostered in the last 24 hours. On Fantrax he is up to 62%, but on ESPN he is only 31% owned. 

Mikael Granlund

Granlund has been a huge part of the core that has helped propel the Nashville Predators into playoff contention this season. Going into this year, I had written Nashville off as a team that was transitioning and regressing.  I certainly wasn't expecting huge bounce-back years from Roman Josi, Matt Duchene and Filip Forsberg, at least not to the extent of what we are seeing. Granlund has served as one of the team's top playmakers and has racked up 43 assists, along with nine goals of his own. While he still isn't a top tier forward like how he was back in his prime days in Minnesota, he certainly makes for a serviceable temporary pickup for your team next week. 

His deployment this season has been awesome, getting top-six minutes as well as serving on the team's top power-play line. You can't really ask for anything more than that. He's racked up 23 power play points this season which is a massive number. Aside from the offense, he will also get you a sufficient amount of hits as well as a decent amount of draws if your league tracks faceoffs. This is especially useful on Yahoo where you can slot him in at right wing and get extra faceoffs from the wing position. His biggest downfall is that he doesn't shoot a ton compared to earlier in his career, and that is reflected in his low goal total.

The Preds are at home for the entirety of next week as they will host the Sharks, Oilers, Blackhawks and Blues. While the Oilers and Blues could provide a challenge, the Sharks and Blackhawks are weaker opponents that Nashville shouldn't have too much trouble with. Granlund is surprisingly not owned in a ton of leagues. Yahoo has him at 36% rostered, meanwhile over on Fantrax he is 65% and ESPN shows him at 29%.

Michael Rasmussen

Okay we are going a little off the board here for the last player this week. Admittedly, this is a weird one and probably a bit of a reach, but there's some things I like about Rasmussen. First off he is triple-eligible for all three forward spots on Yahoo, so should you take a gamble on picking him up, he is a lot easier to slot into your lineup then say Jakub Vrana, who only can play left wing. But there's more than just that.

In his last six games. Rasmussen has potted four goals, so I wouldn't mind plugging in a hot hand into my lineup. If he was only scoring goals and getting me nothing else, I would probably shy away, but he brings more to the table than just the goals. He is a solid source of hits, especially as of late. During his same stretch of six games where he's been scoring, he has also averaged 3.5 hits per game which is a huge number. Getting 12-15 hits in one week from one player in your lineup could be enough to steal you the hits category, and in the playoffs every category is precious. 

As another small added bonus, he is peppering in some faceoff wins as well, not an exorbitant amount, but it's something at least. The Wings play four times next week, including matchups versus the Senators, Hurricanes, Rangers, and Panthers. It goes without saying that Rasmussen can be had in pretty much all leagues, but he might be worth a shot, especially if you need a boost in hits next week!

Well that's it for this week. Hopefully everyone can end up in the money as their seasons wind down. Soon the fantasy season will be over and we can shift into pure fan-mode for the playoffs and not have to worry about our fantasy hockey implications! Have a great week everyone!