With the trade deadline in your leagues around the corner, now is the time where you will begin to understand if your goal is to make the playoffs or to fold the hand that you've been dealt and accept a higher draft pick. Buyers and sellers should be known this time of the year. When you're attempting at moving out draft picks for players, there is only a certain amount of assets that you can recoup. If you're looking at rentals, you have to abide by what your trade partner is willing to do. In some cases it may be better to trade for a certain type of player, but you can also look at the waiver wire to see if there is anyone there with similar enough stats that you could pick up as opposed to adding through trades. Asset management is key at this time of year, so my goal this week is to identify a couple of players that are looking like valuable waiver pickups that can either be used to bolster lineups, or to potentially flip at the deadline to true contenders.

#1) Artem Zub – D – Ottawa Senators
Contract: $2.5M – UFA at the end of the season ($4.6M – 4 Year extension begins next season)
Roster Percentages: Fantrax – 15%, ESPN – 4.3%

With Nikita Zaitsev being traded, there doesn't seem to be much stopping Zub from potentially moving up onto the top pairing alongside of Thomas Chabot. Zub is an effective middle pairing defense driven player, very reliable and not very flashy as you can see from his offensive numbers. The reason I adore Zub so much when it comes to categories is that for this season he costs below $3-million, and for that type of contract he provides incredible value across the peripheral categories as somewhat of a specialist. When it comes down it, you can pay a player $5-million and maybe have a little more scoring ability, but they may not carry the same amount of weight when it comes to those side categories. Ottawa has a well developed offensive core up front, their defenders have the possibility of getting points by association from time to time. That is a valuable way to look at that because not every team scores goals at good rate (Ottawa is currently scoring 3.04 goals per game), and for a player like Zub I would rather him be on a team like Ottawa who is scoring more than three goals per game on average, versus being on a team like the Columbus Blue Jackets who are only scoring at a 2.54 goals per game rate. For the specialist players like Zub, I try and get the guys who are on the good goal scoring teams because you never know what can happen in the run of a hockey game, it's a hidden value. Zub's real value is that he provides high-end peripheral stats at under $3-million, but next season he has a $4.6-million contract kicking in and that is just too high of a price to pay a player like Artem Zub. The offensive upside just isn't there for that contract to make much sense next year. If Zub isn't available, there are a couple of other players that I would consider comparable based on stat production, and their respective contract. The two that make the most sense would be Jacob Middleton ($2.45M) and Derek Forbort ($3M).

#2) Kasperi Kapanen – RW – Pittsburgh Penguins
Contract: $3.2M – 2 Years remaining
Roster Percentages: Fantrax – 14%, ESPN – 1.5%

The former Toronto Maple Leaf has made it back to the team that initially drafted him back in 2014 (#22 overall). While Kapanen's stats don't exactly scream to be super relevant, something to remember is that he is playing on the third line and is averaging some of the lowest ice-time that he has ever received, its his lowest in Pittsburgh and his lowest since the 2017-18 season when he averaged just 11:15 per contest. This is a player who has played up and down the lineup and does so regularly. Whenever there is an injury, this is a player who gets brought up to fill holes. That's one of those aspects of a player that can't really be taught as that is very team dependent, again, hidden value. Something to look at as Kapanen has another year on his current contract, there is a chance he gets moved into the top-six in Pittsburgh next season (assuming he doesn't get traded) as Jason Zucker's contract expires and I'm not too sure if anyone really knows the direction that Pittsburgh is heading in given the age of some of the core pieces of the team. Kapanen is just 26 years old, so maybe next year he gains a more solid role on a more offensive driven line. As a whole, Kapanen is projected to finish just shy of his career high of 44 points, based on a full 82 game season that is. Even in a limited role, he is pacing a good point total for a player who makes just over $3-million. This would be a player to add if you're looking for an injury replacement, or you're on the outside of the playoffs and you're looking towards next season as I don't think Kapanen is the worst gamble going into next season due to a potential increase in deployment. Getting a player who can be a around a half a point a game type of player with the hitting volumes that Kasperi carries for the price that he possesses is a nice addition. One thing to be concerned over is his ice-time in the present, with times around 12 minutes, that can be a decent hinderance to that category. There are other players in this contract window as well who would be good replacements as well such as Robby Fabbri ($4M) and Miles Wood ($3.2M).


With that being said there are plenty of players out there who carry good value in comparison to the contracts that they earn, the point of salary cap leagues in my eyes is to get the most value out of each contract possible. Why pay $10-million for somebody to do something that a $6-million player can do to a slightly lesser extent.

* Honorable Mentions – Trevor Moore (LAK), Ivan Barbashev (STL), Martin Fehervary (WSH), Scott Laughton (PHI), Connor Clifton (BOS), Juuso Valimaki (ARI), Connor Ingram (ARI), Samuel Ersson) *

 If you're looking to discuss anything hockey with me, check out my Twitter account (@JamieMolloy_DH), as well as on the articles themselves!