Welcome back to another edition of Lining Up. With playoffs either already underway or fast approaching, let's take a look at some hot players around the league who have good schedules for the remainder of the fantasy week. At this time of year, it is crucial to maximize your roster spots to their fullest potential in order to get the most out of each week.

Let's dive in.

Tyler Bertuzzi – Dylan Larkin – David Perron

Recently, the top duo in Detroit of Dylan Larkin and Tyler Bertuzzi has been joined by offseason acquisition David Perron. The trio so far in their brief time together have played very well, showing a 64.2 SF% and 65.6 CF% despite seeing tougher competition and starting in their own zone more often than not. With Bertuzzi missing significant time and Perron being a new addition, this line combination has not had the chance to come together and build any chemistry, but we may be seeing early indications of untapped potential. Dylan Larkin is the star on Detroit (for now) and is attempting to drag this team to a playoff berth by putting out his best performance to date with 57 points in 58 games so far this season. The stellar production this year is largely attributed to his success on the power-play as Larkin has already set a career high in power-play points with 21, seven more than his previous personal best and still with several weeks to go. He continues to contribute in the shots and face-off categories as well with over three shots per game on the season, including 11 in his last two games, as well as a 53.8 FOW%.

With a goal last night against Ottawa, Bertuzzi has six points in six games after a sluggish start. Following a great season last year where he posted 62 points in 68 games, Bertuzzi is only on pace for 38 points so far. Considering though that he missed a significant portion of the season, it may still be taking time for him to get back into peak conditioning. He is still shooting just over two shots and nearly one hit per game while holding his usual spot alongside frequent linemate Larkin.

Despite receiving similar ice time and power-play time this year in Detroit as he did last year in St. Louis, Perron is having a down year and pacing for only 53 points which would be his lowest since the 2016-2017 season. His IPP and PPIPP are also both down this year compared to the last three seasons and so for his production to improve, he may need to rely more heavily on who he is playing with. Larkin and Bertuzzi are players that spent over a third of their time together at even-strength last season and subsequently finished with near point-per-game paces. For Perron to get a shot at lining up on the top line now can certainly help to improve his production, especially with a dense schedule this week.

Larkin is likely owned in most leagues but Perron is rostered in only half of Yahoo leagues while Bertuzzi is rostered in 32%. Detroit has four games still to come this week including a rematch against Ottawa tonight, a game against a porous Seattle team and one Sunday against Philadelphia. The potentially high scoring games combined with the volume this week makes finding a Detroit player for your roster crucial for maximizing space during or leading up to the playoffs.

Ivan Barbashev

Recent Vegas acquisition Ivan Barbashev debuted last night on the top line alongside Jack Eichel and Jonathan Marchessault against Colorado. Unfortunately, the team was shutout, but Barbashev spent just over 14 minutes in that role and had one shot, one hit and one block. After a career 60 points in 81 games last season, Barbashev and perhaps St. Louis as a whole has followed up a solid campaign with lacklustre efforts this year. Despite seeing similar ice time, shot rates and deployment with Brayden Schenn and Jordan Kyrou to last year, Barbashev may really benefit here from a change of scenery. With this kind of deployment, it is at worse a lateral move and could bring more ice time along with an upgrade in linemates. Eichel seems to be picking up the slack lately with nine points in his last eight games so if Barbashev can ride his coattails there is value here.

Vegas still has three games remaining this week, all at home and all on off nights. At only 29% rostered in Yahoo leagues, stream in Barbashev to maximize your roster spots this week.

J.T Compher

Compher has seen his fortunes improve lately with a move to Mikko Rantanen's line in Colorado. After spending nearly a quarter of his season so far with Andre Cogliano and Logan O'Connor, Compher is now red hot with nine points in his last five games thanks to the change in deployment. He is having the best season of his career, pacing for 58 points which would be 18 points higher than his career best set in the 2018-2019 season. Compher is seeing a massive increase of over four minutes more of ice time on average compared to last year, no doubt due in part to the amount of injuries Colorado has had to deal with this season. That increase has definitely contributed to his increase production. The best part yet, Compher has a slightly low Shooting% and 5on5 Shooting% compared to his career norms at 10.4% and 6.4% respectively, so he may even have more to give if he goes on a scoring binge.

Compher and Colorado still have three games remaining this week including a back-to-back on the weekend, if you need a late stream for the weekend take a look at Compher while he is scoring at this torrid pace alongside Rantanen.