Welcome back to another edition of Lining Up. With playoffs underway, this week we will take a look at players on teams with great schedules. In addition to last week's article highlighting J.T Compher, Evan Rodrigues, Jakub Vrana and Sammy Blais who all continue to be deployed well and have great schedules this week, Arizona, Toronto and Nashville also have a solid week ahead. Be sure to maximize your availability not just by streaming in hot players, but by utilizing the schedule to its fullest advantage, whether that is in density or by games played on off-nights.

Let's dive in.

Nick Schmaltz – Clayton Keller – Barrett Hayton

As mentioned by Alex in a recent Ramblings, Clayton Keller is tied with Nathan MacKinnon and behind only Connor McDavid in scoring since February 6^th. In fact, his whole line has been on fire and are the top even strength line in this span ahead of notable lines such as Joe Pavelski, Roope Hintz and Jason Robertson. Looking at Nick Schmaltz's profile page on Frozen Tools, he is currently on a hot streak of five points in his last five games. Dating back to February 6^th though, Schmaltz has 19 points in 17 games as he and Keller continue to mesh well together.

Joining this duo more recently in place of Travis Boyd is Barrett Hayton who is adjusting nicely to his new deployment with 12 points in his last seven games. This recent stretch of scoring brings him to a 43 point-pace on the season, good for a career high and all advanced stats indicate that he is well within normal ranges (9.1 Shooting %, 5on5 Shooting %, 1.9 Pts/60, 1002 PDO, 43.5% Sec. Asst). Indeed, other than a slightly high shooting percentage for Schmaltz at 20.4%, the entire line is performing within comfortable ranges, indicating that while they are performing well, it could be sustainable.

Juuso Välimäki

Meanwhile, over on defense, Juuso Välimäki has stepped up to the fill void left by Shayne Gostishbere and Jakub Chychrun and has been joining in on the recent scoring in Arizona with seven points in his last four games. Since February 6^th, Välimäki has been averaging 2:40 of PPTOI and seeing a 71.9 %PP while also contributing in peripheral categories with three hits and blocks per game, posting over one and a half shots. In the last two games alone Välimäki had four shots in each. He is receiving an excellent opportunity here by being deployed alongside the finest Arizona has to offer, which contrary to what owners have to come expect, right now is a strong scoring line.

It is worth highlighting Arizona here as the Coyotes play four games this week including three of them on off nights. With Schmaltz, Hayton and Välimäki all 33% or less rostered in Yahoo league, stream in a player from Arizona to help dominant your matchup.

Calle Järnkrok

The recent beneficiary of lining up alongside Auston Matthews is Calle Järnkrok, who after spending the majority of the season with a variety of linemates now finds himself in a prime spot. He has been making the most of the opportunity so far with six points in his last four games including two goals against Ottawa on Saturday night. On the season he is having a decent year, on pace for 46 points, but given the recent hot streak he is worth an add in leagues during this time of year if he can fit into your roster. Toronto has four games still remaining this week so be sure to stream in a player or combination of players who can maximize your roster availability.

Tommy Novak

Since Filip Forsberg went down with his injury in February, Tommy Novak has picked up the slack with 19 points in his 17 games since February 16^th. In that same span, Novak has averaged 16:22 of TOI including 2:11 of PPTOI, good for a 57.6 %PP. He is averaging just under two shots per game but in the 17 games, Novak only has one game where he did not register a shot. For the young centre, this is probably better than anyone might have expected, especially considering he has spent over 160 minutes of his even strength time with Yakov Trenin, Tanner Jeannot, Kiefer Sherwood and Luke Evangelista. Novak is certainly exceeding expectations through some above-average analytics, particularly his Shooting % and Pts/60 which are at 18.8% and 3.6 respectively. However, at 10% rostered in Yahoo leagues and with Nashville's strong schedule this week, stream Novak if you have the space.

Philip Tomasino

The other Nashville player to consider streaming, albeit to a lesser extent is Philip Tomasino. He is not receiving the solid power-play deployment that Novak has but he is lining up alongside one of the remaining fantasy relevant forwards in Matt Duchene. The results have lately been encouraging as Tomasino is on a five-game point streak with five points in that span. He is rostered even less than Novak at 3% and so should be widely available in all leagues.

Nashville has four games remaining this week, including two home games against a porous Seattle squad that has averaged nearly four goals against per game over the last month. If you are looking to selectively stream players this week, Seattle visiting Nashville may be the matchup to pay dividends during playoffs.