Welcome back to another edition of Lining Up! With three weeks of the season already gone, the next few columns will examine each team and highlight some noteworthy line combinations for your roster. It is still a small sample size but some teams have already hit the ten games played mark so there is more data with each passing night to draw conclusions from.

Let's dive in.

Anaheim

Anaheim is always a team worth digging into as they frequently play on off nights and this week is no different with Anaheim playing two more games on a sparse Wednesday and Sunday.

In case you are unable to grab one of Frank Vatrano, Ryan Strome or Mason McTavish, rookie Leo Carlsson is likely available in many leagues. He has been difficult to forecast as he has been made a healthy scratch twice but when he has played, he has been lining up alongside Troy Terry and Trevor Zegras which is just about as good a spot as he could have. Carlsson is also joining the duo as well as Ryan Strome on the power-play, leading him to a 60.4% of the power-play share and over 19:00 of TOI. If only Shane Wright could receive this kind of usage.  Regardless, Anaheim seems to be defying the odds at the moment and they continue to have excellent schedules. Add Carlsson or any of Vatrano, Strome and McTavish for that matter while you can.

Arizona

It may be strange to recommend a player who has zero points in eight games, but Barrett Hayton is someone who is still receiving prime deployment and is absolutely due to have a positive regression. He is seeing the most TOI of his career so far at 19:31, including a career-high PP% of 65.1. Hayton is taking close to three shots per game and continues to play alongside Clayton Keller and Nick Schmaltz.

Despite not registering a point in last night's 8-1 trouncing of Chicago, it is worth noting that no one on that line had a point as the second and fourth lines did all the damage. Arizona still has three more games this week including matchups against Anaheim and Montreal. Take a chance that this week will be when Hayton starts seeing bounces go his way.

Boston

Similarly to Hayton but to a lesser extent, Pavel Zacha started the season slow with only one assist in his first five games. Zacha has played a large portion of his even-strength time with David Pastrnak but recently, the other winger has been Brad Marchand as Boston looks to be stacking their top line. The results speak for themselves because in the last four games he has five points while continuing to see career highs in TOI and PPTOI along with centring a stacked top line. If anyone in your league became impatient with his slow start, now is the chance to add Zacha and ride the current streak. At only 41% rostered in Yahoo leagues, that is half the ownership of Jamie Benn and Zacha is seeing nearly four minutes more TOI and immensely better linemates at even strength. It seems many league owners have not caught on to him just yet.

Buffalo

After some early line juggling in Buffalo, Jeff Skinner, Casey Mittelstadt and JJ Peterka have recently been playing together and, so far, have two goals for, zero against and a 68.2 CF%. Great early results. Skinner in particular is hot with eight points in his last five games while Mittelstadt has seven points in his first nine games, good for a career-high pace to start the year. Teams are likely still focusing their efforts on whichever line has Tage Thompson so this trio may fly under the radar and be matched against weaker competition. Keep an eye on this situation moving forward.

Calgary

Calgary continues to juggle the line combinations as the team struggles. One constant so far has been Matt Coronato. It was highlighted here previously that he has been playing on the top power-play unit and that has not changed since then. He has since been joining Nazem Kadri and Jonathan Huberdeau on a line at even strength as well. If this line combination can stick it will mean good things for Coronato's fantasy value moving forward, assuming Calgary can somewhat get back on track and shake the ghost of Darryl Sutter.

Carolina

Carolina received good news as Andrei Svechnikov returned to the roster. The bad news is his deployment has been less than ideal because he is lining up with Stefan Noesen and Jack Drury at even-strength and is not on the top power play unit. He is doing everything he can to demonstrate his health with five shots, five hits and an assist in his first two games so hopefully the coaching staff is just easing him back in.

Chicago

The latest lucky recipient to play with Connor Bedard is the player whom everyone definitely expected to be there prior to the season starting: Nick Foligno. While it may be surprising and will most likely be a tenuous grasp on a coveted position, for the time being Foligno can provide great value in multi-category leagues as he is adding two hits and nearly two shots per game to go along with a decent amount of power play time. Last night in particular he saw over 3:00 of PPTOI. That can play in deeper leagues.

Colorado

As noted in previous columns, Ryan Johansen is so far cementing himself on the top power play unit and four of his five points have come with the man advantage. At 31% rostered in Yahoo leagues, a piece of a lethal top unit can likely be had for free off your wavier wire.

Columbus

Last night against Dallas, Adam Fantilli joined Johnny Gaudreau on a line at even strength. Gaudreau has seemingly rotated through every other centre on the roster so far this season, likely due to his slow start of only four points in nine games. Gaudreau is definitely due for some positive regression though as he has scored zero goals while taking over three shots per game. If Fantilli is lucky enough to be the catalyst for a goal-scoring binge, he may get a longer look with the team's top forward.

Dallas

No news is good news for Dallas line combinations. Jamie Benn continues to be the fourth forward joining in on the heavily used top power play unit which has so far only converted on 9.5% of it's power-play opportunities. That will change and more points will come for Benn.

Detroit

Detroit has cooled off a little bit with three straight losses prior to last night against the Islanders. Yet, the line combinations have not wavered, and Lucas Raymond is still holding down his spot alongside Dylan Larkin and Alex DeBrincat. Detroit has a big divisional game against Florida Thursday and the team could be without three of their top-four defensemen with the status of Oliver Ekman-Larsson pending.

Edmonton

With the quick return of Connor McDavid, the line combinations were shuffled around again as last game against Calgary we saw:

Leon Draisaitl – Connor McDavid – Warren Foegele

Evander Kane – Ryan Nugent-Hopkins – Zach Hyman

It is great to see Warren Foegele in such a prime spot. Much like a spot alongside Connor Bedard though, any of McDavid's wingers over his career seem to have a short tenure with the superstar. Until that changes, consider scooping up Foegele.

Florida

Florida is being hit hard with injuries as Oliver Ekman-Larsson and Sam Bennett both exited the game last night against Boston and are being evaluated. Should Ekman-Larsson miss any time, look for Gustav Forsling to fill the void on the top power-play until OEL, Brandon Montour or Aaron Ekblad return. It is also worth noting that last night, Florida went with five forwards on the power-play and Anton Lundell was the fifth forward to join the unit. They did not score but had a 100 CF% and five shots on goal in almost three minutes of ice time. Could be something to keep an eye on for Lundell.

L.A

For leagues with shots, hits and blocks, Matt Roy has been quietly putting up Darnell Nurse-like numbers with over two shots, hits and blocks per game early on this season. He has been floating around this level of peripheral contributions for the last few seasons but so far, he is seeing a career high in TOI likely due to an increase in his shorthanded ice time. For anyone that missed out on spending a high draft pick on Nurse in multi-category leagues, Roy might be available on the wire.