This article covers players who are 25% rostered and under on Yahoo that can help your fantasy team.

We are now into week five of this NHL campaign and our rosters are starting to settle. The waiver wire cupboards may appear bare, but there is still some major value out there. We just need to know where to look. This week in Wild West, we will be looking at seven players in the Western Conference who can bolster your fantasy squad and are readily available on Yahoo. Let's get to business.

Robert Thomas (24%) St. Louis Blues

Thomas has quietly had a nice start to the year with nine points in 10 games (4G, 5A). He is a top-line player who skates on the first power-play unit. So, why is he only rostered at 24%? Part of the problem is that Thomas is not a volume shooter as evidenced by his career average of 1.3 shots per game. He has historically been an efficient shooter but these types of players should give you pause. If/when the efficiency drops off, now we have a player who isn't shooting and now isn't scoring. Thomas has been walking this line for a while now.

The other issue is the team that he plays for. St. Louis is currently dead last in the league in CF/60 as well as power play conversion. That is a rough place to be for fantasy purposes but there is hope. Thomas has been a reasonable power play performer over the years with 23 power-play points (PPP) just last year, but in 2023-2024 he has come up empty. That will see some positive regression and so will his on-ice shooting percentage on the power play, which is predictably low at 4.35%. He has also upped his shots on goal per 60 (SOG/60) at five-on-five from 3.87 to 4.56.  

There is no suggestion that Thomas will be a game-breaking player for your team, but 24% is much too low for a player getting this kind of deployment and opportunity. 

Trevor Moore (23%) Los Angeles Kings

With five points in his last five games (1G, 4A), Moore and his linemates have been helping carry the offensive load for the Kings. Under the hood, Moore has a really impressive stat set. Sticking with the last five games, he is 26th in SOG/60, 38th in iCF/60 and 115th in iSCF/60 in the entire league. His Individual Points Percentage (IPP) is also at an elite level, clocking in at 71%. He is a main driver on his team's offense when he is on the ice.

Another factor to look at with Moore, is that his SH% is currently a career-high 17.3%, but in the last five games, it has swung hard in the other direction at 5.6%. Basically, he had a hot start and has now cooled considerably. His true SH% will likely be somewhere in the middle, but this means more goals could be on the way soon as this normalizes. Moore skates on the second power play but in LA, that is not too shabby. Head Coach Todd McLellan likes to run a 1A/1B power play and the second unit often ends up with reasonable deployment.

I expect Moore to hit a career-high in PPP this season pretty easily if he can stay healthy. At 23% rostered on Yahoo, this is a layup. Pick this man up confidently and by the end of the season, we could be looking at 50–60-point player. Book it. 

Jared Spurgeon (19%) Minnesota Wild

Spurgeon has yet to play this year due to a shoulder injury, but he is eligible to return to the Wild's lineup on November 7 against the Islanders. He was spotted wearing a non-contact jersey in practice and he will also be traveling with the team for their upcoming road trip. This is a situation we need to monitor closely, but there is reason to be excited about Spurgeon's eventual return.

First off, he has proven to be a very consistent albeit boring fantasy contributor over the years. He is a lowkey source of goals from the backend with double digit goal totals in four of the last five seasons including 11 just last year. Second, he is elite at blocking shots, so if you are in a category league with blocks, or a points league with value for blocks, he provides that in spades. Lastly, I believe that the quarterback job on the top power play unit is up for grabs in Minnesota and that Spurgeon could slide right in there. The Calen Addison experiment has just not panned out the way head coach Dean Evason had hoped it would. They just aren't deploying Addison in a consistent manner and Spurgeon has worked with the top unit in the past.

Double digit goals are still in the realm of possibilities for this player and if you can add a top power-play quarterback who brings excellent peripheral stats as well at this point in the season, you do it. 

Marco Rossi (13%) Minnesota Wild 

This may be a bit of a swing and it might only last a week or two, but Rossi should definitely be rostered for this week. He is currently skating with Kirill Kaprizov and Matt Boldy on line one. That is what we call plum deployment and it looks like it may stick. Rossi currently leads the team in SOG/60 (9.89) and iSCF/60 (9.89) and he has skated for over 20 minutes in each of the Wild's last two games.

Minnesota has an excellent schedule this week with four games played and two off-nights so this is a perfect time to pick this player up. Even if the deployment doesn't last, he will still be valuable for the schedule alone, but I believe he has turned a corner and the HC is prioritizing him a bit. If his TOI drops off a cliff after a few games, we can just drop him back to waivers. No harm, no foul. This is a calculated risk that you are going to want to take and we could be looking at a streamer that you end up keeping on your team moving forward. 

I wanted to mention a couple players who have increased value in category leagues because of their ability to get peripheral statistics. Or as I call them…..BEEFERS. 

Ross Colton (7%) Colorado Avalanche

Colton has been a player I've been excited about for a while now and I projected him to have a breakout season in his first year with the Avalanche. That hasn't exactly gone to plan, but all the things that make Colton an exciting fantasy player are still present. Would you believe he is second on the team in SOG/60 and iCF/60 behind Nathan MacKinnon? I wouldn't either but here we are. 

Colton has made a career of doing a lot with very little. In his last five games, he is 18th in SOG/60, 10th in iCF/60 and 80th in iSCF/60 in the league. That might come as a surprise to some people but this is the skillset that Colton can bring. He is getting the most ice time of his career here in Colorado (13:12 ATOI), but it is not quite enough to put him in the points league conversation. He just isn't on the ice enough. That said, he does get time on the second power play and he has the ability to move up the lineup if there are injuries to any of the Avs. His value truly lies, as a category league player. Last season alone, he went off for 188 hits. A guy like this can literally win that category for you. So far this season, he has been on his best behavior and his hit rate has dipped a bit from 2.32 in 2022 to 1.5 but I expect that to rise as the season moves forward. 

If Colton ever gets prioritized somewhere, I think we could see a 60-point season, but as it stands, his ceiling is closer to 40 with big-time hits which is still extremely useful in a category league format.  

Lawson Crouse (18%) / Jack McBain (4%) Arizona Coyotes

With seven points in his last five games (4G, 3A) we should probably be talking about Crouse a little more than we are. His role in Arizona is solid and he is a staple in the top-6. He skates on the second power play unit as well and there has been some recent production there with two points in his last four. Truthfully, the offensive ceiling is likely higher for Crouse than it is for Colton, but that is only due to Crouse's consistent deployment.

Unfortunately, we can't expect this offensive output from him all season. He is currently redlining with his luck metrics (IPP, SH% and OiSH%) and those will all likely regress but that is probably not why you roster this man. He bangs and he blocks very well for a forward. His hit rate is down a little from last year (1.7 per game down from 2.52) but there is no reason to think it won't come back up. If he keeps up this point-pace, he could work his way into the points league conversation, but for now he should at least be rostered in category leagues. 

I did want to mention Jack McBain as well, if only to brag that I streamed him last week and captured his four-point explosion in that 8-1 drubbing against Chicago. I have a soft spot for this player and he has the ability to cover a lot of categories. He is what we call a beefer with cheese. You could do a lot worse than Jack McBain as your streamer, plus he has one of the best names in the league. 

That is it for this week's article. Thank you so much for reading. Please follow me on Twitter/X @BlakeCreamerAG and come and check out my fantasy hockey musings on the Apples and Ginos Fantasy Hockey Podcast. Celebrate your day. Bye for now.

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