Hello and welcome back to Geek of the Week! In this week's article, I am going to examine three players that have crushed it over the last month who are less rostered on Yahoo leagues. I'll dive into their underlying numbers to inform on whether this stardom will continue and if you should be grabbing these players off the waiver wire if they're available.

The statistics mentioned are an average per game over the last month and do not include Sunday's games.

Mikael Granlund – 51% rostered, .23 G, 1.0 A, 1.23 P, .43 PPP, 2.86 SOG, .29 Hits, .79 Blks

Granlund is being trusted with exorbitant amounts of ice time on the Sharks, fourth in ice-time among forwards the last month at 22:05, trailing only the top three in Colorado, Nathan MacKinnon, Mikko Rantanen, and Valeri Nichushkin. With all this ice time, Granlund is taking more shots per 60 minutes than he has over his past five seasons. This is resulting in more overall shots, goals, and assists. His shooting percentage of 7.7% at even strength is not high, and 0% on the power play is obviously very low. His assists numbers are a little inflated by his teammates on-ice shooting percentage and his IPP being high at even strength, at 76.5%.

He likely is going to get less assists at even strength moving forward, but his power-play numbers shouldn't change much. Granlund is getting more ice time than he has in his entire career. He is worth rostering and expecting close to a point per game while that lasts.

Granlund's teammate Tomas Hertl has also stepped it up the last month averaging over a point per game. He is getting similar ice time to Granlund and is also worth a look, especially since he can provide a few hits here and there.

Zach Werenski – 72% rostered, 0 G, .87 A, .87 P, .27 PPP, 2.47 SOG, .2 hits, 1.73 Blks

Werenski is Columbus' top defenseman and is leading the team in ice-time and power-play time. He has always been a high-volume shooter, which seems a little lower this year. Though his shot attempt numbers are just as high as previous years, those attempts are just getting blocked and missing the net at a higher rate than usual. This points to his shot totals bound to increase moving forward.

Aside from this, he has only one goal this season and none in the last month. His shooting percentage over the last four seasons has hovered around 8%. His shooting percentage of 1.7% is bound to increase as well. Even with a lower shot on goal to shot attempt ratio and a low shooting percentage, Werenski has been the 12^th best defenseman over the last month, piling up the assists. This should continue with his ice time and he should also get some more shots and goals coming his way.

📢 advertisement:

Werenski lacks in the hits department, though he has serviceable block totals to fill some peripheral categories. If he is owned in your league, it is a good time to buy. If he is sitting on the waiver wire, you should snatch him up.

Jeremy Lauzon – 17% rostered, .13 G, .06 A, .19 P, 0 PPP, 1.13 SOG, 4.69 Hits, 1.44 Blks

In my most recent article, I've written about how banger stud of the past Radko Gudas has not been hitting close to his potential this year on Anaheim, averaging only 2.5 hits per game the last month. Well there is a new banger king to keep on your radar and that is Lauzon. He is the only player to average over four hits per game in the past month and is far greater than any other defenseman in the category.

He's hitting at a similar rate per 60 minutes to years past, but is been trusted with more ice time of late, averaging over 18 minutes per night. This has resulted in a banger stud lately. If the ice time increase stays, he could be the new banger king for multicat leagues. You can also keep an eye on Luke Schenn, who's gotten over four hits per game in the past. If Schenn can get the ice time Lauzon is getting, he could be the pick-up instead.

Follow me on X @fantasycheddar, where I will answer any questions you may have.