Given the timing of the article this week, I decided not to chase trade stories. There will undoubtedly be trades finalized after the article posts, let alone after the planning and writing of it. I am also going to do my best to avoid players who are likely to be traded, though sometimes trade targets can be relatively unexpected. When I talk about players, I will be focusing on their current deployment so some will definitely have the caveat that trades could impact their current situation.

Besides trade rumors, another theme from the past week or so has been some pretty strong runs from defensemen. There have been a number of huge nights from some rather unexpected places. So our theme for this week is D. Who is scoring and is it a sign of things to come?

To set up the article I pulled data from the last two weeks of games. I used the Percent Rostered Report as there are of course a number of top tier D who are crushing it. It isn't really that helpful to anyone for me to highlight that Zach Werenski had a two-goal game the other night, is on a 90 point pace, and has nine points in his last seven games. You either roster him and are loving life, or you don't and well, don't. On that list of guys doing well that we expected to do well also include Adam Fox, Cale Makar, Victor Hedman, and Rasmus Dahlin. Shocking right?

For this reason we are mostly going to spend time looking at players under 90 percent rostered on Fantrax, but I did want to flag a few other names.

Thomas Harley is highly rostered since Miro Heiskanen went down to injury, but just in case you are in one of the few leagues that is sleeping, he has seven points in his last four games so please go get him.

Same story with Lane Hutson. He has been a revelation for much more of the season than Harley, but particularly in Yahoo there are a lot of leagues where he is available. He has seven points in his last five.

I am also going to touch on the Morgan Rielly conundrum. He has spent most of the season now off of the top power play and still is. However he has six points in his last four games, and ten points over his last ten games. He has been a dreadful player to roster for most of the season, but February was a great month. I can't say I am optimistic though. He isn't really shooting and has had above 50 percent of the power-play share just three times since early January.

But now on to the main attraction. Here are the hottest D who are less than 90 percent rostered on Fantrax.

We have touched on Jackson LaCombe already in this column, but man is he on fire. Nine points in his last seven games, and 13 points in his last 13 games. He has been averaging more than 50 percent of the power play, almost 25 minutes a night during this stretch. He isn't covering the peripheral categories all that well, and obviously has some future competition with Olen Zellweger and Pavel Mintyukov, but for the moment he is in a great situation and doing very well with it.

Luke Hughes is on a little tear of his own with six points in his last five games. Like with LaCombe, he isn't really a multi-cat performer, so he really needs that power-play production to boost his value. In related news, as of March 4 there is not an update on Dougie Hamilton's potential injury. If he misses any time Hughes (who saw 100 percent of the power-play time on March 4th) could be in line to continue this offensive surge.

Colton Parayko has swung in and out of favor the last several years. He has been typically reliable for a decent amount of peripherals, but there was some hope that he might be able to add some offense on top of it. Fast forward to March of 2025 and he has six points in his last six games. So is the 31-year-old turning over a new leaf? No. He has three goals on his last 14 shots and is not getting any power-play time. While his 46-point pace season to date is still running a little bit hot, he is putting up decent shot, hit, and block numbers, so managers have to be pretty happy with his performance up to this point. Unfortunately, Parayko's season might be over, as he will have a scope on his left knee and be re-evaluated in six weeks.

Noah Hanifin is finally starting to realize some of the potential managers were hoping for in the off season. What did it take? Shea Theodore getting injured and Hanifin getting a chance on the top power play. He has 13 shots over his last three games, four power-play points in his last three games, and nine points in his last seven games. As long as Theodore is out, and Hanifin has access to that top power play, Hanifin is very interesting (just like the end of the 2023-24 season).

Aaron Ekblad has had a very 'will he won't he' relationship with the top power play. The Panthers seemed to be trying literally everyone on the top unit the last two seasons so when they traded for Seth Jones the writing seemed to be on the wall. Ekblad had actually been on the top unit for a lot of the last few months seemingly because no one else could do it, and as of March 4, Jones was on the second unit with Ekblad still manning that top one. That could switch on a dime, even though Ekblad has been on a very successful stretch of 11 points in his last 13 games.

Mason Lohrei falls into the Hanifin and Hughes category in that he is getting a nice elevated role with the injury to Charlie McAvoy. He has five points in his last six games with very strong shot rates over this time period. This six-game stretch matches exactly the time period where he has been getting the top-unit deployment. Lohrei was definitely valuable the last time McAvoy was out and is the most widely available so take a look and see if your D could use an upgrade.

That is all for this week. Do your part to support organizations working to make hockey for everyone.

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