Hi everyone and welcome to the latest edition of Lining Up! I'm Eli Feldman.

Although time is quickly slipping away on the 2024-2025 NHL regular season, plenty of work remains for managers still vying for fantasy hockey championship glory. As pools inch closer to memory and eliminated teams say goodbye, never has riding the hot hand been more vital and less costly. Whereas abandoning an early-round draft pick for a "seven-day hero" could yield regret down the road earlier in the season, in this championship moment, the road is short – and the time is now.

With fantasy hockey seasons on the line across the globe, here is a look at some of the players currently trending up and worthy of your consideration.

Alex Iafallo

Until his final shift against the Sabres this past Sunday, Gabriel Vilardi was on the precipice of completing his first injury-free NHL regular season. The feat was not meant to be, however, as Vilardi exited the game following an awkward fall and has since been ruled out "week-to-week" with an upper-body injury.

Vilardi's untimely injury is a crushing blow to the Winnipeg Jets, a team cemented in a Western Conference playoff spot and poised for a deep Stanley Cup run this spring. The injury is equally crushing for Vilardi personally, who had racked up 27 goals and 34 assists in 71 games this season, all career highs.

While Vilardi's absence looms large for the Jets, Head Coach Scott Arniel has elected to install veteran forward Alex Iafallo in Vilardi's typical spot, both at even strength (alongside Mark Scheifele and Kyle Connor) and on the Jets' formidable top powerplay unit. Labelled as a "meat and potato" guy by Head Coach, Iafallo is a versatile player who has some experience playing with Scheifele and Connor, having joined them after Vilardi went down with an MCL sprain early last season.

Vaulted onto the Jets' top forward line and top powerplay unit, the runway is suddenly clear for Iafallo to take off.

Matt Coronato

Four years after being drafted 13^th overall out of Harvard, 22-year-old Matt Coronato is starting to find his groove in the National.

Last season, Coronato split his time evenly between the AHL's Calgary Wranglers and the NHL's Calgary Flames, posting an impressive 42 points in 41 games with the former, but mustering a measly nine points in 34 games with the latter.

This season, however, tells a much different story.

After netting two goals in two games for the Wranglers near the start of the 2024-2025 campaign, Coronato rejoined the Flames – this time, for good. Now up to 20 goals in 64 games for the Flames this season, Coronato has entrenched himself as a full-time NHLer.

For the first three quarters of the season, Coronato played most of his even-strength minutes alongside Blake Coleman and Flames' Captain Mikael Backlund. Although the Coleman-Backlund-Coronato trio was generally effective (ranking T-45^th leaguewide in xGF% among qualifying forward lines), Head Coach Ryan Huska elected to break them up during the stretch run, placing Coronato on a line with Jonathan Huberdeau and Morgan Frost.

Over the past three games, the Huberdeau-Frost-Coronato line has been scorching hot, scoring a combined three goals and generating an impressive 65% of shots across 40 minutes played together. Coronato has been particularly spectacular lately, lighting the lamp four times (twice on the powerplay) over the past three games.

As the Flames make a playoff push and fantasy hockey leagues approach their final weeks, there is no better time for Coronato to be catching fire.

Zack Bolduc

Like Matt Coronato, Zack Bolduc was drafted in the 1^st round of the 2021 NHL Entry Draft; like Matt Coronato, Zack Bolduc played a handful of games in the AHL this season; and like Matt Coronato, Zack Bolduc has been hot as the sun as of late.

After spending most of the year stuck in St. Louis' bottom-six alongside Oskar Sundqvist and Mathieu Joseph, Bolduc has benefited from a new set of linemates. Lately, Bolduc has played on St. Louis top forward line alongside All Star Robert Thomas and hard-nosed winger Jake Neighbours, and the trio have found a groove.

While Bolduc has been especially hot lately (with three points in his last three games), it's worth noting that he's recorded 14 points in his last 18 games, nearly a 64-point pace over that span.

With at least another game on St. Louis' top forward line, picking up Bolduc could make your playoff opponents blue.

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Here are some other notable powerplay deployment developments making headlines over the past week:

• JJ Peterka is currently playing on Buffalo's top power-play unit;
• Boone Jenner and Sean Monahan are currently playing on Columbus' top power-play unit;
• Jeff Skinner and Viktor Arvidsson are currently playing on Edmonton's top power-play unit;
• Tyson Foerster is currently playing on Philadelphia's top power-play unit;
• Evgeni Malkin is currently playing on Pittsburgh's top power-play unit;
• Andre Burakovsky is currently playing on Seattle's top power-play unit;
• Logan Cooley is currently playing on Utah's top power-play unit; and
• William Karlsson is currently playing on Vegas' top power-play unit.

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That's all for this week! Stay tuned for the next edition of Lining Up next Tuesday, April 1. Until then, have a great week and best of luck to all!