Welcome back to another edition of Lining Up. This week will examine a few hot players in favourable situations as well as potential risers who are either returning from injury or replacing an injured player. Frozen Tools also has a new Line Change Tracker feature where you can quickly discern which players are receiving boosts in the lineup so be sure to check it out for hidden nuggets to help strengthen your roster.

Let's dive in.

Clayton Keller – Nick Schmaltz – Travis Boyd

When using the Line Change Tracker and sorting by DIFF or the difference in change between a player's old role and new role, we notice that Clayton Keller sits on the list with a +4. The reasoning for this is that with the return of Nick Schmaltz, Keller and his most frequent linemate from last season formed the top line last night based on ice time, seeing 25% of the available even strength time. Even though Keller has been averaging a similar TOI to last season despite not playing on the "top line", the return of Schmaltz indicates that he may receive a slightly increased role at even strength. Regardless, Keller has so far been on an extended hot streak to start the season with 18 points in 16 games. This has been without the linemate whom he spent nearly a third of his time and scored more than half of his points with at even strength last season.

Schmaltz returns from injury and debuts with a star player on a hot streak. The same player that helped him to score a whopping 11 points in just two games, including that memorable seven-point effort against Ottawa in March last season. In his first game back, he did not miss a beat, taking five shots and seeing nearly 19:00 of ice time. Given that he produced at a 77 point-pace last season, he is widely available at only 13% rostered in Yahoo leagues.

In deeper leagues, Travis Boyd currently has 10 points in his last 17 games which puts him on pace for a career year. He has been lining up with Clayton Keller and a large supporting cast of third wheels for nearly 75% of the time this season. Last season he spent close to 30% of his time with Schmaltz and Keller and the trio produced 25 GF and only 15 against. Continuing this spot on the top line should allow for Boyd to maintain his pace and set a career high. Note that Arizona has three games remaining this week, including a game on a sparse Sunday. Should either player be available consider adding them to your roster.

Juuso Parssinen

Turning heads at the moment is young Finnish rookie Juuso Parssinen, who currently has five points in his first five games played in the NHL including three goals. When using the Line Change Tracker and searching for Parssinen, we notice that he has multiple iterations demonstrating his steady rise to his current top line deployment. Moving up the lineup on November 17^th and again on the 19^th, Parssinen was elevated to a line with Mikael Granlund and Filip Forsberg in addition to some power-play time with Forsberg where he notched two points from that quality deployment.

Parssinen was not high on the Nashville prospects list and was not expected to arrive in the NHL until the 2025-26 season at best. It remains to be seen whether he has in fact "arrived" given that he has only played five games so far and subsequently may still be sent down to the minors. However, until that time and until he has been removed from Forsberg's side on the top line, grab the hot hand while you can and stream him in if you have the space.

Rasmus Sandin

News came out today that the top power-play quarterback in Toronto, Morgan Rielly, will be out four to six weeks with an injury. As the heir apparent, Rasmus Sandin is reportedly set to step into Rielly's coveted spot on the top unit. Based on the %PP that Rielly was seeing, we can expect Sandin to now get a 40% increase in his power-play time with the top unit in addition to any bump in even strength time that will now be divided among the remaining defensemen. Sandin so far this season has six points with two on the power-play, so expect a boost in point production. Sandin is not typically a peripheral contributor but so far this season he has two and a half hits per game which should continue with increased minutes. He is also currently in range with his career shot production at slightly less than one per game, expect that to increase now that he is in a better spot.

Sam Gagner

Another disappointing injury occurred over the weekend in Nikolaj Ehlers, who will require hernia surgery. He is expected to miss significant time just when he was finally put in a position to truly breakout by receiving top power-play unit exposure. His replacement, as everyone correctly guessed, is Sam Gagner. He now slides onto the top line with Mark Scheifele and Kyle Connor as well as assuming Ehlers' role on the top power-play unit. He has been quiet so far this season with only six points in 17 games playing primarily on the third and fourth lines. With this new deployment, expect Gagner to increase his production as he now has a huge opportunity.

Winnipeg plays three games this week and three again next week. Starting this Sunday against Chicago though, three of the next four games from that point are on light days. So long as he is lining up on the top line and top power-play, scoop him up as a depth option for those off days.

Thanks for reading.