Hello everyone and welcome to the penultimate 2024-2025 regular season edition of Lining Up! I'm Eli Feldman.

With only a few games remaining per team in the 2024-2025 NHL regular season, we've officially entered the home stretch. The countless hours invested in checking (and double-checking) your lineup, talking trades, and monitoring the waiver wire have led to this moment. Ten days away from the finish line, the ever-intensifying light of fantasy hockey championship glory is on the horizon – now just a few roster moves away.

At this time, the Frozen Tools Schedule Planner – always a trustworthy resource – is your greatest ally. In this final leg of the annual fantasy hockey marathon, maximizing games played is critical to emerging victorious.

With this in mind, let's look at players who could help your team across the finish line this season.

William Eklund

Although the basement-dwelling San Jose Sharks will miss the Playoffs yet again, the future is bright in Fin City thanks to a promising crop of young talent, highlighted by Macklin Celebrini and William Eklund. Drafted by San Jose 7^th overall in 2021, Eklund is a highly skilled forward who's taken significant strides during his second full NHL season, pacing to finish with nearly 20 more points this year than a season ago.

With San Jose out of Playoff contention, the five remaining games in its schedule will serve two primary purposes: attempting to play spoiler and, for many Sharks, auditioning for next season. While Eklund's spot in the Sharks' lineup is safe in both the short and long term, he will undoubtably look to finish his campaign on a high note with strong performances against four Western Conference opponents: Calgary, Minnesota, Edmonton (twice), and Vancouver.

Like last season, Eklund has been a fixture in the Sharks' top six and on the team's top power-play unit this season, averaging over 19:30 TOI and nearly three minutes of PPTOI per game. Lately, Eklund has skated with veteran Alex Wennberg and undrafted prospect Collin Graf at even strength, and the trio has clicked, generating 27 chances for over the past three games.

Along with Eklund's favourable deployment, San Jose's jam-packed schedule to close out the regular season comes with an appealing twist: four of the team's five remaining games will be played on Light Days, meaning you should have no trouble slotting Eklund into your lineup.

Indeed, missing out on Eklund could come back to bite.

Viktor Arvidsson

Other than the Sharks, only one team is set to play five times with four Light-Day games this season: the Edmonton Oilers. The Oilers enter the final days of the regular season in somewhat precarious circumstances, however, as superstars Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl and starting goaltending Stuart Skinner are all out recovering from injuries.

Despite obvious concern for the Oilers' leaders, in the fantasy hockey world, one man's misfortune is another's opportunity. This clearly applies to Viktor Arvidsson, who's currently playing on Edmonton's top forward line (alongside Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Vasily Podkolzin) and top power-play unit in the absence of Edmonton's two-headed monster.

Arvidsson has never played a full 82-game NHL season, losing parts of each campaign to injury and forever branding himself Band-Aid Boy Certified. However, despite being a going injury concern, Arvidsson is an established point producer, pacing for 60+ points during six of his nine seasons as a full-time NHLer.

Without an official timeline for McDavid or Draisaitl's return, Viktor Arvidsson will be tasked with driving Edmonton's offence for the time being. With four Light-Day games remaining, Arvidsson may be the man you desire to set your lineup on fire.

Gabe Perreault

Last week, the Rangers announced the signing of Gabe Perreault, the team's 2023 1^st-round pick, to a three-year entry-level contract. Before joining the Rangers, Perreault spent two seasons tearing up the NCAA at Boston College, amassing 108 points (35 goals, 73 assists) in 73 games. Along with myriad personal achievements, Perreault is a proven winner, capturing back-to-back gold medals with the United States at the 2024 and 2025 IIHF World Junior Championships.

During his first three games with the Rangers, Perreault has spent time playing alongside J.T. Miller and Alexis Lafreniere at even strength and has seen time on the Rangers' second power-play unit. Although Perreault has not yet recorded a point with the big club, it's only a matter of time – according to his DobberProspects Scouting Report, "Perreault shines as a playmaker…has quick hands in tight…[and] finds success with any number of line combinations because…he is a very good passer on top of being an intelligent thinker on the ice".

Set to play thrice over the next four days and five times before the end of the regular season, Perreault should be the apple of your eye.  

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Here are some other notable power-play deployment developments making headlines over the past week:

• Sam Rinzel is quarterbacking Chicago's top power-play unit over Artyom Levshunov;
• Charlie Coyle and Brock Nelson are playing on Colorado's top power-play unit with Martin Necas and Jonathan Drouin out of the lineup due to injury;
• Brad Marchand is playing on Florida's top power-play unit with Sam Bennett out of the lineup due to injury;
• Quinton Byfield is playing on Los Angeles' top power-play unit with Drew Doughty out of the lineup due to injury;
• Jonathan Marchessault is set to reclaim his position on Nashville's top power-play unit from Luke Evangelista following his return to the lineup from injury;
• Timothy Liljegren is playing on San Jose's top power-play unit while Tyler Toffoli is out of the lineup due to injury;
• Jimmy Snuggerud is playing on St. Louis' top power-play unit over Oskar Sundqvist;
• Oliver Bjorsktrand is playing on Tampa Bay's top power-play unit over Brandon Hagel;
• Barrett Hayton is playing on Utah's top power-play unit over Logan Cooley;
• Shea Theodore is quarterbacking Vegas' top power-play unit over Noah Hanifin; and
• Cole Perfetti is playing on Winnipeg's top power-play unit while Nikolaj Ehlers is out of the lineup due to injury.

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That's all for this week! Stay tuned for the next edition of Lining Up next Tuesday, April 15. Until then, have a great week and best of luck to all!