Welcome fantasy managers to another edition of the Eastern Edge. This week we'll be looking at the Columbus Blue Jackets' turnaround under Rick Bowness, the New York Rangers heating up for the fantasy hockey playoffs, Bryan Rust's immense value, and Egor Chinakov's offensive explosion since his trade to the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Let's get to it!

It has been some kind of turnaround in Columbus since Rick Bowness took over coaching duties from former bench boss Dean Evason. The organization’s growing concern over the development of its young players brought forth the need for a different voice within the dressing room with early returns suggesting that General Manager Don Waddell made out rather well in hiring the hockey lifer.

The Blue Jackets have responded extremely well to the change behind the bench as the team has been on a two-month heater with an exceptional 15-2-4 record over that span while accumulating the second most points in the standings with 34 (two points behind Buffalo's 36 in three fewer games played). That's not all as over the course of the last two months Columbus owns the league’s best point percentage (.810), rank third defensively (2.62 GA/GP) as well as ranking fourth in goal differential (22). If that wasn't impressive enough, the Blue Jackets also rank within the top ten in both shots on goal per game (29 – 10th overall) as well as shots against per game (26 – 8th overall)

That strong run of play has several of the team’s stars playing some of their best hockey of the campaign, both young and old. The biggest benefactor since the shakeup has to be Charlie Coyle who has put up an impressive (25PTS in his last 21GP), followed by Zach Werenski (21PTS in his last 18GP), Kirill Marchenko (20PTS in his last 19GP) and last but certainly not least 21-year-old Adam Fantilli (19PTS in his last 21GP).

The team’s goaltending has also had their say over the course of this hot streak with both netminders playing at a level that is giving their team a chance each and every night. Jet Greaves has been the slightly better goaltender numbers wise with an 8-0-2 record with two shutouts, accompanied by a solid 2.44 goals against and .908 save percentage including a 63.6% quality start rate and .49GSAx. Meanwhile, wily vet Elvis Merzlikins has fashioned a 7-2-2 record with one shutout to go along with a 2.54 goals against and .898 save percentage including a 50.0% quality start rate and 2.54GSAx.

Suffice to say, if the Columbus Blue Jackets can continue this level of play, they are going to find themselves in a postseason spot and will likely be quite a handful for their opponent in round one of this year’s playoffs.

It has been an extremely disappointing year for the New York Rangers as the team flounders at the bottom of the Eastern Conference standings with a handful of games remaining in a season most of the fan base would care to forget about.

However, several players have been heating up at just the right time to offer some solid value for the fantasy hockey playoffs. The team's number one goaltender Igor Shesterkin has had a challenging campaign injury-wise as the Russian netminder suffered a lower-body ailment that kept him out for a total of thirteen games. That hasn't prevented Shesterkin from posting some rather solid numbers on the year as the 30-year-old has fashioned a 22-13-6 record with one shutout accompanied by a 2.50 goals against an .913 save percentage which includes a 64.3% quality start rate and 15.16 goals saved above expected.

The 6'1" 199lbs goaltender has been even better of late with a 6-1-2 record in last 10 games played with an impressive 2.47 goals against and .922 save percentage including a 50.0% quality start rate and 1.27 goals saved above expected. Several of the club's forwards are playing some of their best hockey of the campaign as well with Mika Zibanejad (11PTS in his last 10GP), Vincent Trocheck (11PTS in his last 10GP), Alexis Lafreniere (12PTS in his last 10GP) and rookie Gabe Perreault (10PTS in his last 10GP) providing immense value regardless of your league's format.

The bonus is the Rangers' schedule during the fantasy hockey playoffs both in terms of quantity of games played as well as the club playing on several off-nights which will be quite beneficial to those who own any of New York's marquee players.

A player that garners little attention year after year yet produces at a rather solid clip in fantasy circles is none other than Pittsburgh Penguins forward Bryan Rust. The 5'11" 202lbs Rust is normally attached to Crosby's hip, however, in lieu of Sid's injury at the Milano-Cortina Olympic Winter Games, Rust is demonstrating once again his scoring prowess regardless of deployment or linemates.

The 33-year-old has paced for over 70 points in five of the last seven seasons and is having another banner year for the Penguins with a stat line of (53PTS in 60GP). Rust has been even more productive of late with (13PTS in his last 10GP) proving once again that he isn't just riding Crosby's coattails. The best part for fantasy managers is Pittsburgh will be playing four games this week with three of those games coming on off nights. It would be a wise decision to insert him into your fantasy lineup.

Lastly, I wanted to touch on Rust's teammate and recent acquisition Egor Chinakov who seems to have a new lease on life since his trade to Pittsburgh earlier this season. The Russian winger is on a nice little heater at the moment with (8PTS in his last 6GP) keeping in mind that the team is still without its captain as Sidney Crosby works his way back from injury and longtime running mate Malkin is just now returning from a five-game suspension making Chinakov's scoring exploits that much more impressive. It remains a small sample size in the black and gold, however, the results are promising to say the least.

That's it for this week folks. Be sure to keep an eye out for the Weekend Waiver Wire over at the Goalie Post each and every Friday morning for potential streaming options heading into the weekend.

Thanks for reading and feel free to follow me on X @mikeouellet9 or BlueSky @mikeouellet9.bsky.social

(All stats courtesy of: Dobber's Frozen Tools)

See you all again next Tuesday!