Fantasy Hockey Analysis

Fantasy Hockey Scouts: The Fantasy Five - Week 21

#1 Give 'em a Look

The trade deadline can work in mysterious ways and while most people (and fantasy GMs) are probably looking to the guys who were traded as the players who will benefit the most, it’s also beneficial to look at the guys that remain with a team after a firesale as sometimes they stand to benefit even more. The Senators really cleared house lately and one of their younger players who should benefit by seeing lots of playing time and PP opportunities down the stretch is Bobby Butler. He’s been seeing time on the top line with Jason Spezza lately and has responded with 5+3=8 & 24 shots over his last eight games.

Others worth a look: Patrik Berglund (StL – C), Dustin Penner (LA - LW), Erik Johnson (Col – D) and Dan Ellis (Ana – G)

I’m not going to recommend you drop the Caps Nicklas Backstrom but I’m certainly going to recommend that you find a suitable substitute for him asap. Kudos to him for gutting it out and not missing any action with a broken thumb but playing hurt isn’t going to help your fantasy team as he can’t take faceoffs and is in a major slump with points in only three of his last 15 games (yes, that’s not a typo).

Others worth a boot: Kris Versteeg (Phi – W), Rich Peverley (Bos – C), Marc Staal (NYR - D) and Stephane Robidas (Dal – D)

Most of the concerns these days are related to concussions to star players... Sidney Crosby has been out two months now with no return in sight, Mike Green may have had two concussions over the span of a few weeks, Brad Richards and Marian Gaborik are out but have been making progress and Eric Staal shook his head injury off pretty quickly and only missed one game.

Not really a conflict in Boston these days but the Bruins goalie rotation is causing some dilemmas lately... Tim Thomas is having a Vezina (and possibly Hart Trophy) worthy season but he’s been losing starts to Tuukka Rask who has started four of the past six games and won them all. This is likely just to give Thomas a rest and to keep him fresh for the playoffs but fantasy GMs will have to deal with these two splitting the starts down the stretch before Thomas likely carries the load in during the post-season.

Not really a fantasy hockey article but an interesting piece from Behind The Net about the amazing start to his NHL career that James Reimer has had and what we can expect from him going forward, based on historical evidence.