Fantasy Hockey Update: Injuries To Monitor, Waiver Pickups
Mark breaks down the best moves to make to help your fantasy hockey team this week.
It is American Thanksgiving week, which throws a wrench into NHL scheduling. We have a high concentration of games on Wednesday and Friday, making it difficult to stream players on the smaller slates. Monday has seven games, followed by 14 games on Wednesday and 15 games on Friday, before things settle down with eight games on Saturday and five games on Sunday.
We do have a surprising amount of teams with four games this week including Boston, Calgary, Colorado, Edmonton, Nashville, San Jose, Vancouver, and the New York Rangers. If you need a streamer, these are the teams to target.
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Fantasy Hockey Update
Injuries to monitor
Several players across the league are currently nursing injuries of various severities. These players missing time also opens up more opportunities for their teammates, so it's always worth checking to see if anyone is taking advantage. Here are some of the top players currently dealing with injuries:
- D Damon Severson, Columbus Blue Jackets
- C Tage Thompson, Buffalo Sabres
- C Aleksander Barkov, Florida Panthers
- RW Timo Meier, New Jersey Devils
- G Joonas Korpisalo, Ottawa Senators
- G Ville Husso, Detroit Red Wings
Best Fantasy Hockey Pickups
Let’s take a look at the waiver wire and see if we can find some value. Some of these players are just streaming options for this week, but some could help your team for the rest of the season.
C/LW Quinton Byfield, Los Angeles Kings
Byfield could easily be a permanent pickup or a bench stash for your team. He has been promoted to the top power-play unit for the Kings and has 13 points in 11 games. I see a lot of upside for Byfield in this role, so grab him if you can.
C Pavel Zacha, Boston Bruins
This one is a reach, as Zacha is likely already rostered in most leagues, but he was surprisingly available in a couple of my Yahoo leagues. He skates on the same line as David Pastrnak, which is always a good thing, and has points in 13 of 16 games this season.
C Nazem Kadri, Calgary Flames
With his slow start, Kadri has fallen below the radar in some leagues. Even if he was drafted in your league, he might have been dropped. However, he has been red-hot lately, with a goal, two assists, and 12 hits in his last three games. Calgary also has a favorable schedule for streaming this week, with four games, including multiple games on nights with low game counts. Add him for this week at least, and he could be a season-long hold if this hot streak continues.
LW James van Riemsdyk, Boston Bruins
Unbelievably low-owned for how productive he has been, van Riemsdyk is having a nice season. He is playing on Boston’s top power-play unit alongside David Pastrnak, Brad Marchand, and Charlie McAvoy and leads the team with three power-play goals.
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