The Hockey PDOcast - Changing Situations and Players to Target in Fantasy

Episode Date: February 10, 2024

Dimitri Filipovic is joined by Chris Meaney to help you with your fantasy teams by highlighting some players that could benefit from improved situations down the stretch. If you'd like to gain access to the two extra shows we're doing each week this season, you can subscribe to our Patreon page here: www.patreon.com/thehockeypdocast/membership If you'd like to participate in the conversation and join the community we're building over on Discord, you can do so by signing up for the Hockey PDOcast's server here: https://discord.gg/a2QGRpJc84 The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Media Inc. or any affiliate.

2015. It's the Hockey PEDEOCast with your host, Dmitri Filippovich. Welcome to the Hockey PEDEOCast. My name is Dimitra Philpovich and joining me is my good buddy, Chris Mini. Chris, what's going on, man? What's going on, Dimitri? Always a pleasure, man, to join you and talk to some hockey. We're getting to crunch time in real NHL and fantasy hockey as well. So looking forward to this chat, man. Hopefully we can help some people out. Well, this is going to be really fun. You're right. It's a key point in the NHL season. It's also, I appreciate you taking the time. I know you're really busy trying to figure out what color the Gatorade will be this Sunday with the team winning the Super Bowl, pouring it out on the head coach, a lot of fun props that I'm sure you're crunching.

And it's a busy time for you as well. So I'm happy that we can talk a bit of hockey and help some people out with their fantasy leagues. Hopefully, it's a fun way to end the week for us here. And hopefully we're going to be able to help identify some players for people listening to target in their fantasy leagues ahead of the trade deadline. We're about a month out now of the NHL one. And I think that provides us with an interesting opportunity to kind of get ahead of the competition, I guess, and maybe try to read the tea leaves a little bit and figure out who's going to be on the moves, who's going to benefit from that, where situations are going to improve, time's going to open up.

And so that provides us with a chance to buy and get players ahead of time and maybe avoid paying full freight for them when everyone else jumps on board. So I'll give you the floor here. We're just going to go back and forth like we usually do. We usually wind up rattling off a ball. bunch of names really getting into it and getting into the weeds with with our situations where we're trying to target. So what's the first one on your list and kind of what are you most intrigued by? Well, I'm going to start strong here with arguably the best goal score we've ever seen of all time. And maybe the window is closed over the past week or so. But Alex Ovechkin is a player that I

wanted to talk to you about because I was taking a look at CBS sports this morning and just seeing the top 10 traded players over the last three or four weeks. And Ovecgan was number one on that list. some people were maybe buying, thinking that he was going to be able to turn this thing around in the second half of the season, or they seen the recent run, and they're saying, that's it, I'm out. This is an opportunity for me to get out. This is the furthest I've seen him drop in drafts at the start of the season, you know, sometimes a third round pick, end of the third round. He's got goals in three straight games the first time in his career. He's got points in 11 of his last, or not first career, first time in this season. He's got points in 11 of his last 13 games.

games many times. I actually went back and I was curious. Like how many times did he have a three game goal streak last year? And it was five times and multiple over three. But yeah, he's got the 11 goals. He's got the 6.9 shooting percentage is the lowest mark of his career. It's the first time it's ever been below 10.

And, you know, if you go back and look, you know, for his career, it's 12.8. But for the most part, this guy's living above 13. He's got a great fantasy hockey schedule. I took a look at week 22, week 23.

It could be the last week of fantasy hockey regular season. Week 23 could be the quarter. quarters. It could be quarters and semis for you. Washington playing four games in each of those those two weeks. And I also like Dylan Strom. Those are two guys that I think are going to get a lot of volume and a lot of ice time. Washington is extremely thin down the middle. You know, T.J. Oshy, Max Patrary could be had in deeper leagues. You may be able to just grab them off the waiver wire. But I'm not sure what your thoughts are on OVie. Because again, does he get 25 goals? He'd have to go on a heck of a run. He could certainly do that. He still has something left to offer. But he could be

had right now. And I think he's just a polarizing figure at the moment fantasy. Yeah, certainly. I mean, I was just looking at it. He scored only three five on five goals so far. And obviously, I think everyone knows that a lot of his damage is done on the powerplay, certainly, but it just almost unfathomable that he scored that infrequently. I believe he's shooting like 4% or something at 515. You're right. I think with the volume, and I think importantly, you know, it might have obscured it at the start of the year a little bit because they were getting such strong goal-tending and they were kind of squeezing out a lot of these close games, even though a lot of the underlying metrics weren't particularly favorable,

and the fact that all of their wins were kind of close one goal game wins, suggested they were due to regress, and they kind of have recently. It obscured the fact that, like, this is what the Capitol's main agenda is right now as an organization, right? Like, I'm sure they want to be competitive and playing meaningful games later into the season, but realistically right now, everything revolves around finding a way to get Alex Kvetchin to break the goal record and to kind of see this story through, right? And so I think every opportunity they get, not that they haven't already so far, but is going to be funneling pucks through him and trying to get him those.

And we've seen the uptick here a little bit. I just think based on the law of averages, right, even if you think that he slowed down a little bit and that he's not going to be what he once was, there's still some sort of a middle ground between that and what he had done through the first 45 or so games this season. So, yeah, I'm with you. It just seems almost impossible that with how much he's playing. and how much he's still shooting that he would finish the year with under 20 to 25 goals.

And I think he could even potentially, if a few things break his way, push even 30, depending on how the next couple weeks go. So, yeah, I'm with you. I would buy the goal scoring ticking up for sure. And we're skeptical. So you probably can still buy, even though the fact that he has had these three kind of productive games. Right.

Yeah. I know a lot of people are saying that, you know, he looks, slow there. The ice time isn't the same. I mean, yeah, there's a little bit of a down tick in terms of his ice time per game, but he's still getting an opportunity. And like you said, I mean, maybe those five and five goals start to, you know, come. It's just, you know, at the moment, there's not too many guys out there that you could buy in fantasy hockey that could be, I don't know, just under a goal per game. Like, he could certainly do that in the second half. And that could be a difference maker for you. Well, and he's playing, I mean, listen,

the perspective's important, right? It's down a little bit. He's playing still 19, 25 per game. And he's firing about 23. shot attempts per hour playing right so it's down from his standards but if you just like took away the the historical track record and the name and you just give a blind resume of those numbers for pretty much any other forward in the league you'd be like yeah this guy's probably going to score a lot of goals so um i think uh that that's kind of important to keep in mind you know it's interesting you brought up the capitals in ovechkin because i want to talk about a power play that we actually saw play them last night in the florida panthers on thursday night and the reason

why I wanted to highlight it is because this Panthers team that I'm really high on this season, one of their sort of relative weaknesses has been power play efficiency, right? This year, they're 11th in the league in Power Play Goals per hour, which is good, but not necessarily elite. Last year, they were 14th, and they were one of the few teams still using three forwards, two defensemen on their sets for much of last year. Now, since getting healthy over the past couple weeks and really putting it together, this current five-man unit that they're trotting out of Matthew Kichuk, Alexander Barkov, Sam Reinhart, Carter Verhege, and Brandon Montour has been absolutely on fire. They've played 55 power play minutes so far this season together, and that's all come recently.

They scored 13 goals in that time. And if you look on a permanent basis, whether it's generating goals, shots, or high danger chances, all of their rates with those guys out on the ice and man advantage distrations grades out as the best of any power play in the league. So it's scary that they're now optimizing whatever relative weakness they still had remaining. And, you know, with Kachuk's recent hot streak, I think the window to buy him certainly closed, obviously. With Reinhardt's goal scoring, you're not necessarily buying him. But I think with a guy like Carter Hagee, for example, you probably still could buy a little bit low on him, even though he has 25 goals or so. And I just want to get in on that group because I think this is kind of unlocked a whole new ceiling for them that they might not have otherwise previously. had as a group. I couldn't agree more, Dimitri. I absolutely love this squad. And I could see them

going right back to the Stanley Cup finals is one of the favorite, you know, at one point, two months ago before they started to go on a run at the same time Matthew Kuchuk started to get hot. There was a really good opportunity to buy on them like 18 to 1 to win the cup. I still like, you know, them at 12 to 1. I still like them to potentially chase down Boston and win the Atlantic, potentially get the number one seed in the east, all those things. You got to remember that the start of the season, they were without, you know, Brennan Montour, they were without Sam Bennett for a little bit. And, and also, Cichuk wasn't, I don't know, he, he may say he was healthy, but who did not play, I mean, play fantastic throughout the playoffs, but he battled through some

injuries and he had some offseason stuff to deal with before the beginning of this season. I have Sam Bennett and Brennan Montor written down. I think for Haggy, if you can get for Hagee, absolutely. Any of those guys, if you could buy them, I'm all in. As for Bennett, he doesn't get time on that top power play, but he has been playing five and five, you know, with Verhege and with Cichuk. At times, we've seen Paul Maurice put cousins on that line and maybe put for Haggy up there. But for the most part, Bennett is getting, you know, top six, a top six role on an explosive team. He's got 23 points in 39 games, so 13 in his last 16. And Montour only has 11 in 35 games. But the minutes are there, the ice time, the shot attempts are still there. He's still

doing a couple other different things, like throwing his body around blocking shots, can help you in some of those leagues as well. So I couldn't agree more on the Panthers. Then they may buy. I mean, they have a little bit of gap space. I don't think they have a lot of holes, to be honest with you, but they may buy somebody in that bottom six to go on another run. So absolutely agree on those calls.

Well, the reason why I was highlighting for Hagegh, just because this does represent a bit of a change from him over the past couple years, right? Because I think frustratingly so they were very reluctant to put him on that power play one. And part of it was they wanted Eckblad out there as kind of another shooter and to maintain some of that one-time option. But for Hegey, like part of the reason why you want to prioritize having one-timers at both circles is because we know that if the goalie has a chance to set, it kind of negates the purpose

of the cross-ice pass, right? Pass through the slot that every team is trying to execute. Unless it's a one-timer, you sort of the goalie can recover in time and then it's not as dangerous. But the thing is for Hege's wrist shot is just so violent and so lethal and you see what he uncorks that he can actually beat goalies cleanly, even if they have time to get set for it, just because he can pick his spot under the bar

and beat you that way anyways. And so now the fact they're using him that way where he's averaging over three power play minutes per game this season and he was out of like one or two last year, that is a bit of a change, right? So I think a lot of goals are coming his way. I think he's going to wind up with 40 plus again this season. And so, yeah, I just want to get as many pieces of that pie as I can

and acknowledging that, you know, with Chuck's hot street, And certainly with Reinhardt having 38 goals so far, like it's going to be tough to get those guys. I think they're going to be coveted pretty highly by members of your league. But for Hagee might be someone that you can buy at what his current owner views as a high price, but still might not be high enough because they don't realize like that he's being used differently now compared to years past. So I like that quite a bit. Okay, who's next on your list?

Wyatt Johnson of the Dallas Stars. I'm a sucker for this guy. I really love his brand of hockey. And of course, he's a rookie score 24 goals. and he was, you know, Hints and Robertson stole the show throughout the playoffs last year for the stars. But if you looked at some of the five and five numbers, expected goals and shot attempts. I mean, Wyatt Johnson checked a lot of boxes as well. And a very, very slow start to the season.

I viewed him as, you know, a breakout candidate, you know, heading into the year. How could you do his, you know, second year player as a breakout candidate when he scored 24 goals? Was he going to score 30, 40? You know, I thought he had that ability to get up to 30. But at the start of the season, you know, the ice time wasn't really there. He's playing with Ben, who has, you know, regressed a little bit this season, had a good year last year. And ever since Pete DeBore has made the switch and moving Joe Pavelski off that line and putting him with Ben, putting him with the down off and putting Wyatt Johnson with Rupert-Binths. Of course, we've seen a spike in his game.

Five goals and 10 points in his last 11, three plus shots in seven of his last nine, you know, 17 plus minutes in eight straight games. There were times where he's 13, 14 minutes here and there. not going to get top power play time. And it's possible. Pete DeBore says, you know what, I'm going back to Bevelski on that top line. That's certainly a possibility, but I'm living in the moment. And I'm grabbing him wherever I can, and I'm riding this thing out. And he just got right wing eligibility in Yahoo, which is a plus because, you know, there's a lot of centers out there. And, you know, that was the pushback that I had talking him up over the past couple weeks. I just don't know what center to drop. It's just really tough for me to find a place in my lineup for him. But now having that right wing eligibility

makes it a little bit more flexible for him. So Dallas is another team, I feel like with like Florida. I view them very similar, maybe not as much firepower, but I like what they have to offer. That second line with Duchenne and Sagan and Marchman have been so consistent all year long. And all three of those guys, maybe apart from Duchenne,

are hanging around the waiver wire at the moment. I would be buying every Dallas star I can here in the second half. Yeah, I'm contractually obligated to mix in some stars talk in every one of my show. So I'm glad that you beat me to the punch so that I don't. So I can beat the allegations. of being a Dallas stars homer but yeah i mean why johnson is certainly a favorite of mine and and the good thing is that it's not like it's entirely role dependent either as you mentioned like we've

seen him be productive in other usages as well so it's not obviously as ideal as his current setup but even if he you know even they went back to that previous formation with pevelsky in the top line i still think johnston can be very productive as he's shown even with that in mind but yeah right now it's interesting because the underlying numbers are absolutely off the charts. Like with that line of hints, Robertson and Johnston, I'll give you the, the natural statric metric. So they played a hundred five on five minutes together. Shots on goal, 78 to 25. High danger chances, 35 to seven and goals are nine to one. I mean, these are like elite power play numbers, and this is what they're doing at five on five. They've been together.

And Johnston himself hasn't necessarily benefited from it from a points perspective, dude, but you can certainly see it from a shot generation perspective, right, where I know something you love to see is he's had the three or more shots on goal in seven of his past nine games. And a lot of his shots come from very high danger areas as well. He's that type of player. So I love the fit between him and those guys on that line. They've certainly looked apart when you watch them. This isn't a thing where, all right, I don't know how they're getting these numbers.

Like it certainly passes the eye test as well. And so I think sky's the limit for him personally. Sky's the limit for that line. And I think he's going to produce a lot more. So yeah, I think this is a good buying opportunity while you still can before the actual counting stats kind of start to match up with those underlying metrics. Yeah, you mentioned the shots and the props. Plus money to pick up a point throughout this run basically every night, right? I don't know if Vegas has really caught on to the boost in ice time and the adjustment to his linemates.

And like you said, yeah, if Pete DeBore decides that he wants to put Pavlsky back up there because that trio has worked perfectly for the past couple of years as well. That could happen. And, you know, I just think that this is a really good fit for a young player that doesn't look out of place playing with those two guys. So he could stick. Well, and then, you know, given his age and contract status as well, like, we'll see. I think if Pavelski does stick around, and he certainly is playing well enough to stay around in the NHL for as long as he wants at this point.

Like, he will be on the Dallas Stars. But Wyatt Johnson's clearly the future. And I think that while the Stars are managing their status as Cup contender right now, they also generally as an organization take a bit of a longer term view with this sort of stuff. And I think they realize that whether it's the rest of this year or next year or the one after that, this probably will be the trio up front that's carrying the mail for them. And so it makes sense that they're giving it a time for experimentation and growth together right now. And I think the way they've looked, I see no reason why they would want to split that up anytime soon.

So get aboard the Wyatt Johnson Express while you still can. All right. Let's give you, next one on my list is a bit more of a somber one. It's a player that I love just as much, but the reason why I'm bringing him up is for negative reasons. And we got this question from the P.D.O.C. Discord. It's from ATS-O-5 that says, Nick Eler's has been exiled to the two few minutes second line on the Jets, and there's no indication the Rick bonus will change his ways.

The team's Spirit Totum in Saxophone Squirtle has sadly departed the realm to join the Flyers locker room. Is it time to drop Eelers for Pius Suter if Suter's available in your league? Now, this question was from February 1st and since then, Pughes Suter lost his spot on the top power play playing the net front for the Canucks after they acquired Alias Lindholm. Of course, and we've seen after Lynn Holmes couple power play goals in his Canucks debut, that's a very valuable role. But I wanted to bring up this question because we actually saw the Jets play the Flyers last night. And it was a game where the Jets trailed for I believe like 56 minutes or so, they went down on the first couple minutes. They were down by three

towards the end of the first period. And despite the fact that they were playing from behind and trailing all game long, Nikolai Eler's end of the game playing 1416, which was less than Mason Appleton. Now, that's egregious in any game, in my opinion, but in one where you're specifically trying to score goals to get back into it, it's just simply inexcusable. And I think sadly, it's far from the first or likely the last time that's going to happen. So, We're kind of back to square one here, and it's very frustrating. I feel like I'm going crazy talking about this because it's a topic that's been brought up way too often on the show over the past couple years.

And we just went through this 20 game or so stretch where McLeilers was fully unleashed on the top line and was producing exactly the way we'd expect. And the team was winning. And now they get healthy. And they essentially just go back to all the bad habits they had previously. And we're back to where we started. I don't get it. I'm, I think 100%, like 99%, we talked about dealers last year.

At this point of the season, we wondered what was going on. Why was he averaging 15 minutes per game, which was a career low for him and now at 16. And I was telling people to buy. I saw the spike that you alluded to the opportunity up on that top line. And ever since, you know, Kyle, Kyle Connor missed a little bit of time. So that was, I think, part of it. And then Connor back, Sheifley back, Valerty back, these guys on a line last. night. I was really taking a look at Eelers and Monaghan and maybe that they could create something

that that would be a boost for maybe Nikolai Eelers. You know, he's not on the first power play. So I understand this question totally. I would like to say, hold on. I would like this, because a lot of these guys, Eelers, Filarty, Monaghan, they're all getting dropped. Perfetti's been, you know, hung on to it in deep leagues. And people, of course, or patient with Mark Sheifley when he missed some time at Kyle Connor through a slump that he had, you know, since he's returned to the lineup and score last night. I don't know if this offense,

if it is going to turn around because I would say if he was getting the ice time and he was getting the minutes and the opportunity, I'd say, yeah, okay, like this is a buy, hang on to him in the second half. The Jets can figure this thing out offensively, but they're not scoring a lot of goals. Their goals are not coming from, you know, other than Connor, there's been really no consistency up and

down there a lot up, even though they are winning games. I think thanks to Hullabuck. So I don't know if I would drop him for Pew Souter. Suter's on my list because, you know, playing with J.T. Miller and Brock Besser, why wouldn't he? And he was on that power play, as you alluded to as well before the Linnholm edition. And he picked up a couple power play goals in his Dinnock's debut. I, again, live in the moment. I typically like to do these things. I like to leave one or two spots open to my fantasy hockey leagues to stream, you know, players that are playing four games and take advantage of some matchups. And Eilers is a guy that, you know, I think you could cut loose, man, and it's not about the talent.

It's just about the situation at the moment. Yeah, those are the toughest things, right? Because I almost, I can't be expected to, uh, to think or talk rationally about this subject because my job primarily is a hockey analyst. And so just evaluating like the talent level and his impact on the game, it's all there. And so nothing's changed in that regard. So for me, I hate giving up on a player like that. That's just entirely role dependent.

for this. But fantasy, especially for some of these fringe contributors, right, it's you keeping those spots open for rotations and for streamers is important depending on schedule or hot streaks or whatever. And so I get it. If you're frustrated and you're sick of seeing a stat line of like 15 minutes, two shots on goal and zero points, I'm, I get it. So I have a tough time being upset about that. But man, like we just saw that 21 game stretch I have here from November 30th, the January 15th. Now that cool. coincided with Valardi being out at the start of that, and then Connor for a good chunk of that after that. But they were using Eilers in that feature top line role. He had 18 515 points in that time, which was behind only Nathan McKinnon. He was top 10 in attempts and shots on goals on a permanent basis.

And the jets were up 22 to 5 with him on the ice at 515 in that time. And they went 16 and 3 and 2. Right. So this isn't like advanced stats. This is goals and wins. And I just don't understand how you look at that and the way they played. revert back to these previous habits. And given Rick Bonas's track record as a coach and the way this organization has viewed Eilers as a whole, it's tough. And there's no real reason to expect that to change. But man, it's just, it's really tough to, it's almost, it's tough to justify, right? Because you just think about it logically as well. And it's like, all right, Eilers, Shepley and Vilarty, stylistically, they make so much sense together.

And then you have this second line, you acquire Sean Monaghan, you have Kyle Conner, you have Cole Perfetti, who's really good at kind of creating space and making life easier for others, use that as a sheltered scoring line. Those three guys make so much sense together. And then just use Nieder Rider, Lowry, Appleton, Iafalo, whoever, in more of like a checking bottom six role. And instead, they're relying on that third line way too much. And they're just taking away from the second line. And then they're forcing Kyle Connor on the first line because of his track record as a goal

scorer and his partnership with Shifley. And so none of it's working. And maybe the fact that, you know, they're really. struggling to score goals. I think they've scored 10 goals as a team in these seven games since demoting Eilers. You'd like to think that they would look at that and be like, all right, something has to change. Maybe let's go back to what was working previously. And Eelers is good enough that I would believe that he would succeed once again in that role. So maybe that's the argument for riding this out and giving it a bit more time. But given the track record, it probably won't

happen the way we want to. So I get it if you want to just pull the court and move on. Yeah, maybe it's you know, if you're in a comfortable spot and, you know, fantasy hockey or in the middle of the pack, potentially you could maybe afford to wait another week or two because you do bring up a good point. Like this team has not been scoring goals. Going through that stretch of three or fewer and it was, you know, it's not like they were blowing teams away. They were just getting really good goaltending from Connor Hellebuck. So it's possible. Maybe Monaghan can be the difference.

I mean, I really like Monahan too as a player that I've, I've had in deeper formats. I mean, he traded in basically Yola Armiya. and Josh Anderson here for a couple different wingers. It's also possible, like you said, maybe Eilers, I don't know if he's ever going to get that top power play time. He Moanahan had that role in Montreal in the bumper spot pretty well. And I think Winnipeg, you know, maybe likes that addition. And he could help them out in the face off circle and on the power play in certain situations.

But I don't, I still feel like there's still a possibility where Eilers could maybe jump up on that first line or potentially stick on the second. But he's definitely available. I'll say that. It's a risk. The ceiling is there, but it's a couple years now of this. Inside the same game, maybe let's talk about the Flyers a little bit. Man, how impressive are they?

Holy, man, they're five and five numbers. They out shoot teams most nights. Before last night, they were in the top five in terms of eliminating the fewest shots at five and five and five per 60. And one guy, you mentioned five and five numbers that I wanted to bring up with you. and he's just been, I don't know, I think a lot of fantasy hockey people live in the moment. It's like if they don't get a point or two for a game, that's it. They're done with them. They drop them.

I was surprised to see Yul Farabee getting dropped in Yahoo leagues. 17 goals, 41 points, and 52 games. If you look at the five and five point leaders this season, he's tied for the third most. McKennon's got 45. Kutrov has 40. McDavid, Asternak, and Fairby have 34. And this is not like a shooting percentage thing, right? It is pretty good company, and it's not like he's piling up a lot of these points in the power play.

The Flyers power play is not great. He doesn't have a high shooting percentage. Only Barzell has more primary assists than Fairbys 16. Barzell has 19. This team is just playing a really good brand of 5 and 5 hockey. Torderella has them playing every single night. Owen Tippett. I would be buying Owen Tippett where I can.

I'd be buying old Farabee where I can. And the lines are different from here and there. I feel like whoever plays with Kine and Keturee kind of, you know, get the offense going, but Ketari is also still shown this year that the offense may not still be there with him, but defensively, you know, he can shut down a guy. And it does leave some pretty good opportunities, maybe the second line for, for Farabee. So, Tippett, 256 shot attempts at 5'5 is the six most in the NHL. He's got six goals and nine points in his last nine games. So you may not view the flyers as like a team to target, but their top six pretty decent. They

generate a lot of a shot attempts and chances at least. Well, the second part of that question from the listener, they noted the saxophone scored, and I did want to bring that up because the Jets were the original adopters of it and really brought it into the mainstream in the hockey world. But since then, Scott Lott has been forcing his Flyers teammates to listen to it for hours on end in the training room and in all sorts of other situations of the facility. And listen, these two teams played last night, the Flyers just definitively trounce them. And so according to a friend of the podcast, Charlie O'Connor, after the game, they were trium. playing in the locker room as the victory song. And I think they won the rights to it, fair and square. So I think that's a really good point.

I wanted to note that because in a Vives perspective, it's very important. But from the Flyers, I've been talking about them a lot on this show. And I think that the type of high volume, fantasy friendly approach that they've taken to attacking off the rush the way they have and we've documented a lot on the show is really important. And I don't think a lot of this production from some of these young players or not even young players, but players who are like firmly in their prime, like a lot of these guys are in that sort of 23 to 26 year old range, it's not accidental that they're all sort

of thriving and benefiting from it, right? And so I wouldn't expect the power play production to improve that much because I do think they have real issues from a finishing perspective and from like a high level game breaking talent perspective that they still need to address as an organization. But 5-15, man, they play such a fun style. And you're not going to be able to get Kineckney at this point. The ship's probably even sailed on Owen Tippett, I think, although he did missed some time with injury, but he'd been playing so well previously and has really stepped back into that since returning. But you're right, Ferabi, unbelievable follow in my production. I'll even highlight like a Morgan Frost who is more of a playmaker, certainly, and you're not

going to get the shot volume from him necessarily, but he's got so much skill. And as a playmaker, especially now, I think they're using Frost, centering, Farabee, and connecting most recently, actually. And so that's a really fun line that can produce a lot. So, yeah, I want pieces of that because they're going to play a very. up-tempo style. They're going to get a lot of scoring chances. And so the goals might not necessarily come all the time, but at least you're going to be in a position where they have an opportunity to create those chances and the goals will eventually come at least to some degree. So yeah, I'm in on all those guys and pretty much any combination of that top six, including Sean

Cotrera as well there. It's a fun team with a lot of cool players. And so sign me up for all that. All right, Chris, let's take a break here. And then when we come back, we'll keep around through some names and finish off our list. You are listening to the Hockey P.D.O. cast streaming on the Sports Night Radio Network. All right, we're back here on the Hockey PEOCast, joined by Chris Beeney as we try to help you with your fantasy leagues. And hopefully, even if you don't partake in fantasy or daily, you know, prop bets or anything, you can still find some value in this as we talk about situations, changing situations at

that at ones to keep an eye on. All right, I think it's my turn because you just did the flyers as you pivoted from, from Dick Eelers there. And they were certainly on my list. but I'll hook you up with a new one. So I don't think the words New York Islanders and fantasy friendly have been shared in the same sentence since maybe that one magical Doug Waite season once upon a time when they seemingly were giving up all of the goals for and against in that one year when I think it was Matt Barzell's rookie year when they sludge on Tavares. But since we saw the coaching change where Patrick Waugh came in and took over from Lane Lambert, I've noticed a really important trend here in terms of, concentration of both their ice time and their offense and how much of it has gone towards

the top players and how they've benefited from it. And now I think Matt Barzal and Boer Horvatt, the chemistry they've shown since they've gotten to play together hasn't necessarily been just a six game trend because they've been doing it all season. But now with Bat Barzal's ice time going up significantly and the fact that I think they've shown that in close games or games where they're trailing and pushing for offense, they're willing to just completely unleash their top players and play them into the high 20s for that given night. I think that's a really important development.

And so I'm really buying. I know that like Doddor, for example, is amongst the point leaders and you're not necessarily going to be able to get him. Matt Barzell, still relative, I guess, to the top guys in the league isn't necessarily viewed that way, even though he is over a point of game for the first time. Scoring is just so up through the league that you can probably still get him. but him, or that, even Andersly on that line,

they're just using them so much and they're playing so well right now that I'm really intrigued by what they're doing there on the island. It's really nice to see. And I'm surprised, again, I'll reference the most traded on CBS sports.

Number two on that list was Matthew Barzell, and I was going to bring him up if you weren't. I was going to say, I don't know who's trading this guy, why you would. I'd be completely buying wherever I can. And, yeah, in the six games with Patrick Wall

behind the bench, not just productive, but the ice time is the one thing that I've noticed as well, 23 minutes, 23, 26, 25, three goals and the six points and six games. And shooting the puck, you had nine shots in one game, you know, through this front against the Habs. Got 16 shots in his last four and Horvats been shooting consistently three plus here and there. It's a duo, like you said, the minute that they acquired Horvatt,

they played together. Unfortunately, Barzell suffered that injury, you know, I think maybe within a couple weeks of that addition last year. but we really saw chemistry immediately between those two and we're seeing it right now. So it is really refreshing to see. And I'll say I'll go as far as, you know, Brock Nelson is one of the most disrespectful players, I think, in fantasy. And, you know, Kyle Paul Mary is probably not a guy in a 10 or a 12 team league,

but in a deeper format. He's another guy getting an opportunity to play on the first power play. And there's a little bit of chemistry between him and Nelson as well. So, but definitely in on Barzell. And man, Noah Dodson is extremely impressive. He's been a top three fantasy hockey defenseman all year long. I love that call by you. Yeah, Barzal, since the coaching change up to 2304, all situations minutes,

Horvats up to 2143 himself. And those two guys together are 515, just to give you some perspective, up 35, 22, 57% of the shots, 56.5% of the expected goals. And you mentioned Matt Barzal shooting in particular there. It's been an important trend, I guess, all season, right? he's clearly put together a concerted effort to realizing that while he's always going to be more of a playmaker and passer, he needs to at least represent some level of shot threat to kind of open lanes up and keep opposing defense is honest. And so his own individual shot rate is up at a career high this season and significantly improved from where it was for the past couple of seasons. And not only is he shooting more, but he's shooting more like deliberately as well, right?

He's looking for a shot. He's starting off sequences with it and then letting everything else come to him. And so it's not a surprise that he's on pace for, I think, 25 goals this year, which were represented career high by quite a bit. And I really liked them together. And as I mentioned, there were a few games there at the start of Patrick Guas coaching tenure where they were down and they were pushing. And we saw Dobs and get up to 30 minutes now.

I know that they did some injuries in the back end and they're more healthy now. But we saw Barzell play 25, 26 minutes and a few of those. And they still have a lot of defensive issues. They still are, they are going to be in a game environment where they are going to have to score more than Islanders teams we've become sort of accustomed to in the past. And so I love that. It's all kind of coming together if this is going to continue for fantasy's goodness, right, where you're going to see their top players playing extreme amounts and they're playing really well. And so you put that all together. And I just expect Barzal and Horvatt in particular to really carry this over and have an awesome end of the season.

One more note on Dobson. You mentioned the ice time. It was the game against the Canadians where he had 30 minutes and 17 seconds. They had a five-minute major. It was the nasty hit from Brennan Gallagher. They were down by two goals. He didn't come off the ice in the full five minutes. He stayed on the ice for the entire power play.

No, it was a power play. So it wasn't super taxing on him. But you normally don't see that, especially from a defenseman. It's rare to see a defenseman stay on for the full five minutes. And it worked because they got the two goals and they ended up tying the game. So, yeah, Dobson is just an unbelievable talent. And, you know, there's certainly something going on there with the Islanders at the moment. So I like that.

I'll transition into, I think, a team that's been pretty surprising in terms of the Ottawa Senators. I thought we'd see more from the Ottawa Senators this year, at least from their offense. Goaltending has been an issue again for them this year. Corporal is strung together a couple decent games lately. the reason I'm bringing up the senators because I think a lot of their players could be had maybe apart from Brady Kachuk if you're at a bangers leagues with hits and shots

you're satisfied with what he's bringing to the table. But Tim Stutzler, Tim Stutzler was a top pick. He went end of first, early second in some leagues. And most questions I get at FTN from a fantasy hockey standpoint is what do I do with Tim Stutzla? Should I hang on to Josh Norris and deeper leagues?

Vladimir Tarasenko worth my time? time. What defensemen of Shabbat and Chikrin and Sanderson is most valuable to me? There's a lot of senators questions. I think a lot of these players can be had. For one, they played the fewest games in the Eastern Conference. Only the Oilers have played more than them. So if you're looking ahead at games played, you're looking ahead at week 22, week 23, week 24. The senators have a really good fantasy hockey schedule for game weeks there. For Stootsla himself, it's not like it's a bad season. He's got 47 points in 47 games. He had 39 goals and 90 points last year.

He does have 13 points in his last 10, so maybe the window to buy him is closing. As for Josh Norris, injuries have really slowed him down over the past couple of years, but it does seem like he went seven games without a point. The second time he suffered an injury this year, and he came back. He was quiet.

But recently, there's points in four of his last seven. Ottawa shuffles their lines. It feels like every night it's hard to get a feel of, of which guy's going to play with who. And sometimes Norris is on the first line. For the most part, it does seem like he has a top six role locked up. I just think these guys can be had. And as for the defensemen, love to get your thoughts too on which one you like the most.

I mean, Shabbat doesn't seem to leave the ice. And he's always on the ice and he's getting a lot of counting stats. Sanderson's been shooting lately. I think Chickren has the highest offensive ceiling of the three, but he's also been pretty quiet too. So Sanders can be had. And let me get your thoughts on which one you like, which one you're buying and maybe you're not into any of them.

No, I'm certainly into them. I think Sanderson got hurt before the break and then the team just kind of went away. And so I don't think much thought was given to it. And now they've sort of resumed practicing getting ready to return to action and he's still out. So that doesn't really bode well for his imminent health in terms of being available right now. So maybe that eases some of these questions a little bit, I guess. And I think this might be more of a like I know that over the next couple weeks, Jacob Chick-Grin is going to be in a lot of trade talk again. and so we'll see if anything comes to that.

It might be more of an off-season thing. And so I think people who are particularly playing in like dynasty leagues, right, and kind of more future-oriented are trying to figure out what to do with this, more so than maybe in season ones right now. But yeah, it doesn't seem like long-term, especially if you have to give Chick-Rin his next contract that having those three guys on the same team makes a ton of sense from a resource allocation perspective. So something will have to give.

I still think that I love Sanderson's upside at both ends. And I think that if you cleared some more room for them and just allowed him to fully embrace all of that, the sky's the limit in that regard. So I think from like a ceiling perspective, I would be most intrigued in him moving forward. But yeah, you're right. For right now, like Chabot just eats up so much ice time. And unless something changes, I don't think there's any reason to expect that to be any difference. So yeah, they're a really intriguing team to watch. I'm curious to see what they do with Teresanko as well, right?

There's kind of been mixed reports on whether they're going to sell him or whether they want to keep him around because he's been a good presence for some of their young guys. They clearly want to make some sort of a change. So I do expect whether it's at the trade deadline or whether it's this offseason, the team is going to look different in a meaningful way. But yeah, we'll see on that. I've got a next one for you. And it's a player coming back from injury. And it is Victor Arvinson. So on the one hand, he is 31 in April and he's coming off of his second back surgery right now.

and we haven't seen him yet this season, right? So I think we should temperate expectations at least out of the gate in terms of what he's going to look like. But man, this King's team desperately needs the prime version of Victor Arvison in terms of what he can provide from just an infusion of offense and creation that he's shown previously. And in particular, I think Pierre-Luc Dubois stands to benefit the most from it. Because if you look at the linemates he's played with,

it's Alex Laferrier, Jared Allen, Anderson, Dolan, Carl Grunstrom, Arthur Calliyev, and they've really let him down from a conversion and finishing perspective. And so if you're telling me that Arvinson comes back and he's the player, he was previously before injury, and he'll get to play with him, all of a sudden, I think that totally changes the calculus for everything. And maybe a lot of the disappointment that both PLD individually and the Kings team have had recently is going to change just with that one little addition. Yeah, I think not just that, but the coaching changes as well. I mean, the Kings are too good for the slump that they've 14 losses in a 17 game span.

And, you know, the offense dried up across the board. Pierre-Luc Dubois isn't a player that I was interested heading into the season just because I didn't feel like the usage rate was going to be there from him. And we've seen that the downtick and ice time overall on the first unit with Winnipeg, not on the first unit. Really, from day one, preseason, he wasn't even on the first unit. But there was a little bit of, I thought, chemistry with Arbison. I thought, maybe I'm wrong in the preseason, but he's, he has been one of the better five and five players in the NHL,

actually, like a sneaky good player, Arvinson, that is. Like, loves to shoot the puck. He's great at five and five. It will help out the second unit. I think a lot of these kings are, this is the time to buy because of the slump that they had, the brand of they play out five and five is pretty good. Like, they're usually among leers in shot attempts and shots.

Most of them are high danger chances as well, some nice little scoring chances for them. So I've noticed that Kemp, Bay has been getting dropped in league. So Adrian Kempay has been certainly could be had, I think. Quentin Byfield has had a sneaky good season as well, five and five up on that top line for a majority of the season. And I like the call for Arvinson.

He's hanging around fewer than 40% of fantasy leagues. And that could get Pierloak ball going. Right now I wouldn't hold him. But I think if you're in a deeper format, maybe you get ahead of it. And you see maybe these two will have some chemistry together. Even Fiala. Like Fiala hasn't been super consistent. He has more to offer as well as a player.

So I think across the board, maybe the only guy I probably wouldn't buy is, is Aungé Kopitar and it's nothing against him. It just doesn't shoot the puck enough for me. But these other guys should be able to get some counting stats for you. And I think in the second half, this team turns it right. They're way too good from what we've seen in the basketball. Here's a crazy period to watch that for you.

So he's played 605, 5-15 minutes this season. The Kings have scored 20 goals in that time. They're shooting under 6% as a team. And what's crazy about it is that he himself is actually shooting over 10% at 515, which is his best mark since 2020, which means that the Kings as a team have scored 13 goals with him on the ice that he hasn't scored himself. And they're shooting 4.5% in all of their shots on goal that he's not taking while he's out there. So that kind of tells you the story of when I say like, I certainly think he's not blameless here. and I think his effort and attention to detail and all of that stuff is warranted in terms of the criticism of it and I think he needs to play better.

But he's also been miscast, I think, as a player where because of his playing style and his work around the net, he's always been sort of thought of as kind of more of a finisher in that regard where I actually think if you look at his underlying profile the past couple years, a lot of his success has come through like playmaking and creation for others, particularly at 5-1-5. and he just hasn't been armed with the shooters and the talent around him to convert on that to any degree. And that kind of number that I gave you there highlights that a little bit. And so I think whether it's Arvetson or whether Arvison's return means that we can see more Fiala on his wing or they can experiment with other combinations. I think regardless, Dubois is going to get some reinforcements on his wing. And I just think you have to bet on some regression.

So it might be something where you can still wait and capitalize on it as it starts happening later on. because I think, you know, people have been just so disenchanted with him. But it's certainly something that I'm keeping an eye on because I think like a lot of the underlying trends and just common sense and regression points to this team reverting back to form from what they had early in the season. Okay. I think we got room for maybe one more each here, quick before we get out of here.

Do you have any others that you think we got to get to before we close out? Yeah, I'll rapid fire through a couple. I just think that with Jack Hughes back, Tyler Tofouli is an interesting buy. I know owners have been frustrated with him. They created some offense last night. I know it didn't show up in the box score, but Tofoli had several scoring chances. And Hughes back in that lineup, for the most part, they played together at 5 and 5 and on the power play all year.

So I think there's some devils apart from Timo Meyer. I don't know if I'm really sold on his production and his, you know, just his role on the Devils. But I think he sure and Brad and as many Devils do so you can buy here. in the second half of the season. I did see a trade come down at one of my leagues. Igor Sharon Govich and Troy Terry were flipped. The owners were selling high on both.

I really like to hang on to Troy Terry if he could. He's on definitely on a heater at the moment. Igor Sharon Govich, you know, an 18% shooting rate just lost Linholm. Power plays a bottom five, bottom six power play in the NHL. Maybe an opportunity to sell in the player that was traded the other way was John Tavares. I thought there was a nice buy on Tavares. He had gone pointless and nine straight. Now he's got goals in three straight, six,

over that span. It looks like, you know, the shot attempts have been there for him all year, 8.3% shooting rate, career low. First time below 10, you're going to go back to 2016 with the Islanders when he had that low of a shooting rate and just 15 goals in the season 36 last year. So it's still a high-powered Leafs offense. You know, it's hard to pull Leaf players away, you know, with the core, the big four. But out of the four, Tavares is the one of the four that I think certainly could be had in

fantasy. So those are some guys. And then I noticed, I wanted to throw out Malkin quick. I would be in on shipping, Melkin. He was in the top five in terms of traded. Penguin's power play. I don't know why it's so bad. They can't figure it out.

He lost the spot in the top power play. Malcolm doesn't seem to have great wingers at the moment. Who knows, is Gensel traded? Is Pittsburgh actually going to move on from him? We could see some massive changes. Maybe Dubus decides, no, I'm going all in even more and get some wingers for Evgeny Malcolm. So it's another guy that I would be into moving him, but I could see him also at the same time

being a by-low candidate. I'd only do it if you're at the top of your, near the top of your Sanix and Fantasy. Yeah. I'll give you one more on my list. And it's a player, I think you and I have actually spoken about in the past last year when we did our show. And it's kind of along the same lines of injury return. But Barrett Hayden came back to the coyotes lineup last night. And he had been out of action since November 16th.

Now they're using him out of the gate, kind of slowing him back, easing him back into the lineup, right? I think they were playing him on this kid line with Logan Cooley and Dylan Gunther, which is interesting. but their usage was pretty low. They've been using Jack McBain to center that Keller Schmaltz combo up top, and I wouldn't say he's done anything in the meantime to solidify his role there. And I think if anything, since Hayden's been out, the coyotes have really missed them because they tried various combinations and just didn't have the center option to fit between those guys.

But we know how productive and electric Keller and Schmaltz are going to be together. We've seen Hayden really contribute to that line because he has that individual skill set that those two don't have in terms of crashing the net and kind of living in the middle of the ice. And so he can help them as a finisher. And even before he got hurt, he was a good regression candidate, right? I think he only had two goals on his first, like, 35 shots before he got hurt. And so we've seen him succeed there in the past towards down the stretch last year. I think the opening is there for him.

I think it's only a matter of time before he plays there. And I think he's a pretty good player in his own right. And so he's probably someone who really just slipped off everyone's radar because he was out for that long. and he wasn't even productive previously, but I think he could be in for a really nice second half. I hung on to him in a couple spots all year, waiting for this moment from the comeback. I know he had to step back,

but yeah, they've tried just about everybody on that top line in Arizona to try to center Schmaltz and Clayton Keller. They even had Clayton-Kyler playing center, I think, for a game or two, and Schmaltz in the middle of the ice. Hayton in March last year, 17 points, eight goals,

and 16 games, and he averaged 20 minutes per game. That's when he really broke out in the second half of last season. and I even held him in the first 15 or 16 games or so, not fine in the back in the net. It took him a little bit to finally get his first goal. But the attempts were there. I was watching Arizona.

It was not like, you know, he wasn't getting any chances. He was getting opportunities. He was getting chances. He was still on that first power play throughout the big slump as well. So, yeah, definitely a guy that could be had for sure. All right, Chris.

Well, this is a blast. I'm glad we got to do this. Hopefully we helped people with, with some decisions or some players to target or just these situations to watch moving forward. I'll let you plug some stuff here on the way out. And maybe if you want to give us, because I think most people will listen to this either on Friday or Saturday,

your favorite prop bet for Sunday, if you've got one for people that are going to be watching the Super Bowl and want to get involved. Yeah, for sure. We have a hockey show twice a week. On Tuesdays and Thursdays with Eric Young, 10 Eastern, just rolling through the slate that day, talking some fantasy hockey, answering some questions,

you know, sneak in a prop better two and a side bed or two. Mean Streets three times a week. It's a multi-sport show. We'll be switching gears from football to MLB as we creep closer to MLB. We also have a show on Sirius XM Fantasy Sports Radio Channel 87 on Saturday mornings talking to all things sports. And yeah, as for the Super Bowl this week, I like running backs on both sides. I like Isaiah Boceco over his rushing yards.

It's at 66.5. I do believe his rushing attempt props at 14 and a half. He's had 15 plus rushing attempts in 12 of his last 15 games. And, you know, he's averaging 20. one rushing attempts per game here in the three games in the playoffs. He scored a touchdown in each one of those three. And it's a different vibe in Kansas City. We're used to seeing the offense being fantastic. This year, it's the defense has been really, really good. And they're leaned on the ground on the ground game here over the past six or seven weeks. And the Niners have

182 rushing yards allowed to the Lions in the in the NFC championship game. And Aaron Jones had over 100 in the wild card game. So I think a pretty decent spot on the other side on the way out, CMC. I mean, you can't stop this guy. You're not breaking. any news, Christian McCaffrey, I mean, 90 plus rushing yards. I think in seven of his last eight games, his rushing yard props at 89 and a half. And the chiefs are among the leaders in a yard's allowed per carry and rushing yards allowed, rush DVOA. So I think we're going to see a heavy dosage of Christian McCaffrey this week in the Super Bowl. So look for both running backs to have solid days. Oh, look at that. We saved the best stuff for last. You know, I don't know if you've seen

this, but I highly recommend seeking it out if you have it. Our good pal, Pete Blackburn, was there our media row in Vegas. And he was trying to, he was trying to convince Isaiah Pacheco that, that he's the comp to Nathan McKinnon, I guess, because they both just run and skate so violently. And it's just hilarious.

Or he's like, who's Nathan McKiddon? And then Pete explains it to him. That's amazing. And he was like, oh. So maybe we converted a new fan there, but good stuff.

Enjoy the Super Bowl, Chris. This is a great. We'll have you on again, I'm sure. And thank you to everyone for listening. Hope everyone has a great weekend. hope you enjoy the Super Bowl on Sunday,

and I'll see you next week with a whole new set of episodes at the HockeyPedio cast streaming on the Sportsnet Radio Network.