Fantasy hockey: Waiver wire options to target this week

Working the waiver wire is a crucial part of any championship fantasy hockey season. Finding players to work into your lineup every single week that can add points to your total is the number one way you can control the outcome of your matchup. In this article every week, I’ll be going over players at every position and at different levels of rostership so that you can fill out your fantasy squad with the best players available in your league. Let’s dig in.

Forwards

Rostered in 41-50% of leagues: Matty Beniers, C - SEA (42% rostered)

Seattle is one of two teams (New Jersey being the other) that has three games on off-nights this week. That makes a whole host of Kraken and Devils’ players very valuable as streaming options this week. Beniers is a premier option as the precocious Kraken rookie has settled into a defined top-six role in Seattle and is currently on pace to score 64 points this season. Beniers’s linemates Jordan Eberle and Jared McCann have also been hot of late, raising his floor as a point producer. If you’re looking for a consistent producer with an off night schedule to complement your team’s core players, then Beniers is a great bet this week.

Honourable mentions: Andrei Kuzmenko, LW - VAN (41%) & Brandon Hagel, LW/RW - TBL (48%)

Rostered in 31-40% of leagues: William Karlsson, C/LW - VGK (33% rostered)

Karlsson has quietly posted seven points in his last six games and has topped 20 minutes of ice time twice in his last three. William may never get the recognition of the other Karlsson (Erik), but he’s a very solid player on an extended hot streak at the moment. Vegas plays two of their three games this week in the first two days back from the Christmas holiday, meaning you can pick up Karlsson for two games and then re-evaluate if you want to continue on with him or change course into another player who plays more games through the back half of the week. Either way, Karlsson represents a good bet to help you get ahead on your opponent early on this week.

Honourable mentions: Ryan Hartman, C - MIN (33%) & Mason Marchment, LW/RW - DAL (34%)

Rostered in 21-30% of leagues: Jared McCann, C/LW - SEA (21% rostered)

The corollary to the Matty Beniers pick above, McCann is on a bit of a tear with goals in three straight games. McCann also has four hits through those three games, meaning he’s a net positive in your bangers categories leagues as well as a strong points option. Those sweet Seattle off-nights mean that McCann is a surefire bet to play all three games for your team this week. Consider holding off on picking up McCann if you were planning on dropping someone who plays on Tuesday - you might be able to get that game in and then make the change to McCann for the rest of the week. Finding ways like this to squeeze extra games into your lineup each week can make the difference between a victory and a defeat, so always be on the lookout for ways to maximize that all-important games played number each week.

Honourable mentions: Anton Lundell, C - FLA (26%) & Seth Jarvis, LW/RW - CAR (29%)

Rostered in 0-20% of leagues: Oliver Bjorkstrand, RW - SEA (10% rostered)

Seeing the theme yet? Bjorkstrand might be my favourite streaming option on the Kraken right now, and he’s rostered in just 10 percent of Yahoo leagues. Bjorkstrand has always been a streaky player, and while the points haven’t come to him easily this year, he has fired at least three shots in five of his last six games. In his last two games, Bjorkstrand has taken eleven shots and he finally broke through for a goal and an assist in the Kraken’s last game before the Christmas break against the Canucks. Bjorkstrand’s deployment has remained consistent between 16:13 and 16:38 through the last three games and I imagine he’ll emerge from the break energized and focused on continuing the stretch of strong play he was enjoying before it.

Honourable mentions: Nick Schmaltz, C/RW - ARI (18%) & Tomas Tatar, LW/RW - NJD (9%)

Defensemen

Rostered in 26-50% of leagues: Vince Dunn - SEA (48% rostered)

We’re going to keep hammering these Seattle players this week, and Dunn is a very solid option. Dunn has a 46-point pace on the season, emerging as a 24-minute a night workhorse for the Kraken. I feel that Dunn has some upside to potentially even eclipse that pace over the rest of the season, so picking him up here in a week where he gets you those crucial off-nights gives you an opportunity to try him out and see if he can become more of a long-term option for your team. One bonus point in Dunn’s favour: even when he’s not scoring points, he’s never leaving you in the cold with a stat line full of zeroes, as he’s averaging 1.7 hits and 1.3 blocks per game over the last two weeks.

Honourable mentions: Adam Larsson - SEA (33%) & Brady Skjei - CAR (28%)

Rostered in 0-25% of leagues: Erik Gustafsson - WSH (20% rostered)

In one of the more improbable stories of the last week, Erik Gustafsson has emerged as a must-roster option out of Washington. Gustafsson began his current hot streak with a shocking hat trick game against the Toronto Maple Leafs on Dec. 17. He followed up that outing with a goal and four points in his next three games, maintaining an ice time above 21 minutes in each of those games. He also found his way onto the top power play unit in Washington, lending even more credence to his point-scoring potential moving forward, now that incumbent PP1 quarterback John Carlson is out indefinitely after taking a slapshot to the face and having to go to the hospital in the Capitals’ final game before the break. Carlson’s injury is Gustafsson’s opportunity and he’ll now almost certainly get a chance to run point and feed Alexander Ovechkin’s quest to become the greatest goal scorer of all time. Pick up Gustafsson immediately in all formats.

Honourable mentions: Justin Schultz - SEA (17%) & Cam Fowler - ANA (14%)

Goalies

Rostered in 26-50% of leagues: Pheonix Copley - LAK (25% rostered)

I brought up Copley in this article a couple of weeks ago as a dart throw worth taking on a Los Angeles team desperate for someone to provide even league-average level goaltending. Copley’s done that and then some, now sporting a 2.49 goals against average and a .910 save percentage in his seven starts. Los Angeles has only lost one of those seven starts, and Copley rattled off five straight starts before Jonathan Quick finally got another start on the back half of a back-to-back versus Arizona (he still lost, albeit while only allowing two goals against). The Kings are a top-10 team in Corsi For % and Scoring Chances For % according to the Natural Stat Trick, meaning there’s plenty of value for any goalie seeing a lot of work in this context. As long as Copley is receiving the bulk of the starts in LA, I’ll be riding with him.

Honourable mentions: James Reimer - SJS (29%) & Charlie Lindgren - WSH (47%)

Rostered in 0-25% of leagues: Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen (7% rostered)

You always have to squint a little to find something to like about goalies rostered in less than 25 percent of Yahoo leagues, but I’m legitimately interested in UPL as a pickup for this week and beyond. Since Dec. 7, Luukkonen has alternated starts with Craig Anderson, who has not seen back-to-back starts since mid-November, when Eric Comrie went down to injury. The Sabres do not appear to want to over-work the 41-year-old Anderson, opening the door for Luukkonen to potentially take on a bigger workload if he can outperform his counterpart. UPL’s last two starts were nearly impeccable, as he allowed just two goals to Colorado and Vegas in consecutive wins, facing 43 and 45 shots in those games. Buffalo is not a great team defensively, but there will be plenty of saves to make and plenty of wins on the table for Luukkonen if he can sustain a longer period of strong play.

Honourable mentions: Philipp Grubauer - SEA (15%) & Lukas Dostal - ANA (5%)

Nate Groot Nibbelink is the creator of Apples & Ginos Fantasy Hockey and the originator of the #ZeroG draft strategy. You can find him pontificating about obscure fantasy hockey strategy topics in the Apples & Ginos Discord Server or on Twitter @applesginos.

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