Yahoo Fantasy Hockey: This week's best waiver wire options

(Ed. Note: We’re once again pleased to partner with Dobber Hockey to provide fantasy hockey insight throughout the NHL season. Here’s Steve Laidlaw, the Managing Editor of Dobber Hockey, as your new fantasy hockey smarty-pants!)

By Steve Laidlaw

Coming out of the NHL All-Star break let’s look at some of the hottest options widely available in fantasy hockey leagues. (All ownership figures based on Yahoo leagues.)

Bryan Little – C – Winnipeg Jets – 37% Owned: Center is the deepest position in fantasy hockey. No one “needs” help at this position but you shouldn’t turn down a gem when you can find one. Since returning from injury on Nov. 29, Little has scored 26 points in 29 games. Everyone should be trying to make room for him at that rate.

There are some seemingly unsustainable factors working against Little but none that I would be too concerned about. He is firmly the No. 2 guy in Winnipeg now that Mark Scheifele has emerged. That means only secondary power play time, for an average of 2:14 per game. But the Jets divide their power play minutes near evenly so this shouldn’t be too big a concern. More importantly, he skates with some great linemates at even strength, with Blake Wheeler, Patrik Laine, Nikolaj Ehlers and Mathieu Perreault all spending a bunch of time on his wings.

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Little is shooting above average at 20.3%. The career 14.2% shooter should see some regression but he’s always been a high percentage guy. Even with some slippage he should still have relevance. Add him now and worry about dumping him if his scoring slides later.

Jacob Trouba – D – Winnipeg Jets – 37% Owned: It took Trouba a while to get going. After sitting out training camp and the first month of the season, he scored just three points in his first 15 games. Since then he has scored 18 points in 23 games, a rate that would be relevant for a forward, let alone a defenseman. It has helped that the Jets have finally gotten healthy having lost a ton of man-games to injury. That added depth has helped to get Trouba back on track.

Trouba isn’t the No. 1 defenseman in Winnipeg – Dustin Byfuglien holds that title – but he has the skillset to be one. Finally unburdened from Mark Stuart, Trouba has helped to drive play forward for the Jets. A lack of power play time is still an issue but that has been climbing over the past few weeks.

Evander Kane – LW – Buffalo Sabres – 35% Owned: Since Jack Eichel returned to the lineup, Kane has caught fire scoring 14 goals and 22 points in 28 games. What’s crazy is that Eichel and Kane have rarely skated together. Kane has predominantly skated on the third line with Brian Gionta, Johan Larsson or Zemgus Girgensons. But the depth has had a cascading effect on the lineup, helping to tilt the ice and the matchups more favourably for this third line.

It has also helped that Kane has started to take his game into knife fighting range. He’s always had tremendous skill but was the king of the 30-foot fling off the rush. You’ll still see these, and he does score on them occasionally but he’s been much more aggressive about getting to the net, with and without the puck. An engaged Kane is an effective Kane, apparently.

Like Little, Kane sees secondary power play usage and in Buffalo that means minimal usage. Their top unit is scary good and needs all the minutes. Kane has been left with table scraps skating 1:44 power plays minutes per game. He has done a decent job with those minutes but don’t be surprised if he doesn’t score another power-play point the rest of the way.

Patrick Eaves – RW – Dallas Stars – 22% Owned: The book on Eaves is that he has done a great job of clicking with Tyler Seguin and Jamie Benn over the years but has never been able to stay healthy. Eaves has remained healthy and is raining in goals, particularly on the power play where he has scored 10 goals already. He is one of the league’s most effective net-front men playing in a lineup loaded with superstars.

Jason Pominville – RW – Minnesota Wild – 5% Owned: I thought we were done with Pominville but he is on quite the run of effectiveness, having scored 12 points in his last 12 games. He is clicking on a new third line with the recently demoted Zach Parise and Erik Haula.

Pominville also skates on the Wild’s second power play unit that is rapidly becoming their go-to unit. This bodes well for not only Pominville but also the scorching hot group of Mikael Granlund, Nino Niederreiter, Mikko Koivu and Jared Spurgeon.

Andrej Sekera – D – Edmonton Oilers – 26% Owned: The rules are clear, when you play with McDavid you produce like a star. After some early experimentation with different power play quarterbacks the Oilers have settled on Sekera. He’s not a perfect fit but he’s getting the job done. He has 19 points in his last 27 games, which is excellent defenseman production. There’s little reason to suspect he can’t keep this up with all the McDavid exposure.

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Radim Vrbata – RW – Arizona Coyotes – 11% Owned: People are boycotting the Coyotes for fear of having their plus/minus wrecked. It’s also because their team is one of the worst-scoring outfits in the league but Vrbata is finally coming along. He has scored 10 points in the last nine games and remains one of the league’s best puck slingers averaging just over three SOG per game.

There’s also the upside that Vrbata gets dealt to a contender at the deadline. It would have to be the right fit, somewhere that he’d still get top unit power play time. The Flames should be eyeing Vrbata up, as he’d look great across from Johnny Gaudreau.

Steve Laidlaw is the Managing Editor of Dobber Hockey. Follow him on Twitter @SteveLaidlaw