This article is part of our The Daily Puck series.
Around the Rink
The All-Star Break has arrived. A week away from your daily grind of setting line-ups, checking waivers, trying to convince the one guy in the league who doesn't pay close attention that Vladimir Tarasenko won't deliver on his promise and that Ben Bishop is a back-up goaltender.
While I wish you the best of luck in acquiring Tarasenko and Bishop, it is time for you, like for a NHL GM, to assess your team. You've been Little Bo-Peep-ing your way through the season. You're completely lost. You dropped David Perron early in the year, were certain that Jason Zucker couldn't score many goals, thought Brent Burns' move to D would dry up his production, and you were absolutely positive that Patrick Marleau's slump wouldn't last.
Your team is a mess.
You could make a trade, but you aren't going to get value without giving up value, despite everything you learned from NHL 15. Trades can help you, certainly, but you may find more ways to upgrade your team through waivers.
Not to give you the hard sell, but this column right here is a great spot to start. Every day you're getting great advice on working the wire and since it turns out that your ship is more off-course than a Royal Caribbean cruise it's worth digging back through this column to help you find some waiver wire gold.
Chris recently recommended Mike Fisher in this space. He's got points in six of his last seven games and is only owned in around 35% of leagues. Or, as Andrew recommended, take a look at Mikael Backlund. He's just back from injury and only owned in about 15% of leagues.
I mentioned this a week ago, but Devan Dubnyk is playing great despite getting a bad reputation last year when he performed terrible. That season was an outlier in his career. He's a solid goaltender and just grabbed the starting job on a defensively sound team. He's owned in just under 30% of leagues.
John recently discussed picking up Antoine Vermette, who has had some struggles on a pretty bad team, but is a top level player and is owned in just over 25% of leagues.
If you're in a deep league, maybe heed Noel's advice and take a look at Zach Bogosian for a blueliner. He's no Erik Karlsson, but he's back from injury, putting up solid minutes, has a great plus/minus, and has been putting points on the board.
Here's the point: There are a lot of great recommendations if you dig back a bit. What I've mentioned here is just a taste. You're going to find some surprising value buried on the wire and this column can be your guide. You've got six days before you're setting lineups again and the coast guard asks what your cruise ship is doing in St. Louis. You have time to realign your team so you're set to make a push for the playoffs and the sweet, sweet glory of victory over your friends, who don't deserve to win as much as you do. They're ok people, but it doesn't make you a bad person if you crush them mercilessly.
Projected Goalie Starters
No games!
Injury News For Teams Playing Thursday
No games!
Hot
Alex Ovechkin, LW, WSH -- Ovi enters the All-Star Break with five goals and an assist in his last three games. He's been heating up throughout the new year with 11 goals in his last 11 games. He's also averaging 5.35 shots per game over his last 20 games. Ovechkin is usually playing great and he and our next hot player often get overlooked in these lists because we expect great things, but no one has more goals since December 29 than the Great Eight. In fact, he's got three more goals than the second place players over that span -- a tie between T.J. Oshie, Ryan Johansen, Max Pacioretty, and Eric Staal.
Steven Stamkos, C, TBL -- Stamkos has also been playing strong and enters the All-Star Break with five goals and an assist in six games. He ranks 11th in goals per 60 minutes (G/60) in the new year among players who've played at least 45 minutes. Many of the players above him are players playing fewer minutes you don't want on your fantasy team outside of deep leagues like Melker Karlsson, Benoit Pouliot, Vernon Fiddler, and Erik Cole. Stamkos is picking up the pace on what is one of the slower scoring rates of his career.
Cold
Sam Gagner, C, ARI -- Gagner had a rough start to the season. About halfway through the season he picked it up a bit, logging five goals and six assists in 12 games, a significant improvement over his two goals and seven assists over the season's first 25 games. He's returned to original season form lately, putting up zero goals and two assists in the last eight games. If you have Gagner on your roster it might be worth digging around a bit on the wire. His upside is limited beyond just being in a slump, playing for the Coyotes playing the Dishonor for Connor sweepstakes.
Nino Niederreiter, RW, MIN -- From the start of the season through December 16 Niederreiter's 14 goals had him ranked ninth in the NHL in goals. It also put him at fourth in the league in G/60. In the 17 games since that hot open to the season, he hasn't scored a goal. Niederreiter is in a huge slump and while I expect he'll pull out of it, but it's hard to trust him, even after his hot start, until he's put up more than four points in 17 games. If Niederreiter is on my roster -- something that is the case for a rapidly declining number of people -- I'm giving the wire a good look.
Recommended Pickup
Loui Eriksson, RW, BOS -- Eriksson is owned in fewer than 50% of leagues an has been picking up the pace lately. A glance over his season stats won't have you swooning, but there's value to be had with Eriksson. He's got points in four of his last six games and has put up eight goals (including two game-winners) and eight assists over the last 20 games. He's not Stamkos, but his scoring pace is increasing. 16 points in the last 20 is a nice step up from 13 points in his first 27. He's averaging two shots per game in the last 20 and is hitting 19, 20, and even 21 minutes per game with some regularity. He's gaining confidence and he's gaining Claude Julien's confidence. Eriksson could be in for a strong post-All-Star Break push.
