Hello everybody and welcome in for the sixth installment in this new series. Over on my Twitter feed I’ve been spamming everyone with arbitrary lists, just quick hitting lists to get my thoughts on several fantasy hockey related topics (and several non-fantasy hockey related topics) out and on the record. In these posts I’ll dig a little deeper into those lists and give you a bit of the “why” behind them. Without further ado, let’s get into it:
Kevin Shattenkirk is a player I’ve talked about before, but I’m high on his likelihood of taking away PP1 duties from Cam Fowler and holding them all year. It’s unlikely that ANA’s PP will be great but it can certainly be better with Shattenkirk at the helm. He’s also an underrated defender at this point in his career and should see some decent deployment 5v5. If Anaheim’s young forwards (Troy Terry, Sam Steel, Maxime Comtois, Trevor Zegras if he makes the team) push this team’s offense up a couple notches, Shattenkirk could be a very nice value addition to your fantasy team at the tail end of drafts.
Barrett Hayton is all upside with nothing proven at this point. But breakouts happen where talent meets opportunity, and Hayton is only chasing Christian Dvorak and the recently signed Derick Brassard on the depth chart. I will not be shocked if by season’s end he is on ARI’s top line and PP and putting together a very fantasy relevant stat line week after week. If there’s so much as a hint of him cracking the top 6 (especially playing with Clayton Keller and/or Conor Garland), I’ll be very interested.
I don’t see how you can put anyone other than Matt Grzelcyk here right now, given that it appears that he will get first crack at PP1 duties ahead of Charlie McAvoy. I’m not completely confident that Grzelcyk will hold that spot down all year, but McAvoy will already be the #1 minute muncher at 5v5 and see a fair share of PK time as well so it makes some sense to divvy up the tasks between the two relatively equally capable PP quarterbacks. This is why I had expected Grzelcyk to be the PP QB all offseason and it appears to be coming true.
Victor Olofsson looks to be set to open the season on right wing alongside Taylor Hall and Jack Eichel. I don’t know how you can be anything other than ecstatic about the potential of Olofsson finding the quiet areas to bomb that God-given one-timer from while Hall and Eichel play keep away from the opposing team’s D. I had been down on Olofsson due to some potential regression in S% and the possibility of him playing away from Eichel, but in my mind he is clearly the best fit alongside those two superstars. Sam Reinhart is his clear competition, but Reinhart doesn’t have a definable trait that makes him a better match on the top line than Olofsson in my opinion.
Andrew Mangiapane is in position to push for a spot on Calgary’s second line next to Mikael Backlund and Matthew Tkachuk. Mangiapane has performed very well against lesser competition and with less minutes and expanding his ice time could result in a very relevant fantasy player. I’m very curious to see if Mangiapane will be able to stick in the top 6. If he opens the season in that LW2 spot, I’ll be taking a flier on him in a few leagues to see if he can carry his chance for rates forward into the increased opportunity.
Vincent Trocheck may never again reach 75 points in a season, but if he can solidify a second line for Carolina while supplying some very nice bangers stats, he’ll be of some value in most leagues. The ‘Canes have started camp with Andrei Svechnikov on Trocheck’s line which would be a huge boon to Trocheck’s scoring potential (although a detriment to Svechnikov’s). If that’s indeed how Carolina opens the season, I will be pretty interested in Trocheck as a later round option.
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NGN
Apples and Ginos 