Happy Tuesday y’all!
We have had some teams make some moves before the Olympic roster freeze. Two of the players finding new homes are Rasmus Andersson and Kiefer Sherwood.
For the Calgary Flames, trading Andersson leaves a big hole on defense. They picked up Zach Whitecloud in return, but he isn’t going to log the same minutes Andersson was playing. The Flames played last night and gave Hunter Brzustewicz the keys to the top power-play unit. He isn’t going to turn this extra man unit around (they are currently 30th in the league), but he could be a solid streamer/DFS play as the Flames are one of the teams with the most lightly scheduled games this week.
However, when Zayne Parekh is recalled from his conditioning stint, he should be handed the keys to that extra man unit and that could boost the value of other Calgary skaters on their power-play as he had 13 points in seven games for Team Canada at the World Junior Championship last month.
It remains to be seen what this will do for Andersson in Vegas, as the Golden Knights typically deploy a five-forward power play and then Shea Theodore and Noah Hanifin are the points on the second man advantage. He could take some of that time away from Hanifin, but he’ll see a boost at five-on-five.
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Sherwood was dealt to the San Jose Sharks in somewhat a shocker of a trade as it looks their management group wants to reward their team for competing for a playoff spot this season. Macklin Celebrini has carried the Sharks all season with 72 points in 48 games, scoring more than double the amount of points that Alex Wennberg has on their team, who is second among San Jose skaters with 33. That stat alone would make you think they would be moving futures for some scoring help (no disrespect to Sherwood who has 17 goals in 44 games), but they have had injuries to Will Smith and William Eklund so maybe it’s not as bad as the numbers make it out to be.
For the Canucks, this officially opens a spot in the lineup for a young/fringe NHLer to prove they belong. Guys like Nils Hoglander, Liam Ohgren, and Aatu Raty will be given extra opportunities to cement their future status in an NHL lineup.
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It was announced Leo Carlsson is suffering from a rare lower body injury and he is not expected back until after the Olympic break. After his hot start in October and November, he did not look like the same player in December and January and this announcement connects those dots. The Anaheim Ducks have had an illness and other injuries run through the lineup recently, so it’s been tough to find concrete lines, but Beckett Senecke is still a player who is extremely under-owned in fantasy leagues. I know plays like this don’t count for fantasy points (except for the assist he logged), but it is that kind of effort that coaches love to see and will reward more ice time as the season keeps moving along.
The Ducks are another team that plays on both of our ‘light’ nights this week, so even more incentive to go out and grab the 19-year-old.
Another player to grab on the Ducks, if your league counts hits, is newly acquired Jeffrey Viel. With the injuries that Anaheim currently has, he played on a line with Cutter Gauthier last night and scored a goal. In his first game for his new squad, he racked up five PIMs. And not a fantasy stat, but he was one of the forwards the coaching staff decided to put on the ice to secure a one-goal lead with 1:30 left in the contest. That kind of usage and confidence will only lead to more opportunities.
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We have an interesting NHL schedule this week when it comes to our lightly scheduled days. We typically use the cut off of eight games or fewer to consider it a light day. Well, today, Thursday, and Friday each have eight games on the docket, so only Saturday would technically count as a heavy day with nine contests.
For this week, we will take that game limit down to seven, leaving us with Wednesday and Sunday as our “light” days. Each of those days consists of six games so hopefully you have an open schedule this week because almost every day has consistent action. (yay!) We have seven teams that play on Wednesday and Sunday and those teams are the Anaheim Ducks, Calgary Flames, Colorado Avalanche, Pittsburgh Penguins, Seattle Kraken, Toronto Maple Leafs, and Vancouver Canucks.
Hit me up on X @LAM1926 if you want to talk shop or need to bounce an idea off someone! Have a great week!