After week one and two mesh together with the shortened week, many fantasy teams are piling up injuries and guys coming out of the gates slowly…it happens. Sometimes it’s worth dropping a player to pick up someone who is hot and or seems like they may have a breakout season. If you feel someone in the free agency pool is going to be better than a player on your roster, don’t be shy to grab them…but just be sure about your move as you don’t want to drop someone and have another person in your pool pick them up and rub it in your face when that player starts to heat up.
Per say you need to fill in an injured player and you want to rotate a couple players in as the week goes on; take a look at which teams play three or four games. Depending on how many moves you get per week in your fantasy pool(s) it may be best to rotate two players, one who plays three games in five nights and another who plays back to back nights. If you can find two players to put in that are worthy and get five games out of the two of them you have an increased chance of gathering up fantasy points. Of course, doing this method you can also take a goalie or a player you think could be of value to get you a specific stat like a shorthanded point, or perhaps a fighter to get you more penalty minutes.
Here is a list of which teams have how many games going forward this week:
(2) Games: Florida - Los Angeles - Minnesota Montreal - New York Rangers - St. Louis
(3) Games: Anaheim - Arizona - Boston - Buffalo - Calgary Carolina - Colorado - Columbus - Dallas - Detroit Edmonton - Nashville - New Jersey New York Islanders - Ottawa - Philadelphia - Pittsburgh Toronto - Washington - Winnipeg
(4) Games: Chicago - San Jose Tampa Bay - Vancouver
Here is a list of players of fantasy value who are injured:
E. Kane (knee) – Indefinitely Hedman (hand) – TBD Stastny (wrist) – DTD Lecavalier (foot) – DTD D. Boyle (hand) – November Stepan (leg) – November Grabovski (concussion) – Indefinitely Harding (foot) – Indefinitely Gaborik (upper body) – DTD Datsyuk (shoulder) – should return soon Franzen (leg) – DTD Nichushkin (groin) – should return soon Dubinsky (stomach) – November McElhinney (head) – DTD Varlamov (groin) – DTD E. Staal (upper body) – DTD J. Staal (leg) – January/February Hanzal (lower body) – DTD Maroon (knee) – DTD
Now that the lowdown for the week is laid out...
Here is a list of some early season stand outs that may still be available through free agency:
Brock Nelson – 8 points Mason Raymond – 7 points Mike Cammalleri – 7 points Tanner Pearson – 7 points Jaden Schwartz – 7 points (D) TJ Brodie – 7 points Nick Foligno – 7 points Mikkel Boedker – 6 points Alex Galchenyuk – 6 points Cam Atkinson – 5 points (D) Sami Vatanen – 5 points Andre Burakovsky – 5 points Filip Forsberg – 5 points Ryan Strome – 5 points
The season is early yet, I really want to hammer in the point to hold strong to players you picked in the early rounds. You picked them because you believe they will have a good season, and likely they will. Hold strong; don’t just trade away a player who is off to a slow start. Some players traditionally start slow as others settle into a new environment with new systems, new coaches and new players. Give them some time to ease their way in…same with some of your sleeper picks for that matter. You will have plenty of time to pick up a hot free agent and ride them out. Unless you see an excellent trade coming your way, or a home run free agent scoop up; its best to stick to your guns and keep those players you drafted.
Best of luck this week going forward!
Thank you again for reading.