Week 19 Preview

Trades

Jason Zucker to Pittsburgh – The Penguins needed to get a winger to play with Sidney Crosby in the absence of Jake Guentzel. Mission accomplished. The problem here is that with the Wild, Zucker was playing on PP1 and getting 2+ minutes of powerplay time per game. This most likely won’t continue with his new team. And when he does see PP time, it won’t be with the top unit. The move for Zucker ups his fantasy stock in points league but in a categories league, it’s best to let someone else grab him unless you’re hurting for goals alone.

Blake Coleman to Tampa Bay – As much as I would like this one to be a lateral move, I can’t see it as anything but a downgrade. Coleman was one of the New Jersey’s most effective players and as such, played around 17 minutes a night. Do you know who plays around 17 minutes a night on the Lightning? Steven Stamkos. I’ll be playing “wait-and-see” just in case he gets a second line deployment with Anthony Cirelli. Who knows, he’s been such a category beast this year he may still even be a hold if his ice-time drops to 14:00.

Tyler Toffoli to Vancouver – Unfortunately for the Canucks, this move was made out of necessity. With Brock Boeser hitting the IR for a few weeks and Loui “Friggin” Erikson playing 12:00-15:00 per game, something needed to be done to keep them in contention for the playoffs. The good news is that Toffoli is a solid player on both sides of the puck. He’s got a slightly inflated IPP and shooting percentage this season, but nothing we haven’t seen from him before. Namely, when he was playing on Kings teams that were worth a damn. He’s been on and off my rosters all season as a streamer and he’s on again now.

St. Louis Blues

Zach Sanford – Still worthy of a stream, here, crew. Four games left this week and still playing on the top line. Oh, and he scored four goals in a game last week, after I said to pick him up. I definitely dropped him in the league I had him before that game, though…woopsies!

Sammy Blais – Remember when he was the Zach Sanford of November? Well he’s back on the ice and hitting everything in his path. Twenty-two hits in his last five games. In a bangers categories league, this guy is found money.

Jake Allen – Yeah I know, he stinks. But you know who stinks even more right now? Jordan Binnington. Here are the numbers over the last month:

Allen has been better at stopping high-danger chances, but worse at stopping the low-to-medium danger shots. Still his save percentage is 21 points higher. With at least one start coming against some low-scoring offenses (Arizona, Dallas, Minnesota) you could do worse.

Pittsburgh Penguins

Jared McCann – The third-wheel on the Malkin/Rust line, McCann hasn’t registered a point in his last three games. But it’s not for lack of trying. He’s got 15 shots in those games along with a couple of chip-in hits and PIMs. He also logs a lot of TOI considering who he plays with and gets some PP time on the second unit as well.

Dominik Simon – Another third-wheel, this time for the new duo of Crosby and Zucker. Although he plays most of his TOI with one of the best players in the game, he still struggles to get on the scoreboard consistently. I still like his chances with four games left this week.

Brandon Tanev – In a categories league, Tanev contributes all over. He’s fourth in the league in hits, he shoots, he blocks, he chips in points. He’s probably available in your league. He could probably win you the hits category on his own every week.

Best of the Rest

• Anthony Beauvillier
• Adam Henrique
• Alex Iafallo
• Christian Dvorak

Week 19 Conclusions

A bit of a shorty for you all this week. I hope you’re still able to find this information useful. For next week’s installment of the preview, I’ll try not to be layed out on the floor of my bathroom wishing I was dead while precious writing time ticks away. Next week is also the trade NHL trade deadline so I’ll think of a crafty way to deal with that.