Each week, I’ll dig into the stats to find information that can help you make better fantasy hockey decisions. Injuries are forcing changes early in the NHL season, and our sights are set on Ross Colton, Anthony Stolarz, the surprising Calgary Flames and more!
Here is this week’s edition of 20 Fantasy Points:
#1 With injuries decimating Colorado’s forward lines, the Avalanche have moved Ross Colton up to play on the left wing on Colorado’s top line with Nathan MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen. Colton’s ice time is up nearly five minutes per game compared to last season, which was his career high, and he has five points (4 G, 1 A) with 18 shots on goal and 18 hits in five games. When the Avalanche get players back from injury, it is more likely that Colton will slide back to a third-line centre role, but with the Avs missing Jonathan Drouin short term and Valeri Nichushkin, Artturi Lehkonen, and Gabriel Landeskog long term, the opportunity is there for Colton to have a bigger impact than he has to this point in his career.
#2 When Joseph Woll landed on the injured list to start the season, Anthony Stolarz was thrust into the No. 1 goaltending job for the Toronto Maple Leafs and the 6-foot-6 netminder is thriving in the early going. Stolarz has a .940 save percentage in three starts and that is just picking up where he left off last season, when he had a .925 save percentage in 27 games for Florida. Stolarz, 30, has never played more than 28 NHL games in a season, so it remains to be seen if he can handle a starter’s workload, but it’s safe to expect that he will see more action in Toronto this season than in any of his previous NHL seasons.
#3 Entering this season, Calgary Flames left winger Jonathan Huberdeau was practically considered a lost cause, with a massive long-term contract and declining production since arriving in Calgary. But what if the 31-year-old Huberdeau isn’t cooked just yet? Skating on a line with Martin Pospisil and Anthony Mantha, the trio has helped Calgary to a 4-0 start, while Huberdeau has scored three goals at even strength and added three assists on the power play.
#4 Avalanche centre Casey Mittelstadt is getting pushed into a bigger role in Colorado. He has five points (4 G, 1 A) and 17 shots on goal in five games, which is solid, but he is averaging more than 21 minutes of ice time per game, an increase of more than five minutes per game compared to his ice time with the Avs after he was acquired from Buffalo last season. Mittelstadt has produced 59 and 57 points in the past two seasons, respectively, and could very well exceed those totals this season.
#5 After dominating in the American Hockey League, Calgary Flames goaltender Dustin Wolf got called up last season and finished with a .893 save percentage in 17 games for the Flames – not exactly making his case to be the franchise goaltender of the future. When the Flames dealt Jacob Markstrom in the offseason, though, the door was opened for Wolf to step through and he has stopped 68 of 72 shots in his first two starts this season. If the Flames are going to get top-tier goaltending, that does have the potential to change expectations but, for now, it’s just encouraging to see Wolf performing this way at the highest level.
#6 Former Flames centre Sean Monahan signed in Columbus as a free agent, with hopes of re-connecting with Johnny Gaudreau. This summer’s tragedy halted those plans, but the veteran Monahan has stepped into a leadership role for the Blue Jackets, producing four points (2 G, 2 A) and 12 shots on goal in his first four games. His primary linemates have been Kirill Marchenko and Yegor Chinakhov and the trio has been outrageously dominant in the early going, controlling 79.7 percent of expected goals during five-on-five play.
#7 The No. 1 pick in the 2024 Draft, Macklin Celebrini put up a goal and an assist in his NHL debut then immediately landed on the injured list due to a lower-body injury. With Celebrini out, Mikael Granlund has moved back to the middle, centering William Eklund and Tyler Toffoli on the top line. That shuffle has also opened up a spot for Klim Kostin in San Jose’s top six. Granlund does have five assists in five games and is playing more than 21 minutes per game.
#8 Seattle Kraken left winger Jared McCann has scored 69 goals across the past two seasons and yet was still available in quite a few leagues early in the season. He has seven points (3 G, 4 A) and 11 shots on goal in five games and McCann and Jordan Eberle had a productive game Thursday night against Philadelphia with Shane Wright skating at centre between the two veteran wingers.
#9 Two thirds of the Utah Hockey Club’s top line is sitting out there, waiting to be scooped up on fantasy waivers. Barrett Hayton and Nick Schmaltz are productive, and it doesn’t hurt that they get to play with a skilled winger like Clayton Keller. Hayton has six points (4 G, 2 A) in five games, already exceeding his goal total from last season when he was limited to just 33 games. Schmaltz has six assists in five games and, in this small sample, has averaged 2.60 shots on goal per game, which would represent a career high.
#10 Utah defenceman Sean Durzi is going to be out 4-5 months after surgery was required for an upper-body injury that he suffered Monday at New Jersey. Durzi had played more than 25 minutes per game through the first three games of the season before getting hurt in Game No. 4. His absence will offer an opportunity for Juuso Valimaki to get a chance on Utah’s second power play unit. Valimaki is still looking for his first points of the season and he only had 17 points (2 G, 15 A) in 68 games last season, but the year before that, he contributed 11 power play points among his 34 points overall, so there is a chance for Valimaki to recapture some of that offensive part of his game.
#11 Chicago Blackhawks winger Teuvo Teravainen returned to the team that drafted him and where he started his NHL career when he signed as a free agent in the summer. He has been a good fit on Connor Bedard’s wing, which should be expected, given Teravainen’s playmaking ability and Bedard’s ever-dangerous shot. Teravainen has seven points (3 G, 4 A) in five games and is skating on Chicago’s top line with Bedard and Nick Foligno while also getting first unit power play time. Teravainen has topped 60 points four times in his career, hitting a career high of 76 points in 2018-2019.
#12 Penguins rookie goaltender Joel Blomqvist is challenging Tristan Jarry for a bigger share of playing time in the Pittsburgh crease. The 22-year-old was a second-round pick in 2020 and has a .908 save percentage in his first four games. He had a .919 in 47 AHL games and with Jarry struggling (.836 save percentage through three games), opportunity is knocking for Blomqvist.
#13 When the Toronto Maple Leafs remodeled their blueline in the offseason, Chris Tanev was the defender that drew the most attention. Fresh off a Stanley Cup in Florida, Oliver Ekman-Larsson has moved into a prime role on the Maple Leafs blueline, quarterbacking the top power play and playing nearly 22 minutes per game. Ekman-Larsson has three assists and 15 shots on goal in four games, which is very encouraging production, particularly that shot rate, which is far higher than Ekman-Larsson has produced previously.
#14 A lower-body injury kept veteran Pittsburgh Penguins winger Bryan Rust out of the lineup for the first couple of games this season, but he has returned to action and has been thrust into a big role, skating on the right side with Sidney Crosby and Anthony Beauvillier. In his first three games, Rust has two points (1 G, 1 A) and 13 shots on goal while averaging 20:31 of ice time per game. He has scored at least 20 goals in five consecutive seasons, recording more than 55 points in three of those five seasons. In the three seasons that he has finished with at least 55 points, Rust missed at least 20 games, so there is still potential for him to produce more over a full season merely by staying healthy.
#15 Drafted with the 21st pick in 2020, Yegor Chinakhov displayed his potential last season, scoring 29 points (16 G, 13 A) in 53 games, a sign that he was going to be able to contribute at this level. In the early going this season, he is taking it to another level, producing six points (2 G, 4 A) with 13 shots on goal in his first four games. Not only is he skating on the top line with Monahan and Marchenko, but Chinakhov is getting first unit power play time, too, so a breakthrough season could be on the way.
#16 The New Jersey Devils went out in the offseason and added some grit to their forward ranks, acquiring Paul Cotter in a trade with Vegas and signing Stefan Noesen, a former Devil who had been playing in Carolina. Cotter had 25 points (7 G, 18 A) in 76 games last season for the Golden Knights, but already has six points (5 G, 1 A) in seven games for the Devils. He has 15 shots on goal and 20 hits, too, which can make him a more valuable fantasy contributor and he has moved up the depth chart to skate with Jack Hughes and Jesper Bratt at even strength. Noesen had a career-high 37 points in 81 games for the Hurricanes last season and has started this season with six points (2 G, 4 A) in seven games and is working on a line with veterans Tomas Tatar and Erik Haula.
#17 The leading rookie goal scorer early in the season is Devils defenceman Seamus Casey, who has three goals in his first seven NHL games. Montreal’s Emil Heineman and Philadelphia’s Matvei Michkov are tied for second with two goals. Casey is a smallish defender who was a second-round pick in 2022. He played two seasons at the University of Michigan, and had 45 points (7 G, 38 A) in 40 games as a sophomore last season. Casey might owe his opportunity to another former Wolverine, as Luke Hughes is recovering from shoulder surgery, opening up a spot on the New Jersey blueline to start the season.
#18 John Beecher, a first-round pick of the Bruins in 2019, has jumped out to a hot start with five points (2 G, 3 A) in five games. Beecher’s ice time is up to 13:35 per game, but he is likely still a risky player for fantasy managers. He had just 10 points (7 G, 3 A) in 52 games last season and only had 36 points in 87 AHL games, so it is difficult to project big things offensively over the long haul. As a short-term option in deep banger leagues, maybe he could have some value for fantasy managers.
#19 Seattle Kraken centre Matty Beniers saw his production fall off dramatically last season and one of the main concerns when it comes to sustainable production is that Beniers had a very low shot rate, averaging just 1.73 shots per game last season. While Beniers has just one assist through five games this season, there might be a slight reason for optimism in that he is averaging 2.60 shots on goal per game. In most leagues, it’s probably worth waiting to see some production start to materialize before assigning too much value to Beniers, but he could be a viable buy-low or waiver wire option.
#20 Blue Jackets winger Kent Johnson suffered an upper-body injury against Buffalo on Thursday, but it is worth noting that an injury to Johnson would not have caused a ripple in the hockey universe. He had just 16 points (6 G, 10 A) in 42 games for the Blue Jackets and was demoted to the AHL, where he did put up 15 points (5 G, 10 A) in 10 games. Nevertheless, with a new coach and a fresh start in Columbus, Johnson has responded with five points (2 G, 3 A) in four games and had logged more than 21 minutes in the second and third games of the season before playing just six minutes against the Sabres before getting hurt. Track Johnson’s health, though, because he is a skilled player and if he is getting a legit opportunity to shine in Columbus, then he could be a fantasy sleeper.