NHL Fantasy Hockey Waiver Wire Rankings (2/11)

Chris Meaney

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Welcome to the Week 19 Fantasy Hockey Waiver Wire article here at FTN Fantasy. Below you’ll see some of the best waiver wire pickups, players to stash, players to buy low and sell high, which players to drop and who to stream. I’ll also highlight some of the injuries, what it means for you and the Fantasy Hockey landscape.

There are only three teams scheduled to play four games in Week 19 (Feb. 12 – Feb 18). There are five with just two games, but every team is at least finished with their bye week. It’s that time of the season where you need to start piling up wins. It may mean you have to cut a struggling player for a four-game stream or someone trending up. Sometimes you have to make uncomfortable moves, but the way to get the best of your opponents moving forward is to have more games played, while taking advantage of the matchups each week.

The strategy I like to call “attacking the schedule” can be the difference in winning a championship. Each week, find out which borderline players or streamers wouldn’t crack your lineup on the busy days on the schedule.

Drop those players for players scheduled to play on the lighter scheduled nights. Those days are usually Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. If you’re in a shallow league or a roto league, this strategy may not mean that much to you. But if you’re not going to play an average player on a busy night like Thursday or Saturday, you’re better off dropping him for someone playing on those lighter days. This strategy is similar to “two-start” pitchers in Fantasy Baseball.

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My fantasy hockey rankings

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Injuries

Jack Eichel, VGK
Valeri Nichushkin, COL
Connor Bedard, CHI
Mason McTavish, ANA
Patrik Laine, CLS
Alex Killorn, ANA
Dougie Hamilton, NJ
Shea Theodore, VGK
Mikhail Sergachev, TB
Jake Sanderson, OTT
Justin Faulk, STL

Quick thoughts

Krug racked up five assists in Sunday’s win in Montreal, and two came on the power play.
Thomas Chabot doesn’t leave the ice and may get a few more shifts with Sanderson sidelined.

Fantasy Hockey Waiver Wire

The waiver wire consists of players owned in fewer than 60% of Yahoo leagues. They are ranked in order of how I value them for the rest of the season. I dug deep for those playing in NFHC High Stakes leagues.

Last Chance

Tyler Seguin, DAL
Gustav Nyquist, NSH
Charlie Coyle, BOS
Joel Farabee, PHI
Troy Terry, ANA
Brayden Schenn, STL
Dylan Strome, WAS
Wyatt Johnston, DAL
Boone Jenner, CLS
Juraj Slafkovsky, MTL
Mason Marchment, DAL
Brock Faber, MIN
Zach Werenski, CLS
Thomas Chabot, OTT
Pyotr Kochetkov, CAR

Juraj Slafkovsky, LW

Slafkovsky is starting to look like a first overall pick and he’s not in the fantasy hockey coversation. The winger enters the week on a five-game point streak in which he has four goals and three power play points. He only has one assist over 14 minutes per game in October, but he’s averaging over 18 minutes since December and he has 11 points in his last 16 games.

Mason Marchment, LW

Dallas’ second line with Marchment, Matt Duchene and Tyler Seguin has been extremely consistent this season. They are one of our favorite lines to attack in the prop market and NHL DFS. You’re running out of time to get a piece of the Stars’ top six. I still like Wyatt Johnston as well.

Deep-League Adds

Artturi Lehkonen, COL
Bryan Rust, PIT
Quinton Byfield, LA
Chandler Stephenson, VGK
Andrei Kuzmenko, CGY
Viktor Arvidsson, LA
Jake Neighbours, STL
Jonathan Huberdeau, CGY
Shane Pinto, OTT
Pius Suter, VAN
Torey Krug, STL
Noah Hanifin, CGY
David Rittich, LA

Andrei Kuzmenko, W

Sometimes a change of scenery will do you good. Kuzmenko scored a goal in his first two games with Calgary and he played at least 14 minutes in all three games, which is something he didn’t do much of in Vancouver. He was immediately placed on the first line and first power play. I’d be into selling high on Kuzmenko, but at the same time, he shouldn’t be hanging around the wire.

Banger Leagues

David Savard, MTL
Kaiden Guhle, MTL
Nick Seeler, PHI
Alec Martinez, VGK
Adam Larsson, SEA
Jake McCabe, TOR
Connor Murphy, CHI
Yakov Trenin, NSH
Jeremy Lauzon, NSH
Alexander Romanov, NYI
Jani Hakanpaa, DAL
Matt Dumba, ARI

Don’t Sell

Nikita Kucherov, TB
William Nylander, TOR
J.T. Miller, VAN
Matthew Tkachuk, FLA
Roope Hintz, DAL
Matt Boldy, MIN
Alex Ovechkin, WAS
Nick Suzuki, MTL
Quinn Hughes, VAN
Evan Bouchard, EDM
Mike Matheson, MTL
Adin Hill, VGK

Consider Dropping

Matty Beniers, SEA
Evan Rodrigues, FLA
Jonathan Drouin, COL
Gabriel Vilardi, WPG
Rickard Rakell, PIT
Tyson Barrie, NSH
Erik Gustafsson, NYR
Hampus Lindholm, BOS
Owen Power, BUF
Jake Sanderson, OTT

Week 18 (Feb. 12 – Feb. 18)

Four Games

Arizona Coyotes

(MON @ PHI, WED vs MIN, SAT vs. CAR, SUN @ COL)

Nick Schmaltz, C/RW

Schmaltz has three points in five games since returning to the lineup. He has points in nine of his last 13 games. He’s not a big-volume shooter, but he does have 14 goals on the season. He also plays alongside Clayton Keller at 5v5 and on the power play.

Barrett Hayton, C

Hayton has only played 18 games this season and just two since the middle of November. He picked up an assist in his second game back, though, and won 17 faceoffs. He only played 13 minutes and 12 minutes in those two games, but he was averaging just over 18 minutes per game before suffering an injury. I think it’s only a matter of time before he takes his top spot back on Line 1.

Matt Dumba, D

Hits and blocks!

Los Angeles Kings

(TUE @ BUF, THU @ NJ, SAT @ BOS, SUN @ PIT)

Quinton Byfield, C/LW

It was certainly hard to hang onto Byfield during the Kings’ losing skid, but he’s been pretty consistent for most of the season. He scored twice and picked up an assist in his last game and has points in five straight games.

Viktor Arvidsson, W

Arvidsson is close to returning to action, and although he won’t be on the first power play, he’s a decent asset. Arvidsson loves to shoot the puck and could provide 15-20 goals in the final couple of months. He may even be able to get Pierre-Luc Dubois going.

Matt Roy, D