Week 2 of the NHL Fantasy season is behind us and for many fantasy GM’s, its a point at which the week to week schedule becomes much more important. The purpose of this post is going to be to equip you with knowledge of teams and situations to be aware of before the week begins.
COVID-19 Update: To start, the list of NHL players, coaches and staff who are currently or have been affected by COVID-19 are staggering as compared the the 2019-2020 playoff games held in Toronto and Edmonton. The players listed below are currently, or at least very recently, in some stage of the NHL’s COVID-19 protocols.
- VGK will see their next two games postponed this week
- SJS will see their next two games postponed this week
- Carolina Hurricanes – Jesper Fast
- Chicago Blackhawks – 5 players including Alex Debrincat
- Columbus Blue Jackets – Patrik Laine
- Dallas Stars – Andrej Sekera
- Detroit Red Wings – 5 players including Filip Zadina
- NJ Devils – 6 players including Mackenzie Blackwood and Kyle Palmieri
- Washington Capitals – Evgeny Kuznetsov, Ilya Samsonov
- Winnipeg Jets – Pierre-Luc Dubois
Teams Playing 4+ games this week: For GMs playing weekly matchups understanding the teams who will play a lot of games will help you decide on which players you should consider adding. Generally speaking leagues allow 3-4 adds per week, should you look towards teams with 4 games played when considering players from free agency. Here at the 9 teams this week who fit that category.
- Arizona Coyotes (4)
- Boston Bruins (4)
- Calgary Flames (4)
- Colorado Avalanche (4)
- Minnesota Wild (4)
- Montreal Canadiens (4)
- Pittsburgh Penguins (4)
- St Louis Blues (4)
- Vancouver Canucks (4)
Teams playing 2 or less games this week: Vegas and San Jose will see their two back to back games postponed this week after members of the Vegas Golden Knights coaching staff enter isolation protocols as well as players, most notably Alex Pietrangelo. If you roster fringe players from the teams listed in this section who have mild fantasy implications on the best of weeks this is good time to pivot. Here are the 4 teams that fit that category this week:
- Edmonton Oilers (2)
- SJ Sharks (2)
- Toronto Maple Leafs (2)
- Vegas Golden Knights (2)
Fantasy tip of the week: In weekly head to head formats review and set your roster well ahead of puck drop Monday evening. This gives you ample opportunity to address any positions of need, fix a situation where your stars are sitting on your bench on a busy Tuesday night or even look to pick up an extra goalie to ensure you secure the necessary games played early in the week.
Fantasy Marksmen 