Last week, it was Connor McDavid going down with a serious injury. This week, maybe you lost Zach Parise or Ondrej Palat for an extended stretch.
The parade to the NHL injury ward never stops.
Thank goodness for Waiver Wednesdays! Here are six players widely available in fantasy leagues (all ownership figures are based on Yahoo! leagues) who you might want to snag:
Jason Zucker, LW/RW, MIN (22 per cent owned)
The most direct replacement for Parise is probably Thomas Vanek, who jumped onto the Minnesota Wild‘s top line Tuesday night, scoring a pair of goals. Unfortunately, Vanek is unavailable in most leagues. The sneaky acquisition here is Zucker, who is firing 3.2 shots on-goal per game — a 264-shot pace. He has also scored nine points in his last nine games skating on a productive second line with Mikko Koivu and Nino Niederreiter.
Zucker also happened to skate on the top power-play unit on Tuesday, filling in for Marco Scandella, who had been filling in for Parise. Scandella was absent for personal reasons so he will likely return in short order. Still, the second power-play unit can be a productive spot as two of Zucker’s 10 points on the season have come with that group.
Martin Hanzal, C, ARI (30 per cent owned)
This is not the first time we’ve promoted Hanzal in this spot, but we have to do it once again because it is astounding how few folks are picking up on his elite play.
Averaging an assist per game isn’t enough for you? Okay, well Hanzal dipped into his goal-scoring repertoire Tuesday night when he banged home his first two goals of the season.
Hanzal is awesome. He is injury prone, yes. But when healthy, he is awesome.
Mikkel Boedker, LW/RW (11 per cent owned)
Perhaps folks simply are ignoring the Arizona Coyotes altogether. That is the only way to explain how many leagues in which Boedker is available. It is true that over the past couple of weeks Boedker has skated alongside such legendary names as Kyle Chipchura, Brad Richardson, Dustin Jeffrey and Tyler Gaudet but this is all while we wait for Antoine Vermette to return from injury.
Oh, and while skating with this lackluster sort, Boedker just happens to have picked up five goals and 11 points in his last 10 games. It helps that he has Max Domi skating on the opposite wing.
Boedker is on pace for over 60 points and he has a real shot at getting there, especially now that he is back on the Coyotes’ top power-play unit, manning the point alongside Oliver Ekman-Larsson. What’s frightening is that Boedker has done all his scoring with just one power-play point to his name. He could easily finish with 20 PP points when all is said and done.
If you pick up anyone this week, make it Boedker. He is too good to be available in so many leagues. He’s the guy you pick up to replace an injured stud like Parise or Palat and wind up holding for the rest of the season.
David Savard, D, CLB (16 per cent owned)
He stumbled out of the gate but has flourished with a boost in playing time under Columbus Blue Jackets coach John Tortorella. Reinstated as one of two defencemen (along with Jack Johnson) on the top power-play unit, Savard has a three-game scoring streak going with six of his seven points on the season coming in the last eight games.
Savard has not yet scored a goal but he has boosted his shot output to over two per game. With a season of double-digit goal-scoring already under his belt, you can bet that it is only a matter of time before he scores one or two.
Nazem Kadri, C, TOR (23 per cent owned)
Fourth in the league in shots with 63 on-goal.
Antti Raanta, G, NYR (12 per cent owned)
There is nothing wrong with King Henrik Lundqvist. Far from it, in fact, as he is coming off a shutout of the Carolina Hurricanes. The New York Rangers have a back-to-back this weekend against Ottawa and Toronto, which means Raanta should see a rare start. What he has done with the starts has been nothing short of magical having allowed just two goals in three appearances.
No team has allowed fewer goals than the Rangers, giving up a paltry 1.6 goals per game. Raanta is a fairly safe play if you need some goaltending help this weekend.
Steve Laidlaw is a Managing Editor at Dobber Hockey. You can follow him on Twitter @SteveLaidlaw.
