Fantasy Hockey Mailbag: Can Juuse Saros salvage his season?

Things have certainly taken a sharp turn in the wrong direction for the Calgary Flames.

After winning five of their first six games, the Flames have now lost seven in a row. Goalie Jacob Markstrom’s game has fallen off and he is taking a decent chunk of the blame, but the offense has dried up too. Jonathan Huberdeau had just one point in five games before his injury, Elias Lindholm has only one multi-point game this season and Andrew Mangiapane is goalless since Game 3.

A team that looked like a juggernaut early on and was supposed to be full of valuable fantasy options is leaving a lot to be desired.

You have to give the Flames credit for replacing the likes of Johnny Gaudreau and Matthew Tkachuk with a talented roster that should remain competitive, but that doesn’t mean the goals are going to still flow as freely as they did last season.

On to your questions:

I’m not sure I would sell high on the Sharks' Erik Karlsson given how good he’s looked, but if you must, I might try for Kyle Connor. He’s found the back of the net only twice this season after nearly scoring 50 goals a season ago. He’s averaging well over three shots per game, though, and the Winnipeg Jets look better than expected, so the dam figures to burst for Connor at some point. He’s produced a bunch of assists lately, which might drive his asking price up a bit, but if someone is getting restless about his lack of scoring, I would see if he’s on the table.

Normally, I would say yes in a heartbeat, but given how many goalies are struggling right now and how thin waiver wires are for alternatives, I would try to squeeze whatever value you can out of Martin Jones while this lasts. The Seattle Kraken look much improved and Jones has been more than adequate of late, winning four straight and giving up just four goals. Sometimes you can survive the year by riding one hot streak in net after another. Unless you’re getting a strong starting netminder on a strong team, I would hold onto Jones for the time being. Quality starts are too valuable right now.

I think you can move on from most St. Louis Blues players at this point. Robert Thomas and Pavel Buchnevich aren’t exactly the most versatile forwards out there for category coverage. Unfortunately, if they’re not providing points, they don’t bring a ton of value. If there are better options out there you should take a look, especially if your league counts hits and shots.

I wouldn’t be so much concerned about Cam Talbot as the Ottawa Senators themselves. The Sens have not taken the step forward many anticipated and it’s having a negative impact on the goaltending. As much talent as Ottawa added up front in the summer, it didn’t really bolster a defense that isn’t very deep. With seven losses in a row, I don’t think you can rely on Talbot and Anton Forsberg with any sort of confidence.

As long as you don’t give up too much, Oliver Bjorkstrand would be someone to buy low on. A pace of one goal on 48 shots won’t last forever and the Seattle Kraken are actually filling the net this season, sitting eighth in the NHL in goals for per game. Bjorkstrand is a three-time 20-goal scorer, so he’ll break through eventually.

If you are referring specifically to a true backup, I’d rather have a starter on a bottom-tier team. A backup, like Brian Elliott for example, might play once every 10 days or so and if you want to take advantage of that start, you’re going to have little control over the matchup. Someone like John Gibson, though, will play more regularly, meaning you can pick and choose when you play him. If he plays three times a week and you want to use him against the San Jose Sharks and Arizona Coyotes, but not the Vegas Golden Knights, you easily can without having to worry about hitting your minimum start requirements.

If you are talking about a 1B on a good team, however, that’s a different story. A strong team means you’ll have a good matchup almost all the time, and can comfortably play someone such as Antti Raanta almost every time he starts.

It’s Kevin Fiala and Drew Doughty for me. Carter Verhaeghe is a bit inconsistent and Aaron Ekblad has struggled with injuries in recent years. Fiala should produce the most points out of the four and is a great second-half player.

I definitely wouldn’t trade Kirill Kaprizov for a goalie, simply because it’s much harder to determine what a top-five goaltender is. Most would have thought Juuse Saros was a top-five goalie coming into the season, but how is that going? There’s much more value with selecting goalies late in drafts or targeting someone such as Vitek Vanecek or Adin Hill off the waiver wire. If you gave up a Roope Hintz or Troy Terry, you may regret it in a week or two when the goalie you acquired is going through a rough patch.

Jacob Markstrom and the Flames have been struggling ever since Markstrom gave up that bad goal against the Edmonton Oilers a couple weeks back. It’s just another example of a higher-end netminder enduring a difficult stretch. Markstrom is too good for this to last forever, though, and I’m sure he will bounce back soon. You can’t really drop him and his trade value isn’t super high given the way he’s playing, so it’s probably best to just ride it out and hope he finds his form sooner rather than later.

I wouldn’t be in a hurry to acquire any Blues, and considering you’d have to drop a fairly significant player to make the deal work, I’d probably pass. My philosophy is whoever gets the best player in the trade usually wins and in this case, that’s Carolina's Brent Burns.

I mentioned Connor as a good buy-low option earlier, but as far as players not living up to the hype, I’ll go with Edmonton's Jesse Puljujarvi. There always seems to be so much hype around him coming into every season because of his underlying numbers, and he continually fails to produce offense. He’s recorded only two points in 15 games this season and it doesn’t seem to matter where the Oilers play him or who they play him with.

Timothy Liljegren certainly should rise up while on the top pairing recently with Morgan Rielly. However, even with his two-goal outburst the other night, I’m not sure how much value he will have in fantasy. He’s really a defensive defenseman and as long as Rielly and Rasmus Sandin are around, I don’t see Liljegren getting any power-play time. I think he’ll settle into being one of those “better in real life” players than in fantasy.

I’m glad you brought this up and I must confess, I did not see Winnipeg Jets goalie Connor Hellebuyck having these numbers this season. The Jets are playing better than I think anyone expected and Hellebuyck appears to be putting last season’s rough campaign well behind him. Part of it has to with the arrival of Rick Bowness and how good of a defensive coach he is. Winnipeg’s penalty kill is much improved, ranking sixth overall compared to last season’s 29th. That’s certainly helping Hellebuyck and given how good goaltending is at such a premium, I’d hold onto him.

Saros is maybe the most frustrating player in fantasy hockey right now. Five of his 10 starts for the Nashville Predators have been really good, but the lows have been very low. Saros might have bottomed out Tuesday night, giving up four goals on only six shots. It can’t get much worse than that and much like I noted about Markstrom, it doesn’t really make sense to drop or try to trade Saros at his lowest point. We simply aren’t used to Saros having this many poor starts, but keep in mind, he may play more than any other goalie this season and eventually he’ll find his groove.

That is the one downside with elite goalies, you can’t really drop them when they are struggling like you can with a streamer. There will probably be lots of quality starts from Saros this season, you just have to endure some of the bad to get there.

As I noted earlier, I wouldn’t drop Markstrom yet and even though Vitek Vanecek and the New Jersey Devils do look really good, I’m not sure Vanecek is any less streaky than Jack Campbell or, for that matter, the Devils are that much better than the Oilers. Plus, Vanecek went down with an injury Thursday, so you should probably get some clarity on that before thinking about a bold move.

I’ve mentioned this before that I think the Florida Panthers are much easier to defend this season without Jonathan Huberdeau, MacKenzie Weegar, Mason Marchment and Anthony Duclair in their lineup. Sam Reinhart and Sam Bennett are no doubt feeling the impact of that offensively. The good news is, Reinhart has 12 shots and two goals in his past two games and Bennett is still producing well with shots and hits. They should both be decent fantasy options, but probably not as impactful as they were in 2021-22.

I don’t think I would. Montreal's Joel Edmundson might be good for blocks, but I don’t see him providing much category coverage beyond that. He had 15 blocks in two games and then none in Wednesday’s game. Blocks are tough to sustain on a game-by-game basis and I think you’ll benefit more overall from Calen Addison and Owen Power in the long run.

Back-to-back questions on Edmundson and blocks is not something I saw coming, but I’m down for it. I think Vegas' Alec Martinez will be more consistent for you. Edmundson had two huge games and nothing in the block department Wednesday, whereas Martinez has at least three blocks in every game this season.

Seattle's Matty Beniers has cooled a bit and is probably better as a streaming option in 10-team leagues. If you were in a deeper league that counted faceoff wins, you could make an argument for rostering him, but with only 10 teams, there are probably better options available. Just take advantage of the Beniers hot streaks when you can.

Damon Severson seems to have fallen out of favour on the Devils blue line. His ice time is down almost five minutes per game from last season. That’s going to impact his point production and if he’s not producing offensively, Severson doesn’t provide enough other category coverage to make him worth rostering.

I would target Tristan Jarry first, as I think the Pittsburgh Penguins will soon get back on track. I’d probably avoid Thatcher Demko as Vancouver’s season seems to be slipping away, Matt Murray because of injury concerns and Forsberg because the Sens just don’t seem very good. Pyotr Kochetkov is a wild card here because if Frederik Andersen is out for a while, he could have sneaky value on a strong Carolina Hurricanes team.

Brady Tkachuk is obviously the king here, though he’s probably taken. Tanner Jeannot and Radko Gudas may be available and are good options. Someone a bit off the board is Luke Kunin of the San Jose Sharks. He’s great for hits and can also provide decent numbers for shots and PIMs, too. Plus, he has dual eligibility.

I think it’s going to be tough for Connor McMichael to have a significant impact this season, barring an injury to another Washington Capitals centre. The Caps are strong down the middle with Evgeny Kuznetsov, Dylan Strome and Lars Eller, with Strome benefitting the most from Nicklas Backstrom being sidelined. It’s possible McMichael gets a shot on the wing at some point, though I wouldn’t count on him for major contributions in 2022-23.

Karlsson probably has the higher ceiling this season and the chance to bring the most value, so I would’ve stuck with him. That said, even though the New York Islanders don’t look drastically different under Lane Lambert than they did under Barry Trotz, Mat Barzal is still averaging a point per game. If Karlsson’s body can’t again hold up over an 82-game season, you may have made a smart move. Time will tell.

Long term, Jake Sanderson should be your best bet. He’s a high-end prospect who doesn’t look out of place on the Ottawa Senators blueline, playing over 19 minutes a night. Vince Dunn may end up with more points and Filip Hronek more hits this season, but Sanderson would be the guy to keep long term.

Not exactly an abundance of riches here. Bowen Byram is intriguing when he’s healthy, as it feels inevitable the Colorado Avalanche will eventually move Samuel Girard to free up cap space. That would give Byram more of an opportunity and a lot more value. This is more of a long-term play, though, and in the immediate future I’d probably look at the trade market in your league if you need blueline help.