Fantasy Hockey Mailbag: Is it time to panic about Cam Talbot?

What a signing Martin Jones has turned out to be.

After going four of the previous five campaigns with a save percentage under .900, the Toronto Maple Leafs signed Jones this summer to be their No. 3 option and presumably spend most of his time in the AHL. Before you knew it, though, Ilya Samsonov completely lost his game and Joseph Woll went down with a long-term injury, leaving Jones to carry the load.

Given Jones’ recent track record, you would have thought the Leafs were in trouble. Instead, he’s salvaged their season and likely a few fantasy team’s seasons, too. Jones is 9-5-1 with a .920 save percentage, making him an incredible find on waivers for a goalie-needy team.

We talk every pre-season about goalies that aren’t really on anyone’s radar that could turn out to have major fantasy value, but I’m not sure anyone even mentioned Jones. It just goes to show you a good fantasy goalie can appear without warning and come from the most obscure places.

Time for your questions:

There’s nothing wrong with that. I think it’s wise to keep Valeri Nichushkin if you can see if he returns this year since he was playing really well. I don’t know if Jonathan Marchessault is going to completely replace Nichushkin’s production, but at this point in the season, he’s a decent add on waivers. Marchessault should provide you with some goal-scoring and good shot volume.

You should be okay there. The Boston Bruins tandem is really strong and ideally, Joseph Woll will return to form when he comes back from injury. The only thing I would suggest is that when all four goalies are healthy you might want to drop one for a skater, as I’ve mentioned in the past, I think holding four goalies is too many. Marc-Andre Fleury would probably be the drop out of this group once Woll is ready to go.

I think Adam Boqvist would be worth a look as a streamer. I’m not sure how long he can keep this going and when Zach Werenski returns it’s going to hurt Boqvist, but I agree he is playing well right now and getting good deployment. It’s probably a good time to grab him too, as the Columbus Blue Jackets play four times next week.

I wrote a bit about my concerns in my 20 Fantasy Thoughts column last week and I remain a bit worried. There was no way Cam Talbot was going to continue the torrid pace he started the year at, but I don’t think anyone thought things would get this troubling so quickly. The main issue I see here is Cam Talbot will be 37 this year and is playing way too much, so yes, a better backup would probably help ease his workload. To put things into perspective, Talbot has already made 30 appearances this season and he’s only averaged 36 games per season over the past four years. Right now, he’s on pace for 60 games in 2023-24, which he almost certainly won’t be able to hold up for.

The Los Angeles Kings are also not playing very well at the moment, which isn’t helping matters. If they can get their game back on track and the Kings can add someone who can help Talbot stay fresh, I think he’ll be fine.

I talked about my feelings on Talbot in the previous answer and as for Ilya Sorokin, the defence of the New York Islanders is the main issue here. The Isles have been horrible defensively this season, especially when allowing quality chances and shots on Sorokin. New York is actually 31st in shots allowed per game, barely ranking ahead of the San Jose Sharks. This week for example, Sorokin was pulled at the end of two periods against the Minnesota Wild after already facing 32 shots. Then the next night he faced another 43 from the Winnipeg Jets. Sorokin’s save percentage is actually pretty good, but his goals against is above three. He’s probably not going to destroy your stats for the week, but Sorokin is going to give up a fair amount of goals and only pick up sporadic wins. You’ll have to make a judgment call if he’s worth keeping with this production based on your league categories. As for Travis Sanheim, his offense dried up and with Jamie Drysdale there now, power play time will be scarce. Maybe try taking a chance on Drysdale if he’s available.

The timeline for both is a little unclear at the moment. We haven’t seen much of an update on Shea Theodore since he underwent surgery at the end of November where he was labelled week-to-week, though there was word Thursday he could miss another month, and Nichushkin has entered the Player’s Assistance Program. If you have to drop one, I’d say Theodore is the one to move on from, as Nichushkin was playing incredibly this season and has a ton of upside in the Colorado Avalanche top six should he return.

It’s hard to say that for certain, but Nico Daws definitely has more upside than Vitek Vanecek. He’s received three straight starts and looked strong against the Florida Panthers and Boston Bruins, who are not easy opponents by any means. If you need help in net, I’d grab Daws and see where it takes you.

I can never understand their system for handing out positions, so I couldn’t tell you. I’ve heard it’s when a player plays three consecutive games at a position, but I find that’s not always the case. JT Compher has been playing centre all year and is still only right wing and left wing eligible. Juraj Slafkovsky is currently left wing eligible, so I fear it may take a while to see right wing pop up. The most pressing cases for folks are usually a player waiting on dual centre and wing eligibility because there’s always an abundance of centres.

As you said, it’s not the best time to trade Talbot, but if he regains the form he had from earlier in the year you’d probably want to ask for someone pretty substantial. Maybe like a player on pace for 60-70 points if Talbot goes back to being virtually unbeatable and winning with regularity. However, if he does that, you may be best to just keep him.

I think if you’re really desperate for help in net you could, though I do have some concerns obviously. Those are all really strong opponents and if you look beyond that the Detroit Red Wings also have Dallas, Vegas, Edmonton and then Vancouver twice. So, it’s not like things are getting any easier. That said, Alex Lyon has been fairly trustworthy and ironically, two of his worst outings on the year have come against Ottawa and San Jose. Goalies are always tough to predict.

I doubt you’d win a trade for Timo Meier right now, so I might keep him to see if he can boost his value a bit. Maybe with Jack Hughes injured Meier can get some time on power play one and get back on track. Meier actually started to turn things around before he got injured, so if he gets on another decent point streak, he’ll have more trade value.

- I like Chandler Stephenson out of that group. He’s been producing well since Jack Eichel went down.

- I’d still go with Alex Pietrangelo. I can’t see Alec Martinez holding that spot long term.

- Temper your expectations with Shane Pinto. If he gets into the top six with Josh Norris out, he’ll have upside, though.

Brock Faber and Jonathan Drouin would be my drops out of this group. My concern with Drouin is when Artturi Lehkonen returns, how does that impact Drouin? Maybe he eventually drops down. Faber is still young and probably won’t have the value of a Gabriel Vilardi or Boone Jenner right away.

As much as the Ottawa Senators are struggling, I’d still go with Tim Stutzle. He’s a great player that fills a lot of categories. Plus, Stutzle is only shooting at 6.5%, less than half his career average. Stutzle is still averaging around a point per game and if that shooting percentage improves, maybe he ends up with more than 90 points.

I don’t think there’s much value holding Tony DeAngelo, especially in a league with only 10 teams. He’s lost his power play spot back to Brent Burns and DeAngelo has been a frequent scratch recently. I think there are better options out there on waivers.

I’d be comfortable rostering both of them. Even though Nik Ehlers is on the second line, he’s still on the first power play and linemates Cole Perfetti and Vladislav Namestnikov have been okay for offence. Gabriel Vilardi’s shot volume is really strong and he’s been scoring lately, so I’m not too worried about how the loss of Mark Scheifele is going to impact him. Plus, the Winnipeg Jets have been so good this season that almost anyone in the top six should be worth rostering if you’re in a deep league.

I would probably just keep him. I’m not a huge fan of selling high, unless it’s for a future keeper and you’re getting a good return. Matt Duchene has been pretty solid all season and the second line with Tyler Seguin and Mason Marchment are capable of some strong stretches. Plus, Duchene has C/RW eligibility, too. In a one-year league I’d just take advantage of his strong play.