Fantasy Hockey Mailbag: Is Vilardi the real deal?

It’s not fun being a Vancouver Canucks fan right now, and it’s probably even less fun if you’re rostering Thatcher Demko.

Demko was tabbed by many as a top 10 fantasy goalie this year, but instead he’s bearing the brunt of Vancouver’s slow start. An .861 save percentage with no wins is the product of a Canucks team that can’t seem to hold a lead.

Demko managed to have solid numbers on a Vancouver squad last year that wasn’t so great, but it’s going to be difficult for him to replicate that if the Canucks continue playing this poorly.

Teams struggling out of the gate don’t seem to impact offensive stars that negatively from a fantasy perspective, as the likes of Elias Pettersson, Quinn Hughes, and Bo Horvat having decent starts would attest. Goalies, though, are unfortunately another story.

If you’re relying on Demko as your number one option you’ll have to hope the Canucks turn things around quickly, or it’s going to be a long season.

Now to your questions:

Lots of questions about these two this week. Montour is dealing with an injury himself, but upon his return I suspect both he and Forsling will see a bump in power play time. The Ekblad injury probably helps Forsling the most, as he is off to a nice offensive start to the season playing on the top pair.

Forsling is a nice sleeper defenceman that ranked near the top of the league in plus/minus a season ago, and this Ekblad news makes him the number one guy on the blue line now in Florida.

I’d probably hold Danforth while Patrik Laine is sidelined. The returns haven’t been huge on Danforth, though at least he’s picked up a few points while playing up in the lineup. I’d need to see more from Kiersted before taking a chance on him.

They’re both likely dealing with early season slumps and you shouldn’t give up on them yet. Meier especially has tremendous upside in leagues that count hits.

It’s always tough to hold onto players when they’re hurting your squad at the moment, but if you can survive the first couple of weeks, things should normalize with higher-end talent and their value over a long season makes them well worth keeping. Unless someone blows you away with a huge trade offer, I’d hang onto them.

I think Forsling is a safer option than Karlsson at this point. Sure, Karlsson could stay healthy and recapture his old form, but the odds of that seem very slim. He hasn’t hit 50 points since the 2017-18 season and has struggled to avoid injuries. Forsling is also very strong for plus/minus if your league counts that and he has 50-point upside this season.

As much as it pains me to say it because I’ve been singing his praises as a good sleeper, Moore would probably be the one to drop here out of those three.

Both Verhaeghe and Stephenson should get plenty of power play time, where Moore likely won’t. Moore is also probably playing on the least potent offensive line out of the three as well. He’ll help you in the hits category, but likely not enough to make Moore worth keeping over Verhaeghe and Stephenson.

Dahlin set career highs in almost every category last season and is picking up right where he left off, scoring goals in every game so far. He’s getting a ton of ice time and is starting to blossom into an elite defenceman. Don’t hesitate to roster him in any league you get the chance to.

I’m not sure how long it’s going to last, but ride the Vilardi wave while you can. He’s playing on the third line and still producing at a high rate, while getting some decent power play time.

I agree that Vilardi’s long-term upside is probably better than Schwartz’s and switching them up now should be a low risk move. If Vilardi ends up taking a step backwards you can always drop him and pick up someone comparable to Schwartz again on your waiver wire.

One that sticks out from early in the season is the Seattle Kraken, as Martin Jones has already received a handful of starts over Philipp Grubauer. That said, even if Jones steals the job, I can’t see him having much value as the Kraken don’t figure to be that strong.

Two teams I would keep an eye on with more value are the Florida Panthers and Colorado Avalanche, though. It seems like Spencer Knight is going to get a bigger share of the net this year and the Panthers could easily sit Sergei Bobrovsky a little more often if Knight starts outplaying him.

In Colorado, I don’t think the difference between Alex Georgiev and Pavel Francouz is that big. If Georgiev struggles and Francouz can stay healthy, there’s a chance he could take over the net.

You could take a chance on any of those three over Kuzmenko at this point. I like Kuzmenko’s potential a lot, but he’s only played a handful of NHL games and DeBrusk, Wahlstrom and Vilardi are all off to strong starts. It sounds like there are several comparable players on your waiver wire to fall back on should these names not pan out.

I never like to carry more than three goalies. If you have four or five you’ll likely find yourself with empty forward or defence spots on a nightly basis while you have to decide which goalie or two to bench. You want to maximize roster space as much as possible and it’s much more beneficial to fill a roster hole with a skater that’s playing than having a starting goalie on the bench.

If you only carry two goalies you may have a tough time hitting your minimum start requirements and you could be leaving yourself vulnerable to an injury, so three is the optimal number in most leagues. If you have two strong starters you can grab a 1B on a good team for quality starts.

Wins could be tough to come by for both goalies this season, but I’d probably prefer Forsberg.

He’s more likely to give you quality starts than Gibson and the Ottawa Senators are in a better spot to be competitive than the Anaheim Ducks are right now. Gibson’s numbers haven’t been great for a few years and the team in front of him isn’t very strong.

For this season anyway, I think Mercer might be one of those “better in real life” players than in fantasy. He’ll definitely be a valuable piece for the New Jersey Devils, though I don’t see him having an immediate fantasy impact. The Devils top six is suddenly very tough to crack and unless Mercer plays there consistently, he probably won’t have a huge offensive season.

You could probably drop him if there’s a better option available. Lundell is getting third line and second power play duties, so you’re right, offence could be hit and miss for him this year. He’s still effective for shots and faceoffs if your league has those categories, but given his lack of offence, Lundell is certainly someone that could be made expendable if you need the roster spot.

Even though he isn’t off to the best start, Fleury is a good goalie on a strong team that has no one to really challenge him for playing time. There aren’t many options better sitting on waiver wires to replace him.

That said, a couple of the names you mentioned like Bobrovsky and Thompson could fit the bill as replacements if you really wanted to make a move. If it were me, I’d give Fleury a few more games if you think those names will still be available in about a week.

Holding a player for upwards of 12 weeks is really tough to do without an IR spot, even if it’s for someone as valuable as Landeskog. You might be better off letting him go and using his roster spot to bring someone else in to give you a chance at staying competitive. By the time Landeskog is healthy, it may be too late to get the benefit of him if you fall too far behind.

Instead of dropping Niederreiter for Wahlstrom, why not just bring Wahlstrom aboard if you let Landeskog go? Niederreiter is scoring at a pretty good rate so far and I think you’d benefit more from him and Wahlstrom, as opposed to one of them and an injured Landeskog that’s just taking up roster space.

Really tough call. I think Gostisbehere is probably going to outscore Durzi this year, but his plus/minus will likely be substantially worse given he’s on the Arizona Coyotes. Durzi may also edge him in power play points, too. I’d probably hold onto Durzi and hope he breaks out points wise because he’ll likely give you better category coverage in your league overall.

A few names mentioned earlier like DeBrusk, Wahlstrom and Vilardi would all be good options if they’re available in your league. Or, if you want to take more of a gamble on a high reward option, how about someone like Cole Perfetti or Nick Robertson?

The Winnipeg Jets rookie picked up a few points this week and is starting to look more comfortable in the top six. Meanwhile, Robertson was impressive in his season debut with the Toronto Maple Leafs, scoring two goals, including the overtime winner. He’s also likely to play with John Tavares and William Nylander.

As good as Krejci’s looked so far in his return to the NHL this year, I’d probably go with Hischier if there’s hits involved. Hischier will likely put up twice as many hits as Krejci and should outshoot the Boston Bruins centre, too.

The only question here would be if Krejci outscores Hischier by a wide margin, but I don’t see that happening. I think Krejci has a chance to get 60-plus points and Hischier should easily reach that if he stays healthy with the potential for a 70-point campaign if all goes well.