RADIO
The NHL season is past the midway point. We are more than halfway home, fantasy owners!
With the All-Star weekend around the corner, this is as good of a time as any for fantasy owners to assess their roster, figure out their needs and their strengths, and trade some of their depth to upgrade the weak spots in their lineups. Buying high and selling low is the best way to achieve this.
Here are this week’s buy-low and sell-high candidates:
Week 17 Fantasy Hockey Buy-Low Players
John Tavares - C, NYI
The 2015-16 campaign was supposed to be when Tavares took off and took over the NHL and won the scoring title. He was coming off a career season saw him score a career-high 38 goals and 13 power-play goals, along with racking up a personal-best 86 points and being a plus player for the first time. With all of the young, talented Islanders reaching their primes at the same time, Tavares seemed poised to become the most valuable player in fantasy hockey. But a funny thing happened on the way to the scoring title and fantasy demigod status. Tavares and his Isles have slumped all season, with Tavares only scoring 33 points in 43 games, which does not rank him in the top 50 in scoring. He currently trails Boston’s Ryan Spooner, New Jersey’s Kyle Palmieri and five defensemen in points. This is not what fantasy owners expected when they drafted Tavares in the first round this year.
But Tavares is starting to show signs of life. He scored his first goal in seven games last week and is averaging four shots on goal per game for the month of January, which is much more rubber than he had been getting on net this season. You are never going to get a player of Tavares’ caliber at a bargain basement price like you can likely acquire him for now. Send trade offers to the Tavares owner in your league over the All-Star break and hope he or she has lost faith in him.
David Perron - LW, ANA
When Perron was swapped for Carl Hagelin a couple weeks ago, I tabbed Hagelin as the guy whose fantasy value would go up. So far, so good as Hagelin has scored three points in his first four games with the Pens. But Perron’s fantasy value should benefit from the deal as well. Just like Hagelin has been better served heading back to the Eastern Conference, going back to the Western Conference should be better for the swift-skating Perron. He had several solid seasons with the St. Louis Blues and Edmonton Oilers and knows the goalies and teams better out west. Perron has three points in his first three games with the Anaheim Ducks and has played on all different lines, so it is hard to pinpoint if he will end up with Corey Perry and Ryan Getzlaf or on the second or third line with lesser Ducks when everything shakes out. A change of scenery could make Perron a more productive fantasy player the rest of the way, so get him now before someone beats you to him.
Week 17 Fantasy Hockey Sell-High Players
James Reimer - G, TOR
As superb of a stone wall as Reimer has been, he still is sharing space in the crease with the utterly baffling Bernier. While Reimer has started five of Toronto’s last seven games, he has only played in two more games than Bernier on the season, and that was largely due to Bernier suffering an injury. Reimer does not have the track record of a Vezina winner, he will lose ice time to Bernier no matter how well he plays and Toronto’s defense is not known for being as stout as the aforementioned Carolina Panthers. Reimer’s numbers can only plummet at this point. Trade him now for the biggest return you can get!
John Klingberg - D, DAL
I know it would be tough to trade Klingberg when the super sophomore when he is third among defensemen in scoring with 39 points and the quarterback of one of the scariest power-play units in the NHL. But the time might be right. Klingberg has only scored one point over his last seven games, and there could be a slight chance that he is hitting a wall and/or the league is figuring him out. Now the All-Star break may solve the first problem if it is indeed a problem, but there is the thought that Klingberg is no Paul Coffey or Bobby Orr and should start coming down to Earth at some point this season.
You have to wonder if Klingberg is just a product of Dallas’ offensive system. If you installed another defenseman at the point on the power play and had him passing to Tyler Seguin, Jamie Benn and Patrick Sharp, would his point total rival Klingberg’s? The puck is in your zone on this one, fantasy owners! If you want to beef up your forward or goaltending corps, trading Klingberg now would net you a bountiful return.
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