If you’re in a fantasy hockey roto league then the time to create meaningful change in your lineup is running short. Most teams have about one-third of the season left and, though fantasy hockey trade deadlines might not be for another month, losing seven, eight, or nine games in the meantime means you’ll lose about one-third of the season that’s left waiting to do something. In short, if fantasy owners find themselves in a position to make a run for a league title – by that I mean being about 10 roto points from first place – then now is the time to make trades, not in a month’s time.
With that in mind, here are players that can help in specific individual rotisserie categories for the rest of the season. A few recommendations first:
- Always trade from a position of strength to fill a weakness. There’s not much sense in trading a second goalie for a top end defensemen if that goalie is pretty much all that’s available between the roster and the waiver wire.
- Identify which league mates are most likely to trade. Inundating the last place team with trade offers probably won’t do much as that owner has probably given up on the season by now.
- If you’re in a keeper league, be careful about “draft pick” trades. It’s nice to pick up players for a run without losing roster players but unless you really think the piece(s) coming back will put you over the top for the year, it’s easy to set back a keeper team a few years with one horrible draft.
With that in mind, here are some players that should help in goals and assists for the rest of the season.
Goals
Forward
Jiri Tlusty (CAR)
Tlusty has had quite an up and down career but here’s what is known for sure: Jiri Tlusty is typically an efficient scorer. For his career, Tlusty is a 13.1-percent shooter and he hasn’t been below 11.3-percent for three years running. This year, Tlusty is at just 9.6-percent.
Last year’s goal total of 23 in 48 games was a bit of an inflated total because Tlusty shot over 19-percent and set a career-high in shots/game.
One big reason for the decline this year was he spent almost all of his five on five ice time last year with Eric Staal and Alex Semin. This year it’s been about half his ice time. That has changed though as he’s been on the top line for a few games now.
Carolina’s shot attempt rate goes up about 30-percent when Tlusty plays with Semin which means he should be potting some more goals soon (and picking up some extra assists). If you’re in a shallow league, he might be on the waiver wire. If you’re in a deep league, it shouldn’t cost you much to get him because he has 16 points this year (and thus would make a good target for a draft pick trade). He could easily double that point total in the final third of the season if he stays on the top line.
Brent Burns (SJS)
Because Burns is still eligible for defense in most Yahoo fantasy leagues, it might make trading for him in those leagues difficult. This is a multi-category performer, though, who is just not getting the bounces right now.
Burns has no points over his last five games after putting up 29 in his first 37. Burns also doesn’t have a goal in his last 12 games. A quick look at the shooting charts for Burns from his last few games and for the course of the season, courtesy of Sporting Charts, show us that he’s not generating shots from the “dirty areas” as frequent as he used to. While that might be a cause for concern going forward, it’s probably a good bet that Burns and the coaching staff figure this out sooner rather than later.
Burns doesn’t get the elite power play minutes but he does get Joe Thornton as his center game in and game out. Players go through slumps and I’m betting Burns returns to form and breaks out of this funk pretty quickly.
Defensemen
Dougie Hamilton (BOS)
Hamilton has been struggling with injuries this year but the time he has played has been productive; Hamilton has 12 points in 37 games this year but is second among active defensemen on the Bruins roster in points/60 minutes at five on five.
It’s not the five on five that peaks my interest, it’s the power play. Hamilton has been on the second unit for much of the season but, as any Bruins fan can tell you, the Bergeron side of the power play was fairly ineffective to start the year. That said, Patrice Bergeron, Carl Soderberg and Dougie Hamilton – all members of the second unit – are all in the top five among the Bruins in individual shot attempts on the power play. Despite that fact, Bergeron and Loui Eriksson are last among Bruins forwards in on-ice shooting percentage on the power play.
Hamilton has shown offensive instincts this year that have been impressive, namely being able to find good outlet passes and not turning the puck over at the offensive blue line. As long as the Bruins stay the course with their second power play unit, Hamilton’s point production should see an uptick for the rest of the season.
These are just three guys that can help in goals and assists for the rest of the season. These aren’t players that should cost a lot in the trade market either.
Tomorrow I’ll have an update on players that should see their power play production improve for the rest of the year.
