Frozen Fantasy: It’s Early, But…

The season is a dozen games old and we've seen more than a few surprises. Edmonton. Vancouver. New Jersey. Braden Holtby. Rasmus Ristolainen.

Is any of this for real?

Sure it's early, but there are a few interesting trends. And many have fantasy implications.

Edmonton is 8-2-1 and unbeaten at home. But 40 percent of their goals come from two men. Can their success continue? Right – rhetorical question.

They've improved, but this is not real.

Vancouver is a blast to watch. Their goaltending is great, the offence is spread around the team and Quinn Hughes has a little Bobby Orr in him.

Real. Very much so. Too bad no one will see it happen, given the game times.

Buffalo is drinking the Ralph Krueger Kool-Aid and they're tops in the Atlantic. Any man who can pull Rasmus Ristolainen into even – and maybe even positive – territory can clearly deliver miracles.

Real again, although they're more wild card than top of the Atlantic.

Jersey has been atrocious. There's no other way to describe it. What's real? The struggle. They aren't this bad, but it's going to take time to gel.

The Caps have won eight, but Braden Holtby has been a sieve. He's allowed 30 goals in nine starts and has a putrid 3.64 GAA. And .886 save percentage.

But John Carlson is leading the league in scoring – he's on a bloody 132-point pace!

The underlying issues are very real. Plus offence, a porous D and a struggling goalie? That's a bad combination. Gone in four in the opening round.

Now let's take a look at who caught my eye this week.

Ian Cole, D, Colorado (4 percent Yahoo! owned) – Cole is a stay-at-home type, so why is he here? He's now paired with Cale Makar and the duo is starting to click. Yes, Cole will be somewhat one-dimensional from a fantasy perspective – a few points, good plus-minus and a decent balance of hits and blocked shots (if your league even counts those things). But Cole's stability – especially in plus-minus – could let you roll a one-dimensional offensive type. Sometimes smart ownership is about offsetting bad with some good across your categories.

J.T. Compher, RW/C, Colorado (7 percent Yahoo! owned) – Compher gets the first crack at filling Mikko Rantanen's skates on the top line. He's a versatile and hard-working, two-way player with great wheels. His hands aren't elite, but they won't need to be skating with Gabriel Landeskog and Nathan MacKinnon. Grab him quick.

Anthony DeAngelo, D, NY Rangers (3 percent Yahoo! owned) – DeAngelo has a long history of attitude issues and he's already been benched for most of a game this season. But his offensive skills are tantalizing and he plays with grit. Since that benching, DeAngelo has upped his game – he has three goals and one assist in his last three games. He'll always be a risk – that proverbial screw will come loose again and he'll be benched (or worse). Still, I'm plugging my nose and grabbing DeAngelo. 

Conor Garland, LW/RW, Arizona (3 percent Yahoo! owned) – Garland can score. Last season, he got hot in late December and potted eight in a 10-game span. And this season, he has five snipes in his last eight games. Garland is a finisher – he'll always have more goals than helpers. And skating with playmaker Nick Schmaltz means Garland will get plenty of chances. Deep leaguers should take a look.

Bo Horvat, C, Vancouver (58 percent Yahoo! owned) – Yes, it's unusual for me to include a guy with this kind of ownership. But Horvat should be owned in 85-90 percent of leagues, not 58. In the last week, he has a three-game, six-point streak on the go. It looks like this: four goals, four power-play points, 17 shots and 36 faceoff wins. Horvat is the top-rated player in Yahoo! right now. The captain's C fits him to a T.

Nick Leddy, D, NY Islanders (4 percent Yahoo! owned) – Don't be turned off by Leddy's 26-point effort last year. And ignore his minus-42 from 2017-18. He still has the talent that delivered three, 40-plus seasons. Leddy's recent three-game, five-point streak shows the skills are still there, even if the games were against some lesser lights. Go get him, essentially for free.

Oskar Lindblom, LW, Philadelphia (5 percent Yahoo! owned) – Get this guy. Now. He's for real. Lindblom's breakout this season (seven points, including five goals, in eight games) was foreshadowed by a hot second-half in 2018-19. Once coach Dave Hakstol got the axe, Lindblom took off – two-thirds (22) of his 33 points last season came in his last 40 games. This season, he's riding shotgun beside Sean Couturier and Travis Konecny on the second line. A 50-60 point season is possible, especially with a role on the second power-play unit.

Denis Malgin, LW/RW, Florida (1 percent Yahoo! owned) – Malgin has already put his subpar sophomore season behind him. The diminutive forward has seven points (three goals, four assists) in eight games so far, which ties him for fifth in team scoring. And Malgin has an impressive defensive game, too – he has an almost Datsyukian stealth to his back check… and his ability to strip pucks. The Panthers will be good once Sergei Bobrovsky's game settles. Malgin will provide solid depth scoring in deep leagues.

Ryan Strome, RW/C, NY Rangers (2 percent Yahoo! owned) – Once upon a time in a town a few miles from Madison Square, a young Ryan Strome teased fantasy owners with 50 points in his first full season (2014-15). From there, it was all downhill. Strome is smart, but his straight-line speed is poor. His agility is worse. And the game has only gotten faster with each passing year. Right now, he's on a three-game, four-point streak and has six points in as many games. Strome is centering the second line and working the second power-play unit on Broadway. Maybe this is finally his "fit", just like Chicago was for his brother Dylan. He may be worth the chance. You can always dump him if it doesn't work out. But if it does…

Devon Toews, D, NY Islanders (12 percent Yahoo! owned) – Toews is a star in the making. He's an outstanding skater with forward speed that also knows how to defend. Toews, who is not related to Chicago star Jonathan, runs the Isles' first power-play unit and has already managed seven points in 10 games. Nick Leddy (above) might be hotter right now, but Toews is the long-term play here.

Back to John Carlson, Braden Holtby and guys like them.

You should trade Carlson now. Let someone else absorb his 17.9 percent shooting percentage. He's a Norris candidate, but he's not Connor McDavid.

Ditto Holtby, but do it on his good name, not his results.

Remember two years ago? There was a debate about Holtby's worthiness to start in the postseason. Then he won the Cup.

But his numbers that season and last were a far cry from three-straight, 40-plus win seasons with sterling ratios. And this year has started even worse.

Holtby's still a good goalie, but he's not the star he once was.

Yes, it's early. But some trends are real.

Until next week.