Special to Yahoo Sports
In this space, we’ll look at which NHL players are seeing their fantasy hockey values rise or fall on a week-to-week basis.
This week’s article includes a Flame on fire, Zucc rolling, Charlie Who in DC and a young blueliner still trying to find his way.
First Liners (Risers)
Elias Lindholm, C, CGY
Lindholm closed November by going scoreless in his last five games, but he’s been red-hot since the calendar flipped to December, with five goals and seven assists in nine games. After tallying a career-high 82 points — 35 goals and 47 assists — Lindholm lost Matthew Tkachuk and Johnny Gaudreau but gained Jonathan Huberdeau and Nazem Kadri. Lindholm has taken a bit of time to mesh with his new teammates, but he appears to have found his prior form lately.
John Tavares C, TOR
Toronto almost has an embarrassment of riches up front. When saying the names of the top-six forwards, Tavares, despite his large contract, can sometimes get lost in the mix. He’s almost quietly averaged close to a point a game during his stint as a Maple Leaf, including this season. Given his scoring pace, Tavares — barring injury — should crack the 1,000-point mark. But for him to get true recognition, he needs to help lead Toronto to a long playoff run, or at least past the first round.
Jordan Kyrou, LW/RW, STL
Kyrou has been red-hot lately, notching six goals and four assists in his last four games, including his first career NHL hat trick Monday against Vancouver. After a slow start, the 24-year-old has looked great since mid-November and is now up to 16 goals, 32 points (11 on the power play), 108 shots on net and a minus-16 rating through 31 contests overall. Those numbers look even more impressive when you note Kyrou had just three goals and an assist in his first 11 games played. After breaking through with 75 points last season, Kyrou signed an eight-year, $65 million contract extension with the Blues in September. Keep in mind he left Monday’s game following a hard hit, so check his injury status.
Mats Zuccarello, RW, MIN
Zuccarello, affectionally known during his time in New York as the Norwegian Hobbit, continues to rack up points. He notched a hat trick and registered an assist Friday, then added another goal and assist Sunday, upping his season marks to 14 goals and 36 points in 31 contests. The 35-year-old is on a 10-game point streak and has contributed an incredible seven goals and 16 points over that span. After a rough first season in 2019-20 as a member of the Wild, Zuccarello has 148 points in his last 142 games.
Tyson Barrie, D, EDM
I’ve given up trying to predict Barrie. Every time I think he’s about to fall back slightly, he gets red-hot. On the inverse, when I think he’s scuffling, you look at him and he’s notching three assists in a contest, as he did last Thursday. Evan Bouchard has clearly lost his spot on the Edmonton man-advantage as Barrie is the clear top dog there, getting the nod over Darnell Nurse. Barrie added another power-play helper Monday to extend his point streak to seven games, during which he’s posted 11 apples. He has 22 assists and four goals in 33 games.
John Carlson, D, WSH
Carlson has finished with at least 70 points in three of the past four seasons, an unheard-of run for a defenseman. His production is not yet at that same level this year, but that doesn’t mean he hasn’t been valuable. Carlson has three goals and five assists in his last 11 games, giving the high-scoring blueliner eight goals and 12 assists in 28 contests. While Carlson is unlikely to break the 70-point mark again given the talent around him, don’t rule anything out.
Charlie Lindgren, G, WSH
Lindgren, signed to a three-year, $3.3 million deal this past offseason by Washington, has more than earned his money lately. Darcy Kuemper (upper body) has missed the last eight games, and Lindgren has gone 7-1-0 with a 2.00 goals-against average (GAA) and .930 save percentage (SV%) during that stretch. Kuemper served as Lindgren’s backup Monday and is ready to return to action, so Lindgren’s time as the starter is likely coming to an end, but he’s shown enough to give management confidence to turn to him more frequently, affording Kuemper additional rest when needed.
Cam Talbot, G, OTT
Talbot, sidelined the first three weeks of the season due to a rib injury, struggled initially upon his return. Lately, however, Talbot has been more than solid, notching four straight victories and going an impressive 7-2-0 over his last nine appearances. Talbot has improved his season marks to a 2.55 GAA and .916 SV%, a far cry from the poor stats he posted earlier this season. Ottawa is now in striking distance of a wild-card spot thanks to Talbot’s fine performance between the pipes.
Others include Brayden Schenn, Sam Steel, Clayton Keller, Mark Scheifele, Johnny Gaudreau, Brandon Hagel, Jordan Eberle, Taylor Hall, Patrik Laine, Rasmus Sandin, Daniil Miromanov, K’Andre Miller, Jakob Chychrun, Ilya Samsonov, Lukas Dostal, Matt Murray, Marc-Andre Fleury and Pheonix Copley.
Fourth Liners/Press Boxers (Fallers)
Josh Anderson, RW, MTL
Saying Anderson is streaky is a mild understatement. After scoring no goals in seven straight games, Anderson tallied three times in a four-game stretch. He’s followed that up by not lighting the lamp in his last four contests, though he did have an assist Monday. Anderson, who has eight scores on the season, should continue to get every chance to succeed as he’s still skating on the top line with Cole Caufield and Nick Suzuki. Expect stretches like this from Anderson, but his point production and hits delivered warrant a spot in deeper leagues.
Erik Brannstrom, D, OTT
Brannstrom, selected 15th overall in 2017 by Las Vegas, was the main piece acquired by Ottawa in the Mark Stone deal. To date, though, Brannstrom has been a major disappointment. Brannstrom has only three assists in 31 games this season, a number that looks even worse when you factor in he had two assists in his first three games of the season. He had only 14 assists last season in 53 games and has seen his ice time drop from 19:46 in 2021-22 to 15:46 this season, contributing to his drop in production.
Elvis Merzlikins, G, CBJ
Merzlikins has had a brutal campaign to date, which has shown no signs of abatement. In addition, he has dealt with a lower-body injury that landed him on the shelf for three weeks. Since making his return from that injury earlier this month, Merzlikins has a rough .862 save percentage over five appearances. Columbus has struggled, and with Merzlikins having his issues between the pipes, Daniil Tarasov has started the past three games.
Others include Kevin Hayes (benched Saturday by coach John Tortorella), Mathew Barzal (first goal in six games and second in 12 contests last Friday), Jamie Benn, Dominik Kubalik, Patrick Kane, Mattias Ekholm, MacKenzie Weegar, Sergei Bobrovsky and Martin Jones.
