Special to Yahoo Sports
With only 30 or so games left in the season and the trade deadline quickly approaching, there’s enough sample size to properly gauge each player’s fantasy value for the rest of the season. There are no more surprises — Tage Thompson‘s breakout or Jonathan Huberdeau‘s massively disappointing season — to take advantage of in trades.
But there are still plenty of players whose fantasy values can move up or down based on ice time and opportunity. Injuries and upcoming trades involving players such as Timo Meier will still send ripples across the landscape, on both their former and new teams.
Here are this week’s trade targets.
Trade For
Brayden Schenn, C/LW, Blues (56% rostered)
Schenn has drawn the coveted assignment of playing on a line with Robert Thomas and Jordan Kyrou, two key pillars of the Blues’ future. Schenn is a useful fantasy player because he can contribute in all categories (41 points, 92 hits, 239 faceoff wins), but he also stands to gain a ton of ice time when the Blues trade more of their impending UFAs, not to mention the fact that Brandon Saad was injured in Tuesday’s game. Schenn has played more than 20 minutes in three of his past four games, and his usage will surely increase down the stretch.
Valeri Nichushkin, LW/RW, Avalanche (70% rostered)
Nichushkin hasn’t been very productive since returning from injury, scoring just one goal and three points in nine games since January 16. It seems like it’s just some poor luck; according to naturalstattrick.com, Nichushkin is still generating over one shot attempt per minute at 5-on-5, and trails only Nathan MacKinnon, Evan Rodrigues and Mikko Rantanen in shot attempts per 60 (min. 100:00 TOI).
Along with tons of playing time, averaging almost 21 minutes per game and ranking 10th in the league going into Tuesday’s games, Nichushkin should get back on track soon. It’s a good time to bet on Nichushkin turning it around while he’s a mini-slump on a very good Avs offense that’s probably going to add more firepower at the trade deadline.
Jesper Bratt, RW, Devils (89% rostered)
Jack Hughes‘ injury will take a big bite out of the Devils offense, but don’t forget they have another very good scoring line with Bratt, Nico Hischier and Ondrej Palat. Bratt has been a point-per-game player (0.98, to be exact) for two straight seasons now, and with Hughes out of the lineup, the Devils will be leaning on Bratt’s line a lot more to generate offense. Bratt’s ice time has also crept upwards throughout the season, averaging 17:05 in October and now well over 18 minutes over the past three months. With L1 and PP1 upside, Bratt should be a top scorer from now until the end of the season on a very good team.
Palat, by the way, is a great pickup off the waiver wire since he’s rostered in less than 50 percent of Yahoo leagues. On a stacked Tampa offense he was routinely churning out 50-point seasons, but on the Devils, where he’s expected to be a key driver on offense, he’s delivered with 10 points in his past 10 games.
K’Andre Miller, D, Rangers (55% rostered)
Since the calendar flipped, Miller has quietly emerged as one of the most productive defensemen in the league, with his 13 points in 16 games ranking 16th in points per game. He went through a major drought at the beginning of the season with zero goals on 39 shots in 24 games, but the puck is finally bouncing his way. He’s become a legitimate top-four defenseman on a very good team with a big role on the second power-play unit, and the addition of Niko Mikkola, who was acquired along with Vladimir Tarasenko from the Blues, could free up more offensive opportunities for Miller. Along with a steady diet of hits and blocked shots, Miller should be one of the best all-around defensemen for the rest of the season and particularly valuable in banger leagues.
Trade Away
Tomas Hertl, C, Sharks (63% rostered)
It’s no secret that both Timo Meier and Erik Karlsson are potentially on the move, and once they are, the Sharks offense is going to tank. Hertl is already struggling to score, with 15 goals in 53 games this season, and he’ll be deprived of his winger and the league’s best-scoring defenseman. Even if the Sharks give Hertl all the ice time he wants, he’s not going to be in a good position to score many points. That he’s already scored 47 points this season was a nice surprise, but it’s very unlikely that Hertl’s fantasy value will get any higher this season.
According to naturalstattrick.com, Hertl is operating at a 55.56 5v5 CF% when playing with Meier but falls to 44.14 5v5 CF% without Meier. That’s a massive drop, basically going from top-tier offensive production to the bottom of the league. If fantasy managers don’t trade Hertl now, there might come a point where they will simply have to drop him onto the waiver wire.
J.T. Miller, C/LW/RW, Canucks (99% rostered)
The Rick Tocchet bump didn’t last and it’s not the first time Miller has ended up on the wrong side of this trade list. The Canucks still can’t defend, unsurprisingly, and it’s made worse by the fact that their goaltending has really imploded. It doesn’t look like Tocchet’s made much of an impact on Miller, who remains a one-dimensional power-play specialist and is currently on an eight-game goal drought. Without Bo Horvat, the Canucks power play has understandably suffered, including a 0-for-4 performance against the Red Wings’ 18th-ranked penalty kill on Monday.
Playing Miller at center, his preferred position, means he’s at least getting faceoff wins, but his defensive play is still lacking, and his ice time has yo-yo’ed as a result. Miller is just far too unreliable to be a top fantasy performer, not to mention that his offensive upside will be capped with Conor Garland (28 points in 53 games) and minor leaguer Phil Di Giuseppe — who went 710 days between scoring his two most recent goals — as his wings.
