Fantasy Hockey Gauntlet - Week Two: Evgeni Nabokov, Trevor Daley, and Sami Vatanen

I assume that each of you have drafted a team by now, but if you haven't, Yahoo! has left registration open late. Go to Yahoo! Fantasy Hockey and join a league now! You can prepare for the season by reading my Fake Teams 2014 Fantasy Hockey Draft Kit. And then you should go and get NHL Center Ice to properly enjoy the season; trust me - it's well worth the money.

Hopefully the first article helped you out last week. As expected, Plekanec and Nelson didn't continue their torrid goal scoring start, but they both provided serviceable stats for the remainder of the week. Bozak actually had a better finish to the week than he started it and Pearson, Toffoli, and Gallagher went crazy - I'm glad I recommended them and am sorry that I didn't feel I had anyone worthy of dropping for them last week. Sutter, Maatta, Roussel, Tlusty, and Martinez had rather quiet weeks, but I remain convinced of their long term value for the year as nothing has really changed since last week.

Week Two (October 20-26):

4 Game Week: Chicago, San Jose, Tampa Bay, Vancouver
2 Game Week: Florida, Los Angeles, Minnesota, Montreal, New York Rangers, St. Louis
All other teams at 3 games

Waiver Pickups:

Mikkel Boedker - LW - ARI (25% owned): Boedker is playing top line in Arizona and might be the best goal scorer on the roster. He's scoring in droves to start the year, but he won't be very consistent through the year (you could say the same thing about the entire team). Feel free to ride him while he's hot, but be quick to drop him once he cools off.

Contributes in goals and shots
Can hurt you in assists and penalty minutes

Trevor Daley - D - DAL (8% owned): Daley is getting top pairing time with Alex Goligoski both even strength and on the powerplay which makes him potentially quite valuable. He makes contributions in every category which is always nice to have as it limits the amount of potentially useless games that he might have. I also believe in the Stars offense this year and so he should get plenty of good looks on the backend. If you have defensemen that aren't doing much on your roster don't be afraid to pick him up, i think he'll be a good fourth defenseman the entire year.

Contributes in everything
Can hurt you in plus/minus maybe?

Cam Atkinson - RW - CLS (24% owned): Now that Atkinson is getting some time on the top line with Ryan Johansen, i'm going to have to reevaluate my expectations for him. He's shooting the puck a lot which is leading to him scoring some goals to start the year. He's worth a look if he stays on the top line, but I wouldn't recommend him if he gets booted off.

Contributes in goals, assists, and shots
Can hurt you in penalty minutes

Filip Forsberg - C/RW - NSH (23% owned): There is a theme here of players making the most of their new opportunities. Forsberg is yet another first line opportunist here. A young and highly skilled forward, Forsberg is playing with Neal and Ribeiro which is a boon for his fantasy prospects. I already loved him in dynasty leagues, but I am now interested in yearly leagues.

Contributes in assists, plus/minus, and powerplay points
Can hurt you in penalty minutes

Sami Vatanen - D - ANH (28% owned): Powerplay specialists are typically very difficult to find in fantasy hockey as it's the first thing that managers typically look for so here's a diamond in the rough for you. Vatanen has all five of his points on the powerplay where he plays on the first unit with Ryan Getzlaf and Corey Perry. Enough said? I think so.

Contributes in goals, assists, powerplay points, and shots
Can hurt you in penalty minutes

Robin Lehner - G - OTT (39% owned): Lehner is playing quite well to start the year and incumbent starter Craig Anderson is always a lock for some streaky play at some point in the year. Unfortunately for Lehner, Anderson is playing fine right now, but Ottawa does have a back to back this week so Lehner should get a start and he makes for a quality hold right now as he will have value at some point.

Contributes in goals against average and save percentage
Can hurt you in wins and shutouts

Alex Stalock - G - SJ (37% owned): In a very similar situation as Lehner, Stalock is playing very well but so is the Sharks starter Antti Niemi. It helps that the Sharks seem open to giving Stalock the opportunity to push Niemi and should Niemi falter, Stalock is a must add. For now, he provides great ratios and should play a game a week. The Sharks do have a back to back this week so Stalock is nearly a lock to play at least a game.

Contributes in goals against average and save percentage
Can hurt you in wins and shutouts

Evgeni Nabokov - G - TB (4% owned): Nabby has a unique opportunity to play two games as a backup goalkeeper this week as the Lightning have two back to backs this week. He had a strong start against the Devils in a tough luck loss in his first start of the season. He's worth a roll of the dice this week, but is likely a drop after that as Bishop is the hands down starter here.

Contributes in wins
Can hurt you in everything

Henrik Lundqvist - G - NYR (100% owned): Lets be clear: no one is dropping King Henrik. But you should go out and try to acquire him right now. Lundy has a history of starting each year slowly but there is nothing to worry about here. Be aggressive if you smell weakness from his current owner.

Rick Nash - LW/RW - NYR (99% owned): I'm not suggesting you trade for Nash, I'm saying that you should entertain the idea of trading him away. He's leading the league in goals so far and is scoring on nearly a third of his shots. I didn't like him much before the season started and he's currently making me eat my words, but I'm sticking with my preseason thoughts for now and saying sell high. Of course, don't sell him for nothing, He probably cost you a fifth round pick, so try and get a third or fourth round player who fills a need of yours in return for him, even if you have to package something small with him to make it work.

Hopefully there is enough here to help you through the week, but if not, here is a preview towards next week.

Week Three (October 27-November 2) Preview:

4 Game Week: Anaheim, Arizona, Buffalo, Chicago, Colorado, Los Angeles, Minnesota, Montreal, Vancouver, Winnipeg
2 Game Week: Florida, New York Rangers
All other teams at 3 games

My NHL Schedule:

I worked out a few of the kinks in the NHL Schedule and have a revised version here: 2014-15 NHL Schedule . I have updated the spreadsheet so that the time setting is a drop down menu for you to select rather than having to go in and modify the formulas yourself. I also split out the remaining, played, and total games onto different tabs so that it's easier to differentiate between them. The one thing I ask of you is that you do not take my schedule and use it for your own personal gains. Please do not sell it, you can direct people here to find it, but do not sell it.

I'm new to the twitterverse, but I'd love to hear your feedback and questions. Follow me on Twitter @HockeyGauntlet for more of my thoughts and all of your fantasy hockey needs.