Fantasy Hockey Gauntlet - Week Ten: Nick Leddy, Jack Johnson, and Jakob Silfverberg

If you missed out on the early entries into my weekly series, you can find it all right here: Fake Teams Fantasy Hockey.

A quick recap of last weeks' recommendations: again I wasn't able to find anyone who really excelled, however Tommy Wingels, Alex Tanguay, and David Legwand were all two point contributors with okay stats and were perfectly serviceable. You certainly weren't unhappy with any of their performances. Aaron Ekblad, Tomas Hertl, Tomas Tatar, Tomas Jurco, and Curtis Glencross all had at least a point with some up and down performances, solid meh's. Ekblad's five game point streak came to a close, but he'll be fine. Stephen Weiss didn't play the last game of the week with a day to day shoulder injury, but that still doesn't excuse the two terrible games he did play where he only mustered a single shot. Scott Darling got the Tuesday start and if you listened to me, you picked him up as he received another two starts after that. He was a solid contributor for your team last week. Antti Raanta played very well on Sunday to give you some value if you picked him up, but one game usually isn't enough to help too much. It looks to me as if Darling is the one to own while Crawford is out.

In the snake draft league - This was Made in Kariya - there was three blowouts and three tight matchups. I settled with 6-4 win over a team just ahead of me in the standings, but still lost one spot in the standings, falling to seventh and out of the playoffs. It's awful tight though and I'm hoping to make up some ground against the team in fourth this week. The auction draft league - Don't Toews me bro! - finally gave me a soft matchup as I won 9-0-1 and cruised up the standings into third place and only two points out from first. My big week was aided by my opponent not setting his lineups, so I can't take full credit there. I've got a tough matchup this week against the team right behind me in the standings. Overall I went 5-1-0 and I'm now 30-17-6 in head to head matchups on the year. My matchup winning percentage is 0.623 for the year among all leagues versus my category (points) winning percentage of 0.541 (I win a lot of tight matchups).

Week Ten (December 15-21):

4 Game Week: Boston, Buffalo, Carolina, New Jersey, Ottawa, Philadelphia, Tampa Bay, Toronto
2 Game Week: Arizona, Nashville, San Jose, Vancouver
All other teams at 3 games

You should go and get NHL Center Ice (if you haven't already done so) to properly enjoy the season's slate of games; trust me - it's worth the money and maybe you can get a discount now since the season is nearly half way complete.

Waiver Pickups:

Mika Zibanejad - C/RW - OTT (14% owned): Mika has been one of the hottest scorers around, having lit the lamp five times in the last two weeks playing with Bobby Ryan. The run will likely be short lived, but ride him until the Christmas break and then see if he comes back playing just as well.

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

Boone Jenner - C/LW - CLS (10%): Boone has been lighting the lamp as well with five in the last two weeks. I like that he's playing top line and powerplay with Ryan Johansen who everyone knows I love. Again, ride the hot streak while it lasts.

Contributes in goals, powerplay points
Can hurt you in assists

Justin Williams - RW - LA (41%) and Dustin Brown - LW/RW - LA (41%): In any playoff pool, I'd be far more optimistic on either William's or Brown's prospects, but in the regular season they're/the team's just not consistent enough to warrant picking up for the entire season. The Kings also juggles the lines often enough that it's tough to get a read on who's playing where. Lately Williams and Brown have been a fine addition, playing on one of the top lines rather than sinking into the bottom six where they started the year. Their hot streaks usually last for a while so I'm hoping for about a month of quality production from them.

Contributes in goals, assists, plus/minus, shots
Can hurt you in nothing (or everything when they're cold)

Sean Couturier - C - PHI (6%): Sean is better known for his defensive prowess, but he has a six game point streak going on as well. Don't forget that he was the eighth overall pick in 2011, so he has pedigree. He's still playing third line shutdown duties (and I don't expect that to change), but he's worth a short term add while the puck is bouncing his way.

Contributes in assists, plus/minus, powerplay points
Can hurt you in shots

Jakob Silfverberg - LW/RW - ANH (17%): Silfverberg was the biggest return that the Ducks got back in the Bobby Ryan deal. It's a little tough to determine which line he's on, not that they're changing, but that they're rather evenly spread out right now. He's a skilled player though and he's scoring about a point a game over the last seven games (six points). I believe he is skilled enough to continue being a contributing player, but we'll have to see how the rest of the season develops.

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

Mike Santorelli - C - TOR (16%): I'm not a huge fan of picking him up and I'm only recommending him as a short term addition if you need immediate help. The second line of the Leafs has been hot lately and Santorelli has chipped in with thirteen points in the last ten games (Kadri with ten points is 52% owned), however the Leafs are too inconsistent for me to bank on outside of their top line for the season long stretch.

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

Nick Leddy - D - NYI (36%): It's tough to find powerplay contributors on the waiver wire, but Nick Leddy is widely available, likely due to the injury he suffered earlier in the year. He's the powerplay quarterback on the top unit with John Tavares. I think he'll be a decent fourth or fifth defenseman all year if you can tolerate his lack of shots.

Contributes in assists, powerplay points
Can hurt you in goals, shots

Jack Johnson - D - CLS (45%): Jack Johnson is another powerplay specialist who is under owned. He has many of the same faults as Leddy does, mainly that he doesn't shoot enough, but the powerplay assists should keep him owned. Plus he's highly motivated as he recently went bankrupt due to the mismanaging of his account by his parents (who can you trust nowadays?).

Contributes in assists, powerplay points
Can hurt you in goals, shots

Scott Darling - G - CHI (24%): Like I said, I'm siding with my Darling over Antti Raanta until Corey Crawford returns. I'd expect a two and one split between the two this week.

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

Week Eleven (December 22-28) Preview:

With Christmas, it's a short week. Make sure you meet your goalie games requirement!

3 Game Week: Anaheim, Arizona, Nashville, Pittsburgh, Washington
1 Game Week: Montreal
All other teams at 2 games

My NHL Schedule:

The NHL Schedule has not been revised for anything since last week but can be found here: 2014-15 NHL Schedule . Don't forget to change the time zone to your appropriate time zone. 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.

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