Fantasy Hockey Gauntlet - Week Twelve: Michael Hutchinson, Michael Raffl, Mark Scheifele

I hope you've all enjoyed your Christmas break! Having had taken a week off myself, it's time to get back into the thick of things. 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 my last set of recommendations: Mika Zibanejad, Jack Johnson, Sean Couturier, and Justin Williams all contributed multipoint efforts over the last two weeks and were all right. Unfortunately, none were real difference makers. Dustin Brown, Nick Leddy, Jakob Silfverberg, Mike Santorelli, and Boone Jenner were all terrible and I feel bad for recommending them to you (although I still like Leddy). Scott Darling was a complete disaster as Antti Raanta started the remaining games while Corey Crawford was hurt. I'm officially giving up trying to predict which one they'll go to, thankfully Crawford is back and I shouldn't need to anymore.

In the snake draft league - This was Made in Kariya - in the last two weeks I only went .500, yet that was good enough for me to rise two places in the standings. I now find myself in fifth and in a playoff spot, but it's really tight. I'm going to have to play better than .500 if I want to make sure that I make the playoffs. I'm against the team in second last this week, so it's the perfect opportunity for me to put some distance between myself and those other bubble teams. The auction draft league - Don't Toews me bro! - I went .639 and jumped back into second place and only a few points out of first. I'm feeling far more comfortable in this league than I am in the snake draft league. Overall I went 4-7-1 over the two weeks and I'm now 34-24-7 in head to head matchups on the year. My matchup winning percentage is 0.577 for the year among all leagues versus my category (points) winning percentage of 0.541. My points winning percentage didn't change over the two week span, however I need to make sure that I'm winning more matchups.

Week Twelve (December 29 - January 4):

It's a busy week as this week has the most NHL games packed into it besides the extended opening week and the extended All Star Game week.

4 Game Week: Boston, Buffalo, Carolina, Colorado, Dallas, Edmonton, Florida, Los Angeles, Minnesota, Montreal, Nashville, New Jersey, New York Islanders, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, Tampa Bay, Toronto
2 Game Week: None
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:

Mark Scheifele - C - WPG (15% owned) and Mathieu Perreault - C - WPG (8%): Recommendations are going to be difficult to make this week as the Christmas break is going to throw a wrench in things. Don't add Sheifele or Perreault immediately, they were hot entering the break (Scheifele had three goals and six assists in the six games entering the break and Perreault had four and three), but they were held scoreless in the game immediately after. Watch them and if they score again tonight, look to pick them up as they were rolling.

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

Johnny Gaudreau - LW - CGY (49%): Johnny Hockey netted a hat trick in the final game before the break and came back to score two in the return game. He's scored six goals in the last three games on just eleven shots, so that might be a bit worrying, but he's producing regardless.

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

Troy Brouwer - RW - WAS (15%): Brouwer isn't a sexy pick, but he quietly gets it done. He's playing on the second line and has seventeen points so far. He doesn't pick up a lot of penalty minutes, but he doesn't shy away either and he has eleven PIMs in the last two weeks. He's a do it all safe pick.

Contributes in everything and nothing at the same time...
Can hurt you in powerplay points and shots

Andrej Sekera - D - CAR (16%): Sekera was rosterable for most of last year, but has been a dud to start the season this year. He's finally started to put it together with five points in the last two weeks. If he can continue to play like he did last year, then he's worth owning as he contributes in all categories.

Contributes in everything
Can hurt you in nothing (or anything point related when he's not playing well)

Craig Smith - C/RW - NSH (19%), Colin Wilson - C/LW - NSH (6%), and Mike Fisher - C - NSH (7%): Smith is playing with Filip Forsberg and Mike Ribeiro and Wilson and Fisher are playing with James Neal. Either way, you can't go wrong as the Predators are scoring under coach Peter Laviolette. It was Smith rolling before Christmas, but it was Wilson and Fisher that came on after the break.

Contributes in goals, assists, plus/minus, shots
Can hurt you in nothing

Michael Raffl - LW - PHI (3%): Last time I recommended Raffl, he had just been moved to the top line and he got injured shortly after my recommendation. I'm hoping to avoid that again. He's back and has been reunited with Claude Giroux and Jakub Voracek. That led to two goals and two assists in the three games before the Christmas break. This is a risky add, but if he continues to play there, he could pay huge dividends for your team.

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

Michael Hutchinson - G - WPG (48%): Hutch has just about stolen the starting role from Ondrej Pavelec. He's starting again tonight which makes it his third straight start. He's also been terrific in the last two weeks, picking up three wins and a 1.64 GAA with a .947 SV% in three starts. The starting role might just be his now.

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

Week Thirteen (January 5-11) Preview:

4 Game Week: Chicago, Minnesota, San Jose, Winnipeg
2 Game Week: Anaheim, Los Angeles, Montreal, Pittsburgh, Tampa Bay, Toronto
All other teams at 3 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.

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.