NHL Waiver Wire: Week 4, One word from Buchnevich

NHL Week 4: Waiver Wire, I will look at a handful of players over 50% owned and under 50% owned to see where there is opportunity to pick up a sleeper or someone who might not produce at the levels you would expect.

Over owned:

-Jake Guentzel (80% owned) C, LW, Pit. Jake was only as good as the all star teammate who was setting him up (cough cough Sidney Crosby). Ok. There. I said it. He’s now on their third line with diminishing minutes playing with Riley Sheahan and Phil Kessel who is great but he’s not Crosby. Phil gets his points, Crosby gets everyone points. I want no part of non-crosby linemats Guentzel in the same way I want no part of Patrick Maroon not paired with Connor McDavid.

-Mitchell Marner (91% owned) much like Ryan Getzlaf who I pointed out last week (and is now hurt), Mitchell has both been underperforming and his name is emerging in trade talks as Toronto looks to bolster their defense. It doesn’t mean drop him this second but the leash is getting short for one of the worst plus/minus players in the league.

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-Jordan Eberle (75% owned) C, RW, NYI. Anyone who reads my stuff regularly knows I am not a big Eberle fan. He shrinks when teams need him the most and piles on points when it doesn’t matter. He has just 2 goals on 30 shots (which, thank god he finally DID score a goal) but a regression to the mean would be the norm (shooting 6% he should be closer to 10%). I’m just not sold on him in any capacity.

Under owned:

-Pavel Buchnevich (22% owned), LW,RW, NYR. Now on the top line for the Rangers alongside Mika Zibanejad and Chris Krieder, Pavel has made the most of his time up there with a week where he has 4 goals, 1 assist a +4 and 9 SOG. As long as he is next to the Swede and BC star, he will get chances to produce.

Danton Heinen (1% owned) C,RW Bos. This is somewhat deeper league but to be honest, he has produced solidly with 6 points in his first 6 games (I’m not sure if I can properly calculate how many points per game that is without a calculator). He has PPP (2), he has Short handed points (1), he has hits (4) and blocked shots (3). Worth the flier, especially while he’s on their second line with Jordan Szwarz and Anders Bjork.

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Joakim Ryan (0% owned) if you are in a league that rewards blocked shots, man do I have a good candidate. He’s on the top d-line right now with Brent Burns, that always leads to the occasional assist opportunity but he is sound in position and has blocked 20 shots in a few fewer games than his counter parts (thanks in part to a 9 blocked shot effort against the Predators). His minutes are going up and his shots are too, I think he could be a sleeping deep league flier.

Rightfully on the rise:

Dylan Larkin (69% owned), C,RW, Det. He had a sophomore slump and is bouncing back with 12 points in 13 games to go with his +4, 27 SOG and 102 FOW. Unlike Jordan Eberle I think Dylan is going to find the back of the net much more coming up.

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Jake Muzin (76% owned) D, LA. I mentioned earlier in preseason how impressive he was playing. He now has 2 goals, 7 assists +2 with 26 hits and 25 blocked shots in 12 games. Given all of the metrics beyond scoring (+/-, PIM, SOG, Hits, Blocked Shots), Jake is a top 5 defensemen in fantasy right now.