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Fantasy Hockey: Breakaways and Benders

Lars Eller has been on fire, can he continue his play into this week?

By Mark Abell
Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports

Fantasy Hockey: Breakaways and Benders

In this weekly piece I will provide 5 players below 50% owned who should be looked into owning (Breakaways) and 5 players above 50% owned who are struggling (Benders). This doesn't mean you should drop the Benders but maybe they can ride the pine for a week to get their head back in the game. Generally, I am very skittish about dropping anyone above 90% owned unless they have shown 2+ months of really bad play. My rationale for the selections includes some looking through the box scores but a majority of it is with the eye test, watching the games.

5 Breakaways:

Lars Eller (C, Wash) 2% owned. Ranked 25th over the last 30 days with 6 goals, 5 assists and a robust +14 to go with 82 FW, 1 SHP and 23 SOG.

Bryan Little (C, Wpg) 41% owned. I think it will be short lived but he's having a great February -€” 6 goals in his last 7 games.

Adam Henrique (C, NJ) 40% owned. He is a consistent all-around player but a very streak offensive player. He's in the window now with 7 points over his last 5 games.

Patrik Berglund (C, Stl) 2% owned. 3 goals in his last 4 games but it's largely because he's firing a lot of shots -€” 11 shots in 4 games.

Calvin Pickard (G, Col) 12% owned. Worth a shot as he's 2-1 with 5 GA total over his last 3 games, if he can continue this strong play it could be a good short term fix.

5 Benders:

Oliver Ekman-Larson (D, Ari) 96% owned. I'm probably benching him in my leagues for the near future, his +/- is obliterating me.

Shayne Gostisbehere (D, Phi) 77% owned. The coach is now audibly mentioning his frustration with the sophomore slump.

Gabriel Landeskog (C, Col) 67% owned. Part of it is just the overall team lackluster play this year but Gabriel is up and down on his production -€” this is a down year.


Keith Yandle (D, Fla) 87% owned. For the sheer amount of shots he takes I'm floored at his lack of goals (3 goals over 125) that's a goal every 41 shots.


Roberto Luongo (G, Fla) 90% owned. He is 1-4 with around 4.5 goals allowed per game over his last 5 games, now he travels cross country against some very strong offensively talented teams. Bench him this week.