Fantasy Hockey Forecaster: October 14th – 20th

Welcome to the Fantasy Hockey Forecaster! In here, you’ll find:

• Each team’s ranking for goalies, forwards, PK and PP against the other teams in the league. These stats are as of 10/10/2019 (there is no separation for home vs. away since the season is so young).
• Three players who are on fire (this might not even be points wise, it might be an uptick in play that signals to me they are on the cusp of some point production
• Three players who are cooling off (this will also include players that aren’t materializing the way we expect)
• Three free agent pickups (among all players under 50% owned, preferably some in the single digits and some that are close to 50 to feed all different sizes of leagues)
• The schedule which will show each team they play and what the individual rankings are for each matchup, this is more useful in the daily leagues where you are looking at individual matchups

Let’s begin!

3 players who are on fire

1. James Neal (74% owned) 7 goals. Being with Connor doesn’t hurt but still quite impressive.
2. Sammy Blais (37% owned) Sitting on the Blues second line, Sammy has impressed out of the gate with points and hits.
3. Auston Matthews (100% owned) He starts every season with a solid streak and his six goals and 3 power play points did not disappoint. Neither did his league leading 25 shots on goal.

3 players who are cooling off (not panicking on any of them)

1. John Tavares (100% owned) It’s not the points that are an issue, 4 points through 5 games is good. It’s the 9 shots and -2 through five games that has me concerned.
2. Vladimir Tarasenko (99% owned) We saw this last year, he can be very streaky and it has shown with 2 assist through four games, just 10 shots and a -3.
3. Erik Karlsson (63% owned) He started out in the exact same format last year but through four games Karlsson has looked back (and through 5 so have the Sharks) Erik has 2 assists and a -8 (2^nd worst in the league behind teammate Kevin Labanc).

3 free agent pickups (under 50%)

1. Brayden McNabb (14% owned) Sitting on Vegas top line, Brayden has impressed out of the gate with two points, +4 a short handed point and a bunch of hits.
2. Zack Kassian (15% owned). He’s the fresh face on the top Edmonton line, as long as this is in place. Pick. Him. Up.
3. Tyler Bertuzzi (48% owned). I referenced him in the preseason as a good sleeper for the Red Wings team, with six points through four games, he’s delivering so far.