With not much action happening lately, this makes for a great opportunity to do some midseason biggest booms and busts.
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Biggest Booms
RW Elias Lindholm, CGY: The 24-year-old was traded to Calgary from Carolina during the off season, and it’s worked wonders for him. Lindholm has 59 points in 52 games, already surpassing his previous career-high 45 points. He’s thriving on a line with Johnny Gaudreau and Sean Monahan, resulting in the trio all having career years. For 12 team leagues, Lindholm was drafted on average in the 15th round. It’s understandable, given that he had never cracked 50 points at the time, and it was unknown whether he or James Neal would snag that spot on the top line. But it was Lindholm that took it, and hasn’t looked back since.
C Brayden Point, TBL: For a team with other elite talents such as Nikita Kucherov and Steven Stamkos, it wasn’t expected that Point would be one of the main driving forces on the team. Yet he has 30 goals, good for third in the league, with 13 of them generated from the power play, the second most of anyone in the league. His 65 points puts him in seventh in the scoring race, and he’s just one point shy of matching last year’s total. He’s gone from a secondary scorer to an elite fantasy asset – and was drafted in the seventh round for the average 12 team league.
D Thomas Chabot, OTT: The trading of Erik Karlsson to the San Jose Sharks left a huge void for the Senators, but Chabot has been exceptional in the role as a No. 1 defenseman. He has 10 goals and 39 points in 43 games, and led the league in points by a defenseman for the early part of the season. He’s no Karlsson, but he’s showing that he’s capable of being a top tier fantasy defenseman. He had just 25 points last year, but is on pace to easily double that and crack the 50-point plateau. It’s hard to believe that on average, he was passed on 15 times by each owner at the draft.
G Ben Bishop, DAL: If you read our Fantasy Hockey Mid Season Awards, you’d already know just how good Robin Lehner has been for the Islanders. So instead, I’ll go over one of the other top goaltenders this year, Big Ben Bishop. His wins aren’t too impressive, having 18 in 33 games, but it’s his other categories that make him stand out. He has a 2.25 GAA, .925 save percentage, along with three shutouts – good enough for second in the league for each one. Some of his teammates may have been called out this season, but Bishop certainly wasn’t, as he’s been the Stars MVP so far, and is the biggest reason they’re in the playoff picture. He was on average the 16th goalie taken in drafts, filling many fantasy owners with regret for passing on him in favor of Jonathan Quick or Cam Talbot. Speaking of which…
Biggest Busts
G Cam Talbot, EDM: Nothing has gone right in Edmonton this year, and that’s especially true for Cam Talbot. After posting a franchise-high 42 wins in 2016-17, it’s been all downhill. This season, Talbot has just nine wins in 27 games. Newcomer Mikko Koskinen has supplanted him as the Oilers starter, making it that much more difficult for Talbot to turn things around. On average, Talbot was the 14th goalie chosen in drafts, one spot ahead of Carey Price. It’s possible that Talbot could get traded, and that the right destination could have him salvage the last portion of the season – but don’t hold your breath.
RW Patrik Laine, WPG: It was looking like Laine was taking the next step in his development when he posted an absurd 18 goals in the month of November. Since then, he only has a paltry four goals. He was bound to slow down, but not to the extent where he has just 34 points in 51 games. Laine was on average the seventh skater drafted. This is not the kind of production expected from a first round selection, and likely set many teams back that chose to build around him.
D Ivan Provorov, PHI: The Flyers as a whole have had a disappointing season, but the highly touted defender was supposed to take another step forward this year, not backward. After finishing the 2017-18 campaign with 41 points and an NHL best 17 goals, he’s followed it up with four goals and 17 points through 51 contests. He also holds a minus-13 rating, compared to last year’s plus-17, and is on pace for 70 fewer shots on net (133 versus 203). He very well may end up posting lesser numbers than his rookie season, where he reached 30 points. On average, he was the 17th defenseman taken off the draft board, and hasn’t lived up to that level at all.
Note that players who missed significant time due to injuries weren’t included as busts.
For more great fantasy hockey talk, listen in on Chris Meaney and Neil Parker on the Fantrax Fantasy Hockey Podcast, as they hit on all the injuries, streamers, and recent trends you need to know to stay on top of the fantasy ice.
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