More than two weeks of regular-season games have passed, and it is never too early to scour the waiver wire for the early breakouts and panic drops common to this time in October. In my podcast on FantraxHQ, Fantasy Hockey Life, I like to give listeners some streaming options for the remainder of the week and into the following week. While streaming is an important facet of competing in a daily moves league, so is upgrading roster talent by grabbing players who don’t belong on the waiver wire anymore. Some waiver players are talented enough to be worth a temporary gap in the active lineup.
Fantasy Hockey Waiver Wire
A couple of rookies with under 50% ownership are waiver wire targets I already have a close eye on:
Maxime Comtois, LW, 41% owned
I featured Max Comtois as a great streaming option for this week in deeper peripherals-based leagues, and I am ready to talk about him as an option even in shallower leagues. Why would I recommend a waiver move on a player who has only one shot and one assist in three games this year?
Comtois came into the year as one of the most highly touted prospects in hockey. Despite being sent down to the AHL after the preseason, he quickly returned to the big club once Anaheim suffered its first rash of injuries. Most importantly, Comtois is playing almost exclusively with Ryan Getzlaf and Ondrej Kase both on even strength and the power play, arguably the best place to play on the Ducks. While the sample this year is small, Comtois has eight offensive zone starts to one defensive zone start this year after splitting zone starts 50/50 in his nine-game 2018-19 run, which explains why his Corsi/Fenwick possession percentages are #2 on the team. All this adds up to Comtois’s minutes coming disproportionally at the end of the ice where he can get points, and points are good. Given the wide-open opportunities in Anaheim, it is not impossible for Comtois to sneak into the Calder conversation be year’s end. Oh, did I mention he had eight hits in his first three games?
Martin Necas, C/RW, 39% owned
Necas is yet another talented waiver target graduating the Carolina Hurricanes development system, one of the leaders of a Charlotte Checkers team that won last year’s Calder Cup. When fantasy players scan line combos, they may well be scared off by Necas’s placement on the Canes’ third line with Eric Haula and Ryan Dzingel. While it might be nice to replace Brock McGinn at right wing next to Jordan Staal and budding star Andrei Svechnikov, the Staal line has played a predominantly defensive role while Necas’s line has deployed more frequently in the offensive zone. Rostering Necas has already paid dividends. In eight games, he has two goals and three assists (two of the assists were of the more coveted primary variety.) Eleven shots means two goals is not an unreasonable number and a 7.7% on-ice shooting percentage and low .97 PDO means his line is not even getting puck luck. He is getting some power-play time already which could grow as he establishes himself on the team. With that sweet dual-eligibility, this promising youngster should be a tempting add.
Vladislav Namestnikov, LW/RW, 17% owned
OK, I get no one values a Senator second-liner highly as a long-term waiver wire add. This is a perfectly rational position to hold. I get Namestnikov averages less than half a point per game over his career. The Rangers obviously did not value him highly any more as they traded him last week for a fourth-round pick and a 25-year-old minor-leaguer, retaining salary in the process. One early sign from his first three games in Ottawa is he is likely on track for career-high minutes in the depleted Ottawa roster. The pace of two goals, two assists, seven shots, two hits, and two blocks in his first three games in the red and black may not hold up all year, but it is a promising hot streak worth a further look. Namestnikov has always had the talent. Maybe now is the time he will finally have a sustained opportunity to showcase it.
Another reason Namestnikov’s fast start post-trade has not turned into a quicker rise in ownership is Ottawa’s lukewarm schedule this week – since last Monday they only have games scheduled for the busy Thursday and Saturday nights. Flip to the next week in your schedule and find they will have the best schedule in the league next week with four quality games on Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday.
Got another name or two for the first fantasy hockey waiver wire period of the year? Let us know in the comments below. We promise we won’t tell anyone in your league.
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