Fantasy top 100 forwards: Depth saving Jets' season

Tuesday, 03.24.2015 / 12:00 PM / Fantasy Hockey Draft Rankings, Advice and Analysis

By Pete Jensen - NHL.com Fantasy Insider

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Fantasy top 100 forwards: Depth saving Jets' season
Every Tuesday during the season, NHL.com fantasy hockey insider Pete Jensen will provide you with in-depth forward analysis.

Every Tuesday during the season, NHL.com fantasy hockey insider Pete Jensen will provide you with in-depth forward analysis. From updated weekly top 100 rankings to trending players and more, Jensen will be your go-to guy for fantasy forward advice all season long.

UPDATED TOP 100 FORWARD RANKINGS

With Bryan Little, Dustin Byfuglien and Mathieu Perreault injured, the Winnipeg Jets appeared to be the team to write off in the jam-packed Western Conference postseason race.

But the moves the Jets made to address their forward depth leading up to the 2015 NHL Trade Deadline have allowed them to be adaptable in the face of adversity. Recent acquisition Drew Stafford has revitalized his career, center Mark Scheifele has thrived in an elevated role, and Blake Wheeler has been as consistent as ever through the adjustment period.

The Stafford-Scheifele-Wheeler line has kept the Jets on track for their first trip to the Stanley Cup Playoffs since the franchise relocated from Atlanta in 2011-12. From a fantasy standpoint, two-thirds of this trio is readily available in Yahoo leagues with nine regular-season games left on the table.

In the absence of Little, who was injured March 4, the Jets' newly constructed top line has combined for 28 points (Wheeler 10, Stafford 10, Scheifele 8) in eight games. Scheifele (29 percent owned in Yahoo leagues, C) hasn't missed a game this season and has at least a point in nine of his past 13 with a noticeable uptick in shots on goal per game since the promotion (2.63) compared to his season average (2.10). Wheeler, among the League leaders in points since 2011-12, continues to be one of the game's most underrated players, though he does get top-20 recognition among fantasy forwards this week.

But the biggest surprise of the bunch has been Stafford, who came over from the Buffalo Sabres in the Evander Kane blockbuster on Feb. 11. His arrival has brought a big shooting percentage correction with more talent around him in Winnipeg. His SOG conversion rate of 8.2 percent from 2011-12 to 2014-15 with the Sabres has more than doubled (17.9) in 17 games with the Jets. The 29-year-old has an expiring contract and has been a streaky player, to say the least, in recent seasons, but this sample size since the trade is an indication that he can feed off quality linemates and be fantasy-relevant again in the right environment.

Drew Stafford
STATS PRIOR TO MAR. 24 GAMES
GOALS: 16 | ASST: 22 | PTS: 38
SOG: 130 | +/-: -14
Plus, whether Stafford can sustain this next season is just as little of a concern to fantasy owners as his combined minus-53 with the Sabres from 2012-13 to 2014-15. It's all about here and now in head-to-head fantasy playoffs, and Stafford (13 percent owned) is playing a confident game, as evidenced by his transition goal off a takeaway Monday against the Edmonton Oilers.

Stafford, Scheifele and Wheeler have also seen time on the Jets' first power-play unit of late, along with captain Andrew Ladd. Stafford got 4:15 of power-play ice time Monday and has three power-play points since the trade. He's riding a six-game point streak (four goals, four assists) with a plus-6 rating in that span.

Although the staying power of this line could be impacted once Little returns from injury, Stafford has cemented a top-six spot, and that was far from a given when he arrived in Winnipeg. Make room for him and Scheifele in deep leagues, and keep each on your watch list for the closing stretch in shallow leagues as well.


Ondrej Palat
STATS PRIOR TO MAR. 24 GAMES
GOALS: 16 | ASST: 40 | PTS: 56
SOG: 127 | +/-: 32
TRENDING UP

Ondrej Palat, LW, Tampa Bay Lightning

Palat only missed three games because of a foot injury, but there were still far-reaching fantasy ramifications. Fellow 50-plus point producers Tyler Johnson and Nikita Kucherov went into a dry spell and some fantasy owners were forced to cut the cord with Palat because of short-term playoff urgency. But Palat (64 percent owned; up nine percent from March 20) has responded with two multipoint performances and a plus-4 rating in two games since returning, boosting his total to plus-32 on the season (T-3rd in NHL). He has even contributed with the man-advantage by logging 2:54 of power-play ice time Friday against the Detroit Red Wings and scoring a power-play goal, his third of the season, Sunday against the Boston Bruins. If Palat can continue to contribute on the power play over Tampa Bay's final nine regular-season games, he's bound to move up even higher among the top-50 fantasy forwards.

David Perron
STATS PRIOR TO MAR. 24 GAMES
GOALS: 17 | ASST: 23 | PTS: 40
SOG: 175 | +/-: -20
TRENDING DOWN

Pittsburgh Penguins top-six wings

After testing the patience of his fantasy owners at points this season, Sidney Crosby is back atop the NHL scoring list. But even before Evgeni Malkin and Patric Hornqvist each sustained an injury that left him day-to-day, Pittsburgh's top-six wings were leaving much to be desired. David Perron has been racking up penalty minutes and SOG since joining Pittsburgh via trade, but he has cooled off in terms of goal-scoring lately. After he had nine goals over his first 16 games with the Penguins, Perron has a 7.7 percent shooting rate (three goals on 39 SOG) over his next 18 games. Perron is worth your patience because of his high SOG volume, spot on Crosby's line and added value in hits leagues, but fantasy owners are nearing wit's end with wings Chris Kunitz and Blake Comeau, who are mired in eight-game point droughts. Kunitz has a much more impressive track record and is worth hanging on to if Malkin returns soon, but Comeau should be dropped in most shallow leagues.

Chris Stewart
STATS PRIOR TO MAR. 24 GAMES
GOALS: 14 | ASST: 17 | PTS: 31
SOG: 136 | +/-: -26
KEEP AN EYE ON

Chris Stewart, RW, Minnesota Wild

So often in head-to-head playoff matchups, a peripheral category like PIMs could determine your fate. Just as often, players who have struggled for the better part of the season finish on high notes and quietly become difference-makers in fantasy leagues. Stewart, who was off the fantasy grid for 61 games with the Sabres (25 points, minus-30), is showing signs of life in 11 games since joining the Wild. He has six points (three goals) since the change of scenery, but his real value has come in the PIMs (16), shots on goal (20) and plus-minus (plus-4) categories over that stretch. At only 15 percent owned, he's emerging as a hidden gem alongside Mikko Koivu and Nino Niederreiter that standard-league owners can't afford to ignore. If Stewart is owned, Charlie Coyle (five percent owned, C/RW) is another quality option with three goals, three assists, four PIMs and a plus-5 over his past five games on a line with surging Thomas Vanek.


TOP 100 FANTASY FORWARDS

These rankings are based on expectations for the season ahead. Upward and downward trends are based on games since March 17, 2015. Value is quantified by line combinations, overall upside and past performance in standard Yahoo categories (goals, assists, plus-minus, penalty minutes, power-play points and shots on goal). Games remaining, as of March 24, 2015, are also factored in.

1 Alex Ovechkin, LW/RW, WSH (SAME) 51 Johnny Gaudreau, LW, CGY (+9)
2 Sidney Crosby, C, PIT (SAME) 52 Bobby Ryan, LW/RW, OTT (+3)
3 Steven Stamkos, C/RW, TBL (+1) 53 Scott Hartnell, LW, CBJ (+6)
4 John Tavares, C, NYI (-1) 54 Marian Gaborik, LW/RW, LAK (-2)
5 Vladimir Tarasenko, RW, STL (+2) 55 Derick Brassard, C, NYR (+1)
6 Tyler Seguin, C/RW, DAL (SAME) 56 Jarome Iginla, RW, COL (+2)
7 Claude Giroux, C/RW, PHI (+2) 57 Sean Monahan, C, CGY (+8)
8 Evgeni Malkin, C/RW, PIT - DTD 58 Gustav Nyquist, C/RW, DET (-9)
9 Max Pacioretty, LW, MTL (+2) 59 Tomas Plekanec, C, MTL (+9)
10 Jakub Voracek, RW, PHI (+2) 60 Mark Stone, RW, OTT (+12)
11 Rick Nash, LW/RW, NYR (-3) 61 Ryan Kesler, C/RW, ANA (-8)
12 Nicklas Backstrom, C, WSH (-2) 62 Kyle Okposo, RW, NYI (-8)
13 Joe Pavelski, LW/C/RW, SJS (SAME) 63 Bryan Little, C/RW, WPG - DTD
14 Jamie Benn, LW/C, DAL (+2) 64 Milan Lucic, LW, BOS (-7)
15 Zach Parise, LW, MIN (+2) 65 Brendan Gallagher, RW, MTL (+10)
16 Jonathan Toews, C, CHI (+3) 66 Chris Kreider, LW, NYR (-2)
17 Tyler Johnson, C/RW, TBL (+1) 67 Jordan Eberle, RW, EDM (+15)
18 Henrik Zetterberg, LW/C, DET (-3) 68 Derek Stepan, C, NYR (+3)
19 Blake Wheeler, RW, WPG (+8) 69 Taylor Hall, LW/C, EDM (NR - IR)
20 Ryan Getzlaf, C, ANA (SAME) 70 Mark Scheifele, C, WPG (+17)
21 Pavel Datsyuk, LW/C, DET - DTD 71 Jason Pominville, RW, MIN (-1)
22 Nick Foligno, LW, CBJ (-1) 72 Eric Staal, LW/C, CAR (-9)
23 Ryan Johansen, C/RW, CBJ (SAME) 73 Anders Lee, LW/C, NYI (-11)
24 David Backes, C/RW, STL (SAME) 74 Matt Duchene, LW/C, COL (+7)
25 Andrew Ladd, LW, WPG (-3) 75 Chris Kunitz, LW, PIT (-14)
26 Alexander Steen, LW/C, STL (SAME) 76 Mats Zuccarello, LW/RW, NYR (+4)
27 Corey Perry, RW, ANA (+1) 77 Craig Smith, C/RW, NSH (+2)
28 Filip Forsberg, LW/C/RW, NSH (-3) 78 Patrick Marleau, LW/C, SJS (-5)
29 Nikita Kucherov, LW/RW, TBL (SAME) 79 Brad Marchand, LW, BOS (-5)
30 Daniel Sedin, LW, VAN (+3) 80 Jaromir Jagr, RW, FLA (-4)
31 Marian Hossa, RW, CHI (+1) 81 Tyler Toffoli, RW, LAK (-4)
32 Patrice Bergeron, C, BOS (+3) 82 Jonathan Huberdeau, LW/C, FLA (+1)
33 Jeff Carter, C/RW, LAK (-3) 83 Justin Abdelkader, LW/RW, DET (+1)
34 Gabriel Landeskog, LW, COL (+7) 84 Mike Ribeiro, C, NSH (-15)
35 Anze Kopitar, C, LAK (+2) 85 Brandon Saad, LW/RW, CHI (-7)
36 Radim Vrbata, RW, VAN (+4) 86 Mike Hoffman, LW/C, OTT (+6)
37 David Perron, LW/RW, PIT (-6) 87 Alex Killorn, LW/C, TBL (+4)
38 Tomas Tatar, LW, DET (+1) 88 Phil Kessel, RW, TOR (-22)
39 Wayne Simmonds, RW, PHI (-1) 89 Kyle Turris, C, OTT (NEW)
40 Jiri Hudler, LW/RW, CGY (+8) 90 James Neal, LW/RW, NSH - DTD
41 Logan Couture, LW/C, SJS (-5) 91 Alex Tanguay, LW/RW, COL (+2)
42 Patric Hornqvist, RW, PIT - DTD 92 Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, C, EDM (NEW)
43 Jaden Schwartz, LW, STL (+2) 93 Thomas Vanek, LW/RW, MIN (+6)
44 Jason Spezza, C, DAL (-2) 94 Paul Stastny, C, STL (+2)
45 Joe Thornton, C, SJS (-2) 95 Ryan O'Reilly, LW/C, COL (+3)
46 Ryan Callahan, RW, TBL (SAME) 96 Nick Bjugstad, C, FLA (-8)
47 Ondrej Palat, LW, TBL (NR - IR) 97 Drew Stafford, RW, WPG (NEW)
48 Patrick Sharp, LW/C, CHI (+3) 98 Steve Downie, LW/RW, PIT (-4)
49 T.J. Oshie, C/RW, STL (-5) 99 Mika Zibanejad, C/RW, OTT (NEW)
50 Henrik Sedin, C, VAN (SAME) 100 Erik Cole, LW/RW, DET (NEW)

Just Missed: Ryan Strome, Valtteri Filppula, Mikko Koivu, Alex Galchenyuk, Michael Frolik, Mike Cammalleri, Curtis Glencross, Kevin Hayes, Adam Henrique, David Desharnais

Dropped out: Strome, Filppula, Galchenyuk, Cammalleri, Glencross, James van Riemsdyk, Colin Wilson

Key injuries: Patrick Kane, Martin St. Louis, Nathan MacKinnon, David Krejci, Mathieu Perreault, Brett Connolly, Johan Franzen, Evander Kane, Mikkel Boedker, Valeri Nichushkin, Tanner Pearson, Pascal Dupuis

DTD: Day-to-day; NR - IR: Not ranked last week because of injury

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