Where will Jakob Chychrun be when the puck is dropped for the Arizona Coyotes game on Monday?
A trade is imminent enough that I suspect it has already happened by the time you are reading this. The Coyotes held him out of Saturday’s lineup for “trade-related reasons.” That’s a pretty good indicator something is close enough to not risk an injury and is not a tactic a team will use lightly.
While I don’t know where he’s going, we can start to look at how the Coyotes will look without him.
It’s very easy to envision the defensive depth chart as a ladder. The top rung right now is Chychrun, followed by Shayne Gostisbehere and then J.J. Moser. Both Gostisbehere and Moser were much better fantasy contributors when they were one rung higher.
Chychrun missed the first 16 games of the season and debuted on Nov. 21. Through Nov. 20, Gostisbehere had recorded 2.1 fantasy points per game (FPPG), while Moser has posted 2.0. In the games since Chychrun made his debut, Gostisbehere is down to 1.8 FPPG and Moser to 1.3.
If we remove Chychrun from the equation, we can expect Gostisbehere and Moser to rise closer to the levels they were at before Chychrun’s debut. It would be enough to vault Gostisbehere into the conversation for the top 25 fantasy defensemen and enough to put Moser back on the radar for top 50.
Gostisbehere, of course, is still projected to miss at least two more weeks with an upper-body injury. But there’s also the possibility the Coyotes trade him, too! Gostisbehere is on a rental-friendly contract and is well-known as a power-play specialist a contender might want to have on the roster.
If that’s the case, it’s possible we could move Moser up yet another rung as the primary defenseman on the Coyotes power play if both are gone. In this case, Josh Brown might get back on the fantasy radar, too. He posted 1.9 FPPG across the first 16 games of the season before Chychrun debuted, but virtually disappeared after that (1.0 FPPG).
But the other player might be Juuso Valimaki, a talented puck mover on the blue line that has never really lived up to his No. 16 overall billing from the 2017 draft. In Saturday’s game, he was the choice over Moser and Brown to quarterback the power play, which managed to score twice under his supervision. Valimaki could come run up the middle and be the new point producer on the Coyotes blue line if both Chychrun and Gostisbehere leave town. The team just signed Valimaki to a one-year extension, so they know they have him for the medium-term.
At the very least, it would be weird to have the Coyotes put Chychrun in the lineup again after Saturday’s holdout, so we can expect them to continue without him and Gostisbehere at least until later this month, when Gostisbehere is due to return from injury.
The Coyotes matchup against the Nashville Predators on Monday won’t be super conducive to scoring, but, for all the strengths of their defensive game, the Preds are just middle of the pack when it comes to penalty killing. Maybe we’ll see more of Valimaki shining or Moser re-emerging.
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Favorable scoring matchups
7:30 p.m., Canadian Tire Centre, Watch live on ESPN+
While the goaltending needs to catch up, the Flames offense is finding its rhythm. They rank second in goals per 60 at five-on-five in the past month of hockey, with three lines of offense rolling strong. And suffice it to say, with Cam Talbot hurt and Anton Forsberg out for the season, the goaltending won’t likely be rock solid at the other end unless Mads Sogaard can channel the ghost of Andrew Hammond. The third line of Mikael Backlund, Blake Coleman and Andrew Mangiapane are all startable on any given night until they start to cool off. Jakob Pelletier scored his first NHL point and goal on Saturday and his line with Jonathan Huberdeau and Nazem Kadri accounted for two overall. He also joins them on the top power-play unit for the time being. What’s not clear is if Rasmus Andersson will be back to quarterback that power play, but he told Swedish news outlets it was “stitches and scrapes” from his scooter accident in Detroit, so he might be. If not, it’s one more game for Noah Hanifin to get more power-play time than he would otherwise. On the Ottawa side, Ridly Greig is still getting run with Alex DeBrincat and Claude Giroux on the second line, while Mathieu Joseph is being afforded the same opportunity on the top line with Tim Stutzle and Brady Tkachuk.
10 p.m., Rogers Arena, Watch Live on ESPN+
This is a home and home series after the teams played in Detroit on Saturday, with the Wings winning 5-2. With Lucas Raymond and Jake Walman banged up, the Red Wings may be without them both for another game here. That puts Dominik Kubalik in line for another turn with the top line of Tyler Bertuzzi and Dylan Larkin, while Ben Chiarot gets to play alongside Moritz Seider and sink his metrics again. Give me as many Red Wings as make sense for my lineup here: The Canucks are ranked 31st in goals against at five-on-five in the past month and rank 32nd in power-play goals against in that span. On or off the power play, the Red Wings should get theirs. David Perron and Jonatan Berggren jump to mind as top recommendations, but Kubalik, Bertuzzi and Chiarot are all in the mix, too. On the Canucks side, Anthony Beauvillier and Brock Boeser have been shadows to Elias Pettersson late, so are probably the best place to look for offense.
10:30 p.m., Crypto.com Arena, Watch Live on ESPN+
The Sabres deadly power play from December has dried up here in February. In the past month, the Sabres have managed a meager four power-play goals. The Kings have been better on the kill of late (five goals allowed in past month), but still rank among the bottom-10 penalty-kill units in the NHL this season. Maybe this can be the contest that gets the Sabres back on track, since only six teams have allowed more power-play opportunities this season than L.A. With that in mind, Dylan Cozens is a strong play, as well as the usual cast of the Sabres top line plus Rasmus Dahlin. Owen Power might even be a deeper-league stream here in hopes the second unit can make some noise. With some of the magic of Pheonix Copley having worn off, even Victor Olofsson becomes an option here. On the other side, the Sabres are just as susceptible to giving up some goals, ranking 24th in goals against per 60 at five-on-five in the past month. Although Quinton Byfield managed to draft only an assist off Adrian Kempe‘s four-goal game on Saturday, he was with him on the ice for all four of them — on and off the power play. Gabriel Vilardi is getting close to a return, but it’s unclear if he’ll back in time for this one.
Mid-tier fantasy forwards
Ryan Hartman, C/W, Minnesota Wild (45.6%: He’s back. For better or worse, the Sam Steel experiment on the top line seems to have run its course for the Wild. Steel never did emerge the same way Hartman did last season while skating between Kirill Kaprizov and Mats Zuccarello. So, it’s back to the Hartman well for the Wild in hopes he can once again recapture the magic that propelled him to 34 goals last season. The clock starts now, as if Hartman isn’t up to the job again, the Wild need to find someone who is.
Brock Boeser, W, Vancouver Canucks (51.5%) Pettersson is the best linemate for Boeser here, so it’s good to see coach Rick Tocchet using them together again. Boeser has posted one goal and seven assists in the seven games since Tocchet took over behind the bench.
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David Perron, W, Detroit Red Wings (65.3%)
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Dylan Cozens, C/W, Buffalo Sabres (65.4%)
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Victor Olofsson, W, Buffalo Sabres (19.4%)
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Dominik Kubalik, W, Detroit Red Wings (44.0%)
Deep league/Daily Fantasy value forwards
Cody Glass, C, Nashville Predators (0.5%): You won’t find a more widely available top-line center in fantasy. Understandably though, as Glass isn’t exactly lighting up the score sheet. But he’s there every game with Matt Duchene and, when healthy Filip Forsberg. Check on Forsberg’s status, by the way, as he left Saturday’s game after falling awkwardly from a hit and is listed as day-to-day.
Anthony Beauvillier, W, Vancouver Canucks (2.8%): In Saturday’s game against these same Red Wings, Beauvillier was in on both Vancouver goals.
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Blake Coleman, W, Calgary Flames (6.1%)
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Quinton Byfield, C, Los Angeles Kings (1.3%)
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Mathieu Joseph, W, Ottawa Senators (0.3%)
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Ridly Greig, C, Ottawa Senators (0.8%)
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Jonatan Berggren, C/W, Detroit Red Wings (0.5%)
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Vasily Podkolzin, W, Vancouver Canucks (6.4%)
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Matias Maccelli, W, Arizona Coyotes (0.9%)
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Jakob Pelletier, W, Calgary Flames (0.2%)
Mid-tier fantasy defensemen
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Noah Hanifin, D, Calgary Flames (69.3%)
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Ben Chiarot, D, Detroit Red Wings (44.4%)
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Owen Power, D, Buffalo Sabres (57.4%)
Deep league/Daily Fantasy value defensemen
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Juuso Valimaki, D, Arizona Coyotes (0.3%)
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Calen Addison, D, Minnesota Wild (8.0%)
Goalies
Sergei Bobrovsky or Spencer Knight, G, Florida Panthers (56.6% or 28.4%): I’ll take either one against this Wild team that has posted the fewest goals per 60 at five-on-five in the past month of hockey. Bobrovsky has been much better since the calendar flipped to 2023, with a few hiccups sprinkled in. Still, it’s been enough to lock him in most lineups. Knight hasn’t appeared in an NHL game since Jan. 8 but the Panthers also play on Tuesday, so he’ll be in the mix for a start.
Jacob Markstrom, G, Ottawa Senators (77.1%): He’s not an automatic start at the moment, but if you can’t trust Markstrom here against a non-playoff team, when can you trust him? If you’re benching him against the team ranked 30th in five-on-five goals per 60 this season, you need a new goalie for your fantasy team. Maybe that’s the ultimate solution here.
Kevin Lankinen, G, Nashville Predators (1.0%): He is probably not starting, but I think it’s worth a late-afternoon check just in case you can stream him. The Predators haven’t started a backup in a non-back-to-back scenario since Nov. 23, so Juuse Saros will probably be between the pipes here. But the Predators only have one back-to-back set between now and March 12, so they may look for opportunities like a visit from the Coyotes to give Saros a break now and then.
Bench ’em
Marc-Andre Fleury, G, Minnesota Wild (64.5%): After Filip Gustavsson stole the Wild another tough win on Saturday, it’s probably back to Fleury here. But the Panthers are coming in hot on offense — fifth in the goals per 60 at five-on-five in the past month and their 12 power-play goals are more than any other team.
Source: www.espn.com