Each week during the season, we'll survey the Fantasy Hockey landscape and provide you with a list of players whose Fantasy value has increased or decreased over the course of the past week.
Pierre-Marc Bouchard, C, Minnesota The 23-year-old center has kicked it up a notch in recent games and is playing some quality hockey in the last month or so, working the puck well, skating hard and moving to get himself in open spaces on the ice. Bouchard has three goals and four assists in his last five games, including a four-point game on Jan. 21 at Vancouver for his third career four-point game. Although he has moments when his game is less than consistent, he does have 10 goals to go with 32 assists and a plus-6 for the season. He is a steady No. 3 or No. 4 Fantasy forward for now. |
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Brian Gionta, RW, New Jersey The Devils are trying to figure out how to get the former 48-goal scorer going again. He has just one goal in the last 12 games and only 12 points in his last 22 games. Perhaps demoting him to the third line might wake Gionta up. He was replaced on the top line by David Clarkson in Sunday's game versus Toronto. Gionta played alongside John Madden and Sergei Brylin and finished at plus-2 with Madden scoring twice. Gionta is stuck with 13 goals and 18 assists for the time being and is only good as a third or fourth Fantasy option. |
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Dennis Wideman, D, Boston He is not much of a goal-scoring defenseman, but is good for a goal now and then and a few more assists. What the 25-year-old is good for is a solid 24 minutes average of ice time per game. Wideman has three assists in the last three games and has been pretty involved in the Bruins offense since December. A steady No. 3 defenseman in Fantasy leagues, Wideman has six goals, 14 assists and is a plus-10, which means he is on the ice more often for good things than negative ones. |
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Radim Vrbata, RW, Phoenix He has been sidelined the last three games with a groin injury. Prior to that Vrbata has gone six games without a goal. There is a chance he might return to the lineup for Thursday's game against Nashville, but don't bet on it. Vrbata does have 18 goals and 15 helpers this season, but has shown that he is a streaky-type player. |
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Niklas Hagman, RW, Dallas The five-year pro and native of Finland tends to have spurts of ups and downs during a season. Right now he is on the up swing playing on the second line with Mike Modano and Loui Eriksson as the whole line is doing well. Hagman has four goals and five assists in 11 games in January, more notably the four goals coming in the last four games. He already has set a career high with 18 goals in a season and also leads the Stars with four shorthanded goals. Take advantage of Hagman while his productive ways last. |
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Valtteri Filppula, C, Detroit He exploded with eight goals and three assists in December. Those were pretty fine numbers, but he has dropped significantly in January in which he only has one goal and three assists in nine games. In fact, dating to the last two games in December, Filppula has just one goal in 11 games. Clearly he has hit a bump in the road for now. But the native of Finland has the potential to bounce back and maybe the All-Star break is just what he needs. Filppula has 14 goals and 11 assists for the season. |
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Ed Jovanovski, D, Phoenix The 11-year veteran defenseman is turning back to his more productive self in the last few games. Jovanovski tallied three goals and five assists in his last six games to get a nice little roll going. After starting the season quite slow with almost nothing in October, he posted 12 points in November and has continued the trend in December and now January. Jovanovski has six goals and 27 assists for the season and is a must-start Fantasy defenseman. |
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Sergei Zubov, D, Dallas Zubov has been on and off the ice with either a bad foot and now a groin injury. MRI results did not clearly show the extent of his groin issue and the best for him at the moment according to coach Dave Tippett is to rest up. When Zubov is back to full strength (and he will before too long), this top notch defenseman will help Dallas in its playoff push. For now he remains stuck with four goals and 31 assists for the season. |
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Chuck Kobasew, RW, Boston He ended a run of six games without a point this weekend and did it in a big way. On Saturday he had two power play goals and on Sunday a shorthanded goal with an assist as the Bruins swept the home-and-home series with the Rangers. That might just get him back on track and raise his Fantasy stock value. Kobasew leads the Bruins with 17 goals, which is three shy of his career high set in the 2005-06 season while with Calgary. He also has three of Boston's five shorthanded goals this season. |
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Brian Rolston, RW, Minnesota The 12-year NHL veteran has had his moments of Fantasy production this season, but he also had slumps like the most recent one when he did not score in nine consecutive games. He finally ended that run on Jan. 21 against the Canucks with his first goal since Dec. 29. Rolston is up to 15 goals and 18 assists this season, which at this pace is only good for some 55 points. That would be his second lowest production per season since 1999. Keep Rolston as a third option in most Fantasy formats. |
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