Those in regular Yahoo! head to head leagues are in the first week of the playoffs. If you feel your team could use an extra boost for a championship run, check out the following players that may be available in your pool (low owned % in Yahoo!). Caveat: these players certainly won’t be carrying any teams to the finals, but they sure can help chip in here and there and that can help an already good team get that extra push.
1. Matt Cullen
The return of Erik Cole to the Hurricanes has caused a spike in offensive production lately. Although Cullen doesn’t even play on Cole’s line (Cole plays with Staal), he is able to cash in on better opportunities because of the decreased pressure with the first line producing better as well. Pretty much, every line is producing at a higher rate now.
2. Tobias Enstrom
Young rearguard Enstrom had somewhat high expectations after coming in last season as a rookie and notching a respectable 38 points for ATL. This season, he’s only been able to put up 22 points in 70 games played thus far. He had a very rough start with only 1 point in the entire month of October. Lately, though, he’s been producing at a decent rate, especially with the departure of veteran Schneider being traded to Montreal. At the moment Enstrom is owned in more than a quarter of all Yahoo! leagues (one of the higher owned percentages out of all the players on this list) but that is still low enough him to be available in a lot of pools out there, especially those that aren’t too deep. Enstrom has 11 points in the last 13 Thrashers games and Atlanta as a whole (especially Lehtonen) have been playing fantastic.
3. Rich Peverley
Peverley is another Thrasher to be enjoying a nice production uptick, with the entire team playing so well. You should not be relying on players like Peverley heavily, but you certainly can ride ‘em while they’re hot, especially for a couple weeks in the playoffs. Peverley has 12 points in the past month of play.
4. Curtis Glencross
GlenX has 8 points so far in the month of March and is riding a 4 game point streak at the moment. The undrafted left winger is making the most of his opportunity in Calgary thus far with 38 points in 63 games, after playing in Edmonton last season.
5. Michal Handzus
Zus has been playing decent all season long and is bouncing back (somewhat) from an utterly disappointing season last year. He had a very nice run–if not short-lived–of 8 points in 8 games playing with Chicago in 06-07, with Martin Havlat on his wing, before getting hurt, but last season he took a giant nosedive in terms of production. Now he’s at a more respectable 36 points on the year and had a hat trick just a couple weeks ago against Dallas. He’s also pretty solid in the faceoff circle, notching 18 faceoff wins in addition to his goal and a helper against the Preds yesterday.
6. Jason Williams
Williams has already surpassed his point total as a Thrasher this season, in 14 less games with the Jackets. Williams has 19 points in 27 games for Columbus and just had a nice 5 game point streak end on the 12th. Expect Williams to chip in at a decent rate from here on in, which means good value production for any playoff bound team that has him, especially considering he was likely a free agent pickup due to his early season disappointment.
7. Blake Comeau
The departure of Bill Guerin to the Penguins in addition to the absence of Doug Weight due to injury has given responsibility to the Islander’s young core, including guys like Comeau. Blake’s best month of the season in 08-09 has been March by far, and it’s only about halfway through. He has notched a point in every March NYI game but one, for a total of 10 points in 8 games. The Isles have been playing surprisingly well lately so if you can catch players like Comeau while they’re hot, it would be wise to do so; just be ready to cut bait when the time is right.
8. Ryan Kesler
Kesler has a nice 48 points in 68 games on the year thus far. The 23rd round pick in the stacked 2003 NHL Entry Draft is proving to be just as good as his fellow ’03 draftees. Kesler has outshined veteran Mats Sundin lately and has 9 points in 7 March games and is coming off a 3 assist performance his last game heading into tonight against Dallas. He contributes in several categories so even though he is a center, he is still relatively valuable in deeper leagues. At only 29% owned, he is certainly available in many leagues out there.
9. T.J. Oshie
Rookie Oshie, very highly regarded by the Blues, had an injury that caused him to miss essentially all of the month of November, stunting his development a bit. The month of March has been strong for him thus far, where he has grabbed 6 points in 7 games played. Fellow St. Louis rookie Patrik Berglund has seemingly slowed down a bit and is possibly feeling the rigors of the NHL schedule at the moment, but Oshie seems to be hitting his stride the past several weeks. He could be a good add for a playoff run.
10. David Legwand
A former 2nd overall draft pick, Legwand is having a decent run these past few weeks. In his last 10 games he has put up a matching 10 points. With top line center Jason Arnott possibly missing even more time with an “upper body injury” (rumored to be a concussion), Legwand will have to pick up the slack down the middle. While he probably won’t ever become the elite level player he was drafted to be, he is still a serviceable fantasy producer and only being owned in 8% of leagues, he could be a very nice value in a deeper league, even though centers are plentiful.
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