Must-Grab studs: Don't forget to double-down on duos

Do you enjoy winning things such as fantasy hockey match-ups, cash money, respect, and life?

Good, because we’re in the business of helping you smash your pool, and today we look at the players you have to add to your squad — be it through the draft or wheeling and dealing.

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The skaters I have (very correctly) ranked at the top of each positional slot are Conor McDavid (C), Nikita Kucherov (RW), Alex Ovechkin (LW), Erik Karlsson (RD), Victor Hedman (LD). Unless your dome is full of rocks, you should consider trading your left kidney and throw in a conditional pancreas to draft or acquire any of them.

Do you prefer drafting pairs or working the trade market to assemble guys that play together? Or do you like to hedge your bets and diversify your squad with ‘single’ talents spread out from across the league?

You gotta mix in a bit of both, fam, so here are some grab-at-all-costs candidates. Don’t overthink it, simply acquire these dudes — whatever you have to do.

Duos

John Tavares and Mitch Marner (Leafs)

Ohh baby have Johnny T and Marns clicked during the preseason, and you shouldn’t expect anything different when the real party gets started. With both of these studs primed for massive years, it’s a very realistic possibility that this pair can put up 65-70 tucks and 150-160 points between them.

Tavares has never played with a winger who can draw opponents and create space with the puck like Marner, while Marner has put up two already-productive NHL campaigns without a finisher and game changer of JT’s caliber by his side. The duo will see a boatload of peeper time too, as they’ll comprise 2/5 of Toronto’s stacked first power play unit which will see the ice almost 100% of every Toronto man advantage.

Mark Scheifele and Blake Wheeler (Jets)

Chef Scheif cooked up something scrumptious for the Jets last postseason, finding his sniper’s touch and tangling the mesh 14 times in just 17 playoff games. Tack that on to his career best point-per-game clip in the regular season, and it’s safe to say this sharp-shooting centre is really starting to find his stride in the NHL.

Wheeler, meanwhile, has been an absolute horse for the Jets and is also coming off a career-best season where he netted 23 goals and added 68 Granny Smith’s — which tied Claude Giroux for the league lead. The pair also play the high slot and net front on the PP1 for the league’s fifth-most lethal powerplay.

Nate MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen (Avalanche)

Mac is coming off an absolutely explosive fifth NHL campaign where he notched 97 points of just missed the 40-goal plateau. The Hart Trophy finalist finished fifth in league scoring while ranking eighth in shots while leading the Avs to one of the biggest single season turnarounds in NHL history.

MacKinnon, also tallied 12 PP markers and 12 game-winners in 2017-18, found some serious chemistry with 84-point line-mate line Mikko Rantanen. This pair is just straight nasty together, and acquiring both, especially in a keeper league (as both are just 23 and 21 years old, respectively) would be a pretty wise play, sources tell me.

Jack Eichel and Jeff Skinner (Sabres)

Put this pair more so in the ‘sleeper’ category if you want, but this pair is one of the most intriguing and under-valued entering the season. Eichel, who scored at nearly a point-per-game clip over his last two campaigns, looks poised to break out as top-tier star in 2017-18, especially if he can stay healthy. Eichel’s production through his early NHL career is even more impressive when you look at the (lack of) linemates he’s been skating alongside of for the majority of it.

For the first time, Eichel will have a bonafide NHL scorer on his wing after Jeff Skinner was acquired in a late-summer trade from Carolina. Skinner is just one-season removed from a 37-goal campaign and the pair will, aside from gobbling up minutes as the team’s top forward unit, will see tonnes of time together on the team’s No. 1 power play, too.

Singles

Patrick Laine — Beardless Laine could legit score 60 this year and 25 on the peeper.

Mark Stone — Someone has to bury for the Sens this season, right? Also, contract year.

Sidney Crosby — Obviously.

Evgeni Malkin — Obviously.

Auston Matthews — Put up 74 tucks over his first two NHL campaigns without anchoring a stacked PP.

Ty Rattie — If he sticks on McDavid’s line all season, he’ll net 30 and 80 just showing up.

Artemi Panarin — Young, high-ceiling snipers in a contract year always play.

Evgeni Kuznetsov — The Robin to Ovi’s Batman, but with way better hands.

Brent Burns — An absolute shot machine, good for 65-70 pits from the back-end every year.

John Carlson — Led all blueliners in scoring last year.

P.K. Subban — He’s just so good.

Erik Karlsson — This man healthy and in a contract year is goddamn frightening.

Tyson Barrie — Fnished 2nd in points-per-game among defenceman in 2017-18, behind only EK.