Fantasy Hockey Waiver Wire: Trio of Sabres among top pickups for final week

Working the waiver wire is a crucial part of any championship fantasy hockey season. If you're fortunate enough to still be alive in your league, these additions could take your team over the top and deliver a title. We take a look at players with different levels of rostership to cover shallow and deep leagues alike.

Best of luck in the week ahead!

Forwards

Rostered in 41-50% of leagues: Mikael Backlund, C - CGY (48% rostered)

Backlund has been one of the biggest unsung heroes of what has been a trying year in Calgary, posting career-highs in assists and points at 34 years of age. Backlund has been a consistent performer on an inconsistent squad, currently skating on a line with Andrew Mangiapane and Jonathan Huberdeau. You can say what you want about Huberdeau’s season overall, but he has four points in his last five games and eight in his last 10; having him on Backlund’s wing is certainly a net positive for fantasy.

Calgary plays Monday and the Wednesday off-night this week, making Backlund and his current PP1 usage an interesting look if you have lineup space for the Monday game.

Honourable Mentions: Logan Couture, C - SJS (47%) & J.T. Compher, C/RW - COL (47%)

Rostered in 31-40% of leagues: Dylan Strome, C/RW - WSH (39% rostered)

Washington plays Monday/Tuesday/Thursday this week and with Thursday a massive 15-game slate, it’s unlikely Strome fits into your plans on that day. But if you can get two early-week games from him it’s likely to be worthwhile. Strome has four points — including three goals — in his last three games and has solidified a spot on the top power-play unit.

Strome saw 19:23 of ice time in his last outing, giving even more confidence that at his worst he can be valuable due to sheer volume of usage. I’d be shocked if Strome doesn’t get at least a point between Monday and Tuesday and I’d say it’s about 50/50 whether he gives you two or more.

Honourable Mentions: Ryan Hartman, C/RW - MIN (39%) & Boone Jenner, C - CBJ (38%)

Rostered in 21-30% of leagues: Evan Rodrigues, C/LW/RW - COL (23% rostered)

Colorado has an interesting schedule this week, with Tuesday and Friday matchups bookending the common Thursday game. If your lineup is full on Monday but you have space on Tuesday then Rodrigues is a very intriguing option. Rodrigues has spent the last couple of games riding shotgun on the Nathan MacKinnon/Mikko Rantanen top line, which has to be one of the five best duos in the league.

As long as Rodrigues can maintain his spot on that line he’s a serious threat to put up multiple points in those Tuesday and Friday games. Add to the equation the plus matchups against the Oilers and Predators and you can easily see why Rodrigues should be top of mind when examining streaming options for the week.

Honourable Mentions: Seth Jarvis, LW/RW - CAR (27%) & Tyler Bertuzzi, LW/RW - BOS (30%)

Rostered in 0-20% of leagues: Casey Mittelstadt, C - BUF (6% rostered)

Buffalo has the league’s best schedule this week, with the Monday/Tuesday back-to-back plus another back-to-back Thursday and Friday. If you can fit Mittelstadt in for all three games on Monday/Tuesday/Friday it makes him a priority add given his three multi-point games in his last four outings and current top-line usage.

Mittelstadt has come alive with Buffalo’s back against the wall in the Eastern Conference wild-card race, and it’s hard to see why the Sabres would move away from him centering Jeff Skinner and Alex Tuch given how well it’s worked so far. Mittelstadt is my top streaming option on the week if you can fit him in for three games.

Honourable Mentions: Andreas Athanasiou, LW/RW - CHI (1%) & Kirill Marchenko, RW - CBJ (2%)

Defensemen

Rostered in 26-50% of leagues: Owen Power - BUF (50%)

Power gets the same schedule boost as Mittelstadt above, and he’s been similarly productive of late. Power has seven assists in his last six games and while he’s not likely to stuff the stat sheet with a bunch of peripherals, his 22+ minutes a night on a Buffalo squad that has scored 18 goals in its last four games makes him a prime candidate to continue to pick up random assists. Don’t discount the fact that Power is still a rookie and barely 20 years old, meaning we could simply be witnessing his breakout late in the season.

Picking up Power is a swing from the heels but it’s the last week of the season — time to go out with a bang, one way or the other.

Honourable Mentions: Neal Pionk - WPG (44%) & John Klingberg - MIN (40%)

Rostered in 0-25% of leagues: Ryan Pulock - NYI (21% rostered)

Pulock is in consideration for teams that already have their defense slots filled for Thursday and are just looking for something like Pulock’s Monday/Wednesday schedule to fill the early-week lineups. Pulock hasn’t had the best or luckiest of campaigns this year, but he’s a consistent producer in the peripheral categories (shots/hits/blocks) with some limited points upside given his 21+ minutes a night and PP2 deployment.

Pulock’s biggest checkmark is the recent shot production, as he’s fired two or more in seven of his last eight games. Marry that with his hit and block numbers (just under two of each per game over the same span) and you have a solid base to work with while you hope for the odd point. The Islanders close the season against two non-playoff teams in Washington and Montreal.

Honourable Mentions: Jake Walman - DET (4%) & Dante Fabbro - NSH (1%)

Goalies

Rostered in 26-50% of leagues: Philipp Grubauer - SEA (33% rostered)

If it feels like we’ve been pinballing back and forth between Seattle goaltenders of late, it’s because we have. Martin Jones left Saturday’s tilt with a hand injury after giving up three goals on 18 shots to the lowly Chicago Blackhawks, paving the way for Grubauer to assume the reins once again. For his part, Grubauer has been more than adequate over the last week, winning both of his starts and stopping all 11 shots in relief of Jones on Saturday. It all adds up to a .951 save percentage on the week, which should buy him a couple of starts in this final stretch for fantasy.

I don’t have a lot of trust in Grubauer the goaltender, but the Kraken are a legitimate contender in the West and that alone makes anyone getting starts for them worth rostering in most leagues.

Honourable Mentions: Antti Raanta - CAR (44%) & Pavel Francouz - COL (35%)

Rostered in 0-25% of leagues: Devon Levi - BUF (9% rostered)

Levi has been christened the heir apparent in the Buffalo crease by many, coming off two sterling seasons in the NCAA at the young age of 21. Outside of a wild 7-6 win against Detroit, Levi’s NHL initiation has been a smashing success, allowing seven goals across the other three games while facing at least 33 shots in each.

The Sabres seem to be intent on giving Levi every chance to backstop them into the playoffs and he’ll get at least two starts this week with Buffalo playing two separate back-to-backs. Levi ticks a lot of boxes as a late-season goalie stream as (1) a high-volume starter (2) playing for a team desperate for a playoff berth (3) who has put up a bunch of quality starts of late.

If you’re looking for a goaltender in this range you’re not going to find more guaranteed starts than you will with Levi.

Honourable Mentions: Alex Lyon - FLA (23%) & Laurent Brossoit - VGK (13%)

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Nate Groot Nibbelink is the creator of Apples & Ginos Fantasy Hockey and the originator of the #ZeroG draft strategy. You can find him pontificating about obscure fantasy hockey strategy topics in the Apples & Ginos Discord Server or on Twitter @applesginos.