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Fantasy Hockey Goalie Waiver Wire: Ville Husso gets a chance

jason chen
·4 min read
Fantasy Hockey Goalie Waiver Wire: Ville Husso gets a chance
Ville Husso (Rick Osentoski-Imagn Images)

On every game day this season, THN Fantasy will highlight players and goalies for fantasy managers to stream or roster for the rest of the season. The recommended players and goalies can be used in standard fantasy leagues or for daily fantasy games.

10 games for Tuesday, Dec. 3

* = confirmed

  • Ville Husso, DET* at Jeremy Swayman, BOS (7 p.m. ET)

  • Alexandar Georgiev, COL at Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen, BUF (7 p.m. ET)

  • Ilya Sorokin, NYI at Sam Montembeault, MON (7 p.m. ET)

  • Spencer Knight, FLA at Tristan Jarry, PIT (7 p.m. ET)

  • Mackenzie Blackwood, SJ at Logan Thompson, WSH (7 p.m. ET)

  • Joey Daccord, SEA at Pyotr Kochetkov, CAR (7 p.m. ET)

  • Kevin Lankinen, VAN at Filip Gustavsson, MIN (8 p.m. ET)

  • Jordan Binnington, STL at Connor Hellebuyck, WPG (8 p.m. ET)

  • Elvis Merzlikins, CLB at Dustin Wolf, CGY (9 p.m. ET)

  • Stuart Skinner, EDM at Adin Hill, VEG (10 p.m. ET)

Knight will presumably start with Sergei Bobrovsky staying behind in Florida to be with his expecting wife. This will be the second straight start for Knight, who shut out the Hurricanes on Saturday. Aside from his season debut, Knight has not allowed more than three goals in any of his starts. While the Pens offense may be dangerous, the Panthers should be able to provide enough goal support to win in case Knight isn't sharp. Knight will be one of Tuesday's top streaming targets among goalies. Chris Driedger is expected to back him up.

With the Flames on a four-game losing streak with 11 goals allowed in their past two games, I'm less concerned about the Jackets getting goalie'd by Dustin Wolf. It'll be very hard to keep the Jackets offense at bay, anyway, and it's helped power them to five wins in their past six games. Merzlikins is allowing a fair number of goals — 20 in those six games — but his goal support has been excellent. I like his chances of winning here.

It wasn't so long ago when Montembeault was a hot commodity in fantasy and even considered for Canada's 4 Nations team. (You can see mine and Jan Levine's picks here). The Habs are now in a freefall yet again, losing four of their past five with Montembeault allowing 12 goals in his past three games. What gives me a little hope is that the Isles aren't particularly good at scoring and, hopefully, this becomes a tight, low-scoring affair. I think Montembeault will see a fair amount of shots — the Isles outshot them 36-24 in their previous meeting on Long Island — and rack up the saves, but I'm unsure about his prospects of winning.

Pyotr Kochetkov was at practice Monday morning, which lends belief that he's returning. The Canes probably can't wait since Martin hasn't been very good in relief, but if Martin does start, this is at least a palatable matchup.

The Kraken still generally have trouble scoring, and other than the five-goal outburst against the Sharks (where they lost, 8-5), they've scored more than three goals just twice in November (Nov. 8 vs. Vegas and Nov. 12 vs. Columbus). The Canes are so good at suppressing shots that Martin only needs to make a minimal number of saves, though even that may be difficult at times for him. Whoever starts for the Canes should have a high probability of winning the game.

It's been a disastrous season for Husso so far. He started the Wings' opener but was pulled after allowing four goals on 14 shots and essentially banished to the AHL soon after. This will just be his third start and fourth appearance of the season, and among goalies with at least one start, he ranks second-last in save percentage (.818) and last in GAA (4.90).

It is very hard to justify Husso as a streaming option against the Bruins, who are expected to start Jeremy Swayman, but you never quite know with goalies. Sometimes, they can surprise to the upside, though I doubt it in Husso's case. However, just in case things go better than expected, note the Wings placed Alex Lyon on IR and Cam Talbot's injury was serious enough that the Wings declared Husso as the starter the day before. Streaming Husso is akin to a hope and a prayer, and you do so at your own peril. The B's aren't the toughest opponent, but tough enough to easily hand the Wings a loss if the Wings aren't careful.

The real silver lining in this situation is the call-up of Sebastian Cossa, the Wings' top prospect who's been excellent in the AHL over the past two seasons. Cossa may dress as the backup for Tuesday, and rest assured he will be featured in this space when he does get a start.

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