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 are rostered in less than 50 percent of Yahoo leagues and can be
selected in standard fantasy leagues or for daily fantasy games.
10 games on Thursday, March 27
* = confirmed
Tristan Jarry, PIT at
Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen, BUF (7 p.m.
ET)
Linus Ullmark, OTT at
Alex Lyon, DET (7 p.m. ET)
Karel Vejmelka, UTA
at Andrei Vasilevskiy, TB (7 p.m.
ET)
Jakub Dobes, MTL at Aleksei
Kolosov, PHI (7 p.m. ET)
Charlie Lindgren, WSH
at Filip Gustavsson, MIN (7:30 p.m.
ET)
Joel Hofer, STL at
Juuse Saros, NSH (8 p.m. ET)
Casey DeSmith, DAL at
Dustin Wolf, CGY (9 p.m. ET)
Darcy Kuemper, LA at
Mackenzie Blackwood, COL (10 p.m.
ET)
Calvin Pickard, EDM
at Philipp Grubauer, SEA (10 p.m.
ET)
Joseph Woll, TOR at
Alexandar Georgiev, SJ (10:30 p.m.
ET)
Goalies
Joel Hofer, STL at
NSH (9% rostered)
The Blues may
continue rolling with Jordan Binnington, but I think they might split their two
games on the road. Regardless, Hofer might be tasked with keeping the Blues’
seven-game winning streak alive against the Preds, whom they defeated 4-1 on
March 23. The Preds won’t go down without a fight – another loss and they might
be eliminated from playoff contention – but the Blues have a huge upper hand.
Hofer should be a
great play for saves, a good save percentage and a win. Should he get the nod,
he’s the best streaming option on a busy Thursday. Hofer is 2-0-0 with a .906
SP against the Preds this season.
Jakub Dobes, MTL at
PHI (9% rostered)
Aleksei Kolosov, PHI vs. MTL (0%
rostered)
The Habs have lost
three straight and Dobes came in relief for Sam Montembeault in a 6-1 loss to
the Blues, but with a back-to-back, expect Dobes to start. This should be a
good matchup; the Flyers have been the league’s worst team over the past month –
2-10-1 since March 1 – and recently called up Aleksei Kolosov because their
usual tandem – Samuel Ersson and Ivan Fedotov – has been awful. Kolosov (.870
SP, 3.45 GAA) doesn’t figure to be much better and it's a desperation move by
the Flyers, and the Habs shouldn’t have any problems providing goal support and
Dobes has been stronger on the road with a 5-2-1 record, .922 SP and 2.19 GAA.
The Flyers might
come out strong after getting embarrassed in consecutive games, but they don’t
have a roster good enough to compete. Barring a poor performance by Dobes, he’s
in line for a win and a good save percentage. The Flyers are
averaging a league-worst 1.69 goals per game in March.
Calvin Pickard, EDM
at SEA (10% rostered)
It’s the second game
of a back-to-back with travel for the Oilers, and even without their top two
players, I like this matchup for Pickard. He’s won three of his past four
starts with strong stats on the road (11-3-0, .914 SP, 2.41 GAA) and already
beaten the Kraken twice this season, allowing four goals on 46 shots (.913 SP).
The Kraken
offense has been surprisingly good in March, ranking seventh with 3.50 goals
per game thanks to a strong power play, which gives me some pause. However,
their own goaltending has run into some issues lately, and the Oilers are
12-2-0 all-time against the Kraken. I’m not sure if Pickard will offer a good
save percentage, but I do think a win is likely.
Casey DeSmith, DAL at
CGY (11% rostered)
The Flames have a
ton of momentum right now with four consecutive comeback wins, including two in
overtime. It’s life-or-death for them and they’re playing with more desperation
than the Stars, who are quite comfortably in playoff position and playing the
second game of a back-to-back. DeSmith has been solid all season but I’d be wary
of this start, especially since the Stars aren’t particularly good on the road
(18-14-2).
The Stars should
be favored but not by very much. I think DeSmith has a chance to earn the win
but their last game was close – 3-2 overtime win for the Stars – and their past
eight matchups have averaged 8.6 combined goals. He’s not the best streaming
option in a potentially high-scoring game, but should still provide managers
with positive value.
Alex Lyon, DET vs.
OTT (6% rostered)
The Wings went from
a three-goalie rotation to having one healthy goalie in Lyon, who’s expected to
make his third straight start for the first time since mid-October. Both teams
have struggled recently but also have the potential to put up goals in a hurry.
The Sens are slightly favored based on NHL.com’s FanDuel odds, and they’re a
surprisingly good 14-2-2 against the Wings since the 2019-20 season.
Lyon has played sparingly,
and likely for good reason. The Wings don’t trust him a lot and the Sens’
offense has a lot of talent that can score a lot of goals. Throw in the Sens’
recent dominance of the Wings and Lyon looks like a poor streaming option.
Tristan Jarry, PIT at
BUF (28% rostered)
Do we still want to
play this game? Jarry was pulled after allowing four goals on seven shots,
easily his worst game since getting called up. Sometimes managers are forced to
pick the best of the worst when there aren’t any quality options available, but
that’s not the case for Thursday’s slate. The Sabres average 3.34 goals per
game at home, 10th-best in the league.
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