Short Shifts – Schedule update, Ehlers, Tuch, Vanecek, Zegras
What’s up Champs welcome to another episode of the short shifts fantasyy podcast I am your host Ben Bernett and joining me for the first time in long time my pal and yours Jesse severe of the fantasy hockey Life podcast Jesse thank you so much for joining us tonight
How are you doing on this fine fine Tuesday Thursday even Thursday evening closer to the weekend hey hey Ben I’m doing great man I’m trying to keep above zero down here in Wisconsin I can’t even imagine Canada at this point it’s uh covered in snow as like we’re like stereotypical Canada and
We haven’t been stereotypical Canada for a while so it’s kind I don’t mind it all right well we’re quickly moving to the twoo cold the snow category that’s never where you want to be that’s a good point and uh as the listeners know and as you
Know Jesse this is the show that we try and jam as much hockey talk and headlines and fantasy hockey updates as we can into as short of a shift as we can possibly do so let’s get into the topics and I actually wanted to start
Not with a team not with a player but I wanted to talk about a subject we teased on our last show which is the NHL massive new announcement of a uh an updated schedule including about a 100 rescheduled games due to covid postponements through the first 3 months
Four months of the of The League season mostly added throughout February when the Olympic break was expected to fall of course NHL teams no longer heading to the Olympics in February um instead what we’re seeing is a ton of games scheduled pushed into the month of February uh
Clearly leaning towards teams that were that missed out on games earlier in the season we’re seeing a ton of games for Edmonton Ottawa Toronto uh the Islanders have a bunch of new games in there and I wanted to talk about this because you know Jesse like in a usual season you’re
Going to see teams uh at this point of the Year there starts to be a bit of a games play disparity so you start to look at teams that have more Gam left in their schedule as potential trade targets and I think that this year more than ever we’re seeing a larger
Disparity and I’m noticing that this is creating some uh some some fantasy opportunity I guess for those who are looking to buy so Jesse I’m going to run through a couple of teams that have a massive jump in their in their games played through the rest of the fantasy
Regular season and then I’m going to throw it to you to talk to us about the fantasy hockey playoffs for those who want to look ahead um first of all do you have any sort of like overarching thoughts when when you saw this update anything about the schedule change that that Bear’s
Mentioning well I don’t think we’ve ever seen this big of a spread in total games left to go at this point in the season as as we do this year and so you really I mean normally you’re talking about nickel and dime of a couple little things different this year there’s a
Huge spread so this is really one that you need to pay attention to or you’re going to really uh you’re going to lose some mathematical advantage as we get to the endend of the season that’s exactly right and I think that um yeah you’re you’re right it’s like usually we’ll see
Like a five maybe six game play disparity from the top to the bottom of the league at this point this year there is like an 11 game disparity between the Islanders and Ottawa if you look at the scheduler you will see that the Ducks Tampa Bay Nashville the Rangers
Washington Vegas San Jose these teams have about 40 games or more played they a couple more around 39 really the whole league is kind of in this like high 30s to low 40s numbers so a massive jump massive disadvantage if you are stacked up on teams at the top and you should be
Looking I I think we can both agree for the teams that have more games played I wanted to go a bit deeper though because if you look ahead there are also this year more than usual a lot of games that are falling outside of the fantasy schedule this kind of happened at the
End of last year folks may forget that due to some of the postponements a ton of games ended up happening outside the fantasy season so that’s why I wanted to split it up where we’re going to look at Yahoo’s regular season we’re going to look at Yahoo’s playoffs starting with a
Regular season and I think that the first thing I want to say is that there is a massive difference between leagues that are going to have uh four separate matchups for the weeks of February like those on fan tracks and CBS Sports and the Yahoo leagues where we are going to
See a three to four week I I guess a four-week matchup uh with with what should have been the Olympic break unless Yahoo has a massive change of heart and there are some massive games play disparities just in that matchup in particular the aforementioned Tampa Bay
Lightning play just six games in week 16 so I think that I want to say if you are a team who needs to win every game on their way through the rest of the regular season just to make the playoffs then you might want to look at trading
Away some of your Tampa Bay Lightning players ahead of that six that four-week matchup and teams that you may want to Target uh I’m looking in particular in at Canadian teams here cuz Edmonton has 13 games more than double the amount of games that Tampa Bay has uh Ottawa has
13 games Toronto 12 Columbus and Calgary both with 11 and then a ton of teams at 10 so Lewis I’m going to I’m going to pause here for a second and I guess just I want to look at those two teams at the top and at the bottom uh I’m going to
I’m going to say Ottawa and Tampa Bay you know a player like Brady kachu has been underachieving so far it’s it’s been a rough start he’s been a little cold lately I guess I’m wondering if you were if you were holding on to a Tampa Bay Lightning player not named Nikita
Koutra who I think has been so good he he’ll be fine in those six games uh probably about as good as any other player in the league over 12 but like let’s look at a player like Braden pointer a player player like Steven Stam Co would you swap Steven Stam Co for
Brady kachu uh and and I’ll give you the full season scope here not only does he get an extra seven games in the week 16 matchup but Brady kachuck over the rest of the season 10 extra games Over Steven Stam Co what do you think I think that’s
Definitely a sale that you could convince me of uh to to try to make to try to uh make that change even though I I think it’s a slight it’s really a Lal move everybody knows how much I love Brady kachuck and Steven stamp Coast Brady would have gone ahead of him I
Think straight up in an even up draft at the beginning of the season but you know the other element of this uh Ben that you bring up there’s kind of two sides of this one of them is you can say ottawa’s got 10 more games left the
Other is you can say seven of those games come in that one matchup so if you’re liking cupful and trying to win every week match up almost all of that goodness is being squeezed into one week after that week and through the last weeks of the Season that count Ottawa
And Tampa like have the same number of games so once you get past that all of February matchup these teams differences are even out I mean it’s it’s so hard to tell so you know going in all all in on that you will help to have a super
Advantage for that one ginormous matchup and by the way make that you know those pickups before that month where you can only make four ads or whatever like that but uh yeah it it it’s worth it if you are to the point like you said where
Every single win is going to count for ton thanks Jesse yeah I I completely agree with you and I probably there are teams that are going to need that week 16 win much more than others I’m thinking of my team in the kuple where we’re trying to you know I’m three and0
With Nikita kov in the lineup I’m trying to get back up into the playoff contention uh but I’m I’m going to need that week 16 matchup and uh no I am not going to trade Nikita kov in that in that League because uh I don’t care
About the six game schedule he is going to be just fine um but yeah players like Brady kachuck players like Drake bson players like Josh Norris very interesting if you’re able to get them for cheap um why don’t we jump ahead though let’s look into the playoff
Schedule here Jesse which which you took a look at for us playoff schedule gets interesting once again because there’s only two teams that have three straight four game weeks and that’s in the format that we’re playing kuple where it’s weeks 21 through 23 that are the Playoff
Weeks those are believe it or not the St Louis Blues and the Buffalo Sabres none of those Canadian teams because a lot of those Canadian rescheduled games are hitting in that week 16 in that break that’s coming there so that’s where you really see those things swell up so
Those are two teams that you definitely want to look at but you also want to be thinking about the quality starts in those weeks and then I mean St Louis actually six of their 12 starts are quality and Winnipeg has uh Winnipeg additionally has seven so there there’s
A couple of the teams that you would be looking out uh extremely strongly uh on the flip side of that New Jersey zero quality games uh not only for the playoffs but only two in the three weeks preceding the playoffs so New Jersey man uh unless you got a star from one of
Those teams just uh don’t don’t count on them to be able to make up those off night games from now until the end of the season when you talk about a quality game Jesse can you tell me what you mean by that I’m looking at the offn night
Games per Yahoo week in the uh I guess this is some kind of cupful tool that’s out there right um where where did we get this sheet from Ben I found this sheet on Reddit and it’s basically a uh yeah it’s it’s a scheduling sheet it
Just breaks it down by games per Yahoo week and then there’s an offn night games per Yahoo T and it it counts as fewer than half the game teams playing games on those nights so it’s going to be uh so oh so you’re looking just at the off nights when you say quality
Games I’m talking I’m talking about the off night games because you know those are going to be critical for streamers um I’m channeling our buddy Dave Betton here Cousin Dave I believe this is called in these quarters because those are the types of things I already want
To be thinking ahead about that’s a great point so I I think looking at San Jose or St Louis uh looking at Buffalo those are two teams that I’m definitely wanting to Target ahead of the fantasy playoffs any names that stand out to you as possible targets there boy Buffalo is
So hard to read because they had a you guys who who came up early in the season you know with that many quality games let’s face it what you are going to be looking at most likely at the end of the season is going to be the streamers on
Those two teams and they are streamers that you’re going to want to come into the playoffs with uh for those first matchups if you have them because again seven of those off night games for St Louis Six for Buffalo over the course of the playoffs so you know in in a lot of
Ways we’re still talking about the stars and then when we get to those last couple of weeks we’re talking about bringing in the you know Dylan cousins Tage Thompsons of the world and seeing what what kind of magic you can make happen on a short-term basis or what
Injury freees up some great power play time for somebody and I know there’s one guy that we’re going to talk about this episode who also might be on my list for that that’s right Jesse and we are going to chat about a few more players get into our usual headlines when we come
Back from a quick commercial break you’re listening to short shifts welcome back to short shifts Jesse we are are moving into the second half of our program and we have a few headlines that I want to kind of Breeze through here and a few players that I
Want to dig deep on I guess let’s start with some of these injuries and out juuri that we’re talking about first of all Nikolai eers is now out for two games thanks to a kneeon KNE check from Dimitri orlov orlov’s banned for two games for the infraction the Jets have
Added eers to their injured reserve list they seem to expect he’ll miss the short term at the very least if you’re listening to sort of the way that they’ve been talking about this injury uh in the meantime it looks like Paul Stasney will get first crack at that
Spot and the Jets have an interesting schedule rest of the week it’s Thursday night as we record this so nobody’s going to hear this in time to get Stasney in for tonight but they do play again they play three times in the next four nights including a back-to-back
This weekend one of the very few Saturday Sunday schedules in the league I wish I could recommend Stasney wholeheartedly but things could change again cuz Blake wheeler does appear to be coming back to the lineup this week weekend so stasy may get bumped very quickly but I guess I’m wondering Jesse
Does stasy stand out to you as a streamer he’s also recently back from the IR list man stasy just doesn’t stand out for me in any particular way except except as a sore thumb on my roster that always irritates me a little bit in Dynasty um you know I I think uh you
Know he’s a he’s a fine flyer if you really need to take somebody personally the guy who excites me in that Winnipeg Jets lineup who scored first goal the other night against my Washington Capitals was Cole Peretti he also Peretti that is got a lot of good
Playing time that first night uh playing with uh playing with like a Kyle Connor and Pier Pier Luke de so i’ I’d really like to see that going forward a little bit here in the near future but uh yeah I mean Paul Stasney you know what he is
He’s always there and if he does get that time uh don’t expect great production but at least decent context that’s a great point and I think I would you know just looking at even strength lines I agree that that Peretti looks more interesting than uh than stassy to
Me but I will say that uh if stasny ends up on the top power play as they sometimes have him up there I could see I could see riding him for the weekend at least Peretti I agree actually that’s a that’s a great uh recommendation um while we mentioned the Washington
Capitals I kind of wanted to get your opinion while you’re on the show Jesse you are a uh our resident Washington Capitals fan I guess around the parts and I wanted to ask you about VTEC vanich a player I streamed in today after I read that coach laviolet was
Playing him tonight against Boston real opportunity for this one to blow up before even the show is released but let’s see what happens and laviolet said that this is a chance for VTEC to find consistency and take the Reigns I guess I’m wondering like a what’s going on
With Elia Sams sonov and B do you think that uh vanich can kind of make a play and and turn into a starter on this team team well as I like to say VTEC vanich give a dog a bone that’s my uh that’s my favorite call out for Mr vanich he does
Seem to have taken the Reigns on this team uh I I he has outplayed Sam sonov so far this year you are right he has already given up a goal in the first half of the first period tonight against the Bruins that’s all right David poock
There’s no shame of giving up a go to that guy yeah vanich was supposed to be the afterthought coming back into this year the guy that they gave up in the expansion draft and picked up through a kind of a scrub trade but it’s darn good thing they got him back because Sam
Sonov has not looked the part and so I yeah I just am surprised because I know that Sam sonov was supposed to be like the guy and that you know the three rushing goalies come over uh shurin sokin and Sam sonov and Sam sonov been the slowest to kind of put put it
Together in the NHL yeah samsonov had his first year was very good when he played just a little bit second year multiple stints on the co list and then this year who the heck knows what’s going on and you look at that uh 19 games started this year 13 wins 14
Losses and three uh overtime losses which basically is identical to last year and very similar if not a better percentage record than his first year but a 903 save percentage and if you go through and actually look at those 13 so-called wins I guess they’re not so-called they were real wins um
I went through because I’m I hate myself and I looked at each one of them to figure out how many games he had saved more than uh more than 23 shots 30 is about the average that an NHL goenda game and had an above League average save percentage for that game which is
908 is the NHL save percentage there were three three games that he did that and they weren’t even all wins the capitals have really booed him through their strong start to the year which seems to be fading now with the health so samsonov is a problem his surface
Stats still look pretty nice there uh if you want to go just the straight quality star percentage on hockey reference it’s 368 that is just horrendous uh quality star percentage so you can’t trust s sonof right now and I think the capitals are saying the same thing by trying to
Give anich as much run as they can all right Jesse it’s it’s nice to have that Washington Insider perspective from you um let’s let’s go over to some outes talk about some good news I guess and uh this is a a nice little um a nice little
Topic for you to be on for because your show with Victor Nuno the fantasy oy life wonderful Prospect analysis so let’s talk about Quinton bfield who is back up with the Kings slated to start tonight just his seventh NHL game uh I read that he had a slow start to the AHL
Return this year after nursing a broken ankle and returning from the covid-19 list I guess I I’d love to hear your perspective Jesse in oneye leagues should people get excited about Quinton bfield I know you know keeper leagues you should be all over him but what’s
Your hype level for Quinton well I know yeah my partner Victor Nuno thinks of Byfield as maybe the number one Prospect who came out in the year that he did and certainly there is a lot of positivity ahead of him whether he’s I don’t know
That he’s going to be a tie Turner in your leagues this year I probably would pick him up in something reasonably deep like the cupful as somebody that I would take a chance on here for a little while but playing that Center position and with a sort of mediocre offensive
Situation in La I’m not thinking he’s going to turn the tide but hey you could have uh much less fun uh other ways than by picking up Quinton Byfield and uh you know just kind of betting on the rookie because he’s going to be special in the
Long run that makes a lot of sense to me uh Jesse we just have a couple of streaks to get into for the before we finish up and uh you kind of alluded to this player a bit earlier it’s a player in Buffalo and somebody who is still
Fairly widely available in Yahoo leagues Alex tuck has been absolutely fantastic for the Sabers since returning from injury on a bit of a hot streak here with seven points in seven games since returning getting Primo deployment on those Sabers Topline top power play adding a hit and two or three shots per
Game uh those percentages are high the underlying his on Ice shooting percentage his uh his IP he he’s definitely outperforming what I I think we should be expecting I don’t I don’t see him as an 80 Point per game guy but could he be a 60 65 point guy that seems
Fairly reasonable to me I kind of think of him as someone who could be kind of what Victor arson is in his strong stretches though probably fewer shots but better hits to kind of make up for that lack of shooting I think that’s totally fair yeah tuck is uh he’s
Finally getting to play in his hometown region once again up with there with Buffalo he wants to be up there you know maybe some people think of him still is kind of a prospect type guy I don’t know what the perception is he’s not he’s 25
Years old he should be in his prime it’s just that he’s not been able to play as you know consistently because he gets hurt a lot and he was kind of pushed down a little bit in that Vegas situation but yeah I mean all all year I
Think we’ve been waiting for some people to rise up a little bit on the Buffalo Sabers because you know we’ve had our T shs and Dylan cousins but Jeff Skinner and Victor olon have kind of left me wanting anyway so maybe Alex tuck will be able to make a difference on that
Power play and give Buffalo fans something a little bit to hope for like you said with uh six quality games 12 total starts in your three-week playoff he is totally a guy that you want to be uh riding into the last month of the season with if you can yeah I think tuck
Was a kind of a victim of his own talent in in Vegas where he’s just he can drive a line on his own he can you can throw him on a on line three and he’ll go out there and and provide you really quality minutes on a line that would otherwise
Be stagnant without him on the ice uh throw him on a team like uh Buffalo though where he’s not behind you know Mark Stone and uh some of the better Wingers in the league and all of a sudden you’re giving him Topline top power play minutes it I’m very
Interested to see what he can do so yeah I I see tuck as somebody who should probably be rostered in in all 12 team leagues and 14 team leagues uh at certainly 14 team leagues probably at least bangers leagues uh that are any shallower uh looking at his roster ship
Percentage only 24% rostered still behind guys like yessie P yarvi yaka vorich Jeff Carter Ryan Johansson Alex riloff Jonathan Taves Patrick hornquist the list unfortunately does drag on I had to stop there I would drop all those guys for for Alex tuck at this point does that seem reasonable to you oh boy
You need some decent names there but I certainly think Alex tuck would be competitive with all the guys that you’re talking about and especially with the premium position that you’re going to get with him um I I I definitely like to be able to see that that uh left
Right winger eligibility that you’re going to get on Yahoo with him gives you a lot of flexibility and a lot of options for those weeks when you do have those flexible rosters and uh multiple off night games with Alex tuck so yeah man why not let’s believe in it yolo the
Alex tucking has come I yeah think like Pulu yvi and Carter I can see an argument uh personally I think with Carter’s new deployment I I I lean tuck and pul yvy just hasn’t shown me that he can be somebody who drives drives his own
Numbers that you can rely on uh for a full season but I will add though that just on the topic of Buffalo this does seem to come at the detriment of Victor olafson who is now ice cold no points in his last five five points over his last
15 and now getting second power play minutes which to me is the point of having Victor Olson is to put him on that right Circle and or the the opposite OB Side uh the left Circle fires a mean shot uh when the puck movement is doing well and he doesn’t
Really Drive play at even strength so I don’t really understand it but Victor Olen down on second power play probably a drop in all but the deepest Dynasty formats at this point um I don’t think that’s very controversial Jesse am I am I am I freaking you out with that take
Well I mean no uh I I guess I’ve never been as high of a Believer on Olson as many others have because it’s kind of a late breakout when he came into the NHL uh I think somebody probably could go up to the key bang Center and tell them
They’re allowed to have two offensively talented people at the same time on their team um so you would theoretically they should be able to coexist but you’re right for some of the play reasons that you’re talking about uh there could be a bit of redundancy between the two so yeah Victor Olson is
Not somebody that I’m necessarily targeting but again again uh we don’t know what’s going to happen late in the season we don’t know how hard Buffalo is going to be playing Visa other teams that may be fully in the tank by then and maybe Olson is a guy that you’re
Going to want to hold on to for that stretch run if he’s able to provide even modest production and looking at uh an Anaheim Ducks player Trevor zis fairly fairly cold since returning from the co list just four points in his last six but all four of those points coming in
Only two games so we’re seeing four pointless Gam games in his last six contrast that to prior to hitting the uh the IR zus was coming off a stretch where he had put up 20 points in 17 games we did receive a question on Twitter at Short shift KK from a manager
Who has Tyler T Foley on the IR to fully back with a point and an a goal and an assist last night in his first game back in Action uh for Montreal uh asking us if we would drop zis or Travis kkny to bring toley off of the IR list uh so I
Guess basically if you could you can keep two of these three would you drop either zis or KK cold zis and I guess suddenly somewhat resurgent Travis kky in Philadelphia uh H it’s it’s incredibly rough I am not sure at this point Tyler tley was so excellent last
Year but Montreal is just such hot garbage at this point uh they’re the lowest scoring team in the National Hockey League and it’s by a tenth of a goal uh and yeah they’re doing a lot of that without Tyler to Foley but I I cannot bring myself to drop Trevor
Zerris he’s still playing with getoff and Rael uh on some top deployment and I do think that there’s going to be a resurgent he’s a rookie there’s going to be inconsistency but I think that uh he could heat right back up and I don’t want to be the guy who watches my
Biggest rival pick him up off the waiver wire and destroy me after I gave up on him this week yeah that’s totally fair I think if there’s one thing I’m taking from this threat is just that like okay probably Point per game Trevor zis has
Not arrived in the NHL like over a full season there are going to be some some valleys I guess it’s not all Peaks um but I I do agree that he’s probably already worth holding on to through his cold stretches which is not what I expected to be saying preseason so I am
Very happy to see how well he’s been doing and I’m hoping that he can get back to his preco form shortly I will say just to throw cold water back on myself uh that and is one of those teams that doesn’t have many games left relative to the others 35 games left in
The season uh is the second lowest to the Tampa Bay Lightning so uh while Montreal really doesn’t have that many more either uh Anaheim is not necessarily a team that’s going to be flush with starts for here on out to the rest of the season Philadelphia I mean
Philadelphia is really not that much better so it’s it’s kind of pick your poison I don’t think that’s necessarily going to turn the tide from you uh on on any of these three play players but Trevor zis I think is going to have Resurgence but probably won’t be as
Dominant as players from some of these other teams I think that makes a ton of sense uh Jesse I want to thank you so much for uh for joining me tonight and for answering all of my probing questions on fantasy hockey uh why don’t you tell our listeners how they can find
Your work well you should hook up with us at Fan Hockey Life is my Twitter address you can uh you can uh hit me there uh in the uh fantasy hockey life gmail.com is the way you can email Victor and I uh you can join our Discord
As well just hit us up and let us know but I always love being here with you Ben it’s been a great time thank you so much for joining us and I hopefully we have you back on the show soon uh and thank all of our listeners for listening
Tonight be sure to give us a follow at Short shift KK join Brian and Elon on Twitter atke keeping Carlson and Dave beton of the stream scheme at NHL stream scheme I’d recommend you all follow at game day lines at game day goalies and at Game Day news for all of your latest
Breaking fantasy hockey updates and you can always visit the websites we use to research our episodes at Yahoo Frozen tools Natural stat trick and cup.com our intro and outro music was created by Pat roach and until we see you next time play smart and keep those shifts short
Ben is joined by Jesse Severe of the Fantasy Hockey Life podcast to break down the latest in fantasy hockey news. The pair discuss the NHL’s massive schedule update, breaking down the biggest impact of the 100 rescheduled games, and look ahead to the playoffs. Then, they turn their eyes to the Nikolaj Ehlers injury, Quinton Byfield being recalled by Los Angeles, a Buffalo Sabres addition who is turning heads, and a suddenly cold Trevor Zegras. Players discussed in this episode include Steven Stamkos, Brady Tkachuk, Nikolaj Ehlers, Paul Stastny, Tyler Toffoli, Quinton Byfield, Vitek Vanecek, Ilya Samsonov, Alex Tuch, Trevor Zegras, and more! Want to stay up to date on all the latest NHL line combos and fantasy news? Follow our @GameDayLines, @GameDayNewsNHL, and @GameDayGoalies accounts on Twitter to know what you need to know as soon as you can know it. Plus, visit GameDayLineTweets.com to see line combo tweets sorted by NHL team! For more amazing fantasy content, subscribe to The Stream Scheme, highlighting the best free agency finds and fantasy schedules of the week. We always invite and appreciate your feedback. Let us know what you think @keepingkarlsson, and if you love the show, please rate and write us a five-star review on Apple Podcasts. * * * Join our inclusive, passionate and brilliant Keeping Karlsson community by becoming a patron of Keeping Karlsson. For the cost of one arena soft pretzel each month, patrons help us keep making new episodes and get all kinds of perks in return, like managing teams in the Keeping Karlsson Ultimate Patron Fantasy League (aka the KKUPFL), access to our patrons-only Discord Server, bonus monthly Patroncasts, and weekly show scripts. Keeping Karlsson is proudly presented by Dobber Hockey. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
