The NHL season is just past the half way mark and the Olympic break is upon us. This means it is crunch time in fantasy hockey. Time to fish or cut bait on the season. Are you a contender? Or should you be looking to the future? If you want to go for it you can look to trade with a bottom dweller offering picks or prospects for current producing NHL players. Another and much cheaper option is to look at the waiver wire where you can snag a player for free. Here are five players to look at who may be available in your league depending on its size and format
Tyler Johnson - Tampa Bay Lightning, C, 63% Fantrax Owned
Johnson went undrafted in the NHL, and if he also went undrafted in your fantasy league take advantage. Johnson has eight points in his last five games including a hat-trick against Colorado on January 25th.
Ondrej Palat – Tampa Bay Lightning, LW, 49.7% Owned
Palat and Johnson are line mates and the pair has been red hot as of late. I am a big fan of owning teammates ever since the duo of Brett Hull and Adam Oates made me a fantasy hockey Champion. Palat has five points in his last three games played. If you can’t snag Johnson, snap up his wing man.
Zack Kassian – Vancouver Canucks, RW, 41% Owned
Kassian is a streaky player in that he is often either scoring on the first line, or in the coaches dog house riding pine, or worse in the press box. The Canucks have been hot lately winning four of the last five and Kassian has been a big part of their success. He has three points and 16 PIM’s in that span. Kassian has the skill, size and mean streak to be a dominant forward and is having the best year of his career. He may be on the cusp of his long awaited coming out.
Andrej Meszaros – Philadelphia Flyers, D, 28.8% Owned
Meszaros has been plagued by injury and missed all but 11 games last season and has often been a healthy scratch this season. However, he has had a good month, scoring 11 points in 13 games and sporting a plus/minus of plus-2 in that span. He carries a heavy cap hit $4 million which expires after this season and could find himself on a new team as a UFA or sooner via trade.
Brian Gibbons – Pittsburgh Penguins, RW, 11% Owned
Gibbons made this list earlier in the season, but in case you missed it here he is again. He was first called up after scoring 22 points in 15 AHL games and he had a two point NHL debut. He has been back and forth between leagues a bit, and was injured but now has six points in 14 career games and is playing on a line with Chris Kunitz and Sidney Crosby. His cap is the league minimum of $550,000 and he is well worth the gamble.