The penultimate week of the 2024 fantasy hockey season begins with eight games Monday, followed by another eight Tuesday. A five-game Wednesday rounds off the early week with some highlights that include the Edmonton Oilers visiting the Dallas Stars and the Toronto Maple Leafs hosting the Tampa Bay Lightning.
It is also the start of the championship matchup if you joined a default league here on ESPN Fantasy, which has two-week playoff matchups. This matchup, of course, goes a little beyond that because of the extended final scoring period. So you will need to remain vigilant for a fantasy matchup that continues for 18 days and 132 NHL games that remain.
Given the late hour on this fantasy campaign, you do need to turn your attention to your games-played maximums. In the bottom left on a web browser (just below your goalies), you can click on "View Game Maximums" to see how close you are from potentially being cut off from accruing statistics. No matter how your league manages roster locking (daily or weekly), you don't want to hit this maximum too early. It will stop players from collecting stats at that position for the remainder of the season in points and rotisserie leagues. (Head-to-head formats will likely have a weekly variant of this setting, so fantasy managers are probably well aware of the limits and implications).
That said, you also want to push up to the limit as close as you can. You are allowed that many starts during the season, so you want to use as many as you can to collect stats or points. It's a balancing act down the stretch that is worth the micromanagement for a championship push.
Different teams will be trending at different thresholds depending on how your season went. A bunch of midweek injuries in leagues with weekly roster locking will have left those fantasy teams well below the threshold. A healthy season and trying to maximize on four-game schedules might have left some teams trending over the limits.
But you can still try to balance both directions.
If you are trending under, you can try to maximize some stats with the players at the bottom of your roster. Start Fabian Zetterlund or Jake Neighbours this week instead of William Karlsson. It's justifiable from a performance standpoint as Zetterlund and Neighbours have both been collecting plenty of fantasy points but, more importantly, the San Jose Sharks and St. Louis Blues play four times this week, compared with the Vegas Golden Knights having only two games.
You can use this strategy with a more holistic approach, too, as there is some disparity in games remaining across the NHL. As we enter April, the Edmonton Oilers have 10 games remaining going into Monday night's action to lead all franchises in remaining games, while the Dallas Stars, Carolina Hurricanes and Boston Bruins are among six teams with only seven games remaining. Brent Burns has had some moments this season (though his 1.6 fantasy points per game don't really justify the 78.4% of leagues that have him rostered), but if you are trending well below your game starts for defense, ditch him for Mattias Ekholm, who is red-hot and has three more games left than Burns.
If you are trending over your games-played limits, you can do the same thing. Start benching some of the lower-tier players on your roster. You don't want to spend too many more starts on Ryan O'Reilly now and then find out in the final week of the season that you are locked out from collecting Auston Matthews stats in the final two games.
Because of how the tandems go in the crease, you are at no risk of running into your games-played limits for goaltenders, so just know that this doesn't really apply to the position. In fact, if you are trending over at other positions, you could move out a player or two from the skater positions for an extra goaltender or two that can be streamed for additional points. Just be careful as there is always the risk of negative points or ballooning ratios.
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Stock up
Drew O'Connor, W, Pittsburgh Penguins (99.5% available): Getting some serious runway in his chance on the top line with Sidney Crosby and Bryan Rust, O'Connor has goals in three straight. He might not be the new Jake Guentzel, but we'll take the offense.
Alexis Lafreniere, W, New York Rangers (77.6% available): That was a heck of a show to put on Saturday against the Coyotes, as Lafreniere potted a hat trick and two helpers. He had that same statistical output in the previous six games as well, so the hope is that he's ramping up for a big finish alongside Vincent Trocheck and Artemi Panarin. The 22-year-old is approaching the 300-game mark for his career (290 and counting), so is in that range where we could see him take a step to the next level.
Ryan Hartman, W, Minnesota Wild (74.7% available): Maybe this isn't the best time to recommend someone who has a possible suspension coming for unsportsmanlike conduct against the Golden Knights on Saturday, but when Hartman is on the ice with the Wild, he has been a good fantasy start of late. Playing with Marco Rossi and Mats Zuccarello, he has posted 2.36 FPPG across his past 10 games.
Stock down
Andrei Svechnikov, W, Carolina Hurricanes (8.7% available): It has been fun watching Sebastian Aho, Seth Jarvis and Jake Guentzel vibe like they've been linemates all season -- except if you have Andrei Svechnikov on your fantasy roster. The Guentzel era in Carolina has been rough for Svechnikov so far, including his ice time dipping down closer to 16 minutes most nights. His only point in the past seven games came on the power play, where he spends time with the aforementioned trio.
Streamer specials
Conor Timmins, D, Toronto Maple Leafs (99.8% available): The Leafs play two home games early in the week and have a wounded defensive core that leaves Timmins as the best remaining power-play option until Morgan Rielly returns. If you need to jump-start your defense, Timmins might well still be playing a prime role in two high-stakes games against the franchises from Florida on Monday and Wednesday.
Tyler Bertuzzi, W, Toronto Maple Leafs (51.4% available): With Mitch Marner's injury status also not looking so great, the same opportunity exists for Bertuzzi in the early part of the week. He has been acting as Marner's replacement on offense, sticking with Matthews at even strength and joining the crew on the advantage.
Braden Schneider, D, New York Rangers (98.4% available): With his ice time creeping into the range of 20 minutes per game, rather than the closer to 15 minutes he has been playing most of the season, Schneider's physical play is starting to have a fantasy impact. He has 1.95 FPPG across his past 10 games is thanks in large part to the boost in ice time. That boost is going to disappear with a healthy Jacob Trouba and Ryan Lindgren back in the lineup, but even with just 16:25 against the Coyotes on Saturday, Schneider still managed 3.1 fantasy points.
Philipp Grubauer, G, Seattle Kraken (93.1% available): Joey Daccord has been the better bet in the crease for the Kraken lately, but they've been running a regular rotation regardless of the results. If that continues, the schedule has a cure for the Grubauer blues. His next three opponents if he continues to get every other game are the Sharks, Ducks and Sharks again.