One could argue that Nikolai Kulemin has been the Toronto Maple Leafs best all around player over the past few seasons. His great two-way play and offensive upside had Leafs brass as well as fantasy owners excited. This season however has been much different for the Russian winger and has reduced his ownership in fantasy leagues greatly. So far he has tallied just three goals and 13 points, but it hasn’t been for lack of effort on the ice. Kulemin has been generating plenty of quality scoring chances and if he gets a bounce or two, things may just start going his way in the second half of the season.

Worth a Look

Jussi Jokinen C/LW CAR

Gone are the days where Jussi Jokinen was only useful in shootout situations. Despite his lack of goal scoring, Jokinen has four assists in his last six games and he is a plus-3 over that span. He has also been very effective on the power play as nine of his 21 points have come with the man advantage. Jokinen also adds an element of versatility as he can play both left wing and center, and he is just 24% owned.

Andrej Meszaros D PHI

If your defense is anything like mine then you are probably riddled with injuries on the back end. A good solution may be to scoop up the 25% owned Meszaros until the troops get healthy. The Flyers defenseman has six points in the last eight games and three of those have been goals. He is also a plus-6 on the season and should see increased minutes in all situations with Chris Pronger lost for the season due to injury.

Blake Wheeler RW WPG

Wheeler has been on fire lately and he has done it over a longer stretch then most other forwards available on the waiver wire. The Jets winger has 18 points in his last 17 games and over that span he has wracked up point streaks of three and four games, along with three multi-point games. He also has 39 hits during that run and is still just 20% owned.

Viktor Stalberg LW CHI

This Leafs cast-off is starting to find his touch in the windy city. The Blackhawks are starting to see some signs of what Stalberg is capable of. He has notched four goals and seven points in his last four games, and has three multi-point games during that span. The Swede is also a plus-12 for the season and remains just 8% owned. With so much depth at the forward position for Chicago, Stalberg may not be able to keep up his torrid pace for the rest of the season, but he can still be an upgrade in deeper leagues.

Drop ‘EM

Dustin Penner LW LA

Penner has not been able to recapture the form he showed playing with Anaheim during their Stanley Cup run. With just two goals and eight points this season, it may be time to part with the Kings winger. He has managed just a single power play point and is a minus-5 on the year.

Marek Zidlicky D MIN

The normally steady Zidlicky hasn’t been himself so far this season. In five of his seven seasons so far in the National Hockey League he has recorded at least 30 points. This year he has posted just six and not a single goal. He is also a minus-2 and has just 23 hits in 24 games on the campaign.

I think Zidlicky reads your column Michael and said screw that.

Nice work - I wonder if it might be helpful with your advice to talk about the depth of league you are considering when you make your calls - the line moves somewhat when you go from a 12 team 20 man roster to a 12 team 25 man roster.

Anyway, good stuff - I didn't realize you were doing this - I will pay more attention - what day of the week do you normally post this column?

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Yahoo weekly starts 12 team league, keep 17 plus farm

GS, W, L, SV, GAA, SV%, SO G, A, P, +/-, PIM, SOG, GWG, PPP, SHP, HITS, FOW

3C: H. Sedin,Stepan, Stastny, R. Johansen, Hanzal, Anisimov,
3LW: Burrows, Vanek, Ott, Lupul, Dubinsky
3RW: Doan, Pavelski, Brown, Okposo,
6D: Franson, Doughty, Voynov, Subban, Markov, Gonchar, Karlsson
1Util:
2G: Price, Emery


Farm: (< 100 games): S. Elliott, J. Bernier, Galchenyuk, Etem, Eakin, Atkinson

Who even owns Dustin Penner?

Good work man.

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Twitter: @TK12555

Thanks Shoeless. I have been posting every other Tuesday since the start of the year. I made reference to the context in the earlier articles. Like when I talk about what percentage a player is owned, it is based off of Yahoo Sports(which I think is fairly standard), and you are right with the league size as well.

Basically just 10-12 teams and 25 roster size. Non-keeper leagues of course