Teuvo Teravainen now has five points in his last three games
I mean it’s kind of funny to shoot a puck off a guy’s head and into the net.
Ownership totals are in ESPN leagues as of Wednesday.
Teuvo Teravainen (LW – CAR): 11.7%
After a slow start to the season, Teuvo has looked like a demon the last few games, coinciding with his new placement alongside centerman Jordan Staal. Teuvo has five points in his last three games and a total of seventeen shots in his last four. In limited time, the trio of Teravainen, Staal, and promising youngster Sebastian Aho are running a bonkers 77.8 CF% together. It’s hard to believe the Fin only just turned 22, but with eight points now in fifteen games, he looks poised to easily best last season’s point total of 35.
Radim Vrbata (RW – ARI): 24.3%p
Coming off his worst point total last season since 2004(!), Vrbata’s days of being a top-six player in the NHL seemed over, but a return to the desert has given him new life. Playing alongside fellow Czech Martin Hanzal and future stud Max Domi, Vrby has already racked up 11 points in 15 games with a healthy 43 shots on goal. The Coyotes may be bad, but their forward group is fun and highly skilled. Plus, the Pacific is enough of a clown show right now that the Yotes should be able to take advantage of struggling teams on a nightly basis.
Cam Atkinson (LW – CBJ): 56.2%
Did you know Columbus is third in the East with a +14 goal differential? That seems weird right? Maybe not when considering Sergei Bobrovsky‘s .933 SV%, but another big reason has been the recent play of forwards like Cam Atkinson. Atkinson has 13 points in 14 games and paces the Blue Jackets in power play scoring with four power play goals and eight points in total. Most encouraging, Atkinson is racking up these points with a worst-on-the-team PDO of 97.7 (SV% + SH%, heavily regressed towards a mean of 1 over the season.) If anything, we should expect to see his on-ice SH% of 4.2% go up and for him to see more opportunities to collect points, just as soon as his linemates start putting the puck in the net.
Michael Del Zotto (D – PHI): 14.2%
With guys like Shayne Gostisbehere, Ivan Provorov, and Mark Streit it seems like there shouldn’t be much more room for a scoring defenseman on a team. But, after coming back from injury, Del Zotto has mostly been slotted with Gostisbehere and played with forwards Schenn, Giroux, and Simmonds. Yeah, that’ll help the point total – four points to go along with 10 shots in five games upon returning. Del Zotto should see his ice time continue to increase and the Flyers are one injury away from him playing on the power play again (Mark Streit has an excellent track record of health, but I’m not sure you want to bet on the soon-to-be 39-year-old).
Connor Hellebuyck (G – WPG): 36%
This kid is a future stud, no doubt about it. After a shaky first couple games, the former Mike Richter Award winner (best goaltender in college hockey) has a 92.9 SV% in his last nine appearances to go along with six wins and a shutout. He’s firmly grasped the starter’s reigns for a surprising Winnipeg team that might have their ups and downs due to how young they are, but probably more good times than bad given their level of talent.
All stats from corsica.com, Puckalytics.com and Stats.HockeyAnalysis.com unless otherwise noted.
Chris Prod is a correspondent at FantasyPros. He tweets sparingly @mastodude30.
