The weeks and days that approach NHL All-Star weekend are always some of the most difficult to manage because of the ways leagues are structured. Some of them have shorter weeks leading up to that break, whereas others have longer weeks beforehand, including the one I’m playing in right now on ESPN. The All-Star weekend begins this Friday, January 26 and regular NHL games will resume on the following Tuesday, January 30. So for this week’s waiver wire edition, I’ve decided to theme it where I am taking players’ matchups on Wednesday through Thursday of this week and whatever game they have opening after the break. Now, those may be different matchups based on how your league is structured. But still, the value of the players listed may not be lost in that third matchup maybe besides weekly leagues where you cannot change your lineup until a particular day. Regardless, most leagues design it where you can switch it each day to shuffle in new games, so these players are all relevant for games within the next few days as well as next Tuesday.

Winger

Josh Anderson (CLS)
I start this article with one of the most underrated young players in the entire NHL in Josh Anderson. Anderson, despite not having a ton of assists, still has 14 goals on the season and now is getting a lot of first-line attention in John Tortorella’s combinations. According to ESPN scoring, he is fourth among all Blue Jackets players and second among forwards with 155.2 fantasy points, only trailing Artemi Panarin, Seth Jones, and obviously, star goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky. Anderson has 14 goals and 10 assists on the season to go along with a physical presence as well, featuring 86 hits this season. He is a young player that is getting better every season, a player that should score at least 25 goals by the end of the year. He also will see a lot more minutes and shots with star winger Cam Atkinson currently injured, still recovering from a foot fracture he suffered earlier in December. Despite signs that could lead to him returning at the All-Star break, that is still a long shot and there is no timetable for his return. In the meantime, Anderson will get reps on the right wing with Panarin on the left. That will lead to more points not only in these three games but for the long-term as well.

Going to his matchups, they play the Vegas Golden Knights, Arizona Coyotes, and the Minnesota Wild in their next three games. The Golden Knights have been very good this season, but that doesn’t make Marc-Andre Fleury or Malcolm Subban elite goaltenders that you should shy away from. The Coyotes have been terrible all year, and the Wild have had goaltending from Devan Dubnyk that has been streaky all year, and mostly down. And with Panarin owned in almost all leagues (97.2% on ESPN), Anderson is a sneaky good winger option both for the short and long term. He is available in almost three-quarters of all leagues (owned in just 27.5% on ESPN) but is certainly playing at a higher level than that especially with more first line reps on a contending team. Mixed with his hit total, that can get points in leagues as well, Anderson’s fantasy points should rise in the second half of the season, and he can be a strong play in these next three matchups.

Center

Jordan Staal (CAR)
My center choice for this week is Jordan Staal of the Carolina Hurricanes who is also having a steady season for a player only owned in only 41.4% of leagues. Staal has 13 goals and 16 assists this season as well as contributing 106 hits. These numbers are not bad considering the talent around him is not great, as well as Staal as a player getting older and seeming like he would decline. If his current pace keeps up, he would score just above 20 goals with an assist total in the high twenties and likely will still keep his physical presence that he has been known for his whole career.

From a matchup standpoint, Staal is a nice value this week because he is playing against three teams that have massively underperformed to this point in the season. His second matchup is against the Montreal Canadiens. And even though Carey Price is still in net for Montreal, he has had a down season for his standards, with a GAA of 2.96 and a save percentage of .908. The Canadiens as a team have allowed the 8th most goals in the NHL up to this point too, with 146, rounding out to a team GAA of 3.11. The final matchup is against an Ottawa Senators team that has also had iffy goaltending and defense this season. Craig Anderson has not been the same this year after a breakout year last year. And the Senators as a team are 4th worst in the league with 155 goals allowed this season and a GAA of 3.44, which is third. With three teams upcoming in this window that are top-10 in goals allowed and a player that has been steady all year long, even at an older age, expect Jordan Staal to be a good play for these next three games.

Defenseman

Justin Faulk (CAR)
With all these good matchups, I feature another Carolina Hurricane. This time it is young offensive defenseman Justin Faulk. This season, Faulk has had a down year from a goal-scoring perspective, with just four on the season. However, he still has a decent assist total to this point, with twelve, and a solid hit total, with 84 on the season. And among defensemen that are owned in less than 50%, only the Golden Knights’ Colin Miller has more points on the year (138.6) than Faulk (136.1). Faulk, as a guy that throughout his career has had a very good slap shot, can utilize that against these shakier defensive teams.

I mentioned above when talking about Jordan Staal that the Hurricanes possess matchups in their next three games with teams that are among the bottom ten in the NHL in terms of goals allowed per game. And in terms of raw talent matchups, with the exception of Shea Weber on the Canadiens, there isn’t many fearsome physical defensemen that would take away his shooting ability with big hits. Also, even if he isn’t scoring goals, his hard shot can lead to deflections by the Hurricanes’ forwards, which can lead to decent assist totals, again against team defenses that haven’t been that good and goaltenders that are having years that have been down in comparison to their usual selves. Faulk also plays on the Hurricanes’ top power play unit, which definitely awards extra points in ESPN leagues and may award bonuses in other websites as well. And besides the Penguins (8th in PK), the other teams they are facing are 24th (Canadiens) and 28th (Senators) on the penalty kill this season. The combination of these factors should allow Faulk, in this stretch, to certainly up that point total and get that goal-scoring groove on again that he had in the previous three seasons.

Goaltender

Jonathan Bernier (COL)
Don’t look now, but the Colorado Avalanche, a team with 48 points and 22 wins all of last year, are on a 10-game winning streak. And in addition to a talented young offense that has bounced back from woeful seasons, their goaltending has been a big reason for this streak as well. Bernier has started nine of the 10 games they have won in a row and is getting extra time now with Semyon Varlamov out another two weeks with a groin strain, a very common injury among goaltenders.

The matchups include the Montreal Canadiens, St. Louis Blues, and the Vancouver Canucks. The Blues are middle of the pack in goal-scoring this season, tied for 13th with 139 goals scored, but don’t have scary offensive personnel with the exception of Vladimir Tarasenko that will make you avoid that matchup. As for Vancouver and Montreal, they are 26th and 29th, respectively, in goals scored this season, averaging 2.57 and 2.51 goals per game. Those are numbers to jump at if you are searching for a goaltender, especially one like Bernier getting tons of goal support amidst this ten-game winning streak. And both Vancouver and Montreal have had bad seasons as a team as a whole, with the Canucks at 42 points (14th in the west) and the Canadiens at 44 points (13th in East). The Blues have been good this year, with a record of 28-18-3 and 59 points, good for third in the Central division. But even so, they haven’t been playing as well as they were earlier in the season when they were leading the division in the first two months. They’ve come back down to earth and has been just playing .500, making it still a winnable game for Colorado. The point I’m trying to get at is expect wins to still come for this Colorado team, which benefits leagues that score wins for goaltenders. The All-Star break may cause an unwanted rest for this streaking Avalanche team, but with Vancouver right after the break, I wouldn’t be too concerned. With all these factors considered, as well as Bernier scoring over 6 points in all those matchups and over 8 in most of those wins, Jonathan Bernier (owned in 48.2% of leagues) is my waiver wire goaltender to snag this week.

Kyle Kloiber is a correspondent at FantasyPros. For more from Kyle, check out his archive and follow him @2Kgmenrule1080.