Fantasy Hockey Waiver Wire Pickups: Get a piece of Stars’ offense with Mason Marchment
After a brief holiday break, we're back with some Monday pickups for your consideration.
Mason Marchment, LW, Dallas Stars (37% rostered)
Dallas has the fourth-best offense in the league and an above-average power play, and it's as much about depth as star power; Dallas has three lines that can score. You'll find Marchment on the second line (tied to Matt Duchene and Tyler Seguin) and on the second power-play unit. Marchment's offense (he's on a 3-6-9 binge over four games) draws our attention, but he's also contributing in shots, penalty minutes and plus-minus. He's ready for a career year in his age-28 season.
If you want another pick on this line, Seguin also carries a modest roster tag (46%).
Brock Faber, D, Minnesota Wild (31% rostered)
We talked up Faber last month, noting that Minnesota trusted him with heavy minutes every night (he's around 25 minutes per start). But the responsibility is going up, too. Faber had three assists in the Saturday win over Columbus, with two of them coming on the power play. If Faber keeps working with the top man-advantage group, he's worth rostering in any kind of format. The Wild knew what they were doing when they prioritized Faber as part of the Kevin Fiala trade.
Dakota Joshua, C/LW, Vancouver Canucks (28% rostered)
Category leagues are fun because they make you search for players who can do a number of things well. Joshua is that type of guy. Over the last month, he's piled up 40 hits (fourth among left-wing-eligible players), nine blocks and an acceptable 6-5-11 scoring line. The Canucks have been the best offense in the league all year, and although Joshua isn't seeing any power-play time, Vancouver is getting good energy and support scoring from its third line.
Jake DeBrusk, RW/LW, Boston Bruins (48% rostered)
The Bruins had three picks in the middle of the 2015 first round, and only DeBrusk turned into anything. It's easy to wonder what could have been — Mathew Barzal, Kyle Conner, Brock Boeser and Travis Konecky all went later in the first round, and all of them look like bigger hits than DeBrusk (and his 2015 draftmates) thus far.
But maybe the DeBrusk narrative is changing. He was comically puck-unlucky over the first couple of months, despite shooting the puck around his normal frequency. But he's still on Boston's second line and second power-play unit, and lately things are starting to click — 4-4-8 over his last six games. DeBrusk qualifies at both wing positions, and has decent chemistry with linemates Brad Marchand and Charlie Coyle.
Samuel Ersson, G, Philadelphia Flyers (26% rostered)
Coach John Tortorella has done a nifty job with the Flyers, and Ersson's fine play is part of the story. Ersson was a mess in his first three starts (no wins, 14 goals allowed), but he's on a 9-3-1 stretch since, with an outstanding .926 save percentage. His full-season stats don't show the true qualify of Ersson's play, which is why he's still ready to add in about three-quarters of Yahoo leagues. The Flyers look like a likely playoff team.
Nate Schmidt, D, Winnipeg Jets (2% rostered)
One of the simplest hacks in fantasy sports is to identify the best teams and raid their rosters, even past the obvious stars. Winnipeg is on a nifty 12-game point streak, which means Schmidt can help us in those dynamic category pools. You won't get a lot of scoring with Schmidt, but over the past two weeks he has 12 shots, 11 hits, 18 blocks and a tidy plus-7 rating, which makes him a sneaky value in formats that use broad categories.
