Welcome back to another fantasy hockey season! As usual, every week, the weekly waiver wire report will help you target some players that you should be adding, or monitoring, on the waiver wire. You can’t win a championship with the team you drafted, which means, you’ll need to be active on the waiver wire to help replace injured players, and others who are just not getting the job done. Let’s get right into it for this week.

Noel Acciari - Florida Panthers - Winger

I don’t know what Noel Acciari has been eating this week, but it’s turned him into a goal scorer. The 28-year-old started the week with five goals, and now has 11, thanks to BACK-TO-BACK hat tricks against Ottawa and Dallas. He’s playing on a line with Jonathan Huberdeau and Vincent Trocheck, and that seems to have ignited him offensively. Huberdeau is an assist machine, and if Acciari can stick on that second line, he could very well be dominant all year long. Don’t get me wrong-- he’s not going to score six goals every week-- but right now, he’s hot, and he deserves to be on a fantasy hockey roster, especially in deeper formats. Ride the wave before it’s too late.

Antti Raanta - Arizona Coyotes - Goalie

It looks like Antti Raanta is going to get a chance to prove to the Coyotes that he’s still capable of being a number one goalie in the league. Darcy Kuemper get hurt in the game against Minnesota, and it looks like he may be sidelined for a few weeks. Raanta hasn’t been great this season-- posting a 2.72 GAA and a .919 SV%-- but he now has a chance to turn his year around. The numbers on the surface aren’t bad, so if he’s available on the waiver wire, you need to add him. If anything, don’t let the Kuemper owner solve his goaltending problem.

Filip Zadina - Detroit Red Wings - Winger

I know, we are talking about Filip Zadina again, but it looks like the talented winger is about to get his chance to play on the top line with Dylan Larkin and Anthony Mantha! The Red Wings are a dumpster fire of a hockey team, so this means that Zadina is going to get every opportunity possible to score goals. He’s 5% owned on Yahoo!, so he’s very much available and the upside is now there. If this doesn’t work out, I promise we won’t talk about him again, but for now, he has a ton of upside with very little risk. 

Christian Dvorak - Arizona Coyotes - Center

If you aren’t a Christian Dvorak owner, you need to change that, like right now! The 23-year-old is skating on a line with Phil Kessel and newly acquired Taylor Hall. skating between those two players is definitely as good as it gets for Dvorak, and that could lead to him collecting more points. He already has 22-points in 37-games, and I fully expect those totals to increase significantly over the next few weeks. THe upside is there for him, now let’s see if he can deliver. 

Jesper Bratt - New Jersey Devils - Winger

With Taylor Hall out of town, someone is going to have to step up and be the team’s top line left winger. So far, Jesper Bratt is getting that chance. Let’s keep our expectations here low-- the Devils are 30th in GF/GP and 21st in Sh/GP-- so he’s not going to explode and start scoring a ton of goals, but he is playing on the top line and on the second power play unit. In fantasy hockey, it’s about volume, and the 21-year-old is going to see an increase in ice time, and maybe that leads to more points. At worst, he’s a short-term solution for an owner who is dealing with injuries. 


 

All stats provided by NHL.com