Fantasy Hockey Sleepers: Atlantic Division – Lightning and Maple Leafs

With the calendars flipping to September and training camp just a few weeks away, fantasy hockey leagues have started to schedule their drafts. Hopefully, you have been keeping up with the off-season moves, rookies added and players looking to take a step forward, while in other cases, some may be regressing. To help you plan, this series of columns will focus on fantasy hockey sleepers, one per team in each division.

Fantasy hockey sleepers mean different things to each person. For some, it’s the hot rookie. For others, it’s those who will take a step forward. Some view them as prior year players or acquisitions in new situations, enabling that individual to exceed projections or their initial role. For purposes of this series of columns, the focus will mainly be on the latter – those who have a chance to surpass expectations or prior production. I welcome feedback, criticism, thoughts, etc., as one man’s meat is another man’s poison, and your view may differ vastly from mine.

We kicked off this series looking at the Atlantic Division, which will be followed by the Central, Metro, and Pacific. As noted, in each column, two teams will be covered. To simplify it, we are going alphabetically by first team name rather than by nickname. The Tampa Bay Lightning and Toronto Maple Leafs are covered in this column, completing the Atlantic Division review.

Tampa Bay Lightning:

For the Lightning, last year saw Brandon Hagel – acquired during the 2021-22 season – take a major step forward in production, earning an eight-year deal this offseason. Hagel took advantage of increased ice time and line placement to have a breakthrough campaign. The question is, for this year, who potentially can take that leap forward?

Tanner Jeannot could be the next to benefit from a trade to Tampa Bay. Jeannot burst on the scene with 24 goals in 2021-22 for Nashville, substantially aided by a 19.4 percent shooting percentage. He regressed last season, before and after arriving in the state of Florida, finishing with just six goals and 12 assists in 76 games. Despite the drop in scoring, Jeannot contributed 290 hits after dishing out 318 the prior year.

Jeannot potentially gets a bump in value as he is slated to open the year on the second line. In addition, his shooting percentage dropped from 19.4% to 5.6%, meaning if that regresses somewhat back to the mean, his production should rise. Tampa Bay doesn’t have many other options for that line, though Conor Sheary could move from the third to the second line if he shifts from the left to the right side.

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Toronto Maple Leafs:

The Core Four in the Six is supported by several role players. Toronto added Tyler Bertuzzi and Max Domi this offseason, lengthening their lineup. In addition – and one player I considered for this column – Matthew Knies is expected to provide additional heft and scoring to the roster. Knies, the Maple Leafs’ top prospect and selected 57th overall in 2021, is expected to fill a top-nine role, likely as the third-line left wing.

My focus for the Leafs in this column is John Klingberg. Before last season, Klingberg failed to sign a long-term deal – blame can be assigned to several for that major faux pas – landing a one-year deal with the Ducks. That move proved to be an abject failure, as he struggled offensively and defensively in Anaheim before getting traded to Minnesota. Klingberg was mildly better for the Wild, though not significantly enough to warrant a multi-year deal in the open market.

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Klingberg signed a one-year, $4.15 million contract with the Maple Leafs. He will bring Toronto offense from the blue line, skating on the second blueline pair while likely playing the point on a similar power play unit. Defensively, don’t expect a major uplift on that end, but the power play production and talent around him at even strength should result in increased production.

Atlantic Division:

Boston Bruins and Buffalo Sabres

Detroit Red Wings and Florida Panthers

Montreal Canadiens and Ottawa Senators