Fantasy Hockey Sleepers: Avalanche and Stars

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 some may be regressing in other cases. 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 was completed Monday. Wednesday, we started the Central, which will be followed by the 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 Colorado Avalanche and Dallas Stars are covered in this column, continuing the Central Division review.

Colorado Avalanche:

The Avalanche will be without Gabriel Landeskog for the second straight season, putting additional pressure on the offense. To mitigate that absence, Colorado acquired Ryan Johansen for pretty much nothing from the Predators, who retained 50% of his salary cap hit, providing the team with a second-line center. RyJo is coming off a down year, tallying just 12 goals and 16 assists in 55 games last season for Nashville after having a renaissance season the prior year with 63 points in 79 contests.

The 2022 Cup Champions will utilize the former first-line center from the Predators on their second line. Freed up from the pressure of carrying a team offensively, Johansen will also be surrounded by several solid forwards up front, as well as Cale Makar and Devon Toews from the backline. The presence of those scorers should enable Johansen to have a rebound campaign.

Ross Colton could also see an uptick in output, though in his case, it might be a smaller bump. Penciled in as the third line pivot, Colton provides the Avalanche a physical element up front. Twenty goals might be in sight for Colton, who lit the lamp 16 times last season for Tampa. One more “deeper” target is Jonathan Drouin. If healthy, he should skate alongside Nathan MacKinnon, his junior hockey teammate, and Mikko Rantanen. That line placement would be a boon to Drouin.

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Dallas Stars:

Mason Marchment had an okay first season in Big D, though less than what was hoped. After a decent start, Marchment slowed substantially, finishing with 12 goals and 19 assists in 68 games. He should benefit from skating on a line with Tyler Seguin and Matt Duchene to see a rise in production.

Wyatt Johnston is no longer a sleeper after a solid rookie campaign. He settled in seamlessly on the Dallas roster, posting 24 goals and 17 assists in 81 games. Johnston, currently the third-line center taken 23rd overall in 2021, will eventually move up the ladder and projects down the road to be a possible first-line pivot.

If taking a flier, especially in deeper leagues, Thomas Harley is certainly worth a look. The 2019 first-round pick spent most of the year with Texas of the AHL, notching 10 goals and 24 assists. Harley, who played six regular season games with the Stars, showed his puck-moving ability and mobility in the playoffs and will get a chance to build off that success during the season, as he could be the #2 option offensively on the blueline behind Miro Heiskanen.

Atlantic Division:

Boston Bruins and Buffalo Sabres

Detroit Red Wings and Florida Panthers

Montreal Canadiens and Ottawa Senators

Tampa Bay Lightning and Toronto Maple Leafs

Central Division:

Arizona Coyotes and Chicago Blackhawks