Fantasy Hockey Sleepers: Wild and Predators

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 Minnesota Wild and Nashville Predators are covered in this column, continuing the Central Division review.

Minnesota Wild:

Caden Addison was the Wild’s power play quarterback, at least until John Klingberg was brought in at the trade deadline. His acquisition relegated Addison to an afterthought and ultimately press box status in the playoffs. With Klingberg now in Toronto and Minnesota in a tight cap squeeze, resulting in minimal offseason moves, Addison should be restored to his prior position.

Addison finished with 29 points in 62 games, including 18 on the man advantage. He needs to improve defensively, but as long as he is passable and is the PP QB, points should result. Jared Spurgeon is still around, so don’t overrate Addison.

In deeper leagues, Marco Rossi is a more certain target. The first two stints in the NHL have not gone as planned, but part of his slow start could be attributed to missing all of the 2020-21 season due to the side effects of a positive COVID test. Rossi’s future is still bright and his numbers are eerily similar to Martin St. Louis in Calgary, bolstering his prospect status.

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Nashville Predators:

Ryan O’Reilly signed this offseason to be Nashville’s first-line center. While ROR should have a solid year, the upside potential is in the player who should in directly behind down the middle of the Preds lineup.  Thomas Novak took a major step forward with 43 points in 51 games, all of which came from December onward, but in shallower leagues, the name recognition just isn’t there.

Novak is expected to build off the success he had last season. Skating in a top-six role with second-unit power-play time, a rise in production should come with those placements. At 26, he is not a baby-faced rookie, but the additional experience he has had should enable him to stay level-headed and not let the moment get to him.

Nashville gave up on Eeli Tolvanen with Seattle the beneficiary. Don’t look for them to make the same mistake as Philip Tomasino. Slated to skate on the third line, Tomasino has shown snippets of what he can do in the first two seasons in the NHL. If given the ice time and/or right line placement, look for a healthy rise in output.

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

Colorado Avalanche and Dallas Stars