We’re into the second week of the fantasy hockey season. It’s been an eye-opening first week. The sample size is a little on the small side still, and you do not want to overreact to slow starts. A lot of the time, we have guys with a strong history, and we know who the tried and true options are. Give them time. If you invested a draft pick on a guy, give it some time. Do not push the panic button.
At the same time, if you’re in a league with a fantasy manager you know is a little rash, a little fidgety, who you can goad into a bad trade, take advantage. Some fantasy managers don’t stay the course. Pounce and take advantage of their impulsiveness and impatience.
NHL Fantasy Hockey Trade Advice (Week 2)
Buy
Dougie Hamilton was drafted to be a low-end No. 1 defenseman in most fantasy leagues, but that came with tremendous risks. He was limited to 20 games last season after suffering a torn pectoral muscle in December. He posted five goals and 11 assists with a minus-8 rating.
It’s been a slow go this season. He remains the quarterback of New Jersey’s power play, but it is just so-so at 20.0%, which ranks 16th in the NHL. After getting blanked by the Carolina Hurricanes, his former team, on Tuesday, he is still looking for his first point through six games while posting an even rating with just 20 shots on goal. The last time he stumbled out of the gate this badly was in 2014 with the Boston Bruins. Hamilton hasn’t gone seven consecutive games without a point since April 2022.
A deeper dive into the numbers shows he has a Corsi For Percentage (CF%) of 52%, an expected goals percentage of 53.9% and a high-danger chance percentage of 53.2%. Each mark is his worst in three years.
For fantasy purposes, you’re going to want to hang onto him if you invested in him on draft day. He was picked in the neighborhood of round five/round six in leagues of 10 teams or more. If you run another team, make grabbing Hamilton a priority via trade. The window is open, as his drafting team owner has to be getting antsy. The price tag is as low as it will ever be. The 31-year-old still has plenty of left in the tank. He had 39+ points in eight out of nine seasons from 2014-2023, including 42 points in that 2014-2015 campaign when he started with a goose egg six games in a row.
The 34-year-old Steven Stamkos has started the season with three goose eggs in his first three games in the Music City. He spent 16 seasons with the Tampa Bay Lightning — 1,082 career games. You can’t blame the two-time Stanley Cup winner for getting off to a slow start as he gets acclimated to his new surroundings. You get locked into a routine, and it’s hard to change.
Stamkos started out as a winger in his first two games, but bench boss Andrew Brunette has already slid the veteran back to center, hoping to get the veteran pivot untracked. The closest he has come is clipping the bar in the opener. He and Jonathan Marchessault are each getting used to their new surroundings together. Skating on the No. 2 scoring line with Cole Smith could get both players going.
For fantasy purposes, like Hamilton above, Stamkos is an amazing buy-low target. He is 34 years old and fantasy managers might have some buyer’s remorse. He was drafted as early as round three/round four in fantasy leagues of 10 teams or more, so the leash for fantasy managers might not be long. If you have a red-hot player who you do not feel has staying power, you could potentially coax someone into a bad trade, netting you a tremendous veteran who can pile up points once he gets comfortable in Smashville.
Sell
What a start for Dylan Guenther and the Utah Hockey Club. The team fired out of the chute with three consecutive victories, including two games on the road against the New York teams. In that three-game winning streak, Guenther piled up five goals, including two goals in each of the first two games, while lighting the lamp on the power play in two of those games. He also had the overtime game-winner on Thursday against the Islanders.
If you were fortunate to scoop up Guenther in the final rounds of your draft or plucked him off the waiver wire you might want to play things out and see how it goes. The 21-year-old was decent, going for 18 goals and 35 points with the Arizona Coyotes in 45 games last season, so the hot start isn’t a huge surprise. Utah inked him to an eight-year, $57.14 million contract extension, so that roll of the dice looks pretty smart at this point.
However, Guenther’s stock has never been higher. He is like March 2024 Bitcoin. If you believe his price is going to keep going up, hang onto him for a bit. He is just 21 years old, so he might simply be scratching the surface. On the flip side, he is a ‘might’, when there are other guys like Hamilton, Stamkos, etc. who we know what we’re going to get. Would you make that swap? I would.
Nobody saw this coming. The 24-year-old pivot from Canton, Michigan was a fourth-round pick in the 2018 NHL Entry Draft by the Vegas Golden Knights. Paul Cotter entered the current season with 22 goals and 45 points in 138 NHL games across parts of three seasons with Vegas. He saw some time on the power play last season, posting two goals and four points on the man advantage. He also had one game-winning goal in his first 138 NHL games. He has two such goals in just six games with the Devils.
Cotter scored a goal with an assist in the NHL Global Series opener against the Buffalo Sabres in Prague, Czechia. He followed that up with a goal in the October 5th game against the Sabres. He returned to the stat sheet, posting a two-goal game in Washington last Saturday, including the game-winner.
The sell window is closing. He is scoreless in his past two games, although he was very much active in the 4-2 loss in Carolina, tying a season-high with four shots on goal. Cotter doesn’t have the staying power, so if you can flip the waiver-wire pick-up for anything, it’s a win. Remember that old reality show Barter Kings on A&E? Flip Cotter for a player with a lower current value but you know has more staying power. Then, flip that new player and keep moving up. Are you going to end up trading up from Cotter, a Hyundai, eventually getting to Connor McDavid, a Bugatti? Well, probably not. But, you can flip waiver-wire pickups with short-term appeal, building the quality of your roster for little to no cost.