Connor McDavid owners rejoice.

The No. 1 pick in fantasy put the Edmonton Oilers and fantasy teams alike on his shoulders last week, doing enough to win most of your offensive categories alone.

McDavid put together multi-point efforts in all four games last week (five straight dating back to Week 1), which included a goal-of-the-year candidate against the Leafs on Saturday, and a five-point night to cap off the week on Sunday against the Senators.

Not a bad start to the season for the Hart Trophy favourite.

For the rest of us who aren’t lucky enough to own any McDavid stock, we’ll need some help elsewhere.

We’re approaching the stage of the season where hot starts have faded, slumps have been broken, and trends are starting to solidify.

After a painfully slow start, Canucks forward Elias Pettersson bounced back in big ways this past week, scoring twice and adding three helpers over his three games.

He’s attempting more shots, and looks to have shaken off the rust that had him pointless over a five-game stretch early on.

Expect this version of Pettersson to continue for the rest of the season.

Nikolai Ehlers’ hot start continued with a four-point game on Tuesday. The Jets winger is starting to look like one of the better breakouts of the year.

Ehlers is top-10 in points despite having played just eight games, mostly on the second line with centre Paul Stastny.

Paul Maurice is now rewarding Ehlers with a bump up to the top line to play with Mark Scheifele. We’ll see how that plays out in Week 3, but it shouldn’t hurt.

COVID-19 continues to wreak havoc on the NHL schedule, with 11 games already postponed and counting. We’ll have to continue to monitor these situations, and adjust our lineups accordingly.

 

Week 3 Notes

The Maple Leafs and Oilers draw the short sticks this week as the only teams with two scheduled games.

The Golden Knights and Sharks will also be reduced to two games with their meetings on Monday and Wednesday postponed.

Fortunately, there are some teams set to have big offensive weeks to help us fill the gaps.

The Penguins have been off to a relatively slow start fantasy-wise. That should change this week.

They’re part of a group of only nine teams with four games scheduled, with two of those coming against the Devils who haven’t exactly been the best team defensively since losing goaltender Mackenzie Blackwood to COVID-19 protocols.

Penguins winger Kasperi Kapanen (33 per cent rostered) is a nice target to stream and potentially hold. The 2014 first-round pick has five points through his first six games with the team.

Another team to consider looking into is the Canadiens, who were a target last week that paid off.

The Habs face the Canucks and Senators twice each this week, with both opponents ranking in the bottom three in goals against in the early going.

Jonathan Drouin (30 per cent rostered) isn’t shooting at all, but he’s still picking up points, so consider adding him for the week.

Other teams with four-game weeks: Anaheim, Boston, Calgary, Colorado, Minnesota, St. Louis, and Vancouver.

 

Rising stock

W: Denis Gurianov, Dallas Stars (51 per cent rostered, up 36 per cent)

At this point, I’ll take any piece of a Stars power play that has opened the season 11-for-30. When it comes to Gurianov, I’m actually surprised his ownership isn’t higher. The 23-year-old is coming off a solid rookie season with 20 goals in 64 games, but he may have been overlooked at drafts due to a low assist total of nine last year. Well, overlook no more. Like the rest of the Stars, he’s off to a red-hot start to the season. Already with three goals and seven points through six games, Gurianov deserves a pick-up in all but the shallowest of leagues.

He’s been promoted to the top line to start the year, he’s playing on the top power-play unit, and he has an absolute rocket of a shot, passing the ever important eye test. He’s shooting at 17 per cent, which is likely unsustainable, but he did finish with a 15 per cent shooting percentage last season, so that might just be who he is. The only knock so far is the usage at just under 16 minutes per game. You would expect this to be a little higher given the Stars injuries and COVID-related absences, but so far that’s not the case. I’d be willing to take a gamble that the ice time will go up, and the production will be more than enough to help out your fantasy squad.

C/W: Jordan Kyrou, St. Louis Blues (28 per cent rostered, up 21 per cent)

Kyrou has produced at every level dating back to his days with the Sarnia Sting. He put up 203 points over 122 games in his last two seasons in the OHL. He spent most of the past two seasons in the AHL, putting up 58 points in 63 games, close to a point-per-game pace. Playing on the second line with Brayden Schenn and Jaden Schwartz, Kyrou has managed an impressive five goals and five assists through the first nine games this year. He’s also seeing time on the second power-play unit. This should be Kyrou’s first full year in the NHL, and while he might be a year or two away from a true breakout, he’s still worth a look while he’s hot.

C/W: Andrew Copp, Winnipeg Jets (47 per cent rostered, up 46 per cent)

Copp has been on fire in the absence of Patrik Laine. After getting held off the scoresheet in his first two games to open the year, Copp has since put up nine points in his past six games on the second line with Ehlers and Stastny. A big part of that success might be how much he’s shooting. Copp is firing the puck at a rate of 3.6 shots per game, that’s 17th in the league, compared to just 1.9 shots per game a season ago. Maurice is bumping Copp and Ehlers up to the top line with Scheifele to start the week, so expect the ice time to go up for the time being.

C/W: Carter Verhaeghe, Florida Panthers (24 per cent rostered, up 21 per cent)

Carter Verhaeghe is playing on the red-hot top line with Aleksander Barkov and Anthony Duclair, and it’s paying off in big ways for the second-year forward. Verhaeghe has five goals and two assists through six games, albeit he’s scoring on an unsustainable 38 per cent of his shots. Solid production should be sustainable however, since Verhaeghe is getting 18 minutes of ice time a game, a nine-minute bump compared to his rookie season with the Lightning a year ago. He’s also no stranger to producing in his pro career. Verhaeghe led the AHL in both goals (34) and points (82) in 76 games in 2018-2019, his last season in the league. He’s as intriguing as it gets.

 

Falling Stock

D: Rasmus Dahlin, Buffalo Sabres (87 per cent rostered, down 5 per cent)

A breakout pick to start the year, Dahlin has actually been one of the bigger disappointments through 10 games. I wouldn’t panic just yet. He’s still getting elite-level ice time, and more importantly, elite-level power-play time with more than four minutes a game (13th among defencemen). The Sabres power play is seventh in the league scoring on 31 per cent of opportunities, and Dahlin likely won’t be getting bumped off that top unit anytime soon. Despite the slow start, Dahlin does have three power-play points over his past four games, which could be a sign of things to come. We also have to like how much Dahlin is shooting the puck. He’s first among defencemen with 32 shots. He’s going to hurt you in +/-, but the goals and assists will come. I’d hold Dahlin for now.

C: Mika Zibanejad, New York Rangers (99.5 per cent rostered, down 0.3 per cent)

It hasn’t been pretty in New York to start the year. Zibanejad has just two points through eight games, and a minus-4 rating. This is a guy who put up 41 goals in 57 games in last year’s shortened season. Like Dahlin, I wouldn’t panic. Zibanejad is never going to reach that 59-goal pace again, but he’s an elite talent with an incredible shot who is just getting unlucky. He’s shooting the puck at roughly the same rate as last season (3.4 shots per game compared to 3.6 last year). The big difference is a three per cent shooting percentage to start the year, compared to 20 per cent last year! Again, he’s likely never going to hit 20 per cent over a full season again, but we can expect something in the middle. A career 13 per cent shooter, I see Zibanejad creeping closer to that number going forward, and in doing so he’ll return to form as one of the better fantasy centres in the league.