Coffee in the Crease: Round 1

Welcome back everyone! It’s time for fantasy playoffs, oh yes, it’s the best time of the season! If you’re like me it might be a quick exit from contention because you flat out have next to nobody playing this week, but for those of you lucky to have full rosters this article is all about you. I want to say too, anyone in a consolation bracket or even gets eliminated from contention this week, play on. Come June we’re all going to be sitting down watching the last game or two of the Cup finals and will miss playing fantasy hockey. With that let’s dive into some intriguing adds for the week.

Jonathan Quick, Vegas Golden Knights (Rostered in 22% of ESPN leagues, 57% Fantrax, 63% Yahoo) 30 starts, 14 wins, 0 OTL, 2.46 GA/G, .939 Sv%, 2 SO

I know what Jonathan Quick looked like early this season for Los Angeles, but I still held my Quick stock. Some goaltenders are just wired differently and the minute the trade was announced to Vegas I knew this would be a goaltender I’d be writing about in a week. Low and behold here we are and Quick has shattered any early expectations that we had for him in Vegas. He's 3-0-0 so far with a 33 save shutout last time out against the Hurricanes.

I thought Quick looked fantastic at times against Carolina, and I think it also helps that this is a Vegas club that has a very good blue line. I like this add this week for the early schedule, a road game against a fluttering Philadelphia Flyers club on Tuesday followed by a home Thursday game against the Calgary Flames. The Flames have the second highest shots per game in the NHL since January 1st, so there’s even an added bonus in that game that Quick will likely see plenty of volume.

This is a Vegas club now that I’d say is on its fourth starter in Quick. Robin Lehner has been ruled out since before the season, Logan Thompson is on IR, and Adin Hill has been DTD now for around a week. This means Quick will likely get plenty of chances to start in net and at lower rostership I think he’s well worth making a claim for.

Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen, Buffalo Sabres (Rostered in 28% of ESPN leagues, % Fantrax, 17% Yahoo) 28 starts, 15 wins, 3 OTL, 3.54 GA/G, .895 Sv%, 0 SO

I really like Luukkonen as an add this week, not so much because of his matchups but the unique opportunity that Buffalo gives us this week. They will play tonight (Monday), Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday. Those are all your “off” days for the week and being able to fill those with a starter puts your team at a nice advantage in net. Luukkonen looked great against the New York Rangers in his last start, only allowing a Kane goal off of a funny bounce, and then ultimately losing in overtime.

One slight issue here is that I would really only be recommending UPL and not so much Craig Anderson, who as I’m writing this has been named tonight’s starter against the Toronto Maple Leafs. Alright Buffalo, you’ve said some things. I’ve said some things. We have our differences here, but just go with Luukkonen going forward, give the people what they want.

Jacob Markstrom, Calgary Flames (Rostered in 75% of ESPN leagues, 89% Fantrax, 87% Yahoo) 45 starts, 18 wins, 8 OTL, 2.83 GA/G, .895 Sv%, 1 SO

Hello darkness, my old friend. I’m here recommending that you add Jacob Markstrom to your playoff roster and just know if it goes poorly send all replies to the Flames, but just leave the Saddledome out of it.

I do think as frustrating as Markstrom has been this season that he has been much better as of late winning three of his last four contests and that includes a shutout victory over the Minnesota Wild. I’m not sure if this is a case to where we come to find out after the dust settles on the 2022-23 season that Markstrom was harboring an injury, but it is peculiar how he got off to such a slow start after a season prior being one of the top five best fantasy goaltenders. In the past week the numbers have improved tremendously as he has posted a .942 save percentage with 1.73 goals against average.

Along with eight consecutive starts Markstrom and the Flames have a nice schedule early this week with a road game coming against the Arizona Coyotes. It would be a total Flames move here to go to Dan Vladar instead this week but even if he gets a spot start at some point this week, I could see Markstrom being named the starter more often this week and into the future.

For continued fantasy news and notes throughout the season, follow me on Twitter @ndySanz