Winnipeg Jets fantasy week 4: Ehlers breakout is coming
This week’s Winnipeg Jets schedule is odd in that they play Monday, Thursday, and Saturday. What makes it odd is that Monday is typically a lighter night, but this week sees 9 NHL teams in action.
On Thursday, 12 teams play, while Saturday has 15 teams playing.
Winnipeg plays the Rangers at home tonight, and are on the road in Vegas Thursday and in Arizona Saturday.
Basically, it’s not a great schedule fantasy wise for the Jets.
If you do target Jets players for streaming, then tonight is your best night schedule wise. Saturday isn’t horrible, given the Coyotes are their opponent, but lots of teams are playing and you may not have room in your lineup for streamed players.
Let’s check in on the Jets from a fantasy perspective.
As always, player ownership numbers refer to Yahoo.
Winnipeg Jets’ third line brought the heat last week
When you look at the Jets’ performances over the past five games, it’s a surprising trio at the top.
Both Mason Appleton and Nino Niederreiter lead the Jets over that time frame, with two goals and three assists. Adam Lowry has two goals and two assists, while Josh Morrissey has a goal and an assist.
Appleton, Lowry, and Niederreiter comprise the jets third line, and they’re playing extremely well. It should be noted that none of those points came on the power play.
If you’re going to take a gamble on one of those players, target Lowry first and Niederreiter second. Lowry gets hits and faceoff wins, and some blocked shots. Niederreiter plays on the second power play unit, and averages over two shots per game.
Appleton doesn’t do any of those things, and has only fired 7 shots on goal this season. Stay clear of him.
Thoughts on second line of Perfetti-Namestnikov-Ehlers
The second line trio of Perfetti-Namestnikov-Ehlers has been doing well on the eye test, but less so on the stat sheet.
Fantasy players who don’t watch the Jets would be underwhelmed; neither player has more than four points through eight games so far. Though Ehlers
Ehlers’ rostered percentage has plummeted early on, and for good reason, with just three points so far. He’s down to 30% ownership. Perfetti, meanwhile, is at 4%.
Regardless, I’d keep those two players on your watch list. Perfetti is young, and every NHL game he plays is meaningful experience. He’ll improve as the season goes on, and remember, he scored at a 48 point pace before falling to injury last February.
Ehlers, meanwhile, is really frustrating – he gets a lot of great looks but is missing the net often. Still, he’s getting his shots and looks (13 SOG in the last two games), and they’ll start going in eventually. He missed all of training camp with a nagging shoulder injury, and there will be a point this season where he gets back on track.
October has basically been his training camp.
Remember, this is a player who’s scored 197 points over his past 225 games, a span of four seasons. With Gabe Vilardi’s injury, he’s also seeing top power play time.
Be ready when he breaks out. It’s coming.