Pominville captains DailyFaceoff Fantasy Team of the Week

Every Monday I will be writing an article outlining the LW, C, RW, two D-Men and goaltender that performed the best at their position this past week. This team will be based off of the usual fantasy scoring categories and players that excelled across the board. Skaters – (G, A, +/-, SOG, GWG, SHG, PPP) Goalies – (W, GAA, SV%, SO)

RW – Jason Pominville (Minnesota Wild)

The former Buffalo Sabres captain was named the captain of the DailyFaceoff team of the week after a strong performance this past week. He has bounced around from line-to-line as the Wild look for consistency to start the year. However, the shuffling may have been put to a halt this week. Pominville found himself on a line with youngsters Nino Niederreiter and Mikael Granlund. The Wild’s new second line lit it up in three games, led by Pominville’s four goals and two assists. This week he has three games vs. below average goaltending (WSH, CGY and CAR) so expect the hot streak to continue.

STAT LINE: 4 G, 2 A, +4, 1 GWG (87% owned in YAHOO! Leagues)

C – David Legwand (Nashville Predators)

This week came as a surprise to a lot of people I am sure. The 33-year-old is still a valuable NHLer, but has not scored 20 goals in a season since 2008-09. With the Predators sitting towards the bottom of the NHL in scoring, this is the type of output they needed from a veteran like Legwand. Nashville only had two games this week but as a team they scored eight goals while going 1-0-1. Of those eight ginos, Legwand had three of them (two on the PP) and added two assists. He now has three goals and four assists in his last four games (4 G / 8 A on the season) and is making a case for fantasy relevance.

STAT LINE: 3 G, 2 A, +3, 2 PPG, 1 GWG (7% owned in YAHOO! Leagues)

LW – Daniel Sedin (Vancouver Canucks)

Before I go on about Daniel, I would like to highlight what Jason Chimera did this week. The 34-year-old had two goals and four assists to go with a plus-4 rating. Before Saturday he had a four-game goal scoring streak and nine points in that span. He was my original LW selection until I saw that Daniel had two game winning goals. In One-Win category leagues, GWG are huge – and when one of your studs can give you two in three games, that contributes a lot towards a win. He also added a third goal and an assist to cap off a strong week.

STAT LINE: 3 G, 1 A, +3, 1 PPG, 2 GWG (100% owned in YAHOO! Leagues)

D – Erik Karlsson (Ottawa Senators)

What is there to say about Karlsson that has not been said a million times? The 23-year-old continues to grow as a defenseman and continues to light up the stat sheet on a regular basis. This week he had five points in three games and now leads all NHL defenseman with 15 points in 14 games. With three games this week, just keep rolling him and enjoy the ride.

STAT LINE: 1 G, 4 A, +2, 2 PPP (100% owned in YAHOO! Leagues)

D – Alex Pietrangelo (St. Louis Blues)

Well has Pietrangelo caught fire or what? He is currently riding a four game goal scoring streak – three of which came this past week. He ranks 11th amongst NHL defenseman in ice-time (25:23) and he has scored on 18.2% of his shots; now he needs shoot more! Pietrangelo has only missed five games in three seasons and at 23-years-old he is still improving – he is one of the best fantasy defensemen to own.

STAT LINE: 3 G, 1 A, +1, 1 PPG, 2 PPP (99% owned in YAHOO! Leagues)

G – Marc-Andre Fleury (Pittsburgh Penguins)

Despite his fantastic start this is Fleury’s first time on the DF team of the week this season. The Penguins had four games, Fleury started three of them – winning all three. He started the week with an easy win over the Hurricanes and followed it up with a huge win over the Bruins. On Friday he was busy stopping 37 of 39 shots against the Blue Jackets. All-in-all, he walked away 3-0-0 with a 1.67 GAA and .940 SV%.

STAT LINE: 3-0-0, 1.67 GAA, .940 SV% (98% owned in YAHOO! Leagues)