Alberta Advantage - Week 1 Waiver Wire Pickups

Analyzing the best streaming options, schedule advantages, and advanced metrics in Week 1 of the Fantasy Hockey season.

By Jeff Stacks · September 29, 2026

FANTASY ROUNDUP HOCKEY DASHBOARD

Before I begin, I want to ask my readers a question: Do you want to play hard? Or do you want to play smart?

If your answer was both, you'd be correct. That's usually the best way to win, and it's exactly why we built the new Fantasy Roundup Hockey Dashboard.

Start with the Lineup tab. It helps you set your best lineup every night. If one of your guys goes down, it'll move him to IR and show you the best pickup for the open spot. From there, the Waivers tab ranks every available player for the week with the Light Nights, line assignments and powerplay deployment already built in. My picks are tagged too, so you can see who I like at a glance.

Next, head over to the Matchup tab for your odds against this week's opponent. There we offer the Optimize Matchup tool. This shows you the best streamers to help your team that week, and maximize your chances.

The Standings tab is where you'll see your projected stats and your odds of making the playoffs.

Click on any player's name in the NHL Dashboard and it will pull up their player card. This card is our custom design to make sure your players are always looking sharp. The cards include ratings, advanced stats ranked against that player's own position, and the lines and powerplay units they're skating on right now.

And now, for the best part. If you're sick of setting an alarm to beat your fellow Fantasy Hockey Managers to a player, the Automated Waiver Tool lets you schedule your claims ahead of time and makes them for you. The Queue All button in this article can line up four of my recommended picks for the overnight waiver run in one click. Follow a pick and we'll let you know when that player is available in your league. Every Tuesday we'll email you the picks that are still sitting on your waiver wire.

All you have to do is sign in to your Fantasy Roundup account — or sign up if you haven't already — and sync your Yahoo or ESPN league. There's a button here to log in and see which players are available. There will also be a button before every player's write-up to select him in the Fantasy Roundup Automated Waiver Tool and get to him before everyone else.

[Click here to open the Hockey Dashboard](/nhl-roundup?tab=home). If you're signed in, it'll take you straight to your overview. If you're not, it'll walk you through how everything works.

INTRODUCTION

We're back, baby!

Welcome to the first Fantasy Hockey Waiver Wire article of the 2026-2027 season. If you're new here, my name is Jeff, and every week I'll be giving you my five favourite streamers to help you win your matchups. If you stuck with me through last season, thank you.

As mentioned at the beginning, the Fantasy Roundup team spent the offseason building the new Hockey Dashboard, and it's finally ready. But the Dashboard is only part of what we have planned for this season. Along with my weekly waiver wire picks, we'll be putting out instant impact fantasy articles when major news breaks around the NHL. When a big trade goes down, or a star gets hurt, we'll break down what it means for you and the success of your fantasy team.

Your drafts are done (hopefully), your rosters are set, and now the real fun begins. Week 1 is where fantasy managers overreact the most. Somebody in your league is going to drop a slow starter on Wednesday morning after one bad game. Don't be that manager. Be the one who scoops him up.

There's no Week Roundup since this is the first article of the season, so let's jump straight into Week 1.

WEEK 1 PREVIEW

Week 1 runs from Tuesday, September 29, 2026 to Sunday, October 4, 2026. The puck drops tonight with five games on opening night, including the Vancouver Canucks visiting the Edmonton Oilers and the New York Rangers visiting the Boston Bruins.

There are 39 games in total, and Week 1 is loaded with Light Nights. Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday are all Light Nights. Thursday is a borderline night with eight games, and Saturday is the one monster night of the week with 13 games.

Saturday is the night some of your players will have to sit, because just about every team plays. The four Light Nights are where your streamers actually crack your lineup, so that's where I focused my picks this week.

Keep in mind, Yahoo rostered percentages are still moving around as the last drafts wrap up. All the percentages in this article were pulled on September 29, 2026, so double check them before you make your claims.

SECTION INTRODUCTION

Included at the end of this article is a legend which has definitions for several advanced statistics I'll be using to evaluate players, and any other fantasy hockey-specific terms or jargon I may use.

Most Yahoo leagues allow four player adds per week. The players you can pick up with these adds are generally called "streamers". In this article I'll be outlining my five favourite streamer players for the week. One forward, one defenceman, one goalie, one "banger", and one deeper league target.

The first section is headlined "SUPER SCHEDULES", where I'm going to list all the NHL teams with a preferable schedule.

In the second section called "WAIVER WHIPLASH", I'll list my favourite Forward, Defenceman, and Goalie under 40% rostered in the standard Yahoo Head-to-Head (HTH) format.

The third section I've labeled "BANGER BEASTS". This will highlight my favourite player overall for those managers in banger formats, which have additional stats: Blocks (BLK), and Penalties in Minutes (PIM), combined with Hits (HIT).

The final section is entitled "DEEPER DARLINGS", where I'll identify an underrated player rostered under 10%, for managers in leagues with 12 teams or more (also called deep leagues).

One change this season: my advanced stats are moving from percentages to rates per 60 minutes. Percentages tell you how a player's team did while he was on the ice. Rates tell you how much a player is actually generating, and for streamers, volume is paramount. Each player is ranked against their own position, so the stats can be compared apples to apples. As nobody has played a regular season game yet, every advanced stat in this article is from the full 2025-2026 season, all situations.

Line and powerplay deployment information is sourced from the beat reporters at each team's practice over the past week.

SUPER SCHEDULES

Start the week with a Ranger, a Canuck or a Golden Knight if you can. Those three teams give you the most Light Night coverage from start to finish.

The Ottawa Senators have ONE game in Week 1, and it's on the heavy Saturday. Unless your Senator is on their first powerplay unit, they can sit on your bench this week.

Eighteen teams only get two games in Week 1, and seven of them have zero Light Nights: Buffalo, Columbus, Minnesota, New Jersey, Nashville, San Jose and Tampa Bay. If you're holding a streamer from one of those teams, that would be the first guy I'd drop for one of the options above.

WAIVER WHIPLASH

Jake DeBrusk

Jake DeBrusk kicks off the season as my favourite Forward add for Week 1. If you read my articles last year, you know he's a repeat Stacks' Pick, and I'm not sorry about it.

The Canucks scratched DeBrusk in December last season, and he responded by turning his year around. He finished 2025-2026 with 23 goals and 42 points in 81 games, and more importantly for streamers, he put 219 shots on net. That's 2.70 shots per game, and that kind of volume makes up for a lot of cold stretches.

His deployment heading into opening night is about as good as it gets under 40% rostered. At Vancouver's open practice last Friday, DeBrusk was skating on the top line with Elias Pettersson and Jonathan Lekkerimaki, and on the top powerplay unit with Pettersson, Brock Boeser, Marco Rossi and Filip Hronek. Pair that with a four game week and two Light Nights, and you have a streamer you can hold for the full week.

DeBrusk's individual numbers are where he really shines. Ranking 8th among all forwards in ixG/60, 14th in iSCF/60 and 23rd in Shots/60 show he has the potential to be a top-line scorer. His On-Ice numbers are closer to the middle of the pack, but that comes with playing on a Canucks team that spent a good chunk of last season trying to tank - unsuccessfully, I might add. With that said, DeBrusk's low PDO tells me there may have been some bad luck baked into last year's numbers too.

Grab him ASAP. If Vancouver gets off to a hot start, he won't be sitting at 21% for long.

Zayne Parekh

Party time! Excellent! Welcome to Zayne's World.

Zayne Parekh is my highlighted Defenceman for Week 1. He only played 37 games for the Calgary Flames last season, putting up four goals and five assists as a rookie. Those numbers don't jump off the page, but what matters is the opportunity Zayne is being given by Flames Head Coach Ryan Huska.

On September 19th, Huska swapped Parekh and Simon Nemec on the powerplay units, moving Parekh up to PP1 with Morgan Frost, Matt Coronato, Matvei Gridin and Joel Farabee. He was still there when the Flames played Vancouver in the preseason on September 22nd. At even strength he's on the third pair with Jake Middleton, so his minutes might not look interesting yet, but the powerplay is where Zayne can eat.

Parekh also put in the work this summer. He told reporters at camp he's up to around 191 pounds after training with Gary Roberts. Those gains should help him hold his own against players that may have easily checked him last season.

His underlying metrics as a rookie were very good. Among all defencemen, Parekh ranked 12th in iSCF/60, 24th in iCF/60 and 33rd in ixG/60. His On-Ice metrics were solid as well, ranking 34th in CF/60 and 36th in SF/60. On top of that, his OISH% of 8.15 was the 20th lowest of any defenceman, which indicates to me that the points are due to start showing up.

Calgary's schedule isn't the best in Week 1 with just one Light Night on Sunday, but a PP1 Defenceman generating shots like this doesn't come around very often under 40% rostered.

The NHL goalie is quite possibly the most unpredictable position in all of sports. While there are some studs in the NHL, all goalies are fallible. Goalies are voodoo, as they say. Considering this, I am not here to recommend a goalie for any particular reason other than they could have a good schedule, they could be on a good team, or I just like the way they play and think they have potential to produce good numbers. Take anything I say about goalies with a grain of salt, but know I have done research into them and I am recommending in good faith.

Tristan Jarry

Tristan Jarry is my Goalie pick for Week 1, and this one is all about starts. He isn't the goalie I'd pick if this was purely an advanced stats contest, but nobody rostered under 40% is going to start more games this week.

Frederik Andersen tweaked his knee in the Stanley Cup Final and isn't expected back until around late October. That leaves the Oilers' crease to Jarry, with Devon Levi as the backup. Jarry has been at every Oilers practice leading up to opening night, and with no back-to-backs in Week 1, I expect him to start all three games: tonight at home against Vancouver, Thursday in Vancouver, and Saturday at home against Seattle.

Three starts behind Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl gives you a very real shot at two or three wins, and wins are what you're streaming a goalie for.

His advanced stats are a mixed bag. Jarry split last season between Pittsburgh and Edmonton and finished with a 0.882 SV% and a 3.32 GAA in 33 games, and his GSAA/60 ranked 53rd out of 66 goalies. What I do like is how he handled the dangerous chances. Ranking 9th in HDSV% and 11th in HDGSAA/60 tells me that when things broke down in front of him, Jarry was able to come up with some big saves. Behind an Oilers team coached by Mike Babcock, Jarry could surprise here.

If you'd rather go with the analytics play, look at Devin Cooley in Calgary. He ranked 7th in GSAA/60 and 2nd in HDGSAA/60 last season, and the Flames have a back-to-back on Saturday and Sunday. He'll likely only get one start, but he's just 2% rostered.

BANGER BEASTS

Will Cuylle

If you play in a banger league, Week 1 has an easy answer: Will Cuylle and the New York Rangers' schedule.

Cuylle threw 302 hits in 82 games last season. That's 3.68 hits per game, and he added 68 blocks and 65 PIMs on top of that. He's one of the most reliable hitters in the league, and he can chip in offensively too, with 20 goals and 38 points last season and a spot on the second powerplay unit as the net front presence.

The Rangers have four games in Week 1, and three of them are on Light Nights. They play tonight in Boston, Friday in Detroit and Sunday at home against Utah. If Cuylle hits at his usual pace, you could be looking at 14 or 15 hits for the week, with most of them coming on nights your other bangers are benched.

His advanced stats aren't anything to write home about, but that's not why you're picking him up. You're picking him up because he's going to smash bodies four times this week.

If you want someone lower rostered, Jeremy Lauzon in Vegas averaged 3.69 hits and 1.42 blocks per game last season, and all three of the Golden Knights' games are on Light Nights. Lauzon is rostered at 15%.

DEEPER DARLINGS

Matt Coronato

Coronato's coronation is coming, and I want you on board before it happens.

Matt Coronato is my Deeper Darlings pick for Week 1. He quietly put up 18 goals and 45 points for the Flames last season, with 198 shots in 80 games. For a player rostered in 7% of Yahoo leagues, that's a lot of production sitting on your waiver wire.

His deployment heading into the season is the best it's been in his career. Coronato has been on Calgary's top line with Morgan Frost and Matvei Gridin all camp, and he's on PP1 with Frost, Gridin, Joel Farabee and Zayne Parekh.

If you have the chance to make a Calgary Flames PP1 waiver wire stack, you should be in a very deep league and otherwise I do not recommend it. But, it sounds damn fun and also, you should have fun.

Where were we again?

Coronato is a shot generation machine. Among all forwards he ranked 34th in iCF/60 and 45th in Shots/60 last season, with a very respectable 58th in iSCF/60. His On-Ice metrics were good too, ranking 90th in CF/60 and 95th in SF/60. What I like most is his low OISH% and low PDO, which tell me his line wasn't getting many bounces while he was on the ice. With better linemates and PP1 time, I may be banking on a turnaround soon.

Like Parekh, Calgary only has one Light Night on Sunday, but a 7% rostered player on a top line and the top powerplay is a deep league add I'll take every time.

NEXT WEEK PREVIEW

As mentioned at the beginning, all these players listed can be scheduled with the Fantasy Roundup Automated Waiver Tool when you sign in to your account, sync your league, and work with the Hockey Dashboard. Do your sleep a favor; work smarter, not harder, and get that edge over your league mates.

If you haven't taken the new Hockey Dashboard for a spin yet, now's the time. Go click around. I think you'll find a few things you didn't know you needed.

Next week, the Week 1 Roundup is back at the top of the article, so you'll be able to see exactly how these five picks did. Hold me to it.

Big reminder to go to the comment section and tell me how your picks did this week. We would love to hear feedback from our readers and how we can make ourselves better.

Good luck, and stay stacking!

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