Jet Stream - Week 2 Waiver Wire Pickups

Analyzing the best streaming options, schedule advantages, and advanced metrics in Week 2 of the Fantasy Hockey season.

By Jeff Stacks · October 3, 2026 · Updated October 3, 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

Happy Saturday! Hope everyone reading is doing well today.

Four nights into the new season and we've already had a 9-7 game in Vancouver, a 7-0 beatdown in Philadelphia, and Arturs Silovs becoming just the fifth goalie in NHL history to open back-to-back seasons with a shutout. Hockey is back, and it's been beautiful. I love this time of year.

Remember, do not drop any of your starting players after one or two bad games. Give each guy at least a 10-game sample before trying to make any rash decisions. Change for the sake of change breeds mistakes, and you need to mitigate how many you make over a season to get the best chance to win.

Week 2 has a very clear split between the teams that play on Light Nights and the teams that don't. That's where your adds should be focused this week.

You're going to see a lot of one team in this article, as you probably guessed from the title. The Winnipeg Jets have three games in Week 2, and every one of them lands on a Light Night. Add in a chaotic goaltending situation that exploded over the summer, and the Jets became the team I kept coming back to. Three of my five picks this week are Jets. Week 2 is the Jet Stream.

Before we take off, I've got some news of my own.

Over the summer, I built my own NHL analytics model from the ground up and I finally launched my beta yesterday. It's called Stacked Analytics, and you can find it at [stackedanalytics.app](https://stackedanalytics.app).

The model is trained on over 16 years of NHL play-by-play and shift data. It then turns those numbers into the rates and rankings you see on every player card in my articles. I've developed a new stat called Expected First Assists per 60 (xA1/60), that works incredibly well to identify elite playmakers in the NHL. Now, you can make your fantasy picks based on expected goals, as well as expected assists.

Right now I have a model preview that samples the top 50 Forwards, the top 20 Defencemen and the top 20 Goalies from the 2025-26 season. Go take it for a spin and let me know if anything breaks!

Starting this week and moving forward, all analytics here at Fantasy Roundup are powered by Stacked Analytics. Every advanced stat in this article comes straight from my model. I'm pretty proud of this one, so go check it out.

Alright, let's see how my Week 1 picks did.

WEEK 1 ROUNDUP

Well... that's not exactly how I drew it up.

I'm not going to sugarcoat it. Through the first four nights of the season, my Week 1 picks have been mid - at best - and one of them was flat out ugly. Let's start with the ugly.

Tristan Jarry gave up six goals on 23 shots on opening night against Vancouver, and the Oilers dropped that game 6-5 in overtime. I told you I expected him to start all three games this week. Two nights later Mike Babcock went with Devon Levi in Vancouver, and the Oilers won a 9-7 track meet with Levi letting in seven of his own. Goalies are voodoo. Edmonton only has two games in Week 2, so Jarry is a bonafide drop.

The Calgary duo of Zayne Parekh and Matt Coronato combined for two shots and a minus-five in a 6-1 loss to Seattle on Thursday. Last week I said a Calgary Flames PP1 waiver stack sounded damn fun. One game in, it has not been fun. I still believe in both of these guys long term, but the Flames only play two games in Week 2, and both of them are on heavy nights. Ride them through tonight's game in Vancouver and tomorrow's game in Seattle, then cut them loose on Monday faster than your morning constitutional.

Jake DeBrusk picked up an assist on opening night. He put four shots on net in that 9-7 game on Thursday and somehow didn't get a point. How do you play in a game with 16 goals and come away with nothing? The volume is still there though, and Vancouver plays Calgary tonight and Vegas tomorrow. He's a hold through Sunday, but the Canucks only have one Light Night in Week 2, so if you need the roster spot for one of this week's picks, he's the first guy I'd send back to the waiver dredges.

Will Cuylle had a powerplay assist, eight shots, 11 hits and two PIMs through three games. That's a little under the pace I promised you, but the Rangers still have Sunday at home against Utah. New York also has two Light Nights in Week 2, so Cuylle is a hold in any bangers formats.

Week 1 isn't over yet, but for now I'll take the L. Week 2 is a fresh start, a much larger sample, and I think this group should bring a lot more bang for your fantasy bucks.

WEEK 2 PREVIEW

Week 2 runs from Monday, October 5, 2026 to Sunday, October 11, 2026. There are 47 games in total, and the schedule flips back and forth between light and heavy all week long.

Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday are all Light Nights. Tuesday (9 games), Thursday (10 games) and Saturday (14 games) are heavy, with Saturday being the monster night of the week.

That pattern is great news for streamers. Any team that plays Monday, Wednesday and Friday gets three Light Nights, and that's exactly where Pittsburgh and Winnipeg land. On the other side, ten teams play the Tuesday-Thursday-Saturday rotation, which means all three of their games fall on heavy nights: Buffalo, Chicago, Minnesota, Montreal, Nashville, the Islanders, St. Louis, Toronto, Utah and Vegas.

To my fellow Canadians, Week 2 also ends on Thanksgiving weekend. Get your claims in before the turkey coma sets in.

Keep in mind, Yahoo rostered percentages are still heavily fluctuating this early in the season, so double check them before you make your claims. For example, I saw on Reddit someone dropped Auston Matthews, which you should NOT do under any circumstances.

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).

As I mentioned above, every advanced stat in this article is powered by Stacked Analytics. Just like last week, the stats are rates per 60 minutes, and each player is ranked against their own position, so the stats can be compared apples to apples. Two or three games is far too small a sample to trust, so every advanced stat in this article is still from the full 2025-2026 season, all situations. Once there's enough of this season on the board to mean something, I'll make the switch.

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 Penguin or a Jet on Monday. Both teams play Monday, Wednesday and Friday, so one add covers three Light Nights. Once Friday's games are done, you can swap that player out for a Flyer, a Capital, a Ranger or a Kraken to grab the Sunday Light Night too. That's four Light Night games with just two moves.

Calgary, Florida, Los Angeles and New Jersey only have two games in Week 2, and none of them are on Light Nights. Edmonton and Columbus also only play twice. If you're holding a streamer from one of those teams (and if you followed my Week 1 article, you might be holding two Flames), those would be the first players I'd drop for one of the options above.

WAIVER WHIPLASH

Egor Chinakhov

Egor Chinakhov is my favourite Forward add for Week 2, and he wasted no time making an impression.

Chinakhov split last season between Columbus and Pittsburgh, finishing with 21 goals and 42 points in 72 games. 139 shots on net isn't too shabby, either. Those aren't star numbers, but he did it averaging under 14 minutes a night. Heading into this season, his deployment has taken a big step up.

At Penguins practice leading into the opener, Chinakhov was on the second line with Tommy Novak and Evgeni Malkin, and on the top powerplay unit with Erik Karlsson, Sidney Crosby, Rickard Rakell and the aforementioned Novak. On opening night he played 17 minutes, ripped three shots on net and scored a powerplay goal in Pittsburgh's 7-0 win over Philadelphia. That's the kind of start that gets a guy noticed on the waiver wire, so don't wait on this one.

Unfortunately, Ben Kindel returned to the practice lines yesterday and took Chinakov's spot on PP1. Its not a major issue, but if you're looking for exposure to that top unit, I would swerve and grab Tommy Novak. What you can't miss on is the best schedule in the league in Week 2. The Penguins play Monday at home against Winnipeg, Wednesday in Washington, Friday in Columbus and Saturday at home against Dallas. Three of those four games are on Light Nights, and that Friday game is against his old team. Revenge game, anyone?

Chinakhov's individual numbers are where he shines. Ranking 33rd among all forwards in iCF/60 puts him in Elite company, and 59th in Shots/60 tells me he's going to fire the puck from just about anywhere. He backs that up with a 90th ranking in iSCF/60 and 144th in ixG/60, which indicates Chinakov doesn't toss a bunch of low-danger shots from the point. His On-Ice numbers sit right in the middle of the pack, but they should increase this season with better deployment. His OISH% and PDO were pretty average, so with better linemates, the sky's the limit for the young Russian.

What you're grabbing Chinakhov for is shot volume on a team that gets three Light Nights this week.

Jamie Drysdale

Jamie Drysdale is back in the Stacks' Pick club.

If you were with me at the end of last season, you might remember Drysdale as my Defenceman pick in Week 20. That week he popped a goal, an assist, a powerplay point and fired 10 shots on net. He's back for the same reason I picked him then; he's running Philadelphia's top powerplay unit, and hardly anyone has noticed.

Drysdale finished 2025-2026 with eight goals and 32 points in 78 games, averaging over 21 minutes a night. Relatively mid production for a PP1 D, but they are so scarce you have to snap them up when you get the opportunity.

At practice before the Flyers' opener on September 30th, Head Coach Rick Tocchet had Drysdale quarterbacking PP1 with Matvei Michkov, Trevor Zegras, Tyson Foerster and Porter Martone. Keep in mind, this could easily change as the Flyers have three Defencemen that could run a powerplay including Travis Sanheim and Cam York. Sanheim in particular had an amazing night on October 1st where he popped a goal and an assist with zero powerplay deployment. Just keep your ears to the ground when it comes to the Flyers' PP1 unit as it can change at any time.

Drysdale's start to the season has been quiet. He has zero points and just one shot through two games, but two games is just that, and the opportunity hasn't changed.

What makes Drysdale my pick this week is volume. The Flyers have four games in Week 2. Monday in Tampa Bay Sunday at home against Carolina are both Light Nights, and that Saturday-Sunday back-to-back gives you two kicks at the can nearing the end of the week.

His underlying numbers from last season were okay, if not spectacular. Among all defencemen, he ranked 38th in xGF/60 and 56th in SCF/60, which tells me good things tend to happen when he's on the ice. His individual metrics are a bit quieter, ranking 68th in iSCF/60 and 74th in ixG/60. The one that gives me pause is his xA1/60, which ranked just 164th among defencemen. For a guy quarterbacking the top powerplay unit, I'd like to see him setting up more quality chances than that. He may be more of a puck mover who gets it to Michkov and Zegras than a true playmaker, and the points could come from them finishing rather than from him creating. So you're grabbing him for the deployment more than anything. A PP1 Defenceman with four games rarely sits on the wire this long.

Remember to keep an eye on Tocchet, as he likes to shuffle his powerplay units. If Drysdale gets bumped, one of Cam York or Travis Sanheim is the next man up on the Flyers' blue line. In my opinion, they would be better options if this happens.

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.

Stuart Skinner

Stuart Skinner is my Goalie pick for Week 2, and once again, this one is all about starts.

If you missed it over the summer, Connor Hellebuyck asked the Jets for a trade in August. Hellebuyck then failed tp report to training camp, resulting in Winnipeg suspending him indefinitely on September 16th. That left the crease to Stuart Skinner, who the Jets signed on July 1st to a two-year deal at $3.75 million per season. His backup is Clay Stevenson, who Winnipeg claimed off waivers from Washington on September 28th. I've never heard of Clay Stevenson until the past week, and I imagine Jets Head Coach Scott Arniel hasn't either. That means Stuey should get the lion's share of starts in Week 2.

The Jets opened their season last night against Boston [ADD WHO STARTED AND HOW IT WENT]. In Week 2, they play Monday in Pittsburgh, Wednesday at home against Colorado and Friday at home against Anaheim. With three games, three Light Nights and zero back-to-backs, I expect Skinner to start all three.

I know, I know. I said the exact same thing about Tristan Jarry last week, but there's a difference here. Jarry's status was always in question with Mike Babcock as the coach, knowing he was keeping the crease warm until Frederik Andersen came back. As long as the Hellebuyck standoff drags on, Skinner is THE guy in Winnipeg. Playing behind the likes of elite players in Kyle Connor, Mark Scheifele and Josh Morrissey, that's the kind of support I like to think can turn average goaltending into wins.

Average is the right word for Skinner's advanced stats. He split last season between Edmonton and Pittsburgh and finished with a 0.888 SV% and a 2.92 GAA in 50 games. Out of 70 goalies, his SV% ranked 50th, which isn't pretty. However, if you account for the quality of shots he faced, the picture gets better. Skinner ranked 28th in GSAx/60 and 25th in HDGSAx/60, right in the middle of the pack. That tells me he may have been hung out to dry more than his raw numbers show and could have some upside with some solid team Defence in front of him.

If you'd rather go with the analytics play, look at Joseph Woll in Philadelphia. He ranked 18th in HDSV% and 16th in HDGSAx/60 last season, and he played very well in his first start as a Flyer on Thursday. Following Dan Vladar getting shelled by the Pittsburgh Penguins, it's safe to say the Flyers have a goalie controversy in their midst. The Flyers have four games in Week 2, so if Woll grabs the crease, he could be an underrated volume play too.

BANGER BEASTS

Neal Pionk

All in all, you're just another hit on the wall. Welcome to Pionk Floyd. Thank you, thank you, save your applause... you're all far too kind.

Neal Pionk is my Banger Beast for Week 2, and he's my second Jet in a row. Pionk was limited to 51 games last season, but he made them count in peripheral categories with 111 hits and 75 blocks. That works out to about 2.18 hits and 1.47 blocks per game, and he added 37 PIMs on top of that.

What I like about Pionk is that he isn't solely a beefcake. He's on Winnipeg's second pair with Dylan Samberg, he should be a lock on the second powerplay unit, and he averaged over 22 minutes a night last season. Pionk is a legit top-four Defenceman who happens to hit everything that moves.

The schedule is what sealed it for me. All three of Winnipeg's games in Week 2 are on Light Nights, so you shouldn't have any trouble getting him into your lineup. If he hits and blocks at last season's pace, you could be looking at around 11 hits and blocks combined from just three games, with every one of them coming on nights your other banger beauties will likely be benched.

His advanced stats are a nice bonus too, especially for a banger. Among all defencemen, Pionk ranked 29th in Hits/60, 41st in Shots/60 and 53rd in iCF/60 last season. He was also 36th in xA1/60, so he's setting up quality chances at a very high second-pair rate. A banger who shoots and sets up plays is exactly the kind of player I want in a three-game week.

If you want someone lower-rostered, Martin Fehervary in Washington ranked 3rd among all defencemen in Blocks/60 last season, averaging 2.18 blocks and 1.36 hits per game. All three of the Capitals' games are on Light Nights, and Fehervary is rostered at 8%.

If you grabbed Will Cuylle last week, hang on to him. The Rangers have two Light Nights in Week 2. I would say Cuylle should be a mainstay on your roster in most banger formats.

DEEPER DARLINGS

Cole Perfetti

Practice makes Perfetti.

Cole Perfetti is my Deeper Darlings pick for Week 2, and he completes the Jet Stream. He's also the Jet I'm most excited about.

Perfetti has skated on Winnipeg's top line with Kyle Connor and Mark Scheifele all camp, and he's on the top powerplay unit with Scheifele, Connor, Gabriel Vilardi and Josh Morrissey. A 10% rostered player getting top line and PP1 minutes next to an elite Centre in Scheifele is exactly what this section is for.

His production last season was modest, with 12 goals and 32 points in 68 games, but his individual underlying numbers were better than that stat line suggests. Among all forwards, Perfetti ranked 61st in iSCF/60, 76th in iCF/60, 80th in ixG/60 and 105th in Shots/60. Every one of those ranks in the High tier. His On-Ice numbers are closer to the middle of the pack, but his OISH% was one of the lower rates among forwards. This insinuates Perfetti's line wasn't getting many lucky bounces when he was out there. With (much) better linemates, a few more of those chances may start going in.

Like Skinner and Pionk, all three of Perfetti's games in Week 2 are on Light Nights. If you're in a deep league and want to take the full Winnipeg ride this week, you have my blessing.

If you'd rather get a piece of Pittsburgh's schedule, Tommy Novak centres Chinakhov on the second line and the top powerplay unit, and he's rostered in just 1% of leagues. His underlying numbers aren't as strong as Perfetti's, but four games and three Light Nights is a lot of volume.

Last week I told you a Calgary stack sounded damn fun. It was decidedly not fun, but I think my picks will spark quite a bit more serotonin receptors in those lizard brains of yours.

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're following any of my picks, the Hockey Dashboard will let you know when they hit your waiver wire, and the Tuesday email will remind you which ones are still sitting there.

Remember to hit up [stackedanalytics.app](https://stackedanalytics.app) to check the underlying metrics for all your favourite players. I would really appreciate any and all critiques as the model is still under construction.

Next week, I'll give you the full Week 2 Roundup, and we'll find out whether the Jet Stream took off or crashed and burned. I would love you to 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.

Happy early Thanksgiving to my fellow Canadians. Good luck, and stay stacking!