Round Three - Week 23 Waiver Wire Pickups – Bonus Edition

Analyzing the best streaming options, schedule advantages, and advanced metrics in Week 22 of the Fantasy Hockey season.

By Jeff Stacks · March 28, 2026 · Updated October 12, 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. But if you’re sick of having to set an alarm to get a player before your fellow Fantasy Hockey Managers do, try the Fantasy Roundup Automated Waiver Tool.

It allows you to add every player mentioned in this article on a schedule, so you can forget about having to set an alarm when you want to make a claim.

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

In addition to the Automated Waiver Tool, the Fantasy Roundup development team has incorporated it into an all-encompassing Hockey Dashboard where you can edit your rosters, add and drop players, plan your schedule, view your matchups, and more!

On top of all that, we’ve also launched the Fantasy Roundup Trade Analyzer. This analyzer will take a look at your trades, incorporate sustainability factors, and ultimately tell you whether or not your trade is positive, negative, or even neutral, based on a variety of advanced metrics. Go check it out after signing in!

INTRODUCTION

Happy Saturday! Hope everyone reading is doing well today.

Week 22 was a week of extremes. You are either euphoric or heart-broken. You could have won a Championship this week… or you could still be in the fight next week.

For those managers in the latter, this article is for you. I’m going to cut to the chase this week. No time for preamble.

I’m going to give you TWO Forwards, TWO Defencemen, TWO Goalies, TWO Banger Beasts, and TWO Deeper Darling targets to really give yourself some options to lean on when the week starts getting a bit heavy for you.

Before we get into that, lets review my picks from Week 22.

WEEK 22 ROUNDUP

Well… my bad.

Obviously, my goalie picks worked out if you started either of Casey DeSmith or Justus Annunen.

Jonathan Marchessault was a star. Racking up five assists and two powerplay points, with two games left this week he may be a Week 22 winner if you grabbed him early enough. However, he is an absolute drop on Monday morning with the Predators only playing two late Heavy nights in Week 23.

Damon Severson came flying from the top rope to win the week in terms of Defenceman point production, but unfortunately went down with a bad injury in the Blue Jackets game against the Montreal Canadiens on March 26, 2026. He’s now week-to-week, which is a huge blue to the Jackets’ blue line.

Marchment and Levshunov performed decently, but I expected quite a bit more from both considering their underlying metrics and deployment. At least Marchment was trying, nine shots in four games is solid generation.

The Boston Bash Brothers were alright, but the real Banger Beast of the week was Tye Kartye. What a performance from the young maniac.

Garland and Provorov were much worse than expected. Probably a good idea to drop both of those guys today if you want to have a chance.

That covers my picks, which were pretty mid considering how many options I laid out. I think Week 23 has quite a few better options available on the wire, so hopefully we can take advantage of that this week.

Week 23 is incredibly important, and I don’t want to let you down. My goal is to help you win. The first way to do that is to know what you’re going into. Week 23 Preview is next.

WEEK 23 PREVIEW

The St Louis Blues are the clear schedule favourites in Week 23 with four games and four Light Nights, but there are some other options that may bring equivalent early-week success for your team.

The Anaheim Ducks and the Pittsburgh Penguins come in with the second and third-best schedules respectively. The Ducks have three Light Nights to start the week, and the Penguins roll into week 23 with five total games. Volume is key with any of their players.

The Colorado Avalanche come into Week 23 with four games and three Light Nights, but you’re likely not going to get into many situations where it’s worth it to add one of their players. I do have one exception this week which I’ll touch on later.

Four other teams have four games and two Light Nights. These include the San Jose Sharks, the Vancouver Canucks, the New York Islanders and the Philadelphia Flyers.

In Week 23, we need to maximize our games played and on-ice production. I’ve looked at several picks from the best-scheduled teams to hopefully give this to you in a week of need.

The next section will involve a dive a into that schedule breakdown with a few strategies you can employ.

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 Week 23. TWO forwards, TWO defencemen, TWO goalies, TWO bangers, and TWO deeper league targets.

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) mentioned previously.

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).

Advanced stats are provided courtesy of Natural Stattrick and Money Puck.

Heavy Nights have more than eight games. Light Nights have less than eight NHL games. Borderline Nights are right in the middle. There are four Light Nights in Week 23.

Light Nights are highlighted in green. Borderline Nights are highlighted in yellow. Heavy Nights are highlighted in red.

Light Nights are key this week, meaning your primary targets should come from the St Louis Blues and the Anaheim Ducks. If your league counts peripherals, you should aim for players from the Pittsburgh to maximize their game volume.

The worst schedules of the week go to the Nashville Predators, the Minnesota Wild, and the Los Angeles Kings. You NEED to drop most of the players from these teams – even if they’re on PP1 - and replace them with either the Light Night targets and/or the volume targets. Steven Stamkos and Joel Eriksson Ek are two major examples that come to mind.

Stay flexible with your streaming slots and track ownership trends to grab these adds. This approach should help you maximize categories and production throughout the week without major roster headaches.

WAIVER WHIPLASH

Jimmy Snuggerud

Jimmy Snuggerud has been on fire as of late. You need to take advantage of that hot streak going into Week 23.

In his last five games, Jimmy Snuggles has one goal, three assists with very good shot and hit volume.

Ranking 18th in iSCF and 20th in iCF indicates he's playing top line, top powerplay minutes and is generating scoring chances to convert himself and for other teammates. His On-Ice metrics are solid too, ranking 28th in SCF%, 30th in SF% and 46th in CF% shows me his teammates have also been playing well when he's on the ice.

Go pick up the Snugger on Monday. He should be able to provide you with mostly secondary points, but has the upside to be a week-winner in Week 23.

Jake DeBrusk

Jake Debrusk of the Vancouver Canucks does not have as much upside as Snuggerud in Week 23, but could be a sneaky play to gain some extra scoring on your squad.

While's he's only potted one powerplay goal over his last five games, his shot volume has been great. His SH% is incredibly low right now, so if he keeps his pace of 2.8 shots per game, I do expect more of them to start going in.

His underlying metrics are nowhere near as good as Snuggerud's, but he does shine in iSCF and iCF, ranking 60th in both. His low OISH% and PDO give me some promise that he can take advantage of Vancouver's early week schedule with two Light Night games on Monday and Wednesday.

Dmitry Orlov

Dmitry Orlov of the San Jose Sharks has an interesting opportunity in Week 23 to give you some decent scoring on your back-end.

He's performed very well his past five games, scoring two goals and one assist, including a powerplay goal against the Philadelphia Flyers on March 21, 2026.

I mentioned in a previous article how important it is in a week like this to get all the Macklin Celebrini exposure you can. For Week 23, you need to take advantage of this with the San Jose Sharks' two early Light Night games on Monday and Wednesday.

Orlov's On-Ice metrics show he's playing with Celebrini regularly, both at even-strength and on the powerplay. Orlov is getting chances, but isn't converting. This should change however, with a low OISH% and PDO. If he keeps his deployment, he will get points.

Grab Orlov for the sweet two Light Night games to start Week 23, and reassess on Thursday if you can keep him in your lineup with a heavy 14 game slate.

Devon Toews

Devon Toews of the Colorado Avalanche is my preferred analytic Defence pick for Week 23.

There are not many good Avalanche players available on the wire, in any league type. But if you want to pick up an Avalanche player to get any kind of exposure to Nathan MacKinnon, Cale Makar, Martin Necas, etc. then Toews is the way to go.

In his last five games, Toews has two assists and seven shots on goal. Nothing otherworldly here, but pretty decent production for a lock on the Avs' second powerplay unit.

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.

Joel Hofer

I know, I know, Joel Hofer of the St Louis Blues is over my usual roster percentage of 40%. With four Light Nights and a possibility he gets the majority of them, I had to talk about Hofer in the context of Week 23.

Hofer has been a Bonafide star in recent weeks. Since the Olympic break ended on February 25, 2026, he's been arguably THE best goaltender in the entire NHL. During that span, Hofer has played nine games, has a record of 7-2, a GAA of 1.29 GAA, a SV% of 0.956 and TWO shutouts. Unbelievable production, and he's seemingly taken the starting goaltender job from Team Canada's very own, Jordan Binnington.

Everybody, hear me now, this is an alert. GO GET JOEL HOFER ON YOUR TEAM. He's not starting today against Toronto, but I could easily see him playing three out of the four Blues' games in Week 23.

Jakub Dobes

This pains me to say as a lifelong Toronto Maple Leafs fan, but the Montreal Canadiens may have an elite goalie playing for them. Jakub Dobes' numbers are not as stellar as Joel Hofer's but he's damn close.

Ranking just behind the aforementioned Hofer in all advanced metrics related to goalies, Dobes is a key add going into next week, and he's STILL rostered under 40% as of writing.

Montreal's schedule is not as good as St Louis' next week, but Dobes has the potential to beat all your other goalie performances. They do have relatively tough matchups next week, but Montreal's goal scoring has been so good, I wouldn't worry if Dobes lets in a squeaker or two. The Canadiens' have been dominant over teams of late, and I don't expect them to slow down.

BANGER BEASTS

Emil Heineman

This week, I thought I would provide more upside with the Banger Beasts targets. Specifically, Emil Heineman.

Currently on the New York Islanders' second powerplay unit, this guy hits like a truck, and shoots the puck. In his last five games, not only does Heineman have 15 hits, he also has a powerplay goal and an assist resulting from 11 shots on goal in that span.

His underlying metrics are quite good, but that's not why you're rostering Heineman. He plays Monday and Tuesday back-to-back, and then also has a Friday Light Night to boot. Grab Heineman for the bangs, keep him for the points.

Connor Clifton

My next banger pick has virtually ZERO upside. Connor Clifton may not even play in Week 23, but if he does, you need him on your team. He's getting about 16 minutes of ice time a game when he's in the lineup, and all he does is smash. 22 hits in his past five games puts him at the top of the Hits/60 charts. He shoots a bit too, but do not expect this guy to get you any points.

With five games scheduled in Week 23, you could be looking at upwards of 22 hits, which is phenomenal volume production in a crucial week. If Clifton is not available, take a look at Parker Wotherspoon for slightly less bang volume, and a bit more upside.

DEEPER DARLINGS

Noah Cates

Don't expect Noah Cates of the Philadelphia Flyers to blow you away with his point production, but he is certainly on a wicked hot streak right now. I was interested in him as a deeper league pick based on his individual metrics, but his actual production recently has been stellar.

In his last five games, Cates has a whopping four goals and two assists, to go along with elite shot volume and a ton of faceoff wins. His OISH% and PDO are EXTREMELY high, but I love that he ranks 20th in ixG and 28th in xGF%. Those numbers are elite, and while his current streak is unsustainable, he is doing the stuff he needs to do to generate offence.

And, he's PP! to boot. Go pick him up.

Benjamin Kindel

Ben Kindel of the Pittsburgh Penguins has had a wonderful rookie season, posting 33 points in 69 games, at only 18 years old! He was still in high school this time last year, so that should give you some perspective on how astounding this season has been for him.

Kindel's last five games had him score one goal and one assist, but his shot volume has been incredible. Kindel doesn't show very well in the On-Ice metrics, mostly because his ice time proves he's a third-line player at this point in his career, but his individual metrics are interesting.

Ranking 60th in iSCF and 62nd in ixG, if he gets any additional deployment in a five-game schedule, he could REALLY show how good he can be.

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.

The new Fantasy Roundup Hockey Dashboard allows you to view your team, make adjustments to your roster positions, view your matchup, make adds and drops natively, without ever having to go to the Yahoo platform. There’s now also a Mobile version of the site.

Before the Olympic break, we added a trade analyzer to the Hockey Dashboard. Frankly, it is the most robust trade analyzer I’ve ever used. Running a few mock trades, and the Fantasy Roundup Trade Analyzer will provide the trade recommendation, but also break down why a trade could be positive or negative to your team, explaining sustainability, strength of schedule, line assignments, powerplay deployment and more. We will be fine-tuning this system and get it working really well for next season.

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!