Round Two - Week 22 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 21, 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 is going to be heart-wrenching. Even if you lost in Week 21, you still have a chance at the consolation playoffs in your leagues. And don’t worry, because you still have a chance to lose in those brackets too!

All jokes aside, I want to extend congratulations to everyone who made it past Week 21. I know zero teams went through this week unscathed. The amount of really good waiver claims that became available in Week 21 in my leagues was astounding, but you have to make tough decisions when you want to win it all.

Week 22 is an even tougher schedule. Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday are incredibly heavy nights, so you need to make it your mission to go out and figure out who you are benching on those nights. If one of your mid-tier roster players is going to be benched multiple times, they need to be dropped in many cases. Looking at you, Will Smith.

One advantage though, is if you already have, or can get your hands on just about any New York Rangers player available, your games-played advantage will be massive over your opponent’s. That doesn’t necessarily mean you are going to win your week holding Tye Kartye, but it gives you more darts to throw at the board.

I wanted this week’s article to be impactful. I’ve noticed a bit of handcuffing with my weekly waiver strategy in recent weeks, so I’m going to expand it for the next three weeks while everyone is deep into their playoff run.

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, let's review my picks from Week 21.

WEEK 21 ROUNDUP

Alexis Lafreniere performed exactly as expected. Now a staple on the top line and top powerplay units with Panarin now skating with the Los Angeles Kings, Lafreniere has been shooting the lights out with his increased role and ice time. If you grabbed him for Week 21, he is an absolute HOLD in Week 22 to bask in the New York Rangers’ perfect Light Night schedule.

Simon Nemec, while doing everything he can to produce in the Devils’ attempt to surge out of the NHL basement, put up one assist with great peripherals in shots and blocks.

The remaining three were, unfortunately, the best I could come up with in last week’s schedule. Adam Klapka was scratched in the first Light Night of the week on Monday.

Cooley put up a great W on March 18, 2026 against the St. Louis Blues, but likely ruined Week 20 goalie stats if you picked him up for his stinker against the New York Islanders on March 14, 2026.

I don’t know what more to say about Sean Durzi other than to drop his sorry ass as soon as you can. His last five games have been pitiful, to say the least.

Week 22 is incredibly important, and I don’t want to let you down. I’m going to present some MUCH better waiver target options for you, despite the very heavy streaming week.

WEEK 22 PREVIEW

The New York Rangers again headline for the second week in a row, but you’re not going to access many of their best options. If you need sheer extra games, go look at guys like Vladislav Gavrikov, Braden Schneider, Gabe Perreault, or even Will Cuylle if he’s available (unlikely in Banger leagues). I’m not expecting crazy production out of any of these guys, but particularly look at options that play with Mika Zibanejad, Alexis Lafreniere, and Adam Fox at Even-Strength minutes.

In Week 22, we need to maximize our games played and on-ice production. I’ve looked at alternative picks to the Rangers that should bring some noise to your lineup.

These include the Boston Bruins and the Chicago Blackhawks, each with four games and two Light Nights. Additionally, the Buffalo Sabres have three games with two Light Nights starting on Wednesday.

Some other teams popped out at me during my review, including the Columbus Blue Jackets, the Nashville Predators, and the Dallas Stars. There are several other teams with preferable schedules, like the Ottawa Senators, the Tampa Bay Lightning, the Florida Panthers, the Montreal Canadiens, the New Jersey Devils and the Philadelphia Flyers, however there are not many top streaming options available from these teams.

The next section will involve a dive 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 22. 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 22.

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

Volume is key this week, meaning grab any New York Ranger you can playing in the top six for Forwards and the top four for Defencemen. I would not recommend rostering Jonathan Quick, unless Rangers’ starter Igor Shesterkin goes down with injury.

Boston and Chicago round out the end of the week with two Light Nights each. Top players from the Minnesota Wild and San Jose Sharks, like Joel Eriksson Ek, Mats Zuccarello and Will Smith could all be viable drop candidates as early as Sunday, March 22nd if you have a clear lead by then in Week 21.

Columbus, Nashville and Dallas have my picks for underrated options if you can’t get to any of the first three teams. I’ll be highlighting some of them shortly.

As I’ll be doing two streaming adds per category, the write-ups will not be as lengthy as in previous articles, but they should be more impactful than the last couple weeks.

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

Mason Marchment

Mason Marchment is one of the dual cover players I wanted to show for this week. In my opinion, he is THE best overall streamer that should be able to have enough impact to slot in to your lineup starting on Tuesday.

In his last five games, he has one goal and one assist including a powerplay point, but his shots and hits volume are great indicators that he should produce very well in a four-game slate in Week 22.

His underlying metrics are fantastic. Playing Even-Strength minutes with Kiril Marchenko, Zach Werenski and Adam Fantilli definitely helps with that. His On-Ice stats rank him 2nd in xGF%, 3rd in SCF%, 22nd in CF% and 30th in SF%. These all lean toward elite top-line talent, but I would temper expectations a bit considering his Individual metrics being more reflective of a decent second line winger.

Having Werenski and Marchenko in one of my leagues, I added Marchment already for the Columbus triple PP1 stack in Week 22. So long, Will Smith.

Jonathan Marchessault

Jonathan Marchessault could be a dark-horse winner in Week 22. I'd aim at him a bit later in the week considering his one Light Night on Sunday, but he's been great recently and I expect that production to continue.

Racking up four assists, four PIMs, 13 shots and eight hits in his past five games, he may be one of the best skaters available under 20% rostered. His underlying metrics back this up as well.

Ranking 58th in iSCF and 63rd in both ixG and iCF, show Marchessault is definitely creating offensive output, and should continue that playing on a line with Filip Forsberg. Having Matthew Wood as his Center is a bit concerning, but you have to wonder if Nashville will consider trying different options there, like Fedor Svechkov, down the stretch in their bid to the playoffs.

Marchessault is an immediate drop for Week 23 though. After Sunday, schedule your adds using the Fantasy Roundup Automated Waiver Add tool and send all Nashville players to the Shadow Realm by March 30th.

Artyom Levshunov

My second cover player for Week 22, Artem Levshunov of the Chicago Blackhawks is severely underrated. Playing on the top pair and top powerplay units is a massive boon to any fantasy squad that needs some extra juice on the blue line.

Levshunov's last five games have been mediocre on the score sheet with only one assist, but like the aforementioned Marchment, his shot and hit volume as well as his deployment led me to pick the Blackhawks' PP1 quarterback.

His On-Ice metrics are pretty mid, but ranking Individually 21st in iSCF% and 37th iCF% likely means he's contributing and distributing offence to Connor Bedard often. His low OISH% and PDO indicate to me he's had some poor conversion luck, and I expect that to change with two Light Nights of opportunity.

Grab Levshunov for some points and peripherals upside in Week 22. If he performs and keeps his high-impact role, he could be someone to look at if you make it to Week 24, but Week 23 he is a certified drop.

Ivan Provorov

Ivan Provorov of the Columbus Blue Jackets is more of a lower risk play if you're looking for consistent Even-Strength production on your back-end. Playing with Zach Werenski at 5v5 regularly, he is a phenomenal two-way Defenceman who allows the Wrench to play up with the Forward lines.

Provorov's production the past five games were modest with one goal and one assist. Like my other picks, hit shot volume is great, firing seven shots on net. His On-Ice underlying metrics are quite a bit better than Levshunov's, but he will not have any access to the Jackets' PP1 unit with Werenski in the lineup.

Ranking 25th in SF%, 27th in xGF% and 32nd in IPP, you know Provorov will at least be on the ice when Columbus scores the majority of their goals. His individual metrics are less inspiring, but Provorov is a great option for secondary points in Week 22.

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.

Casey DeSmith

Not much more to say about DeSmith that I haven't said in the past, but he is absolutely the best spot-start option later in the week when the Dallas Stars play the Philadelphia Flyers on Sunday, March 29th.

DeSmith has dropped in the goalie rankings quite a bit recently, as his last two games have been outright bad. Posting one Win, a 4.07 GAA and a 0.800 SV% has been concerning, but extrapolating these numbers out to five games looks much better.

Four Wins, a 2.43 GAA and a 0.872 SV% is much more palatable, but also why I only recommend him as a spot-stream. Stars' starter Jake Oettinger has seen the bulk of starts with Dallas trying to overthrow the Colorado Avalanche out of the top seed in the NHL Central Division.

Among all goalies playing 25 games or more, DeSmith ranks 8th in GSAx/60, SV%>X and GAA>X. Good numbers, but his recent struggles have sent him into a bit of a tailspin down the rankings.

Otter's likely getting the next four games, but if he doesn't, go grab DeSmith when it makes sense for your squad.

Justus Annunen

My second Goalie pick in Week 22 is Justus Annunen of the Nashville Predators.

I know what you're thinking. Annunen has been terrible this season. But hear me out.

Predators' long-time starting goaltender Juuse Saros was announced as out with an upper-body injury before Nashville's game against the Seattle Kraken on March 19, 2026.

While Annunen has not played much recently, his last two games have been stellar. Just one win, but a 1.53 GAA and a 0.945 SV% are absolutely elite goaltending numbers. His advanced stats on the season are not good as you'll see below, but as mentioned in the goalie sidebar, goalies are voodoo.

If Saros is announced out for any length of time past March 21st, Annunen will likely have the bulk of starts in Week 22. That means matchups against the San Jose Sharks, the New Jersey Devils and one of the Montreal Canadiens or the Tampa Bay Lightning.

This potential for goalie start volume is exactly what a manager should be looking for to maximize games if they need a consistent goaltender and are projected to miss starts next week.

Definitely more of a speculative add, but I think could be a solid one if the timing works out.

BANGER BEASTS

Tanner Jeannot

Mark Kastelic

Yes, yes, yes. We have a couple of Boston Bruins Bash Brothers to highlight in my Banger Beasts section today.

I'm going to combine them because they have similar profiles. If you can get one – or even both – of these guys on your roster starting on Tuesday, the Hits category should be in the bag.

Tanner Jeannot is the first pick because he has a Hits/60 rating of 19.16. Kastelic conversely has a rate of 16.89. Either one could be a viable option for you in Week 22, but Kastelic should be your target if you're looking for more variety in category and points coverage. Specifically, Kastelic is a solid option in leagues with PIMs and FWs.

Not much more to say about these guys, except DO NOT ROSTER either one if you find they are out of any particular night's lineup.

DEEPER DARLINGS

Damon Severson

Damon Severson of the Columbus Blue Jackets rounds out my third out of four picks from that team in Week 22. Severson was originally on my list to be the second Defence pick over Ivan Provorov as he has very good advanced metrics, but his lack of 5v5 time with Werenski hurt his case.

Over his past five games, Severson has one goal and one assist, but again, his shot metrics drew me in to look into him.

Ranking 9th in SF%, 12th in iSCF, 20th in ixG, 21st in xGF% and 30th in SCF%, Severson is a great option if you can't get to one of the Rangers' Defencemen, like Vladislav Gavrikov.

If he keeps shooting and continues his trend at a high ATOI, Severson should be able to produce some secondary scoring if you are in need of extra help in your D core.

Conor Garland

Conor Garland of the Columbus Blue Jackets is my final bonus pick for Week 22. Like Severson, Garland performed very well the past five games in his underlying metrics. He was on my list for Forward options because of this, however PP1 deployment always wins when you're digging for the most value in your picks.

Garland is off to a great restart with the Blue Jackets since being traded there from the Vancouver Canucks at the NHL Trade Deadline on March 6, 2026.

In his past six games, he has a whopping five goals due to his torrid shooting pace at 15 shots on goal during that span.

For underlying metrics I track the past five games, and boy, has he ever shown Vancouver they made a mistake.

Ranking 13th in xGF%, 16th in SF% and 22nd in SCF%, Garland has clearly benefitting from playing on a better team. His Individual stats are not the best, but he's also only averaging 11:42 of ice time.

Garland likely won't make or break your week, but he is a very efficient player and is using his ice time well. If any of the top six Blue Jackets Forward group goes down with injury, look at Garland to take their spot. I would love to see Jackets' Head Coach Rick Bowness give this guy the reigns for a bit to see what he looks like in a more prominent role.

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.

Come back next week for another DOUBLE BONUS Playoffs Waiver Wire article for Week 23!

Good luck, and stay stacking!