Yahoo Fantasy Hockey: Anze Kopitar, Kris Letang and NHL's quarter-season stars

Dobber launched his fantasy hockey website DobberHockey back in 2005 and has been Puck Daddy's resident fantasy hockey 'expert' since 2009.

Just past the midpoint of the 2015-16 campaign and Patrick Kane, Jamie Benn and Tyler Seguin are still soaring atop the scoring leader board. But are they really still dominating the way they were early on? While they were 1-2-3 in the first 21 games, things are a little different in the games played since then. From November 24 onward, Kane was still tops. Benn was third in scoring for both the first quarter and the second quarter. Seguin went from second to 13th.

In a quick little project where I wanted to look at how Los Angeles forward (and soon to be very rich man) Anze Kopitar ranks if you broke down the season-to-date, I ended up looking at…well, everyone.

I took an arbitrary date of November 23. That seems to be the date in which most teams played about 21 games. Since then, teams have played on average of about 23 games. I’ll call each of those two chunks ‘quarters’, although not technically accurate but I don’t care. Call them ‘daisies’ if you’d rather. I’m sticking with ‘quarters’.

Here are the Top 16 players who improved their production the most in the second quarter as opposed to the first.

I ran these reports (two of them) using the Frozen Pool tools.

Sure enough, there’s Kopitar. And hey look, there’s Giordano – i.e. that guy I traded away on what was probably November 23.

It’s interesting to see three defensemen on this list. But the big eye-opener for me is Couturier with 16 points in his last 20 games.

Here are the biggest drops in production, same ranges:

Studs…

These fellas are wielding a hot stick. Take that into consideration when you go after them in trade talks...

Anze Kopitar, Los Angeles Kings (Fourth-highest scorer since November 24) —The LA captain was off to a similar slow start in 2014-15 before having a big second half. He gets to at least 65 points. You can always bank on that no matter how slow the start.

Sidney Crosby, Pittsburgh Penguins (Ninth-highest scorer since November 24) —I can’t believe fantasy owners are feeling relieved that Sidney Crosby is ninth in second-quarter scoring. That’s how bad his first quarter was.

Brent Burns, San Jose Sharks (Fifth-highest scorer since November 24) — The top-scoring defenseman in the second quarter (tied with Erik Karlsson), Burns has become an elite multi-category fantasy own.

Duds…

Somebody wake these guys up – their fantasy owners are counting on them...

John Tavares, New York Islanders (Fourth-biggest second-quarter decline) — JT started the season with 18 points in 19 games. That sounds about right. But 11 points in 22 games since is killing his fantasy owners. But there’s hope:

Mats Zuccarello, New York Rangers (10th-biggest second-quarter decline) — Zuke was just starting to win fantasy owners over as a candidate to step up to the next level. He’s explosive when it comes to production, as his four three-point games this season can attest.

PK Subban, Montreal Canadiens (18th-biggest second-quarter decline) — Subban has five points in his last six games so maybe things are starting to turn back around. He had 19 points in 22 games to start the year, but slid to 10 in 21 since.

The Wire...

Mostly short-term grabs here, but as always some potential steals...

Elias Lindholm, Carolina Hurricanes (6%) (3-2-4-6, plus-1, 7 SOG, 20 FOW, 2 PPPts) - The Lindholm – Jeff Skinner – Eric Staal line is flying right now. And as an added bonus, Lindholm is on the top power-play unit.

Jordan Staal, Carolina Hurricanes (13%) (16-5-6-11, plus-2, 24 SOG, 29 Hits, 4 PPPts) - The middle Staal is still holding his own despite playing with Joe Lunchpail and Tommy Stonehands. The first line scoring a lot of goals right now is bleeding down through the other lines.

Sean Couturier, Philadelphia Flyers (16%) (11-6-6-12, plus-12, 6 PIM, 28 SOG) - I’m afraid I insist. The 23-year-old is tearing it up right now. Still only getting second-unit PP time for some reason, but that will change before much longer at the rate he’s going.

Andrew Shaw, Chicago Blackhawks (13%) (11-3-5-8, plus-8, 8 PIM, 28 SOG, 24 Hits) - Offensively, Shaw is not quite tracking to beat career highs in points, goals and SOG. But he’s close to that pace and he’s looking at close to his first 200-Hits season.

Ryan Spooner, Boston Bruins (31%) (7-1-7-8, even, 23 SOG, 40 FOW) – When David Krejci went down with an injury, for the long term, Boston fans and Krejci fantasy owners panicked. Those Krejci owners who scooped up Spooner right away haven’t missed a beat. Spooner is doing everything that Krejci was doing, minus the knee-twists, groin-pulls, shoulder-strains and bone-breaks.

Erik Gustafsson, Chicago Blackhawks (1%) (11-0-6-6, plus-9, 13 BLKS, 16 SOG) – The little-known 23-year-old defenseman was signed last year as a free agent. He was a top puck-moving defenseman in Sweden and his game has translated well to North America. One key note: Gustafsson has seen at least 37% of Chicago’s available power-play time in six of the last seven games. So opportunities are increasing, not decreasing.

Ryan Strome, New York Islanders (14%) (4-1-2-3, minus-2, 4 PIM, 12 SOG) – Strome has yet to heat up at all this season, but last game he was moved up to the John Tavares line. Granted, Tavares is similarly sucking, but if ever there was a time when Strome takes off this season, now is that time. Do you want to get in ahead of that, or take your chances after the fact?

Jakob Silfverberg, Anaheim Ducks (7%) (3-1-3-4, plus-3, 12 SOG, 1 PPPts) – Do you enjoy stabbing your eye with needles? Then you’ll love picking up a Duck off the waiver wire. Grabbing Silfverberg and, gulp, actually activating him is obviously a risky move. But I can’t get that playoff performance of his out of my head. He and Ryan Kesler seem to be heating up finally.

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DobberHockey’s Midseason Fantasy Hockey Guide is out Friday! Pre-order it here.

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