The Waiver Wire: Two Recommended Ducks

The Waiver Wire - For the week of November 10-16

Centers

Nazem Kadri TOR - WATCH - Toronto has had a rash of injuries in their center positions recently - Dave Bolland suffered tendon damage from a skate blade and will be out for months, while Tyler Bozak has a torn hamstring and will be out until Christmas or longer. With these two going down, Kadri will likely get top line time with Phil Kessel and James van Riemsdyk, or, if JVR switches to center, Kadri will be playing with Mason Raymond and David Clarkson. Either way, Kadri is poised to take full advantage and experience a jump in output.

Mike Santorelli VAN - WATCH - With Vancouver now rolling, and the top line of Ryan Kessler, Henrik Sedin and Daniel Sedin solidified, the second line looks to be similarly set. While this poses a production problem for people who invested early in Alex Burrows, who assumed his first line position, this creates an opportunity for people who need a depth center in Mike Santorelli. His 5G 7A 12P in 18GP and a +4 doesn't exactly leap off the page, but in deep leagues where you need to grab a depth center, we're projecting Santorelli to register over 50P with a very respectable mid-teens +/-. If you need a good contributor and are otherwise solid in PIMs, Santorelli is a good add.

Wingers

Alex Killorn TB - SHORT-TERM ADD - It's becoming a fun game of ours: who's playing with Steven Stamkos and Martin St. Louis? At first it was Ryan Malone, but his relegation to the second line has made Alex Killorn the beneficiary. In the eight games where he was on their line, he has scored 11P and is a +9. We're not entirely sure how long he'll be on the top line, but he's money while he is. Grab him and hold on - discard when he gets put to another line.

Devante Smith-Pelly ANA - DEEP POOL ADD - We've had the opportunity to watch Smith-Pelly since his time in junior; he's a highly skilled gritty winger that reminds me of a less rambunctious Brendan Gallagher. In his eight games played this year, he's tallied 1G 5A 6P and, perhaps, just as impressively, a +7. Why is that impressive?  He's been a historic minus player, and his newfound defensive conscious is indicative of a maturing winger on the precipice of a break through. Grab him if he's available; we think he's going to have one heck of a season.

Dustin Penner ANA - ACQUIRE VIA TRADE - Even though he has struggled with injuries at times this season, his 2G 6A 8P in 10GP, and his spot on the top line with Ryan Getzlaf and Corey Perry are attractive enough to warrant investment. There's every reason to believe this is going to continue. Put feelers out in your pool to see what the price is for him. If it's reasonable, get it done.

Tommy Wingels SJ - WATCH - With the injury to Brent Burns, Wingels has been promoted up to the second line with Tomas Hertl and Joe Thornton. While people who are invested in either of these two took an obvious hit with Burns's injury, Wingels serves to benefit. If you need a winger in your deep pool, and your choices amongst the waiver is dire, look for the hidden gem in Wingels.

Defensemen

Ryan McDonagh NYR - ADD - While his 4G 5A 9P in 16GP is decent, what's more interesting his is game log: he had 1G 2A 3P -3 in the first ten games, and 3G 3A 6P +3 in the last six. His poor start to the season is masking his hot streak since. Most amateur poolies will not delve into the game logs as much as they should, so you can take advantage of this fact to pick him up either off of waivers, or cheaply in a trade.

Jake Muzzin LAK - WATCH - His start to the season has been good - 1G 7A 8P -3 12PIM 21SOG in 11G for the Kings. We expect, though, that these numbers are actually lower than expected for him. Every indicator we can find shows Muzzin to be poised for much more. His 2:37 of average PPTOI is very promising, he partners with both Drew Doughty and Matt Greene, and his Corsi number (42.03) and QoC (-4.970) are among the most beneficial in the league. Everything says this guy is going get even better; keep an eye on him.

Eric Gelinas NJ - WATCH - Even though he's still very young by league standards for a defenseman (22), Gelinas has impressed with his play recently. In his first six games, he's tallied 1G 2A 3P +0 2PIM 17SOG, which is perfectly respectable, and has shown some brilliance akin to Murphy and Rielly, which we mentioned two weeks ago. We're not sure exactly what we can expect from him, but he's caught our eye.

Goalies

Henrik Lundqvist NYR - WARMING UP - I don't think this comes as a surprise to anyone - King Henrik is awake, and out of his early season slumber. His first seven games were atrocious, with a .890 SV%/2.86 GAA, but since, he hasn't allowed more than two goals a game, and has a .958 save percentage. It's no wonder that with performance like this, New York has also responded in kind, turning the season around, and likely saving coach Alain Vigneault's job.

Ondrej Pavelec / Al Montoya WPG - GOALIE FIGHT - It's plain to see that incumbent Pavelec has struggled mightily this year with a 4-7-2 .902 SV%/3.09 GAA. It's also plain to see that Winnipeg has had far more problems than just their goaltending, but Pavelec's poor performance has only exacerbated the other issues. In this opportunity, Montoya has jumped in and performed well, registering a 2-2 .921 SV%/2.20 GAA. In light of this, we expect Montoya to get significantly more starts until Pavelec can get his head screwed on straight. Montoya's value will rise; Pavelec's will fall. If you have Pavelec, either bench him, trade him, or if you're okay in net, dump him. If you have a problem in net in a deep pool, pick up Montoya. He may surprise.

Evgeni Nabokov / Kevin Poulin NYI - GOALIE FIGHT - The situation on the Island isn't that different from Winnipeg; Evgeni Nabokov was the definitive starter that has played himself slowly onto the bench. Notching a 5-4-3 record with a 3.18 GAA/.913 SV% on a team that can shoot the light outs will draw some ire from the coach. While backup Poulin's record has been poor (1-3), he's been good in most of them, most recently allowing only one goal to Carolina (loss) and Boston (win), and has good numbers with 2.27GAA/.918SV%. We expect that Poulin will get more starts to see if he can take the job away from Nabokov, or at least apply enough pressure to get him performing better.

How did we do last week (as of end-of-day Saturday November 9)?
(When we judged our correctness, we looked at whether we were expecting performance or lack thereof.)

Sam Gagner EDM - WATCH - 2GP 0G 0A -2 [Neutral]
David Legwand NAS - SHORT TERM ADD -  2GP 0G 2A +0 2PIM [Correct]
Brandon Pirri CHI - WATCH - 2GP 1G 0A +2 [Correct]
Nathan Gerbe - WATCH - 2GP 0G 0A +0 6PIM [Incorrect]
Jason Chimera - SHORT TERM ADD - 2GP 0G 0A -2 [Incorrect]
Alex Burrows - TRADE AWAY - 2GP 0G 2A +1 [Neutral]
Christian Ehrhoff - ADD - (Injured) [Neutral]
Kimmo Timonen - WATCH - 2GP 0G 1A +0 2PIM [Neutral]
Keith Yandle - ACQUIRE VIA TRADE - 2GP 0G 1A -1 2PIM [Correct]
Ryan Miller - ACQUIRE VIA TRADE - 2GP 1-1 .882 SV%/ 6.35 GAA [Incorrect]
Ben Bishop - ACQUIRE VIA TRADE - 1GP 1-0 .950 SV%/ 2.00 GAA [Correct]
Richard Bachman - WATCH - (Injured) [Neutral]

So, from our estimate, we were 4-2-6 from last week. Historically, we're now 18-8-11.

Weekly Notes:

Avoid players from these teams this week, if you can:

1. Vancouver Canucks - two games this week: at home to San Jose and Dallas.
2. Florida Panthers - three games this week: at home to Anaheim and Minnesota, and on the road to Colorado.
3. Carolina Hurricanes - three games: at home to Colorado and Anaheim, and on the road to St. Louis.

Grab players from these teams this week, if you can:

1. San Jose Sharks - four games this week on a road trip: Calgary, Vancouver, Edmonton, and Chicago.
2. St. Louis Blues - four games this week: at home to Phoenix, Colorado and Carolina, and on the road to Washington.
3. Los Angeles Kings - four games this week on a road trip: Buffalo, New York Islanders, New Jersey and the New York Rangers.