Has there been a more disappointing player in fantasy hockey this season than Connor Brown?

The Edmonton Oilers forward still hasn’t scored yet and has just five assists. To put that in perspective, Jacob Markstrom has the same stat line as Brown this year… No goals and five assists.

What makes Brown’s season so frustrating is he had everything in place for a strong year. He got an opportunity to play on Connor McDavid’s wing at the beginning of the season, something that should have easily benefitted a two-time 20-goal scorer. Even if he wasn’t going to put up a career season, you’d think skating with McDavid would be enough to make Brown worthy of a roster spot on your fantasy squad.

Brown was a trendy late-round pick in drafts because a lot of people saw the potential this 2023-24 season had and amazingly, he’s still 14 per cent rostered. Some are still clearly holding out hope for a player who isn’t producing any offence and has seen his minutes and shot volume plummet.

Every year there’s a player that we hold onto too long because we still have faith they will turn it around, even if all signs are pointing to a nightmare season. Brown appears to be holding that distinction this season.

Let’s get to your questions:

I would say those two would be a pretty good upgrade based on the price you’ve listed there. Bo Horvat is really clicking with Mat Barzal and Claude Giroux is still producing at a high level despite his age. You just have to weigh how important draft picks are in your league. In my league where we keep four players year to year, I tend to hold onto my first four picks but am comfortable moving anything beyond that, since after a certain point I find the disparity between draft picks gets less and less. It all depends on how deep your league is and how many players you keep, or if there are any valuable players returning to the draft pool.

I will say I am more concerned about Stuart Skinner than Adin Hill. We’ve seen the Edmonton Oilers goaltender go through some wild swings of inconsistent play this season, starting with a pretty horrific two months to begin the year. He really turned it around in December and January, though even with two strong starts in a row now, his save percentage was still .887 in February. I’m also a little more confident in the Vegas defence corps compared to the Oilers, so Hill should be a bit more stable.

You’ll have to hope Skinner doesn’t go into a funk during the fantasy playoffs. If it were me, I would just keep them and roll the dice, though. It’s very hard to upgrade on goalies, especially two that are getting good playing time on strong teams. Both Hill and Skinner should be fine for wins, which is the easiest stat to project in fantasy for goalies.

Trying to improve things like save percentage and goals against is very difficult because most goalies, as we know, have a lot of ups and downs. There’s only about half a dozen you can really trust and if you can’t get one of them, you probably aren’t going to make your team better and you’ll lose assets in the process.

Pretty close to how you have them listed there, but I would just flip Jordan Binnington and Filip Gustavsson. I like how the Minnesota Wild are trending compared to the St. Louis Blues right now. David Rittich has done a good job of solidifying a spot for the Los Angeles Kings and Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen has been fairly solid for a while now. The one concern with someone like Rittich is that the Kings trade for a goalie and he loses some value.

Unless your league has goals and shots heavily weighted, it’s Aleksander Barkov for me. Kyle Connor will score and shoot more, but Barkov should help you fill out all the other categories better. He’d be especially more valuable if your league counts faceoff wins and he has more total offensive upside.

Travis Sanheim is probably going to run hot and cold as far as his offence goes. We saw him go on a pretty good run earlier in the year, followed by a significant cold stretch. The good news is he plays a ton of minutes, so if your league counts volume categories like blocks, hits and shots, Sanheim should be helpful there even if his scoring goes quiet. If your league is strictly points-based, Sanheim is probably best used as a streamer.

That’s a pretty strong lineup, so I don’t see any major concerns. I wonder if maybe you could look at upgrading a goalie or two. It seems like goalies are fairly valuable in your league, so maybe you could upgrade someone like Laurent Brossoit with a better option on waivers. Maybe Anthony Stolarz if he’s available would be a bit stronger, as the Florida Panthers have allowed two goals or less in 14 of 15 games now. They are very stingy. It’s a good roster overall, though.

This is a good problem to have. I wouldn’t make an unnecessary move just to free up a streaming spot that could potentially make your roster weaker. Not to jinx it, but there’s always the possibility of an injury that would free up a spot. It’s tempting to have a streamer spot at this time of year to take advantage of players with good or friendly schedules, but if you’re doing that, your roster is probably lacking in a spot anyway. I’d just stay the course and see what happens.

I would make the Ilya Samsonov deal. With Joseph Woll coming back, Samsonov will likely lose a few starts going forward and you have a few other fine options. I never like to carry more than three goalies and Jack Eichel would be a great return for Samsonov. I always value skaters more than goalies, as you could easily stream a goalie in a fantasy playoff matchup if needed, but the likelihood of finding a comparable player on waivers to someone like Eichel is almost impossible.

Unless your league really values hits, I think it’s Evander Kane. He has the least offensive upside of all these players and has been shuffled down the lineup at times this year. If he’s not playing with at least one of Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl consistently, I think his value really drops.

It’s possible, though seems unlikely to me after they landed Ilya Lyubushkin. The Toronto Maple Leafs definitely wanted a player like Jamie Oleksiak for their blue line, but I think they preferred a right shot defenceman since they have so many lefties. Oleksiak also carries a $4.6M cap hit and has term, which isn’t outrageous but could limit what else they could do at the deadline. Lyubushkin has also played with Morgan Rielly in the past, so there is familiarity there. It’s still possible they make another move or two as well.

I think that’s the most likely scenario for the Carolina Hurricanes if Frederik Andersen returns. Pyotr Kochetkov is establishing himself as a legitimate starting goalie and the Canes are known for rotating netminders. It would also make sense because Carolina probably won’t want to overwork Andersen when he gets back, given what he was dealing with and his age. Kochetkov and Andersen would make a great tandem.

This trade really doesn’t change Chris Tanev’s value much. He’s not a point producer and his main value would be for blocked shots. The Calgary Flames and Dallas Stars are very comparable for shots allowed, so this is probably a lateral move for Tanev.

This is a tough one. Philipp Grubauer has definitely been the better goalie lately, but Joey Daccord has been very strong for the majority of the season, outside of his past couple of starts. That said, Daccord doesn’t have a lot of experience or a big sample size behind him and Grubauer has the big contract, so you could see the Seattle Kraken start to lean on the veteran. My gut says Grubauer will come back down to earth a bit and Daccord won’t completely fall apart, which is to say they’ll likely both get a decent amount of starts the rest of the way. I think both guys will probably end up being fairly comparable.

That’s probably a good move. I’m not sure Phillip Danault is a huge upgrade, but he is playing with a surging Kevin Fiala for the time being and Valeri Nichushkin also could be coming back soon, which could impact Ross Colton. Danault is simply a better bet right now.

Normally I would be in favour of a move like this as I value skaters more than goalies, but your group is a little thin beyond Connor Hellebuyck. I don’t like the way Connor Ingram, Jordan Binnington and their respective teams are trending and while Charlie Lindgren has been solid this year, I’m not sure how much you want to count on him post-deadline on a Washington Capitals team that could be selling. It would be great to get Sam Reinhart, but I think you’ll have a hard time staying competitive with those goalies.

These are deep leagues so not easy to improve, but I wonder if you could look at upgrading Tyler Myers, Alexander Romanov and Shayne Gostisbehere on the blue line. I know those are depth pieces and have some value for things like blocks, though maybe you could look at a deal that leverages one of your forwards to find someone with a little more offence back there.

That’s a pretty good trade for you. Anze Kopitar and Erik Karlsson are an upgrade offensively over Wyatt Johnston and Miro Heiskanen, and Hill has been better than Juuse Saros this season. The one thing I would just pause on is if you’re in a league where the number of goalie starts matter, since Hill won’t play nearly as much as Saros. There’s also the possibility Saros gets moved to a better team, too. Just some things to think about in net before going through with this, but overall, it should be a fine deal for you.

I don’t see Spencer Knight getting called up this year given how well Anthony Stolarz has played. That said, I’d still hold onto him because Stolarz is a UFA this summer, so it could easily be Knight and Sergei Bobrovsky as a tandem next season. Even if Knight is only getting about 40 per cent of the playing time, he could still be really valuable behind a good defensive team like the Panthers.