Matchup Maximizer 2025/26 Week 15

Every team, every topic, every where, this is believed. What's up, everybody? Welcome to another episode of "Elon's Matcher Maximizer" Podcast presented by Keeping Carlson, where I, Elon DuBrosky, take a look at next week's NHL schedule, try to recommend the players we should be targeting in order to win those head-to-head matchups in our streaming spots. Those spots are weird, letting them in, we're kicking them out when we don't have room for them anymore, and our goal is to grab players who are gonna fit in our lineups for a lot of games, and also hopefully produce for us. So we're not looking necessarily for someone who plays on a busy Saturday, where they're not, they're just gonna be sitting on our bench anyway. We gotta look at who's got a good schedule that's gonna get in as many games as possible. We're looking now at the week of January 12th to January 18th, week 15 on Yahoo, and we've got ourselves a pretty solid week for streaming almost to the point where you have so many options, you maybe don't need this podcast. Let's be real. If I'm looking Monday and Tuesday and Thursday are like not super busy, but not super light. 18 teams playing, 20 teams playing, and 20 teams playing. So it's possible you can fit people in on all three of those days, leaving only Saturday as the clear busy day with 26 teams playing. So you need to go and check your roster. I saw for Mike a cup full team, keeping Carlson ultra-patre fantasy league. I can fit someone on Thursday no problem, but Tuesday I can only fit a defenseman and not a forward. So it's one of those things where it's gonna be different for everyone. So I'm gonna look at the schedules that give us avoiding like Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday at first, 'cause those are the more guaranteed games, but really there's a lot of teams playing four times. They're playing five times the Edmonton Oilers. So depending on how many games you can fit, like on which day, you have like half the league as options. So it's a good opportunity to look into your free agency, see if maybe there's just an upgrade that you'd like regardless of, like I said, the number of games you'll be able to fit in. But okay, let's look at the three teams for next week that have the for sure three games you'll be able to fit. I mean, Monday is actually, I'm gonna include Monday and Monday is actually 18 teams playing. So it's possible you can have a bad luck and just not be able to fit someone on Monday. So we have three teams that play three times avoiding Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday. Those are the Detroit Redwings, the Los Angeles Kings, and the Tampa Bay Lightning Kings actually coming off a week where they had a good schedule this week. They went Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday, this week, and now once again, they have a good schedule next week going Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday. What is this? How? That's pretty good. I mentioned that last week, I guess, to go after a Kings player. There was a good number of players that really surprised and were impressive, like I still hard to believe that they're gonna continue. But like for example, I look at like an Andre Kuzmanko who had himself a decent week, especially at the start. He had a goal and an assist on the fifth, which was Monday and then yeah, Wednesday and Friday he did nothing. We'll see how he does today. It's Edmonton. He's just from a streamer, ten fantasy points overall, like isn't really too bad. So I think he'll do it again. I think probably overall in the three light day games I'm expecting. I think the best case, a goal and an assist, sounds pretty decent. So if that's good for you, then maybe go for an Andre Kuzmanko. As far as the lines go in general, of course things are a little bit up in the air right now. Or L.A. due to Andre Kopatar being injured. So like if you look at their lines from their game yesterday against Winnipeg, they were rolling with La Ferrier, Campe and Malat. Malat got on to the top line, Jeff Malat with now center La Ferrier and Adrian Campe, then Bifield with Fogel and Ward and then Turkot with Kuzmanko and Fiala. They're really spreading it around. Basically you've got Campe, Bifield and Fiala all on different lines. It didn't work out well. They lost five to one. I'd imagine maybe we'll be seeing some different lines today. By the way, I'm recording this Saturday at around 4.30 pm. I don't have any King's lines ahead of their game versus Edmonton. So it's like really hard for me to tell you like, yeah, I'm sorry, I'm starting this podcast off with already a little bit of just not sure, maybe just none of these guys are available and doesn't matter. Like go for La Ferrier if you can get him. He's been hot. He's probably been added again because of the good schedule last week. But nothing yesterday against Winnipeg before that he rode a three game point streak. I mentioned Kuzmanko who might be available to you. Bifield if he's available, seems like an obvious grab here for a good schedule. Four points in his last four games scored the only goal yesterday against Winnipeg. Cory Perry might be back. So yeah, it looks like he's been activated. So he'll take some bottom six role that could maybe do something. If you get Brent Clark at this point, I'm really liking what we've been seeing from Clark in terms of the shots. And he had some points over the last few weeks. I guess that's slowed down a little bit. But you're getting some decent shots in blocks. So I think that's pretty good as a peripheral floor for you. Yeah, that's where we're kind of looking at there over on the Kings of Players. You may be able to grab then if we go to the next team with a good schedule like this, we've got the Tampa Bay Lightning who play Monday Tuesday and then Friday Sunday. So we're avoiding that Saturday. If you can fit Monday Tuesday, you're getting four games. So potentially you can get a lot of value there on the lightning. Of course, this is a team that people know about. They know they score a lot of goals. You want like all the basic like top six guys are going to be long gone for you. Though this past week Tampa had a bad schedule. So maybe someone like an Anthony Sirelli was dropped. Now's the time to pounce. If you're weak is over. Now you don't have to worry about it. Grab Sirelli. Get those four games next week. He has been heating up. He's got two goals in his last three games, three points total. The lines today had Sirelli centering Gensel and Hegel. So you're not mad about that. I think that's like a primo stream of the week. If you can get him, of course, he's probably not available in a lot of leagues. But maybe some people were just really gaming it this week and decided to bump him. And now's definitely the time on his Saturday. If he's still out there to go ahead and pick him up. The thing with Tampa, of course, is they load up their top lines. They've got Darren Rage doing getting all the points on defense. There's really no one else. There's Bjork Strand. It's always Bjork Strand. Still on the top power play with Rage Point Kutcherov Gensel. He did have a two assist game against San Jose, that's seven three win. So I think Bjork Strand, depending on how deep your league is, can make for a pretty decent stream, especially if you have the room on the Monday Tuesday. You could always reassess after that for the Friday Sunday, but he is at the end of the day. Bottom six are playing with Nick Paul and something James. I'm sorry about that. Dominic James is the guy who has been playing. Oh, he scored a goal. Actually, a couple of games going that game against San Jose. So good for Dominic James. But I think, yeah, Bjork Strand, of the people that are rostered in less than 80% of leagues, just Surrelli, Bjork Strand. I guess you got the DJJ Moser, who gets you some peripherals. Maybe he'll get a point here there. I don't really believe in him too, too much. Then the final team that's going to give us three off-day games here is the Detroit Red Wings going Monday, Tuesday, Friday, Sunday. So the same schedule as the Tampa Bay Lightning. I've got a name for you that I think will be pretty obvious at this point. His name is James Van Riemstein. You may remember him as a Toronto Maple Leafs legend from ages ago at this point. JVR is a red hot had two assists against Vancouver on Thursday, a goal in two assists the game before versus Ottawa. And what less would you expect from someone that's been playing on a line with Lucas Raymond at even strength and also on the top power play with Larkin to Brinket Raymond Sider if this holds, which maybe is a big if, but Detroit has one, two in a row. So I'm sure they'll keep it going for today against Montreal, then we'll see from there. At this point with a good schedule, why not take a shot on JVR? Get the Monday, Tuesday. Maybe you're going to end up deciding to hold for the Friday Sunday if he gets bumped down the line up. Of course, he becomes an easy drop. Some other players who've been getting decent opportunities, like the lines for that win against the conucks, where Casper playing with Larkin and Finney. Does that mean we want Marco Casper? Hmm. I don't know. I don't think so. He's had a couple games back in the top six, hasn't done anything with them. I think that's more of a, you'll probably have better options. I think there's maybe still potential one day for Marco Casper, but it doesn't seem like he has it this season. Emmett Finney has been even worse than Casper lately, pointless in like eight games now. I think it is. Or seven. Then we've got the other line, Debrinket Cop and Cain. So that's been going for a while and going pretty well. So Andrew Cop at this point feels like a better bet than JVR, maybe, like I guess he's on the top power play. He's got three points in the last four games, and I think more stable deployment centering that line with Debrinket and Cain. So I think Andrew Cop is, again, if you can fit them on day Tuesday, I think he and JVR both make for your most enticing ads on the Red Wings. JT Comfort centering Raymond and JVR is like someone who's doing something. He had a goal and an assist versus Vancouver. Like, look, if we like JVR playing with Raymond at even strength, Comfort is right there with them. He's been a guy. He's probably been mentioned like 10,000 times on shows like this for streaming. Like no one's ever saying to grab JT Comfort long term, but for a good streaming schedule. I mean, I'll take cop and JVR first, and then I guess give me JT Comfort if you want someone on the wing. So those are our three teams that are our best bets, but we still have some other teams with some pretty good schedules, especially early week. So I'll get to some more after a quick break. Every yard, every sack, every interception, and every touchdown with pick six draft Kings newest game, every snap and turn into big time payout. This isn't just watching the game. This is playing to win. Here's how it works. Or, less, on two or more player stats, the better your picks, the bigger your payout, it's that simple. And here's the kickoff bonus. 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A reminder, I think that with half the league playing four plus times and you potentially being able to fit three of those games, you may just want to take a look at your free agency, sort 5% rostered go. If you are in the couple, you can go to the Metabase free agent tracker that Kevin builds and go and see who are the top rostered players in your free agency, Incacouple, who, you know, you may want to consider there and maybe just like not necessarily Nickland dime for an extra game. If it's not going to make that much of a difference, but still we're looking at the teams that are going to really get us over the hump here. If you need those extra GPs, I guess we've got to look at the Edmonton Oralers, right? They've got our classic five game week that Ryan just talked about on the last short shifts and even talked about players to potentially target on Edmonton, they'll have a slight disagreement. Edmonton plays Monday, Tuesday, and then of course Thursday and then Saturday, Sunday. So I'm looking at the lines. I'm seeing Pod Coleson is playing with dry saddle and caponin. I think that Ryan said, like, forget about Pod Coleson. I think that of players who will be potentially available to you. I'm taking someone with dry saddle and Pod Coleson at a goal in the last game to assist in the game before, before that a long stretch of nothing, definitely possible. We're about to see a long stretch of nothing, but I think if you're going for an oiler who's less than like whatever, 40% rostered on Yahoo, our options are limited here. You're looking at Pod Coleson, you're looking at Ross Levick, you're looking at Casparic Capon, who's just returned. That's another fun option. He had a goal and an assistance return versus Nashville and assist versus Winnipeg. So I think we're looking at one of these dry saddle linemates. You can't get a McDavid linemate. Those have been Nugent Hopkins and Hyman, they're taken. So Pod Coleson and Caponin, those are your best bets. I think Pod Coleson is the more likely one to hold the spot just because he's been there all season, but we'll see how the oilers do. Of course, the other guy to target would be any oilers goalie, though they're definitely not immune to getting blown up or whatever, but or you can wait till Monday and see who gets the Monday start. Whoever gets the Monday start seems pretty likely to get three starts. If you can fit a goalie on Monday, Thursday, Sunday, that seemed to make sense. It's just being pickered and Ingram, taking turns, though I did actually keep in mind, I did see a tweet that Jari maybe back next week. So that could ruin things. So maybe you don't want to target the Edmonton goalie. Also, you definitely risk a negative right or not a negative, but like a low score, like pickers, last couple of games haven't been amazing in terms of fantasy points. Ingram has been pretty good. Actually, you just had that one really bad game against Boston. Aside from that, he just got that win against Nashville in the last game. We'll see how he does today against L.A. So that's the Oilers and their fun schedule. We can move on to the Dallas stars who go Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday. That's four games. If you can fit the Tuesday and if you can fit the Thursday, which is possible, you're skipping that Saturday, so then you're getting the four games that we're all hoping to get with one of these streamers. Four is usually the best that you can do very rare that even on a five game week, you're not going to fit all five games. Of course, the Oilers do play on that busy Saturday. So it might be the same getting an Oilers player or a Dallas player in terms of the options. I think we have similar players to Kappenin or Pod Cole's in, like, you know, our stars on Dallas, Ranson and Robertson, Hayes Kinnon, Johnston, Hins, Harley. You're not getting them. You're probably not even getting Matthew Shane, who's been like fine since returning. Nothing too exciting to have a one goal when it's this game. It's already like a week ago. Then who's playing with these people? I guess it's who we look at. So Maverick Bork was playing today in practice with Robertson and Hins. Actually, this game is going. I'm seeing right now. The game has already started against San Jose. What are we doing here? A goal from, oh, it's too nothing now. As I load the page, we get an update. So Jason Robertson has scored, oh, and Justin, her, her Cowan, who I don't, Sir Cowan was it? He scored a goal as well. I'm still not going to recommend him. I think in terms of the lines, I like a Maverick Bork if he's going to be playing with Hins and Robertson. But also, I don't really, I don't know. I think we're, I had to mention Dallas for the good schedule, but looking through the options, I don't like anybody. So sorry, Essela and Del, you know, it could be your like Banger's D choice if you have room for him. But okay, let's move on. Too boring. Don't like it. We can go to the Seattle Kraken, who have a Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday. I want to mention them because of Seattle where usually there are players available. Has that started to change? I know there was that run where Eberli and Steven Sin were both looking really good. They're both injured right now. So now it's going to definitely be new players, not because of the old pattern for Seattle, but just because I guess there has to be. Looks like today, Jaden Schwartz is coming off the R, so we'll talk about tomorrow on the mega show with Brian, how Schwartz did. I'd imagine the lines are going to be shifting as players are coming in and out of the lineup. But one guy who's starting to jump out to me, that's still only 18% rostered on Yahoo. Is someone who at one point was getting drafted very high in couple leagues as people were expecting a big breakout. That's Maddie Beneers. Beneers has definitely fallen rightfully so to being free agent fodder in the majority of leagues. But if you look at the run lately, all of a sudden, he's got two goals to assist in his last three games. You go back even further and I count seven points in his last seven or eight games, just looking at the game lock right now. A lot of four and three shot games. This is what you want to see from the top liner on Seattle. And look at the end of the day, we look for top line top power play players, right? Beneers is that with all these injuries, maybe once everyone's healthy, they don't have a top power play anymore. And we kind of lose the fun of actually having high deployment players on Seattle. But in this last game against Minnesota, it was Beneers, Coco and McCann on the top line. And then Beneers, McCann, Frederick Goodrow, I don't know if that was something we were going on to Seattle. And then Chandler Stevenson along with Finston on the top power play. So Beneers is getting the big plate, almost 20 minutes. If Beneers can continue to play 19, 20 minutes a game and is getting this top deployment, you'd hope a high pedigree guy like him will be able to capitalize. So I think at this point, especially if you can fit on the Thursday, get the Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, you could always drop then before the Saturday or I'm kind of hoping because I grabbed him actually. And I'm kind of hoping he's just going to turn out to be someone worth holding. Like one con dream, right? So we'll see. If you can't get Maddie Beneers, but you still want to take advantage of that Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, to start the week. You should have some options. First of all, I don't know how serious it is with Eberly. So maybe if he's been dropped, you can stash him and then maybe get him back later in the week without having to use an ad. At that point, Ellie Tollvenin is still at only 26% rostered on Yahoo. He's been on a bit of a cold streak now. Maybe he was dropped after that hot run. Maybe an opportunity for you to jump. I wouldn't be surprised if Tollvenin gets going again. Then like I said, Jaden Schwartz is back. So that could be someone that could jump right into a top role as well. Maybe he takes the spot from Coco Coco and plays with Beneers and McCann. That would be pretty sweet. So that's something we'll have to watch and see. And then the other is Coco Coco, who did have a two goal, one assist game, which was the end of a four game point streak. He finally got no points against Minnesota on Thursday, but it was a nice run for Coco. That's the kind of thing where I will be curious to see the deployment tonight. Before you add your Seattle player check and see how things look for this game against Carolina and how the lines are looking with Jaden Schwartz back in the lineup. So those are some players. Maybe I guess you have to mention Shane Wright looking like a bit of a bus. Good thing the habs are. I'm sure very happy they took Slavkovsky there. I'm sure Utah or Arizona isn't regretting taking Logan Cooley. And we're still waiting to see if Shane Wright can do something at some point. Doesn't look like this is his year. A similar schedule to Seattle is over in Buffalo as they also play Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday. You can fit Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, then you may have some fun options. I'm loving what I'm seeing from Josh Done. If you can still get Josh Done, do it. Go get Josh Done. He's scored now in four straight games and he's not doing it from the bottom six. It's not some random hot string. This is a guy playing with Thompson at even strength and on the power play. So like why not grab Done? It's been Done, Norris Thompson, Zucker and Dalline on PP1 and then stage Peyton Krebs and Josh Done on, I guess I'll call it the top line. I don't want Peyton Krebs. I don't know if that will last or even if it does, if that's worth anything, I guess then some other players that were always interested in on Buffalo as they seem to have like some decent options for us, right? Like aside from Dalline Thompson and Tuck, you might be able to grab anyone else, Mattias Samuelson is starting to disappear in most leagues. But if you could still get Mattias Samuelson at some point, it's like, I know that the narrative for the last few years is that he's terrible and that contract was bad. Now people are saying it's like actually no one incredible contract that the savers locked him into. And Sanderson just having an insane season up to 22 points and 40 games now over half point per game. And like lately, he's been even better than that, giving tons of blocks at four, but a goal and assist two hits and four blocks along with a shot. And it was a shorthand of goal, by the way, for Samuelson, I really pretty wanted that in the five to win over the Rangers. So at this point, like just grab him, especially if you need D, but maybe even if not, especially, but if you can fit him on like the Saturday also, and you're just getting four solid games from a D that's producing like Samuelson has been like, why not? And then kind of crazy to say it, but if you can't get Samuelson, maybe get Bo and Byroom. It's really funny considering their pedigrees, but Byroom's also on a pretty nice run right now. I wouldn't be mad at him. Again, if you need D, they're both like fun options over on Buffalo. We're going to talk about Josh Norris kind of slowing down on the mega show tomorrow. I am seeing a system three straight games. I know his shots have really disappeared and his minutes are down. I know some managers in our discord wanted us to bring him up and see if he's still worth holding Jason Zucker, if you can get Zucker. He had a goal and an assist in that game against the Rangers who's points in his return, but maybe he was getting eased in. I definitely malls into Jason Zucker on a good streaming week, and that's probably your best bet. Zuckers, by the way, playing with Tuck and Nora. So there's a clear top two lines here, Tage Crab's Done, and then Tuck, Zucker and Norris. You just want to get it on either of those or on the top power plan. I've named all those players, get one of them or one of those defensemen. I think you'll be pretty happy, especially if you can fit the Monday, Wednesday, Thursday games. Anyway, like I said, I could just keep going on for a long time, talking about a lot of teams. Again, you got to check your schedule. If you can fit Tuesday, Thursday, really, the world is your oyster. The Knax Play Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, maybe a Debrusk is out there out of the Leafs Go Monday, Tuesday, Thursday. Can you get Bobby McMahon? The Habs are going Monday, Tuesday, Thursday is not Caspery, though I did mention him earlier, but I would prefer Oliver Kappen and if you can get that one and if you can fit those games, he's just crushing it on that line with Slavkovsky and Demadov. And there's more Carolina Monday, Tuesday, Friday, Saturday, so you can get three games by the Friday. If you can fit the Monday, Tuesday, which is pretty good as well. So yeah, take a look. See us in free agencies. See if there's any fun names. If you have a question, if you want to ask for advice, throw it in our Discord and the ad drop channel. Here's a little tip. Hot tip. Okay? I'm not like there all the time and then when I do check in, multiple times a day, but you know, I'm not seeing every message. I don't necessarily always scroll up and go to answer everyone. That would be kind of like, I just want to catch up and then, you know, the present. So tag me, tag me. You could also tag Brian. You could tag anybody you want. No, there's no rules, right? But definitely, I'm just saying for myself, if you tag me in a question, you're specifically like, Elon, I'd love to get your take on this decision I have to make. I will always answer. Right? If you don't tag me, I might answer. I might not. So feel free to tag me on the Discord if you're a patron and we can figure this out together, figure out what are the best moves for this upcoming week of fantasy action. Thanks for listening, everyone. We'll be back with the mega show tomorrow's. Make sure you're subscribed to the Keeping Carlson feed wherever you get your podcasts, even in multiple places. One day you might have, what if Spotify goes down one day and you're going to miss the show? Oh, it was automatically downloaded also on Apple. That's pretty sweet. Now I can't do it. Okay. So I'm being ridiculous right now. Okay. Thanks again. See you all on the mega show tomorrow. Bye. Thank you for listening.