Welcome back to The Oil Rig‘s weekly fantasy update! We continue aiming to bring you the information you need to show up your friends (or enemies) and get bragging rights by winning your league.
Each week we provide a schedule breakdown showing which teams to stream players from, who is hot and who is cold, some sleeper picks with low owned percentages to keep an eye on, and some Edmonton Oilers fantasy hockey updates.
Keep checking back for a new update each week.
NHL weekly schedule
Games per day from December 16 to December 22
You’ll have the ability to contend with any opponent by using games played to your advantage in week 11. Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday combine for 18 games during week 11 action by comparison to the mere eight games which we saw during week 10. Focus on players with games on Friday and Sunday to accumulate points or stat categories of need. These off-nights have 13 games scheduled by comparison to Monday and Wednesday which only have eight.
| Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Saturday | Sunday |
| 3 | 10 | 5 | 9 | 7 | 11 | 6 |
Keep these resources at the top of your season-long tool list. Use them to guide your transactions. These become more valuable as the season goes on and teams establish themselves in overall power rankings.
Daily Faceoff provides a schedule table with each team’s games over the upcoming fantasy week for easy comparison between teams focusing on back-to-backs and off-day games.
Left Wing Lock goes deeper to look at strength of schedule so you can see which teams have easy games coming up and could be focused on for your streaming options.
Two teams play two times this week:
- New York Islanders
- Vegas Golden Knights
Eight teams play four times this week:
- Colorado Avalanche
- Edmonton Oilers
- Florida Panthers
- Los Angeles Kings
- Ottawa Senators
- Seattle Kraken
- Vancouver Canucks
- Washington Capitals
Off-night tracking
As we’ve already discussed, we want to focus on building towards the most games played during week 11 action. The best way to accomplish this goal is by focusing on games played on Friday and Sunday. The Avalanche play Anaheim and Seattle over these two nights and come in as my favourite team to add players from for late-week points.
| Team | Off-night games |
|---|---|
| Anaheim Ducks | 3 (Wednesday, Friday, Sunday) |
| Colorado Avalanche | 3 (Monday, Friday, Sunday) |
| Dallas Stars | 3 (Monday, Wednesday, Friday) |
| Florida Panthers | 4 (Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Sunday) |
| Vancouver Canucks | 3 (Monday, Wednesday, Friday) |
| Washington Capitals | 3 (Monday, Friday, Sunday) |
Back-to-back tracking
Another week over week decrease in games played on back to back nights. We see only 10 teams play on consecutive days. Of those teams, eight see their back-to-back games occur on Saturday and Sunday. From a strategy perspective, you’ll want to keep an add/drop saved for your weekend goalie considerations.
| Team | Back-to-back games |
|---|---|
| Buffalo Sabres | Friday, Saturday |
| Colorado Avalanche | Thursday, Friday |
| Detroit Red Wings | Friday, Saturday |
| Edmonton Oilers | Saturday, Sunday |
| Los Angeles Kings | Saturday, Sunday |
| Minnesota Wild | Friday, Saturday |
| Montreal Canadiens | Friday, Saturday |
| Ottawa Senators | Saturday, Sunday |
| Philadelphia Flyers | Wednesday, Thursday |
| Seattle Kraken | Saturday, Sunday |
| St Louis Blues | Thursday, Friday |
| Toronto Maple Leafs | Friday, Saturday |
| Vancouver Canucks | Wednesday, Thursday |
| Washington Capitals | Sunday, Monday |
| Winnipeg Jets | Monday, Tuesday |
Strength of schedule
Easy schedules
| Team | Opponents |
|---|---|
| Colorado Avalanche | Vancouver Canucks, San Jose Sharks, Anaheim Ducks, Seattle Kraken |
| Detroit Red Wings | Philadelphia Flyers, Montreal Canadiens x2 |
| Montreal Canadiens | Buffalo Sabres, Detroit Red Wings x2 |
Difficult schedules
| Team | Opponents |
|---|---|
| New York Islanders | Carolina Hurricanes, Toronto Maple Leafs |
| San Jose Sharks | Winnipeg Jets, Colorado Avalanche, Edmonton Oilers |
Hottest teams
Last 10 games played
- Washington Capitals 8–1–1
- Edmonton Oilers 8–2–0
- Los Angeles Kings 8–2–0
- Vegas Golden Knights 7–2–1
- Ottawa Senators 7–2–1
Coldest teams
Last 10 games played
- Buffalo Sabres 0–7–3
- Nashville Predators 1–6–3
- Chicago Blackhawks 3–7–0
- New York Rangers 3–7–0
- Calgary Flames 3–5–2
Fantasy hockey team of the week
The Fantasy team of the week highlights the top player at each position from the previous week. Scoring follows Yahoo’s default point settings and categories.
Left wing
Jake Guentzel – 65.7 FPTS
After going from the Pittsburgh Penguins to the Tampa Bay Lightning during 2024, its obvious to see that Jake Geuntzel has found himself in a plus situation for fantasy purposes. During week 10 action he ranked first with six goals scored. His six-game goal streak reminds us that he’s one of the NHL’s premier goal scorers
Centre
Brayden Point – 78.0 FPTS
Point managed 4G, 7A, and 6PPP across 4GP. His week included two four-point games while on the road. He has now accumulated 12G in his last 12 GP. This kind of pace is worth acquiring in all formats.
Right wing
Nikita Kucherov – 84.00 FPTS
Kucherov had a remarkable week producing 10PTS broken down into 8A and 2G. His production came over the course of a four-game road trip through Western Canada and USA. Look for Kucherov and the Lightning to stay hot this week with games against Columbus and St. Louis.
Defence
Josh Morrisey – 51.2 FPTS
Morrisey contributed 4A in 1G during his past week. His offensive update makes it clear why he was named to the 2025 4 Nations cup. The Winnipeg Jets have a pair of favourable matchups in week 11 with games against San Jose and Anaheim.
Goalie
Linus Ullmark – 63.8 FPTS
The Ottawa Senators jump inside the leagues top five over their last 10GP thanks in large part to strong goaltending. Ullmark has won his last five consecutive games allowing two goals or less in each of those contests. His best performance to date, this season, came in a 3–0 shutout victory against the Carolina Hurricanes where he stopped all 32 shots faced.
Banger league player of the week
Scott Laughton – 45 FPTS
Laughton will surely remember December 12, 2024 for years to come. The veteran centre/winger put up four goals against the Detroit Red Wings which was all the Philadelphia Flyers needed to secure the win. His performance included 9SOG a short-handed goal and a game-winning goal.
Streamers of the week
It’s basically expected that the league’s top players will be the ones you want on your roster week-in, week-out. But those players aren’t likely to be available for you to pick up. Here’s some players who are hot with low ownership percentages that you should consider picking up for the week.
Aliaksei Protas (C,LW) – Washington Capitals – 28% Rostered
The Capitals play four times during the week including back-to-back games Monday and Tuesday night. Protas and the Capitals second line have enjoyed the success of scoring and victory during their past two weeks. Protas has 3G, 2A, and 14 SOG during his last 4GP. With the Capitals playing on three off-nights, Protas will add productive games played to your weekly totals.
Artturi Lehkonen (LW,RW) – Colorado Avalanche – 59% Rostered
Earlier I mentioned that adding players from the Avalanche was my favourite team to add from this week. Well, here’s my favourite player to be adding, where available. Lehkonen has scored 7G in his last 9GP while playing along side Nathan MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen. With four games on the schedule and three coming against teams .500 or below, its likely that Lehkonen continues scoring goals and posting a positive plus-minus rating.
Darnell Nurse (D) – Edmonton Oilers –65% Rostered
Since Nurse returned to the Oilers lineup, the team has lost only once in 9GP. This week he plays four times, including three games in four days from Thursday to Sunday. In his last 4GP he has tallied 5A, 12SOG, 8HIT, 8BLK and a +6 rating. Nurse plays 22:00+ minutes per night and will be called upon to do that and more in a rematch with the defending Stanley Cup champion, Florida Panthers. If Nurse, isn’t available in your category based league, I recommend trying to land him in a trade.
Charlie Lindgren (G) – Washington Capitals – 33% Rostered
The Capitals are splitting games pretty evenly between two goalies. Lindgren is obviously overlooked by the consensus given success that he and the Capitals are enjoying in 2024. The Capitals play four times during week 11 actions giving Lindgren two projected starts. Lindgren has won his last 4GP including his two most recent games where he allowed only 1GA in each contest.
Fantasy hockey players to consider dropping
Not everyone is always rosterable. Sometimes, it makes sense to let someone go and pick up one the players above to get you more points this week. Here’s a recommendation of who has gone ice cold lately that it may be time to drop.
Brent Burns (D) – Carolina Hurricanes – 56% Rostered
There’s a lot of name brand value here and the immediate association with Brent Bruns throughout his career has been extremely high shot totals and offensive effectiveness. Those thoughts are clouding the current view of Burns who is now a -7 in his last 8GP on a very strong Hurricanes team. Shayne Gostisbehere now plays the point on Carolina’s top PP unit, leaving Burns on the outside looking in. Burns has yet to register a single power play point across 30GP in 2024. Its time to move on from him in all formats.
