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 23 to December 29
Week 12 contains three dark days on the schedule from Tuesday to Thursday. Players are taking Christmas Eve through Boxing Day to spend with their families. You can expect a low game total when looking at your weekly games to be played. Keep things simple and ensure you get enough goalie starts to qualify in those categories.
| Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Saturday | Sunday |
| 13 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 11 | 9 |
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.
Teams playing once this week:
- Colorado Avalanche
- Seattle Kraken
No teams play four games on the week. Look to focus any of your adds to gather players whose teams play three times on the week. You’ll have 20 teams to choose from in this sense.
Off-night tracking
No significant off-nights exist on the week 12 schedule. Shift your focus towards teams with back to back games played on the week.
Back-to-back tracking
With the Christmas break schedule taking place, many teams will be playing in a back-to-back scenario between Friday and Sunday. Look to use this to your advantage in maximizing games played for your goalies and targeting plus matchups against bad teams.
| Team | Back-to-back games |
|---|---|
| Anaheim Ducks | Saturday, Sunday |
| Boston Bruins | Friday, Saturday |
| Calgary Flames | Saturday, Sunday |
| Carolina Hurricanes | Friday, Saturday |
| Columbus Blue Jackets | Friday, Saturday |
| Edmonton Oilers | Saturday, Sunday |
| Los Angeles Kings | Saturday, Sunday |
| Montreal Canadiens | Saturday, Sunday |
| New Jersey Devils | Friday, Saturday |
| New York Islanders | Saturday, Sunday |
| Philadelphia Flyers | Saturday, Sunday |
| Pittsburgh Penguins | Saturday, Sunday |
| San Jose Sharks | Friday, Saturday |
| Tampa Bay Lightning | Saturday, Sunday |
| Toronto Maple Leafs | Friday, Saturday |
| Washington Capitals | Saturday, Sunday |
Strength of schedule
Easy schedules
| Team | Opponents |
|---|---|
| Buffalo Sabres | New York Islanders, Chicago Bears, St. Louis Blues |
| St Louis Blues | Detroit Red Wings, Nashville Predators, Buffalo Sabres |
| Vancouver Canucks | San Jose Sharks, Seattle Kraken |
Difficult schedules
| Team | Opponents |
|---|---|
| Detroit Red Wings | St. Louis Blues, Toronto Maple Leafs, Washington Capitals |
| Ottawa Senators | Winnipeg Jets, Minnesota Wild |
Hottest teams
Last 10 games played
- Edmonton Oilers 8–2–0
- Los Angeles Kings 8–2–0
- Vegas Golden Knights 8–2–0
- Ottawa Senators 8–2–0
- Utah Hockey Club 7–1–2
Coldest teams
Last 10 games played
- Buffalo Sabres 0–8–2
- Columbus Blue Jackets 2–5–3
- New York Rangers 3–7–0
- San Jose Sharks 3–6–1
- Seattle Kraken 3–6–1
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
Clayton Keller – 59.00 FPTS
The versatile Utah forward is a big reason for the team’s recent success. The Hockey Club is now 7–1–2 in its last 10GP. Keller is on a 4G point streak which was highlighted by his 4PTS against Anaheim on Sunday. Over week 11 action, he registered 3G, 4A, 3PPP, 10SOG, and a +4 rating to take the top spot at the LW position.
Centre
Leon Draisaitl – 56.3 FPTS
The league leader in goals added two more during week 11 action. His 2G, 5A, 2PPP, 17 SOG, 3BLK, and +1 rating earned him the top spot at the centre position. The top-six forward group for Edmonton continues to be adjusted but Leon Draisaitl remains a workhorse along side any of his recent line mates.
Right wing
William Nylander – 59.60 FPTS
The Maple Leafs haven’t been involved in a game with less that six goals scored since Dec 12. That offensive style of hockey includes 19GF in their last 4GP. During week 11 action, Nylander led the charge with 5G, 2A, 1PPP, 14SOG, and a +3 rating. Nylander now sits second in the NHL goal scoring race.
Defence
Cale Makar – 74.90 FPTS
Makar is a name you expect to see featured regularly in this section. He is the most dynamic defender in the league and brings an unparalleled offensive advantage to the Avalanche lineup. He tallied 2G, 6A, 4PPP, 21SOG, 8BLK, and a +2 rating during week 11 action. This was the top performance from any player with skates on across all positions.
Goalie
Igor Shesterkin – 49.4 FPTS
The Rangers have largely struggled in 2024 and played below initial expectations. Despite being 3–7–0 in their last 10GP, Shesterkin remains strong in net. During week 11 he earned three starts where he allowed only 5G on 104 SOG. The lack of goal scoring from the Rangers, has put Shesterkin well behind Connor Hellebuyck in the season standings by ~100pts. Still, Shesterkin ranks second amonst NHL goaltenders in FPTS for the 2024–25 season.
Banger league player of the week
Tyson Foerster- 45.3 FPTS
Foerster plays a bottom-six role for the Flyers appearing occasionally on the team’s PP2 unit. He enjoyed his best week of his career registering 3G, 3A, +4 rating, 7SOG, 2HIT, and 2BLK.
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.
Brett Howden (C,LW) – Vegas Golden Knights – 4% Rostered
Howden is playing some of the best hockey of his career in a role very fitting to his banger skill set. He plays a bottom-six role for the Golden Knights but has seen >18:00 TOI in two of his last three games played. The Golden Knights play three times during week 12 and face bottom half teams in Anaheim, San Jose and Calgary. Expect for Howden to continue to see extra ice time over this stretch. During his last 3GP he has 2G,2A, +6 rating, 3SOG, 7HIT, 4BLK.
Teuvo Teravainen (LW,RW) – Chicago Blackhawks – 20% Rostered
The Blackhawks have won three of their last 4GP and Teravainen has been a big part of that success. Over those 4GP, Teravainen tallied 1G, 9A, +5, and 6SOG. His lofty assist total has come setting up a variety of team mates and hasn’t relied upon power play time to be accomplished. Look to add him as a streamer during week 12 action where he has 3GP on the schedule.
Connor Murphy (D) – Chicago Blackhawks –16% Rostered
Murphy has 2G, 1A, 9SOGm 9HIT, and 11BLK across his last 3GP. With three games scheduled for the Blackhawks, this week, he has a good opportunity to help Fantasy Managers playing in category based leagues which include both hits and blocked shots.
Karel Vejmelka (G) – Utah Hockey Club – 40% Rostered
Last week I had recommended adding Washington Capitals goaltender Charlie Lindgren who has been splitting the starting role for a very strong team. This week, I’m back to offer you another goaltender who is playing great hockey on an under appreciated team. Vejmelka has won his last four consecutive starts including wins against Colorado, Vancouver, and Minnesota. After a rest day on Sunday, he is back in net for Monday night against the Dallas Stars.
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.
Marc-Andre Fleury (G) – Minnesota Wild – 22% Rostered
Fleury is very likely to be inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame when he ends his illustrious career. Down the stretch of what could be his last NHL season, Fleury has lost much of his Fantasy upside. Having lost four of his last five starts, the Wild are getting much better goaltending from his netminding partner, Filip Gustavsson. I recommend dropping Fleury, and pivoting to widely available options like Lindgren and Vejmelka.
