1. Jackson LaCombe, D, ANA- Jackson, the former Minnesota Golden Gopher alum, has looked right at home in a top 4 role with Anaheim. LaCombe, a tank, is 6'2, 200lbs and holds his own physically in the NHL. He also appears to have been giving the green light to pinch aggressively in the offensive zone,and he has some offensive prowess. Anaheim's puck possession still isn't top notch so LaCombe is also getting some decent blocks and hits while still staying at a positive +/-. Everyone is talking about his teammate, Pavel Mintyukov, who comes with a higher draft pedigree(10th overall), but Jackson is holding his own.
2. Jack McBain, C, ARZ- Jack, a power forward, has been passing the eye test on his NHL ability and has been a big factor into why Arizona is overachieving this year. He's not going to absolutely light up the box score, but in banger leagues he racks up periphial stats, and is decent in the faceoff circle. Some sites have him slowly overtaking Nick Bjugstad as the third line center. I think McBain can chip in 20 goals, which with all the other stats he provides is a decent bench spot.
3. Bobby Brink, W, PHI- There seems to be a theme here... All of these players played NCAA hockey. It seems to translate well into NHL relevance. Bobby is probably the most revered on his list, a NCCA national champion with Denver, and a Hobey Baker finalist. His coach has had success with undersized feisty forwards(Martin St Louis and Cam Atkinson). Brink is chipping in offensively on a third line role, and could very well overtake Cam Atikinson on line one. He's strictly a point getter though his hits and blocks leave more to be desired.
4. Sean Monahan, C , MTL- An older player as opposed to everyone else in this list. I liked Monahan even before Dach's injury happened. Monahan, a former 82 point player, is a solid player still. He has found himself on Montreal's power play 1 as well. Monahan isn't a guy who gets a lot of periphials, but his points might see an uptick without Dach, and all those extra minutes he's going to see nightly. He also has a precedent for points with almost 500 points in just under 700 games.
5. Oliver Ekman-Larsson, D, FLA- The much maligned OEL has found himself as the top defenseman on Florida playing a whopping 24 minutes a night!! He is very far removed from his offensive insanity he has with Arizona, but he finds himself on the power play 1 of a potent Florida offense, and he is stuffing the columns with hits, blocks, and shots on goal. Anyone no matter their skill level who plays 24 minutes a night is going to get stats just by sheer volume.
6. Evan Rodrigues, W/C, FLA- Evan just seems to find himself with all NHL talent on line one and power play one every single team he's on from junior on up. With that coveted spot, Erob is putting up a respectable start to his campaign with 8 points in 7 games and a +/- of 6. His career high is 43 points, but his current pace is 93 points. As long as he is flanking Reinhart and Barkov, and is getting power play 1 next to Tkachuk he is worth the add.
Photo credit Odie M.
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