Wilson Suspension Is Not a Surprise

It's a risk that you take for rare production

Mar 08, 2021

My Friday waiver wire piece on The Athletic is here.

Capitals RW Tom Wilson Suspended for 7 Games

Tom Wilson has 50 goals and 524 hits in 152 games over the past three seasons. He’s REALLY valuable both in real hockey and fantasy hockey.

There are nine forwards in the NHL with more than 500 hits since the start of the 2018-2019 season. Wilson and Brady Tkachuk are the only ones with 50 or more goals. Usually, a player who hits that much is one dimensional - Ryan Reaves, Brandon Tanev, Matt Martin, William Carrier, Lawson Crouse, Cedric Paquette and modern-day Milan Lucic are the others. Prime Lucic fit with Wilson and Tkachuk as a physical winger that could score.

The problem for fantasy managers is that you know what you are getting. The suspension risk with Tom Wilson is not some wild out of the blue occurrence. This is who he has been the entire time that he has been in the NHL and the only question is whether the NHL was going to feel the need to act. When he crushed Boston’s Brandon Carlo into the glass with a high hit that opened the door to a suspension.

Conor Ryan @ConorRyan_93

Tom Wilson hits Brandon Carlo up high. Carlo needs help getting off the ice.

The beauty of the situation is that even the league danced around whether Wilson’s hit on Carlo constituted a head hit, because Wilson made a little contact with Carlo’s shoulder – like if boarding wasn’t in the rule book they would have shrugged and said “There’s nothing we can do!”

So, as someone who has several shares of Tom Wilson this season, I’m not thrilled but I can’t ever pretend that a suspension isn’t a risk just about every time Tom Wilson gets on the ice.

SUNDAY GAMES

BUF 2 N.Y. Islanders 5

NYI C Brock Nelson 2 G (3 G, 1 A in past 3 GP)

BUF D Brandon Davidson was on the ice for three goals against during 5-on-5 play.

Boston 0 New Jersey 1

NJ G Scott Wedgewood 40-save shutout. His second shutout (.923 SV% in 6 starts)

Florida 2 Carolina 4

CAR C Sebastian Aho 1 G, 1 A (3 G, 2 A in past 4 GP)

N.Y. Rangers 1 Pittsburgh 5

PIT RW Kasperi Kapanen 1 G, 2 A (3 G, 3 A in past 4 GP)

PIT C Evgeni Malkin 1 G, 1 A (2 G, 4 A during a 4-game point streak)

PIT D John Marino was on the ice for three goals for and none against.

NYR D Ryan Lindgren was on the ice for three goals against and none for.

Tampa Bay 6 Chicago 3

CHI LW Mattias Janmark 1 G, 1 A

TB C Yanni Gourde 2 G, 2 A (4 G, 4 A in past 7 GP)

TB LW Ondrej Palat 1 G, 1 A (6 G, 8 A in past 13 GP)

TB D Victor Hedman 1 G, 1 A (1 G, 4 A during a 4-game point streak)

Washington 3 Philadelphia 1

WSH RW T.J. Oshie 2 A

WSH G Ilya Samsonov stopped 36 of 37 shots (.907 SV% in 5 GP)

Nashville 4 Dallas 3 (SO)

DAL LW Jason Robertson 1 G, 1 A (4 G, 5 A in past 12 GP)

DAL D Miro Heiskanen 2 A (2 G, 2 A in past 3 GP)

NSH RW Eeli Tolvanen 1 G, 1 A (4 G, 2 A in past 8 GP)

NSH LW Filip Forsberg 2 A (4 G, 11 A in past 12 GP)

Ottawa 4 Calgary 3 (SO)

CGY LW Matthew Tkachuk 2 A (2 G, 9 A in past 9 GP)

SATURDAY GAMES

Florida 6 Nashville 2

NSH LW Filip Forsberg 2 A

FLA C Noel Acciari 3 G (first three points of the season, has three career hat tricks among his 41 goals)

FLA D Aaron Ekblad 1 G, 1 A (3 G, 3 A in past 3 GP)

FLA LW Jonathan Huberdeau 1 G, 1 A (3 G, 3 A in past 5 GP)

FLA LW Frank Vatrano 1 G, 1 A (4 G, 1 A in past 6 GP)

FLA D Keith Yandle 2 A

NSH D Roman Josi was on the ice for four goals against. D Alexandre Carrier and C Erik Haula were on the ice for three against.

FLA D Keith Yandle was on the ice for three goals for and none against.

N.Y. Rangers 6 New Jersey 3

NJ RW Nathan Bastian 1 G, 1 A

NJ LW Jesper Bratt 2 A

NYR C Ryan Strome 2 G (4 G, 7 A in past 9 GP)

NYR LW Filip Chytil 1 G, 1 A

NYR D Adam Fox 1 G, 1 A (1 G, 6 A in past 7 GP)

NYR RW Julien Gauthier 2 A

Buffalo 2 N.Y. Islanders 5

NYI C Mathew Barzal 1 G, 1 A (3 G, 4 A in past 7 GP)

NYI D Scott Mayfield 1 G, 1 A

BUF D Colin Miller was on the ice for three goals against during 5-on-5 play.

Philadelphia 3 Pittsburgh 4

PIT C Evgeni Malkin 1 G, 1 A

PIT RW Brandon Tanev 2 A

PIT LW Jake Guentzel 2 A (2 G, 7 A in past 9 GP)

PIT C Sidney Crosby 2 A (4 G, 10 A in past 13 GP)

PHI RW Travis Konecny 1 G, 1 A (1 G, 3 A in past 3 GP)

PHI LW Scott Laughton 2 A (5 G, 2 A in past 7 GP)

Toronto 2 Vancouver 4

VAN RW Brock Boeser 1 G, 2 A (1 G, 5 A in past 4 GP)

VAN C J.T. Miller 1 G, 2 A (3 G, 2 A in past 4 GP)

VAN C Bo Horvat 1 G, 1 A

VAN G Thatcher Demko stopped 37 of 39 shots. (.913 SV% in 17 starts)

Winnipeg 1 Montreal 7

MTL RW Brendan Gallagher 2 G, 1 A (4 G, 2 A in past 3 GP)

MTL LW Tomas Tatar 3 A (1 G, 5 A in past 5 GP)

MTL LW Tyler Toffoli 1 G, 1 A (3 G, 1 A in past 3 GP)

MTL C Phillip Danault 2 A

MTL G Carey Price stopped 28 of 29 shots. (.898 SV% in 14 starts)

The Montreal line of Tomas Tatar, Phillip Danault, and Brendan Gallagher was on the ice for three goals for and none against. The defense pairing of Joel Edmundson and Jeff Petry was on the ice for four goals for and none against.

WPG D Nathan Beaulieu was on the ice for four goals against and Dylan DeMelo was on the ice for three goals against.

Columbus 0 Dallas 5

DAL C Roope Hintz 1 G, 1 A

DAL G Jake Oettinger had a 21-save shutout. (.916 SV% in 10 GP)

St. Louis 3 Los Angeles 4 (OT)

LA C Anze Kopitar 2 G, 1 A (2 G, 5 A in past 4 GP)

LA LW Alex Iafallo 2 A

STL RW David Perron 1 G, 1 A (4 G, 4 A during a 6-game point streak)

STL C Brayden Schenn 2 A (2 G, 4 A during a 5-game point streak)

Minnesota 2 Arizona 5

ARZ RW Tyler Pitlick 2 G

ARZ RW Conor Garland 1 G, 1 A (1 G, 6 A in past 6 GP)

ARZ LW Clayton Keller 2 A (3 G, 2 A in past 4 GP)

ARZ LW Derick Brassard 2 A

ARZ D Niklas Hjalmarsson 2 A (4 A in past 4 GP)

MIN D Brad Hunt and Ian Cole were both on the ice for three goals against.

Anaheim 5 Colorado 4 (OT)

COL RW Mikko Rantanen 2 G (5 G, 6 A in past 7 GP)

COL C Nazem Kadri 2 A (5 A in past 4 GP)

COL D Samuel Girard 2 A (2 G, 4 A in past 5 GP)

ANA LW Rickard Rakell 1 G, 2 A (3 G, 6 A in past 5 GP)

ANA RW Troy Terry 2 G

ANA D Kevin Shattenkirk 1 G, 1 A

ANA C Adam Henrique 2 A

Calgary 2 Edmonton 3

EDM C Connor McDavid 1 G, 2 A (15 G, 28 A in 26 GP)

EDM RW Kailer Yamamoto 1 G, 1 A

EDM D Kris Russell 2 A

EDM G Mike Smith stopped 34 of 36 shots for the win. (.925 SV% in 11 GP)

CGY C Elias Lindholm 2 A (1 G, 4 A in past 5 GP)

EDM C Connor McDavid and C Leon Draisaitl were both on the ice for all three goals for and none against.

Vegas 4 San Jose 0

VGK RW Alex Tuch 2 G (8 G, 1 A in past 7 GP)

VGK G Marc-Andre Fleury 24-save shutout (.942 SV% in 15 starts)

SJ D Brent Burns was on the ice for all four goals against. D partner Mario Ferraro was on for three goals against.

VGK D Alex Pietrangelo was on the ice for three goals for and none against.

WAIVER OPTIONS FOR THIS WEEK

Max Comtois, LW, Anaheim

16 PTS, 50 H in 25 GP

Clayton Keller, LW, Arizona

18 PTS in 24 GP

Jesse Puljujarvi, RW, Edmonton

7 G in past 14 GP

Joe Thornton, LW, Toronto

11 PTS in 14 GP

Paul Stastny, C, Winnipeg

4 G, 1 A in past 6 GP

Digging Deep

Nashville RW Eeli Tolvanen. Remember when he followed up his draft – taken 30th by the Predators in 2017 – by scoring 25 goals in 60 games (including playoffs) for Jokerit in the KHL then added nine points in five games at the Olympics? The hype machine went into overdrive then but the path to stardom has hit a few bumps. Tolvanen does have 36 goals in 119 AHL games over the past couple of seasons and, with injuries hitting the Predators hard, Tolvanen is getting a legit look and he is starting to score, with six points (4 G, 2 A) in the past eight games and he is still just 21 so these reps are important to his development. (3% Yahoo)