Frozen Fantasy: Desperate Times, Desperate Measures

Desperate times call for desperate measures.

Will you do what's necessary to either move up the standings or spoil someone else's win? You'll need to play desperate fantasy hockey. And maybe drop some so-called studs to get the right roster flexibility. Do you think you can you stomach that?

Here are three guys on at least one of my rosters. None has lived up to his pre-draft billing. One or maybe all should be gone.

Who should you drop? It seems so obvious based on the numbers.

Spit.

I should have dropped their sorry butts a long time ago. But I held tight, worried they'd wake up on someone else's roster. Now, I'm so far back that I cannot win.

Hindsight. They say it's 20/20. Whoever "they" are. Gah.

However, I sure can spoil someone else's party by stealing some points away from the folks on the top of the leaderboard I'm all in on that, even if that means tossing a couple of those dead weights overboard.

Especially if I can't make up ground in their best categories, even if they Rip Van Winkle their game.

Now let's look at who caught my eye this week.

MULTI-CATEGORY GOODNESS

Jakob Chychrun, D, Arizona (3 percent Yahoo owned) - Chych has five points (two goals, three assists) in his last four games. He fired 12 shots, accumulated a plus-3 rating and fired two of his points on the power play. There's a whole of goodness in this 18-year-old's game right now – in fact, he was the sixth-best Yahoo! skater over the seven-day period ending St. Patty's Day. The Yotes are playing loose and free, and that means good things for their potential production.

Teuvo Teravainen, LW/RW/C, Carolina (14 percent) - Teravainen is a talent, but he doesn't get the same love in Carolina as he did in Chicago. That's OK for us. This multi-positional talent has two goals, two assists and 17 shot in his last five games, and two of those points came on the power play. Teravainen has really clicked with rookie stud Sebastian Aho and steadfast pivot Jordan Staal. Take advantage.

GOALS

Paul Byron, LW/RW, Montreal (8 percent) - The Habs had a light week, but Byron played a heavy game when they were on the ice. He had three goals and an assist in two games, despite playing on the Canadiens third line. Byron runs hot and cold (he went 0-for-February), so play him hard and discard him just has hard once things dry up.

Brayden Point, RW/C, Tampa Bay (4 percent) - Point is now the Bolts first-line center. Yes, all 166 pounds of him. Point had been toiling on the wing, but he's a natural pivot despite his skinny 5-foot-10 frame. And injuries to Tyler Johnson and Vladislav Namestnikov opened a big ol' door for him to show off his skills. And that he has done. The guy is fearless and he has a nose for the net. And that nose for the net has delivered three goals in three games and nine shots, too. Point is a talent. He now has opportunity and he's taking full advantage. You should, too.

ASSISTS

Elias Lindholm, RW/C, Carolina (8 percent) - Lindholm is on a five-game scoring streak and four of those are assists. And he has eight points, including seven helpers, in his last 10 games. Need any more evidence? He's helping me make my run.

Tobias Rieder, LW/RW, Arizona (2 percent) - Rieder is on a playmaking roll. He's zipping along with eight points in his last eight games and six of those have been helpers. He doesn't have the sexy pedigree as some of his other Desert Dawg mates, but that doesn't make him any less valuable.

GOALS AND ASSISTS

Joshua Ho-Sang, RW/C, NY Islanders (6 percent) - Ho Sang saw his three-game, five-point scoring streak screech to a halt Thursday night, but those elite skills and creativity are for real. Ho Sang was the biggest risk-reward draft pick in 2014 and he's making Garth Snow look really, really smart. He's brilliant offensively, but beware – the Isles may be shortening their bench to climb into that wild card spot. Ho Sang will need to show multi-category goodness to hang onto his ice time.

SHOTS

Oliver Bjorkstrand, RW, Columbus (3 percent) - In the last week, this talented Dane fired 17 shots in four games – yes, 17. Bjorkstrand's goal and assist in that span were nice, but it's his willingness to rip rubber that could really help you in a single category.

PLUS/MINUS

Jay Bouwmeester, D, St. Louis (3 percent) - Steady Eddie won't give you much of anything offensively. But Bouwmeester is remarkably reliable – he has a plus-5 rating in the last week (five games) and he has had just one negative outing since the start of February. At minimum, he's the kind of guy you can use as a counterbalance for an impressive, but volatile offensive guy.

Darnell Nurse, D, Edmonton (2 percent) - Nurse has a lot of growing to do, but the talent is there. His last two games showed his potential – he scored a goal, added two assists, dropped the gloves to fight and accumulated a plus-7 rating. In two games! Now, don't get over-excited – Nurse won't deliver this output game in and game out. But I'll take him short-term for sure.

WINS

Aaron Dell, G, San Jose (16 percent) - Dell's numbers – 1.36 GAA and .936 save percentage – are outstanding. And the Sharks play back-to-back three times in the next two weeks. Cha-ching. Three wins could come to you lickety split.

Back to desperate times.

At this point in the season, just about everyone is droppable if they're not delivering the kind of value you need.

Goals won't help you if you can't make up ground.

In the NHL, teams have a dozen games left, give or take. Some are wrestling for better playoff seeding. Others are playing out the string and checking the Farmer's Almanac for weather in April.

A few teams – the Kings, Islanders and Lightning – are in the fights of their lives. Saturday morning, the Kings were four points from the Blues and a wild card berth. The Islanders and the Bolts had the Maple Leafs in their cross hairs – both sat just a single point behind that final wild-card spot.

They know what they want and are going for it. Are you?

Until next week.