I have mentioned the Sens Erik Karlsson a couple of times in this column. With his team playing much better (in midst of ten game win streak at the time of this writing), he's standing out of late showing much greater confidence and because he's getting more comfortable with the North American game, his offensive gifts are showing. He has 5 assists in his last 7 games played and should be productive over the season's last 25 games.




In Colorado with RW's Milan Hejduk, David Jones, and Marek Svatos sidelined with injuries, one player that has been noticeable of late is 24 year old Brandon Yip. He's managed eight goals in his first 19 NHL games and is available in virtually every fantasy league. He's a little light at just 175 pounds on a 6 foot frame, and isn't exactly shooting the puck of ton, but the numbers are certainly impressive. He's shown some smarts and decent anticipation and vision in the games I've watched him. This is a player who has seized an opportunity and produced. If you're dealing with a short term injury, or some general ineffectiveness from one of your forwards I'd spend a waiver pick on him at this point and see if he can keep it up. 

I got a quick hit question via email asking if I could pick out one name on the Bluejackets that might benefit from Ken Hitchcock's ouster as the head coach Wednesday in Columbus. The first name I could think of was RW Jakub Voracek. He's been a deep minus all season (currently -12), but has so much skill that he simply can't end the season with only 10-12 goals (he currently has eight). He'll likely remain on the second line but I expect he might take a few more chances and perhaps see more games in the 17 minute area (currently at 15 minutes playing time a contest). He's too good a player to keep producing at about a half a point a game level.