The Week in Fantasy: Sell your Blue Jackets

If I told you before the season that the Columbus Blue Jackets would have three players in the fantasy top 20 at nearly midseason, you would have had me sent to a mental hospital. If I told you Cam Atkinson would ranked 12, Nick Foligno was ranked 16 and Sergei Bobrovsky was ranked sixth, you might have called me a witch.

But here we are. The Blue Jackets’ 16 game win streak was snapped in a 5-0 beating at Washington last night, but the team still boasts extremely highly ranked players who were not drafted anywhere near those numbers preseason. I didn’t even mention Alex Wennberg being in the top 40. The team alone has altered fantasy leagues completely.

But they will regress. Is Cam Atkinson really a point per game player? His shooting percentage may rise if anything, but he’s never shown anything close to this. How likely is it to continue? Can Sergei Bobrovsky keep this up? His save percentage isn’t completely abnormal for him, but the wins won’t keep piling up at this rate anymore as John Tortorella said he’d get more rest with the streak over. Oh and he never stays healthy. Is Alex Wennberg the new Sidney Crosby with these assist numbers? Is Nick Foligno shoving the age curve right down the Olentangy River?

There isn’t a player like Ryan Johansen on the Blue Jackets who looks like and has to the pedigree to be expected to put up a point per game. Cam Atkinson and Nick Foligno and Scott Hartnell and Alex Wennberg are good players, but they’re not this good, regardless of what the first half of the season says.

Bobrovsky is this good, but has an earned reputation for never staying healthy. And you have to wonder if Torts puts more of a leash on Zach Werenski as the team readies itself for the playoff spot they’ve almost assuredly locked up already. He’s not going to turn him into Dan Girardi, but we know how Tortorella acts when his team has expectations: block shots and shots and more shots.

Point of all this being, I’d keep Bobrovsky, because you’re not going to get equal value right now for him unless you get Sidney Crosby or Connor McDavid or Devan Dubnyk, or someone of that ilk. Werenski has too much potential to get rid of, especially with Torts’ potential leash being nothing more than a potential leash right now.

But the forwards I’d get rid of faster than Vin Diesel betrays his familia in the Fast 8 trailer. If you can package a couple of them together a get a top 10-ish player, I'd do it in a heartbeat. If nothing else, their +/- is going to drop as the insane win streak ends and their goal differential drops when they lose a couple games.

Sell high before they start playing like their old selves again. They’re not this good.

AATJ Fantasy League Standings:

Three teams: Rico Schneidy, Norton Nemesis and Josefsons of Anarchy have separated themselves and look playoff bound in the Pelley, but the Odelein is completely up for grabs.

Fantasy Add of the Week: Wennberg is still available in way too many leagues. Atkinson too. If your league still has them available, go, even if I said they’re overvalued at the top. If they’re free agents, they sure aren’t!

Fantasy Drop of the Week: Joe Thornton. It may finally be time to cut bait with Jumbo. He’s ranked outside the top 100 and only has two goals on 40 shots. That’s not good!

Devils Fantasy Player of the Week: Taylor Hall I guess because he owns and always does. There aren’t too many other guys worth owning at this point.