The first month of the season is almost over, which is great news for fantasy owners, as the phrase “small sample size” is going to be heard less and less. Most teams have now played between 9-11 games, and we’re starting to see some of the hot starts cool off, and trends and patterns emerge. Heading into November, lets take a look at a few of the players still available in most ESPN leagues who are are trending upwards. These forwards make for solid waiver wire pickups and sleepers in your fantasy hockey leagues.

Week 4 Waiver Wire Forwards for Fantasy Hockey

Charlie Coyle - Minnesota Wild (5.9% owned, +3.9%)

Charlie Coyle honestly hasn’t done anything spectacular in the first month of the season. His 4PTS (2G, 2A) are right on pace for a role playing forward. The reason we’re talking about him here is because The Wild are now playing him on a 2nd line with Mikko Koivu and Thomas Vanek, two proven goal scorers, and because he just signed a 5 year, $16 million contract that will kick in next year.

Minnesota sees a lot of promise in this young player, and fantasy owners should too. In 70 games played last year, Coyle was able to put up 30 points, and rocked an extremely solid 52.66 Corsi. Early on this year, he’s on pace for 42 points, some of which should come on the power play, as he’s seeing time on the Wild’s 2nd PP unit.

Anders Lee - New York Islanders (0.1% owned, +0.1%)

Anders Lee this week showed me why I should write these articles without anyone else in my fantasy league around, as a friend of mine was looking over my shoulder while I was doing research, and in the 4 minutes it took me to decide to pick him up, he’d already been snagged off the waiver wire. All’s fair in fantasy hockey and war, I suppose. Regardless, Lee should be on everyone’s radar in the fantasy world. He’s played 26 career games for the smoking hot Islanders, and has 11 goals in that time frame. He’s already cemented himself on the Isle’s 1st PP unit alongside John Tavares and Kyle Okposo, and has 1G so far in 2 games played this season. This kid’s going to be putting up numbers this year, so grab him while you can.

Linden Vey - Vancouver Canucks (0.3% owned, +0.2%)

The three players everyone is talking about in Vancouver right now are the brothers Sedin and Radim Vrbata. The Canucks 1st line has 31 points through 8 games played and shows no signs of slowing down. A name that doesn’t get mentioned as often, but should garner some attention is 4th line forward Vey. Through 9 games he has 5PTS (3G, 2A), and his big upside is that it’s looking like a bunch of his points are going to come on the power play, as long as he keeps seeing time on the Canucks 1st PP unit with the Sedins and Vrbata. Definitely worth a look in deeper leagues.

Damien Brunner - New Jersey Devils (0.7% owned, +0.3%)

Brunner missed the first few games of the season with some minor injuries, but since returning on October 18th he has had decent production, scoring a goal and having 3 points total. He’s averaging 16:57 ATOI on the season, and getting some power play time as well. He’s realistically a bottom six forward that’s cracked the Devil’s 2nd line in the wake of injuries to Martin Havlat and Mike Cammalleri, but he’s shown flashes of brilliance that could keep him in that spot if he starts putting the points up.

Nikita Kucherov - Tampa Bay Lightning (4.2% owned, +0.5%)

Ok, so when I started this article earlier today, Kucherov had 4 points in his last 2 games, which is really respectable after a slow start to the season (2 points in his first 7 games). Now, as of the games on October 28th being in the books, he has 7 points in his last 3 games (4G, 3A). He’s seen his TOI per game go up about 2 minutes per game his last 3 games as well, seeing time on Tampa Bay’s 7th overall ranked power play (24.3% on the year). Kucherov has the hot hand on a solid team right now, and the past 3 games should be proof enough that he’s worth an add in almost any league. He’s a possible 50-55 point guy on a young Lightning squad.

Honorable Mentions:

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Line Combinations courtasy of Daily Faceoff; Advanced stats courtasy of War On Ice