NHL.com point projection: 56<\/p>\n
Smith started his NHL career with four points (two goals, two assists) in his first 18 games but rebounded to become a reliable fantasy player last season. In 56 games from Nov. 25 through the end of the regular season, Smith ranked among the rookie leaders in goals (16; sixth), assists (25; fourth), points (41; fourth), power-play goals (four; tied for third) and power-play points (10; tied for fourth). He has the potential to eclipse the 25-goal mark in his second season given his elite shot and frequent exposure to Celebrini at even strength and on the power play. Smith is a top 100 forward in fantasy and among the top 15 of NHL.com’s rankings in keeper and dynasty leagues.<\/p>\n
NHL.com point projection: 56<\/p>\n
Eklund led the Sharks in assists (41) and short-handed points (three) last season and had their second-most points (58) and power-play points (16) behind Celebrini (63 points; 22 power-play points). Eklund is an elite playmaker (led San Jose with 28 primary assists) with 60-point potential, making the young forward a fantasy breakout candidate this season.<\/p>\n
NHL.com point projection: 53<\/p>\n
Toffoli, who had 30 goals and 50 points for the fourth time in his NHL career, led the Sharks in goals (30) and even-strength goals (24; tied for 28th in League) and had their second-most shots on goal (236; tied for 31st in League) and even-strength points (39; tied with Eklund). Toffoli, who should stick in San Jose’s top-six forwards this season, is a sleeper candidate behind his younger teammates and his high shot volume makes him a fringe top 100 forward in fantasy leagues.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NHL.com point projection: 56 Smith started his NHL career with four points (two goals, two assists) in his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":90708,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[433],"tags":[49,48,448,82],"class_list":["post-90707","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90707","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=90707"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90707\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/90708"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=90707"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=90707"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=90707"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}