With no games scheduled for Halloween in the NHL, we have an opportunity to browse a little deeper in the free-agent pool to see what might be available.We are going to look at the available players through a category-specific lens, in an effort to heal what may be ailing your fantasy squad. To each

With no games scheduled for Halloween in the NHL, we have an opportunity to browse a little deeper in the free-agent pool to see what might be available.We are going to look at the available players through a category-specific lens, in an effort to heal what may be ailing your fantasy squad. To each fantasy player, there are likely different needs emerging. Rotisserie fantasy owners can clearly see which category their team is lacking in, while head-to-head owners now have two weeks of results to look back on and identify where their team isnt competing.While rotisserie owners will almost surely want to look at their category weaknesses as something to strengthen, head-to-head owners must remember not to be so dedicated to a balanced attack. Remember, each week -- including your leagues championship week in April -- you only need to beat your opponent by one category. When looking back over your squad and realizing you have a glaring weakness, it might be in your best interest to accept that weakness and strengthen your squad elsewhere.Goals: There are eight players tied for the league lead with six goals. Only one of them is not a surprise, and that would be Steven Stamkos. While Auston Matthews and Patrik Laine are great stories here, they are long gone from being free agents. The same is true of Wayne Simmonds, who we know is a fantasy beast and scores goals in bunches. That leaves four players who are all available to some degree (but the window on all of them is closing quickly).Of the four unexpected goal leaders, we would rank them in terms of rest-of-season fantasy value in this order: Artem Anisimov, Jonathan Marchessault, Richard Panik and Alex Killorn. We know Anisimov is in a killer lineup position playing with Patrick Kane and Artemi Panarin. Marchessault might be the best short-term add, as Jonathan Huberdeaus return later this season will put his role in question. As for Panik and Killorn, both will have their chances in their respective teams top six all season, but were less excited by them. In fact, looking for players available in more than 80 percent of ESPN leagues, we like Michael Grabner the most right now. The former 34-goal scorer seems to be fitting in well on Broadway following a steady six-season decline from his rookie campaign.Assists: While there are some players with more assists that are also available in a high percentage of ESPN leagues, we are looking at Brock Nelson as our specialist. The New York Islanders offense is far from inspiring at this point, with Andrew Ladd looking like a bust as a new top-six winger for John Tavares. When Cal Clutterbuck is the fourth-highest scoring forward on your team, you know something isnt going as planned. Nelson has been scoring consistently, putting up a team-leading nine points on the back of six assists, all while playing mostly away from Tavares. He wont continue to play away from Tavares if he continues to put up points, as the Isles need to get their scoring lines going.Plus/Minus: Its hard to ride a plus/minus specialist, as it often feels like youre giving up too much in other categories to make room for them in your lineup. Thats absolutely true, as you would be better served coming about your plus/minus organically with the rest of your lineup. That said, if you need a boost from time to time, the trick will be picking up defensemen playing in the right situations. Montreal Canadiens defenseman Nathan Beaulieu has a plus-9, which is second in the NHL only to his defense partner Shea Weber. Kris Russell is helping to drive the Edmonton Oilers defensive resurgence, and has benefited with a plus-7 so far. Brian Campbell is in a great place on the Chicago Blackhawks top pairing with Duncan Keith, pushing him to a plus-6 and six points. Just dont get complacent after you use some of these guys, as their overall contributions will generally lack.Penalty minutes: With hooliganism on the decline across the NHL, its no longer possible to give a roster spot to a goon and rely on 200-plus PIM during the season. There are fewer and fewer guys that will consistently chip in with mucho penalty minutes. You are much better off fueling a more modest approach to PIM with minor penalties. There are plenty of fantasy contributors that arent black holes in your roster, and collect minor penalties. Sam Bennett leads the NHL with 10 minor penalties, and he also happens to have six points. Benoit Pouliot is second in the league with eight minors, and skates on the Oilers talented second line and second power-play unit. The Dallas Stars Antoine Roussel is the most consistent option, however, having finished in the top 10 for PIM for two consecutive seasons and already ranks fourth this season.Power-play points: If William Nylander is still hanging around on your waiver wire, start there. Hes tied for the league lead with seven power-play points. Going further down the list, Matt Moulson has carved out a clear role on the Buffalo Sabres first unit, and already has five power-play points. The same is true for Alexander Wennberg on the Columbus Blue Jackets top unit. We like Wennberg a little more, as he has more potential at even strength and to continue his role all season, whereas Moulson has benefited from injuries to Jack Eichel and Evander Kane.Average time on ice: Its tough to look for a specialist here, as the conversation immediately shifts to defensemen. And the leaders in time on ice are always the best defensemen, so they arent exactly available to fantasy owners, either. We are going to make an argument here for Alexander Edler as your likely best bet for specialist value here, even though his numbers look pretty ugly in standard leagues right now. He has precisely one point through nine games, but is 14th in the league for ice time right now. The reason we are OK with Edler as a possible add is because things have to improve offensively for him. He is the one and only option on the Vancouver Canucks blue line with the potential to contribute offensively. Its been a quiet few seasons for Edler, but he used to kick in 30-plus assists in a season. Once the Canucks figure out how to score goals again, Edler should start getting the odd helper here and there. All the while, hell be pushing your average ice time through the roof.Shots on goal: Marchessault and Nylander are your top options to boost your shots on goal, but both are less and less available with each passing day. On the blue line, Johnny Boychuk is back to his high-volume shooting ways with the Islanders, but history tells us he will trade off as the leading defensemen for the club with Nick Leddy and Travis Hamonic throughout the season. If we go a bit further down the ranks, Tomas Tatar is being jettisoned by many fantasy owners, despite his 29 shots on goal being good for the top 25 in the league so far. The Detroit Red Wings offense has been coming from unexpected places so far, with the likes of Darren Helm and Thomas Vanek leading the charge. We think Tatar and Henrik Zetterberg will shake off the rust and start finding the twine soon. In the meantime, Tatar will keep shooting at a high rate for you.Forwards rising and fallingYoull see a lot of downward movement beginning in the rankings this week. As these are meant to be going-forward rankings for the remainder of the fantasy season, we try to give players a grace period before punishing them too much for a lack of production. On the whole, an eight- or nine-game slump for a great player wont be a big deal at the end of the season. But the longer these season-opening slumps continue, the less confidence we have that the player will shake it off and return to their old self.James Neal, LW, Nashville Predators (down seven spots to No. 43): Well hold up Neal as our poster boy for the end of grace periods in the rankings. Eight games in, Neal has one goal and one assist. Thats not good enough, especially since hes still playing with Ryan Johansen and Filip Forsberg the majority of the time. The Predators have a stagnant offense (and defense) at the moment, and will need to make some changes soon. On paper, this team should be steamrolling opponents, but it isnt happening. Watch closely at what should be impending depth chart changes, as the established stars might get dinged with the shuffle.Patric Hornqvist, RW, Pittsburgh Penguins (up 24 spots to No. 57): After one game back to get reacquainted, Hornqvist has a goal, two assists and 11 shots on goal in the past two games with Sidney Crosby back. Its safe to say he missed Sid. Keep in mind that Hornqvist might be our highest-ranked star by association, so he rises and falls with the fortunes of Crosby.Defensemen rising and fallingRyan Suter, D, Minnesota Wild (up 12 spots to No. 50): We dont talk enough about how Suter managed a career high in shots last season in his 11th NHL campaign. Hes currently on pace to match it this season, with 20 shots through nine games. When Suter is confident and shooting the puck, hes a No. 1 fantasy defenseman.Goaltenders rising and fallingBen Bishop, G, Tampa Bay Lightning (down eight spots to No. 35): Not exactly playing like a guy who has a usurper waiting in the wings, Bishop is lucky Andrei Vasilevskiy had a rough game on Saturday, or the transfer of power could be even further along. Still, things arent looking great for Bishop here, as his goals-against average is 3.68 to Vasilevskys 2.05. Bishops save percentage is .880 to Vasilevskys .929. The Lightning are 5-4-0 at the moment, but patience is going to wear thin quickly if Bishop doesnt turn things around.Quick hitsZach Parise is week-to-week for the Minnesota Wild, and it was Joel Eriksson Ek filling in on the top line with Charlie Coyle and Eric Staal. Eriksson Ek has two goals and three assists in five games.While its great to see Alexander Radulov playing on the top line with Alex Galchenyuk, this is not great news for the slow start by Max Pacioretty. Its hard to break out of a slump while buried on the depth chart.Not that anybody is scoring or connecting for the Canucks, but its a bit sad to see Loui Eriksson already off the top line with the Sedin twins. For the record (and not for your waiver plans), Jannik Hansen is there for the moment.Top 250 rankingsHere are the updated rest-of-season, top 250 rankings of forwards, defensemen and goalies, including position ranks.Note: Sean Allens top 250 players are ranked for their expected performance in ESPN standard leagues from this point on. ESPN standard stats include goals, assists, power-play points, shots on goal, plus/minus, penalty minutes and average time on ice for skaters, and wins, goals-against average and save percentage for goalies. Bobby Murcer Jersey . -- Charlie Graham stopped 67 shots as the Belleville Bulls edged the visiting Guelph Storm 6-5 on Saturday in Ontario Hockey League action. Wade Boggs Jersey . That gave fans outside Joe Louis Arena another chance to ask for autographs from the 19-year-old whose stardom in the NHL has arrived earlier than most expected. http://www.customyankeesjersey.com/custom-elston-howard-jersey-large-1144i.html .500 on the season. The Jets are now 0-5-1 in the second game of back-to-backs. The game started the same way the Vancouver game started the night before, with the Jets taking the first two penalties of the game and killing off the first, but the Oilers getting on the board first, scoring on the second man-advantage. Custom Yankees Jersey China . Artturi Lehkonen, Joni Nikko and Ville Leskinen had the other goals for Finland (1-0) while Juuse Saros stopped 28 shots. Tim Robin Johnsgard had the lone goal for Norway (0-2). Adam Ottavino Jersey . The recently retired Stern was elected Friday to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame and will be enshrined with the class of 2014 on Aug. (STATS) -- Dayton and San Diego are the most successful programs in PFL history, so its only fitting they begin league play against each other Saturday at Torero Stadium.The Flyers have won 12 titles and the Toreros have been champions seven times since the PFL began play in 1993. One of these teams has either won the PFL title outright or been co-champion in nine of the last 11 years, including in 2015 when they shared the crown with 7-1 league records.Since the PFL received an automatic bid to compete in the FCS playoffs starting in 2013, San Diego represented the league in 2014 and Dayton made its first appearance last season thanks to a 13-12 home win over the Toreros on Oct. 10 that gave the Flyers the tiebreaker.San Diego was a one-point favorite over Dayton to win the title this year in preseason voting by the leagues head coaches, though the Flyers received six first-place votes while the Toreros got the other five. San Diego has been selected as the preseason favorite in each of the last six years.Dayton has won 16 of 23 all-time meetings with San Diego but has dropped the last two on the road by a combined score of 81-38. The Toreros have won 30 of their last 32 at home.Its a business trip, Flyers redshirt senior defensive tackle Michael Scott said. Were not here for fun, were not here for the nice weather, were not here for the sun. Were here to win a football game and thats in the forefront of our mind every time we go out there.The Flyers (2-1) are coming off a 34-20 loss at defending Northeast Conference champion Duquesne last Saturday, while San Diego (1-1) hasnt played since a 38-16 road defeat to Cal Poly on Sept. 110 that ended a seven-game win streak that began after Octobers setback at Dayton.ddddddddddddThe Flyers defense was expected to be the teams strong point this season, and Dayton ranks second in the league with 301.7 yards allowed per game. Sophomore safety David Leisring has a PFL-high three interceptions and redshirt senior defensive end Mike Gray is tied for the league lead with 3 1/2 sacks.Dayton will be looking to stop quarterback Anthony Lawrence, who was voted the PFLs 2015 offensive freshman of the year after he led the league in passer rating (153.5) while finishing second with 23 touchdowns to just six interceptions.The Flyers picked off Lawrence in last years win and held him to his lowest passer rating (92.9) of 2015 as he finished 15 of 32 for 160 yards and a TD while getting sacked twice.Were stoked about it, using this bye week but not really treating it as a bye week, Lawrence said last Thursday. Were already getting ready for Dayton. Theyre a phenomenal team with a lot of athletes, a lot of older veterans. ... Theyre a great team and we really have been preparing tough this whole week.Lawrence has completed 32 of 50 passes for 338 yards with three touchdowns and no INTs this season. His counterpart, fellow redshirt sophomore Alex Jeske, has struggled in the last two games for Dayton, going 25 of 53 for 331 yards with no TDs and two picks. Jeske completed 13 of 30 passes last season against San Diego, throwing for 188 yards with a touchdown, an interception and getting sacked three times. ' ' '