We are under way in the 2026-27 NHL season and the early returns are already separating the managers who did their homework from the ones who are going to spend the next week scrambling. These six players are available in your league right now. Some of them will not be available by Friday. Here is why you need to move on all of them immediately.
1. Vasili Podkolzin | RW/LW | Edmonton Oilers | 52% Rostered
2 GP | 3 G | 1 A | 3 PPP | 11 SOG | 7 HIT
Three goals, one assist, three power play points, eleven shots, and seven hits in two games. Podkolzin is not just producing, he is producing on the top line alongside Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl. The shots on goal tell you he is shooting with confidence. The hits tell you he is physically engaged. The power play points tell you the coaching staff trusts him in the most critical situations. The deployment question has been answered. He belongs in every lineup.
The Add List Take: A winger on the top line with McDavid and Draisaitl shooting at volume and scoring on the power play is not a waiver wire player. He is a roster player. Add him.
2. Marco Rossi | C | Vancouver Canucks | 12% Rostered
2 GP | 3 G | 1 A | 1 PPP | 5 SOG
Twelve percent rostered for a player who just scored three goals in two games centering the BRO Line alongside Boeser and Öhgren. That number is going to look embarrassing by the weekend. Rossi is the engine of Vancouver’s most dangerous line. Three goals in two games and power play upside still to come as Malhotra builds confidence in this line.
The Add List Take: The BRO Line is real and Rossi is the centre of it. Twelve percent rostered for a player scoring at a 123-point pace is one of the clearest waiver wire opportunities of the early season. Do not overthink this one.
3. Elias Pettersson | C | Vancouver Canucks | 52% Rostered
2 GP | 2 G | 2 A | 2 PPP | 4 SOG
Two goals, two assists, two power play points, and a player who looks like he has rediscovered something that went missing for two seasons. The confidence is back. You can see it in the way he is carrying the puck, shooting without hesitation, and that one-timer!…are you kidding me?! We were at training camp in Penticton and the motivated, sharp Pettersson we saw there has shown up in the first two games of the regular season. The bounce-back season is here.
The Add List Take: EP40 is a point-per-game player when he is right. Through two games he looks right. Getting him at 52% rostered is a gift that is not going to last.
4. Artturi Lehkonen | LW/RW | Colorado Avalanche | 37% Rostered
1 GP | 2 G | 0 A | 2 PPP
Two goals and two power play points in his first game playing on the top line with Nathan MacKinnon and Martin Necas. That is the entire argument. Lehkonen, who plays with intelligence, competes relentlessly, and finishes when the opportunity arrives. On Colorado’s first power play unit alongside the best player in the world, the opportunities are going to keep arriving.
The Add List Take: Two power play goals in game one with MacKinnon and Necas. At 37% rostered on one of the highest-scoring teams in the NHL that is a significant market inefficiency worth exploiting right now.
5. Devon Toews | D | Colorado Avalanche | 38% Rostered
2 GP | 0 G | 2 A | 2 PPP
Two power play assists in two games playing alongside Cale Makar on Colorado’s first unit. Toews has been one of the most consistent and underrated offensive defencemen in the league. When Makar commands defensive attention, which he does every shift, Toews operates in space most defencemen would love. The power play assists are not a hot start. They are the expected outcome of a player in this situation, and they should keep coming.
The Add List Take: Two power play assists alongside Makar on the best offensive team in the NHL and available in 62% of leagues. That number should not exist. Add him.
6. Luca Cagnoni | D | San Jose Sharks | 19% Rostered
1 GP | 1 G | 1 A | 1 PPP | 3 SOG
The question heading into opening night was deployment. Game one answered it, one goal, one assist, one power play point, and three shots in his NHL debut. He is on the first power play unit. He is shooting. He is producing. Cagnoni is 21 years old on the most exciting young roster in the Pacific Division alongside Celebrini, Stenberg, and Smith. The offensive zone time he is going to see in that environment will generate fantasy points at a rate that 19% rostered does not account for.
The Add List Take: First power play unit confirmed. One goal, one assist, one power play point in his NHL debut. At 19% rostered this is the best value add on any waiver wire in the league right now. Go get him.
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