Each week, I will take a trip around the league and dig into the numbers to find insights that can help you make better fantasy hockey decisions.
This week, the Maple Leafs and Blue Jackets swing a blockbuster deal on the eve of
the season, the Oilers are dangerous at both ends of the rink, rookie T.J. Hughes
secures a prime spot in Colorado, and much more!
1 The Maple Leafs acquired winger Kirill Marchenko from Columbus, shaking up their
top line, with Marchenko joining Auston Matthews and Jack Roslovic on the top trio.
Marchenko has produced 141 points (58 G, 83 A) in 155 games across the past two
seasons, ranking 45th in the league, with the Blue Jackets outscoring opponents by 51
goals during 5-on-5 play when Marchenko was on the ice over that period. He is a bona
fide first line scoring winger and his most common linemates in Columbus the past two
seasons have been Adam Fantilli and Dmitri Voronkov, so the move to Toronto could
give Marchenko an even higher offensive ceiling. Marchenko only has one assist in his
first two games for the Leafs, but it’s a good sign that he has seven shots on goal and
12 shot attempts in his first couple of games.
2 Going to the other way, Matthew Knies might not have the same skill level as
Marchenko, but Knies had a career high 66 points (23 G, 43 A) in 79 games last season
and even if it requires some coaxing to get him to use his size to maximum
effectiveness, he did learn to play a power game, recording 503 hits in the past three
seasons. There are 33 forwards that recorded more hits than Knies in the past three
seasons. Only four of them (Brady Tkachuk, Tom Wilson, Vincent Trocheck and J.T.
Miller) had more points than Knies’ total of 159. Knies made an instant impact with the
Blue Jackets, putting up three points (2 G, 1 A) in a win over Buffalo.
3 Coming off a 95-point season, Oilers defenceman Evan Bouchard was not flying
under the radar coming into the season and would have been one of the first
defencemen selected in fantasy leagues, but his first two games – admittedly, against
Vancouver – have been incredible. Not only does Bouchard have eight points (4 G, 4 A)
but he has 10 shots on goal and 18 shots attempts, so he’s getting tons of chances! It’s
obviously not sustainable, since the Oilers won’t get to play Vancouver every night, but
Bouchard was already a prime candidate to be the top scoring defenceman in the
league this season and his start only makes a stronger case.
4 One of the ways to seek out potential value in fantasy hockey is to find players who
have landed plum spots playing with highly skilled linemates. A case in point: Ilya
Mikheyev has started his Tampa Bay Lightning career skating on the top line with
Brayden Point and Nikita Kucherov. Mikheyev is a solid two-way winger who scored a
career high 36 points (18 G, 18 A) last season, so he does not have a very high ceiling
when it comes to offensive output. He also played just 10:56 in the season-opening loss
to the Rangers, recording one assist, and he hasn’t managed a power play point in the past two seasons, but so long as he is skating with Kucherov, there is a chance for
Mikheyev to offer fantasy value.
5 Following four years at the University of Michigan, T.J. Hughes joined the Colorado
Eagles of the AHL last spring and picked up a couple of points (1 G, 1 A) in two regular-
season games before contributing 14 points (6 G, 8 A) in 17 playoff games. That
introduction to pro hockey set him up, to not only make the Avalanche out of training
camp, but it helped Hughes land the bumper spot on Colorado’s top power play unit.
Hughes had 57 points (22 G, 35 A) in 40 games for Michigan last season, so he has
some offensive credentials, but it is somewhat surprising to see him on PP1 for last
season’s Presidents’ Trophy winners in his first NHL game.
6 In what figures to be a long and developmental season for the Calgary Flames, it may
require some searching to find reason for optimism. 20-year-old defenceman Zayne
Parekh may be worth keeping an eye on, simply because he should be a priority for this
team. Parekh only had nine points (4 G, 5 A) in 37 games for the Flames last season,
but he has the offensive pedigree that makes him an appealing prospect. In his last two
junior hockey seasons, with the Saginaw Spirit of the OHL, Parekh scored 203 points
(66 G, 137 A) in 127 games and is quarterbacking the Flames’ top power play unit.
7 While Detroit Red Wings fans booed former captain Dylan Larkin on opening night, his
absence does leave a hole at the top of the depth chart. Veteran Andrew Copp is trying
to fill in, and he played more than 22 minutes against the Rangers on Friday, but he has
had one season of 20-plus goals and 50-plus points in his career, and it was in 2021-
2022, so while it’s a huge opportunity for him, it’s also entirely unfair to expect that 32-
year-old Copp is suddenly going to become a premier scoring centre.
8 After winning the Stanley Cup, one of the first orders of business for the Carolina
Hurricanes in the offseason was to sign right winger Jackson Blake to a contract
extension, inking him to an eight-year contract for $45 million. It made sense, since
Blake led the Hurricanes in playoff scoring, with 20 points (7 G, 13 A) in 19 games, and
it’s fair to expect continued improvement from the 23-year-old forward. Blake has
started this season averaging more than 20 minutes of ice time in the first two games,
and maybe that won’t last long term, but it’s fair to expect that he might see an uptick on
last season’s 16:30 of ice time per game.
9 Following a solid rookie season in 2025-2026, Toronto Maple Leafs winger Easton
Cowan had reason to be hopeful coming into this season, and his performance through
two games has done nothing to diminish that enthusiasm. Cowan has three points (1 G,
2 A) in two games and the Maple Leafs have controlled 60.5 percent of shot attempts
and 66.9 percent of expected goals during score-and-venue-adjusted 5-on-5 play. He is
skating on the third line now but if Cowan continues to play well, he will push for more
playing time.
10 The most glaring hole on the Montreal Canadiens roster is at second line centre, and
it may get addressed through a trade at some point but, in the meantime, there are
plenty of options. Alex Newhook is getting a turn in the middle and with Juraj
Slafkovsky and Ivan Demidov on the wings, it’s a better opportunity to generate offence
than a run of the mill second line. Newhook had 25 points (13 G, 12 A) in 42 games last
season before adding 10 points (7 G, 3 A) in 19 playoff games so he may be able to
handle the role, but he’s also never scored more than 34 points in a season, so he will
have to produce if he’s going to stick in this role.
11 When the Pittsburgh Penguins signed right winger Ville Koivunen to and eight-year,
$32 million contract in the summer, after he managed seven points (2 G, 5 A) in 39
games for the Penguins last season, there were some questions about the wisdom of
signing a long-term contract to a player who had yet to show that he could produce in
the NHL. The Penguins obviously have faith in Koivunen’s talent, and he did have 41
points (13 G, 28 A) in 34 AHL games last season. He scored in the season opener
against Philadelphia and is skating on a line with Hendrix Lapierre and Filip Hallander,
though Koivunen is not getting prominent special teams ice time which limits his upside.
12 With Mathew Barzal out of the New York Islanders lineup to start the season, there
may be more of a role for Matias Maccelli, who the Islanders signed after he did not
receive a qualifying offer from the Toronto Maple Leafs. Maccelli recorded 39 points (14
G, 25 A) in 71 games for the Leafs last season, playing 14:34 per game. In the season
opener for the Islanders, Maccelli played 17:39, including a spot on the top power play
unit. This could change when Barzal returns but it’s worth keeping tabs on Maccelli in
his new threads.
13 Another team looking to fill its second line centre spot, the Los Angeles Kings, are
giving Alex Turcotte a shot in the middle on their second line. Turcotte has 44 points
(13 G, 31 A) in 163 career games, which includes an assist in the season opener, but
it’s fair to say that he’s unproven offensively in the NHL. He was the fifth pick in the
2019 Draft, but the offensive side of the game hasn’t materialized for him, but playing
with Mats Zuccarello and Alex Laferriere is not a bad opportunity to see if Turcotte can
turn into something more.
14 The Edmonton Oilers have had a wild couple of games against Vancouver to start
the season, scoring 14 goals and allowing 13 to the Canucks while winning one and
losing one in overtime. The Oilers also lost Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Zach Hyman to
injuries, which leaves them scrambling for secondary scoring. The second line appears
to consist of Colton Dach centering Max Jones and Kasperi Kapanen, with Kapanen,
Isaac Howard, and Trent Frederic getting second unit power play time. None of these
players is particularly appealing based on recent production, but Kapanen may be the one to track as he has a couple of points and is averaging 18:22 of ice time per game
through his first two contests.
15 Most of the time, I try to avoid pulling the same players on back-to-back weeks, but
I’ll make an exception for Oilers winger Vasily Podkolzin, who was intriguing enough
because of his expected role on Connor McDavid’s wing, but Podkolzin started the
season on fire with four points (3 G, 1 A) with 11 shots on goal in two games against the
Canucks. He has good size, and isn’t afraid to use it, recording seven hits through two
games, but if he can simply hold onto his spot on McDavid’s wing then this could quickly
become Podkolzin’s best season.
16 It’s extremely early, so sample sizes don’t mean much, but among the goaltenders to
have appeared in at least two games, Carter Hart (.870 SV%) and Kevin Lankinen
(.789) have struggled while Jeremy Swayman (.947 SV%) and Igor Shesterkin (.935
SV% plus one goal scored) are starting well.
17 The Oilers may have hopes that they will have an answer in net this season, but that
answer has not shown up yet. Tristan Jarry surrendered six goals on 23 shots on
Edmonton’s opening night loss, while Devon Levi gave up seven goals on 22 shots in a
win the next night in Vancouver. With Frederik Andersen injured, any goalie that shows
the slightest sign of stability will offer value for Edmonton.
18 Dallas Stars winger Matt Duchene has landed on LTIR with a lower-body injury,
meaning that he will miss the first 10 games of the season. It also allowed the Stars to
recall veteran winger Colin Blackwell from the AHL, but Duchene’s absence means that
the Stars will have Arttu Hyry filling in as the third line centre and he had six points (3 G,
3 A) in 25 career games entering this season.
19 After missing all of last season with a knee injury, Florida Panthers captain
Aleksander Barkov left Thursday night’s loss at San Jose with what appeared to be
another knee injury. The severity is unknown, but the Panthers will have to wait with
bated breath for an answer because they saw how last season unraveled without
Barkov in the lineup. What the Panthers do have going for them is that they can move
Anton Lundell up the depth chart to fill in at centre on the top line and Lundell has
shown that he can deliver in that role. Lundell played at least 20 minutes in 22 games
last season, scoring 21 points (5 G, 16 A) in those games.
20 Minnesota Wild defenceman Brock Faber is out indefinitely with a fractured skull
after a shot deflected and hit him. Quinn Hughes is partnered with Jared Spurgeon and
Jonas Brodin has shifted to the right side to partner with Olli Maatta to round out
Minnesota’s top four while Faber is out. Considering that Faber averaged 24:41 of ice
time per game last season, ranking second on the Wild, his absence will cause some
challenges for Minnesota.