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, massive injuries in Colorado, plus Dawson Mercer, Shane Pinto, Jimmy Snuggerud, and Tommy Novak producing while William Nylander is not, plus so much more!
#1 It’s pretty much impossible for an NHL team to have a worse outcome for its roster than having Nathan MacKinnon and Cale Makar leave the same game with injuries, but that is what happened to the Colorado Avalanche at Ottawa on Thursday. Both MacKinnon and Makar suffered lower-body injuries and now it’s time to wait and see how long these superstars could be out of the lineup. MacKinnon has 30 points (10 G, 20 A) in 19 games and missed a total of five games in the past three seasons, so it’s not like the Avs have a lot of recent experience playing without him. Makar, who has 23 points (5 G, 18 A) in 18 games, has been relatively durable, missing a total of 14 games in the past three seasons.
#2 In the absence of two superstars, there are more opportunities available to members of the Avalanche’s supporting cast. Brock Nelson and Nazem Kadri are capable of filling the top two centre spots while MacKinnon is out and Devon Toews and Sam Malinski are both likely to play bigger roles with Makar out. While these players are all capable NHLers, there is a drop off in talent from elite players like MacKinnon and Makar to others, and it probably means that the Avalanche will find it more challenging to generate offence while their best players are out of the lineup. To his credit, Toews is having an excellent season, with 19 points (6 G, 13 A) and 36 shots on goal in 20 games, so he can help mitigate the loss of Makar, though he has joked in the past that his job is to “pass to Cale”.
#3 When the Winnipeg Jets traded goaltender Connor Hellebuyck to the New Jersey Devils, the roster player heading to Winnipeg in the deal was Dawson Mercer, a winger who had zero goals and four assists in 10 games with the Devils. Mercer had just two assists in his first six games for the Jets, so he was not making a strong impression with his new team. That tide has turned, however, as Mercer has six points (5 G, 1 A) with nine shots on goal in his past four games. Mercer is skating on the right wing of a line that includes Cole Perfetti on the left side and rookie Brayden Yager at centre.
#4 The Ottawa Senators have a lot of faith in centre Shane Pinto and it’s starting to pay off. Pinto’s average time on ice of 20:06 per game ranks second among Sens forwards, behind only Tim Stutzle. He has 10 points (7 G, 3 A) with 16 shots on goal in his past eight games and with the Sens sliding Dylan Cozens to right wing at the moment, Pinto is locked in as Ottawa’s second line centre, skating on a line with Philip Tomasino and Drake Batherson on the wings.
#5 Second-year St. Louis Blues winger Jimmy Snuggerud continues to make progress and not only is he turning into a dangerous scoring threat, but he has earned the trust of the coaching staff so that he is getting lots of ice time, which makes it easier for that production to sustain itself. In his past eight games, Snuggerud has six points (4 G, 2 A) and 15 shots on goal, but he’s also playing more than 19 minutes per game and his spot on the right wing of St. Louis’ top line, alongside Robert Thomas and Dylan Holloway is reason to expect Snuggerud to remain productive.
#6 It’s easy to get overlooked as part of the supporting cast in Pittsburgh, because the Penguins lineup is dotted with future Hall of Famers, but Tommy Novak is showing that he can provide secondary offence for the Penguins. In his past six games, Novak has six points (4 G, 2 A) with 15 shots on goal and that gives him 14 points (7 G, 7 A) in 19 games for the season, putting him one point ahead of Sidney Crosby. Novak, who can – and frequently does – play centre, is currently skating on the left wing with Ben Kindel at centre and Egor Chinakhov on right wing.
#7 As the Toronto Maple Leafs’ season swirls around the drain, it’s easy to look at William Nylander with 22 points (11 G, 11 A) in 21 games and decide that he’s doing his job as a premier point producer. That might be the overall picture of his season but doesn’t tell the current story. In five games this month, Nylander has one goal and zero assists, with 11 shots on goal, and while that is not up to Nylander’s standards, it’s worse when he is minus-8. There are many flaws in plus-minus, of course but, with Nylander on the ice, Toronto is getting 36.7 percent of expected goals during five-on-five play in that five-game stretch, all of which have resulted in Maple Leafs losses, by the way. All of this is to say that Nylander’s current performance is at a low point, and it might make him an intriguing buy-low option because he’s surely capable of more than what he has been providing lately.
#8 New York Islanders rookie winger Victor Eklund is starting to get comfortable and has goals in four straight games, with six points (4 G, 2 A) with 10 shots on goal in his past six games. That shot rate needs to climb for the goal-scoring to be sustained, but Eklund has seven goals on the season, putting him one behind Bo Horvat for the team lead. A first-round pick of the Islanders in 2025, Eklund is skating on a line with Brayden Schenn at centre and Emil Heineman on left wing.
#9 The second-leading scorer on the New Jersey Devils at 5-on-5 this season, left winger Arseny Gritsyuk has 14 points (7 G, 7 A) with 34 shots on goal in his past 14 games. Gritsyuk has 11 points, total, during 5-on-5 play, which puts him one point behind Jack Hughes for the Devils’ team lead. Gritsyuk is skating on the Devils’ top line with Hughes and Jesper Bratt, but doesn’t have the same name recognition, because his linemates have been highly productive players for longer, but it’s worth securing the services of this second-year winger because this may be the start of a good long run as a scoring winger.
#10 Troubles are mounting in Philadelphia, and the situation between Matvei Michkov and the Flyers poses all sorts of problems, but there is some understated good news coming via veteran centre Christian Dvorak. He has quietly delivered six points (1 G, 5 A) and 12 shots on goal in his past six games, emerging as Philadelphia’s top centre. He has Michael Bunting and Owen Tippett on his wings, so there is room for improvement if the Flyers ever consider shaking up their lines so that some of their talented young players get shots alongside a steady veteran like Dvorak.
#11 A free agent at the end of this season, Montreal Canadiens right winger Josh Anderson is rising to the occasion during this contract year. Anderson, 32, has six points (4 G, 2 A) in his past six games and his eight goals on the season ranks second on the Habs. Only Cole Caufield has more goals. At the same time, Anderson has six shots on goal in the past six games and that is not the shot generation of a player who should be expected to keep scoring at a significant rate. Consider this a warning rather than a recommendation.
#12 The Calgary Flames recently lost defenceman Kevin Bahl to a season-ending Achilles injury, which is going to be a problem for the Calgary defence, but Zayne Parekh is trying to step up. The second-year blueliner has four points (1 G, 3 A) in his past six games and has logged more than 21 minutes of ice time in each of the past three games after crossing that threshold once in his first 16 games of the season.
#13 The Tampa Bay Lightning are dealing with injuries up front as centres Brayden Point and Anthony Cirelli are out of the lineup. Enter Pontus Holmberg, who is stepping up to provide secondary offence for the Bolts. In his past nine games, Holmberg has eight points (4 G, 4 A) and 16 shots on goal. He played 17:53 at Columbus on Thursday, one second off of his season high, which was set on October 29th, the game that Holmberg finished with four points against the Winnipeg Jets.
#14 The Winnipeg Jets definitely hit a rough patch for a while but seem to have emerged from that turbulence to resume playing competitive hockey. Winger Cole Perfetti has been cooking lately, producing seven points (1 G, 6 A) with 12 shots on goal during a four-game point streak. As noted in the Mercer point, Perfetti is playing with Mercer and Brayden Yager, after starting the season alongside Mark Scheifele and Kyle Connor on the Jets’ top line, but the new lines seem to be working for the resurgent Jets.
#15 As he hits his mid-thirties, it’s not been especially surprising to see Brayden Schenn’s production wane. It happens to everyone. He finished with 39 points in 80 games last season, the first time that he finished a season with less than half-a-point per game since 2011-2012, his rookie season. That, combined with his age, meant modest expectations coming into 2026-2027, but Schenn is rising up. He has seven points (2 G, 5 A) and seven shots on goal during a four-game point streak, giving him 16 points (6 G, 10 A) in 18 games. The bonus for fantasy managers is that, if Schenn is scoring enough, he also plays a physical game that plays well in fantasy, and he has 41 hits in 18 games.
#16 Montreal Canadiens winger Chris Kreider left Thursday’s win over Boston with a left leg injury following a neutral ice collision with Boston Bruins winger Michael Eyssimont. Kreider, 35, had nine points (3 G, 6 A) and 22 shots on goal in 19 games when he got hurt. That’s not prime Kreider production, to be sure, but he’s been playing in a support role with the Habs and Montreal was outscoring opponents 16-10 during 5-on-5 play with Kreider on the ice, so they will feel the loss if the veteran winger is going to be out long-term.
#17 Last season, the Vegas Golden Knights were exasperated with goaltender Adin Hill and went to dramatic lengths to find a goaltending alternative. For a goalie who had battled injuries but typically was an above-average performer when healthy, Hill put up a .871 save percentage and recorded 10 wins in 27 starts for the Golden Knights. Vegas turned to Carter Hart, and it looked like Hill might be a very expensive backup goaltender. Goaltending can be fickle, though, and Hill has bounced back this season, posting seven wins and a .907 save percentage in his first 10 starts. Vegas is splitting starts between its goalies, but Hill has been the better option. If that continues, maybe he will get a bigger share of the opportunities.
#18 The Utah Mammoth have been one of the most exciting teams in the league this season, but they have run into some injury difficulty. Dylan Guenther, one of the league’s premier shooters, is out 2-4 weeks due to an upper-body injury and centre Logan Cooley is day-to-day with his own upper-body injury and Nick Schmaltz is out with a lower-body injury. Cooley leads the Mammoth with 11 goals in 18 games and Guenther has six goals in 18 games, but he scored 40 goals in 79 games last season.
#19 With Cooley and Guenther out, the Mammoth have Barrett Hayton centering the second line, with Daniil But skating on the right side and Kailer Yamamoto on the left. Hayton has 10 points (2 G, 8 A) in 20 games this season but played a season-high 20:15 in Thursday’s shootout loss to St. Louis. But has no points in his past five games and has played less than 10 minutes in four of those games, so he’s more of a wait-and-see situation for fantasy managers. Yamamoto has seven points (3 G, 4 A) in 11 games, despite being held off the scoresheet in three straight games, but he played a season-high 20:13 against St. Louis, so he’s getting the opportunity to play.
#20 I remember someone brilliant saying that goaltending can be fickle. Nearly a quarter of the way through the 2026-2027 season there are some players who were set as starting goalies entering the season who are really struggling. Karel Vejmelka, Sergei Bobrovsky, Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen, Jakub Dobes, Spencer Knight, Jet Greaves, Darcy Kuemper, Dan Vladar, and Joey Daccord are among them and none of those goaltenders has a save percentage above .881, which makes it really difficult to trust them. The advice for fantasy managers is do what you can to find at least one surefire reliable starter and then be willing to get creative with matchups and hot hands for the rest.