Thatcher Demko – McKeen's Hockey

NHL: CULLEN – 20 FANTASY POINTS – This week, the good and the bad with the Ottawa Senators, a young Ducks centre steps into the spotlight, a Wild rookie offering upside on the blueline, and a Red Wings veteran who is ready to find the net.

Scott Cullen — Fri, 17 Oct 2025 21:13:15 +0000

ST. PAUL, MN - APRIL 24: Minnesota Wild defenseman Zeev Buium (8) skates with the puck during the first period in Game Three of the First Round of the 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs between the Vegas Golden Knights and Minnesota Wild on April 24th, 2025, at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, MN. (Photo by Bailey Hillesheim/Icon Sportswire)

Each week, I dig into the stats to find information that can help you make better fantasy hockey decisions. This week, the good and the bad with the Ottawa Senators, a young Ducks centre steps into the spotlight, a Wild rookie offering upside on the blueline, and a Red Wings veteran who is ready to find the net.

#1 With six goals in five games, Ottawa Senators centre Shane Pinto is tied with Vegas Golden Knights winger Pavel Dorofeyev for the early goal-scoring lead in the National Hockey League. While he is obviously not going to continue at a 98-goal pace, Pinto does have some underlying factors that could help this become his best season in the NHL. The first is that his ice time is up nearly a minute per game from last season and the second is that his rate of shots per game has climbed from 1.81 last season to 3.0 per game early this season. It’s the consistent shot generation that helps to keep production sustainable.

#2 The more immediate concern for the Senators is that team captain Brady Tkachuk will be out from six-to-eight weeks following thumb surgery. Tkachuk is not easily replaced, because there are so few players of his size and physical nature that can also produce offensively. Ridly Greig is getting a chance alongside Tim Stutzle and Claude Giroux on Ottawa’s top line, and there is enough time for him to show what he can do in a bigger role.

#3 After making steady progress through his first two NHL seasons, Anaheim Ducks centre Leo Carlsson could be ready to bust out in his third season. He has started the year with six points (2 G, 4 A) and 13 shots on goal in four games. He currently has veterans Chris Kreider and Alex Killorn on his wings, but Carlsson has had success with Troy Terry on his wing and, last season, thrived with Cutter Gauthier. There are options for the Ducks, but it appears that 20-year-old Carlsson might be ready to be the driving force on his line.

#4 Expectations have been very high for Minnesota Wild defenceman Zeev Buium since he was taken with the 12th pick in the 2024 NHL Draft. He had 98 points (24 G, 74 A) in 83 games in two seasons at the University of Denver, but he has started with five points (1 G, 4 A) in four games this season for the Wild and, crucially, is quarterbacking Minnesota’s first power play unit.

#5 He has yet to score a goal through four games, but the rest of his numbers are very encouraging for Detroit Red Wings winger Alex DeBrincat. He has generated 32 shot attempts and 15 shots on goal to go along with six assists in four games. That shot rate of 3.75 per game would be the highest rate of his career, despite fewer than half of his attempts making it on net. Prior to this season, he had hit the net on 54.3 percent of his shot attempts, so he is only down a little in this small sample, but he is putting up eight shot attempts per game and his previous career high during a full season was just under 5.9 shot attempts per game, so the opportunities are there and it’s fair to expect the goals to follow.

#6 As noted above, Chris Kreider is spending most of his time skating on Leo Carlsson’s wing in Anaheim, and he’s getting results early with five points (4 G, 1 A) and 12 shots on goal in four games. In all of his seasons with the Rangers, Kreider managed to average three shots on goal per game just twice and those were the 2021-2022 and 2023-2024 seasons, when he scored 52 and 39 goals, respectively, the two best goal-scoring seasons of his career. If playing with Carlsson helps keep Kreider’s shot rate at this level, he could be primed for a bounce-back season with the Ducks.

#7 It’s not as though fantasy managers will be unaware of Washington Capitals winger Aliaksei Protas who broke through with 30 goals and 66 points last season, but one of the concerns about his production was that he was very dependent on percentages, scoring on 21.1 percent of his shots, and a lofty 14.3 on-ice shooting percentage at five-on-five. He is still getting those high percentages on his way to five points (3 G, 2 A) in Washington’s first four games, but he also has 13 shots on goal and is playing 18:55 per game, both of which are notably higher than last season when he averaged fewer than two shots on goal per game and played 16:27 per game.

#8 It’s easy enough to get underrated when playing for the Chicago Blackhawks, given the state of the team these days, but veteran winger Teuvo Teravainen is off to a nice start with six points (1 G, 5 A) in five games, though he has managed just three shots on goal. He’s more playmaker than shooter, but that total is still low. Nevertheless, Teravainen does seem to have a good thing going early in the year on a line with Frank Nazar and Tyler Bertuzzi, so it’s worth keeping an eye on his production.

#9 A couple of power play assists early helped to jumpstart Pavel Zacha’s season for the Boston Bruins. He has five points (1 G, 4 A) in five games while skating on a line with Casey Mittelstadt and Viktor Arvidsson at even strength, but Zacha is on Boston’s top power play unit and the opportunity to share the ice with David Pastrnak is a critical factor to point production for any Bruins skaters, it seems. Zacha is not a volume shooter, having never recorded even 150 shots on goal in a season, but four shots on goal in five games this season is still rather low.

#10 Seattle Kraken left winger Jared McCann is one of the more established goal scorers on the roster and is off to a nice start with four points (3 G, 1 A) in four games this season. Skating on Seattle’s top line with Matty Beniers and Jordan Eberle, McCann has recorded 14 shots on goal and 28 shot attempts, both of which represent higher per-game rates (3.5 shots, 7.0 shot attempts) than he has been able to sustain in his career, so even if McCann isn’t going to keep scoring on a pace of 60-plus goals, he is getting the underlying numbers that will support strong offensive production.

#11 Seeking a fresh start in Philadelphia with John Tortorella no longer behind the bench, veteran Flyers centre Sean Couturier has seen his ice time jump by a couple of minutes per game compared to last season and he has five points (2 G, 3 A) with six shots on goal through four games. He has been on the wrong end of the shot counts early, with a 41.4 percent Corsi, but shot quality has played in Couturier’s favor with a 51.1 percent expected goals percentage during five-on-five play. Couturier last topped 50 points in a season back in 2019-2020, but he’s skating with Travis Konecny and Matvei Michkov on Philadelphia’s top line, so he ought to have a chance to get there this season.

#12 When the Nashville Predators collapsed last season, some of their high-profile free agent signings ended up with lacklustre production. For example, Jonathan Marchessault went from 42 goals in Vegas in 2023-2024 to 21 goals for Nashville last season. Early this season, Marchessault has four points (2 G, 2 A) in five games, but his 15 shots on goal and 26 shot attempts move closer to the years of his best production in Vegas, so maybe that’s a positive sign for Nashville as a team and Marchessault when it comes to his individual production.

#13 With four goals in four games, it would be very easy to get excited about St. Louis Blues left winger Jake Neighbours. He has moved up to the top line, with Robert Thomas and Pavel Buchnevich, so that’s encouraging, too, but Neighbours’ ice time is down nearly a minute-and-a-half per game from last season, and he has just six shots on goal in four games. If he’s going to stick with Thomas and Buchnevich, that is probably reason enough to be optimistic but be a little bit wary of his underlying performance.

#14 Coming off of a 41-point season, with his lowest points per game since 2016-2017, Toronto Maple Leafs defenceman Morgan Rielly was a bit of a buy-low option coming into the season. He also had some upside because, with Mitch Marner leaving for Vegas, there was room for Rielly to quarterback Toronto’s No. 1 power play unit again. Thus far, Rielly has delivered, putting up five points (1 G, 4 A) and 14 shots on goal in five games. Rielly has only surpassed 200 shots in a season twice in his career, so that shot rate is very encouraging.

#15 A bargain acquisition in the offseason from the Los Angeles Kings, Ottawa Senators defenceman Jordan Spence has been excellent in the early going for the Senators. He has contributed four assists and seven shots on goal in three games and while he is averaging 18:30 of ice time per game, Spence is also dominating his five-on-five minutes, with a Corsi percentage of 67.6 percent and an expected goals percentage of 78.2 percent. It’s not going to be easy to get power play time with Jake Sanderson and Thomas Chabot ahead of him on the depth chart, so maybe that limits Spence’s upside, but he is worth keeping tabs on.

#16 With the New York Rangers losing centre Vincent Trocheck to an upper-body injury that will keep him out a month, Mika Zibanejad has moved back into the middle of the ice for the Blueshirts. That has created an opening on the right wing in New York’s top six, and veteran winger Conor Sheary is getting a look in that role. He only has one assist and eight shots on goal in six games, but his ice time has gone up, and he has averaged 17:57 time on ice per game in his past two contests. It’s not enough to warrant picking up Sheary, but worth seeing if he can make the most of his opportunity.

#17 The Rangers have had huge problems scoring early in the season, managing just 11 goals through six games. Zibanejad has one goal on 24 shots, Alexis Lafreniere has one goal on 21 shots and Will Cuylle has one goal on 17 shots. These are players skating in top six roles. Add in Artemi Panarin with zero goals on 13 shots and J.T. Miller with one goal in 10 shots, and the most encouraging aspect for the Rangers is that these guys can’t all keep shooting at such low percentages. Eventually, the dam will break and pucks will start to go in the net, so maybe the Rangers offer some buy-low opportunities right now.

#18 Some players have just been snakebit early. Here are the players with the highest individual expected goals total in all situations that have yet to score. Number one is Connor McDavid with 2.29 ixG, followed by David Tomasek (2.09), Alex DeBrincat (2.04), Connor McMichael (1.96), and Nick Suzuki (1.94). The takeaway for any of them is that they are due to start scoring. As any slumping goal-scorer will tell you, they worry more when they aren’t getting the chances and these players are getting chances.

#19 At the other end of the spectrum, Toronto Maple Leafs winger Calle Jarnkrok has scored three goals despite recording just 0.5 individual expected goals, suggesting that he may not continue at his current goal-scoring pace. He is averaging 11:08 of ice time per game and has eight shots on goal, so expectations would be understandably modest, but those goals are not necessarily the product of lots of great opportunities.

#20 With Mackenzie Blackwood recovering from injury, Scott Wedgewood has been excellent in goal for the Avalanche, earning 4.71 goals saved above expected (GSAx) in four starts. Other goalies excelling early: Igor Shesterkin (7.20 GSAx), Thatcher Demko (5.38 GSAx), and Spencer Knight (3.74 GSAx). On the other hand, Linus Ullmark (-4.09 GSAx), Dustin Wolf (-4.04 GSAx), Alex Nedeljkovic (-3.65 GSAx), Adin Hill (-3.05 GSAx), and Samuel Montembeault (-2.81 GSAx) are goalies that have started multiple games and have allowed the most goals relative to expectations. It is very early, but good to have this information when evaluating goalie options.

*Advanced stats via Natural Stat Trick

MCKEEN’S 2025-26 NHL YEARBOOK – VANCOUVER CANUCKS – Team Preview/Player Profiles/Predictions

Fri, 26 Sep 2025 16:01:06 +0000

LOS ANGELES, CA - FEBRUARY 26: Vancouver Canucks defenseman Quinn Hughes (43) skates in warm ups before a Los Angeles Kings game versus the Vancouver Canucks on February 26th, 2025, at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles, CA. (Photo by Rob Curtis/Icon Sportswire)

After winning the Pacific Division with 109 points in 2023-2024, the Canucks collapsed to 90 points (38-30-14) last season, missing the playoffs. They ranked 19th in both Corsi percentage (49.2) and expected goals percentage (49.5), so they earned their finish. Vancouver’s power play was middle of the road, ranking 15th with 7.72 goals per 60 minutes of five-on-four play. The Canucks’ penalty killing was excellent, ranking second in the league with 5.55 goals against per 60 minutes of four-on-five play. While Kevin Lankinen was solid in goal, Thatcher Demko missed a good portion of the season and Arturs Silovs struggled, so the overall goaltending picture was not ideal.

What’s Changed?

Head coach Rick Tocchet departed for Philadelphia, replaced by first-time NHL head coach Adam Foote. The Canucks were not terribly motivated to make dramatic changes to the underachieving roster, perhaps figuring that the trade deadline deal sending J.T. Miller to the New York Rangers was the more significant roster shuffle. This summer, they traded to acquire Vancouver native Evander Kane from the Edmonton Oilers. They lost centre Pius Suter as a free agent to the St. Louis Blues, and traded winger Dakota Joshua to the Toronto Maple Leafs. The Canucks also dealt Silovs, who was ticketed to be third on the goaltending depth chart, to the Pittsburgh Penguins. Silovs may have struggled with Vancouver but was outstanding in the Abbotsford Canucks’ championship run to the Calder Cup in the AHL, winning Playoff MVP.

What would success look like?

Getting back into the playoffs is a starting point for Vancouver. The roster at the start of the season doesn’t necessarily look like it’s capable of more than that, but if Elias Pettersson rebounds and Quinn Hughes stays healthy all season, they could have a much better shot at the postseason. Mix in even league average goaltending or better, and the Canucks could win a round or two in the playoffs. They are probably a few players light of being a bona fide Stanley Cup contender, but if they are contending, the Canucks’ brass will surely be ready to add to the roster, if need be.

What could go wrong?

There is a lot riding on Pettersson this season, because with Miller gone, the expectation is that Pettersson will get back to being the star player that he had been previously, and it’s great if that’s what happens, but if Pettersson can’t get back to that level, then the season will almost surely end up as a disappointment. The Canucks are relatively unproven down the middle of the ice, with Filip Chytil and Aatu Raty penciled in for the second and third-line centre roles, the Canucks need Pettersson to be great, or else it’s going to be really difficult to drag this team back into the playoffs.

Top Breakout Candidate

He may not score enough to really generate a lot of buzz, but Aatu Raty has a chance to play a significant role for the Canucks. Raty had 11 points (7 G, 4 A) in 33 games for the Canucks, despite playing fewer than 11 minutes per game, but he did score on more than 20 percent of his shots, so that’s not likely to last over a full season. In the AHL, he had 40 points (17 G, 23 A) in 43 games, so there is some offensive upside. The 22-year-old pivot also plays a physical game, with 80 hits in 33 games for the Canucks, so if he scores enough to hold a third-line centre role, Raty’s hit totals could propel him into deeper league fantasy relevance.

FORWARDS

Elias Pettersson

Predicted Stats
GP	G	A	PTS	PPG
80	26	52	78	0.98

It is so difficult to pin down Pettersson’s all-around value because just when it looked like he was running with the elite, he turned in a season like 2024-2025, when he clearly had an issue with former teammate J.T. Miller before Miller was ultimately traded to the New York Rangers. Pettersson finished the season with 45 points (15 G, 30 A) in 64 games, the lowest per-game point production of his career, and a far cry from the 191 points (73 G, 118 A) in 162 games that he had in the previous two seasons. He is a cerebral player who is often a step ahead of the action, but when his game lacks passion, it doesn’t matter how smart he is on the ice because the results can not only be subpar, but it looks awful, too. When he’s on his game, Pettersson has an outstanding shot and can beat a goalie clean from distance with a wrist shot or one-timer. That kind of ability is not common, so it should be part of the Canucks’ plan to get Pettersson pucks in position to shoot. Although he is not the most physical player, he did register 74 hits last season and had a career-high 125 hits in 2023-2024, so it’s in his toolbox and when he gets fired up, he will play with more edge to his game. He is more of a finesse player, and it’s not like there is a desire to have him shed that skilled game, but if he plays with passion on a more consistent basis, it would help offset times that the offensive numbers aren’t going his way. He is too good to languish in mediocrity like last season, so expect some kind of bounce-back campaign for Pettersson, with 25 goals and 70-plus points, though he has obviously proven capable of even more than that.

Brock Boeser

Predicted Stats
GP	G	A	PTS	PPG
75	28	27	55	0.73

When the 2024-2025 season wrapped up, Boeser was headed for free agency, and it seemed entirely likely that he would be moving on from Vancouver. The Canucks weren’t ready to concede that, however, so they signed Boeser to a new seven-year, $50.25 million contract. The Canucks recognized that Boeser’s ability to put the puck in the net should not be taken for granted. Last season’s 25 goals represented the sixth time in his eight NHL seasons that he surpassed 20 goals, and he has recorded at least 50 points in three straight seasons. Boeser is not so much a generator of chances as he is the finisher who puts himself in position to score. He has good hands and strong offensive instincts which allow him to thrive when playing with quality linemates, but he is more dependent on those linemates to transport the puck and create those opportunities. With the Canucks shaking up their roster, the most likely scenario is for Boeser to skate on the top line with Elias Pettersson, and that should help both players, but that only applies if Pettersson can rebound from his down season, because they did not fare well when they played on the same line last season, getting outshot, out-chanced, and outscored. It should be reasonable to expect 25 goals and 55 points from Boeser, with the understanding that Pettersson could potentially help to lift him even higher.

Jake DeBrusk

Predicted Stats
GP	G	A	PTS	PPG
82	25	25	50	0.61

After signing a big free agent deal last summer to join the Canucks, DeBrusk didn’t have an earth-shattering first season in Vancouver, but he scored a career high 28 goals and that should not be ignored. Half of those goals came on the power play, a massive increase over his power play role in Boston. He has been a complementary player throughout his career and that is largely the role that he fills well with Vancouver now. His ice time has remained consistent, hovering just under 17 minutes per game, but DeBrusk’s shot rate has declined from where it was two years ago, at 2.98 shots on goal per game, to last season’s 2.09 shots on goal per game. When it comes to sustaining production, it’s preferable to maintain the higher shot rate because it doesn’t require DeBrusk scoring on 16.4 percent of his shots to score 28 goals when his career shooting percentage prior to last season was 12.4 percent. That extra four percent, over 171 shots on goal works out to nearly seven goals, a pretty significant difference for a player who scored 28. Going into 2025-2026, DeBrusk should be able to count on a regular scoring role with the Canucks, possibly even skating on the top line, with first unit power play time, so he should be able to contribute 25 goals and 45 points, but that may seem underwhelming if that is indeed his place on the depth chart.

Conor Garland

Predicted Stats
GP	G	A	PTS	PPG
82	21	35	56	0.68

A feisty winger who has turned into an excellent two-way player, Garland saw his ice time jump by more than four minutes per game last season and he hit the 50-point threshold for the second time in his career. Garland uses his speed to effectively create chances and while last season was unusual in that the Canucks were outscored with Garland on the ice, he was hardly to blame, ranking first among Canucks forwards in terms of expected goals against per 60 minutes. Garland’s most common linemates last season were Pius Suter and Dakota Joshua, who have both departed, so it’s not like he was propped up by his teammates. His next most common linemate is more interesting, though. Garland played more than 258 five-on-five minutes with Elias Pettersson and in that time, the Canucks controlled 63.0 percent of expected goals with those two on the ice. If you have players controlling play to that degree in the NHL, there are not many reasons good enough to split them up, so maybe Garland will find his way to spending more time with Pettersson in 2025-2026. At the very least, Garland has established that he is a valuable player who can move the puck the right way. Provided he continues to play significant minutes, he seems like a good pick to score 20 goals and 50 points this season.

Kiefer Sherwood

Predicted Stats
GP	G	A	PTS	PPG
75	18	18	36	0.48

A veteran winger who lingered on the fringes of NHL rosters for years before breaking through with the Nashville Predators in 2023-2024, Sherwood had the best season of his NHL career, by far, last season with Vancouver, scoring 40 points (19 G, 21 A) and leading the league with 462 hits. Yes, 462 hits, 156 more hits than second place Mathieu Olivier of the Columbus Blue Jackets. Sherwood found that the hard-driving physical game is what would keep him in the league, turned the dial up to 11, and kept it there all season. He had double digit hit totals in 10 games and recorded fewer than three hits twice in 78 games. Sherwood is not even physically imposing, listed at six feet tall and 195 pounds, but there is something to be said for being relentless and, in Sherwood’s case, being relentless earned him a two-year, $3 million contract from the Canucks last summer, and will surely earn him more on his next deal. As a player who started just 38.3 percent of his five-on-five shifts in the offensive zone, Sherwood still ended up with positive possession numbers and the Canucks outscored opponents with him on the ice. That shouldn’t come as a surprise, since Sherwood is a net +26 in five-on-five goal differential for his career, not bad for a 30-year-old winger who couldn’t stick in an NHL lineup until two years ago. Sherwood is not an offensive dynamo, but he does more than enough to hold down his spot in the lineup. Going into the 2025-2026 season, he should play a regular top nine role for Vancouver and should bring 15 goals and 30 points, along with at least 300 hits.

Filip Chytil

Predicted Stats
GP	G	A	PTS	PPG
70	20	25	45	0.64

Acquired from the New York Rangers as part of the J.T. Miller trade, Chytil had recovered from serious concussion woes but had middling production in a third-line role with the Rangers. In Vancouver, his ice time went up by more than two minutes per game, but his point production did not follow as he managed just six points (2 G, 4 A) in 15 games for the Canucks, but he played really well in that time, only to have his results undone by poor percentages. Chytil scored on just 4.5 percent of his shots on goal, and his five-on-five on-ice shooting percentage was 3.0 percent, which is absurdly low, so take some solace in the fact that Chytil had a 54.5 percent Corsi in Vancouver, driving play even if he wasn’t getting rewarded offensively. Chytil is a strong skater with a big frame and apparently wanted a bigger role than the third line spot that the Rangers could provide him, so the chance to fill a second line role in Vancouver is a prime opportunity for him, but he also needs to take advantage of that opportunity. While Chytil has never been great in the faceoff circle, last season’s faceoff winning percentage of 46.8 was the best of his career, and he got there by winning 49.7 percent of his draws with the Canucks. If Chytil can remain relatively healthy, he should have a chance to score 20 goals and 45 points in his first full season with Vancouver, and that point total would match his career high, set in 2022-2023.

Evander Kane

Predicted Stats
GP	G	A	PTS	PPG
62	20	18	38	0.61

After sitting out the entire 2024-2025 regular season while recovering from multiple surgeries, Kane was plugged into the Edmonton Oilers lineup for the playoffs and had some strong moments while contributing 12 points (6 G, 6 A) in 21 games. He also faded from relevance in the Stanley Cup Final but that’s not an easy situation, playing a very strong Panthers team when Kane was maybe not quite where he needed to be to play at that level. He is 34 years old so it may not be a prime situation for any winger coming off of an injury to bounce back, but that is what the Canucks will hope that they can get out of a winger who, when he is on his game, is both a legitimate scoring threat and a physical presence. He has had plenty of off-ice issues over the years, and there’s no guarantee that those won’t crop up in Vancouver, but if Kane is committed to playing his best, there is a version that works out well for the Canucks because he has some of the fire that they need. Injuries have plagued Kane, and the 77 games he played for the Oilers in 2023-2024 represented the only time since 2018-2019 that he played more than 65 games in a season. Taking into account, then, that Kane is likely to miss 20 games for some reason or another, he could still contribute 20 goals and 35-40 points. His physical play could also yield 150 hits (or more, he had a career-high 250 for the Oilers in 2023-2024). For those in banger leagues, Kane led the NHL in penalty minutes in the 2018-2019 and 2019-2020 seasons and while that’s unlikely now, he is still typically good for more penalty minutes than games played.

Aatu Raty

Predicted Stats
GP	G	A	PTS	PPG
75	13	17	30	0.38

Highly touted as a prospect, Raty slipped to the second round in the 2021 NHL Draft, and it has taken him some time to make it to the league, but last season was a promising sign from the 22-year-old center who contributed 11 points (7 G, 4 A) in 33 games for the Canucks. While he may not continue to score on 20.6 percent of his shots, as he did in that small sample of games, Raty did win 57.7 percent of his faceoffs and recorded 80 hits in 33 games despite playing 10:39 per game. That physical style and reliability in the faceoff dot should give him a leg up on any competition for forward roles in Vancouver. Raty has been productive at the AHL level, putting up 92 points (35 G, 57 A) in 115 games across the past two seasons, so there is some reason to be hopeful that he can at least score enough to fill a top nine role with the Canucks. The Canucks have improved their forward depth so there could be an opportunity for Raty to play with quality linemates. If that’s the case, he might be able to contribute 12-15 goals and 30 points. If he adds 150-175 hits, that might give him some appeal in deeper fantasy formats.

Nils Hoglander

Predicted Stats
GP	G	A	PTS	PPG
78	15	18	33	0.42

After breaking through for career highs of 24 goals and 36 points in 2023-2024, Hoglander took a step backwards last season, though some of that was merely going from a 20.0 shooting percentage to a 9.6 shooting percentage. Hoglander is on the smaller side but is a high energy player with good skills and he plays with some tenacity that belies his size. Hoglander has also had difficulty securing regular linemates. Last season, he played more than 150 five-on-five minutes with Teddy Blueger, Elias Pettersson, Conor Garland, and Pius Suter and had varying degrees of success with all of them, but there was a lack of consistency in his deployment, to be sure. The challenge that Hoglander faces is getting a real foothold on ice time in Vancouver. He played 15:27 per game as a rookie in 2020-2021, went down to 13:05 per game the next season and has hovered just over 12 minutes per game for three straight seasons. It may be unreasonable to expect that to suddenly change but securing a role that would see him play 14-15 minutes per game could have a significant impact on his production. Since that is in doubt, it’s fair to expect 15 goals and 30 points from Hoglander.

DEFENCE

Quinn Hughes

Predicted Stats
GP	G	A	PTS	PPG
77	16	68	84	1.09

There is essentially a two-horse race being waged for the title of top defenceman in the league, with Hughes and Colorado’s Cale Makar the two contestants. Hughes won the 2023-2024 Norris Trophy and looked like he was on track to repeat again last season before getting injured in late January. At the end of January, he had 59 points (14 G, 45 A) and 136 shots on goal in 47 games and was a dominant force in the Vancouver lineup. After missing several weeks with a lower-body injury, including being kept out of the Four Nations Face-Off, Hughes finished the season with 17 points (2 G, 15 A) and 56 shots on goal in his last 21 games. That would be entirely fine for most defencemen in the league, but it was a step down from the exceptional tier that Hughes had been inhabiting for the previous season-and-a-half. Hughes has become even more dangerous offensively since he started shooting the puck more and the result has been 33 goals in his past two seasons. He is not only a game-changing offensive force, whose 244 points in 228 games and 1.07 points per game both rank second only to Makar among defencemen across the past three seasons, but Hughes has upgraded his defensive play in recent seasons, too. Last season’s 2.25 expected goals against per 60 minutes at five-on-five was the lowest rate in Hughes’ career. There were 138 defencemen that played at least 1,000 five-on-five minutes last season and only 15 of them had a lower rate of expected goals against. A healthy Quinn Hughes is a difference-maker, and the Canucks will certainly hope that he is in good health for the 2025-2026 season. If he is, Hughes should be expected to contribute 15 goals and 80 points and run neck-and-neck with Makar for defenceman supremacy.

Filip Hronek

Predicted Stats
GP	G	A	PTS	PPG
80	6	35	41	0.51

An excellent partner for Quinn Hughes, Hronek has been a quality top pair defender for several years and while he tends to get overshadowed by Hughes, Hronek is a strong puck mover who is effective at both ends of the rink, can kill penalties, and run the second power play unit. His skill set, and his deployment, leads to strong possession numbers and the Canucks outscore the opposition with Hronek on the ice. While Hronek makes a good first pass to start the breakout and is comfortable getting involved offensively, he is very much the stay-at-home partner to a phenom like Hughes. It’s not like Hronek is a big bruiser who is a punishing physical presence, but he can handle when the game gets gritty and he will deliver hits to separate opponents from the puck. When Hughes was injured in the second half of the season, Hronek contributed 10 points (2 G, 8 A) and 24 shots on goal in 10 games with Hughes out of the lineup, so Hronek has more to give offensively, if needed. It just so happens that it is not needed that often. In his strong complementary role, Hronek should contribute 40 points for the Canucks in 2025-2026.

Marcus Pettersson

Predicted Stats
GP	G	A	PTS	PPG
78	4	26	30	0.38

Acquired by the management team that had him in Pittsburgh, Pettersson has been a reliable top four blueliner, logging more than 20 minutes per game for the past three seasons. Pettersson is a tall and rangy defender who does not have a huge role offensively, with minimal power play time, and yet he has contributed 59 points (8 G, 51 A) across the past two seasons, in part because he is a strong skater and makes good passes to jumpstart the attack. Where Pettersson can make a difference, at least for fantasy managers, is when it comes to hits and, especially, blocked shots. He had 80 hits last season but has recorded more than 100 hits five times in his career and, in the past three seasons, Pettersson had 434 blocked shots, which was tied for 27th in the league over that time. Heading into the 2025-2026 season, Pettersson figures to be No. 3 on the Canucks’ defensive depth chart and that should mean consistent ice time, allowing him to contribute 25-30 points and 125-plus blocked shots. That probably won’t generate a lot of interest in most leagues, but in deeper leagues, Pettersson could be worthy of consideration.

Tyler Myers

Predicted Stats
GP	G	A	PTS	PPG
74	5	17	22	0.30

A towering presence on the Canucks’ blueline, standing 6-foot-8, Myers has found a more suitable role at this stage of his career. For so long, he was maligned for not being the standout performer that he was early in his career, when he won the Calder Trophy as a rookie and received Norris Trophy votes in his first two seasons. Myers went through some difficult seasons, and his years in Vancouver are not without their own flaws, but in a secondary role, of course his performance is not going to match what is happening on the top pair with Quinn Hughes and Filip Hronek. Myers’ ice time decreased in 2023-2024, going under 20 minutes per game for the first time in his career, but he averaged 20:48 per game last season and while his Corsi was 47.3 percent, Myers’ expected goals percentage was 50.2 percent and the Canucks were outscored 51-50 with Myers on the ice, so he was certainly in the neighbourhood of breaking even during five-on-five play. This is all to say that Myers should be relatively secure in his role on the Vancouver blueline. He can still skate well, especially for his size, and he does contribute offensively as well as with hits and blocked shots. He has put up at least 125 blocked shots in four straight seasons and has topped 100 hits three times and is typically over a hit per game. In 2025-2026, Myers should be expected to chip in 20-25 points with 130 blocked shots. Again, it’s not going to garner widespread fantasy appeal, but might have some potential in deeper formats.

Goal

Thatcher Demko

Predicted Stats
GP	W	L	OT	SO	SV%	GAA
58	28	17	7	3	.908	2.62

The Vancouver Canucks had finally managed to reach the postseason with an elite caliber goaltender in 2024 when disaster struck, and a knee injury suffered by Vezina caliber starter, Thatcher Demko, ended the team's playoff hopes along with nearly his entire following season. Demko didn't play an NHL game until December 10th of last season, and constant minor injuries held him to just 23 games (and a fairly disappointing statistical scorecard overall) by the time the year was over. When he's healthy, he's a downright bargain for the Canucks - but the healthy qualifier has become one of the most difficult things to produce, year after year.

The story, ultimately, looks the same for the upcoming season as it did last year. If Demko can stay healthy - and get enough game play to return to his peak form - they have very little in the way of true competition in the Pacific Division to fight through. But if he can't stay healthy, they'll have to hope that Kevin Lankinen - signed to a hefty deal with suboptimal numbers and very little consistency in his game year over year - can produce one of his better seasons in Demko's stead. The Canucks have plenty of young talent developing throughout their system, but the lack of another clear NHL-ready option at the moment makes things a bit dire for Demko, Lankinen, and the team as a whole.

NHL: CULLEN – 20 FANTASY POINTS – Blues reaping the rewards of bold offer sheet decisions, Monahan returns to action, Nugent-Hopkins, Pickard thrust into big roles for Oilers, Huberdeau thriving, and much more!

Scott Cullen — Fri, 28 Mar 2025 18:13:57 +0000

COLUMBUS, OH - NOVEMBER 01: Columbus Blue Jackets center Sean Monahan (23) on the ice during the second period of the National Hockey League game between the Winnipeg Jets and Columbus Blue Jackets on November 1, 2024 at Nationwide Arena in Columbus, OH. (Photo by Frank Jansky/Icon Sportswire)

Each week, I dig into the stats to find information that can help you make better fantasy hockey decisions. This week, the St. Louis Blues are reaping the rewards of their bold offer sheet decisions last summer, Sean Monahan returns to action, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Calvin Pickard are thrust into big roles for the Oilers, Jonathan Huberdeau is thriving, and much more!

#1 When the St. Louis Blues signed left winger Dylan Holloway to an offer sheet last summer, they surely had hopes that he could produce more than he had with the Edmonton Oilers if given the opportunity. It’s difficult to imagine that they would have expected this, however. With a pair of goals in Thursday’s win at Nashville, Holloway extended his point streak to nine games, during which he has accrued 15 points (6 G, 9 A). That gives the 23-year-old winger 62 points (26 G, 36 A) in 74 games, a massive jump from the 18 points (9 G, 9 A) in 89 games that he had produced for the Oilers over the previous two seasons.

#2 The other player that the Blues plucked from the Oilers, defenceman Philip Broberg, has been a major success as well. Broberg has tallied six points (2 G, 4 A) in his past five games, giving him 27 points (8 G, 19 A) in 61 games for the Blues. He is playing nearly 21 minutes per game since the 4 Nations Face-Off and the Blues are finding out that, just like Holloway, Broberg had a lot more to offer than he had in Edmonton.

#3 After missing more than two-and-a-half months due to a wrist injury, Sean Monahan has returned to the Columbus Blue Jackets’ lineup. He slides back onto the top line, between Dmitri Voronkov and Kirill Marchenko, and Monahan picked up a pair of assists in his first game back, giving him 18 points (5 G, 13 A) in the last 10 games in which he has played.

#4 With Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl both injured, the Edmonton Oilers need Ryan Nugent-Hopkins to help fill those massive holes in the lineup. Nugent-Hopkins has contributed nine points (4 G, 5 A) and 19 shots on goal in his past six games, but aside from his first-unit power play time, it is not necessarily evident that he is anchoring Edmonton’s top line. His linemates at even strength are Vasily Podkolzin and Viktor Arvidsson, neither of whom is creating a significant number of scoring chances. Essentially, this should count as a warning: just because the Oilers need a player like Nugent-Hopkins to fill the void down the middle of the ice, that does not mean he will be in position to succeed.

#5 The Oilers also lost goaltender Stuart Skinner to an upper-body injury, which should mean more action for Calvin Pickard down the stretch. While he has been a solid backup he has been fluctuating quite a bit recently. In six starts since the 4 Nations Face-Off, Pickard allowed one goal (for a total of three) in three starts and in the other three starts he allowed a total of 15 goals. Pickard probably still has value if he is going to get starts but if it is for an Oilers team missing McDavid and Draisaitl, there may not be as much value.

#6 Following a couple of down seasons in his first two years with the Calgary Flames, Jonathan Huberdeau has rebounded with a stronger season in 2025-2026. He has 12 points (5 G, 7 A) and 22 shots on goal in his past eight games, a shot rate that is notably higher since he has not averaged more than two shots per game since 2021-2022. He is skating on a line with Morgan Frost and Matt Coronato, and all three are on the Flames’ top power play unit.

#7 The Chicago Blackhawks called up Artyom Levshunov, the second overall pick in the 2024 Draft, following the trade deadline and he is getting ample opportunity to show what he can do. Levshunov is averaging more than 21 minutes of ice time in his first eight games, recording four assists and playing on the Blackhawks’ top power play unit. At the same time, there have been some challenges. The Blackhawks have been outscored 14-4 with Levshunov on the ice at even strength, but his Corsi percentage of 46.7 percent is not nearly as disastrous, so those unfavourable results are driven more by poor percentages and that should level out with more playing time. As it is, he’s an intriguing sleeper for the final weeks of the season because the Blackhawks will be inclined to let him learn on the job.

#8 Blues winger Jake Neighbours has increased his production late in the season. Since the 4 Nations Face-Off, Neighbours has produced 17 points (6 G, 11 A) in 18 games. He has just 21 shots on goal in that time, which is no way to sustain goal-scoring production, but Neighbours is skating on the top line with Robert Thomas and rookie Zack Bolduc, so he is in position to generate more shots while playing with one of the top playmaking centres in the league.

#9 While it may be fair to characterize Tyler Bertuzzi’s first season in Chicago as a disappointment, it’s not like the veteran winger has fallen off a cliff. He has still topped 20 goals and 40 points for the fifth time in his career after putting up seven points (3 G, 4 A) in his past five games. Given the expectations, since his most common linemate this season has been Connor Bedard, it’s reasonable to suggest that Bertuzzi could have produced more, and helped his rising star linemate, but Bertuzzi is skating now with Joe Veleno and Philipp Kurashev, and maybe that brings more favourable matchups that work better for him.

#10 With the Philadelphia Flyers deciding to move on from head coach John Tortorella, it could be worth watching how Sean Couturier finishes the season. The veteran Flyers centre was sometimes the scapegoat under Torts but has been playing well even as the Flyers fade down the stretch. Since the 4 Nations Face-Off, Couturier has contributed 15 points (6 G, 9 A) and 42 shots on goal in 17 games. He is centering a line with star rookie Matvei Michkov and Travis Konecny, the most talented wingers on the roster, so there is a real chance for Couturier to finish this season strong and perhaps put himself in a better situation going into next season.

#11 Injuries on the New York Islanders blueline created an opening for Tony DeAngelo after he was released from his KHL club, and he has been eating a lot of minutes on the Islanders blueline. In his past six games, DeAngelo has put up seven points (1 G, 6 A) while averaging more than 24 minutes of ice time per game. The Islanders are running a rare two-defenceman unit on their top power play, with DeAngelo and Noah Dobson both skating with the first unit.

#12 Category-specific players can see their fantasy relevance come and go, largely based on whether they are scoring enough to justify a roster spot. Take Canucks right winger Kiefer Sherwood, who is a solid player, but now that he has picked up offensively, with nine points (4 G, 5 A) in his past 12 games, he is a valuable fantasy option. Why? Because in those 12 games, Sherwood also has 81 hits! He hit double digits in road games at St. Louis and the New York Rangers last week.

#13 Calgary Flames right winger Matthew Coronato has taken a big step forward in his first full NHL season. After managing nine points in 34 games for the Flames last season, while averaging a modest 12:37 of ice time per game, Coronato has hit the 20-goal mark while averaging 17:26 of ice time per game this season. He has seven points (4 G, 3 A) with 20 shots on goal while averaging nearly 20 minutes of ice time per game in his past seven games, so as the Flames battle for a playoff spot, their young winger is playing a sizeable role.

#14 Unexpectedly not in the lineup for Edmonton’s loss in Seattle on Thursday, defenceman Mattias Ekholm had recently returned after missing a couple of weeks, so he is flying under the radar a bit, but the veteran blueliner has been productive when he has been in the game. Since the 4 Nations Face-Off, Ekholm has contributed nine points with 21 shots on goal (2 G, 7 A) in 10 games. He does not get prime power play time, with seven of his 33 points coming via the power play this season, but Ekholm could offer some short-term value provided that he is not out for an extended period.

#15 Anaheim Ducks winger Alex Killorn is not scoring like he did during his prime years with the Tampa Bay Lightning, but he is still a useful complementary player for the improving Ducks. Killorn has six points (4 G, 2 A) and 14 shots on goal in his past seven games and he is a good leader for young linemates Leo Carlsson and Cutter Gauthier. On top of that, Killorn is getting a turn on the first power play unit even though he has just three power play points all season, so he might have a tad more upside than expected late in the campaign.

#16 Seattle Kraken right winger Jordan Eberle missed more than three months and returned to action following the 4 Nations Face-Off. He was scoreless in his first three games, which is understandable, considering his lengthy absence, but he has contributed 11 points (3 G, 8 A) in 13 games since. Eberle is doing most of his damage at even strength and is skating on a line with Shane Wright and Jaden Schwartz.

#17 Utah Hockey Club right winger Nick Schmaltz tends to be widely available in fantasy hockey, more than might be expected for a player who is so accomplished. Across the past four seasons, Schmaltz has recorded 235 points in 277 games, his 0.85 points per game ranking 78th in the league over that time. Since the 4 Nations Face-Off, Schmaltz has 16 points (6 G, 10 A) with 43 shots on goal in 16 games. He is playing with Clayton Keller and Logan Cooley on Utah’s top line and first power play unit.

#18 Winnipeg Jets right winger Gabriel Vilardi is considered week-to-week with an upper-body injury. He has been more durable than ever this season, playing a career-high 71 games, and has career highs of 27 goals, 34 assists, and 61 points. With Vilardi out, a great opportunity goes to Alex Iafallo, who has been an over-qualified fourth liner for much of the season but is now getting a turn alongside Mark Scheifele and Kyle Connor. That opportunity is enough to make Iafallo worthwhile as a short-term add for fantasy managers.

#19 Vancouver Canucks goaltender Thatcher Demko has returned to action after missing six weeks. While he has won his first two starts since returning, Demko had a pedestrian save percentage of .892 in 19 games this season, but his pedigree means that Demko will get the starter’s role when he is healthy. That means that Kevin Lankinen will lose starts for as long as Demko remains healthy enough to play.

#20 Although the Ottawa Senators are surging late in the season, centre Shane Pinto is mired in a six-game pointless drought. He has generated just five shots on goal in that time and while he is centering a line with Brady Tkachuk and Ridly Greig on his wings at even strength, Pinto is not listed on Ottawa’s top two power play units, which does limit his fantasy appeal. He has just two power play points all season and given Pinto’s overall production, this late-season slump should get him dropped from most fantasy squads.

*Advanced stats via Natural Stat Trick

NHL: 20 FANTASY POINTS – 4 Nations fallout – Tkachuk, McAvoy, Harley, Bennett, Theodore plus Kadri, Danault, Donato and much more!

Scott Cullen — Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:41:48 +0000

MONTREAL, QC - FEBRUARY 15: Team Canada forward Sam Bennett (9) plays the puck against Team USA defenseman Charlie McAvoy (25) during a 4 Nations Face-Off game between Team USA and Team Canada on February 15, 2025, at Bell Centre in Montreal, QC (Photo by David Kirouac/Icon Sportswire)

Each week, I dig into the stats to find information that can help you make better fantasy hockey decisions. This week, fallout from the 4 Nations Face-Off, including Matthew Tkachuk, Charlie McAvoy, Thomas Harley, Sam Bennett, and Shea Theodore plus Nazem Kadri, Phillip Danault, Ryan Donato and much more!

#1 Coming out of the 4 Nations Face-Off, Florida Panthers winger Matthew Tkachuk could be missing some time. He played just 6:46 against Canada in the final game of the tournament, and given the emotional stakes involved, it seems fair to expect that he will miss some NHL regular season action. In the weeks leading up to the tournament, Tkachuk had been playing his best hockey of the season, piling up 16 points (8 G, 8 A) in his last eight games before the 4 Nations. If Tkachuk is out, someone like Eetu Luostarinen could find his way up to the Panthers’ top six to fill in.

#2 The other issue related to a Tkachuk absence is that he typically skates on the wing of centre Sam Bennett, who had an excellent showing in the final games of the 4 Nations Face-Off, scoring a goal and leading Canada with six shots on goal. Bennett is a difficult player to project coming out of that tournament because he has established that he can turn up his game in the big moments, performing better in the playoffs than in the regular season, so it’s not like he can automatically be assumed to be ready to shred the NHL after his impressive play for Canada and even more so if Tkachuk is going to miss time. While Bennett had seven points (4 G, 3 A) in his last 12 games before the tourney, he also recorded 59 shots on goal in that time. If he is putting up nearly five shots on goal per game, production will follow.

#3 A pleasant surprise for Team Canada at the 4 Nations, Stars defenceman Thomas Harley was called to action when Shea Theodore was injured, and Cale Makar was sick. Prior to the tournament, Harley was already pushed into a bigger role on the Dallas blueline because of the lower-body injury suffered by Miro Heiskanen and Harley had six points (2 G, 4 A) in five games after Heiskanen was injured. Harley has 29 points this season, but only five points on the power play. With Heiskanen out, Harley does have a bigger role on the Dallas power play and the 23-year-old blueliner could be even more confident after his success playing in a best-on-best tournament.

#4 Boston Bruins defenceman Charlie McAvoy suffered a shoulder injury for Team USA at the tournament and the ensuing infection should keep him out on a week-to-week basis, which is a big loss for the Bruins, obviously. While McAvoy is the number one defenceman in Boston, he has not been the primary blueliner on the power play. That role has gone to Mason Lohrei, who does have 10 power play assists this season, but has just one goal and six shots on goal in his past nine games.

#5 Team Canada lost defenceman Shea Theodore to an injury in its first game against Sweden. Theodore will be out week-to-week with an upper-body injury and that should open the door for Alex Pietrangelo or Noah Hanifin to get more power play time. Hanifin may be the better option right now as Pietrangelo skipped the 4 Nations so that he could be healthy for the stretch run and has not recorded a power play point all season. With 25 points, Pietrangelo ranks second among defencemen for the most points without a power play point all season. Colorado’s Devon Toews has 27 points to lead, while Damon Severson (22), Gustav Forsling (21), and Simon Edvinsson (21) round out the top five.

#6 Even players who were not involved in the 4 Nations could bring injury news during the break and that happened with Canucks goaltender Thatcher Demko, who is week-to-week with a lower-body injury. Demko has not had a great season, even when healthy, managing a .891 save percentage in 17 games, but now the Canucks will lean on Kevin Lankinen, who has a .905 save percentage in 34 games. The workload could become an issue, as Lankinen has never played more than 37 games in an NHL season, but Vancouver doesn’t have much choice but to run with him and maybe spot in Arturs Silovs when they can.

#7 Journeyman Chicago Blackhawks winger Ryan Donato is enjoying the best season of his career, with career highs of 19 goals and 37 points in 53 games. He has 13 points (6 G, 7 A) while averaging more than 16 minutes of ice time per game in his past 10 games, finding a good groove on a line with Blackhawks star Connor Bedard. Tread carefully on adding Donato, though, because with an expiring contract, he is a prime candidate to get traded at the deadline and he almost certainly would not receive the same quality of ice time on a contending team. That could mean that Donato’s fantasy appeal is only for a couple more weeks, unless he signs a contract extension to stay in Chicago.

#8 Keeping the Calgary Flames in the playoff hunt, centre Nazem Kadri has produced 11 points (4 G, 7 A) and 30 shots on goal in his past 10 games. He ranks second on the Flames with 40 points, one behind Jonathan Huberdeau. Kadri has an on-ice shooting percentage of 5.5 percent, which ranks 304th out of 310 forwards that have played at least 500 five-on-five minutes. That would represent a career low percentage for Kadri, whose on-ice shooting percentage last season was 9.8 percent, so he could be a prime buy-low candidate who is due for positive regression. As a bit of an interesting statistical side note, Kadri has won 47.9 percent of his faceoffs in 219 games with the Flames, after winning 52.5 percent in 178 games for Colorado. Were his Avalanche wingers that much better at helping to gain possession off the draw?

#9 Skating on a line with Kadri and Huberdeau, second-year right winger Matt Coronato has been making the most of his opportunity. He has six points (3 G, 3 A) and 13 shots on goal in his past six games and has played more than 20 minutes twice in that six -game span. That’s a threshold that Coronato has crossed just five times all season, so he is ascending and playing with two proven performers does give him a better chance to keep this going through the end of the season.

#10 Although he has just five goals this season and his offensive production has not been up to previous levels, the Kings’ Phillip Danault does have five points (1 G, 4 A) in his past four games. He continues to be an excellent possession player, with a 57.4 percent Corsi, and the Kings are outscoring opponents 31-23 during five-on-five with Danault on the ice, so he is going to keep playing in the range of 18 minutes per game. He could present a bit of a buy-low option since he has scored on just 6.4 percent of his shots this season, which would be his lowest since his rookie season in 2015-2016.

#11 To be kind, it has been an uneven season for Montreal Canadiens forward Alex Newhook, who has just 18 points (10 G, 8 A) in 56 games after finishing last season with 34 points (15 G, 19 A) in 55 games. His ice time is down by 1:41 per game and he is a terrible shot generator, managing 74 shots on goal in 56 games. Newhook had five points (1 G, 4 A) in five games before the 4 Nations, but still only managed three shots on goal, so it’s difficult to get excited about his chances of sustaining his point production until his shot rate improves.

#12 Columbus Blue Jackets winger Kent Johnson has thrived during a breakout season, tallying 36 points (17 G, 19 A) in 42 games. He has 12 points (6 G, 6 A) in his past 12 games and has averaged 1.50 goals per 60 minutes of five-on-five play, which ranks third among NHL players, behind only Buffalo’s Tage Thompson (1.77) and Colorado’s Artturi Lehkonen (1.51).

#13 Veteran Winnipeg Jets centre Vladislav Namestnikov can get taken for granted because he is a flexible player who can move around the roster as needed. Sometimes, he is on a scoring line, but at other times, he might even be on the fourth line, and he’s savvy enough to be effective in both roles. While the Jets might still be looking for an upgrade before the trade deadline, Namestnikov has been thriving as the second-line centre, skating between Nikolaj Ehlers and Cole Perfetti. In his past eight games, Namestnikov has nine points (1 G, 8 A) with 18 shots on goal. The Jets have also outscored opponents by a margin of 27-17 with Namestnikov on the ice during five-on-five play.

#14 New York Islanders winger Maxim Tsyplakov has found his way into the top six and went into the break with six assists in his last six games and played 18:00 in his last game before the 4 Nations, his most ice time in a game in two months. For as long as he can keep a spot alongside Brock Nelson and Kyle Palmieri, Tsyplakov might hold some fantasy appeal.

#15 Utah Hockey Club rookie right winger Josh Doan is pushing his way into a regular role. He put up 26 points (11 G, 15 A) in 28 AHL games and was recalled to the big club on January 10. He has four points (1 G, 3 A) in his past three games and has a solid opportunity in Utah’s top nine, skating with Jack McBain and Lawson Crouse both at even strength and on Utah’s second power play unit.

#16 Florida Panthers blueliner Aaron Ekblad has been quietly productive, contributing six points (1 g, 5 A) and 18 shots on goal while playing more than 23 minutes per game in his past eight games. Nine of his 26 points this season have come on the power play, and he is the Panthers’ top defence option with the man advantage, especially after they waived Adam Boqvist, who was claimed by the Islanders.

#17 A focal point on the Anaheim Ducks’ power play, defenceman Jackson LaCombe is quick to pull the trigger on point shots. Lacombe’s role was expanded earlier in the season and since the beginning of December he has 20 points (7 G, 13 A) with 77 shots on goal while playing more than 22 minutes per game in 31 games. There are 67 defencemen that have played at least 50 minutes with a five-on-four advantage this season and only the Islanders’ Noah Dobson (16.62) has a higher rate of five-on-four shots per 60 minutes. LaCombe is at 15.43, followed by Dougie Hamilton (15.24), Zach Werenski (14.18), Brent Burns (12.36), and Vince Dunn (12.33).

#18 Tampa Bay Lightning right winger Gage Goncalves watched linemates Anthony Cirelli and Brandon Hagel play key roles for Canada at the 4 Nations Face-Off, but Goncalves had five assists and 11 shots on goal in the last six games before the break in the schedule. He has toiled for quite a while in the American Hockey League, putting up 163 points (48 G, 115 A) in 226 games. The 24-year-old had just two points (1 G, 1 A) in his first 27 games for the Lightning this season, but his sudden scoring surge makes him worth keeping an eye on.

#19 Utah Hockey club defenceman Sean Durzi is set to make his return after suffering a shoulder injury on October 14. While Mikhail Sergachev remains the quarterback on Utah’s top power play unit, Durzi has established that he can run a power play, recording 41 power play assists in 216 career games, and he had two points in four games before getting hurt. Durzi’s return to action could cut into power play time for second-year blueliner Michael Kesselring, the second-year defender who ranks seventh on the team with 22 points (6 G, 16 A) in 56 games.

#20 Ottawa Senators right winger Drake Batherson has managed five points (2 G, 3 A) while registering 27 shots on goal in his past 11 games and three of those five points happened in a 6-0 rout over Minnesota. This relative slump highlights Batherson’s poor luck during five-on-five play as he has an on-ice shooting percentage of 5.4 percent, far below the 8.7 percent that he recorded during the 2023-2024 season. Batherson’s most common linemate this season has been Josh Norris, who is currently injured, so Batherson is lined up with Ridly Greig and David Perron while also holding a spot on the Senators’ top power play unit.

*Advanced stats via Natural Stat Tric

NHL: DADOUN – THE FANTASY WEEK AHEAD – Nashville Resurgence, Rantanen traded to Carolina, plus much more – Favourable schedules and players to target

McKeen's Hockey — Sat, 25 Jan 2025 15:16:30 +0000

NASHVILLE, TN - JANUARY 16: Nashville Predators forward Jonathan Marchessault (81) is shown during the NHL game between the Nashville Predators and Chicago Blackhawks, held on January 16, 2025, at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tennessee. (Photo by Danny Murphy/Icon Sportswire)

The best stories in sports are the comebacks that happen after a team has been written off. Two examples that spring to mind from recent history are the 2014-15 Ottawa Senators, who were 22-23-10 after a loss Feb. 16, putting them 10 points behind in the playoff race, only to go 21-3-3 the rest of the way to narrowly secure a postseason berth. Another is the 2018-19 St. Louis Blues, who were 16-19-4 on Jan. 5, which placed them last in the Western Conference, before going 29-9-5 the rest of the way to not only make the playoffs but win the Stanley Cup.

Is it possible we’ll have another one of those stories this year? Those stories are memorable because they’re rare, and you only need to look at the absurd records they needed down the stretch to illustrate why. Due in no small part to the consolation point for overtime/shootout losses, the standings tend to look closer than they truly are because closing even a small point gap is difficult.

That said, I can’t help but look at the Nashville Predators and wonder if there is still some hope. It’s probably a foolish thing to think and a take that will age like milk, but after a 7-16-6 start, Nashville began to stabilize and now the team seems to have hit its stride with its current five-game winning streak. The Predators are still just 18-22-7, so they’d have basically have to go the rest of the season without any more noteworthy slumps, but part of the reason that such a feat even seems remotely possible is because the veteran leadership that seemed lost in the early part of the season has settled in.

Steven Stamkos has 10 goals and 19 points across his past 19 appearances while Jonathan Marchessault has 10 goals and 26 points over the same 19-game span. They were signed over the summer to provide that kind of offense but were initially written off as poor decisions by GM Barry Trotz due to their extremely poor start to the campaign. Now it seems they were judged too harshly.

When you couple their success with Filip Forsberg (18 goals, 47 points), elite defenseman Roman Josi (nine goals, 35 points) and veteran center Ryan O'Reilly (13 goals, 27 points), you have a fairly strong offense, especially if any of Gustav Nyquist, Tommy Novak or Luke Evangelista (lower body) start to hit their stride. As it is, Nashville has ranked second in goals per game (3.47) dating back to Dec. 10. That’s in stark contrast to the Predators’ first 28 games where they were last in the league in that scoring category (2.18).

You could call this just a hot streak for the offense, and there’s probably an element of that, but given that we’re talking about players of this caliber, it might be something at least somewhat sustainable.

It’s not all rosy, though. The X-Factor is surprisingly goaltending. Ottawa’s run involved journeyman goaltender Andrew Hammond standing on his head, and the Blues got a similar story out of rookie Jordan Binnington.

Nashville shouldn’t need someone to come out of nowhere to shut down the opposing offense. The Predators already have Juuse Saros, who not that long ago was seen as one of the best goaltenders of this generation. This campaign, though, he’s struggled with an 11-18-6 record, 2.81 GAA and .901 save percentage in 36 appearances. Unlike the offense, Saros hasn’t stepped up -- he's 2-2-0 with a 3.42 GAA and an .860 save percentage across his past five outings.

That’s led to Justus Annunen starting a bit more often lately, but while the backup netminder has won his past four starts, he’s been inconsistent, allowing 10 goals on 105 shots (.905 save percentage) over that span.

Let’s assume Nashville needs a 95-point season to make the playoffs. That wouldn’t have been good enough last year, but for the sake of argument, let’s just pretend that’s what’s needed. Nashville would need another 52 points across its final 35 games, so for example, 26-9-0, or say, 23-6-6. Even a top-tier offense is unlikely to get them that kind of record down the stretch. Some of that’s going to have to come from the goalies stealing games, so until Saros or Annunen start heating up, it’s hard to imagine the comeback happening.

That said, if Stamkos and Marchessault could find their way back from unflattering starts, perhaps Saros can too?

Calgary Flames (Tue vs WAS, Thu vs ANA, Sat vs DET, Sun @ SEA)

Calgary wasn’t seen as a major contender going into the campaign. In fact, there was an argument to be made that the Flames would regress from their 38-39-5 record last season after trading away goaltender Jacob Markstrom over the summer. However, we’re clear past the halfway point of 2024-25 now, and the Flames are very much in the playoff race. The weakness for the Flames is they’ve struggled on the road (8-10-4), but they won’t have to concern themselves with that in the upcoming week. They’ll host the Capitals, Ducks, Red Wings and Kraken on Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday, respectively.

A big part of the reason why the Flames’ rebuild is ahead of schedule is 23-year-old goaltender Dustin Wolf. He got a taste of the NHL last year and was mixed at best, posting a 7-7-1 record, 3.16 GAA and .893 save percentage in 17 games. However, he’s filled the void left by Markstrom and then some in 2024-25 with his 17-7-2 record, 2.49 GAA and .918 save percentage in 26 starts. To put that into context, Wolf has already saved 13.3 goals above expected this season, per Moneypuck, which has almost caught up to the 13.7 goals saved above expected Markstrom provided for the Flames last campaign. Wolf also ranks eighth among goaltenders in that metric this season.

Wolf’s contributions are extra important because the rest of the team has underwhelmed. Calgary ranks 29th in goals per game (2.65) and 21st in xGA/60 (3.09). So, the team’s not generating much offense and the defense hasn’t been responsible enough to make an average goaltender look good -- just ask backup Dan Vladar, who is only slightly below average at minus-2.8 goals saved above expected, but due to the Flames’ defense has some rather unflattering numbers: a 3.03 GAA and an .889 save percentage.

Still, even if Wolf is the team’s clear MVP, it would be inaccurate to suggest that he’s the only player of value in Calgary. Jonathan Huberdeau might not be living up to his contract, but his 19 goals and 35 points through 46 outings make him the team’s offensive leader. Since a quiet stretch from Oct. 19-Nov. 29 in which Huberdeau had four goals and six points in 20 outings, the 31-year-old has been tremendous, supplying 12 goals and 23 points across 22 outings. If he can maintain anything close to that down the stretch, then there’s a decent chance he’ll be playing playoff hockey this year.

The 23-year-old Jakob Pelletier is also hot with three goals and six points across his past five appearances. It took him a while to get going -- he recorded a goal and five points over his first 15 games with Calgary this season -- but we’re getting a flash of what he’s capable of. He was selected with the No. 26 overall pick in the 2019 NHL Draft and has been dominant offensively at the AHL level, including three goals and 19 points in 20 contests this season.

Maybe Rory Kerins will also help them down the stretch. He’s 23 as well and has provided an incredible 21 goals and 34 points in 34 AHL games in 2024-25. Unlike Pelletier, Kerins was a late-round pick and even logged 38 games with ECHL Rapid City back in 2022-23. Kerins has risen, making his NHL debut Jan. 13 and recording four assists in five outings with the Flames so far. That said, he’s averaging just 12:14 of ice time, including a mere 6:57 on Thursday, so his role with Calgary is far from secure despite those early results. Monitor him, but don’t get too excited yet.

Colorado Avalanche (Tue @ NYI, Fri vs STL, Sun vs PHI)

The Avalanche has a solid 28-19-2 record, but they’ve merely treaded water lately, going 5-4-1 across their past 10 games. They’ll see if they can do better next week with a favorable schedule. The Avalanche will visit the Islanders on Tuesday before returning home to host St. Louis on Friday and Philadelphia on Sunday. Those adversaries are well behind the Avalanche in terms of points percentage.

I wrote this whole thing about Colorado’s situation with regard to Mikko Rantanen’s contract, and then the Avalanche traded him to Carolina in a three-team deal that also involved Chicago, which was shocking, to say the least. To be fair, there is logic to be found here. My now outdated discussion of the topic still serves as a decent overview of the challenge the Avalanche were facing pre-trade, so I’ll show it here for that purpose:

“Like Edmonton with Leon Draisaitl and Connor McDavid, Colorado also has the luxury of an elite one-two punch up front. The Avalanche version is headlined by Nathan MacKinnon, and the other half of the Avalanche’s duo is Mikko Rantanen, who has 25 goals and 64 points through 49 outings in 2024-25. Colorado has an issue that Edmonton recently went through, though: Rantanen is on the final season of his six-year, $55.5 million contract and can become an unrestricted free agent this summer. Rantanen has a real shot of reaching the 40-goal and 100-point milestones for the third consecutive year, so to say he’s due a big payday would be an understatement.

Finding a comparable is a little difficult. Draisaitl won the Hart Trophy in 2019-20, has collected at least 50 goals on three occasions and has also gotten at least 110 points three times, but Rantanen has never been a Hart finalist, has reached the 50-goal mark just once and he’s career high in points is 105, so it’s clear which one of them has a better resume. Still, if Draisaitl could ink an eight-year, $112 million ($14 million cap hit) contract back in September, perhaps Rantanen is thinking at least $12 million annually? Maybe even more? It might be awkward to give Rantanen something at or above Nathan MacKinnon’s eight-year, $100.8 million ($12.6 million cap hit) contract, but MacKinnon inked that back in 2022, and with the cap going up, so too will the payouts for top talent.”

So, you can see why the Avalanche might have opted to move Rantanen rather than lock him up, and there might even be more to this story that we’re not yet aware of. Perhaps the Avalanche presented Rantanen with a competitive offer, and he rejected that. To be clear, that’s purely just hypothetical, and I have no inside knowledge of the situation, so please take my wild speculation as fact, but in that scenario, this trade would make more sense from the Avalanche’s perspective.

That said, I don’t love the return from the Avalanche’s perspective. Colorado is getting Martin Necas and Jack Drury from the Avalanche, as well as some picks. Necas has never reached the 30-goal or 80-point marks, so he doesn’t have the same kind of resume as Rantanen, but Necas is younger at 26 and has done well this campaign with 16 goals and 55 points in 49 appearances. He’ll look good alongside Nathan MacKinnon. My problem with Necas as the return is his two-year, $13 million contract expires in 2026, and then Necas will be eligible for unrestricted free agency. So, if he performs over the next year and a half as the Avalanche hope, then to some extent they just kicked the problem down the road by a year. Granted, Necas probably won’t command what Rantanen did…but that’s only because he’s a downgrade. No offense to Necas -- 99.9 percent of the league is a downgrade to Rantanen -- but the Avalanche are in a win-now mode, so unless retaining Rantanen was completely off the table, this trade feels a little weird to me.

Perhaps I’m undervaluing Jack Drury, though. He has just nine points (three goals) in 39 appearances in 2024-25, but the 24-year-old probably has upside left in him, and the Avalanche will certainly benefit from the center depth. It would not be surprising to see Drury tried out on the third line behind MacKinnon and Casey Mittelstadt.

The Avalanche also got two picks out of the trade. Not a first-rounder, but maybe in five years or so, we’ll look at one of those draft picks as an underrated benefit of this deal.

Carolina Hurricanes (Tue @ NYR, Thu vs CHI, Sat vs. LAK)

The teams I highlight are based on a combination of how busy their schedule is for the upcoming week and how favorable those matchups are. Additionally, I will typically present the teams I’ve included in alphabetical order. I’m breaking both of those to include the Hurricanes. I think it’s worth discussing the fallout of the Rantanen trade from the Hurricanes’ perceptive, and it’s better to have that discussion after outlining what this deal means for Colorado. A little bit of housekeeping before we get into the trade talks: The Hurricanes will start next week with a road tilt against the Rangers on Tuesday before hosting the Blackhawks on Thursday and the Kings on Saturday. It’s not a bad schedule, it’s just not special either.

Now to the trade: In addition to Rantanen, the Hurricanes also acquired Taylor Hall from Chicago for the cost of Necas, Drury and draft picks. There was also retained salary in the deal to make the cap situation work.

It’ll be really interesting to see how this plays out for Carolina. Rantanen has never really been “the guy” before. He’s spent basically his entire NHL career to this point in MacKinnon’s shadow, but now Rantanen will be expected to drive the offense in Carolina. Not that he’ll have to do it alone. In fact, Rantanen is likely to get some great linemates in Sebastian Aho (15 goals, 49 points) and Andrei Svechnikov (15 goals, 34 points). There’s every reason to believe that trio will mesh together.

There’s also reason to be optimistic about Carolina retaining Rantanen beyond this campaign. Sure, the Hurricanes’ attempt to lock down Jake Guentzel after acquiring him from Pittsburgh during the 2023-24 campaign ultimately failed, leading to Guentzel instead signing with Tampa Bay over the summer, but Carolina is set to be in a fantastic cap position for 2025-26. Dmitry Orlov ($7.75 million cap hit) and Brent Burns ($5.28 million) are both set to come off the books. Orlov will likely take a big pay cut if he stays at all. It’s not clear if Burns will play beyond this season, but if he does, it’ll likely be at a reduced salary too.

Carolina also doesn’t have any expiring players due for big paydays beyond Rantanen himself. Meanwhile, Puck Pedia is projecting them with $31.2 million in cap space for next season, albeit with just 13 roster spots filled. There is reason to believe the Hurricanes can meet Rantanen’s demands, even if he’s eyeing something close to what Draisaitl got.

What happens with Rantanen will go a long way towards defining how this trade is viewed, but adding Hall as well in the trade is interesting. He’s been middling this campaign with nine goals and 24 points in 46 appearances with the Blackhawks while averaging a modest 14:59 of ice time. It’s a far cry from what the 33-year-old did in his prime, but he might do better now that he’s on a contender. Hall will probably end up serving on the second line alongside some combination of Seth Jarvis (18 goals, 38 points), Jesperi Kotkaniemi (10 goals, 23 points) and Jackson Blake (11 goals, 16 points).

The Hurricanes’ overall offense has been good -- they rank fifth with 3.37 goals per game – but their scoring depth does leave something to be desired, especially if Carolina does go with that stacked top line of Svechnikov-Aho-Rantanen, so even a decent showing out of Hall would be a big boost.

Carolina likely doesn’t have any room left to make anymore notable additions before the trade deadline, but as it is, the Hurricanes do look like serious contenders.

New York Islanders (Tue vs COL, Thu @ PHI, Sat @ TBL, Sun @ FLA)

It might be premature to assume that the Islanders will miss the playoffs in 2024-25 for just the second time in seven years, but the team certainly has a hole to dig out of. They’ll attempt to better their situation next week, which will start with a home game against the Avalanche on Tuesday. The Islanders will then hit the road to play in Philadelphia on Thursday, Tampa Bay on Saturday and Florida on Sunday. It’s a tough schedule to be sure, but the Islanders are running out of margin for error, so they need to find a way to win difficult matches.

The Islanders inked Tony DeAngelo to a one-year contract Friday, which is…a choice. He’s been bought out twice at the NHL level, which led to him joining the KHL, but DeAngelo only served in 34 games with St. Petersburg SKA before his contract was mutually terminated. He’s questionable in his own end and seems to be a lightning rod for controversy. Still, for as much as there’s a reason why teams keep souring on him, there is also a cause for the infinite number of “second” chances he’s gotten.

DeAngelo, under the right circumstances, can be very effective when the puck is on his stick. He has surpassed the 40-point mark three times at the NHL level and had six goals and 32 points in 34 KHL outings before parting ways with SKA. So, for all the negatives he comes with, at least the 29-year-old has that going for him.

A team in a good spot probably wouldn’t bother with DeAngelo given the baggage, but the Islanders are 28th in goals per game with 2.66 and have lost Noah Dobson to a lower-body injury. Dobson is week-to-week after sustaining the injury Monday. He’s a vital part of the Islanders, and while DeAngelo isn’t a good enough blueliner to fully replace Dobson, one part of that void that DeAngelo likely can fill is the offensive loss. DeAngelo might only serve on the third pairing, but he will likely feature on the top power-play unit and could have fantasy value if that’s his role. His fantasy value will be even higher in leagues that include PIM as a category because he tends to end up in the sin bin a fair amount.

Under ideal circumstances, DeAngelo’s inclusion might even offer a boost to Anders Lee, Bo Horvat and Mathew Barzal, who will presumably share the ice with him on the power play. The Islanders are dead last in power-play conversions at just 12.2 percent, which has been a drag on the overall offensive output of the Islanders’ top forwards. If DeAngelo can help make the Islanders’ power play even remotely close to average, then that would add up meaningfully for all involved.

Of course, all this is assuming a favorable outcome, which is always a risky thing to believe in when it comes to DeAngelo. At the time of writing, his inclusion on the Islanders isn’t guaranteed. Though the contract has been signed, he needs to clear waivers before he can play for the Islanders. I wouldn’t bet on another team claiming him, but then again, I didn’t anticipate this move from New York, and yet, here we are.

Philadelphia Flyers (Mon vs NJD, Wed @ NJD, Thu vs NYI, Sun @ COL)

The Flyers missed out on the playoffs for the fourth consecutive year in 2024, but at least they managed to stay in contention for most of the campaign. They’d like to do one better this year and secure a Wild Card spot, but there’s a lot of competition for those two seeds, so every game is that much more important. The Flyers will start the week with a home-and-away series against the Devils on Monday and Wednesday before hosting the Islanders on Thursday. Philadelphia will conclude its weekly schedule in Colorado on Sunday.

Goaltending has been a recurring issue for Philadelphia this season. Samuel Ersson is just too inconsistent, leading to a 14-8-2 record, 2.80 GAA and .891 save percentage in 26 appearances. Ivan Fedotov is no better, though, at 4-6-3 with a 3.25 GAA and an .880 save percentage in 14 starts.

The tragedy is that the Flyers are actually a really good defensive team, locked in a four-way tie for sixth in xGA/60 (2.85). The problem is purely the goaltenders. Ersson ranks 83rd among all netminders in goals allowed above expected at minus-8.8, per Moneypuck. The only netminders worse in that category with at least 20 games played are Petr Mrazek, Tristan Jarry, Alexandar Georgiev and Philipp Grubauer. One of those (Jarry) was sent to the minors due to his play while Mrazek and Georgiev are playing for rebuilding squads in Chicago and San Jose. In other words, it’s unflattering company for Ersson.

The Flyers offense isn’t great, but it’s decent. Travis Konecny (21 goals, 56 points) is doing his best to push the team into contention. He’s also been particularly productive recently, supplying five goals and 15 points across his past 13 appearances.

Owen Tippett is benefiting from playing alongside Konecny. The 25-year-old Tippett has three goals and six points over his last eight games, giving him 14 goals and 30 points in 50 outings overall. That duo doesn’t combine to create a top line that will turn heads, but it does the job well enough.

The Flyers are hoping that Matvei Michkov might eventually headline a unit of his own, but the rookie has been streaky. That’s pretty common for a young forward. You just need to keep an eye out and bench him during the down patches. We might be entering one right now -- he has been held off the scoresheet in each of his past two games after supplying two goals and five points across six outings from Jan. 11-21.

Pittsburgh Penguins (Mon @ SJS, Wed @ UTA, Sat vs NSH)

Like the Islanders and Flyers, Pittsburgh is on the outside looking in on the Wild Card race but is still in the running. The Penguins will play in San Jose on Monday and Utah on Wednesday before returning home to host the Predators on Saturday. The Sharks and Predators own two of the worst records in the league, so Pittsburgh needs to pick up points during that stretch if the Penguins are going to convince GM Kyle Dubas that this team can make a serious playoff push this year.

And make no mistake: Dubas likely needs some convincing. RG.org claims to have a source that Pittsburgh is willing to trade anyone other than Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Bryan Rust, Philip Tomasino and Owen Pickering. The source was also asked about Kris Letang, and they weren’t sure about him.

Erik Karlsson stands out as the biggest player not ruled out. The Penguins would likely need to retain salary -- his cap hit is $11.5 million annually through 2026-27, but the Sharks are already retaining $1.5 million, bringing the current hit to Pittsburgh down to $10 million -- but as long as Pittsburgh is willing to do that, the return could be fairly nice. Although he’s 34 years old, he’s been effective this campaign with four goals and 32 points in 50 outings.

One potential sticking point is that he has a no-movement clause. He already waived it once to move from San Jose to Pittsburgh, but presumably, there would only be certain teams he’d be willing to play for. The fun destination from a fan perspective would be a return to the Senators, but that would be difficult to make work from a cap perspective. Maybe Calgary or Columbus? The Flames and Blue Jackets are teams trending in the right direction who also have plenty of cap space. Perhaps they’d value his veteran leadership in addition to what he brings to the table on the ice. Columbus’ defense already looks fairly solid and is led by a phenomenal offensive defenseman in Zach Werenski, so I don’t know that the Blue Jackets are a great fit. Karlsson would likely provide a meaningful boost to the Flames, though.

Of course, if you're Crosby or Malkin, you’re still going to be clinging onto the hope of making the playoffs this year, so these upcoming games are extremely high stakes for them. Rust is dealing with a lower-body injury, which does complicate things, but if Rust ends up missing time, then you’ll probably see Anthony Beauvillier play with one of those highly motivated superstars.

Seattle Kraken (Mon @ EDM, Tue vs ANA, Thu vs SJS, Sun vs CGY)

Seattle will begin its weekly schedule with what’s likely to be a difficult matchup in Edmonton on Monday. However, the Kraken will then return home to host Anaheim on Tuesday, San Jose on Thursday and Calgary on Sunday. The Ducks and Sharks have struggled this campaign, so those are favorable matchups for the Kraken.

I briefly touched on Philip Grubauer above in the context of how bad he’s been this campaign -- and really for a while now. He has a 3.09 GAA and an .890 save percentage in 150 games since joining Seattle. His six-year, $35.4 million deal, which started in 2021-22, has been such a waste for the Kraken.

On the plus side, the Kraken have Joey Daccord, who has a 16-11-2 record, 2.47 GAA and .915 save percentage in 31 appearances in 2024-25. He could certainly use more offensive support, though.

Jared McCann leads the Kraken with 14 goals and 36 points in 49 appearances this season. That puts him outside of the NHL’s top 75 in the scoring race. Seattle also doesn’t employ any of the 32 players who have reached the 20-goal milestone. Jaden Schwartz is the closest at 16. A lack of big-name talent up front is really hurting this team.

Maybe Matty Beniers will still fill that void, but he’s been a mixed bag. He was Seattle’s first-ever draft pick -- the No. 2 overall selection in 2021 -- and he seemed to be on the fast track after supplying three goals and nine points in 10 NHL outings in 2021-22 followed by 24 goals and 57 points in 80 appearances last season. However, he took a big step back last year, dipping to 37 points, and he hasn’t rebounded much this campaign with 10 goals and 26 points in 49 appearances. He’s still just 22 years old, so there’s plenty of time for him to find his way, but it’s looking less and less likely that this year will be a positive for him.

Another former No. 2 pick seems to have found his way with Seattle, though. Since being acquired from the Rangers on Feb. 18, Kaapo Kakko has four goals and 13 points in 16 outings, giving the Kraken some of that offensive prowess they’ve desperately needed. He’s been averaging 16:50 of ice time in Seattle, which is up from 13:17 with the Rangers -- he had four goals and 14 points in 30 contests before the trade -- which goes a long way toward explaining his production jump.

There never seemed to be much of a role for Kakko in New York, so this change of scenery is probably exactly what he needed. Although his scoring pace might dip somewhat, he should continue to do well with Seattle.

Vancouver Canucks (Mon @ STL, Wed @ NSH, Fri @ DAL, Sun @ DET)

The Canucks have been a mess on and off the ice lately. Will things get any better for them or will the descent continue next week? They’ll start on the road with games in St. Louis on Monday, Nashville on Wednesday and Dallas on Friday. Vancouver will then host the Red Wings on Sunday.

There’s been plenty of speculation about the Canucks potentially moving one of Elias Pettersson or J.T. Miller for off-ice reasons. Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reported that the Hurricanes were considering acquiring one of those star forwards before opting to instead get Rantanen from Colorado, per Brendan Batchelor of Sportsnet 650. Carolina is likely out as a destination now, but it wouldn’t be surprising to see Vancouver still trade one of Miller or Pettersson. The Rangers have been brought up before as a potential destination, so maybe there’s still something to be had there.

Perhaps because this has been distracting them, Vancouver has been in free fall, going 6-10-6 since Dec. 8. Miller had a five-game scoring drought from Jan. 8-16, but he’s otherwise remained effective, collecting eight goals and 33 points in 37 outings this campaign. It’s still far behind his regular-season production from 2023-24 (37 goals, 103 points), but at least he’s providing close to a point-per-game.

Pettersson hasn’t given anything close to that lately. He has just three goals and four points across his past 14 appearances. That slump has undermined a strong start to the campaign, leaving him with 11 goals and 30 points in 41 outings overall. He’ll probably bounce back eventually, but his slump is certainly part of the reason for the Canucks’ decline.

Thatcher Demko isn’t helping either, though. Since making his season debut Dec. 10 after returning from a knee injury, he has a 3-5-3 record, 3.47 GAA and .867 save percentage in 12 games. Some rust is to be expected after missing the opening months of the season, but he’s showing no signs of improvement, going 1-3-0 with a 4.03 GAA and an .833 save percentage across his past four outings. Kevin Lankinen is far from a sure thing either, but he’s been the better option with his 16-8-6 record, 2.63 GAA and .903 save percentage in 30 appearances.

It's unfortunate because Demko has shown in the past that he can be an elite netminder, and Vancouver could certainly use the help right now. As it is, though, about the only positive in Vancouver is that Quinn Hughes is still Quinn Hughes with 12 goals and 52 points in 43 appearances, including four goals and 10 points across his past nine outings.

Hughes just needs other stars to go back to living up to their names as well.

NHL: DADOUN – FANTASY WEEK AHEAD – What to make of the Buffalo Sabres – Teams and players to target this week

Ryan Dadoun — Sat, 14 Dec 2024 16:41:42 +0000

_{ST. LOUIS, MO - FEBRUARY 25: Sabres center Tage Thompson (72) during a NHL game between the Buffalo Sabres and the St. Louis Blues on February 25, 2022, at Enterprise Center, St. Louis, MO. (Photo by Keith Gillett/Icon Sportswire),}

How should we define the 2024-25 Buffalo Sabres? On paper, they’re not a terrible team. Tage Thompson is an elite goal scorer, and Alex Tuch is a good first-line forward and well suited to being Thompson’s accomplish. Rasmus Dahlin, though currently out with a back injury, is a high-end offensive blueliner, and the Sabres also have two promising young defensemen on the rise in Owen Power and Bowen Byram. In net, Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen has shown that he can be a solid option.

This isn’t a good team either, though. The Sabres do have some offensive depth, especially with Jason Zucker enjoying a comeback campaign (seven goals and 20 points through 29 appearances), but their overall scoring still isn’t anything special. The blueliners do have a mixture of talent and promise, but as a squad, the Sabres have struggled on defense, as evidenced by the team ranking 22nd in xGA/60 (3.13) per Moneypuck. Those shortcomings have trickled down to Luukkonen, who has an 8-8-3 record, 2.79 GAA and .903 save percentage in 20 starts despite a passable plus-2.6 goals saved above expected.

More than anything, Buffalo is inconsistent. Sometimes this group can click, which led to Buffalo looking like a potential contender for a playoff spot earlier in the campaign, but other times they fall apart. Buffalo has lost its last eight games, dropping its record to 11-14-4.

That kind of inconsistency would be more forgivable if Buffalo was a rebuilding team, but is that still an appropriate definition for the Sabres? They certainly do still have younger players like defensemen Power and Byram, forwards Dylan Cozens and Zach Benson as well as goaltender Devon Levi honing his game in the minors. None of those five have celebrated their 24th birthday yet, so it’s reasonable to believe their game will continue to grow.

At the same time, Tuch and Thompson are already in their prime, albeit in the early stages at 28 and 27 years old, respectively. Dahlin is still young but also in his seventh campaign, so ideally this is a foundation that should have started to get results by now.

But those results never come. You could easily make an argument that this is a rebuilding team even with those three either in or approaching their prime, but you could have made the argument that basically every Sabres team over the last decade has been a rebuilding squad. At some point, you need to transition from rebuild.

It’s been nine years since Jack Eichel was selected as the No. 2 overall pick to be the Sabres’ future. It’s been six years since Dahlin was selected as the No. 1 overall pick to headline Buffalo’s defense. It’s been four years since Power was taken with the top pick, giving the Sabres a potentially amazing blue-line duo. It’s been three years since that relationship soured to the point where Buffalo traded him to Vegas.

Buffalo hasn’t participated in a single playoff game over that span. That’d be bad enough, but the drought dates back even further. When Buffalo was last a playoff team in 2011, Tomas Vanek was the Sabres’ leading scorer and Thompson’s age. Tyler Ennis was among the team’s promising young forwards while Tyler Myers was a sophomore coming off a Calder Trophy-winning campaign. Ryan Miller was in his prime, having won the Vezina Trophy the previous year. Lindy Ruff was the bench boss… well, actually, that’s true now too… but there were six bench bosses for Buffalo between Ruff’s tenure with the team that ended during the 2012-13 campaign and his current assignment with the team.

The Sabres’ playoff appearance drought is the longest in NHL history. That’s got to way on the team, and you have to wonder if it will eventually lead to talented players getting frustrated in Buffalo as it has for others in the past. Still, it’s not as if this is a doomed team.

As stated at the top, there are positives to be found in this roster, and the place we’re judging the Sabres from now might be at or near their low point. There’s still season enough for them to turn this thing around. If they don’t, there is still hope for the future with this young group…even if that promise feels a little hollow after so many other failed rebuild attempts.

Calgary Flames (Tue vs. BOS, Thu vs. OTT, Sat vs. CHI)

The Flames have just three games scheduled for next week, but all those contests are at home, and it’s a pretty favorable schedule. Boston, which the Flames will host Tuesday, did have a 7-2-0 stretch from Nov. 21-Dec. 7, but the Bruins’ have fallen back after big losses to Winnipeg and Seattle over their past two games. After facing the Bruins, Calgary will host Ottawa and Chicago on Thursday and Saturday, respectively. Neither of those adversaries are in a playoff position.

Jonathan Huberdeau’s eight-year, $84 million contract is looking like it might go down as one of the worst contracts in recent memory, but he’s at least hot at the moment, providing four goals and nine points across his past six appearances. Will he keep that up? It’s possible, but it’s hard to get too excited. His 11 goals and 21 points through 30 outings overall still puts him on pace to get 57 points, which isn’t bad, but it’s well below the type of numbers he put up in Florida. Additionally, he has a 21.6 shooting percentage compared to his career average of 12.5, so if anything, Huberdeau’s benefited from some good puck luck and is more likely to slow as the campaign progresses than maintain that overall scoring pace.

If Huberdeau has potentially overperformed, would Andrei Kuzmenko be at the other end of the spectrum? No one expects him to repeat his 39-goal, 74-point performance from 2022-23, but is his goal and 10 points through 28 outings in 2024-25 simply the result of bad luck? His 3.3 shooting percentage is unusually low, but I’m more concerned about his decline in shots. He’s averaging just 4.1 shots/60, down from 6.8 last year.

Of his 30 shots this campaign, 19 have been fired from high-danger locations, which does put him ahead of the league average for forwards of 12.8, so that is a little bit of a silver lining. He’s on track for 52 high-danger shots this campaign, which would be down from 60 last year, a drop of 13.3 percent, whereas his overall shot total is on track to finish at 82, compared to 121 in 2023-24, a decline of 32.2 percent. So a deeper dive suggests things might not be quite as bad as they seem -- at least in terms of shot quality -- but it’s still not good, just less bad.

It's fair to believe that Kuzmenko’s shooting percentage will climb as the campaign progresses, but unless he starts getting a bit more aggressive with the puck, I wouldn’t count on him putting up numbers sufficient to give him relevance in the majority of fantasy leagues.

We might see better from Nazem Kadri, though, at least relative to his current point pace. He has 10 goals and 19 points in 30 appearances this campaign, which is a far cry from his 75-point showing in 2023-24. Kadri has been a steady contributor recently, though, supplying five goals and 11 points through his past 13 outings. He’s not a safe bet to reach the 70-point milestone again, but he was getting significantly fewer assists than is normal early in the campaign, and that seems to be balancing out and is likely to continue to do so. There’s a good chance he’ll finish the season as Calgary’s scoring leader.

Colorado Avalanche (Mon @ VAN, Thu @ SJS, FRI @ ANA, Sun vs. SEA)

The Avalanche will start next week on the road, playing in Vancouver on Monday, San Jose on Thursday and Anaheim on Friday. Colorado will then conclude the week by hosting the Kraken.

Colorado acquired Mackenzie Blackwood along with Givani Smith and a 2027 fifth-round pick from San Jose in exchange for Alexandar Georgiev, Nikolai Kovalenko, a 2025 fifth-round pick and a 2026 second-round selection.

With Blackwood on side, the Avalanche have now completely changed their goaltending tandem. They started with Georgiev and Justus Annunen, and now have Blackwood and Scott Wedgewood. The 32-year-old Wedgewood started the campaign with Nashville, posting a 1-2-1 record, 3.69 GAA and .878 save percentage through five appearances, but he’s done far better since joining the Avalanche, going 3-2-0 with a 1.92 GAA and a .931 save percentage across five outings. Of course, that’s a small sample size, and Wedgewood typically hasn’t been more than an acceptable backup goaltender, so Blackwood will be needed too.

For his part, Blackwood had a 6-9-3 record, 3.00 GAA and .909 save percentage in 19 appearances with the Sharks before the trade. He has a plus-3.9 goals saved above expected this campaign, per Moneypuck, so he’s been solid when factoring out the Sharks’ defense. Speaking of that defense, San Jose ranks 29th in xGA/60 (3.36) while Colorado is 13th (2.95). That should lead to Blackwood putting up meaningfully better numbers post-trade, and naturally, his winning percentage should improve too now that he has the likes of Nathan MacKinnon, Mikko Rantanen and defenseman Cale Makar providing him with goal support.

Having Valeri Nichushkin and Artturi Lehkonen naturally helps too. That duo wasn’t available at the start of the campaign, but they’re in the lineup now, providing some critical secondary scoring. Nichushkin and Lehkonen have each supplied four goals through six games in December. They won’t match MacKinnon and Rantanen in terms of points, but they’re fantastic for Colorado to have on the top six.

Edmonton Oilers (Mon vs. FLA, Thu vs. BOS, Sat vs. SJS, Sun vs. OTT)

The Oilers will be at home next week, hosting the Panthers on Monday, the Bruins on Thursday, the Sharks on Saturday and the Senators on Sunday. Edmonton has been fantastic recently, winning seven of its past eight games to improve to 17-10-2 on the campaign, so the Oilers will be looking to stay hot.

Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl have unsurprisingly been a major factor in Edmonton’s recent success, providing 15 points (five goals) and 14 points (six), respectively, over their past eight games. Vasily Podkolzin (three goals, five points) and Connor Brown (one goal, five points) have been less expected contributors. Podkolzin has benefited from playing in a top-six role, but he still might lose that job once Viktor Arvidsson (undisclosed) is available. It would be a little surprising if Arvidsson, who has been out since Nov. 12, returned next week, but he has resumed skating and might attend a team practice soon.

As for Brown, while there was some hope of him playing alongside his old OHL teammate, McDavid, when he first joined the Oilers, that’s never panned out. The 30-year-old has been playing strictly in a bottom-six capacity and has received almost no power-play time this campaign, so while his four goals and 10 points through 29 appearances aren’t bad under the circumstances, Brown isn’t in a position to increase that scoring pace.

In goal, Stuart Skinner has stabilized after a rough start to the campaign, posting a 4-1-0 record, 1.41 GAA and .947 save percentage across his past five starts. He had a similar track in 2023-24 with a rocky opening to the season followed by mostly strong play beyond that, so perhaps history is repeating.

Florida Panthers (Mon @ EDM, Wed @ MIN, Fri vs. STL, Sun vs. TBL)

Florida will open next week with road games against Edmonton and Minnesota on Monday and Wednesday, respectively. The Panthers will then host the Blues on Friday and play in Tampa Bay on Sunday.

Matthew Tkachuk was one of the hottest forwards in the league from Nov. 19-Dec. 7, supplying six goals and 19 points across 10 appearances. However, he’s been held off the scoresheet in each of his last two outings, so while he’s a fantastic forward regardless, his latest hot streak might be over.

To be fair, though, Florida as a squad has managed just one goal (excluding the shootout) over its past two games, so it’s not just Tkachuk who has cooled off. That’s just a mini-slump on the Panthers’ end, but Anton Lundell has been cold for longer. He hasn’t recorded a point across his past five appearances, leaving him at eight goals and 19 points through 29 outings in 2024-25.

Most of Lundell’s success came from an amazing start to the campaign in which he recorded six goals and 14 points in 14 appearances, but he was also averaging 18:49 of ice time. By contrast, he’s dropped to two goals and five points over his past 15 games and his average during that stretch is 15:39. The 23-year-old is capable, but when everyone is healthy, he typically serves on the third line, which limits his fantasy impact. If injuries result in him moving up to the top six, then he could be a great short-term play.

Los Angeles Kings (Tue @ PIT, Thu @ PHI, Sat @ NSH, Sun @ WSH)

The Kings have a full schedule with four games on the docket next week and just one of their upcoming opponents (the Capitals) occupy a playoff spot. The downside is the Kings will be on the road for the entire week. They’ll play in Pittsburgh on Tuesday, Philadelphia on Thursday, Nashville on Saturday and Washington on Sunday.

When looking at the Kings’ campaign thus far, the player who has most impressed me is Anze Kopitar with his eight goals and 32 points through 29 appearances. We’re currently in a time where several forwards have excelled well past their prime -- Alex Ovechkin and Sidney Crosby being the most obvious examples -- so Kopitar’s longevity has flown under the radar somewhat. The fact that he remains an effective playmaker at the age of 37, is still impressive, though. It wouldn’t be surprising at this point to see him reach the 70-point mark for the 10th time in his career.

Alex Laferriere was nearing his sixth birthday when Kopitar made his NHL debut, but the two are in their second campaign together and the sophomore Laferriere has been coming into his own with 12 goals and 22 points in 29 contests this season. Laferriere has continued to be a steady contributor lately, collecting three goals and seven points across his past seven games.

However, I am a little worried about Laferriere’s 20.0 shooting percentage. That seems rather high and his PDO of 1033 is a touch up there too, which suggests he has been getting a bit of puck luck. I don’t expect a crash, but his goal-scoring pace will likely decline somewhat.

Adrian Kempe’s shooting percentage of 17.9 is on the higher side too. Kempe did have a 16.4 shooting percentage in 2022-23 when he finished with 41 markers, so he’s not too far above his career high, but it’s still a notable step above his career average of 12.7. Like Laferriere, I don’t expect Kempe to collapse, but a small decline might be in his future. Kempe does have 14 goals and 28 points in 29 outings overall.

New Jersey Devils (Tue @ STL, Thu @ CBJ, Sat vs. PIT)

The Devils are set to play just three games next week, but the competition is favorable, so I decided to highlight them. New Jersey will play in St. Louis on Tuesday and Columbus on Thursday before hosting the Penguins on Saturday.

The Devils have a commanding 19-10-3 record compared to their mediocre 38-39-5 finish to 2023-24 and the difference is almost entirely at their end of the ice. New Jersey is allowing just 2.66 goals per game, which is a huge drop from 3.43 last year. But how much of that is thanks to Jacob Markstrom?

The Devils had an xGA/60 of 3.26 last campaign, which suggests that they were a poor defensive team independent of their goaltending. Kaapo Kahkonen and Jake Allen largely held their own with a plus-1.4 and minus-1.9 goals saved above expected, but when the defense is that bad, merely being okay leads to bad results. The Devils also employed Nico Daws, Akira Schmid and Vitek Vanecek, who did even worse by that metric.

Markstrom was brought in over the summer to stabilize the situation, but much like Kahkonen before him, he’s been acceptable, but not brilliant, posting a plus-1.5 goals saved above expected through 22 appearances. The difference is the Devils have burdened their goaltenders far less in 2024-25, as evidenced by their 2.70 xGA/60.

So, while Markstrom certainly hasn’t been a problem, he hasn’t necessarily been their savior. Either way, fantasy managers have can reap the benefits of Markstrom playing in a favorable situation, which has resulted in him posting a 14-6-2 record, 2.41 GAA and .906 save percentage. He’s also hot going into this week with a 3-0-1 record, 1.48 GAA and .933 save percentage over his past four outings.

Allen has been dealing with an upper-body injury, and the Devils’ schedule is spread out enough to allow Markstrom to start in all three games next week. Isaac Poulter will be with New Jersey for the duration of Allen’s injury, but Poulter is unlikely to get a start. The 23-year-old Poulter has struggled in the AHL this campaign with a 3.32 GAA and an .871 save percentage across nine appearances.

Poulter not getting playing time isn’t surprising, but it was a bit eyebrow-raising to see Tomas Tatar out of the lineup Thursday. Perhaps it shouldn’t be, though. Tatar has averaged just 10:41 of ice time this campaign, which is a far cry from even two seasons ago when he logged 15:07 per game. The Devils are a deep team, and it seems like there’s not much of a role for him. I’d be interested to see what would happen if the Devils traded the 34-year-old. He’s on a one-year, $1.8 million contract, so he’s movable, but New Jersey might ultimately decide that they’d rather have him on board as an insurance policy against injuries. If Tatar does find himself in a middle-six role, he might do enough offensively to have some fantasy relevance. As it is, he’s a non-factor in most leagues.

Seattle Kraken (Tue vs. OTT, Thu @ CHI, Sat @ VGK, Sun @ COL)

Seattle will host Ottawa on Tuesday, but the Kraken will spend the remainder of next week on the road, playing in Chicago on Thursday, Vegas on Saturday and Colorado on Sunday.

The Kraken have largely held their own this campaign without being anything special, posting a 15-14-2 record. Joey Daccord has been a major highlight with a 12-6-2 record, 2.42 GAA and .916 save percentage through 20 appearances. We just talked about how Markstrom is benefiting from plenty of support, but Daccord has had to do much more to keep the Kraken afloat. They are tied for 24th in xGA/60 (3.14) and are tied for 16th in goals per game (3.03). For his part, Daccord’s plus-9.2 in goals saved above expected ranks seventh in the league.

Seattle’s offense is mediocre in part because it lacks star power. Through Friday’s action, 48 players have scored at least 12 goals and none of them play for the Kraken. Seattle’s points leader, Jared McCann, (11 goals, 15 assists), is also outside of the top 47 in that category. The Kraken have nine players who have recorded at least five goals, which is respectable -- the league average is 7.7 per team -- but without a star leading the charge, the offense is still just okay.

Maybe Shane Wright will eventually fill that role. Taken with the No. 4 overall pick in the 2022 NHL Draft, Wright had just a goal and an assist through his first 18 appearances in 2024-25. Then he spent three games as a healthy scratch from Nov. 17-23, and that seemed to do him plenty of good. He’s managed six goals and 11 points across 10 outings since that stint in the press box.

The 22-year-old Matty Beniers has promise too. He had 24 goals and 57 points as a rookie in 2022-23 but took a step back in 2023-24 with 15 goals and 37 points. The 2024-25 campaign has been a mixed bag -- he has four goals and 17 points in 31 games -- but he’s done well recently with seven assists across his past seven appearances.

Vancouver Canucks (Mon @ COL, Wed @ UTA, Thu @ VGK, Say vs. OTT)

The Canucks will split next week between two games at home (Monday vs. the Avalanche and Saturday vs. the Senators) and two road tilts (Wednesday in Utah and Thursday in Vegas). The Canucks are 15-8-5, which is pretty good, but in a tough Pacific Division, that’s only good for fourth place.

Going into the campaign, it wasn’t clear if Vancouver would be able to hold its own without starting goaltender Thatcher Demko, who was dealing with a knee injury. Fortunately for the Canucks, Kevin Lankinen stepped up and now has a 14-4-3 record, 2.52 GAA and .912 save percentage across 21 outings.

Lankinen became the clear starter during Demko’s absence, but his role is less clear after Demko made his return. The 29-year-old Demko made his season debut Tuesday, though he left something to be desired, stopping 21 of 25 shots en route to a 4-3 overtime loss to St. Louis. That was followed by Lankinen posting a 27-save shutout Thursday.

We shouldn’t judge Demko based on only one start, but it might take him some time to shake off the rust. With Vancouver’s upcoming schedule relatively full, the Canucks will probably split the workload between Lankinen and Demko, which will give the latter more time to get eased in. If Lankinen keeps playing like he has been, and Demko eventually finds his rhythm, then Vancouver would have a great 1A/1B situation on its hands.

The Canucks also got J.T. Miller back, who was absent for 10 games due to personal reasons. He looked good in his return Thursday, providing two assists, including one on the power play. Now that he’s back, Pius Suter is likely to serve in a reduced capacity. During Miller’s 10-game absence, Suter had five goals and nine points while averaging 18:14 of ice time, but Suter dropped to 15:15 on Thursday and wasn’t used at all with the man advantage for the first time since Nov. 14. If you’ve been enjoying Suter’s recent success, now might be the time to explore your alternatives.

NHL: DADOUN – THE FANTASY WEEK AHEAD (November 4th to November 11th – Oilers face challenges early, while Knights soar out the gate

Ryan Dadoun — Sat, 02 Nov 2024 16:35:39 +0000

Edmonton Oilers Center Leon Draisaitl (29) (Photo by Curtis Comeau/Icon Sportswire)

At the end of October last year, Edmonton was in a sorry state with a 2-5-1 record, and the squad posted a 2-8-1 record by the 11-game mark. Of course, we know about the turnaround the Oilers managed, but in that context, Edmonton’s 5-5-1start this year doesn’t seem so bad. It’s not good either, though, and there are some areas that need to be improved upon if Edmonton is to live up to its lofty expectations.

Surprisingly, Edmonton hasn’t managed to reliably score this campaign. The Oilers managed two or fewer goals in each of their six losses (including the overtime defeat), and they never scored more than four goals in any of their first 10 games. That issue was compounded Monday when they lost Connor McDavid for the next 2-3 weeks due to an ankle injury. To their credit, Edmonton responded with a clean 5-1 win over Nashville on Thursday, but we’ll have to see if the Oilers can build off that strong win.

Calvin Pickard was in net for that victory, improving to 3-1-0 with a 2.47 GAA and an .897 save percentage across nine outings. It was his second start in three games and that increase in playing time is understandable when contrasted against Stuart Skinner’s rough 3.51 GAA and .872 save percentage across seven outings. Skinner had a rough start to 2023-24 only to rebound, so don’t count him out yet, but his shaky play has been the other big reason behind Edmonton’s mediocre start. If he doesn’t start improving, it would put Edmonton in a very vulnerable spot -- Pickard has outperformed him thus far, but the 32-year-old isn’t expected to be a good long-term starter option, especially for a team with Stanley Cup aspirations.

Edmonton isn’t the only team portrayed as being a Cup contender who has underwhelmed early, but one major contender who has largely shone in the early going is Vegas with its 7-3-1 start. Not everything is rosy for the Golden Knights -- Adin Hill’s 3.20 GAA and .878 save percentage through six appearances don’t look much more appealing than Skinner’s results -- but those issues have been masked by Vegas’ offense, led by its top line.

At the time of writing, Mark Stone is tied for the lead league in points with 19 (five goals) through 11 games while Jack Eichel isn’t far behind with three goals and 16 points in 11 outings. Those two are fairing better than expected, but the thing that’s really held Vegas back in recent years -- at least as far as the regular season goes -- is injuries to key players in general, and those two in particular. If those two can stay healthy this time, it’ll be interesting to see if the duo continues to make their presence known among the league’s scoring leaders.

Speaking of, you’d have to go back to when the two were still rookies to find the last time Eichel ended a season with more points than McDavid. Excluding their first campaigns, McDavid’s single-season low of 97 points is better than Eichel’s career high of 82. It’s way too early to suggest that Eichel will finish above McDavid in the scoring race, but we’ll see what the future holds.

Calgary Flames (Tue @ MTL, Thu @ BOS, Sat @ BUF)

The Flames won their first four games of the campaign, but that hot start has been erased, to the point where they’re 5-4-1 at the time of writing. They’ll be on the road next week, but the silver lining is they’ll be facing middling squads in Montreal on Tuesday and Buffalo on Saturday. Their contest in Boston on Thursday also might not be as difficult as it would appear at first glance. The Bruins are among the teams who underperformed in October, finishing the month with a 4-6-1 record.

Speaking of disappointment, the change of scenery hasn’t helped Anthony Mantha much. It looked like he might play a big role with the Flames, especially after head coach Ryan Huska suggested in September that Mantha’s goal for the 2024-25 should be to fire 300 shots. If we’re talking about shots on goal, then that would shatter his previous career high of 198 set in 2018-19 -- even if it were just shot attempts, then 300 would be his most since 2018-19 and a massive jump from his 219 last year. Instead, Mantha has just nine SOG through 10 games, and while three of those have gone in, it's still leagues less aggressive than the stated goal. Mantha also already moved around the lineup a fair amount, making it hard to pin down what his role with the team is. At best, it seems he’s a middle-six forward and is currently on course to put up something similar to the 23 goals and 44 points he recorded between Washington and Vegas last year -- not bad, but not what the preseason talk suggested might be possible.

One player he has seen a decent amount of ice time with is Jonathan Huberdeau, who looks good so far with four goals and seven points across 10 appearances, but those numbers don’t hold up to even the lightest of scrutiny. He had a good start with three goals and six points through four outings, largely thanks to a four-point game Oct. 12, but Huberdeau has been limited to just one point (a goal) across his past six appearances. Unfortunately, this might not be the bounce-back campaign despite that one big game.

On a more positive note, this might be a good sophomore season for Connor Zary. He has two goals and seven points through 10 appearances and his production has been far more evenly spread out than Huberdeau’s. The 23-year-old Zary is among the Flames more promising young forwards and seeing him start to come into his own gives Calgary some cause for cautious optimism.

Carolina Hurricanes (Tue vs. PHI, Thu vs. PIT, Sat @ COL)

The Hurricanes will open the week by hosting the Flyers on Tuesday and the Penguins on Thursday before heading to Colorado for a match Saturday. None of those adversaries have a winning record at the time of writing, though the Avalanche do still have the potential to be a great team this year.

Injuries are a big part of the reason Colorado has that subpar record. Carolina has had far better luck in that regard, though the Hurricanes aren’t completely immune. Frederik Andersen sustained a lower-body injury, and while it initially sounded like it might not be serious, he’s now regarded as week-to-week. The 35-year-old has an incredible 16-3-0 record, 1.77 GAA and .933 save percentage across the past two seasons, but sadly he can’t seem to stay healthy.

With Andersen once again out, Pyotr Kochetkov will be leaned on heavily. He has a poor .891 save percentage in 2024-25, but the Hurricanes are a top-tier team when it comes to supporting their goaltenders -- despite that save percentage, he has a solid 2.61 GAA and a great 4-1-0 record. Spencer Martin was summoned from AHL Chicago to be the understudy, but he hasn’t gotten into a game yet and probably won’t next week given the Hurricanes’ spread-out schedule.

Carolina is also still missing Riley Stillman, who opened the season on the non-roster injured list. Stillman has started to practice, though, so he might not be too far off from returning. The question is if his availability will shake up Carolina’s current top six. Perhaps Sean Walker or Jalen Chatfield will spend the occasional game in the press box, but it’s entirely feasible that Stillman will simply be the seventh defenseman once healthy, only being inserted into the lineup in the event of an injury or blueliner needing a day off.

Brent Burns probably won’t be someone who gets much in the way of rest days, but age might be catching up to the 39-year-old. He has just three assists through nine appearances this season, albeit with those points coming during a recent three-game scoring streak from Oct. 24-28. Most notably, he doesn’t have any points yet with the man advantage. I was concerned that the presence of Shayne Gostisbehere would lead to Burns getting a reduced role on the power play, and it seems that has proven to be the case. Gostisbehere has roughly double the amount of power-play minutes so far while recording three goals and five points with the man advantage -- nine points overall through nine outings.

Columbus Blue Jackets (Tue @ SJS, Sat @ LAK, Sun vs. ANA)

The Blue Jackets have done better than expected so far, posting a 5-3-1 record in October. They’ll try to keep that going next week with road games against the Sharks on Tuesday, the Kings on Saturday and the Ducks on Sunday.

Kirill Marchenko has played a significant part in the Blue Jackets’ early success, supplying four goals and 11 points through nine appearances. He’s developed chemistry with summer addition Sean Monahan, who has five goals and nine points through nine outings.

Cole Sillinger has also really stood up lately. Taken with the No. 12 overall pick in the 2021 NHL Draft, Sillinger was fairly quiet offensively over his first three campaigns, but this has the makings to be a breakout campaign after he recorded two goals and eight points across his opening nine games. He’s been particularly effective recently, providing a goal and four points over his past two outings, so we’ll see if he can build off that momentum next week.

However, if you’re looking for the hottest member of the Blue Jackets, that would have to be Elvis Merzlikins. He was stunning against Edmonton and the Islanders on Monday and Wednesday, respectively, stopping a combined 57 of 58 shots over that stretch. He largely served as Daniil Tarasov’s understudy to start the campaign, but Tarasov has a 3.42 GAA and an .886 save percentage through five outings, so there’s an opportunity here for Merzlikins to wrestle back the starting job if he continues to perform well.

Los Angeles Kings (Mon @ NAS, Tue @ MIN, Thu vs. VAN, Sat vs. CBJ)

The Kings have a busy week ahead of them. They’ll start with road matches in Nashville on Monday and Minnesota on Tuesday before returning home to host the Canucks on Thursday and the Blue Jackets on Saturday.

Los Angeles has a 6-3-2 record, and Kevin Fiala has been part of that initial success. It hasn’t been all good news for him -- he logged just 10:12 on Oct. 26 because he took some bad penalties and was a healthy scratch Wednesday after missing a team meeting -- but Fiala is nevertheless off to a strong start with five goals and eight points in 10 appearances, including a two-point showing in his return from the press box. If he can avoid getting into too much trouble with coach Jim Hiller, Fiala is a serious contender to reach the 70-point mark for the fourth consecutive campaign.

Hiller has every reason to like Brandt Clarke’s recent play. The 21-year-old defenseman has an incredible seven points (one goal) across his past four outings. It helps that Clarke is a part of the Kings’ top power-play unit -- five of his 11 points through 11 appearances in 2024-25 have come with the man advantage. Clarke might still lose that power-play spot when Drew Doughty is ready to return from his ankle injury, but Doughty isn’t expected to be back anytime soon -- he was declared month-to-month when he underwent surgery in early October -- so that’s not something that needs to be thought about too hard right now.

It is impressive that the Kings have done so well without Doughty. Having a young blueliner like Clarke capable of stepping up helps, but having a steady captain like Anze Kopitar is another key component. The 37-year-old hasn’t slowed with age, collecting four goals and 12 points through 11 games this year. He led the Kings to victory over the Golden Knights with a three-point showing Wednesday that included Kopitar’s 800th career assist. He’s just the 35th player to ever hit that milestone, and with the way he’s performing, perhaps he’ll even hit 900 before it’s time to hang up his skates -- just 20 players have ever done that. Kopitar is in the first season of a two-year, $14 million contract, though he’d probably need to play through the 2026-27 campaign to hit that next milestone.

Minnesota Wild (Tue vs. LAK, Thu @ SJS, Fri @ ANA, Sun @ CHI)

As noted above, Minnesota is set to host the Kings on Tuesday. Afterward, the Wild will begin a road trip with stops in San Jose on Thursday, Anaheim on Friday and Chicago on Sunday.

Despite playing seven of their first nine games on the road, the Wild are off to an incredible 6-1-2 start. Filip Gustavsson has been a big part of that initial success, posting a 4-1-1 record, 2.17 GAA and .922 save percentage across six starts. That’s a big turnaround from his 2023-24 campaign (3.06 GAA, .899 save percentage) and puts him more in line with how he did in 2022-23 (2.10 GAA, .931 save percentage).

Kirill Kaprizov is the other major reason for Minnesota’s strong start. He has five goals and 18 points through nine games and is showing no signs of slowing down. He ended October on a six-game multi-point streak in which he has provided four goals and 14 points. No other Wild player comes close to matching Kaprizov’s recent offensive output, though defenseman Jacob Middleton is on a four-game scoring streak that’s seen him provide a goal and five assists.

To make matters better for the Wild, Jared Spurgeon was able to return Tuesday after missing six straight games due to a lower-body injury. His return will likely lead to Declan Chisholm and Jon Merrill spending the occasional game in the press box.

One thing Spurgeon probably won’t do a lot of is contribute offensively. He has reached the 40-point mark as recently as 2021-22, but the 34-year-old is going to be serving on the second power-play unit as best thanks to the rise of sophomore Brock Faber. Instead, Spurgeon’s best category might end up being blocks. He ranked sixth with 179 blocks in 2022-23, which was the last season he was mostly healthy.

Nashville Predators (Mon vs. LAK, Wed @ WSH, Thu @ FLA, Sat vs. UTA)

After starting the campaign 0-5-0, Nashville has started to recover but remains a poor 3-6-1. The Predators will attempt to make up for lost ground next week, starting with Monday’s home game against the Kings. Nashville will spend the remainder of the week on the road, facing Washington on Wednesday, Florida on Thursday and Utah on Saturday.

The Predators are still waiting for Steven Stamkos to start playing like the star he was in Tampa Bay. Stamkos did get two assists against his former team in Monday’s 3-2 overtime loss, but that’s about all the life he’s shown. The 34-year-old has a goal and three points through 10 appearances. He also has a minus-8 rating, which is tied for the fourth worst on the team. If there’s a silver lining, it’s that he’s been taking a ton of shots -- 32 so far -- so it should be just a matter of time before they start going in.

Nashville’s other major summer addition, Jonathan Marchessault, is also struggling to find the back of the net. Not many people expected Marchessault to repeat his 42-goal showing from 2023-24, especially because his 15.8 shooting percentage was a career high outside of 2014-15 in which he logged just two games. Still, if Marchessault was a bit on the lucky side last year, he’s gotten terrible luck in 2024-25, providing just two goals on 35 shots so far. He does at least have four assists to go with it, so his struggles haven’t been as notable as Stamkos’, but there’s still a lot of room for growth here.

Stamkos and Marchessault might have struggled for long enough now that they’d be solid buy-low candidates in fantasy. Perhaps you could put Juuse Saros in that group too. He’s also off to a rough start with a 2-5-1 record, 3.04 GAA and .896 save percentage across eight appearances. He did underwhelm somewhat in 2023-24 as well, finishing with a 2.86 GAA and a .906 save percentage, but at the very least, if you believe that Stamkos and Marchessault have underperformed, which seems reasonable, then there’s reason to believe that Saros should be a better source of wins as the campaign progresses.

New Jersey Devils (Mon @ EDM, Thu vs. MTL, Sat @ NYI, Sun vs. SJS)

The Devils played more games than any other team, 13, in October and their schedule will stay full next week. They’ll play in Edmonton on Monday, host the Canadiens on Thursday, face the Islanders in a road game Saturday and then end the week at home against the Sharks on Sunday.

Luke Hughes missed the first nine games of the season due to a shoulder injury, but the 21-year-old blueliner returned Oct. 24. He didn’t, however, get his 2023-24 assignment back. He’s averaged 18:06 of ice time, including a modest 0:55 with the man advantage, though four appearances. Hughes served primarily on the top power-play unit last season, but that was with Dougie Hamilton unavailable. Now that both defensemen are healthy, it seems Hamilton will serve on the first unit while Hughes will play on the second. That’s a major blow to Hughes’ fantasy value -- 25 of his 47 points last season came with the man advantage.

Even if Hughes was on the top power-play and gelling, though, he wouldn’t be the headline act in New Jersey right now. That’s unquestionably Nico Hischier, who has provided an unreal nine goals and 13 points across his past nine games, bringing him up to 15 points (10 goals) through 13 outings in 2024-25. Hischier finished October on a four-game goal-scoring streak. His current goal pace won’t last obviously -- his 22.7 shooting percentage for 2024-25 would shatter his career high if it lasted the full campaign -- but he is a high-end talent who could reasonably surpass the 30-goal and 80-point milestones this season.

The Devils have kept Hischier and Jack Hughes primarily on separate lines at even strength to give the team a strong one-two punch. Hughes is rolling too with three goals and seven points across his past five outings, giving him four goals and 12 points in 13 appearances this year. The Devils are even getting decent production out of their third line with Erik Haula supplying four goals and eight points through 13 outings.

New Jersey was 7-4-2 in October. The Devils do have some areas of concern -- Jacob Markstrom has been a step up from their goaltenders last year, but he’s also had some notably rough nights, which has left him with a mild .903 save percentage in 2024-25 -- but they do look like a team that should stay strong this year.

Vancouver Canucks (Tue @ ANA, Thu @ LAK, Sat vs. EDM)

The Canucks can attest to the Devils’ strength after suffering a 6-0 loss to New Jersey on Wednesday. Vancouver dropped to 4-2-3 with that defeat but will be looking for better results during the upcoming week. The Canucks will play in Anaheim on Tuesday and LA on Thursday before hosting the Oilers on Saturday.

Vancouver could really use Thatcher Demko (knee). Kevin Lankinen has done well overall with a 2.29 GAA and a .920 save percentage in six starts, but he’s faltered recently, allowing 10 goals on 90 shots (.889 save percentage) across his past three outings. Meanwhile, Arturs Silovs has struggled with a record of 0-2-1 to go with an abysmal 5.00 GAA and .797 save percentage through three contests.

Demko has been skating and we have seen him on his own in full gear, but there’s nothing to indicate yet that he’s close to returning, so it seems Vancouver will have to rely on Lankinen and Silovs for a while longer.

If they get sufficient goal support, it might be fine. To that end, it would go a long way if Elias Pettersson could get into a rhythm. He had just one goal and four points through nine appearances in October. Some of you might be thinking back to 2021-22 when Pettersson started the campaign with six goals and 17 points in his first 37 games before turning a corner by providing 26 goals and 51 points in 43 outings the rest of the way. That example does show that Pettersson is both capable of prolonged cold stretches and recovering from them, though Vancouver will surely be hoping that it doesn’t take him nearly as long to get going in 2024-25.

It'd help if newcomer Jake DeBrusk got going too. He has just four assists in nine appearances with Vancouver after signing a seven-year, $38.5 million contract with Vancouver over the summer. The Canucks were believed to be interested in inking Jake Guentzel before he signed with Tampa Bay. DeBrusk was at least a cheaper alternative, but Vancouver probably wishes they hadn’t missed out on the pricier option -- Guentzel has four goals and 11 points through 10 outings in 2024-25.

MCKEEN’S 2024-25 NHL YEARBOOK – VANCOUVER CANUCKS – Team Preview

Tue, 17 Sep 2024 16:00:37 +0000

_{VANCOUVER, BC - NOVEMBER 06: Vancouver Canucks defenseman Quinn Hughes (43) waits for a face-off during an NHL game against the Edmonton Oilers at Rogers Arena on November 6, 2023 in Vancouver, B.C. (Photo by Ethan Cairns/Icon Sportswire)}

After managing just 83 points during the 2022-2023 season, the Canucks did not have great expectations going into the 2023-2024 campaign. However, the Canucks ultimately won the Pacific Division, accumulating 109 points (50-23-9). The Canucks were the beneficiaries of lofty percentages last season. During five-on-five play, Vancouver scored on 10.6% of its shots, the highest mark in the league. To their credit, the Canucks ranked seventh in both Corsi (52.8%) and expected goals percentage (53.2%), so the underlying numbers were positive indicators before the Canucks turned into such highly efficient finishers. The Vancouver power play ranked 12th with 8.18 goals per 60 minutes while the penalty killing unit ranked 19th with 7.64 goals against per 60 minutes. There is not much to be gained from those special teams results, so the Canucks enjoyed their success because of a strong possession game coupled with league-best finishing around the net.

WHAT’S CHANGED? The Canucks shuffled the deck this offseason, while keeping the core intact. They traded Ilya Mikheyev to Chicago to shed salary and moved the rights to Sam Lafferty in that same deal, though Lafferty ultimately signed with Buffalo. Players that the Canucks acquired last season moved on as free agents. Nikita Zadorov and Elias Lindholm both landed in Boston and Anthony Beauvillier signed in Pittsburgh. Defenceman Ian Cole signed with Utah and goaltender Casey DeSmith landed in Dallas. With all those bodies leaving, the Canucks signed left wingers Jake DeBrusk and Danton Heinen from Boston, as well as right wingers Daniel Sprong from Detroit and Kiefer Sherwood from Nashville. On defence, the Canucks inked Derek Forbort from Boston and Vincent Desharnais from Edmonton.

WHAT WOULD SUCCESS LOOK LIKE? After finishing in first place in the Pacific Division and taking the Edmonton Oilers to seven games in the second round, success will look different for the Canucks in 2024-2025. While they are prime candidates to experience regression from that lofty shooting percentage, they are going to have expectations that they will not only make the playoffs but at least win a round and maybe more. To have that kind of success, they will likely need to have their stars play like stars – Quinn Hughes, J.T. Miller, Elias Pettersson, and Thatcher Demko were all excellent last season, driving the team’s results.

WHAT COULD GO WRONG? The most glaring concern for the Canucks could be that they just stop scoring so easily. The Canucks scored on 10.6% of their shots during five-on-five play which was about two percent higher than league average. That would have a ripple effect throughout the lineup as players like Miller, Hughes, and Pettersson would all face uphill fights to maintain the same level of production. An injury to Hughes would pose a problem on a Vancouver defence that is not long on puck-moving talent, but Hughes has also been very durable, so it’s not like he should be expected to miss time.

TOP BREAKOUT CANDIDATE: Even though he scored 24 goals last season, Nils Hoglander is still a bona fide breakout candidate for the Canucks. Hoglander had a strong season, which included scoring on 20% of his shots on goal, which is not likely to carry over to a new season. On the other hand, Hoglander played just over 12 minutes per game last season and appears to be ticketed for a bigger role in 2024-2025. He could very well start on the left side of a line with J.T. Miller and Brock Boeser, and while it’s easy to say that Hoglander’s shooting percentage will come down, it’s just as easy to say that he will play more than 12 minutes per game in 2024-25. Getting more minutes, potentially with more skilled linemates, opens up Hoglander to having a bigger impact this season.

Forwards

Elias Pettersson

Predicted Stats
GP	G	A	PTS	PPG
82	40	59	99	1.21

Across the past two seasons, Pettersson has accumulated 191 points, which ranks tenth in the National Hockey League. Pettersson is a cerebral player who does not depend on physicality but always knows where to be on the ice and is ready to shoot when the opportunity presents itself. Pettersson has a terrific shot and can score from distance using a wrist shot or a one-timer, particularly on the power play. It is not easy to beat NHL goaltenders cleanly on a shot from distance, but Pettersson can do it, so allowing him the time and space to unleash that cannon is a bad decision from those defending against the Canucks centre. Pettersson delivers consistently strong possession numbers, and the Canucks have outscored the opposition every season during five-on-five play with Pettersson on the ice. Last season, they outscored the opposition 67-47 with Pettersson on the ice. He also showed marked improvement in the faceoff circle, winning 50.8 percent of his draws. It was the first season of Pettersson’s career that he won more than 45.0 percent of his faceoffs. He also recorded a career-high 125 hits and can surprise opponents when he suddenly steps into them with more authority. That seems to indicate a little more edge to Pettersson’s play and that should serve him well. He’s a finesse player and a really good one, but it helps if he can carve out more space to maneuver on the ice. Petterson has been able to stay healthy, missing a total of four games across the past three seasons, and has established that he can produce at better than a point-per-game clip. Looking ahead to 2024-2025, Pettersson should be able to score 35 goals and 85-90 points.

J.T. Miller

Predicted Stats
GP	G	A	PTS	PPG
82	34	64	98	1.20

After years of inconsistency, particularly on the defensive end, Miller set career highs with 37 goals and 103 points last season. He won 56.3 percent of his faceoffs and took 1,461 draws, the ninth-highest total in the league. Miller is a physically strong player who has grown increasingly comfortable using his size to add a physical presence. He has reached 200 hits in each of the past two seasons, and his 284 points across the past three seasons ranks tenth in the NHL, while his 108 power play points in that time ranks eighth. A centre that wins faceoffs, hits, and puts up elite point totals, Miller is one of the top players in the game when healthy. He has also not been caught dogging it on backchecks, an indiscretion that would creep into his game from time to time. Miller had an epic productive season in 2023-2024 while playing 19:29 per game, his lowest average time on ice since arriving in Vancouver for the 2019-2020 season. The 31-year-old is still going strong and should be counted on to score 30-35 goals and 90 points for Vancouver. On his way to a career-best scoring season in 2023-2024, Miller depended on a shooting percentage of 19.1 percent and an on-ice shooting percentage of 13.0 percent. It is highly unlikely that Miller can hit those thresholds again in 2024-2025.

Brock Boeser

Predicted Stats
GP	G	A	PTS	PPG
80	35	30	65	0.81

As the 2022-2023 season concluded, it looked like Boeser might have played his last game for the Canucks. They stuck with him, though, and were rewarded in a big way last season, when he set career high with 40 goals and 73 points. He followed that up with seven goals and 12 points in a dozen playoff games. That was the best season of his career. Boeser scored on 19.6 percent of his shots, easily the best mark of his career, so regression on the goal-scoring front seems inevitable, but that is expected. He had never scored 30 goals in a season before busting out for 40 last season. Boeser has good hands and goal-scorers instincts, but he does not generate a ton of shots and that can cause his goal-scoring to fluctuate, depending on what percentage of his shots beat the goalie. Boeser spent most of last season skating alongside Miller but the third member of their line rotated. Pettersson, Phil Di Giuseppe, Pius Suter, and Nils Hoglander all played more than 200 five-on-five minutes with Boeser. While Boeser figures to remain with Miller, Hoglander might have the inside track to play with them in 2024-2025. No matter who ends up in that spot, Boeser should deliver offence, and it would be reasonable to expect 30 goals and 60 points.

Jake DeBrusk

Predicted Stats
GP	G	A	PTS	PPG
82	32	28	60	0.73

Vancouver’s big free agent addition in the summer, DeBrusk has filled a complementary role in Boston for much of his career, finishing with between 40 and 50 points in five of his seven NHL seasons. In 2022-2023, DeBrusk set career highs with 27 goals and 50 points in just 64 games, and part of the reason for that success is that he was shooting the puck, finishing with a career-high 2.98 shots on goal per game. He is never going to be an intimidating presence like his father, but DeBrusk did record a career-high 107 hits last season. Goal scoring can be fickle, though. In DeBrusk’s case, he had one goal in his first 16 games last season, had one goal in another 15-game stretch, then had one goal in the last 10 games of the regular season. He then went on to tally five goals and 11 points in 13 playoff games. In Vancouver, the objective should be to get DeBrusk consistently into position to shoot and it looks like he could start the season skating with Elias Pettersson, who is more than capable of distributing the puck. That would give him a great chance to surpass his previous production. With skilled players around him, DeBrusk should have a chance to deliver 25 goals and 50 points in his first season with the Canucks.

Conor Garland

Predicted Stats
GP	G	A	PTS	PPG
82	22	29	51	0.62

A small but scrappy winger, Garland has been very consistent, ranging between 39 and 52 points over the past five seasons. He uses his speed to drive play and, in three seasons with the Canucks, Garland’s team has outscored the opposition by 45 goals when he is on the ice during five-on-five play. Under the radar, Garland also had a terrific defensive season in 2023-2024. Among forwards who played at least 500 five-on-five minutes, only eight had a lower rate of shot attempts against per 60 minutes, and six of those eight were Carolina Hurricanes. It was really a superb season, and while Garland has typically had positive possession numbers and strong goal differentials, his 2023-2024 season was dominant, the kind of underlying numbers that a player should strive to achieve, because it makes the eventual on-ice results more sustainable. Full credit to Garland for putting this season together, skating primarily with Teddy Blueger and Dakota Joshua, on a third line that outscored opponents 21-10 during five-on-five play. With that trio still in the fold, the Canucks will likely let them carry on doing their thing. Garland has established what his baseline for production is and he should be able to continue at that level in 2024-2025, picking up 15-20 goals and 45-50 points.

Danton Heinen

Predicted Stats
GP	G	A	PTS	PPG
78	18	17	35	0.45

Signed as a free agent from Boston, Heinen has bounced around quite a bit in his career. It seems that he ends up being an odd fit because he tends to play in the bottom six and does not offer the physicality that many coaches want out of a winger in the bottom six. Even so, Heinen finished last season with 17 goals and 36 points, his second highest totals in both categories. He also had 28 penalty minutes, the first time in his career that he finished a season with more than 16 penalty minutes. Heinen has good hands and does a nice job finding soft spots in the attacking zone. One of the benefits of having a player like Heinen playing lower on the depth chart is that he is entirely capable of moving up when needed, because he has the required skill to skate alongside talented linemates. Last season, in Boston, his most common linemates were David Pastrnak and Pavel Zacha, but Trent Frederic, Charlie Coyle, Morgan Geekie, and Jake DeBrusk all played more than 150 minutes with Heinen, and three more forwards landed between 100 and 150 minutes. That versatility can help the team but may not set Heinen up for a lofty projection because it means uncertainty about the impact that his role is expected to have on the Canucks season. A reasonable projection for 2024-2025 would see Heinen notch 15 goals and 30-35 points.

Dakota Joshua

Predicted Stats
GP	G	A	PTS	PPG
77	17	16	33	0.43

As a pending free agent last season, Joshua was starting to draw interest from other NHL teams and why not? The 6-foot-3 forward had already established his physical presence and had more than 200 hits for the second straight season, but he also set career highs with 18 goals and 32 points despite playing in just 63 games. He added another eight points in 13 playoff games, so it was no wonder that the Canucks did what they needed to do in order to keep Joshua. While there are plenty of positives to Joshua’s game, his statistical step forward was heavily dependent on lofty percentages. He scored on 21.4 percent of his shots on goal, after finishing on 13.5 percent of his shots in 121 games over the previous three seasons. He is a big-bodied forward who can be a net front presence, and those players tend to have higher shooting percentages, but he is still unlikely to duplicate 21 percent. He also had an on-ice shooting percentage of 10.1 percent, which is high, but six Canucks forwards had higher on-ice shooting percentages last season – that was part of the reason for Vancouver’s success. If Joshua can continue to have success with Blueger and Garland, that should include 15 goals and 30 points in 2024-2025.

Pius Suter

Predicted Stats
GP	G	A	PTS	PPG
75	13	14	27	0.36

The Canucks signed Suter last August, so there were modest expectations placed upon him and he probably delivered about what they could have expected, scoring 14 goals and 29 points in 67 games. Suter had a spectacular defensive campaign, with solid defensive metrics, but he also had a .940 on-ice save percentage so the Canucks outscored opponents 39-20 with Suter on the ice. Even with that lopsided goal differential, Suter is generally a low-key player. He is on the smaller side and skates well enough but is not outstanding at any one thing. It’s more a case of him being solid at a variety of parts to his game and he happened to thrive on good fortune last season, with his PDO at 104.8. It does appear that Suter could be on the fourth line this season, though he will likely compete with Blueger for ice time in the bottom half of the Canucks’ depth chart at centre. Suter did have a handful of power play points last season which earns him some credit for his skill level. For the 2024-2025 season, it is fair to expect Suter to contribute 15 goals and 30 points, which is not going to get him much fantasy relevance, but he has had spurts that could make him a viable short-term pick during the season, especially if he lands on the power play.

Nils Hoglander

Predicted Stats
GP	G	A	PTS	PPG
82	15	20	35	0.43

There have been ups and downs in the development path of Hoglander, a 23-year-old winger, but last season was a clear step up for him. He finished the season with career highs of 24 goals and 36 points, despite playing just 12:06 per game. How rare was that production? Auston Matthews and Zach Hyman were the only two players with a higher rate of goals per 60 minutes than Hoglander’s 1.58 last season. While Hoglander is not the biggest guy on the ice, he is solidly built and plays an aggressive physical style. He recorded 100 hits last season for the first time in his career and taking that aggressive approach on the forecheck helped to generate more chances. Like many Canucks forwards, Hoglander faces likely regression in 2024-2025 because it is so rare to carry a 104.8 PDO for more than one season. What he has going for him is that he could also add a decent amount of ice time to help offset the likely statistical settling. Hoglander has a chance to play at least in Vancouver’s top six, potentially even on the top line, so he should be looking at the most productive season of his career. Hoglander should be able to top the 20-goal mark again and could put up the first 40-point season of his career.

Daniel Sprong

Predicted Stats
GP	G	A	PTS	PPG
78	15	20	35	0.45

A rare commodity, Sprong has found a niche as a fourth line scoring winger, finding the net with incredible efficiency last season in Detroit and the year before that in Seattle. Across the past two seasons, there have been 373 forwards who have played at least 1000 five-on-five minutes. Of that group, Sprong ranked ninth with 1.26 goals per 60 minutes. He is in great company, including Auston Matthews, David Pastrnak, Jared McCann, Nathan MacKinnon, Brayden Point, Filip Forsberg, Nils Hoglander, and Carter Verhaeghe are ahead of him, while Zach Hyman is one spot behind. Sprong has always had a dangerous shot, but the battle has been getting him to deliver a well-rounded game that can earn him more significant ice time. The interesting choice facing the Canucks is what to do with Sprong. Do they give him a chance to play more minutes higher up the depth chart? Probably, yes. But they might just be able to roll him out in a fourth line role and still get the kind of production that he has delivered for the past two seasons. It is fair to expect 15-20 goals and 35-40 points from Sprong, with the caveat that if his ice time gets a substantial boost, then his ceiling for offensive production will get higher.

DEFENCE

Quinn Hughes

Predicted Stats
GP	G	A	PTS	PPG
80	15	75	90	1.13

The reigning Norris Trophy winner exploded for career highs of 17 goals, 75 assists, and 92 points last season. An exceptional skater, Hughes has always been an offensive threat, but his all-around game could be underrated, at least until he was named the league’s best defenceman. Among the 138 defencemen to play at least 1000 five-on-five minutes last season, only four had a lower rate of shot attempts against than Hughes. But Hughes really stands out as a puck moving defender who can turn a quick transition opportunity into an attack. While Hughes has acceleration and great edges that allow him to change direction quickly, the game also appears to have slowed down for him, so that he is processing it better than he did early in his career. Additionally, Hughes was more assertive offensively last season, taking more shots and generating more scoring chances than he ever had before. Essentially, he didn’t arrive at his career high in points by accident. Such is the natural evolution of an elite talent entering the prime of his career. Hughes is an excellent power play quarterback. Over the past three seasons, his 96 power play assists paced all defencemen and his 103 power play points left him tied with Cale Makar. It might be asking a lot for Hughes to duplicate his 2023-2024 production, especially considering he had a career-high on-ice shooting percentage of 12.1 percent last season, but he is probably not falling off a cliff in terms of productivity, either. He should still have a chance to push a point per game, with an 80-point season provided that he remains healthy, which has been a relative strength of his, not missing more than six games in any season.

Filip Hronek

Predicted Stats
GP	G	A	PTS	PPG
80	8	37	45	0.56

Hronek had established his credentials as a top pair NHL defencemen in Detroit and yet the Red Wings still moved him to Vancouver before the 2023 trade deadline. Hronek only played four games for the Canucks that season before he needed shoulder surgery, so they didn’t really get a good look at him. Last season, Hronek paired frequently with Hughes and the duo excelled. Obviously, Hughes got the accolades, but Hronek put up a career-best 48 points along with excellent play driving numbers while logging more than 23 minutes per game. Hronek has excellent puck skills, can make a good pass and owns a rocket shot from the point. He also handles the puck well and it makes him a strong complement to Hughes. On this pairing, Hronek is also the one tasked with more stay-at-home responsibilities, and while he is not a devastating physical force, he is comfortable getting involved and has gone over 100 hits in back-to-back seasons. Signed to an eight-year contract, for $58 million, Hronek has long-term security in Vancouver and as the partner to the Norris Trophy winner, he is poised to be a valuable piece on the Vancouver blueline for years. So long as he stays healthy, Hronek should be able to contribute 45 points to the Vancouver attack in 2024-2025.

Tyler Myers

Predicted Stats
GP	G	A	PTS	PPG
77	4	21	25	0.32

For many years, Myers took criticism for all of the things that he wasn’t, as he was not an effective play-driving defenceman making him big money, but the value in Myers now is based on a more reasonable contract that brings more reasonable expectations. At 6-foot-8, Myers is not a crushing physical presence, but skates extraordinarily well for a player of that size. That can get short-circuited by poor decision making at times and that’s why Myers had brought more appeal in a secondary role. He chipped in 29 points last season, his highest total since 2018-2019 and he did that while starting more of his shifts in the defensive zone. Now 34-years-old, Myers has finally reached the point of lower expectations. He played 18:57 per game in 2023-2024, the lowest average time on ice of his career, and it was only the second time in his career that he surpassed 100 his and 100 blocked shots in the same season. That does not put Myers in a very valuable place for fantasy managers but given the other alternatives in Vancouver, Myers picking up 20-25 points with triple digit hits and blocked shots might hold a little appeal in deep leagues.

GOAL

Thatcher Demko

Predicted Stats
GP	W	L	OT	SO	SV%	GAA
56	33	16	6	4	0.915	2.51

It only took them the better part of a decade, but Canada's westernmost NHL club has finally seemed to have arrived - and leading the charge is none other than Thatcher Demko, who spent the 2023-24 season reminding the league that he belongs in the conversation with the Connor Hellebuycks and the Jeremy Swaymans, the Igor Shesterkins and the Andrei Vasilevskiys. His 0.918 unadjusted save percentage was bested only by Hellebuyck's own 0.921 among starters with more than 30 games last year, and his five shutouts helped a tumultuous Vancouver club finally start to find some even footing.

The real concern for Vancouver remains their number two spot; for yet another year they failed to see any other netminder post a save percentage topping the 0.900 threshold at the NHL level, and Demko remains a bit of a liability in the injury department. It's likely that their best option behind Demko is up-and-comer Arturs Silovs, but he has yet to prove himself at the NHL level and can suffer from bouts of inconsistent play and bad bounce-backs from tough goals against. That leaves Vancouver's goaltending in a position where it still doesn't inspire as much confidence as it deserves, even with a Vezina candidate manning the pipes the majority of the time. If Silovs can break onto the scene, though, and help stabilize the workload for Demko, the Canucks could become the most formidable team in the Pacific.

2024 NHL PLAYOFF PREVIEW – WESTERN CONFERENCE FINAL: Dallas Stars vs. Edmonton Oilers

Ryan Dadoun — Wed, 22 May 2024 12:27:02 +0000

DALLAS, TX - APRIL 03: Dallas Stars goaltender Jake Oettinger (29) catches the puck with his glove hand as Edmonton Oilers left wing Zach Hyman (18) looks on during the game between the Dallas Stars and the Edmonton Oilers on April 3, 2024 at American Airlines Center in Dallas, Texas. (Photo by Matthew Pearce/Icon Sportswire)

If there’s a common thread between Dallas and Edmonton, it’s that these are two teams that have looked strong for years, and had some strong playoff runs, but haven’t been quite able to convert. Neither squad has cemented their legacy with a championship, but at least one of them will be reaching the Stanley Cup Final this year.

If it’s Dallas, it will mark the third and potentially final trip for Joe Pavelski. He’ll turn 40 in July and is set to become an unrestricted free agent, so it’s reasonable to wonder if this is his last hurrah. Not that the Stars need added motivation to fight for a championship but allowing Pavelski to cap his storied career with the Cup after Pavelski’s first two trips to the finals ended in disappointment, would doubtlessly be something his teammates would love to provide him.

This also might be Dallas’ only run with Matt Duchene on their side. After being bought out by Nashville in the summer of 2023, Duchene signed a one-year, $3 million contract with Dallas that has proven to be a steal. He had 25 goals and 65 points in 80 regular-season contests, and he delivered in dramatic fashion when Duchene scored in double overtime in Game 6 against one of his former teams, the Colorado Avalanche, to punch Dallas’ ticket for the Western Conference Final. Duchene’s success might have priced him out of the Stars beyond this campaign, but for now, Dallas is happy to have him.

Pavelski and Duchene didn’t perform like superstars this year, but they speak to Dallas’ strength: Its depth. The Stars had nine players breach the 50-point mark in the regular season and eight finish with more than 20 goals. To put that into context, the average team had 4.2 players finish with above 50 points and 3.8 exceed 20 goals. Dallas’ incredible depth allowed the team to finish with 3.59 goals per game -- slightly ahead of Edmonton’s star-studded offense’s average of 3.56 -- despite lacking a single player in the top 25 of scoring or the top 30 in goals. The advantage is that Dallas is somewhat slump proof -- if a couple of their key players are cold, that’s fine because they have others who can step up.

It also means that Dallas will almost always have legitimate scoring threats on the ice to challenge goaltender Stuart Skinner, who has already looked mortal in the playoffs with his .890 save percentage across eight contests. He faced fierce competition in the first and second rounds between LA and Vancouver, respectively, but Dallas will be his greatest challenge yet.

Not that Stars goaltender Jake Oettinger is in for an easy time. Far from it. Leon Draisaitl and Connor McDavid aren’t just two of the best forwards of this era, they’re also some of the best playoff performers of all time. That’s not hyperbole. If you look at the all-time greatest postseason players by points per game (min. 10 playoff contests), the rankings from first to fourth go Wayne Gretzky (1.84 PPG), Draisaitl (1.66), Mario Lemieux (1.61) and McDavid (1.57). Sure, Draisaitl and McDavid might see their average diminish later in their career, but the fact that Edmonton has not just one, but two players who can rise to that level is insane.

That Edmonton hasn’t won the Cup yet -- or even reached the finals -- with McDavid and Draisaitl speaks to the shortcomings of the Oilers’ front office for much of their tenure. Despite featuring of the most dominant duos of all time, Edmonton struggled to put a worthy team around them for years, and now, with Draisaitl’s contract set to expire in the summer of 2025 and McDavid’s in 2026, time might be running out.

The silver lining is that Edmonton has made real strides in recent years to build out its group. The Oilers have enjoyed the rise of Evan Bouchard, who ranked fourth among defensemen with 82 points (18 goals) in 81 regular-season games this season and has done even better in the playoffs with five goals and 20 points across 12 outings. Meanwhile, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Evander Kane and Zach Hyman provide the Oilers with some real scoring depth.

The Oilers even have some secondary scoring beyond that. Defenseman Mattias Ekholm, who has three goals and six points through 12 playoff outings, can be the hero every now and then. Warren Foegele has just two points in the 2024 postseason, but he finished the campaign with 20 goals, so opponents need to be wary of him. Similarly, Adam Henrique might have just a goal and an assist in six playoff appearances this year, but the veteran forward is a capable middle-six forward. Then there’s Corey Perry, who is more of an enforcer at the age of 39, but he has 206 career playoff contests under his belt and can chip in occasionally, so it’s entirely feasible that he makes his presence felt during this series.

Even Edmonton’s defense is arguably underrated. Edmonton’s xGA/60 in the playoffs ranks fourth at 2.64, and it tied for fourth in the regular season at 2.78. It often doesn’t feel that way because to start Skinner isn’t a safe bet in net, but the situation would be far worse for the Oilers if their defense didn’t pick up some of the slack.

It’s hard to make the argument that the Oilers are a complete team when they still have such a question mark between the pipes, but they’re far closer than they have been in years and have the benefit of growing from all their prior hardship, including the 2-9-1 start to 2023-24 that they managed to overcome.

Perhaps they’re finally ready to take the step to the Stanley Cup Final. The only trouble is that the Vegas Golden Knights and Colorado Avalanche were also teams worthy of the finals, not to mention recent Stanley Cup winners. They were both dispatched by Dallas. Can the Oilers succeed where those giants failed?

KEY MATCHUPS

Dallas vs. Connor McDavid/Leon Draisaitl

These are supposed to be player vs. player matchups, but while the Stars possess high-end forwards, they simply have no equivalent to McDavid and Draisaitl. Then again, they had no equivalent to the Avalanche’s Nathan MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen, and Dallas still won that series.

The goal for Dallas isn’t to completely silence Edmonton’s top duo -- that's simply unrealistic -- but rather to minimize the damage. In the second round, MacKinnon and Rantanen each recorded two goals and five points in six contests. Those are solid offensive numbers, but it’s manageable to win a series when your opponent’s best forwards are limited to that level of output. Dallas will be aiming for a similar result in the Western Conference Final, though controlling McDavid and Draisaitl is arguably an even taller task.

Miro Heiskanen vs. Evan Bouchard

How impressive is Bouchard’s 20 points in 12 playoff contests? Even if he doesn’t score one more point in this run, he would still finish in a seven-way tie for the 22nd highest-scoring single postseason for a defenseman. In other words, his performance has bordered on historic even after just two rounds. That said, Heiskanen can also provide strong offensive numbers from the blue line. The Stars defenseman finished the regular season with nine goals and 54 points across 71 outings and has excelled in the playoffs with five markers and 13 points through 13 games.

This matchup seems to be in Edmonton’s favor, but Heiskanen is good enough that it wouldn’t be a shocking turn of events if he had the most points among blueliners in this series.

Zach Hyman vs. Wyatt Johnston

Hyman set a career high during the regular season with 54 goals, he blazed out of the gate in the playoffs, providing an unreal nine markers through six contests. He went through a four-game goal drought from May 10-16 but wrapped up the second round with markers in consecutive games, so he’s regained his rhythm going into the Western Conference Final.

Dallas doesn’t employ a 2023-24 50-goal scorer, but the Stars do feature a rising star in Johnston, who led the team with 32 markers in the regular season. The 21-year-old has been somewhat hit-and-miss in the playoffs, though. He was great in the first round, supplying four goals and seven points in seven outings. Against Colorado, he finished with a respectable three goals and four points in six games, but notably, he was held off the scoresheet in four of those outings. As I discussed before, Dallas’ key scoring strength lies in its depth and ability to weather cold spells, so a drought from Johnston is less likely to sink Dallas than a slump from one of Edmonton’s superstars.

That said, when he’s at his best, Johnston is a forward who can carry a game, and while Hyman isn’t someone who has been traditionally thought of in those terms, after the campaign he’s had, it’s clear that he’s also emerged as a major factor.

X-FACTOR

Dallas Stars: Not that the Oilers wanted to win this way, but they were helped a little in the second round due to injuries. Vancouver didn’t have goaltender Thatcher Demko (knee) for its second-round series against the Oilers (though Arturs Silovs did an admirable job filling in), and Vancouver was without leading goal-scorer Brock Boeser for Game 7 due to a blood-clotting issue. Dallas might also be unable to play against Edmonton at full strength. Roope Hintz hasn’t played since May 13 due to an upper-body injury and his status for the series opener is in question. Jani Hakanpaa (lower body) might also be unavailable for the start of the Western Conference Final.

It's also worth noting that Dallas’ penalty kill has struggled in the playoffs at 69.2 percent. That’s dangerously low going into a series against Edmonton, which has converted on a league-best 37.5 percent of its power plays in the postseason. The Oilers were similarly effective in the regular season, finishing fourth with a 26.3 conversion rate.

Edmonton Oilers: It’s got to be the goaltending. I’ve already spoken about Skinner’s playoff woes. It got to the point where Edmonton turned to Calvin Pickard for Games 4 and 5 of the second round with mixed results -- Pickard went 1-1 while stopping 51 of 56 shots over that stretch. Edmonton also has Jack Campbell as a possible Plan C. Campbell was dreadful in the NHL this season, posting a 1-4-0 record, 4.49 GAA and .873 save percentage in five contests, but he did stabilize in the minors, recording a 2.63 GAA and a .918 save percentage in 33 AHL outings. It would be a fun story if Campbell saw time in this series because it would be both a chance at redemption and revenge as he was originally selected by Dallas with the No. 11 overall pick in 2010, but only ever played one game with the Stars before eventually being dealt to LA in 2016. Still, if Edmonton ends up turning to Campbell, that’s a sign that something has already gone terribly wrong for the Oilers.

It's worth noting that all hope isn’t lost for Skinner. At times he’s brilliant, such as his 12-game stretch from Dec. 28-Feb. 9 in which he posted a 1.33 GAA and a .952 save percentage. If he starts to heat up now, the Oilers will possess the last piece they need to win the Cup.

PREDICTION

I’ll admit some personal bias here because I’d like to see Edmonton win. Part of that is just to see a Canadian team claim the Cup for the first time since 1993, and part of that is because I’m a fan of McDavid, and I’d like to see him receive the ultimate reward for all he’s done. However, while I’ll personally root for the Oilers to win this series, do expect them to get past Dallas? No.

It’s not that I can’t envision a path. The sheer number of offensive weapons Edmonton has certainly make it feasible, and there’s always the chance that Skinner gets hot at just the right time, but the reality is that Dallas’ offense, while not as flashy, is just as good. On top of that, the Stars have the more reliable goaltender in Oettinger.

Dallas was battle-tested against a deep, experienced team in Vegas and a star-studded squad in Colorado. In both instances, the Stars proved they could endure. Each series is a fresh start, and I am very interested to see how this one plays out, but when you ask me today which way this series will tilt, my answer is that it’ll go the Stars' way and that things will probably be wrapped up in six contests.

2024 NHL PLAYOFF PREVIEW: Vancouver Canucks vs. Edmonton Oilers

Ryan Dadoun — Sun, 05 May 2024 21:01:33 +0000

Edmonton Oilers Goalie Stuart Skinner (74) (Photo by Curtis Comeau/Icon Sportswire)

Vancouver Canucks vs. Edmonton Oilers

The Oilers had essentially an ideal first round against Los Angeles. Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl were their usual dominant selves, providing 12 and 10 points, respectively, in the five-game series. Meanwhile, Zach Hyman (seven goals, eight points), Ryan Nugent-Hopkins (one goal, six points) and defenseman Evan Bouchard (one goal, nine points) provided key offensive support in the first leg of the postseason. Edmonton even got seven goals worth of secondary scoring from the rest of the cast. To top it all off, Stuart Skinner was adequate, posting a 2.59 GAA and a .910 save percentage in five playoff starts against LA.

It's not like the Kings were a bad test of Edmonton’s strength either. They posted a 44-27-11 record in the regular season on the strength of a strong defense and great goaltending, so the fact that Los Angeles was unable to slow Edmonton’s offense even marginally has to give Vancouver pause. Still, the Canucks are positioned to offer the Oilers a far greater challenge, in large part because Vancouver is one of the few teams that can keep pace with Edmonton in high-scoring contests.

While LA was mediocre offensively, tying for 16th in the regular season with 3.10 goals per contest compared to Edmonton’s 3.56 (fourth overall), Vancouver supplied 3.40 goals per game (sixth). The Canucks didn’t have an equivalent to McDavid, who finished the 2023-24 campaign with 132 points, or a 50-plus goal scorer like Hyman. However, the Canucks had an elite core of J.T. Miller (37 goals, 103 points in the regular season), Elias Pettersson (34 goals, 89 points), Brock Boeser (40 goals, 73 points) and defenseman Quinn Hughes (17 goals, 92 points).

Although that core was a mixed bag against Nashville in the first round -- Boeser and Miller stood out, each providing six points in six contests, but Pettersson was limited to three assists in the series – the group certainly can’t be overlooked going into the matchup against Edmonton. Especially because Skinner had a record of 0-3-0 with a 4.60 GAA and an .830 save percentage in four regular-season contests this year.

That history has to keep Edmonton weary of its goaltending situation, though the Canucks have their own question marks in that department.

Thatcher Demko played a huge role in the Canucks’ regular season success, posting a 35-14-2 record, 2.45 GAA and .918 save percentage in 51 outings, so when he was labeled week-to-week after sustaining a knee injury following Game 1, it was unclear if the Canucks would be able to make it past Nashville. In the end, Arturs Silovs was the unlikely hero, earning a 1.70 GAA and a .938 save percentage in three first-round outings, including a 28-save shutout in the series-clinching Game 6 on Friday.

Can Silovs, who entered the playoffs with just nine NHL appearances under his belt, keep that up against the far more formable Oilers? Or will Demko return in time to make that question moot?

There are a lot of big questions to be answered going into this series.

KEY MATCHUPS

Connor McDavid vs. J.T. Miller

While it’s not really fair to compare McDavid and Miller, this matchup ultimately does pit the teams’ two top offensive producers against each other. If Miller ends up coming even close to matching McDavid’s second-round point total, then the Canucks will likely be in an excellent position. By the same token, Vancouver’s best chance at success involves limiting McDavid.

Edmonton is 3-8 in playoff games where McDavid played but was held off the scoresheet.

Evan Bouchard vs. Quinn Hughes

One individual matchup where Vancouver should have the edge is the battle of offensive defensemen. Although Bouchard made tremendous strides in 2023-24, contributing 18 goals and 82 points across 81 regular-season appearances, that still falls short of Hughes’ 92 points in 82 outings.

Hughes also has the better track record, ranking third among blueliners in points over the past three campaigns (236 points in 236 contests) while Bouchard is far behind in total production over that stretch (165 in 244). Still, both of them should have their moments in this series.

Zach Hyman vs. Brock Boeser

Going into the 2023-24 campaign, few would have guessed that Hyman and Boeser would lead their respective teams in goals. Hyman had set a career high with 36 markers in 2022-23, but that was overshadowed by Draisaitl (52) and McDavid (64). Meanwhile, Boeser entered the season having never reached the 30-goal milestone and falling short of even 25 in each campaign from 2019-20 through 2022-23.

Still, both of them enjoyed career years with Hyman supplying 54 tallies and Boeser finishing with 40. They’ve carried that success into the playoffs too. Boeser led Vancouver to victory in Game 4 with a hat trick while Hyman earned a hat trick of his own in Game 1. It’s likely that both of these two will come up big in the second round as well.

X-FACTOR

Vancouver Canucks: Goaltending is the big question mark for Vancouver. As already noted, it’s hard to count on Silovs to build off his recent success given his relative lack of NHL experience and the skill level of the Oilers. Demko returning would be huge for the Canucks, but at the time of writing, it’s still not clear when that will happen. Pettersson is the other big X-Factor for the Canucks after being limited to three assists in the first round. For what it’s worth, he did look great in the 2020 playoffs, providing seven goals and 18 points in 17 appearances, so it’s not like he has a history of postseason disappointment.

Edmonton Oilers: Given how badly Skinner struggled against Vancouver in the regular season, how he’ll perform in this series is a massive question mark. If he doesn’t do well, Calvin Pickard is still an option after posting a respectable 12-7-1 record, 2.45 GAA and .909 save percentage in 23 regular-season outings. There’s also that outside chance Jack Campbell, who did rebound with AHL Bakersfield to provide a 2.63 GAA and a .918 save percentage in 33 minor-league games, could see action in this series, but if Edmonton gets to that point, then things have probably already gone very wrong for the Oilers.

PREDICTION

Vancouver has a strong team this year, but Demko’s health creates such a huge potential hole. Even if he misses just one or two games, that could prove to be the difference in a tight series. Sure, Edmonton’s goaltending situation isn’t ideal either, but the main argument in favor of Vancouver is that the Canucks are the more balanced squad. If this series devolves into a shootout, then that likely favors Edmonton, even if just marginally.

I’m going to take Edmonton in 7, but Demko being 100 percent for the start of the series would shift the edge in Vancouver’s favor.