Despite seeing nearly a month of games in our NHL schedule, it was a season debut last night that spoiled the Rangers’ modest 3-game winning streak. Pyotr Kochetkov was recalled from the AHL (Chicago) for his first game of the year on Tuesday evening, after getting the green light to return from a lower-body injury. The 4th year backstop made 25 saves on 25 shots and held off the Rangers’ offense for a 3-0 win at NYR. After winning 27 games last year, Kochetkov looked like he hadn’t missed a beat, and is worth an immediate pickup if an impatient manager needed some roster space and cut him loose in a shallow league. Check the FA list as soon as possible, or float out a trade offer before the 26-year-old goes on a run.
Happy Wednesday, Razzball faithful!
With today’s post, we’ve officially come to the end of our Divisional Previews for the 2025-2026 season!
If you’re looking for the other Divisions, you can click here to check them out.
Atlantic Division Preview here
Metropolitan Division Preview here
Happy Wednesday, Razzball faithful!
It’s your new/old hockey writing friend, MarmosDad, back with another divisional preview as we start knocking games off of the NHL calendar.
Last week, I gave you the final Eastern Conference preview with the Metropolitan Division (you can click it to check it out!).
This week, we head West with a peek at the Central division, and boy, am I excited to get rolling on this one!
I nearly jumped the gun and went straight to the Central when I started writing these up, just because I’m kind of obsessed with a certain Winnipeg Jets prospect who opened some eyes in training camp.
That should be enough of a teaser to get us through this preview, especially because the Jets round out our teams at the bottom of our profiles today.
So let’s close our eyes, take a deep breath, and try to find our Central, er, center, as we head out to visit the place with the least creative division name of all…
Happy Wednesday, Razzball faithful!
I’m back again this week with another Divisional Preview.
Last week, we checked in on the Atlantic Division. If you missed it, you can open that up here.
This week, we’re headed to the Big City to check out the Metropolitan Division.
Can the Capitals charge their way to another divisional title?
Is Jet Greaves going to leave Elvis Merzlikins “All Shook Up” in the Blue Jackets’ crease?
What the heck are we supposed to call Sid “The Kid” Crosby now that he’s 38 years old?!
I might not answer all of these burning questions today, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be checking out the goods in...
Hello again, Razzball faithful!
I’m very excited to be back on the hockey side of things for the 2025 season! When Viz sent out the ‘puck-beacon’ into the night sky, asking if anyone was down to help write some words about our beloved frozen fandom, I got that Flame in the belly again.
After I realized it was not indigestion, or Jarome Iginla, all it took was a quick message from Grey asking if I’d be interested in jumping back in on the word-Zamboni, and I was in.
Some of you might remember me from a few years ago when I wrote up some DFS for Viz here. Since then, I’ve been hammering out words on the baseball side most recently as our Top 100 Starting Pitchers writer for the last two years. You can check that stuff out here if you have a lot of time on your hands and/or have read through the divisional preview 25 times already.
As for me, I told Viz that I would be happy to preview the divisions and bring you names and some notes to help you get your squad up to snuff for the 2025-2026 season. After that, I’ll be coming back each Wednesday to do the Tuesday night recaps.
Apologies to all of you DFS faithful for the absence last week! Mrs. MarmosDad had an unfortunate mishap at work and ended up at the hospital, so your fearless “penner of puckmovers” ended up much busier than expected. But, fret not! I’m back again today to get us all set up to cash in some Classic NHL lineups on a much fuller main slate than we’ve had for a few weeks. (And if you're worried, I'm glad to report that the Mrs. still has 9 1/2 fingers in tact).
With a shout out to the Beastie Boys and their best album (although this is like picking the best chocolate bar, they're all pretty awesome), Check Your Head, we’re going with Vitek Vanecek, G (DK: $8,400) on the road as our lede today. Vanecek heads to Montreal with the Devils for this one and brings a 27-7-3 record with him. The 2.55 GAA and .907 SV% are pretty impressive on the surface, but some might be quick to point out that Vanecek is just 4-2 in his last 6 games, with one of those losses at home against these same Habs. He’s put up a 3.67 GAA over that last half a dozen, but with the Devils reinforcements at the deadline and the Habs mired in a 5 game losing skid, I think it’s a safe bet to play him on the road tonight.
Ah…the Saturday before the trade deadline! Next week we’ll be able to build a roster of new faces in new places, but for tonight let’s steer clear of those players rumored to be on the trade block. There’s nothing worse than having a guy that you picked for your DFS lineup ending up as a healthy scratch because he’s being discussed in a potential move.
With all of that said, I think it’s safe to say that our goalie pick for today is firmly entrenched as a player who will be unavailable on the trade block. Linus Ullmark (DK: $8,300) has been written up a few times in this space, and for good reason. His video game-esque numbers keep getting better. He’s 29-4-1 and leads the league with a .937 SV%. Just for reference, Tim Thomas’s Vezina numbers in his Stanley Cup year (2010-2011) were 35-11-9 and .938 SV%.
Happy Saturday, Razzball puck enthusiasts! MarmosDad is back for a quick set of notes and numbers ahead of a healthy slate of games for Saturday night.
Our top pick for the day is about as chalk as it gets with the renaissance of Erik Karlsson (DK: $7,700) in the Shark Tank. Karlsson has 73 points in 56 games and is on pace to pass the 100 point mark with 109 projected points. He would be the first D-man to hit that mark since Brian Leetch in 1991-1992, and just the 6th defenceman to do so in NHL history. Throw your guesses in the comments if you can figure out/remember the other names!
Hello, weekend! Hopefully all of you NHL fans enjoyed the all star layoff and are ready to get back to some DFS goodness! At the very least, I will not be dressing up as our underdog namesake Happy Gilmore and skating around my office while I type this out. (Poor Pasta).
Speaking of Poor Pasta, after I punched up the rough outline for today’s names I realized that we had more than a few double lettered names. Alliteration station, indeed!
We’ll go with our goalie here as the main focus. I was all set to run with an alliterative goalie, Matt Murray, and even spoke to his newfound health in his Leafs renaissance…then apparently reality set in and Murray was placed on the IR on Thursday with an ankle injury. Ouch. Literally.
Happy Saturday, Razzball Nation! MarmosDad is back with some names and numbers to help you fill out your DFS lineups. We’ve got a fair share of chalk plays and a couple of lesser priced gems to polish up in our lists for the DraftKings' main slate here.
One gem that certainly has sparkled a bit more over the last couple of weeks is Owen Power, (DK: $3,400). Power’s Sabres are on a 5 game winning streak and Power has been a bit part of their success. After going 42 games without a goal scored, Power has three in his last three games, including an OT game winner on Monday night against the Dallas Stars. Look for the offensive juggernaut Sabres to “Power Up” against the Wild in Minnesota tonight!
If you asked most NHL fans outside of Manitoba who the best Connor in the NHL is, there wouldn’t be many differing opinions. As I said in this space before, a certain Oiler is on pace for some pretty eye-popping numbers this season.
But what if I said there’s a skater that is almost as skilled as Mr. McDavid, and has been so ‘under the radar’ this season that even our friends at DraftKings haven’t boosted his salary yet? Yep. I’m talking about Kyle ‘The Other' Connor. Kyle Connor (DK: $8,000) has been as productive a winger as any in the NHL this season, but has consistently been priced around $1,000 lower than his elite peers. Connor has 55 PTS in 46 GP and is second on his team in goals scored (23) to only Mark Scheifele. He has missed the scoresheet just once in the Jets’ last 12 games. Now, I will admit that he won’t chip in many blocked shots, but that’s not what we’re looking for here. If you can 'catch' this Connor, you're getting an elite winger at a less than elite price.
Happy weekend, everyone! MarmosDad is back with some news and notes to help you set those NHL DFS lineups on a pretty full slate of games for this chilly Saturday afternoon. If you’re looking for a chance to set a few different lineups, today’s the day. 28 of our 32 NHL teams are in action. Jones-ing for a win? Looking to play multiple double ups or tournament lineups? This one's for you!
Speaking of Jones-ing, Seattle netminder Martin Jones (DK: $8,400) is definitely not ‘jonesing’ for much these days. If anything, the former Bruin (for a whole 24 hours in 2015) has been addicted to stopping pucks since the calendar flipped. Jones has wins in his last six games, punctuated by a shutout of the league’s best offense in a 3-0 victory at the Boston Bruins Thursday night.
