You can do all of the right things building your fantasy team, but sometimes injuries torpedo the work that you've done. In the second week of the season, we've lost a superstar for the season. Igor Shesterkin suffered a horrible injury on Friday night against the Capitals, with the Rangers announcing that he's out for the season. It's just brutal for Igor and the Rangers, who were off to a great start. So what should his fantasy owners do in order to try and salvage their goaltending? We know the options aren't going to be good off the waiver wire, and it's only worse if you're in a situation like me, where in a dynasty, I've had Igor and Hellebuyck for a long time. My first priority was to grab Dylan Garand, and I'd advise the same for everyone. Garand is a solid prospect in his own right, and he's played admirably so far. Garand had a shutout in his first game, allowed one goal on 12 shots in relief of Igor, and then saved 19 of 21 shots in the 6-2 win against the Canucks on Sunday. The Rangers are playing great defensively, so he would the first guy I target off the wire. If you have IR spots, you could stash Joonas Korpisalo, who will be out for another month, but the Rangers paid big money for some reason to sign him this summer. There's always the possibility of a trade, but for now, I suspect that they'll see what Garand can do before making any big move. If you missed the boat on Garand, then you could roll the dice on Fowler, Levi, or maybe someone who was dropped already. Don't forget that goalies are voodoo, so anything can change quickly. Let's take a look at what else happened over the weekend:
The Golden Knights have played a lot of poor teams, especially defensively, to open the season, but you still have to take care of business. Right now, they are scoring a ton of goals, and are being led by their franchise center. Jack Eichel scored a goal and three assists with two shots in their victory over the Kraken on Tuesday, before scoring a goal and an assist with six shots against the Maple Leafs on Thursday. He has twelve points in five games so far, playing as well as anybody in the league. Life seems to be good for Eichel under Ryan Craig. Props to Fungazi 2.0 and Surfer Dude for picking Eichel for 3+ points on Tuesday. Let's take a look at what else happened over the last two nights:
Happy Wednesday, Razzball faithful!
Well, yesterday was my final Top 100 Starting Pitchers article and Year in Review. (Click on that link if you want to check it out!).
Now, I can officially, and undistractedly, present to you a fully focused MarmosDad who has shifted entirely into hockey gear!
Does that mean I’m fully invested in tracking the ins and outs of the preseason rankings that I ran through in September?
You betcha!
Will I be ready to answer any questions you throw at me here each week with nothing but my day job, fatherhood, mentoring, planning, coaching in school and winter workouts for our baseball team, and the general ridiculousness of life getting in the way?
Absolutely!
It was a very difficult start to open the season for the Ducks, opening at Vegas before hosting the Panthers. Here we are on Sunday night with the Ducks winning both games. They stormed out to a 4-0 lead against Vegas, holding on to win 4-3, before beatong the Panthers 3-2 in overtime. Leading the charge? The man who broke the NHL pay scale this offseason, Leo Carlsson. Carlsson had a goal and an assist against the Golden Knights before dishing three assists against Florida. Last season, Carlsson started the year with 34 points in his first 25 games before injury derailed him. If he can stay healthy and play to his potential, the 21 year old has a chance to reach 100 points. I had him ranked just outside the top 50 overall because we saw that he could be a fringe top 100 guy for an extended period, but I'd bet on him being inside the top 50 come the end of the season. Let's take a look at what else happened over the weekend:
Instead of the usual daily notes to open the season, I'm going to give one major takeaway I have from the ten games that I watched extended parts of over the last two days. Sorry, Seattle and Calgary, you did not make the cut on one of my TVs. Kudos to Seattle for a big early win though, and they will be covered on Monday with every other team. We had a little bit of everything over these ten games, so let's get right to it!
Happy Wednesday, Razzball faithful!
We just finished our first-year player draft in my 32-team dynasty league this afternoon, and y’all know what that means…
IT’S OPENING NIGHT!
And I’ll apologize in advance for adding this one. It’s a staple among a few friends up here before the first game of the season.
Somehow, the season starts tomorrow already! I've gone through all of my rankings, and I hope that your drafts went well. As is tradition in these parts, my last post before the season starts is about ten bold predictions that I have for this season. They're almost always fantasy focused, and again, these are meant to be bold. I'm not talking about something that is 50/50 to happen, or even remotely close. I'm talking bold enough that if I hit three of these, I'll be very happy. Last season, I had some incredible whiffs, such as top 15 defenseman Morgan Rielly, but also hit on Jet Greaves being a top twelve goalie, and Caufield scoring 45+ goals. Here's to hoping the misses are at least somewhat close, and we hit a few of these. And without further adieu, my ten bold predictions!
And we're finally reached the end of my rankings with my Top 200 list. I will have my ten bold predictions on Monday before the season starts on Tuesday. If you have any specific questions, let me know in the comments section. And with that, the top 200!
Happy Wednesday, Razzball faithful!
Well, the time is finally here. After three weeks of running through aggregate rankings of forwards, defensemen, and goalies, we’re now just SIX SLEEPS away from Opening Night!
If you want to check out the preseason aggregate rankings, I’ll attach those links here…
My thoughts over the years on goaltending haven't changed, so I'm going to use a similar introduction that I've used in the past.
We’re onto the last position in my rankings, the netminders. Goalies make a huge difference in fantasy hockey, but they also have the most variability from year to year. There’s only a handful of goalies that we can consistently count on every season to finish in the top ten, and that floor is why they are ranked as high as they are. Because of their unpredictability, I’m very unlikely to take a goalie in the first four rounds, especially in head to head leagues. Even if your league reaches for goalies early, don’t panic. Last season, I was extremely high on Greaves and was able to get him as my G3 everywhere. He finished as the #7 goalie overall. I had Blackwood as G5 and with his early injury, suggested partnering him with Wedgewood, who hilariously ended up as the #1 goalie. Meanwhile, top ranked goalies such as Hellebuyck and Bobrovsky massively disappointed, and they were far from the only ones. Patience is key for drafting goalies. I’m going to separate all of the goalies into tiers, so let’s get to it!
If you missed the Top 20 post, you can check that out here. The plan is for my goaltending post to come out on Monday, with my Top 200 post coming out in the middle of next week so you have it for your drafts next weekend. That said, between all of the individual posts, you should be able to put it together and get close to a Top 200. If you want to get some early goaltending thoughts, you can look at MarmosDad's thoughts here. And with that, let's get to the Top 40!
Happy Wednesday, Razzball faithful!
It’s your guy, MarmosDad, back for another preseason rundown of aggregate rankings and additional information for 2026-2027 Fantasy Hockey.
Two weeks ago, I shared that the tentative plan was running an aggregate of rankings from various sources around the internet, and giving some input as to which ones made sense to me or, more likely, which players were going to be underdrafted in your fantasy drafts this year.
