Happy Wednesday, Razzball faithful!
It’s been a bit of a wild ride for Morgan Geekie (2 G, +1, 3 SOG, 1 PPG, GWG).
The Geekie Squad was the 67th overall pick in the 2017 draft and wasn’t considered much of a prospect after a 25-point season (in 66 games) for the 2015-2016 Tri-City Americans of the WHL.
It was the following year’s breakout that put Geekie on the map (72 GP, 35 G, 90 PTS), and convinced the Carolina Hurricanes that he was worth a gamble in the third round of the NHL Entry Draft.
There's not much that a slam dunk Hall of Famer can do to surprise you, but with how poorly the last two seasons have gone for Steven Stamkos, last night qualified. Stammer scored four goals by the end of the second period on Thursday, finishing with nine shots on goal in the 7-2 win over the Blues. Look, it couldn't be going worse in Smashville overall. That said, he's getting some trade buzz, and a game like yesterday is going to do wonders for the chances of someone taking on his contract. He did have six points (4+2) in the seven games before Thursday, so it didn't come completely out of the blue. For now, he's in elite streamer range while he's hot. Let's take a look at what else happened on Thursday night:
Happy Wednesday, Razzball faithful!
We had some red-hot NHL action last night with 10 games on the schedule!
But no one was hotter than that little devil, Arseny Gritsyuk: 1 G (7), 2 A (9), +3, 3 SOG.
The New Jersey rookie is still getting bottom-six minutes (14:33 TOI) and PP2 time (2:19), but he’s making the most of his limited action. The three-point night pushes his first-year total to 16 PTS in 30 GP and puts him on pace to record a respectable 50 points by the time April rolls around.
Arseny was certainly on fire last night, but with a deep forward group ahead of him on the depth chart, Gritsyuk is going to have to add another couple of points on that 9.7 shooting percentage to get an increase in playing time.
If he can consistently put up more nights like this one, and one of New Jersey’s Top 6 forwards has a setback, get ready to pounce on the 24-year-old Russian in those deeper leagues if you need some scoring help.
Was that the only Devil to bring the heat last night? Did we have any other players setting the fantasy hockey world on fire?
Happy Wednesday, Razzball faithful!
I don’t know if you’ve heard, but there’s a pretty popular show on Netflix these days that the kids are losing their ever-loving minds over.
And as much as I was hoping to roll out a bit about Ivan Demi-dov-Gorgon, the Ottawa Senators had other plans (more on that below).
Well, as they say, Stranger Things have happened than writing up a full round-up without a main star’s full stat-sheet to recount. And thankfully, a Motown defenseman gave us a performance to feature in our lede today.
Moritz Seider took a page out of the alternate universe and flipped the Bruins into the upside down last night in Detroit with 1 G (4), 2 A (15), +1, 4 PIM, 1 SOG, 1 PPA, 4 BLK, and 22:55 of ice time.
It was a nice bounce-back of sorts for the big German blueliner, after being held off the scoresheet in his last 3 games. Seider led the charge for the Red Wings in this revenge game after he was beaten (on the scoreboard and in a fight by Mark Kastelic) on Saturday afternoon.
But was that the only player worth highlighting from a Tuesday night 10-game slate?
It's not too often that we see 23 year old goalies in the NHL. It happens more often now than in the past, but letting them develop in the minors after junior hockey is a must. Jesper Wallstedt just turned 23 on Friday so he's been in while he was even younger, but this season he has cemented himself as an NHL'er. He is an elite prospect, and the time might already be now. Wallstedt had his second consecutive shutout on Saturday, stopping all 28 shots from the high powered Ducks. Wallstedt has started six games and is 4-0-2 with a 2.10/.924. There are a couple major things working in Wallstedt's favor. One, the Wild are playing much better hockey as they get healthier. Two, despite a win on Sunday, Gustavsson has really struggled. It's far from a guarantee that Wallstedt turns into something this season, but if you're hurting in goaltending like a lot of people are, a speculation add of Wallstedt could pay dividends.
Brad Marchand was trending in the wrong direction last season, but a trade to Florida rejuvenated his career. Now, he's on a massive tear and reached a career milestone earlier than expected. Marchand dished two assists on Thursday night, extending his point streak to nine games and more importantly, reached 1,000 points for his career. That brings him to a whopping 11+9 in 16 games with almost three shots per game. Am I going to bet against Marchand falling off? No. I think even when Tkachuk returns, Marchand keeps his spot on the first power play unit, and we see Marchand push towards his first point per game season in four years. Let's take a look at what else happened on Thursday night:
A Tuesday Night round-up? With a Leafs/Bruins game on the dockett?
Yes, please!
Well, I’ll admit, when I sat down to watch the second game in 4 days between these two rivals, I expected to see a bit of a different start.
When the B’s scored a first-period power-play goal before the clock had burned off 5 minutes, it didn’t look like the Leafs were poised to push back very hard after being doubled up on shots in the Saturday matchup (a 5-3 Boston win). Toronto’s favorites then followed up by giving up 47 shots on net in a 5-4 Carolina win on Sunday.
A Steven Lorentz shorthanded marker to tie the game up at 1-1 seemed to offer a flash of hope for fans of the blue buds.
But then…after another PP goal less than three minutes later…
Here is the list of teams that have 0 or 1 loss so far (overtime included): Colorado, Winnipeg, Carolina, New Jersey, and Detroit. None of the first four come as a surprise at all. However, Detroit reeling off five in a row after a dreadful opener is a huge surprise. They've been better defensively than expected, but the big thing so far is Dylan Larkin carrying the top line. No Raymond for a couple games, no Kane today, no problem. Larkin had a goal and an assist on Friday, including the overtime winner against Tampa, before scoring two goals and two assists in the 4-2 win over Edmonton Sunday. That brings Larkin to a whopping 5+6 in six games to go along with 20 shots and a +9 rating. Despite playing with a recent seventh round pick and a bottom six guy in Appleton while Raymond was out, Larkin has at least one point in every game so far. It's early to predict career highs from Larkin, but I'm not ruling out his first point per game season. With his elite shot rate, we could see his first top 50 season in three years. Let's take a look at what else happened over the weekend:
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.
This post is going to be a long one, so I'm going to cut right to the chase. Today, we're going to look at the Top 40 forwards. The top 16 were covered in my Top 20, which you can read here. If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions, please leave them below. Let's get to it!
The rankings kick off with my Top 20 overall players. My rankings put a priority on goals, assists, shots on goal, and special teams points (almost all on PPP, but a small boost to those that PK). I assume that most leagues have PIM and/or hits, but I try not to overweigh those categories. Yes, they are equal to the other categories, but they are easier to target in drafts and extremely easy to stream, so we should be focused on the scoring categories. Of course, they won't be ignored, or I would be giving you a horrible set of rankings where guys like Brady Tkachuk are far too low. If you have any specific questions, let me know in the comments section below. And with that, let's get started!
The big man has caught fire for Washington. Aliaksei Protas had his first career hat trick on Tuesday against the Ducks, scoring three goals on six shots. He has seven points in his last three games, bringing him to 28+3o in 65 games. Even with a poor shot rate, he's a no brainer hold, especially considering his +39 rating. I was absolutely shocked to see that he's available in over 60% of leagues still. Even the shot rate is starting to improve, as Protas has 26 SOG in his last ten games. Protas is still only 24 years old and has greatly increased his stock in dynasties as well. Yes, the shooting percentage has to regress over time. After all, he had only 6 goals last season shooting 5.3%, and now he's well over 20%. Even with that impending regression, he's getting to the right areas and Washington has turned into a powerhouse. Let's take a look at what else happened over the last two nights:
