Happy Wednesday, Razzball faithful!
Matthew Knies (2 G, +1, 2 PIM, 4 SOG, 2 H) is one of the only bright spots shining on the sinking ship that is the Toronto Maple Leafs’ season. His second-period shorthanded goal was a thing of beauty. Knies intercepted a weak Bruins pass, pushed aside Mason Lohrei, who looked a lot less powerful than his 6’5” frame would suggest, like an empty paper plate, and threw a nifty head fake on Jeremy Swayman before roofing a nice lickety-split wrister over the netminder’s glove.
As much as this was a nice opportunity for the Bruins to pad their lead over Columbus, Montreal, and Detroit in the extremely tight playoff race, this tiny snapshot in time was an equally important reminder for Leaf fans that the team needs to do a lot of other “retooling or rebuilding” that DOES NOT involve trading their 23-year-old sniper.
Happy Wednesday, Razzball faithful!
I can say that I’m glad I didn’t take a sick day last Friday to watch the “excitement-challenged” trade deadline unfold the way that it did. I suppose for something to unfold, it would have needed to be packaged up neatly to begin with.
All that means is the asking prices were far too high on the “sellers” pieces, and the buyers were not willing to pay them.
Nicolas Roy for a conditional first-round pick? No thanks.
Corey Perry for a second-rounder? Wow.
Is there ANY Perry worth that kind of premium?
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:
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.
We keep moving along with defensemen 21-40 for the upcoming season. In case you missed it, you can see the Top 20 here. This is a reminder that MarmosDad will have his first post of the year on Wednesday, and I will be back on Thursday. Let's get right to it!
21) John Carlson - This tier started with McAvoy and goes through Toews. This feels a bit harsh on Carlson, but I'd rather be conservative on a 35 year old trending the wrong way. As I mentioned in the Chychrun board, Carlson is at risk for losing PP1 time for the first time in over a decade. I think they'll try both of them to start again to be fair, but it's possible. I do think the goals bounce back closer to 10, but 10+45 seems close to the best case now. That's fine, but don't draft based on name recognition.
We're going to move right into the Top 40 defensemen, following the Top 20 defensemen that you can read here. Let's get right into it!
21) Shea Theodore - This tier started with Montour in the top 20 and finishes with Theodore. If I was coaching Vegas, Theodore would be ranked much higher because he would never leave the first power play unit. He's clearly better than Pietrangelo and Hanifin, but to close the season, Hanifin was on the first unit. Theodore is risky because of that, but he's coming off 42 points in 47 games. It's hard to keep him any lower than this.
A rare cold patch left Sam Reinhart sitting on 39 goals for almost three weeks. On Thursday, he reached the 40 goal mark for the first time in his career, and found another to get back to second in the league in goals. Reinhart scored two goals, one on the power play and one shorthanded, while also adding an assist with five shots in the 4-3 SO win over the Canadiens. Is this season sustainable for Reinhart? Definitely not while he's shooting over 25%. That said, he's in the perfect situation to be a point per game player going forward, assuming he stays in Florida. It seems likely he stays in free agency, but you never know if someone takes top dollar. Regardless, Reinhart certainly won't be in my top 20 next season like he is so far this year, but I expect him to be around 50th overall for me if he stays. He can counteract the crazy shooting percentage a bit by getting back to his usual shot rate, and Reino should remain elite on the power play. Let's take a look at what else happened over the last two nights:
There was a lot of craziness around the NHL on President's Day, but nothing topped the game in Minnesota. At one point late in the second period, the Canucks looked in complete control up 5-2. Two minutes and seventeen seconds of game time later, Minnesota was up 6-5. And if that wasn't enough, there were still six more goals! The Wild beat the Canucks 10-7, and to wash it down, they played a paltry 6-3 game on Tuesday, a loss to the Jets. Nothing like 13-13 aggregate over two nights. On Monday, it was all of the stars for the Wild, as those four goals in a 2:17 span were all on the power play, three of which were 5 on 3. Joel Eriksson Ek and Kirill Kaprizov had three goals and three assists... each! Mats Zuccarello and Matt Boldy had a goal and three assists... each! On Tuesday, Kaprizov had a goal and an assist, while Marco Rossi had two goals on five shots. Both goalies were shelled, and right now, it's hard to trust either of them. For the moment, the Wild look like a four star team, Faber is a clear hold, and Brodin is on the fringe. Rossi is a solid streamer, and gamble if you'd like on their goalies. Let's take a look at what else happened over the last two nights:
Hello everyone. Welcome to the fourth edition of JOT This Down!
Thank you to everyone who provided feedback in volume three. I appreciate it. Keep the questions, comments, and concerns coming. I’ll be here all week to answer any and everything you may have.
We know that Jack Hughes has dominated the first three weeks of the season, but his older brother has started off extremely well, while his teammate and younger brother is starting to get going as well. Let's start with Quinn Hughes. On Friday, Hughes scored two goals on four shots, adding two PIM. Against the Rangers, he had three shots on goal, which sounds disappointing, but it illustrates a large change in Quinn's game. The one thing that has been holding Quinn back for years in terms of fantasy value is his shot rate. This was his sixth straight game with 3+ shots, and 7th in eight total games. It signifies a huge chance in his game, one that does fantasy owners wonders. He has eight points in eight games and certainly can come close to repeating last season's 76 points in 78 games, if not topping it. He was always an elite #2 with flaws, but now, he's a #1. Sure, the hits are dreadful, but everything else is magical.
We’re keeping it moving with part two of my defensemen rankings today. If you didn’t read Part One, check it out here. Also, if you didn’t see Jules’ rankings, the newest Razzball writer, you can check those out here. Please, blog, may I have some more?
Another star player has made his way to the Eastern Conference well ahead of the trade deadline. We already had Horvat and Tarasenko move, and now we have a former Conn Smythe winner. Ryan O'Reilly was traded to the Toronto Maple Leafs, along with Noel Acciari, for a bevy of draft picks. The Wild also acquired a pick for retaining salary, and there were prospects involved, but none of them are particularly relevant. For fantasy, we care about RoR and Acciari. Let's start with Acciari because it's easier. Acciari moved right onto Toronto's fourth line. He scored a goal against the Blackhawks on Sunday, and is piling up hits. He'll be a deep league value for his hits and decent goal rate. O'Reilly is an interesting debate. He's easily having the worst offensive season in the last decade. On the other hand, RoR has been playing much better lately, and he went right onto the second line with Tavares and Marner. He dished an assist in his debut on Saturday playing just over 16 minutes in the 5-1 blowout against Montreal. He also won 12 of 14 draws, which is notable that he bumped Tavares from the faceoff circle most of the time. I'm not rushing to pick up RoR, mostly because we know that he's not cracking Toronto's first power play unit. That said, there's upside in Toronto that he couldn't touch in St. Louis again. If you want to stream him on Tuesday against the Sabres and see where it goes, I can get behind that.
