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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?
Happy Wednesday, Razzball faithful! Well, fantasy baseball drafts are in full swing (pun relatively unintended), and I’m knee deep in preparations and writing for those. And I’ve been sick for three days. But…HOCKEY IS BACK! And I’m pretty excited to have an 11-game schedule of matchups to run down for y’all on the last Tuesday night of games before the Friday afternoon trade deadline. As for more names on the trade block? Well, I can guarantee this guy isn't going anywhere.
After missing the playoffs for fourteen straight seasons, I keep waiting for the Sabres to slump, but instead, they keep getting better.  On Friday, they had a big 3-2 regulation win in Florida.  If that wasn't enough, on the second of a back to back, they absolutely destroyed Tampa 6-2, including a 5-0 lead less than two minutes into the second period.  Only the Colorado Avalanche have more regulation wins this season than the Sabres.  What's been different this week is that Josh Norris has actually been in the lineup.  Norris had an assist with three shots against the Panthers, before scoring two goals against the Lightning.  As has been the case for Norris for four straight seasons, he's been hampered with injuries.  The good news is that he's dominated when he's played this season, sitting with 8+12 in 22 games.  The shot rate is poor so I wouldn't necessarily hold, but he's an elite streamer who probably belongs on the fringe.  Ride the production while you can.  Let's take a look at what else happened over the weekend:
Happy Wednesday, Razzball faithful! It’s your favorite Hockey Dad back for a special edition during our Olympic hockey break! I told Viz that I was up for putting together a bit of a trade deadline piece for each conference while the NHL was on its hiatus, and he was up for it, so here we are. Today, I’ll go over all that there is to consider for the Eastern Conference Trade Deadline rumor mill. Next week, we’ll head West to do the same thing for our Pacific pals. Are there teams that have cap space to add to their roster? Which teams have holes to fill due to injuries or ineffectiveness?  Who could use a boost to the power play, penalty kill, or defense corps? Which clubs are looking to add depth players, a top 6 scoring threat, or a bottom 6 grinder to eat up some minutes? I broke the Eastern Conference into three groups:
Happy Wednesday, Razzball faithful! With just 7 games on tap, it was a shorter schedule than usual for our final Tuesday night before the Olympic break.  But that didn’t stop a certain Carolina Hurricanes goalie from saying "neato," checking his libido, and heading to the rink in a new tuxedo. Brandon Bussi - 22 saves on 25 shots and the 4-3 win vs OTT - did his best 1989 pop-rap impression and Busted a serious Move at home against the Ottawa Senators. Hopefully, you listened to Viz and me when we said to add Bussi anywhere and everywhere you could, when it looked like he was playing himself into extra time in the Canes’ crease.
Patrick Kane hit the next milestone in his illustrious career on Thursday night, scoring two goals to reach the 500 goal mark for his career.  He became the fifth American and 50th player ever to score 500 goals.  Kane has been very good for the surprising Red Wings, totaling 8+18 in 30 games with an above average shot rate.  He's firmly on the fringe, meaning whether or not you hold him comes down to team needs.  If anything, he's been a bit unlucky with his shooting percentage, so there's a bit more upside here.  Just don't expect any more empty net goals, as the only reason he was on the ice with one in this game was to get him to 500.  Let's take a look at what else happened over the last two nights:
I celebrated the end of 2025 in the best way imaginable: watching hockey for the entire day.  There were a lot of highlights, starting with my Sabres winning their tenth game in a row.  Yes, Billy Bob, 10!  More on that later.  The most incredible performance though was another Avalanche beatdown.  Not that it was surprising at all against the Blues, but that they scored four goals (and have a fifth disallowed) before the Blues even had a shot on goal!  What a powerhouse. Nathan MacKinnon had his usual 2+2 with seven shots, but the notable performance for a non-superstar was Valeri Nichushkin.  Big Val had a hat trick on six shots in the 6-1 win.  He now has 11+15 in 31 games with a very good shot rate.  He's still available in almost two-thirds of leagues, and that simply needs to change.  Nichushkin is back on PP1 so if there was any doubt, he's must own everywhere.  Sure, he could get injured again, but you have to ride him until that happens.  Let's take a look at what else happened over the last two nights:
Happy Wednesday, Razzball faithful! It was a short slate on Tuesday night with just 5 NHL games to recap. In Toronto, we didn’t even have Auston Matthews or William Nylander to check in on. The announcement on Tuesday afternoon was that both would be “out with a lower body injury.” Well, that’s certainly not a very Knies gift for Leaf fans this holiday season!
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.
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’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...
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.