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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!
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!
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. 
Happy Wednesday, Razzball faithful! As Viz said on Sunday, we’re officially 1.5 weeks from the end of the regular season!  Hopefully, you finished up your head-to-head playoffs on a strong note, or you have enough of a lead in your roto-points leagues that you can enjoy the final 3-4 games without feverishly refreshing your league app. If you have the luxury of being able to relax, enjoy it! More than a few NHL teams are facing a tough road ahead for the next 9 days. Why? Well, it's time for the playoff push! We've got three teams tied for first place in the Atlantic division. One point separates three teams at the top of the Pacific Division. And our wild card spots could be filled by any of a half dozen teams in either conference. Quite a few teams were jockeying for playoff position Tues
Happy Wednesday, Razzball faithful! Apparently, all we needed to do to wake up the sleeping Panther kitties was to reunite the Tkachuk brothers in the Sunshine state (even if one was only visiting) and to tell Linus Ullmark that he was back with the 2020 Buffalo Sabres. Our favorite Swedish goalie, whose name rhymes with a giggle-worthy body part, had one of the roughest starts of his career in Florida on Tuesday night.  Florida struck with pointed claws just 63 seconds into the game, and Mr. Ullmark was yanked after allowing 5 goals on just 16 shots. Oh, Linus.  It was a kick in the stomach for a surging Sens squad, who found themselves out of a wild-card spot by just two points when they started the day. By the end of the night, Ullmark and the rest of his Senators brethren were on the wrong side of a 6-3 loss to the back-to-back Stanley Cup champs.
There are a couple teams making surprising runs to get back into the playoff race.  The most surprising to me, by far, is the Flyers.  In a huge showdown with Detroit on Saturday, the Flyers stomped them early and held on for the win.  Owen Tippett stole the show with a hat trick and an assist with seven shots.  He had two shots in the 2-1 OT win over the Stars, putting Philly two points out of the playoffs, albeit losing the tiebreaker to every team in front of them.  Philly has a bunch of games this week against their direct competition, so expect Tocchet to lean on their studs.  There are only two games on Friday, so Tippett has a real case to be held.  Let's take a look at what else happened over the weekend:
The Anaheim Ducks have taken a big step forward this season.  Lucky for them, they're geographically located in the right place.  In the Eastern Conference, they'd be on the outside looking in for the playoffs.  In the West, specifically the Pacific Division, they're close to a lock.  The Ducks won their fourth straight game on Thursday, with Mikael Granlund scoring all three goals in a 3-2 OT win.  Granlund now has seven goals in his last four games and continues to get big minutes.  We've reached the point of the season where most of the fringe are streamers because we need to make a push in the fantasy playoffs, but with Anaheim having four games next week, Granlund is making a real case to be held while he's on fire.  Let's take a look at what else happened on Thursday night:
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?
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.