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:
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!
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.
Happy Wednesday, Razzball faithful!
We’re smack-dab in the middle of Olympic chaos, and Wednesday’s playoff round looks like a doozy.
I’m not even sure which game I’m looking forward to watching more: David Pastrnak vs Team Canada or the Swedish berries/fish/meatballs vs Team USA.
Luckily, we don’t have to look into too much of that for right now, because it’s time to pair up last week’s trade deadline preview with the other side of the league. If you missed it last week, you can click the link here…
Happy Wednesday, Razzball faithful!
It was a night to remember for the Sabres and their franchise defenseman on Tuesday night.
Rasmus Dahlin scored one in the first, one in the second, and then finished off the hat trick with an empty-netter in the third. The 3 goals and 2 assists were a career high single-game output for the 25-year-old Swede, and brought his point total up to a robust 42 PTS in 48 GP.
It wasn’t all Dahlin, though, as the rest of the Sabres brought their scoring sticks with them on their trip North of the border. Tage Thompson (1G, 1 A), Alex Tuch, Jack Quinn, and newly extended Josh Doan all tickled the twine for the Sabres, and helped to extend their newest win streak to 4 games.
Happy Wednesday, Razzball faithful!
It was an 8-game schedule, so a bit lighter than usual, to peek in on Tuesday night.
But that didn’t stop Wyatt Johnston (1 G [26], 3 SOG, his league-leading 16th PPG) and the rest of the Stars from feasting on a steady diet of bear paws on home ice.
Jeremy Swayman (19-12-1-1) faced 32 shots on goal…before the third period started. Oh boy. The B’s defense corps looked like they were late to the opening faceoff in this one, then spent the rest of the game spinning in circles trying to figure out which way was up.
The 6-2 Dallas win snapped a 3-game losing streak for the Stars and pushed Dallas’ record to 3-5-2 in its last 10 games.
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!
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?
Twenty-two games. One regulation loss. That's what the Colorado Avalanche have done so far, cementing themselves as the best team in the the league. In fact, the teams tied for second place as closer to 25th in the standings than they are to Colorado. They're in the midst of a nine game winning streak, with two wins over the weekend, both by shutout. It started with a MacKenzie Blackwood masterpiece on Saturday, making 35 saves in the 3-0 win over Nashville, before Scott Wedgewood had an easier 22 save shutout in the 1-0 win over Chicago. Wedgewood has been the #1 overall player so far because why not? Yay goalies. Blackwood is back now from injury and getting his fair share of starts. Yes, right now Wedgewood is the #1, but it should only be a matter of time until it flips back. Regardless, both of them are clearly must own for the time being, and barring injury, both should be for the rest of the season. Let's take a look at what else happened over the weekend: