The greatest goal scorer added himself to another list on Thursday: players who scored a hat trick at age 40 or above. He became the sixth person ever to do that, joining Jagr, Howe, Selanne, Bucyk, and... Lidstrom! You could have given me 100 guesses, and I'm sure I'd have gotten the first three, and probaly Buyck, but never Lidstrom. Anyways, Ovechkin scored only two goals in his first 12 games, but since then, he has seven in the past six. Add in three assists, and we've seen Ovechkin get back on track lately. An ugly start is now a thing of the past, and while I still think a repeat of last season is too farfetched, a monster season is possible again. MarmosDad covered the early part of the week here, so please check that out if you haven't. Now, it's time for me to recap Thursday night after a depressing Bills loss (fire McDermott!):
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:
Not since Bell and Barksdale were running the streets of Baltimore have we seen a group of B's dominate like the current top line for the Blackhawks. Bedard, Burakovsky, and Bertuzzi have recently been put together, and they have been destroying everyone in their path. In the Chicago 4-0 win over the Flames on Friday, Connor Bedard had a goal and three assists, Andre Burakovsky had a goal and an assist, and Tyler Bertuzzi scored twice. They followed that up with a 5-1 beatdown of the Red Wings, with Bedard having a goal and two assists, while the other two each had a goal and an assist. Bedard is leading the league in points now, so it's safe to say that sophomore slump is a thing of the past. Bertuzzi is doing enough to be held right now, having six goals in his last three games. Burakovsky is on the fringe while he's a hot schmotato. His shot rate is going to determine how much he can sustain this fantasy value. For the first time in years, things are looking up for the Blackhawks. Let's take a look at what else happened over the weekend:
Sports Mount Rushmore's are always a hot topic for debate, but the more time goes on, the more I think Sidney Crosby has to be on it. Here we are one month into the season, and Crosby is carrying a horrible Penguins team to a 9-4-2 record while leading the league in goals. Crosby scored two more times on Thursday against the Capitals, putting six shots on net in over 22 minutes of ice time. He's been a top five forward to this point, and while I don't expect that to last, it's a good chance that Crosby finishes as a top 20 player again. Not bad for someone in his age 38 season. Let's take a look at what else happened over the last two nights:
We're only about a month into the season, but Pat Verbeek has to be ecstatic by the way the season has started. One of his big swings was acquiring Cutter Gauthier after he demanded a trade for Philly, and the start to the season couldn't be going any better. Gauthier had two assists with six shots on Friday against Detroit before scoring a goal and an assist against the Devils on Sunday. That brings Gauthier to a preposterous 52 shots on goals in eleven games this season, with seven goals and five assists. That screams fantasy superstar right now. I forgot to mention that he's 21 years old as well. I was a big fan of Carlsson going into this season, as well as McTavish, but I'm upset at myself that I wasn't all in on Gauthier. I liked him, but he's the exact player type I always want in fantasy. I'm not sure if he ends as a top 50 fantasy player this season, but it's possible. If not, it's only a matter of time. Let's take a look at what else happened over the weekend:
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.
I'm slightly pivoting from my original plan to keep things moving. Today, I'm going to go through the forwards ranked 42-60 in full detail like I have with the first 41 forwards. Then, I'm going to have a post ranking 61-100 where I will still right more than it simply be a list, but I'm going to highlight players that I like or dislike compared to consensus, and limit what I write about players who we know who they are at this point e.g. Kopitar in his last season. If you missed the Top 40 post, you can check that out here. Let's get to it!
The new Robert Thomas gets things done before 3 a.m. The Blues won their seventh straight game on Tuesday, destroying the Canadiens 6-1. Their best player led the way with a goal and three assists, giving him 2+11 in his last eight games. The Blues are getting closer and closer to a lock for the playoffs, which is a big triumph for Montgomery and the organization. It's not a knock on Kyrou or their other wingers, but I'd love to see what Thomas could do with a superstar winger on his side. In terms of a pure playmaker, Thomas would be in my top ten in the league, and probably top five. He's still only 25 years old and his game should age incredibly well, so now that his shot rate is to a below average level instead of a huge drain, Thomas is a great dynasty asset. Let's take a look at what else happened over the last two nights:
It was typical Team Canada to leave Thomas Harley off their team in the first place for an aging Doughty, but at the end of the day, Harley ended up playing and playing extremely well. He's carried that over to the Stars, where he's filling the void left by Heiskanen's injury and then some. Harley had a goal and an assist with two shots on Tuesday, giving him three straight multi-point games, and bringing him to 14 points in 11 games since Heiskanen went down. The shot rate is holding him back a bit, but Harley has a real chance to be a borderline top ten defenseman the rest of the way. He's been doing well at even strength all season, and the Stars power play is starting to get going. Let's take a look at what else happened over the last two nights:
It's not too often that a player scores four points in a game. It's even less often that it happens in a losing effort. On Monday, J.T. Miller scored two goals and two assists with three shots, only for the Canucks to lose to the red hot Canadiens 5-4 in overtime. The ongoing speculation around Miller and Pettersson is rampant, and you have to think it's taking a toll on both of them. Reports are that the Rangers were interested in getting him back, but it never reached the point where Zibanejad was asked to waive his no trade because the Canucks didn't want to make a move around those two. At the end of the day, it hasn't been Miller's best season, but he's sitting at a point per game. That shows how high his floor is, despite his shot rate really dropping. Perhaps we see a surge from him now that Quinn Hughes (2A, SOG) is back as well. I was asked about Miller in the comments recently, and I didn't think perception was that Miller's value is down quite a bit. I'd certainly lean towards the buy low side than trading to move Miller if I owned him. Let's take a look at what else happened over the last two nights:
Back to back wins for the Devils against the defending champions, both in Florida, is quite the accomplishment. Throughout my preseason rankings, I repeatedly stated that I was basically throwing last season out of the window for all of the Devils, and that has proven to be prudent. All of the injuries and horrific goaltending had no bearing on this season, and they look back to the team from two seasons ago. On Thursday, the Devils won 6-2, with Jesper Bratt scoring a hat trick on five shots. In 20 games, Bratt has 8+16 with almost exactly three shots per game. It's a bit skewed because the Devils have played the most games in the league to this point, but Bratt is a top five forward on the season. His teammates, Nico Hischier and Jack Hughes, who each dished three assists in the victory, are both pushing top ten forwards. We've seen superstars in Toronto play at their best under Keefe, and now we're seeing it with the Devils. None of this looks fluky. Let's take a look at what else happened over the last two nights:
