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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. 
We're very accustomed to Vegas making a big trade every season at this point.  Surprisingly, we got their big move on Sunday already.  Since they were willing to acquire Rasmus Andersson without a contract extension, the Flames sent him to the desert, acquiring Zach Whitecloud, a first round pick, a second round pick (turns to another first if Vegas wins the Cup), and a prospect that projects to be an AHL'er.  It's a good return for Calgary, taking advantage of Andersson bouncing back from a dreadful 24-25 season.  For Vegas, the fit is kind of weird to me.  It's a team that doesn't even play a forward on their top power play unit, so are they really going to jam Andersson with Theodore on the second unit?  Probably to make him happy, at least with their current injuries, but I don't see a lot of gain there.  Scoring goals hasn't been a problem, and Andersson has still been bad defensively.  He should play with Hanifin which maybe helps a bit?  Overall, I think this is a net negative for Andersson's fantasy value, but I'm still holding him for the time being to see how it looks for the next couple weeks.  For Calgary, Weegar takes over the top power play unit by default.  He's on the fringe.  Whitecloud could gain some deep league value.  My assumption is he gets a top four role, and with that, some quality hits and blocks.  Let's take a look at what else happened over the weekend:
It was another 10-game schedule on tap for Tuesday night’s NHL action!  And no one had a better night than the Boston Bruins’ netminder, Jeremy Swayman - 24 saves on 24 shots and the 3-0 shutout vs Detroit.  Swayman’s GAA (2.38) and save percentage (.919) over his last 5 games are as solid as it comes, and were good enough to give him a 4-1 record since New Year’s Eve. With an 18-11-1-1 season line, Swayman is sitting third overall in wins (behind Karel Vejmelka, Sergei Bobrovsky, and Andrei Vasilevskiy). The shutout was his first of the year, but second in two games for the B’s.
It's not that often that you see a team score 10 goals in a game.  In fact, it didn't happen all of last season.  It did on Saturday, with the Bruins smashing the Rangers 10-2 in the afternoon.  It's no surprise that the two highest game scores of the season were Bruins in this game.  It's definitely not a surprise that one was David Pastrnak, who dished a whopping six assists in the game, adding five shots on goal.  The huge surprise was Marat Khusnutdinov, who scored four goals and an assist, finishing +6.  While he didn't record any stats in Boston's game on Sunday, Khusnutdinov did have three assists in his previous four games.  He's currently on the first line with Pasta, so he's worth bumping into the middling streamer range.  There's some upside here, but he only had seven shots in his previous eight games combined, so that will need to drastically change for anything more.  Let's take a look at what else happened over the weekend:
Atlantic Division Preview here Metropolitan Division Preview here Happy Wednesday, Razzball faithful! It’s your new/old hockey writing friend, MarmosDad, back with another divisional preview as we start knocking games off of the NHL calendar. Last week, I gave you the final Eastern Conference preview with the Metropolitan Division (you can click it to check it out!). This week, we head West with a peek at the Central division, and boy, am I excited to get rolling on this one!  I nearly jumped the gun and went straight to the Central when I started writing these up, just because I’m kind of obsessed with a certain Winnipeg Jets prospect who opened some eyes in training camp. That should be enough of a teaser to get us through this preview, especially because the Jets round out our teams at the bottom of our profiles today. So let’s close our eyes, take a deep breath, and try to find our Central, er, center, as we head out to visit the place with the least creative division name of all…
We're through the Top 100 forwards now, so it's time to mvoe to the blue line.  The plan for the rest of the week is to go through the Top 20 defensemen today, and then 21-40 tomorrow.  Then, MarmosDad is going to be back in the fold and will have his first post on Wednesday.  I'll move onto goalies on Thursday, before what I post on Friday.  It will either be the Top 200 list, or players that I like the most out of the players I've already ranked that you can target in the later rounds.  Let's get to those defensemen!
It's not too often that you see a team up 5-1 halfway through the game and they don't even get a point.  In fact, they lost by multiple goals.  The Sharks were taking it to the Predators on Tuesday before the firepower we expected from Smashville going into the season showed up, making a 7-5 comeback.  They were led by one of their big free agent signings, Jonathan Marchessault, who had a goal and three assists with four shots.  It was a brutal start to the season for Marchessault (like everyone on the Preds), but Marchessault is in the midst of a nine game point streak right now.  The shot is fantastic, so he's played his way back onto the fringe with a lean towards holding, especially on this hot streak.  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:
If you want proof that no NHL coach has job security, look at what's happened over the last week.  Boston is off to a slow start but after setting records two seasons ago and winning a playoff series six months ago, nobody saw him getting fired before American Thanksgiving.  However, the news broke early on Tuesday that Boston was moving on with Joe Sacco as the interim coach.  Then, on Sunday, St. Louis made a quick move to hire Montgomery.  You have to feel bad for Drew Bannister, who only coached 76 games with the Blues and was a shocking 39-31-6 despite a weak roster, even though he was only 9-12-1 this season.  
It's been an incredible start for the Jets, and a big part of it is that the Jets coaching staff is finally playing their elite winger on the top unit.  Nikolaj Ehlers had a hat trick and an assist with five shots in the 6-2 win over Columbus, before a goal and an assist with three shots in the 7-4 win over the Lightning.  Ehlers has a whopping 8-9 in 12 games, dominating at even strength with solid PPP.  This is while playing with a second line center who is clearly below average.  What is Winnipeg makes an upgrade on Namesnikov eventually?  I don't think Ehlers needs it, but it couldn't hurt.  Regardless, career highs across the board are a near-certainty, and he could even beat the paces from his 28+27 in 62 games from three seasons ago.  Let's take a look at what else happened over the weekend:
Tuesday was a rare day in the NHL where every team plays  Thankfully, they stagger all of the game times, marketing it as "Frozen Frenzy."  Arguably the marquee matchup of the night was Tampa Bay at New Jersey, and it certainly was the craziest game.  The Lightning fell behind 2-1 before scoring five goals within ten minutes in the second period.  In that stretch, Brandon Hagel had a natural hat trick, finishing the game with an assist as well.  And yet, that still hasn't put him on the first power play unit .  Regardless, Hagel is off to a fantastic start.  I wasn't as far ahead of ADP on him as Guenther, but I was very bullish on Hagel.  I'm not sure he'll get to the 90 points I attempted to wish into existence with my bold predictions post, but it's in play if he gets that top power play time eventually.  Come on Cooper, do it already!  Let's take a look at what else happened in the one Monday game and Tuesday night.
Today, we're moving up to the blue line.  I'm going to cover the top 20 defensemen today, the top 40 later in the week, with the plan of putting out my Top 150 or Top 200 on Friday.  I'm on the fence between 150 and 200 just because of how much team needs come into play later in drafts.  If I do the Top 150, my plan is to have a separate post early next week about players I'm targeting later in drafts.  Anyways, let's get to the kings of the blue line!