Somehow, the season starts tomorrow already! I've gone through all of my rankings, and I hope that your drafts went well. As is tradition in these parts, my last post before the season starts is about ten bold predictions that I have for this season. They're almost always fantasy focused, and again, these are meant to be bold. I'm not talking about something that is 50/50 to happen, or even remotely close. I'm talking bold enough that if I hit three of these, I'll be very happy. Last season, I had some incredible whiffs, such as top 15 defenseman Morgan Rielly, but also hit on Jet Greaves being a top twelve goalie, and Caufield scoring 45+ goals. Here's to hoping the misses are at least somewhat close, and we hit a few of these. And without further adieu, my ten bold predictions!
Happy Wednesday, Razzball faithful!
Well, the time is finally here. After three weeks of running through aggregate rankings of forwards, defensemen, and goalies, we’re now just SIX SLEEPS away from Opening Night!
If you want to check out the preseason aggregate rankings, I’ll attach those links here…
If you missed the Top 20 post, you can check that out here. The plan is for my goaltending post to come out on Monday, with my Top 200 post coming out in the middle of next week so you have it for your drafts next weekend. That said, between all of the individual posts, you should be able to put it together and get close to a Top 200. If you want to get some early goaltending thoughts, you can look at MarmosDad's thoughts here. And with that, let's get to the Top 40!
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.
Last week 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.
Last week, I wrote up The Top 50(ish) Forwards. You can click there to peek at that one if you missed it.
This week, we’re headed to my personal favorite position, and the one where I spent most of my games when I was playing.
Happy Wednesday, Razzball faithful!
Are you ready for a Fantasy Hockey Playoff Pool preview? Do you need a primer for drafting your playoff pool roster?
Well, I have some good news for you!
Welcome to the first annual (maybe) MarmosDad NHL Playoff Preview!
I’ll go through some notes on how to strategize when making your picks for the playoff pool, then do a rundown of each playoff team, with names to look out for during your drafts.
Let’s get to it!
With Draisaitl out for the regular season, somebody in the Oilers supporting cast had to step up. There's been a few depth guys that have, but nobody more than Matt Savoie. The former ninth overall pick from the Sabres has started to come into his own. Savoie had a goal on five shots in the 3-1 win over the Blackhawks. This was his fourth game out of five that Savoie scored a goal, but the most important things for projecting going forward were his role. In this game, Savoie played with McDavid and registered over 19 minutes, including on the top power play unit. The Oilers schedule is pretty spread out so I'm not going to say he's an automatic hold, but Savoie has a Tuesday/Wednesday back to back next week, which is a prime spot to stream him. Let's take a look at what else happened over the last two nights:
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:
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!):
Today, I'm going to take a look at what has changed for some power plays around the league after the first two weeks of the season. I am going to focus on personnel changes that involve two players being swapped, not ones caused by injuries, unless the injury is long term. I'll talk about how it changes the value for each player and whether I expect this to hold going forward, or whether I think it's a matter of time until it changes back. Let's get to it!
Happy Wednesday, Razzball faithful!
With today’s post, we’ve officially come to the end of our Divisional Previews for the 2025-2026 season!
If you’re looking for the other Divisions, you can click here to check them out.
For today's post, I'm going to do something a bit different from what I've done in the past. Yes, we don't want to overreact to only 10 days worth of games. That is something I have preached on here for a decade now, as being stubborn and sticking to your priors is generally the best course of action. That said, we do have some more information now than we did ten days ago, and we don't want to completely ignore that. Today, I'm going to highlight some players that are off to amazing starts, and others that have started terribly. Am I buying the hot start, or looking to sell them? Am I worried about the struggling start for a player, or betting on them turning it around? Let's find out!
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!
