Despite seeing nearly a month of games in our NHL schedule, it was a season debut last night that spoiled the Rangers’ modest 3-game winning streak. Pyotr Kochetkov was recalled from the AHL (Chicago) for his first game of the year on Tuesday evening, after getting the green light to return from a lower-body injury. The 4th year backstop made 25 saves on 25 shots and held off the Rangers’ offense for a 3-0 win at NYR. After winning 27 games last year, Kochetkov looked like he hadn’t missed a beat, and is worth an immediate pickup if an impatient manager needed some roster space and cut him loose in a shallow league. Check the FA list as soon as possible, or float out a trade offer before the 26-year-old goes on a run.
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.
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 one day from the season starting! After watching football all day Sunday, I can't wait for hockey to start. What a miserable day of football, culminating with my Bills playing horribly against the Patriots, with the referees trying to take over the game, constantly calling garbage against both teams. Anyways... all of my rankings are out, so I'm going to talk about my ten favorite late round picks. What allows these guys to qualify is that their ADP on Yahoo! or ESPN are outside of the top 200. A couple things for clarification to start: I'm talking about 10 or 12'ers where I'm trying to shoot the moon late. Worst case, we turn the pick into a streamer spot. Best case, we end up holding the guy all season. One of the best calls I had over the years was Victor Oloffson's rookie year, when he has 20+22 in 54 games before the COVID shutdown. In deep leagues, we want to go safer towards the end of the draft because the waiver wire is barren. Guys like Jason Zucker or Trevor Moore, who are middling streamers in 12'ers, become clear holds in deeper leagues and should be your target. Let's look at those lottery tickets!
It's not too often that you see the first period natural hat trick, but it happened on Tuesday night. Kyle Connor scored his 24th-26th goals in the first period against the Canucks, adding a power play assist later in the game. It's been a fantastic start to the season by the Jets, and they've been led by the two Connor's. Here is the list of forwards who have provided more value than Connor to this point in the season: MacKinnon, Draisaitl, Kucherov. That's it. Obviously he losses some value in non-hits leagues, but regardless, we're looking at a season full of career highs for a player who has already had 47 goals in a season and 49 assists in a separate season. It's time for Connor to start being acknowledged for the superstar that he is. Let's take a look at what else happened over the last two nights:
After some brutal injury luck, Patrik Laine was able to return for the Canadiens on Tuesday, scoring a goal in his Montreal debut. On Thursday, Laine did the same, scoring a goal on three shots in the win over the Predators. Laine has stepped into a 17 minute role right away, including top power play time. I'm not going to say it's going to be completely smooth, but Laine has undeniable upside. He's available in about 50% of leagues, which seems too high. In 10'ers, he's definitely on the fringe. In 12'ers, I lean towards holding for that goal scoring upside, but it is also fringy. It depends on the bottom of your roster and your team needs. Let's take a look at what else happened over the last two nights:
Opening night in Salt Lake City couldn't have gone any better for Utah HC. Dylan Guenther will go down in history after their first goal scorer, and he also sealed the game with an empty netter. Guenther picked up right where he left off last season with those two goals on five shots, playing over 16 minutes. To say I'm all in on Guenther is an understatement. Guenther's ADP was outside of the Top 200 while I had him ranked 96th overall. I'm a huge believer in his talent, and with Logan Cooley (2A, 3 SOG) as his centerman, I think we see fantastic seasons that elevate Utah into the playoffs. Let's take a look at what happened over the last three nights:
The season is underway with my beloved Sabres getting dominated twice by the Devils. I'm going to start by talking about what was notable in those two games below, before looking at the games over the next two nights. There's eight games in total between Tuesday and Wednesday, with some intriguing matchups and some possible early answers to some major questions, so I want to say what I'll be watching for from a fantasy hockey perspective. Let's get to it!
We keep things moving in these parts with the rest of my forward rankings. I am going to put these guys into tiers with comments on players that I think are worth discussion. For example, I'm not going to talk about Scheifele because at this point, we know he's going to be right around a point per game with his goals coming down to how effective the Winnipeg PP is. For the Top 40, you can read that here. Let's get to it!
If you missed Part One covering the Eastern Conference, you can check that out here. Today, I wrap up the offseason by looking at the major changes in the West. Let's get to it!
ANAHEIM DUCKS
The Ducks are planning on having growth from within. Robby Fabbri could end up being a decent streamer depending on his role, but Cutter Gauthier as a full-time player is the big addition. With how bad the team is, he should get huge minutes and could be a bottom end hold as early as this season. He's a viable late round pick. Also, keep an eye out for a potential Cam Fowler trade.
Hello everyone. Welcome to the ninth edition of JOT This Down!
Keep the questions, comments, and concerns coming. I’ll be here all week to answer any and everything you may have.
