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:
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…
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:
I attribute a lot of it to randomness, but the new coach bump seems to happen over and over again. Right now, it's happening in Detroit, where Todd McLellan has the Red Wings on a seven game winning streak shortly after taking over the team. Given the ugliness of the Eastern Conference Wild Card race, that's vaulted Detroit right back into contention. A few guys have been thriving for Detroit, but I want to focus on Marco Kasper. The former eighth overall pick is getting his first real opportunity in a big role, playing first line minutes with Larkin and Raymond. In both games over the weekend, Kasper had a goal and an assist, with five shots between the two games. He's getting second power play unit time as well, which is enough to bump Kasper into the middling to solid streamer range for the time being. Let's take a look at what else happened over the weekend:
I hope that everyone enjoyed their long weekend as much as I got to enjoy the Bills demolishing the 49ers on Sunday night! The Sabres and having to dig out my car, not as much fun. Anyways, I'm going to take a look at one player on each team around the league whose value has changed for the better or worse in the short term. I'll give you their current value and what I'm expecting from them in the near and short term. 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!
As mentioned on Wednesday, I’m going to start this year’s posts by recapping the offseason for all of the teams, before I move into season rankings. Today, I’ll cover the Eastern Conference before I move to the Western Conference next week. Please, blog, may I have some more?
It's coming down to the wire with two weeks left in the regular season. I'll give a quick rundown of things happening around the league that can help you on the margins. As a reminder, check out the Playoff Manifesto for all of your streaming planning. Additionally, for those of you in head to head leagues, remember that volume is key. You should be maximizing all of your moves / starts every week to get as many games played as possible from your skaters. If you plan right and get 5+ extra starts than your opponent does, it's much easier to overcome one of your guys getting cold, or one of your opponents' players getting hot. Let's get to it!
While Friday was mostly quiet, there were a couple big moves along with some nice depth acquisitions. I'm going to cover those moves and give some first impressions on players with their new teams. Let's get to it!
Winnipeg acquired Tyler Toffoli from the Devils for second and third round picks. Toffoli didn't play on Saturday so we don't know exactly where he'll slot in, but I love this move for Winnipeg. With a healthy Toffoli and Vilardi, it's a loaded top six with good depth behind them. Toffoli is owned almost everywhere, so saying that he's a hold everywhere doesn't really change anything. The upside is undeniable, whether he plays with Scheifele and presumably Connor, or with Ehlers and Monahan. Going from the team with the worst goaltending to arguably the best should fix the plus-minus and the shot rate should stay at 3+. What will swing his value the most is whether he goes on the first power play unit. They have Connor, Scheifele and Morrissey as locks. Then you have two spots for Toffoli, Vilardi, Ehlers and Monahan. We should find out on Monday, although Vilardi being out increases his chances, especially because Bowness hates Ehlers for reasons unknown. I would bet on a big finish from Toffoli.
The NHL Trade Deadline is Friday afternoon, and boy, did we have it kick into full gear on Wednesday. While the biggest name on the block wasn't moved (Guentzel), most of the other big names already moved. We also had a massive one for one hockey trade that makes a ton of sense for both sides. I'm going to look at all of the recent moves and talk about the impacts for both teams, from both the short term and long term. Let's get to it!
Oh, the irony of the timing. Right as Ryan Smith, owner of the Utah Jazz, puts out a release saying that he's ready to bring a hockey team to Utah, the Arizona Coyotes go on a 14 game losing streak. Over the weekend, they managed to right the ship. The Coyotes snapped their skid on Friday, beating Ottawa 5-3, before defeating the Capitals 5-2 on Sunday. The featured performance was their former 9th overall pick Dylan Guenther. Guenther had a goal and an assist with two shots on Friday before scoring a goal and two assists with five shots and two PIM against the Capitals. Guenther playing over 18 minutes on Sunday was extremely encouraging. With Clayton Keller out, Guenther moved to the point on the first power play unit, and delivered three PPP over the two games. I've been a fan of Guenther's as a prospect and it looks like he's finding his game in the NHL. He's an elite streamer for the time being who you can hold for this week if you'd like. Arizona has four games, including two against the Blackhawks. In dynasties, I see a guy that eventually becomes a hold in all formats. I think he'll be a guy who gets three shots on goal per game on average, resulting in 25ish goals with upside for more with a good shooting percentage. Let's take a look at what else happened over the weekend:
It's not too often that we get a day in the NHL where all 32 teams play. On Saturday, we were treated to sixteen games spread out over the entire day and it did not disappoint. The Oilers set a franchise record with their 10th win in a row, the Avalanche came from 3-0 down to beat Toronto, and the Flyers snapped the Jets point streak, amongst other things. There were a lot of big performances along the way, but Connor Ingram's 38 save shutout was one of the highlights. So I was right about a Coyotes goalie being a top 15 goalie, I just failed to pick the backup who showed little in the NHL before this season, whoops! Arizona continues to stay right around the wild card spots, and Ingram is the biggest reason why. Don't be surprised if they ride him more in the second half if he can maintain anything close to this .919 sv%, assuming Vejmelka doesn't turn it around. Let's take a look at what else happened over the weekend:
