Thoughts on Hayes, Forsberg, the ‘other’ R.Nash, Hartley, the Bruins and more …

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Kevin Hayes has points in three straight games, and Anthony Duclair was made a healthy scratch again. The Rangers are very lucky to have two quality prospects like them, but I think over the next couple of weeks the Rangers will decide that Duclair should get more ice time and they’ll send him down. Hayes is safe. For Hayes, Duclair, Miller, Fast and the rest of the fantasy-worthy Rangers prospects, check them out here.

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DobberProspects also has a ramblings up from Austin – right here (for yesterday) and right here (for today). Brendan jumps in with his Super Series reflections at some point late today or Saturday..

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Derrick Brassard has two points in the four games since Derek Stepan returned. Stepan has four in four. As we suspected, the points bonanza for Brassard appears to be over and he’s back to being a 50- or 55-point player.

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So I had to do a double take when I saw that Riley Nash has 12 points in 15 games this year. Did you just do a double take? When Nash was an Oilers prospect, we (and in this case I mean former Prospects writer Matt Bugg and myself) had him pegged as a future NHLer with surprising upside of over 70 points. But by the time he got to Carolina’s system he was looking like a checking-line forward. But now he’s putting up points like gangbusters when we haven’t seen this kind of offense since he was a junior in college.  He’s playing on a line with Nathan Gerbe and Elias Lindholm – two players with very high offensive upside, but very little proven. From Frozen Pool:

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The party is over for Cam Ward, who was enjoying a five-game winning streak. And despite the hot run, his save percentage is still just 0.906 – and the loss last night was just two goals allowed, so you can imagine how horrible the SV% was before the streak. His confidence is back, but it’s still fragile and a couple of quick setbacks would put him back to Square 1 again.