Every Sunday, we’ll share 21 Fantasy Rambles from our writers at DobberHockey. These thoughts are curated from the past week’s 'Daily Ramblings'.

Writers/Editors: Ian Gooding, Michael Clifford, Cam Robinson, and Alexander MacLean (subbing in for Dobber)

1. Calgary's top line of Johnny Gaudreau–Sean Monahan–Elias Lindholm has had very high highs in the past, particularly in 2018-19 when Gaudreau fell one point shy of 100, Monahan was over a point per game, and Lindholm was just three points shy of a point per game. They all fell off pretty hard in 2019-20, with none reaching 60 points and none reaching 30 goals. There is going to be a rebound in 2020-21, but I guess my question is whether Lindholm will be on the line with them or not?

For now, my presumption is they’ll run Gaudreau-Monahan-Lindholm and Andrew Mangiapane–Mikael Backlund–Matthew Tkachuk. But we saw them move Lindholm down to play with Backlund when Tkachuk was hurt in the playoffs. This is also a team that believes they’re in their Cup window, which means a full season of Gaudreau-Monaha-Lindholm struggling to score won’t happen. If there isn’t production out of the gate, I think we see lineup changes very quickly. There could be some fancy waiver wiring necessary in Calgary this winter. (oct29)

2. As I did last year, I wrote the Penalty Minutes Producers (now also including hits) and the Goalies to Watch articles in this year's DobberHockey Fantasy Hockey Guide . The latter article isn’t a list of the top 10 goalies in fantasy hockey, because many of those names will be obvious. Instead, this article is about goalies that could perform surprisingly better than last season, or prospect goalies that could be ready to step in with an injury to the starter.

I’ll take this opportunity today to reflect on one of my five picks from last season’s article, one year later. This isn’t necessarily me tooting my own horn and showing off my best picks. It’s just an honest assessment of what I said and where these goalies stand a year later:

Anton Khudobin will be remembered most for his outstanding performance in the 2019-20 return to play, leading the Stars to the Stanley Cup Final. So it may surprise you that Khudobin was actually better during the regular season. Among 57 goalies that played at least 20 games, Khudobin’s .930 SV% was the best in the entire league, while his 2.22 GAA was third. Yet he would have been ignored in many fantasy leagues because Ben Bishop was considered the starter in Dallas.

Khudobin isn’t a secret anymore, which means you won’t be able to add him in the final rounds of your draft or on the waiver wire as Bishop insurance. Bishop may still be the de facto starter and may still earn the larger paycheck ($4.9 million to $3.3 million), but this could very easily be a 50-50 split. Not just because Khudobin has earned it, but also to reduce the probability of another Bishop injury. (oct31)

3. We knew that Tyler Seguin was dealing with multiple injuries during the postseason. However, his surgery for repairing a torn labrum has been delayed until likely next week. This surgery usually requires around a four-month recovery, which would put his return to action at around March 1. Obviously we don’t know when the season will start, but Seguin could be looking at missing the first month or two of the 2020-21 season. Move him down your draft rankings – I know I will. (oct30)

4. Rangers’ Top-6 Winger Mix: The addition of Alexis Lafreniere gives the Rangers himself, Artemi Panarin, Chris Kreider, Pavel Buchnevich, and Kaapo Kakko as wingers probably all worthy of a top-6 role. The last name on that list is probably the least deserving, but of the five players named, he’s one of two right wingers.

Now, Panarin shoots right but plays the left so I’m sure it wouldn’t be a big thing for him to slide to the right side. As long as Kakko keeps developing, Buchnevich ends up as the odd-man out eventually, but I’m thinking of just the start of the 2020-21 season.

I still think there are a lot of good things coming for Kakko’s game, but third-line slotting probably makes him an avoid for the year. At best, wait for a waiver wire pickup once the season gets going. (oct29)

5. Alex Galchenyuk has signed a one-year deal with the Sens. For me, this ship has long sailed. Galchenyuk has been a terrible defensive player his entire career, and he’s not really a play-driver, either. At best, he’s a decent finisher who is good on the power play. That is where he’ll derive his fantasy value: the power play. He should be a fixture of the top unit. (oct29)

6. Marco Rossi is heading to Switzerland with the blessing of the Minnesota Wild. He is expected to be in the lineup for the ZSC Lions, according to Mr. Russo, by this weekend.

At the risk of reading far too much into this, Rossi starting up his hockey season overseas at a point in time where we’re probably six or so weeks out from training camps *assuming the league is still pushing for a January 1st start date* is a bit curious to me. If the Wild were assuming a January 1st start date, would they allow their recent first-round pick to go overseas for a month? I don’t know. These are questions with unknowable answers. It is just, for me, intuitively speaking, I don’t think a team would send their top teenage prospect overseas, even if it’s a league he’s familiar with, just for a month of training. But, again, maybe I’m reading too much into this. (oct29)

7. This past month we saw the Predators take Russian Yaroslav Askarov 11th overall. Sure, they have Juuse Saros ready to go now. They have Connor Ingram putting up big numbers in the American League. But Askarov is special. He’s posting serious numbers in the KHL at 18.

And wouldn’t you know it, there’s another kid coming in 2021. Allow me to formally introduce you all to Jesper Wallstedt. The Swedish netminder has been on the radar for some time. As a 16-year-old he was splendid at the World U18 Championships – posting equal or greater numbers than Spencer Knight and Askarov did at the same event despite being younger. He was nearly as good in the J20 during league play. As a 17-year-old, he saw a start in the SHL stopping 17/18 shots faced.

Now, he’s up with Lulea full time in the top Swedish men’s league. And boy, does he ever look good. Wallstedt has started four of his team’s last seven contests and has stopped .929 percent of the shots faced with a 1.92 goals-against-average.

Now, I’m not going to sit here today and tell you Wallstedt is better than Askarov – an exceptionally talented guy who is just five months older than the Swede. But I will say that both European kids appear set to best Knight and should in all likelihood have a clearer path to a quick ascension into the NHL based purely on their earned experience playing professional hockey at young ages.

If you had come to me and asked if it was prudent to take Askarov as high as third overall in your fantasy drafts this fall, I’d tell you that as long as netminders have real value and are hard to obtain, fly at it. I’ll say the same thing next year regarding Wallstedt. (oct28)

8. The age of Moritz Seider running things on the Detroit blueline is quickly approaching. The 19-year-old has been excellent in his early showings with Rögle of the SHL. Through five games in the Swedish top tier, he’s produced a goal and four helpers while seeing just over 19 minutes a game.

That TOI number has been creeping upwards as well. He saw over 21 minutes last Tuesday and was a force in all situations. Seider finds a way to absolutely smother any oncoming threat and then quickly and efficiently move the puck in the proper direction. While working the point on the second power-play unit, he has used his big shot when appropriate and moved the puck around deftly when not. As I said, he’s been great. (oct28)

9. That's all great news for all the Seider owners, but those who should be most concerned are Filip Hronek folks. Hronek is everything for Detroit at the moment. He eats all the difficult matchups and pried away from the top PP spot – as shitty a spot as that was last year. But with another righty in Seider coming, his position is not very secure in the fantasy landscape.

Sure, I expect Seider to see some tough matchups at even-strength as well, but I also see him stealing that top PP gig too. Detroit will be adding Seider and Lucas Raymond to Anthony Mantha, Filip Zadina, Dylan Larkin and Bertuzzi in the next 12 months. Their offense should begin to materialize in short order. Seider is likely to reap the defender point benefit.

I’d say sell high on Hronek but he didn’t light it up enough to really be able to. If he could hold his position, I’d love his long term forecast, but them’s the brakes! (oct28)

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10. Josh Ho-Sang settled with a two-way contract worth $750K in the bigs and $250K in the minors. It was a tumultuous 2019-20 season for the 24-year-old – more so than the rest of us. After failing to make the Isles out of camp, requesting a trade, being sent to another team’s AHL affiliate to avoid disruption, suffering injuries and still not being traded, Ho-Sang appeared left for dead.

This deal breathes some life into his career. For a player with an abundance of skill, he hasn’t been able to put it together for long stretches over the past few seasons. I hope he does and I hope he’s afforded another opportunity – something we see certain athletes get an abundance of while others fail to receive many. Funny how that works. (oct28)

11. That the Golden Knights traded Paul Stastny to make room for Alex Pietrangelo tells me that the team probably sees the same thing we are. Chandler Stephenson played extremely well between Mark Stone and Max Pacioretty, making Stastny kind of expendable. Stephenson has seen a remarkable turnaround in shot assists/60, as he was in the 39th percentile in his two years with Washington before climbing to the 87th percentile in 2019-20 with Vegas, and being in the 87th percentile among forwards in our sample in the 2020 playoffs. If he can maintain that level of playmaking, then Stone and Pacioretty should be fine. (oct27)

12. Still with shot assists/60, I just wanted to note that the 2019-20 regular season saw Jakub Voracek post his worst percentile finish for shot-assist rate (82nd) in four years, and he followed that up with a 70th percentile finish in the playoffs. Now, he had a bad year (for him) in 2016-17 with an 84th percentile finish, and that year he had his lowest point/game mark from 2013 and beyond. Then, in 2017-18, he posted 85 points, the best season of his career. That is why I say one-year samples (or one playoff sample) doesn’t give us definitive evidence of anything.

All the same, it is a concern, and something for fantasy managers to be aware of. If Voracek is losing his playmaking, he’s losing the source of his value in fantasy hockey.

13. Chris Tierney has signed a two-year deal with the Sens carrying an AAV of $3.5M. It is noteworthy because the team could be going into the season with an unproven Colin White as their 1C. It is far from a lock that White is the top-line centre all year. We saw what J-G Pageau did last year on the top line (albeit with an inflated shooting percentage). Not that Tierney will do the same, but at some point in the season, he could be skating 18-19 minutes a night, and that is interesting for fantasy. If he’s pushed to the bottom-6, though, there’s no fantasy relevance here. (oct27)

14. Looking at defensemen production for the upcoming season, who is the odds-on favorite to put up the most points.

Is it one of the Calder options from last year in Cale Makar or Quinn Hughes? Does Rasmus Dahlin erupt to a point per game or more? Are John Carlson and Roman Josi able to hold off the field for one more year? Do we see a wildcard with a season where it all comes together, because would Zach Werenski, Anthony DeAngelo, or Shea Theodore hitting a new level really surprise anyone?

I’m biased toward Josi as my favorite player, but I think Dahlin may be worth laying a bet on at the beginning of the year to set the pace for the new season. There are lots of excellent options on defence, but the talent does drop off after the top 20 or 30 though. (oct26)

15. With the KHL season underway, some NHL players are already on the ice. Don’t be afraid to jump on Mikko Lehtonen after all of the first power play options are gone in your fantasy pools. He should see frequent minutes with the Leafs’ second unit, and could even take over first unit duties if the Leafs want to save Morgan Rielly for tougher minutes. (oct26)

16. Three weeks into free agent “frenzy” and there are still a few of the top skaters available. I took a look though what teams have both the roster space, cap space, and incentive to add a difference-maker to sort out what options some of the players below may have. For any of you that are unaware, I also put together my own salary projection model and will have each player’s projected cap hit listed, as well. Below are two of those players:

Mikael Granlund, C/RW: Projected Cap Hit: $4,055,741
It has been a while since Granlund played center, but his versatility across the lineup would be extremely attractive for two teams in particular. The Boston Bruins are going to be without wingers David Pastrnak and Brad Marchand to open the season, while centers David Krejci and Patrice Bergeron have been frequently injured over the last few seasons. Granlund could fill in as needed up and down the lineup for them and add to their already formidable offence.

On the other hand, maybe what Granlund needs is a little bit of stability. The New York Rangers should really want to upgrade on Ryan Strome as their number two centre, and a revitalized Granlund would be just what the doctor ordered. That would lengthen out the lineup for the Rangers, and assuming they realize early in the season that they need to stop playing Jack Johnson, it could be the piece that pushes them into the playoff picture. A short-term deal would likely be best for both parties.

17. Anthony Duclair, LW: Projected Cap Hit: $3,038,763
Duclair is arguably the second-best scorer still available in free agency (after Hoffman), and at this point he should cost half of what Hoffman will. Every team would love to add another scoring winger, but few can make it all fit. The San Jose Sharks are the team that seems to make the most sense as they could guarantee Duclair a spot in their top-six group and fit him in at around $3 million. This would push Ryan Donato to the third line and mean that Duclair could line up with bounce-back candidates Tomas Hertl and Timo Meier. What a dynamite line that could be. (oct26)

18. Sam Reinhart, one of the top RFAs from this year’s crop put pen to paper on a one-year deal that takes him almost to the end of his restricted years. His new contract sports a $5.2 million AAV, and ensures that next year he will either be able to take another one-year deal walking himself straight to unrestricted free agency, or sign a long-term deal that will have to be a lucrative one to buy up his UFA years.

Reinhart is the number one RW on the Sabres, and could see plenty of time with Jack Eichel and Taylor Hall at even strength. His career high is 65 points in the 2018-2019 season, and it looks like an easy ceiling for him to pace towards breaking in the upcoming campaign. (oct26)

19. It’s possible that Victor Olofsson loses value with the addition of Taylor Hall, particularly if he moves off the top line or first-unit power play. Should the Sabres’ top line consist of Hall, Jack Eichel, and Sam Reinhart, then a second line of Olofsson, Eric Staal, and Jeff Skinner won’t be a terrible option for the parties involved. (oct30)

20. During this offseason, there hasn’t been a team that has added another team’s players the way the Flames have added former Canucks players. First Jacob Markstrom, then Chris Tanev, and how could I forget Louis Domingue? Add Josh Leivo to that list of ex-Canucks migrating over the Rocky Mountains, as he has signed a one-year contract with Calgary for $875,000. Leivo had been sidelined since December with a fractured kneecap, having missed both the rest of the regular season and the postseason. Leivo scored 19 points (7g-12a) in 36 games in 2018-19, so he was on a 40+ point pace. Fantasy Take: Flames Hit Their Mark, Sign Jacob Markstrom

Despite Leivo’s recent injury history, this is a low-risk gamble for the Flames. When healthy last season, Leivo was most frequently used on the Canucks’ second line with Bo Horvat and Tanner Pearson.  He’ll probably slot in as a third or fourth liner for the Flames and may even push for the second line. I liked what I saw from Andrew Mangiapane on the Flames’ second line last season, but if healthy and consistent, Leivo could push for that role.

21. The fact that the Canucks didn’t re-sign Tyler Toffoli or Leivo means that it looks like they are all-in on Jake Virtanen playing in the top 6 in 2020-21. This probably wasn’t what the Canucks had planned, however. Virtanen started the postseason as a healthy scratch and finished the postseason with just three points in 16 games. Because Virtanen hasn’t seemed like a favorite of Travis Green (more because of his play without the puck), it looked like his days in Vancouver were numbered. Fantasy Take: Holy Moley, Montreal Signs Toffoli (oct25)

Having just said that about Virtanen, he had been on pace for 20 goals and 40+ points when the season came to a halt. He had been used anywhere from the first to the fourth line during the season, so there is upside for more with increased time in the top 6. Because the Canucks couldn’t sign anyone to replace Toffoli, Virtanen is being handed a golden opportunity that he probably didn’t expect. That opportunity could even include top-line time with Elias Pettersson and J.T. Miller, since Virtanen as the speed to keep up. Yes, that’s sleeper potential.

If Shotgun Jake can’t take advantage of the situation, then don’t be surprised if the Canucks decide to walk away when his two-year contract expires, even though he’ll still be an RFA (arbitration-eligible). If he does, then hockey fans across the province of British Columbia will be shotgunning plenty of beers once play resumes. (oct25)

That’s all, folks – have a good week and be safe!!

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