Ramblings: Kirill the Thrill, Other Debuts, New Linemates and Players To Watch (Jan 15)
Ian Gooding
2021-01-15
Since Thursday was opening night for many teams, we got to see some new faces, familiar faces in new places, and players that might be new to the fantasy radar. Now that I have some real hockey games to write about, let's run it down for you.
Taylor Hall's choice of Buffalo came as a surprise to many. In his Sabres debut, he wasn't able to lead the Sabres past Washington, but he did score a goal and added an assist in 19:30 while playing on a line with Jack Eichel and Tage Thompson.
With linemates like that, the 6-7 Thompson (just 3% owned in Yahoo leagues) might be worth a flier. Remember that he was acquired in the infamous Ryan O'Reilly trade, so the Sabres likely want any kind of return on investment here. Thompson is off to a decent start, recording one assist in Thursday's game.
Of course, this game also featured the Capitals debut of one Zdeno Chara, who played 20 minutes while being paired with Nick Jensen. The 43-year-old Chara did not record a point and did not receive any power-play time either.
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First overall pick Alexis Lafreniere made his Rangers debut, but he was held without a point just as the rest of his team was. Lafreniere finished with 15:21 of icetime, second-unit power-play minutes, and played on a line with Filip Chytil and Julien Gauthier. It's only one game, but the deployment shows that the 19-year-old might need some time before he's a must-start in all leagues.
Semyon Varlamov continued his impressive play from the playoffs, stopping all 24 shots he faced in earning the shutout. Varlamov isn't making the starting job easy for Ilya Sorokin to grab, at least not right away.
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The Flames handed a pile of money and term to Jacob Markstrom to try to solve their goaltending woes of recent seasons. He managed to stop 30 of 34 shots he faced in a 4-3 overtime loss to Winnipeg. Of course, the Flames are paying for saves like this one:
Surrounded by trade rumors, Patrik Laine says he will be focusing on playing hard and helping his team succeed. He committed to those words on Thursday, scoring two goals (including the overtime winner) and adding an assist. The Jets seem to be on the outside looking in on many North Division preseason projections, even though they are very closely matched with the other middle-of-the-pack teams in that division (Edmonton, Calgary, Vancouver, Montreal). I wonder if they'd be getting a bit more respect if not for the Laine rumors.
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The best debut overall was the one that finished past the bedtime of many on the East Coast. Kirill Kaprizov checked all the boxes for a successful debut, recording two assists in regulation before scoring this sensational overtime winner on the Kings.
If you've held onto Kaprizov for multiple years wondering if he'd ever make it over to North America, your patience was rewarded handsomely, and this performance should be a sign of things to come. Long one of the league's most vanilla teams, the Wild appear to have landed a superstar that will finally make their team a must-watch. Rookies are difficult to project, but you need to run to your waiver wire right now if he is somehow still unowned in your league.
Once we add it all up, Kaprizov finished with a plus-3 in nearly 22 minutes of icetime, which led all Minnesota forwards. His linemates were an aging Zach Parise and Nick Bjugstad, but I wouldn't worry about that a ton. Kaprizov appears capable of driving the play on his own. Man, I can't stop watching that goal. It is a thing of beauty.
Of course, you can view our Experts Panel to find out exactly how many writers picked Kaprizov as their Calder Trophy winner. Although I picked Igor Shesterkin over Kaprizov, I would go with Kaprizov over Lafreniere in Calder Trophy rankings. Without getting into a detailed study, one important reason is age, as the 23-year-old Kaprizov is over four years older than Lafreniere.
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The Devils might not be the most interesting team out there, but there's a few takeaways worth mentioning from their 3-2 shootout loss to the Bruins:
In a less-hyped NHL debut, Ty Smith scored his first career goal, which turned out to be the game-tying goal with just over six minutes in regulation. Smith also finished the game a plus-2 in 17 minutes, which included second-unit power-play time. Smith might not be the power-play guy in Jersey yet, but that could happen in time. His 35 percent ownership on keeper-league-friendly Fantrax seems a little low.
So who was that first-unit guy? None other than P.K. Subban. He couldn't record a point, but that wasn't due to lack of opportunity (30:18 in total icetime). Even though I drafted Subban as a late-round blueliner to help me with my penalty minutes in one league, I'm not in on a major bounceback. Maybe a respectable half-point-per-game pace if I'm being optimistic and the power-play minutes are still there.
If you took a late-round flier on Jack Hughes, you're off to a nice start. The 2019 first overall pick recorded two assists while totalling nearly 22 minutes in a game that went the distance (regulation plus OT). The Devils probably aren't going to the playoffs in a stacked East Division, but Hughes' progress is still worth keeping an eye on.
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Thomas Greiss might have been the last starting goalie picked in many fantasy drafts, which is easy to figure out why given Detroit's record last season. Yet the Wings can't blame their new goalie for the 3-0 loss, as he stopped 40 of 42 shots. That works out to a tidy .952 SV%. Hopefully your league doesn't just count wins and losses from goalies, as you deserved to be rewarded somehow if you rolled the dice with Greiss. There may be a few more of those, but the wins look like they'll be few and far between.
By comparison, Petr Mrazek posted an easy 14-save shutout for the Hurricanes. In other words, this game was a complete puck possession mismatch.
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Connor McDavid did everything but score in Wednesday's opening-night loss to the Canucks. That's why he was due on Thursday. As you might expect, he burst through in a big way, recording the season's first hat trick along with an assist and nine (!) shots. Here's his second goal, where he absolutely blows past multiple Canucks. You can't stop him, and you can only contain him for so long.
McDavid's linemate Ryan Nugent-Hopkins scored twice and added an assist while firing eight shots of his own.
What about Leon Draisaitl, you ask? Four assists, two of which were on the power play. No Draisaitl hat trick for Draisaitl, though.
These are what the scoring lines in Edmonton look like.
1 ZACK KASSIAN – RYAN NUGENT-HOPKINS – CONNOR MCDAVID
2 LEON DRAISAITL – KAILER YAMAMOTO – DOMINIK KAHUN
Dominik Kahun is a player you might want to keep an eye on for some short-term points. He recorded an assist on Wednesday but was held without a point on Thursday. No power-play time at all, so returns might be modest.
Fantasy Impact: Oilers Sign Dominik Kahun
With Mike Smith unfit to play, Mikko Koskinen started both of the back-to-backs. He happened to be better on the second one, stopping 38 of 40 Canucks shots in a predictably wide-open North Division game (the Oilers took 46 shots). You can start Smith this season if you like, but it won't be because I recommended it. Or to put it another way, Koskinen is the far superior goalie in E-Town.
Only one Canuck forward recorded a point on Thursday, and he probably isn't on your fantasy team (Tyler Motte). That meant no points for hot waiver-wire commodity Nils Hoglander. This in spite of 21:45 in overall icetime and first-unit power-play time. The first-unit power-play time might disappear once J.T. Miller returns from COVID quarantine, but the top-6 role might be here to stay. That guy was supposed to be Jake Virtanen, but he was held to just 10 minutes on Thursday and just can't get into Travis Green's good books.
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Did you let Evander Kane fall in your draft amid news that he might opt out of the season amid news he filed for bankruptcy? I'll admit that I did. Well, it turns out that the multicategory wonder will be just fine. Kane scored a goal and added two assists while firing seven shots in a 4-3 shootout win for the Sharks.
Tomas Hertl, who is on the bounceback trail after an injury-riddled 2019-20, scored two goals and added an assist while playing on Kane's line. John Leonard (Dobber Prospects profile) was the third man on this line and recorded two assists. He might be worth keeping an eye on if he can stick on that line.
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Even though the Ducks were no match for the Vegas Golden Knights, Maxime Comtois scored both Anaheim goals in the first period. Comtois played on an all-youngster line with Sam Steel and Troy Terry that could be interesting to watch if it can generate any traction. Regardless, the Ducks don't have any gamebreaking scoring options at the moment, which isn't helpful for anyone's fantasy value.
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Bye, talk to you tomorrow. For more fantasy hockey discussion, or to reach out to me, you can follow me on Twitter @Ian_Gooding
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