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 Dobber

1. It has been an impressive start to the season for Drake Batherson and Josh Norris. The former has three assists in five games, to go with 18 shots and 13 hits, while the latter has one goal, three assists, nine shots, and 10 hits. While Brady Tkachuk will rightfully get the ink from that line, those two guys developing into legitimate top-6 forwards would be a huge development for the Sens.

What will make them continually useful in fantasy is ice time and division. They get to play in Canada, which means softer defensive matchups, but they’re also getting reasonable ice time, at 18 minutes and 16 minutes, respectively. The concern with a lot of rookies is their role. It doesn’t appear as though that will be a concern in Ottawa, at least for the time being. (jan21)

2. Bowen Byram recorded his first NHL point (an assist) in his second NHL game (Friday). You probably know how talented Byram is by watching him in the World Juniors. I know firsthand from watching him live in the WHL how dynamic and mobile he is.

Even though he’s not unseeding Cale Makar on the first-unit power play anytime soon, and he may not even get a sniff of the second-unit power play, don’t sleep on this kid for too long. The fact that the Avalanche were able to draft him with Ottawa’s high first-round pick was absolute highway robbery. See Byram’s Dobber Prospects profile for more. (jan23)

3. In his Coyotes debut on Friday, Victor Soderstrom did not fill the boxscore, but included in his 15 minutes of ice time was the equivalent of second-unit power-play minutes. Oliver Ekman-Larsson‘s injury probably has a lot to do with Soderstrom’s recent addition from the taxi squad. Yet this is a very positive sign for a 19-year-old rookie defenseman fresh off the World Juniors, as the Coyotes aren’t overflowing with offensive weapons. See Soderstrom’s Dobber Prospects profile for more. (jan23)

4. In his fifth NHL game, World Junior Championship star Dylan Cozens scored his first NHL goal. Want to view the goal? Click on the link on Cozens’ name to go to his Frozen Tools page, then his game log, then you’ll see a video icon on the right. Another cool brand-new feature over at Frozen Tools. (jan23)

5. After Pierre-Luc Dubois skated a grand total of 3:55 on Thursday, it came as no surprise that the Blue Jackets were getting closer to finally parting ways with the disgruntled center. Check out our Dubois Going to Winnipeg for Patrik Laine, Jack Roslovic trade breakdown. (jan23)

6. Remember when Joe Pavelski joined the Stars last season and it appeared that he wasn’t the right fit? After scoring 38 goals in his final season in San Jose, Pavelski sputtered to just 14 goals and 31 points in 67 regular-season games in his first regular season in Dallas. Yet if you include Friday’s two-goal effort, Pavelski has scored 15 goals in 28 games dating back to the start of the playoffs.

Tyler Seguin‘s absence might mean that Pavelski is leaned on even more, as his 19:39 of ice time exceeded his 2019-20 ATOI by nearly three minutes. Although Pavelski won’t score two goals and two assists every game like he did on Friday, he is worthy of more than 28 percent ownership in Yahoo leagues. (jan23)

7. Joe Thornton is expected to be out at least four weeks with a fractured rib, so you’ll need to look for another option if you had added him because of his opportunity on the Auston Matthews (day to day) – Mitch Marner line. John Tavares was moved onto the Marner line, as was Zach Hyman. (jan23)

8. In response to Ilya Samsonov hitting the COVID list with some of his teammates, the Capitals recalled Craig Anderson from the taxi squad. Looking ahead, the Capitals don’t have another back-to-back until February 20-21, so that leaves them plenty of time to ride the hot hand of Vitek Vanecek, if they need to. They do have five games in nine days coming up so they might want to rest him, but there’s no real need for a split-start situation anytime soon. As long as Vanecek doesn’t fall on his face, he should see a lot of starts in the near-term. (jan22)

9. The bad news for the Flyers just keeps coming. Following Sean Couturier‘s pec/rib injury, the team announced that Morgan Frost dislocated his left shoulder and will be out for the foreseeable future. It is a brutal break for a guy who may have seen a bigger role with Couturier out. For now, expect a lot of Kevin Hayes.

The team also announced a rib fracture for Philippe Myers and that will also leave him out of action for a while. He had a great breakout year in 2019-20 and looked to figure into their top-4 for 2021 and beyond. This is a big blow to a blue line that has looked shaky at the outset of the season.

With that Myers news, we learned that Shayne Gostisbehere may return to the lineup once Philly returns home from their current road trip. I am still a big believer in Ghost’s skills but he’s really running out of time to turn it around in Philly. This season may be his last chance to do so. (jan22)

10.Going through some TOI leaders and one name jumped out to me: Elias Lindholm. Heading into Sunday action, he was a shade under 22 minutes a game, good for eighth in the league among all forwards, ahead of names like Panarin, Eichel, and Draisaitl. While that hasn’t led to great peripherals immediately – six shots and four hits in three games – that level of ice time with Matthew Tkachuk, on that PP unit, in that division, could mean great things for him. I don’t imagine he’ll keep playing 22 minutes a night, but 20 minutes a night is certainly within reach. (jan21)

11. Staying with ice time for a minute, the league leader per game? Erik Karlsson. Second place in the league? Brent Burns. This is an interesting turn of events as the 2019-20 season saw Karlsson play his second-lowest minutes in nine years (the lowest was the year prior). Burns hadn’t really seen a big ice time cut but Karlsson had. Does that mean Karlsson is completely healthy?

That level of ice time is interesting to me because Karlsson playing more than 28 minutes a game should be great for his peripherals. It is important because Karlsson has just one season of three shots per game in the last four years. That level of ice time should mean a lot more shots. However, what should happen and what does happen in hockey are infrequently the same thing. (jan21)

12. He still has a ways to go but David Pastrnak started practicing with the Bruins this week, doing so in a non-contact jersey. That he was in the red jersey indicates his return is not imminent, but that he’s on the ice with over a week left in January could mean he’s ahead of schedule. That is great news for anyone who bought him at his price in draft season. If he only misses five or six games, he could still have a great fantasy season. (jan21)

13. Morgan Rielly has just a single point (an even-strength goal) in six contests. This despite him averaging 3:07 on the power play and a whopping 24:27 of ice time overall. He also has 15 shots on goal during that span.

Now, do I love that the Leafs are splitting up their power-play units? No, no I do not. I hate it. I believe it's a mostly dumb strategy in real life and gut-wrenching for fantasy purposes. But it still doesn't change the fact that the 25-year-old has proven capable of being a very good-to-elite producing defender and he's just now scratching his prime-aged seasons. He's cold to start, but give it time and he'll find his way to the hot list. (jan20)

14. We were unsure of who would earn the plum position to QB the Flames top PP this season. Mark Giordano has long been the incumbent, but his sun has been fading in recent seasons. Noah Hanifin is hanging around and Juuso Valimaki is back after losing a year of development to a knee injury. But it’s 24-year-old Rasmus Andersson who has locked it down early on.

Through three contests, the former second-round selection has grabbed a goal and two assists – one on the PP, seven shots, and six blocks. All while seeing 5:15 on the PP and nearly 22-minutes overall. Those are pretty tasty multicategory numbers.

Even in points-only leagues, Andersson is producing enough to warrant a spot. His top power-play deployment should keep him viable. But he’s also a threat at even-strength. He and Giordano are skating top-pairing minutes and will continue to be given ice with the Flames offensive forwards at 5v5.

I’ve long been a fan of Andersson. I don’t see elite production coming, but he’s a player who certainly has a 0.5 point-per-game output in him. Add the peripherals and he’s an intriguing piece. (jan20)

15. BREAKING: Jack Hughes is in fact good and not bad because as an 18-year-old he didn’t live up to ridiculous expectations Okay, I’ll tone it down a bit. But seriously, the 2019 first-overall pick looks like a completely different player as a sophomore. What a difference an (extended) offseason worth of training can do.

We shouldn’t be all that surprised. It’s happened time and time again in the NHL. An 18-year-old top selection has struggled to adjust to the NHL for whatever reason – size, strength, smaller ice, whatever. Steven Stamkos, Joe Thornton, hell even Owen Nolan struggled way back in 1991.

For Hughes, he was up against a couple of walls. He was clearly undersized and needed added strength to handle the grind of an NHL game let alone a full season. He was also the first – and only, player to step directly out of the USNTDP and into the NHL.

Now we can see it. The shifty, creative lines. The incredible balance. The pure, god-given play creation skills that allowed him to toy with the competition at the junior level, are all with him in the NHL. Maybe we won’t expect him to keep cruising along at two-points-per-game all season (we won’t), but I think I may have been a little light on the projection of 33 points in 52 games. (jan20)

16. In the offseason, we talked a lot about how much strength of schedule will matter this season. This past week encapsulated it perfectly:

• Tampa Bay – two games, both against Columbus
• Anaheim – four games, all against Vegas
• Montreal – four games, three against Vancouver and one against Edmonton
• Winnipeg – five games, three against Ottawa, and one each against Toronto and Edmonton

Which players are you starting from which teams? I suspect there’ll be times where superior players stay on the bench for weeks because of bad matchups. Example: Los Angeles has a month-long stretch in February/March where aside from two games against Anaheim, they play only St. Louis, Colorado, Vegas, or Minnesota, including 6/14 against the Blues. How many weeks is Anze Kopitar starting in there? We have a wild, wild season ahead of us. Buckle up, kids. (jan19)

17. I've found that, living in the Toronto area and fresh on the heels of the WJC, Rodion Amirov was being drafted too early. Even in my deep league of 15 teams and 34 players per team, I think he should have been taken next year. But he was scooped up in all three leagues – even a shallow 13-team, 20-player roster league. Drafted ahead of the likes of Vasili Podkolzin and Philip Tomasino.

Amirov is going to be a great player, but in Toronto do you think he’ll be as good as Nick Robertson? Close? Well, Robertson is a best-case scenario and it will be Year 3 after being drafted before he helps fantasy teams. And Amirov is in the KHL. So to me the best case is Year 4 – so the 2023-24 season. I mean, that’s if he makes the NHL in 2022-23, that he’ll finally help fantasy owners the following year. If he comes over later, the wait is obviously longer.

Why draft him now? No, to me it’s this summer coming up where he should be drafted in deeper leagues, and the summer of 2022 where he should be drafted in most leagues of this type. Again, subject to change, but that’s my evaluation as of today. (jan18)

18. Are people reaching for Egor Sharangovich? It’s always exciting when a player emerges from out of nowhere. But I find fantasy owners overcompensate for this by taking the player too early. He’s not going to be this year’s Dominik Kubalik.

The hype around him, the ‘real hockey’ hype, is about his tremendous improvement as an overall hockey player. And he’s found the confidence in his breakout KHL season that has him shooting more – and scoring more. His shot volume is way up to nearly three shots per game in his 34 KHL games. He scored 17 times in those 34 games for an inflated SH% of 17.9%. He offers good speed, reasonable size, and a sound work ethic that has endeared him in the hearts of Devils fans.

I can see him becoming a 20-goal, 40-point player almost immediately. But his upside doesn’t go much higher than that. I think if all goes well, a fair outlook for his peak is 25 goals and 45 points. If you want to cross your fingers and have everything work out perfectly for him, then the highest I would go at this point looking ahead five years is something in the high-50s if he has continued chemistry with Jack Hughes. That’s nothing to sneeze at, and I can adjust this as I see more, but honestly that’s it. The easy money is on the first scenario (20 goals, 40 points). (jan18)

19. In trying to put a disastrous 2019-20 season behind him, Andreas Athanasiou has scored three goals in his first five games with the Kings. [Fantasy Impact: Kings Sign Athanasiou] Athanasiou has connected on a line with 36-year-old Jeff Carter, who might be an afterthought in fantasy leagues at this point but has five points in his first five games. Carter is also firing the puck like the Carter of old, taking 16 shots so far. You probably didn’t think you would, but there’s a chance you could be looking at adding one or both of these players if you’re in a deeper league. (dec17)

20. The Jacob Markstrom signing shows why teams are so reluctant to trade players with divisional rivals. Markstrom’s choice of Calgary was much less ideal for the Canucks than most other teams, considering that the current divisional alignment means that the Canucks and Flames play each other nine more times this season. So with all that, Markstrom is now a must-start whenever he faces his former team. (dec17)

21. Don’t look now but Phil Kessel already has four goals (in five games). We knew his fantasy value would drop with a move to Arizona, but it absolutely plummeted last season. He was believed to be playing through injuries, which if true he would have had a long time to heal.

In my experts league draft I watched Kessel go unselected round after round, finally being selected at pick 271. Right wing is the position where I have the least amount of depth on this team, so in hindsight I should have closed my eyes and made the pick. (dec17)

Have a good week, folks – be safe!!

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