Welcome all to my Editor debut at DobberHockey. It's exciting to be joining the editorial team with Dobber, Ian Gooding, and Michael Clifford – a big thanks to them for helping me get here. On the other hand, it is sad that Cam Robinson is leaving the team. We'll miss him and all that he brought to the website, especially his expansive knowledge of the Canucks & draft eligible prospects, as well as his excellent sense of humour and kindness. Stick tap to Cam for all that he brought to the site over the years. 

I will be taking over the Wednesday Ramblings, keeping you covered on all things fantasy hockey related. There may be a bit less Canucks content, and you may need to spend more time at DobberProspects for the prospect coverage, but I'll try not to leave the voids completely unfilled.

For those of you that don't know me, I have penned the Capped column every Thursday here at DobberHockey since 2016, and I'm a very active member over on the forums. You can also find me on Twitter @alexdmaclean where among other tidbits, I enjoy covering NHL signings and how they came in relative to projected value. 

Grab your coffee, tea, or drink of choice and let's get rolling.

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Jacob Trouba left the Rangers' game with an upper-body injury and was almost immediately ruled out of the rest of the game. If he misses any length of time then the Rangers need to hope K'Andre Miller is ready to go again. There isn't a lot of depth in that D core to begin with, so we could see some big minutes from Adam Fox – he finished with a game high 25:40 of ice time, while no one else on the Rangers passed 21 minutes. On the other end of the rink, Ty Smith saw 23 minutes (second on the team) and is becoming an integral part of the Devils. Expect to see his name on plenty of Calder ballots. 

On the positive side of injury news, there were no new names added to the Covid-protocol list yesterday, and I think this tidbit flew under the radar from last week:

We have something to show you. #stlblues pic.twitter.com/NLcUlm3JQs

— St. Louis Blues (@StLouisBlues) February 12, 2021

Getting a healthy Vladimir Tarasenko back sometime in March would give the Blues some enviable depth to go along with a surprisingly steady blueline, and a rejuvenated Jordan Binnington who has been better than his 'disappointing' showing last year. 

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Kicking off a fun slate of five games last night, we saw Pittsburgh and Washington meet for the fourth time this year. Pittsburgh won the first two meetings after regulation time, and the third one wasn't as close, a 6-3 win for the Penguins on Valentine's Day. Last night's game followed more like Sunday's game, as we expect from the Capitals and Penguins. The teams combined for a nice 69 shots and four goals. Washington scored the first three goals of the game, and Pittsburgh wasn't able to muster up much of a comeback.

The new regime of Brian Burke and Ron Hextall hasn't made any quick moves, and with the team on a 7-3-1 run, they haven't needed to. However, with how flat Pittsburgh looked in last night's game, it may not be long in coming. With the defence core getting healthy, and the teem seeing to need depth all over the ice, perhaps the new Penguins brass decides that one or two of their current defenders is expendable to bring back the right piece. 

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Nashville and Dallas would have also been meeting for the fourth time this year, but due to the snowstorm and power outages in Dallas, the Monday and Tuesday night games were both postponed and have not yet been rescheduled. The Red Wings, Blackhawks, and Blue Jackets remain the only teams in the Central without having had a game postponed. It seems like the only way to ensure your team is safe from scheduling changes is to name your team with a color. 

Dallas now up to six games postponed, and Nashville now at three. In fantasy leagues where extra man games mean a lot it's tempting to look at those two teams and think that acquiring some of their players is an easy way to gain an advantage, but it is a possibility that one way or another those games just don't get made up. In Nashville's case it's also possible that said player isn't even on their roster later in the season as they may be looking to sell off some pieces by the deadline (the aforementioned Penguins could be a fit for a few of their UFAs). In general, it might be worth a small gamble, but don't pay too much extra for them. 

Already, games are being rescheduled after May 8^th, which was initially supposed to be the end of the NHL season. With two games already scheduled for May 10^th, New Jersey, Philadelphia, Tampa Bay, and Dallas have all lost a game during the fantasy hockey season thus far. 

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Rasmus Dahlin does not have an even strength point yet this season. I expand on him and why he will rebound soon in my Capped article tomorrow, but for now all you need to know is to go out and buy all of the stocks you can because there is nowhere to go but up. He's a special player, and special players don't see their values get this low very often. 

Anders Lee, 1-0 #LetsGoBuffalo #Isles pic.twitter.com/HXWvm3s6bJ

— Buffalo Hockey moments (@SabresPlays) February 17, 2021

Buffalo may have allowed the first goal in the game (clip above), but it happened when Kyle Okposo was forced to play defence due to a bad change. The second goal was a deflection and also not Carter Hutton‘s fault. Then again, Hutton isn’t the most reliable Buffalo goalie right now, that title goes to Linus Ullmark. To some, Ullmark bears the brunt of the blame for these defensive lapses, but he has been surprisingly average this year for the otherwise abysmal Buffalo Sabres. From the Fantasy Guide, Dobber noted this about Ullmark's breakout last year: 

"Backed by an encouraging defensive effort by the blue line group – remember, it was the lack of depth up front that hampered the Sabres – Ullmark fashioned a solid 17-14-3 log to go with a 2.69 goals- against average and a 0.915 save percentage. A lower body injury spoiled his breakout season in late January and kept him out of action until the Sabres' last game of the shortened season on March 9…"

The injury hid what was a very good stretch by Ullmark, and in some leagues the 27-year-old may still be underappreciated, or his owner may think that his current numbers indicate a sell-high window. That's not the case, and Ullmark may be one of the best goalies you can acquire right now when you consider the cost in a trade versus what he can provide statistically. 

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The New Jersey Devils controlled the play in the first, only had a few spurts in the second, but put the game away in the third. They're still missing a few key players though after having their last number of games postponed due to a Covid outbreak among the team. Despite the win, the Devils looked a little rusty in their first game back. Even with reinforcements coming in top-line centre Nico Hischier plus a few more depth players still on the Covid protocol list, the team will be in tough to make a push for the playoffs. There's no superhero coming to bail them out of trouble here, and the friendly neighborhood Spider-Man is too busy in New York, needing to save the Rangers from their porous defence. 

The Rangers allowed 16 shots in the first period, and though they had some push-back in the latter periods, Igor Shesterkin couldn't make a timely save, leading to the 5-2 loss. The line of Brett Howden, Colin Blackwell, and Phillip Di Giuseppe was the best line for the Rangers, managing to go plus-1 on the night. The big guns just haven't been able to put the puck in the net with regularity this season for the Rangers, and it is exacerbated with Artemi Panarin out of the lineup. Expect that to turn around when the $11 million winger returns – he is currently day-to-day. 

One player that did look good in the top-six was Kaapo Kakko. He was in the right spots, controlling the puck, frustrating P.K. Subban, and generally just having the play find him. Kakko took a season-high five shots, and added two hits to a minus-1 in 17 minutes of ice time. Here's a familiar face with another thought on Kakko:

Kaapo Kakko 2019-20 vs 2021

Yeah, I'd say he's improving nicely. The points will come. pic.twitter.com/DIROF9Laxw

— /Cam Robinson/ (@Hockey_Robinson) February 16, 2021

The good thing for fantasy owners is that it's not too late to get in on him in, though like Dahlin, he still won't be cheap in keeper leagues. 

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The first game between Colorado and Vegas on Monday was not the high scoring game that fantasy owners wanted, Philipp Grubauer and Marc-Andre Fleury have been two of the best goalies in the league thus far, and are reasons their owners are likely at or near the top of their respective leagues right now. However, if their injured backups aren't owned or are easily acquired in a trade, do your due diligence and check in, because those two can be difference makers later in the season. Robin Lehner and Pavel Francouz remain out for the Golden Knights and Avalanche respectively, but the goaltending depth (when healthy) is just an added reason why they are two of the three teams with the best odds to bring home the cup this summer. 

Tuesday's rematch saw the first goal less than eight minutes into the game with Nathan MacKinnon opening the scoring off an excellent slot pass by Mikko Rantanen. Despite pacing for 100 points, Mackinnon is only shooting five percent, on the season. As that corrects itself, expect a few monster games against some of the lesser opponents in the Pacific. 

The next time we see the Avalanche on the ice they'll be outside at Lake Tahoe, and should have both Cale Makar and Gabriel Landeskog back in the lineup. 

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Games between the Minnesota Wild and Los Angeles Kings are turning into must-see television, as they combined for their fifth thrilling game of the season already. The two teams play again next on February 26^th. Circle that on your calendar as one to watch, because there's only three meetings left between the two teams this season.  

Getting back to the good injury news, last night's game featured the return of Matt Dumba who was injured in the January 31^stgame. Dumba only ended up missing one game though, as his team was off for two weeks with Covid postponements. The 26-year-old defenceman has looked a bit like his old self with three goals through his first nine games, and logging heavy minutes both at even strength and on the power play. 

Jaret Anderson-Dolan opened the scoring on the powerplay, assisted by Gabe Vilardi. JAD needs to take advantage of his opportunities now because the waves of Kings forward prospects are coming – plenty of them with higher ceilings. 

Jonathan Quick started for the Kings, but he has only been their second-best goalie thus far this season. Petersen has the edge in almost all of the significant categories, and it's not all that close. The discrepancy is even more stark if you look into the advanced goalie stats. Here's the side-by-side comparison from the goalie comparison tool.

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Behind the paywall there was an exceptional article from Katie Strang that dropped yesterday over the Athletic (behind the paywall). If you have access it's worth the read, but the gist is that the whole Coyotes organization continues to be a dysfunctional operation. The team put out a poorly worded response that amounted to complaining that there were only bad things reported and that they should also mention these positive details that weren't very relevant to the story. 

If there was this much dysfunction in a fantasy league, then the manager would be removed from the league and a better one brought in, but unfortunately for the NHL, this fix won't be that simple. 

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Sticking out West to end on a positive note, Monday night the San Jose Sharks warmed up in some awesome jerseys. The Sharks are one of the teams that have made an effort for Black History Month, and auctioning off these BHM jerseys for charity is a small step in the right direction. 

You might remember Mohamed Fofana, a member of our front office, who created a custom piece to celebrate Juneteenth.

Tonight, more of his art was featured on our #BlackHistoryMonth
warmups.

This amazing artist joined @BrodieNBCS to talk about what inspired him and much more! pic.twitter.com/0ynEAy94Yq

— San Jose Sharks (@SanJoseSharks) February 16, 2021

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Stay safe!