Weekly Western Leaders (to April 18th, 2021) – in bold leads the NHL

Goals – 26 –  Mikko Rantanen – Colorado (33 – Auston Matthews)

Assists – 48 – Connor McDavid – Edmonton

Primary Assists – 34 –  Connor McDavid – Edmonton

Secondary Assists – 21 – Tyson Barrie – Edmonton

Points – 71 – Connor McDavid – Edmonton

PPP – 27 – Connor McDavid – Edmonton

Shots on Goal – 164 – Nathan MacKinnon – Colorado (182 – Brady Tkachuk)

Shooting % (min 44 SOG) – 24.6 – Joonas Donskoi – Colorado

PIM – 68 – Mathieu Olivier – Nashville

Best plus/minus – plus 26 – Nathan MacKinnon – Colorado (plus 27 – Joel Edmundson)

Worst plus/minus – minus 17 – Quinn Hughes – Vancouver, Mattias Janmark – Vegas (minus 32 – Rasmus Dahlin)

Hits – 144 – Josh Archibald – Edmonton (205 – Brady Tkachuk)

Blocked shots – 135 – Alec Martinez – Vegas

FOW – 550 – Ryan O’Reilly – St. Louis (571 – Patrice Bergeron)

FOL – 395 – Bo Horvat – Vancouver (470 – Sidney Crosby)

FO% (min 210 FO) – 61.2 – Pierre-Eduoard Bellemare – Colorado (62.3  Patrice Bergeron)

Giveaways – 56 – Leon Draisaitl – Edmonton (76 – Thomas Chabot)

Takeaways – 42– Mark Stone – Vegas (46 – Jack Hughes)

Highest Skater GAR (goals above replacement) – 18.3 – Connor McDavid – Edmonton

Lowest Skater GAR – minus 6.2 – Kurtis MacDermid – Los Angeles (minus 6.5 – Nikita Gusev)

Highest xGAR (expected goals above replacement) – 16.5 – Connor McDavid – Edmonton, Mikko Rantanen – Colorado (22.5 – Auston Matthews)

Lowest xGAR – minus 7.3 – Duncan Keith – Chicago

Highest CF% (min 26 GP) – 63.6 – Nathan MacKinnon – Colorado

Lowest CF% (min 26 GP) – 38.0 – Alexander Volkov – Anaheim

Highest PDO (min 26 GP) – 108.4 – Carson Soucy – Minnesota

Lowest PDO (min 26 GP) – 91.0 – Robert Bortuzzo – St. Louis

Goalie wins – 25 – Philipp Grubauer – Colorado (26 – Andrei Vasilevskiy)

Save percentage (min 17 starts) – 92.8 – Juuse Saros – Nashville (93.0 – Andrei Vasilevskiy)

Quality starts – 22 – Philipp Grubauer – Colorado

Quality start % (min 17 starts) – 70.0 – Marc-Andre Fleury – Vegas (76.5 – Ilya Sorokin)

Highest Goalie GAR – 22.0 – Connor Hellebuyck – Winnipeg (27.2 – Andrei Vasilevskiy)

Lowest Goalie GAR – minus 8.1 – Ville Husso – St. Louis (minus 17.5 – Carter Hart)

Shutouts – 5 – Philipp Grubauer – Colorado, Marc-Andre Fleury – Vegas

This week we will look at the rest of the Western teams and check in on how these players have fared so far this season.

All the players (more than 25 NHL games) below were listed as risers or fallers before the start of the season,

Los Angeles Kings

Risers –

Alex Iafallo has 26 points in the first 41 games and has marginally brought up his points per game from 0.61 to 0.63. He has increased his SOG to 2.2 per game and is playing over 20 minutes per night. The Kings re-signed him last week to a four-year extension with a $4 million AAV.

Adrian Kempe has 13 goals and 24 points in his first 42 games and will more than likely exceed his previous career-high of 16 goals from 2017-18. His SOG per game is at a career-high of 2.4 and his ice time is up to 16:40 on average per night.

Cal Petersen has played more games than Jonathan Quick this season and has outplayed him substantially as Petersen has a GSAA at 8.13 in 24 games and Quick is -8.83 in 19 games played. The 55/45 split should become 75/25 the rest of the season.

Fallers –

Dustin Brown is 36 years old and not slowing down as much as we would have expected. He is on pace to record the 8th 20-goal season of his career and is averaging 0.65 pts/game which is a 50-55 point pace in an 82 game season. One stat that is slowing down a little is his number of hits, which are down to under two per game for the first time in his 15 seasons in the NHL.

Drew Doughty was listed and though I thought he might have a few more years of similar output to last season, I did not think he would bounce back to 0.71 pts/game which is almost a 60-point season in 82 games. His point production is slowing down a little lately to about 0.5 pts game in his last 16 games to April 18th.

Jonathan Quick has struggled again this season and this would be the third year in a row where he has been below average. He still manages to get more starts than he probably deserves but he is the definition of a faller.

Minnesota Wild 

Risers –

Kevin Fiala has been a bit of a disappointment for me as I truly thought he would become a point-per-game player this year. His SOG and goal production are still rising as he is on a 28-goal pace where his career-high has been 23 goals. Part of his issue has been at even strength where he only has five primary assists in 39 games compared to 15 in 64 games last season. I still believe he is on the rise though.

Joel Eriksson-Ek has 14 goals in 43 games and is averaging 2.2 shots on goal per game, which are both career highs. He has started to see some power-play time (25.1 percent) but all of his 14 goals are at even strength. His point per game production has only slightly increased to 0.49 from 0.47 last season.

Fallers –

Zach Parise has lost more than two minutes per game of ice time from last season and as a result, his points per game are at 0.51 which other than a 13 game season in 2010-11 is a career-low. He is still shooting the puck with 2.1 SOG/game but his shooting percentage has dipped to 9.5 where he usually sits between 11-13. He can still put up 20 goals, but at 36-years old, it will have to be in the next few seasons and will become more unlikely each of the four seasons remaining in his contract. 

Marcus Johansson has only managed to play 28 games and has only put up five goals and 12 points which is good for 0.48 pts/game. That is with a shooting percentage of 17.2 as well, so he's not generating as much offense as he once did and has settled into a 0.45-0.55 pts/game for the foreseeable future.

Mats Zuccarello has managed 10 goals and 27 points in 30 games which have surpassed any expectations I might have had even playing with the likes of Fiala or Kirill Kaprizov. He has slowed down from a blistering start and his shooting percentage is probably unsustainable at 18.2.

Ryan Suter has been a lock for about 0.5 to 0.6 pts/game for the past 12 seasons. This season he is playing about two minutes less per game than last season and his offense is down to one goal and 0.35 pts/game. At 36 years of age, it might be the start of a steady decline in points. 

Cam Talbot has been very good for the second season in a row and has 14 wins in 24 games with a 92.2 save percentage. As good as he has been, I don't think he will get more than 40 starts in a season from here on.

Alex Stalock had 20 wins in 38 games last season but has yet to play a game this season due to an upper-body injury. He is now in Edmonton.

Nashville Predators 

Risers –

Juuse Saros has been great this season and has started 24 of 46 games for the Predators. If not for the injury he would have an increased workload over Pekka Rinne. His save percentage of 92.8 is the best in the West and his GSAA is 15.58. I still have concerns about his size and his ability to be a true 1A starter in this league but he is proving me wrong most times he hits the ice.

Luke Kunin has had a disappointing season with only four goals and 12 points in 29 games. For multi-category fantasy leagues, he has either become a much more prolific hitter or the Nashville scorer is a little easy on giving them out. He has more than two hits per game after averaging close to one per game in Minnesota. His points per game are 0.41 compared to 0.49 last season so, at 23-years of age, I'd give him one more season to prove he belongs in this category.

Fallers –

Ryan Johansen has become one of the most expensive shutdown centers in the NHL. He's a very effective player still, but he has 10 even-strength points in 38 games and his overall points per game are down to 0.39 after 0.53 last season. Even 0.53 seems lofty now but I"m sure he will get back to that level at some point. Otherwise, he's an $8 million Nick Bonino.

Matt Duchene is not a 0.33 pts/game player as he has shown in the 24 games he has played this season. Unfortunately, he is not the 0.96 pts/game player he was from two seasons ago. He is still only 30 years old and should be able to put up 0.60 to 0.70 pts/game for the next two to three seasons.

Pekka Rinne has been a little better than last season, but unfortunately for the Predators, he has had to play more games than he should have with injuries to Juuse Saros. With 367 career wins (and counting), the 38-year old has had a very good career.

San Jose Sharks 

Risers –

Ryan Donato has 20 points in 44 games and has a good chance to beat his career-high of 25 points, needing six points in his last 12 games. I don't think Donato has the highest ceiling in the world and 0.45 pts/game might be it.

Fallers –

Erik Karlsson is coming off his worst season in 10 years when he only had 40 points in 56 games and I think most people thought he would at least match that output of 0.71 pts/game. This season he has managed to stay healthy for the most part and has played 40 of 44 games but his production has cratered to 0.43 pts/game with only six points on the power play. His PPTOI is the lowest it has ever been at 2:53 per game. It's not looking good to get back to even the production of last season at this point.

Brent Burns has managed to put up 0.59 pts/game which is close to his 0.64 from last season. At 36 years of age 45-55 points with subpar defensive play is what you are going to get from Burns in the next season or two at its best.

Devan Dubnyk is now in Colorado after the trade deadline, but he has struggled for the second season in a row with negative GSAA numbers.

Martin Jones has the uncanny save percentage of 89.6 this season. He had the same percentage last season and the season before that. The good news is that it's not getting worse. The bad news is that he is signed for three more seasons at $5.75 million AAV and it's not getting better.

Patrick Marleau is having a well-deserved swan song tour of the NHL this season that will undoubtedly be his last in the NHL. When you play 1,767 NHL games and have 566 goals and 1,196 career points you can do whatever you want.

St. Louis Blues

Risers –

Zach Sanford has not lived up to his billing. He has only produced 14 points in 41 games (0.34 pts/game) after his impressive 16 goals and 30 points in 58 games last season (0.52). Even though his ice time has increased by over a minute per game, his SOG has decreased from 1.6 to 1.4 and his hits have decreased as well.

Robert Thomas has battled injury for most of this season and has only had eight points in 21 games. He has struggled since returning with only two points in nine games, so at 21 years of age, I won't put too much stock into his season so far and still believe he has better days ahead.

Fallers –

Tyler Bozak has only played 19 games this season because of injuries and has nine points. His point production of 0.47 pts/game is better than last season but he struggles to remain healthy at the age of 35 and will continue to do so.

Justin Faulk had a great start to the season with five goals and eight points in his first 15 games. He has slowed down considerably but is still having a fairly good year with six goals and 16 points in 43 games. He has benefitted the most with the departure of Alex Pietrangelo and is playing almost four more minutes per game.

Vancouver Canucks

Risers –

Thatcher Demko has been bubble Demko this season for the most part and has taken over as the number one goalie in Vancouver at the age of 25. He was rewarded with a five-year $5 million AAV contract. It's hard to criticize the Canucks for letting Jacob Markstrom sign in Calgary.

Jake Virtanen's play has fallen off a cliff with only four points in 32 games. His play is devoid of any urgency 99% of the time and his time in Vancouver might be short. I was as wrong as wrong could be.

Elias Pettersson had a bad start with only 12 points in his first 18 games and has 21 points in 26 games for points per game of 0.81 down from his prior seasons of 0.93 and 0.97. There is a concern in Vancouver that his wrist injury might require surgery and he is done for the season. There are fewer wow moments in his game but he improves game after game.

Fallers –

Tanner Pearson is probably not a 0.32 pts/game player as he has shown after 34 games this season and been rewarded with a three-year $3.25 million AAV extension. He is also not a 25-goal scorer with a 0.65 pts/game pace. He is a 15-20 goal scorer that should get you 40 points each season.

Alexander Edler had five goals and 33 points in 59 games last season. I watch him play this season and ask how he even did that? He has no goals and six assists in 37 games and had a breakaway coming out of the penalty box (he likes to be there) and was getting caught just over the opposition blueline, so he stopped up and brought the puck back to center ice. A veteran move for sure, but not a move that will bring you offense.

Tyler Myers is an enigmatic player for sure but is posting better offensive numbers than last season (0.39 pts/game compared to 0.31). How many players can say they have played 12 years in the NHL and had their best season as a rookie?

Braden Holtby has not had the bounce-back season that some were hoping goaltending coach Ian Clark could help him get back. He is coming off his best game as a Canuck in beating Toronto 3-2 in overtime, but he has struggled for the most part.

Vegas Golden Knights 

Risers –

Cody Glass is slowly going in the right direction overall but has struggled in the past 19 games with only two goals and three points. His overall points per game of 0.37 are over what it was last season when it was 0.31 but Glass has yet to score an even-strength goal this year. I still have faith

Alex Tuch has 16 goals and 28 points in 43 games good for a 0.65 pts/game pace. I thought this was a bit of a risky inclusion as Tuch had a 20 goal and 52 point season two years ago, but struggled mightily last year in the regular season with only 17 points in 42 games. His pace this season is that of a 30 goal scorer.

Fallers –

Marc-Andre Fleury should never be counted out. He is having his best season since the inaugural year in Vegas in 2017-18 and silenced any critics including myself. He is still 36-years old though.

William Karlsson has been unfairly saddled with fantasy expectations from his 43-goal and 78 point season in 2017-18. He is a consistent 55-65 point producer that will get 20-25 goals. Cody Glass isn't ready to supplant him yet and I might have been a little premature on including him.

Winnipeg Jets 

Risers –

Jack Roslovic has an impressive 29 points in 38 games (0.76/game) but is now in Columbus. He is another product of the fourth-year breakout.

Josh Morrissey was included because I thought he would benefit with more power-play time and he has been quarterbacking the first unit but has not seen much of an increase in PP production with only nine points in 45 games this season after 12 PP points in 65 games last year. Morrissey is not a Corsi or GAR darling so is in the crosshairs of some as being overrated. Overrated or not, I still think he has more than a 31-point season in him at some point.

Nikolaj Ehlers has 20 goals and 45 points in 45 games and has arrived as a point per game player. He has accomplished this while still not being a member of the first unit on the power play. He is the real deal.

Fallers –

Blake Wheeler has 32 points in 39 games which is still an impressive 0.82 pts/game but it is down from last season's 65 points in 71 games (0.91). Each time I want to write off Wheeler he goes off on a 20 game tear with 25 plus points. At 34 years of age, I"m going to be right sooner than later.

Paul Stastny has been more productive than I thought he would be with 0.56 pts/game after 45 games (12 goals and 13 assists). He is seeing time on the first unit of the power play, something I thought would be Ehlers. I still think I'm safe in my prediction that he probably wouldn't see 40 points again.

Thank you very much for reading and if you have any comments or suggestions please message me or follow me on Twitter @gampbler15.