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, Alexander MacLean, and Dobber

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1. In the span of just over a week, Spencer Knight has already picked up three wins. This is much earlier than we expected to see the recently-turned-20-year-old Knight because of the presence of Chris Driedger and Sergei Bobrovsky.

It will be interesting to see where Knight ends up next season, since Driedger is a UFA and could be a starter/1A elsewhere. Assuming that happens, will the Panthers prefer Knight play behind Bobrovsky in Florida, or would it be better for him to build up some minutes in the AHL? Either way, he’s off to a strong NHL start (1.67 GAA, .943 SV%).

2. How about the season Devon Toews is having? On the year, he’s averaging career-highs in goals per game, assists per game, shots per game, and TOI per game. In a full year, he’d be on pace for about 11 goals and 45 points, doing so with sparse top PP time, only taking the role when Cale Makar was out of the lineup.

I am well aware that Toews won’t get nominated for the Norris. He falls into the Ryan Suter or Jaccob Slavin category for me (from prior seasons) where other defensemen on the roster will get the headlines, but the other defenseman (in this case Toews) has been as good if not better, he just doesn’t get the power-play time to put up huge points. And they may not even be suited for that role to begin with.

The point of highlighting Toews is that A) he has been truly among the elite defensemen this year and B) pointing out reasons why Colorado has been successful other than the elite scoring they have.  Toews won’t get the Norris nom but he definitely deserves it. Kudos to him on a great year. (apr27)

3. Winnipeg has now lost six consecutive games, which means that Connor Hellebuyck hasn’t posted a win in two weeks. Each of the Jets’ losses has been by at least two goals while being outscored 26-9. During those six games, Neal Pionk has been held without a point. Nikolaj Ehlers is out for the regular season. The Jets have enough space between themselves and the teams below the North playoff bar to ensure a playoff spot, but they will need to figure things out soon in order to have any kind of playoff success. 

4. Seattle will finally get Kraken! If you don’t appreciate Dobber’s Kraken jokes on Twitter, you probably didn’t like that one either. The check (cheque) has cleared on the final payment of their $650 million expansion fee, so they are officially an NHL team. Now they need to find a head coach and some players.

Maybe you’ve scanned a few mock expansion drafts by now, including this one by Alex last week. It will remain to be seen how many of these players actually land in Seattle, but you can count on us to break down the fantasy implications once they draft their roster. That should be fun, unless you’re on pins and needles about your team potentially losing a player that you like (or to make a bad problem worse by making a costly trade to avoid losing a certain player).

5. Elias Lindholm now has eight goals over his last 10 games. Often ignored when it comes to the discussion of who Calgary’s core players are (Johnny Gaudreau and Sean Monahan), Lindholm leads the Flames with 43 points. He’s also benefited from the move onto Gaudreau’s line. The move also seems to have helped Gaudreau, who has scored 12 points in his last 10 games.

6. Any hopes that you had of Carter Hart returning this season have been dashed, as he will miss the rest of the regular season with an MCL strain. Hart has been one of the biggest busts in fantasy hockey, finishing the season with a 9-11-5 record, a 3.67 GAA, and a .877 SV%, so the path to stardom won’t be a straight line.

He will probably fall in single-season draft rankings next season, while his long-term keeper owners will hope for better. Remember that he’s only 22, which is young especially for a goalie, so it’s best not to make any long-term judgements based on this season alone. Brian Elliott and Alex Lyon should split the goaltending duties the rest of the way.

7. Rasmus Sandin has seen some secondary power play time lately and has been adding some peripherals that weren’t there in previous cups of coffee with the big club. The Leafs defensemen are ripe to have one of them chosen by Seattle, so Sandin’s continued growth would be greatly appreciated by the team, and could make this summer’s expansion a lot less worrisome. (apr29)

8. Brady Tkachuk had a Gordie Howe hat-trick before the end of Wednesdsay's second period, but would you believe that it was the first one of his career? His dad Keith had 10 in his career, though the smart money is probably on Brady to finish his career with more. (apr29)

9. The big news that you wanted to hear about Thursday morning was Quinton Byfield‘s debut. The line rushes from Tuesday morning hinted he may be getting into Wednesday's lineup, so I stayed up waaaay past my usual bedtime in the Eastern time zone to watch him, and I have a couple quick thoughts (i.e. my extremely primitive scouting report):

Byfield looked very confident with and without the puck. He made solid plays, and didn’t seem too overwhelmed by the pace or the defenders around him. He was very aware of where he should be defensively and made several good reads to break up plays. He had one reverse pass in the first period that is the kind of play that will become all too normal for his linemates. Those linemates didn't seem to be expecting to receive the puck half of the time though, so once they're a little more used to playing with Byfield, he's going to be a whole new level of danger.

Additionally, and maybe even more noteworthy, Byfield was strong at the faceoff dot winning 8 of 12, and playing a full 18 minutes. He added four shots in that timespan, and his line controlled the shot-share at even strength, but they were outscored 0-1 in the game. In all, I think with these couple of games to give him a taste, Byfield can really hit the ground running next year as a dominant force at both ends of the ice. (apr29)

10. Roman Josi passed Shea Weber as the all-time leading scorer among Predators defensemen. He has dropped back this year to his usual 0.68 points-per-game pace that he hits on the nose every second year (I’m not kidding). This was expected after a career-high 65 points in 69 games last year. He still has the name value up in the top tier, but he’s not more than a 55 point defenseman most years. If you can swap him for someone in the next wave who has their path temporarily blocked (like a Miro Heiskanen) then it’s probably worth looking into in deeper keeper leagues. (apr28)

11. Nolan Patrick has been down under 10 minutes of ice time per game of late. Philadelphia would have to lose a key forward or two for Patrick to really have the space to make a splash, but even then the growth of a strong pipeline means that Patrick may have to be expansion or trade bait before he gets an opportunity to thrive. Philadelphia has the depth to let him go too, but does that depth mean there’s an even better option available for the Kraken, and Patrick continues to spin his wheels here as a depth piece? (apr28)

12. Jack Roslovic looks primed for a proper breakout with a slightly more consistent game over the course of a full 82 games next year. This should happen whether John Tortorella returns or not. He hit his breakout threshold a few weeks ago, and it looks as though 60 points can be the projection, not the ceiling going into next year. (apr28)

13. What do we make of Eeli Tolvanen? I was fishing around defensive impacts and at the time of writing this stuff, Tolvanen’s were very good (like, over a standard deviation better than league average). That was on top of his excellent point production, which ranked second on a per-60 basis among Nashville forwards, and had him tied with Mathew Barzal league-wide.

Some concerns are Tolvanen not driving the play at a high level himself, and the fact he’s shooting over 19 percent. Even as he’s played nearly 16 minutes a night over his last 15 games, he’s well under two shots per game. He is a rookie so that will get better, it’s just a concern for now.

I have liked Tolvanen’s game. It seems he knows how to operate in the offensive zone, meaning he knows how to get open and find open teammates. That is valuable. Whether that can persist for an entire NHL career is another matter. All that said, this is a good first year. We are seeing his offensive upside combined with his defensive prowess. All good things. Does he turn into a bona fide top-line forward? I think he does, but it’s still too early to tell. (apr27)

14. Sam Reinhart is RFA after this year and turns 26 in November. Any multi-year contract is going to start buying UFA years so this is a tricky contract for the Sabres. He isn’t the 35-goal scorer he’s shown this year but he’s clearly a valuable player.

The team also has a lot of RFAs to sign this year. Could we see him get moved like we saw Mantha in Detroit? It would make sense to me, but then you need to find a team who can trade similar money back and wants to sign him. In a flat-cap era, it could be tough to pull off. Either way, it’s good to see Reinhart doing so well, even while playing center. (apr27)

15. Could it be possible that the Sabres are suddenly flush with centers? Between Jack Eichel, Dylan Cozens, a breakout from Casey Mittelstadt, and the recent play of Reinhart, the Sabres lineup finally looks like it has some depth. They’re primed to get through the Seattle expansion without losing much, and I think they’re primed to start moving up the standings next year as a result. That means dynasty owners should be checking out the acquisition cost on Linus Ullmark and Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen. (apr28)

16. Cole Caufield made his debut for Montreal last Monday. There were a couple defensive cramps, but a very successful first game. He did not look out of place at all. Yesterday, Caufield’s first NHL goal turned out to be the overtime winner for the Habs over the Senators. The goal was also Caufield’s first NHL point in his fourth game. He has averaged around 13 minutes, but he is making the most of those minutes in taking an average of three shots per game.(apr27)

17. Taking doctor’s orders under advisement, Andrew Shaw has decided to retire from hockey. Shaw leaves hockey at the age of 29, having won two Stanley Cups with the Blackhawks and posting 116 goals and 131 assists. The concussions have caught up and he is thinking about his future and not his present. When he was at his best in his Chicago heydays, he was a solid multi-cat performer in the fantasy realm, but it really seems all those hits have taken their toll. The best to Shaw and his family on their next chapter.

18. It’s been a tale of two seasons for Mika Zibanejad, who, at the time, had recorded his league-leading third hat trick of the campaign last Sunday.

– Jan 14 – Feb 28: 19 GP, 2 G, 4 A, 6 PTS, 57 SOG
– Mar 1 – today: 33 GP, 18 G, 22 A, 40 PTS, 97 SOG

By late February, there was concern that something was off with Zibanejad, who reportedly battled COVID before the season started. He was shooting the puck, but the finish wasn’t there. Now it’s completely swung the other way and he’s been producing around last season’s pace since March 1. Do the math and you’ll see that he’s been shooting at the same rate the entire season (in fact, he was shooting a little more when he was slumping). He’s scored at a top-10 rate for nearly the past two months. Hopefully you didn’t bail, and maybe you even seized the opportunity to buy very low. Patience is a virtue. (apr26)

19. Jeremy Swayman has also posted seven quality starts in the seight games that he has played in since being recalled. His season ratios (1.62 GAA, .942 SV%) have been exceptional, so he’s worth a spot start when he gets the nod. (apr26)

20. Jonathan Bernier has been a quality goalie this season, as his 0,912 save percentage and 56.5 QS% shows. Bernier is a UFA this offseason, so I wonder if his value would improve with a move to a better team… or if the Wings take a huge leap forward next season. (apr25)

21. Sidney Crosby has now reached the 20-goal mark 13 times. Because Crosby has reached 55 points and can play no more than 55 games this season, he has also reached a point-per-game for the 16^th consecutive season. Only Wayne Gretzky and Gordie Howe have more point-per-game seasons. (apr25)

Have a good week, folks – be safe!!

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