Last night we had two games between what I consider to be the top-four cup contenders. Unfortunately, only two of them can move on, in the early game last year's champs found a way to win, and in the late game, Vegas pulled out the OT thriller.

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Down 3-1 in the series entering last night, Carolina put up a good battle, but Tampa's firepower broke through Alex Nedeljkovic's wall in the second period with a goal from Brayden Point. Point really seems to up his game in the playoffs, but hasn't quite put things together brought the same production on a regular basis on the regular season. In his first five years, would you believe he only has one point-per-game season? Well, believe it, and understand that if you drafting/trading for Point in the offseason, that the odds are you're getting a 75-80-point player, and not the 90+ point guys that we have seen in the playoffs the last couple years.

For Carolina, the team seems to finally have their goalie situation settled, and the internal option turned out to be the best one all along. One of James Reimer or Petr Mrazek may be brought back next year, but expect Nedeljkovic to see 60% of the available starts. He let in a Ross Colton shot in the third period that he would probably like to have back, but all in all, goaltending has been a reason that the Canes got as far as they did rather than the skaters carrying the team as was the case in the regular season. 

Heads up for anyone that has a playoff pool with lineups changes or add/drops, Tampa Bay may be without Ondrej Palat for a bit after he caught an unsuspecting Brett Pesce with a high and avoidable hit.

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Marc-Andre Fleury was dialed-in for the first 19:59 of the first period, and then this happened:

Saad scores with .8 left in the first to pull Colorado ahead. That's a tough one for Fleury… pic.twitter.com/P9IsYOCa0L

— Shayna (@hayyyshayyy) June 9, 2021

Sometimes goalies make mistakes, but for a veteran like Fleury that's an uncommon one at the worst possible time. He's still a top goalie in the league, and his career numbers are among the best, and he managed to pull out the win anyways last night. We all know he's going to the Hall of Fame, and he already has a cup, but what are the changes Vegas retires his number?

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Feeling fantasy withdrawal, looking to get an early edge for next season, or just have a burning fantasy hockey question?  If so, Rick Roos’ fantasy Mailbag is set to run two weeks from today and he’s looking for questions.  To send one (or more), either private message “rizzeedizzee” via the DobberHockey Forums or, instead, send an email to [email protected] with “Roos Mailbag” as the subject line.

He does the best deep dives in the business!

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Matt Dumba (@mnwild), Oskar Lindblom (@NHLFlyers) and Patrick Marleau (@sanjosesharks) are the three finalists for the 2020-21 Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy.

Details: https://t.co/GimcTXzuN0 #NHLAwards pic.twitter.com/n3yZC7gZSZ

— NHL Public Relations (@PR_NHL) June 8, 2021

The Bill Maserson Trophy nominees were revealed yesterday with Matt Dumba, Oskar Lindblom, and Patrick Marleau earning the honours. Marleau's story is great, but it doesn't hold a candle to what the other two have been through over the last two years. Lindblom's story is more personal after a successful battle against cancer, while Dumba's work for the community and the game has been sorely needed and yet still under appreciated in the current climate. Both are deserving of the nomination and the recognition.

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On the ice, Dumba is someone that really intrigues me, but his outlook for next year is going to vary greatly depending on how the offseason goes. The 26-year-old already has two seasons pacing for 50+ points, however, in the last two years he has slipped back down to around 30. The recovery from a major pectoral injury can take the blame on some of that, but Dumba also hasn't had the same kind of luck and deployment as he did in his two peak seasons. If he stays with the Wild and they return with the same defence core (possibly plus Calen Addison as well) then Dumba's offensive opportunities are going to be too limited for him to have a fair shot at 40+ points. If he moves elsewhere though, then odds are he should be soaking up the powerplay time, possibly getting back into the 40-50-point range. Keep an eye on him, and if he does change teams, bump him up your draft board in the fall.

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As I may have mentioned previously, I have the 14^th overall selection in one of my dynasty leagues, and there are a lot of different opportunities at that spot. It seems to me that the general consensus around the 2021 draft is the first tier runs about nine players deep, then there's another tier until some point in the 20s, and a third relevant tier until about 40^th overall. The DobberProspects profiles that are up to this point bear that out to some extent.

I'm starting to send out feelers as far back as 40^th overall, and as far up as the lottery picks. It doesn't seem though that jumping up to a lottery pick is likely, but getting into the 7-9 range might be feasible at a fair price – and that would be worthwhile for the bump in the draft tier. To move back into that third tier, I would likely be looking at recouping one or two picks in that tier, and maybe some other kind of asset elsewhere.

There will be lots of time to analyze these players better once we know their NHL affiliations, but in the meantime, do keep an eye on the excellent DobberProspects team if your entry draft comes up either before or immediately after the NHL Draft.

The top three on my list at the moment are forwards, as I find defencemen a lot tougher to draft, develop, and have them hit their ceiling. With the early picks at least I'll take the forward every time. Right now those top three names are: William Eklund, Matthew Beniers, and Dylan Guenther. Click on their names if you want to learn a bit more. I'll probably come out with a bit more of a list and some reasoning behind it closer to the draft.

On that note, you can pre-order the Dobber Prospect Guide here. Due out July 10^th, and it'll have deep dives, mocks, fantasy rankings, and more!

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I've been looking into a few expansion bits and RFA contracts recently, and Dante Fabbro keeps coming up as a name relevant to both. For the Predators, he is the latest in a long line of drafted and developed talent, however he's caught in the middle a bit because he's not good enough to see top powerplay time, hasn't thrived in a shutdown role, is in need of a raise this summer, and is the difference between the Predators protecting four forwards if the keep Fabbro, or protecting seven forwards if they trade Fabbro.

Yes, Nashville might be best off trading yet another defenceman. It makes a lot of sense from the consolidation of assets perspective, and it's something that we fantasy owners see over and over again in keeper leagues. The managers that most successfully condense their limited keeper lists into the best names, while recouping draft pick value for the players on the fringe, are the ones that year over year contend for the title, and never seem to have to rebuild. I'm going to be very interested to see which GMs don't just deal with Seattle this time around, but with end up dealing with each other in order to optimize their protection slots.

One name that sticks out to me is Cody Glass. He hasn't gotten a fair shot in the top-six, and with the emergence of Peyton Krebs, Vegas still doesn't need him there. They can't even get Alex Tuch into their top-six for crying out loud! What they need is a defenceman, and the more I think about a Glass/Fabbro swap, the more it makes so much sense. It trades from an area of strength for an area of need for both teams, and it works for both sides around the expansion draft. Fabbro needing a new contract works a little in Nashville's favour getting the extra year of Glass on his ELC, but then again trading for defencemen is a lot harder than forwards. Both are 22 years old, both are high draft picks with solid floors and high ceilings. The teams aren't even rivals at all so you don’t worry too much about sending a stud there. Make it happen!

Circling back on my initial point though, learn another lesson from NHL GMs and don't add top prospects (or other high-quality assets) to trades just to make incremental upgrades with lower upsides – the bad GMs do it, and the good ones don't, simple as that.

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Sticking with the expansion draft thoughts, everyone wants to talk about how Seattle is going to be able to take advantage of everyone just like how Vegas did. However, there is one huge variable that is different this time around… any guesses?

It's the actual Vegas Golden Knights. No one seems to be talking about how the Golden Knights are exempt from having a player poached, yet they are currently a top-five team in the league, and still playing in the 2021 playoffs. They don't have to worry about the fact that they have two goalies, or if they want to acquire a few more defencemen before the draft, or if they can keep their entire top-nine together. They can if they want to, and they won't lose an ounce of sleep doing so.

On top of that though, teams now have three options of who they can talk to about the players they can't protect. They have the expansion team and their fellow GMs just like last time, but this time they can also discuss possible deals with a bystander to the entire operation. If you're Kelly McCrimmon how are you taking advantage of this unique situation? Vegas doesn't have the cap to take on bigger contracts, but to be able to offer a team like Minnesota Reilly Smith for the aforementioned Dumba in order to bolster a weakness, that's a deal that Minnesota doesn't even consider outside of the expansion circumstances, but if they know that Seattle is going to take Dumba, but wouldn't necessarily have interest in Smith, maybe it's something to consider.

Possibly not the best example, but those are the lines along which an NHL GM should be thinking. Maximizing every opportunity is how you build a winning team in this league, and to this point Vegas has done a wonderful job of it. It wouldn't be surprising to see it continue.

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Stay safe!