We are a full week into the NHL season and it is still far, far too early to make any concrete determinations. Outside of injuries or demotions, fantasy rosters shouldn't have changed too much by this point. That doesn't mean there aren't signals we can look for, hoping it could lead to a positive development for our rosters down the road. In short, I just wanted to give my observations on the first week of NHL play.

Buffalo is not going to be horrific

One idea that I've come around on more and more over the last five years or so is that it's not necessarily the forwards that are responsible for offence. It isn't a new idea, and the concept of the defenceman jumping up in the play is nothing new. But my general theory is that when a team is completely bereft of puck movers on the blue line outside of maybe one or two options, it leaves too much heavy lifting for the forwards. Every defenceman, in some capacity, needs to be able to carry the puck and make the first pass.

When I look at Buffalo's blue line, I see a lot of puck movers. Dahlin, Miller, Jokiharju, Butcher, and Pysyk are all good in transition, in playmaking, or both. So while the Sabres will struggle to score this year due to a simple lack of high-end talent, it's not to say that they will be an abomination of a team as in years past. To my eyes, and by the stats, they're not giving up chance after chance like they have done in recent seasons, and I think it's partially because they have players who can effectively move the puck without turning it over. That is an underrated and valuable skill.

Buffalo won't be a good team, or a playoff team this year. But that doesn't mean they're going to be the 52-point team of 6-7 years ago, either. People need to remember that Zemgus Girgensons – pre-Eichel – was often the 1C. He's now on their fourth line. There have been improvements, they just need a lot more talent to move into the roster, especially up front.  

Montreal's puck movers on D

The Habs lost a lot in the offseason: two-thirds of their top line, Shea Weber, Carey Price, and Jesperi Kotkaniemi. With the loss of very good transition players like Kotkaniemi (yes, he had other flaws) and Danault, there would be additional pressure on the Montreal blue line to pick up some puck-moving slack. The problem being that Ben Chiarot and David Savard are not puck movers while Alex Romanov and Brett Kulak were healthy scratches at time last year. This isn't a playoff blue line without Weber and it's showed through the very early part of the season.

Jeff Petry is around, but like Buffalo teams in recent memory, having one or two puck movers on the blue line isn't enough. Every player, as mentioned, needs to have some basic transition skills, and a lot of these guys don't.

Losing Danault/Tatar was an underrated loss because they could generate offence and play good defence almost regardless of their environment. So far this season, most of the team hasn't proven to be able to do the same. It is still very early and things can change fast, but it's been an ugly, deserved start for the Habs.

Seattle looks like who we thought they were

This is probably the one the most obvious to most hockey fans that have watched across the league so far this season. In the early part of the campaign, Seattle looks like a hard-working, defensive team that could struggle to score goals. Things are going about as expected.

What is interesting to me about Seattle is how they're allocating ice time. The top line is generally playing 19-20 minutes with the second line around 18. In other words, they're not doing the Montreal approach, which is to, more or less, spread out the ice time. That would have made sense from a team that was picking largely from second- and third-liners in the expansion draft.

That means there could be guys outside the top line with fantasy value this year. It will depend on the league and settings, but just keep an eye on the usage of guys like Wennberg and Donskoi. Any player earning 18 minutes a night is worth at least keeping an eye on.

Columbus will be a threat

Before the season, I didn't think Columbus would be a good team, necessarily, but I didn't think they'd be horrific. Everyone made fun of the Seth Jones signing but that was the team's biggest loss from last season, they added Jakub Voracek up front, and both Adam Boqvist and Jake Bean on the blue line. The two defencemen, both good with the puck, are making a difference, I think.

There is also the lineup. Presumably, if Cole Sillinger, Yegor Chinakhov, Boone Jenner, and Max Domi – the latter of whom is now on the IR, by the way –  can maintain solid play for the season, the Jackets can run at least three decent lines. That might be faint praise, but being able to constantly roll out lines that are scoring threats, however marginally, is not something every team in the East can do.

Minnesota appears to be very strong

My big concern, with Joel Eriksson Ek moving to the top line, would be how their second line would fare. Kevin Fiala has shown he can carry a depth line scoring-wise, and the top line would be loaded. Could their second line keep up its defensive excellence without Eriksson Ek, giving them a very good top-9?

Of course, with the caveat that it's just two games, but the Hartman line has been arguably their best line at 5-on-5. Each of their lines has been good, honestly, but Hartman et al. have been very good at both ends of the ice. If they can keep this up for 80 more games, this Minnesota team looks very deep up front.

Beyond that, they still have Matt Boldy and Marco Rossi in the AHL. If those guys can bring along their development early in the year and make an NHL impact as spring rolls around? Well, this looks like a very dangerous team.

If the defence and goaltending holds up, this could be a much better Minnesota team than we had envisioned a week ago.

Chicago's lack of defence

I think Chicago realized their problem. Like Montreal, a lack of puck movers is an issue, and it's likely why they went out and signed Erik Gustafsson despite his extensive defensive woes. They are willing to sacrifice even more defence – from a team that was horrific defensively last year – just to get the puck up the ice. That doesn't portend great things.

I wonder if Adam Boqvist and Duncan Keith moving on isn't a big problem here. Yes, they had their defensive problems, and they were well-documented by myself and many others. But all their top wingers over the last couple years – Kane, DeBrincat, Kubalik – were all on the ice with a higher goals rate with Keith/Boqvist on the ice than without. If that puck moving isn't replaced – and Seth Jones is an open question in this regard – it's not a big surprise they are struggling both in their end and to generate offence (last in 5v5 scoring and xGF, by the way).

There are too many talented forwards not to turn this around but it also feels like years of poor management on the blue line gone awry. Adam Boqvist, Ian Mitchell, and Nicolas Beaudin were supposed to be the pillars of the future. Mitchell and Beaudin are now 22 and not on the NHL roster while Boqvist is in Columbus. That is two first- and one second-round pick that have no impact on the current NHL roster besides Boqvist being a trade chip for Seth Jones, and we're seeing how that's working out.

If things don't improve soon, Chicago is in trouble, because Kane/Toews/Jones chew up over $30M in cap space next year and there aren't many high-end prospects on the way. The panic button should be being pressed constantly, because this team looks like what we thought Buffalo should.

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Igor Shesterkin stole a win for the New York Rangers as his team was outshot 41-23 but they won 2-1 in overtime thanks to his 40 saves. A small shout out to Artemi Panarin's overtime winner, a wicked shot off the faceoff.

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As I praised the Kraken earlier, they allowed six goals in a 6-1 beatdown at the hands of the Flyers. Derick Brassard had a goal and two assists while Travis Konecny and Joel Farabee each had 1+1. For Konecny, he had four shots, two PIMs, and three hits, in what is a taste of his fantasy upside to come if the Flyers can maintain some scoring.

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Nikita Kucherov's situation doesn't look great:

Jon Cooper says Nikita Kucherov is going to be out for a little while. "Definitely not a day-to-day thing." Will wait to get more information before having a clearer idea just how long he'll be out. #GoBolts

— Bryan Burns (@BBurnsNHL) October 18, 2021

We are still waiting for more information. Any lengthy absence here could be a big problem because their entire third line is gone and they don't have the depth they did last year to endure Kuch being out in the long-term.

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The Florida Panthers have looked good early in the season but nonetheless, Joel Quenneville is still the coach. That means line changes:

#FlaPanthers forward lines this AM:

Verhaeghe – Barkov – Duclair
Huberdeau – Bennett – Luostarinen
Vatrano – Lundell – Reinhart
Lomberg – Thornton – Hörnqvist

— Jameson Olive (@JamesonCoop) October 18, 2021

Owen Tippett was given the day off, so there's no telling what the lineup will actually look like for their game tonight against Tampa Bay. Anthony Duclair has been excellent on the top line before, it wouldn't be a surprise to see him stay there, with Sam Reinhart going to the third line.

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A Ty Smith update

Ty Smith is in a regular jersey at #NJDevils practice too.
No longer in a non-contact jersey.

— Amanda Stein (@amandacstein) October 18, 2021

He needs a lot more time to practice but that he's in a non-contact jersey is a very good sign for the young blue liner.

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A lot of Evander Kane news:

The @NHL announced today that @SanJoseSharks forward Evander Kane has been suspended for 21 regular-season games. https://t.co/2gGoptPkdV pic.twitter.com/U8HiGHKXdm

— NHL Public Relations (@PR_NHL) October 18, 2021

To sum: he's out for 21 games for violating COVID and the NHL's investigation for the domestic abuse is over. He will be out until early December at a minimum, and it's up to the team what to do beyond that. We certainly haven't heard the end of this story.