The big news from Monday was that Cole Caufield, Montreal’s prize prospect, was being sent to the AHL. On the season, he has zero goals on 22 shots, with just one assist in 10 contests. That is poor, to be sure, but let’s keep in mind that Hoffman and Perreault are the only Habs players with more than two goals, while someone like Gallagher has just two points. This entire team, outside of a couple bright spots, has been awful, and will not improve much over the balance of the season.

As a Habs fan, the Cup run was magical. It was obviously bad for the franchise, though, because team over-achieved and all the decision-makers involved with that overachiever are still around. They don’t realize how bad this team actually is, and that’s going to stunt their progress moving forward. I am not worried about Caufield as a player, I’m worried about Montreal’s ability to put together a competitive roster before he demands a trade. Oh, how’s their development track record been of late, anyway?

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Some more bad news for Vegas:

I have confirmed with multiple sources that William Karlsson broke his foot when it was hit with a shot late in the game.

He's expected to miss roughly 6 weeks. https://t.co/aKUaeSNGpc

— Jesse Granger (@JesseGranger_) November 1, 2021

I guess Stephenson is about to get a lot of ice time but I don’t think this necessarily pushes them more towards an Eichel trade. They need healthy bodies now before they fall too far back as the injuries pile up.

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Monster extension alert:

I'm hearing it's for an AAV of $9.5 million #NYR https://t.co/6qWVZmkLJt

— Vince Z. Mercogliano (@vzmercogliano) November 1, 2021

He has certainly earned it, though cap league fantasy owners now have a decision to make.

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There are surprises every year. Players and teams who exceed their expectations, and players and teams who fall well short of them. We are only a few weeks into the season, but there have definitely been a handful of major surprises that we should dig into.

If anyone else sticks out, feel free to leave some in the comments below, but these are some players who've stuck out to me, good or bad, early on. Reminder: players who’ve stuck out to me. We all have differing values on players.

Frederik Andersen

Perhaps one of the biggest surprises to me personally has been Carolina's goaltending usage. The team has played eight games, and Frederik Andersen has started seven of them. Not that I necessarily believe coaches when they talk about how they'll coach their team, but regardless of what RBA said, I thought Raanta would be, at worst, a low-end 1B to Andersen's 1A. It seems like this team doesn't have a real problem giving Andersen 65 starts this year, which, I guess if he plays with a .930 or better, why not.

If they're only playing Antti Raanta on B2Bs, uh, that is quite concerning for both goalies, honestly. This approach brings risk to Andersen, as there's very good reason teams don't give goalies 87% of the starts anymore.

Now, the team is 8-0, which means they should have some more opportunities for Raanta. But if it's only B2Bs, that gives Raanta two starts between now and Christmas.

Erik Karlsson

I was, let's say, cautiously optimistic about Karlsson in the offseason. It is always a concern when guys who rely on mobility look like they are slowing down, but Karlsson is a HOF talent, and those guys get special consideration. Well, he started the season with six points in seven games, a very solid start to the campaign. The upside is that he's producing on the power play, something that had fallen off over the last couple seasons. The downside is that production is going to slow down a lot and it's a question of whether the 5-on-5 production can keep up.

For his career, Karlsson has registered a point on roughly half the goals scored at 5-on-5 with him on the ice. That fell under 30% last year and is about 33% so far this year. That number needs to get back to 50% if we want him to offset any PP decline that is upcoming.

The Sharks are also enduring a COVID breakout right now. It may be tough to move Karlsson at this point with those issues, but he was cheap in drafts anyway. It may be best to just enjoy the ride for now.

Kevin Shattenkirk

Hands up, everyone that had Kevin Shattenkirk leading all defencemen in points at the start of November. No one? Yeah, that sounds right.

Shattenkirk started his season with 10 points in 10 games, just an unbelievable start to the season for him. Of course, on a team that isn't top-10 in scoring, that is a bit of a concern. Actually, there is a lot more here than a bit of concern: he's shooting nearly 30% at 5-on-5 and the team is shooting over 20% with him on the ice at the same strength. For reference, he shot a little over 2% over the previous three seasons and his team shot about 8% with him on the ice. There is a monumental point decline coming.

Get out from under Shattenkirk while you can. He obviously can't be traded for an elite option, but swapping him for another defenceman like Kris Letang or even someone we'll see later on this list.

Victor Olofsson

With Jack Eichel injured, I didn't have very high hopes for Victor Oloffson, and I don't think many others did either, judging by his ADPs. While the Sabres have been a good team early on, Olofsson having nine points in eight games is just wild. Sure, he's shooting 22.7%, but even if he's shooting 12%, he loses a couple goals and still has seven points in eight games, which is still great. At nearly three shots per game, these are all good signs.

Olofsson, Thompson, and Asplund have made a very good second line for this team. I don't know how long they can maintain all this, but it's fun for now.

With an IPP of 100%, and historically in the 60-70% range, there is some pullback to come. Olofsson also brings nothing in hits or blocked shots. All the same, this guys is a real threat for 25 goals and 60 points this year provided the team doesn't really start falling flat on its face. Holding onto Oloffson now is probably a good idea.

Jakob Chychrun

Over the summer, my two warnings about Chychrun were as follows: the team won't be high-scoring, and that puts his production upside into question. Also, in leagues with plus/minus, his is a concern because defencemen who play a lot of minutes on bad teams tend to have bad plus/minus ratings. Just ask Erik Karlsson, Brent Burns, Quinn Hughes, or Rasmus Dahlin.

I never thought it'd be this bad, as he's pointless through nine games and carries a minus-15 rating. All told, he's been probably the worst investment in fantasy so far this year. The question is how much of a rebound is coming?

He won't go minus-100 or whatever. In fact, it's reasonable to think he may only go minus-10 over the balance of the season. The team's scoring will pick up, but they're also last in shot rate in the league. We could see Chychrun still push for 30 or so points this year, but a top-10 fantasy season is long gone. Who would you rather have ROS: Chychrun or Shattenkirk? Enjoy pondering that one.

Claude Giroux

He is over a point-per-game right now and there are some red flags but there's nothing overly concerning. He is probably landing more shots on net than he should be, but his shot rate is also a 6-year high. The team is shooting 12.7% with him on the ice, where it was 11.6% last year and 12.9% three years ago. His 80% IPP is high, but 70% – more in line with career norms – only knocks a point off. Like Olofsson, he might be overshooting by a couple points, but it's not egregious like Shattenkirk's production.

More than that. Giroux's line is controlling 56% of the shot attempts while he's on the ice and they're doing well on the PP. My big concern with Giroux, really, is his ice time. It's under 17:30 a game, and that's not a lot of wriggle room if things start to go wrong. Hold for now, just keep an eye on that TOI to make sure it doesn't start dropping more.

Johnny Gaudreau

This was a guy I was excited about because I thought the Flames were much better last year once Sutter took over, the results just didn't reflect that. Gaudreau has 11 points in 8 games and the Flames look like a top-5 team in hockey while Gaudreau's line is rolling the opposition. They also have a four-game homestand coming up consistent of Nashville, Dallas, the Rangers, and San Jose. This could be another good week for him.

There are some real red flags here. The team is shooting 11.7% with him on the ice at 5-on-5, a career-high. He's also registering a point on every goal scored with him on the ice, where he's been closer to 80% in recent seasons. All that said, that brings him to a point-per-game player, which is still really good. We're holding here, folks. The Flams: they are good.

Alex Pietrangelo

One point on the season isn't going to cut it but I think it's a matter of this team getting healthy, and possibly adding Jack Eichel?

My concern here isn't super high. He's playing 26 minutes a night and Stone/Pacioretty should both be back by Christmas. The team is shooting under 5% with Petro on the ice and that could easily double over the balance of the season. Their next 10 games include: Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, Vancouver, Seattle, and Columbus. The window could close by the end of this stretch.