Every Sunday, we 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. Sidney Crosby versus Alex Ovechkin matchups never get old, especially since we can still debate which player has had the better career and even which player is better right now. Even with both Crosby and Ovechkin recording two assists each, the Penguins came out on top 4-2 last Friday.

Crosby is now up to 82 points in 62 career games against Washington. Yes, that’s the highest of any active player against the Capitals. Ovechkin has 36 goals and 68 points in 67 career games against Pittsburgh, so both players bring their A-games when facing their rival.

Find out where Crosby and Ovechkin are ranked in the Top 100 Roto Rankings. I’ll be updating them for December in several days, so have your say where they are ranked, along with other notable players. (dec11)

2. Jesper Bratt is at the top of the Frozen Tools Popular Profiles because he continues to put up points. Bratt’s 24 points this season have all come in his last 21 games. Although it might seem like Bratt will cool off, his advanced stats (aside from secondary assists) suggest that this could be normal production. The key is that he’s shooting the puck more. When Bratt broke into the league in 2017-18, he shot at less than 1.5 SOG/GP. Now he’s shooting at nearly three shots per game.

Bratt also seems to be able to make it work with anyone in the Devils’ lineup as well. Earlier in the season, he was lined up with Andreas Johnsson and Dawson Mercer. Now, it’s Pavel Zacha and Nico Hischier. It’s taken some time, but I’m starting to warm up to the Devils offense. I’ve rostered both Bratt and Hischier on one of my teams, so it’s nice when they both factor in on a goal. Bratt is still rostered in just under 50 percent of Yahoo leagues – a number that should be higher. (dec11)

3. Just want to shout out Devon Toews. No reason, really, I just really like watching him play hockey, and watching him and Cale Makar is a genuine delight. He has 20 points in 15 games this year and is wildly underrated. That’ll stop, eventually.

I’m coming around on the idea, if NHLers go to the Olympics, of sending Toews-Makar, Weegar-Ekblad, and Theodore-Pietrangelo defence pairs. All elite pairs in the NHL with tremendous chemistry already. Why not? That would be one less headache for the coaching staff to worry about, and you know that if one defenceman is injured, there are other reliable pairs you can turn to. It would seem prudent, given the nature of the tournament. Then again, I am not on the Canadian decision team. Anyone have their numbers? (dec10)

With three assists on Friday, Toews now has multiple points in four consecutive games. Although he hasn’t played a full season, Toews’ 1.33 PTS/GP (20 PTS in 15 GP) was the highest of any defenseman entering Saturday. (dec11)

4. The long-term effect of a coaching change can be hit or miss, but the short-term effect can make a major difference. Nowhere does that seem to be truer than in Vancouver, where the Canucks are now 3-0 under Bruce Boudreau. Even if Elias Pettersson and Brock Boeser still aren’t completely back on track (no points from either on Friday), there’s a new energy with the Canucks that has a lot to do with Boudreau’s easygoing nature.

As for him, Thatcher Demko had three wins and three quality starts this week. In other words, I picked the wrong week to face him in one of my head-to-head leagues. Even though he’s won five of his last six games (the Canucks are also on that streak), he’s already received a boost in value from Boudreau. Demko also led the league with 23 games played heading into Saturday, and it appears he’ll continue to be a high-volume starter under Boudreau. (dec11)

5. Sometimes goal scorers can be fickle. Eeli Tolvanen scored a goal in his first game of the season. Then he went without a goal in his next 22 games. Now he’s scored goals in four consecutive games. With Matt Duchene out of the lineup, Tolvanen was promoted to the top power play and that’s where he scored his goal. Maybe it’s finally safe to put him back into your lineup? That’s the type of player that can be frustrating to have on your roster, even if the extended dry spell was a case of horrible bad luck. (dec11)

6. After an 18-game stretch without even a point, Keith Yandle now has five points over his last five games,. I really wonder if he suits up until he breaks the consecutive-games record, then he continually gets healthy scratched similar to what has happened with Shayne Gostisbehere or Erik Gustafsson in the past. (dec11)

7. Still not quite sure what to make of Logan O’Connor. For fantasy, I’m not sure his role is reliable enough to just say “scoop and play him.” One thing that sticks out to me here is that the Avalanche clearly love him as a player. Going back years, he was often the injury call-up, even when he hadn’t proved a lot at the AHL level yet. Not that he got a lot of minutes, but call-ups for contenders rarely get much ice time anyway. Now, he’s averaging 15 minutes a night and it seems their faith in him over the years has been rewarded.

On the season, he has the second-highest shot rate of any Colorado winger behind Mikko Rantanen, and Rantanen has been shooting less since Nathan MacKinnon‘s return, so O’Connor might be the most shot-happy winger the Avs have right now. For a team that generates as much offence as they do, having a shot-happy winger on a top line should be great news for fantasy value.

This all depends on his role. If they change things up and move him back to the bottom-6, he should be dropped. All the same, it does seem the team likes him and he’s getting run for now. At the least, check your rosters to see if there’s any dead weight to be dropped. (dec10)

8. I am also at a loss as to what to do with Sonny Milano. I am, always, on the lookout for late bloomers, but this may be a bit much. His last full season in the AHL saw him at about 2.6 shots per game, and that was three years ago. He has just been floating on the periphery of the NHL since then. Yeah, he’s a first-round pick from 2014, but that was seven and a half years ago. A lot has changed.

One thing I will say is this: Milano’s underlying numbers look strong even when he hadn’t been skating with Trevor Zegras. To that extent, maybe there is something here, genuinely. Watching the Ducks, he hasn’t looked out of place. What if this is for real?

He has obviously been scooped already and I think it’s worth just holding on for now. The ice time is inconsistent but until Ryan Getzlaf is healthy, he’s playing on the team’s top line. This could be a big deal for Anaheim, as adding a genuine top-6 winger out of nowhere is how rebuilds are turbo-charged. They need more help, but the blocks are starting to pile up. (dec10)

9. Nick Schmaltz is back for the Coyotes. This is a big deal for Arizona, a team utterly bereft of offensive talent. An infusion of even an above-average playmaker instantly makes Schmaltz one of their more dangerous players. We will see what they decide to do with him but there are line combinations here that could be exciting now. (dec10)

10. Marc-André Fleury secured his 500^th career win with a 2-0 shutout of Montreal on Thursday night. He stopped all 30 shots he faced, and doing it in Québec has to be extra special for him. He is now well over .910 on the season, by the way. (dec10)

11. Talking about defencemen is probably my favourite thing to do because the position has evolved so much over the last 20 years that it always feels like we’re on a new frontier. Regardless, there are a pair of defencemen I want to talk about today, and both were high draft picks this past fantasy season.

Jakob Chychrun: As long as fantasy owners are not playing in plus/minus leagues, there could be some value here the rest of the way. A defenceman putting up around 25 points in about 55 games with his level of peripherals will play just fine. Of the team’s next 16 games going through mid-January, 12 are at home. It is hard to imagine Chychrun’s value being any lower than it is right now. It is a question whether he can be rostered in plus/minus leagues, but without that consideration, his value rises a lot the rest of the way.

Shea Theodore: There is lots of reasons to believe that Theodore’s best games are ahead of him this year as Stone and Pacioretty are back with Karlsson to follow and Eichel in a couple months. If 55 points and 200 shots was a bad start for him, it speaks to what he can do the rest of the way. Theodore owners should get excited. 

Check out Mike's full analysis on Chychrun and Theodore by following the link… (dec9)

12. Casey Mittelstadt had an upper-body injury that caused him to miss 21 games, but he returned last week only to be injured again. Just a tough break for a kid who has had to work his tail off to succeed in such a stagnant franchise. Fantasy-wise, this, perversely, is good news for Dylan Cozens. It just thins out the competition at centre and assures that he should stay at 15 minutes a night from now on. Likely not much for significant fantasy value, but it’s something. (dec9)

13. Kirill Kaprizov is one of only five players that have averaged a point per game in their first 80 games in the NHL:

Alex Ovechkin : 52-53-105
Sidney Crosby : 38-62-100
Evgeni Malkin : 34-54-88
Connor McDavid : 28-60-88
Kaprizov : 36-45-81

Yes, he came into the NHL as an older rookie, but this is still remarkable. He still came into the league on a new team, needing to learn the language and culture, all during a pandemic season. Not only did he fit in seamlessly, he has asserted himself as one of the top offensive wingers in the league. That he’s done all this under more difficult conditions than any crop of rookies in recent history is a testament to just how good he is.

What his ceiling is, who knows. Maybe he’s close to it already. If that’s the case, “elite producer” is a pretty good ceiling. (dec9)

14. Jake Guentzel is week-to-week with an upper-body injury, which is brutal timing for him. He had 27 points in 24 games, including points in 13 consecutive games. For the time being, Kasperi Kapanen is on the top line in his place. (dec9)

15. The date of the Midseason Guide is now set – and it will be January 15. This Guide comes with your Ultimate Fantasy Pack or Gold/Platinum subscriptions. It does not come with the Keeper League Fantasy Pack nor the Silver subs. You can pre-order it here.

16. Oliver Bjorkstrand is on pace for a career year, and is putting up his second-best season in shots per game. The biggest change for him though is the power play production, where he is already one point shy of his career high, with three-quarts of the season left to be played. His ice time is up with the man advantage (and at even strength for that matter) and the top unit is clicking with Zach Werenski, Jakub Voracek, Boone Jenner, and Patrik Laine. (dec8)

17. I’m really liking what I see early on from prospect Daniil Tarasov. The prospect goaltender has now lost both of his starts for Columbus, but both starts were of the Quality variety – his team just didn’t help out. He’s only 22 and the net belongs to Elvis Merzlikins for the next five years. So he’ll likely be in the minors for the next two seasons, and then back up Elvis in 2024-25. If he continues to do well, he’ll start splitting starts or the Blue Jackets will make a move to make room for him.

One thing to note is that Merzlikins has missed time with injury on four different occasions over the last two seasons. And whenever he gets hurt in future years, Tarasov will come up and be the starter – they won’t turn to their veteran backup (whoever that may be at the time). So we’ll see Tarasov here and there over the next two years, we won’t necessarily need to wait the full two-plus years until he’s a full timer. I’m a big fan though, and will double down on what we say about him in the Fantasy Prospects Report: he’ll be a star. (dec6)

18. Dominik Kubalik has just two points in his last 13 games and just nine points on the season (27-point pace). He’s a volume shooter, possibly the most prolific shooter on the team. But his shots per game are way down – and that’s his bread and butter.

As a rookie, seeing little ice time never held him back and he found a way to get the shots off anyway. This season things just feel different with this guy. Certainly puck luck plays a big role – just 4% 5on5 S%. But he needs to shoot like his normal self and right now that’s not happening. (dec6)

19. Prospect defenseman Sean Durzi played his way onto the Los Angeles roster and pretty much sent Kale Clague to Montreal himself. Rather than send Durzi to the minors, where he could go without clearing waivers, the Kings placed Clague on waivers. And lost him to the Habs. Durzi had four points in his first three NHL games, though just one in his last five. Read more on Durzi here. (dec6)

20. I’m going to share a few opinions about trade offers. If I receive one, I tend to think about the following:

– Does this trade help my team in any way? In other words, has the other league manager taken the time to consider what I might need, or are they simply sending the offer to improve their own team? If it appears to be the latter, I will almost certainly pass.

– Who receives the best player in the deal? Sometimes this is easy to determine; sometimes it’s a little harder. That’s why I reject almost all 2-for-1 deals sent to me where I would receive the 2 side. Not only do I lose the best player, but I also have to drop another player from my roster to make the deal. I might not be ready to do that either. Most of the time, these deals simply water down your roster’s talent pool.

– Will my team be better off? I tend not to think about trades in a win-lose scenario, since a good trade can help both teams. However, if I believe that my team has at least a 50% chance of being worse off after the deal, I will pass. I’ll admit that I’ve sent out offers like this, but do you think the other manager is shopping the player around before they drop them next week? If this player doesn’t add value to your team, then either counteroffer without that player or reject the deal outright.

– Is my objective short or long term? If I’m trying to win this season, then trading away a blue-chip prospect may not be as bad as it sounds, as long as the player I’m receiving is a difference maker. But if I’m too far down the standings, or I’m simply not sold on my team having a decent chance to win, then prospect collecting might be the way to go. Just remember that not all of your prospects will pan out the way you hope. That’s just how the odds work. (dec5)

21. Our Frozen Tools section now has a DFS Draft Kings lineup optimizer. We’re still fiddling around with it, and have other DFS tools on the horizon (close!). But check out what we have so far here.

Have a good week, folks – be safe!!

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