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. Florida is known as a place where retired people move to so that they can enjoy their golden years. It’s also been a place where several players discarded by other teams have not just found new life, but also taken their games to a whole new level.

Less than one calendar year ago, Sam Bennett was being healthy scratched by the Flames, seemingly destined for a fourth-line career path. That experience is now well in the rear-view mirror for Bennett. Since being acquired by Florida at last season’s trade deadline, Bennett has picked up 36 points (including 20 goals) in just 38 games. Not a bad return for a second-round pick.

At one point Anthony Duclair couldn’t find an NHL home, his ears ringing from John Tortorella’s comments that he didn’t know how to play. Duclair is now leading the Panthers in goals with 16. Since joining the Panthers, Duclair has accrued 60 points in 72 games, including 28 points in 29 games this season. Take that, Torts!

During the pandemic-shortened 2019-20 season, Carter Verhaeghe averaged less than 10 minutes per game on the eventual Stanley Cup champion Lightning. He just wasn’t going to get an opportunity with a lineup as set as theirs is. In two seasons with the Panthers, Verhaeghe has totaled 67 points in 80 games for an average of 0.84 PTS/GP. In other words, a 68-point pace over a full 82-game season. (jan15)

2. Bennett and Duclair in particular owe much of their success to Jonathan Huberdeau, who is on an insane tear (20 points in his last eight games), giving him a league-leading 38 assists. Huberdeau is the fourth player to reach the 50-point mark and is now battling with Draisaitl, Ovechkin and McDavid for the league scoring lead. Stepping into this elite group of scorers, Huberdeau might be getting some Hart Trophy votes this season. (jan15)

3. On Friday, Anton Khudobin made his first appearance since November 18. As much as the Stars signing Braden Holtby didn’t make a whole lot of sense when it happened, the fact that they still have enough goalies with Ben Bishop being forced to retire and Holtby in protocol means that they’re in a better spot than they could be. (My own contribution to the Midseason Guide is the goaltending writeups, which is not surprising the way I ramble on about them sometimes.) (jan15)

4. After scoring two goals and adding an assist on Friday, Mats Zuccarello is scoring at over a point per game (30 points in 28 games). The 34-year-old Zuccarello has never been a point-per-game player in his career, so his success has a lot to do with being Kirill Kaprizov‘s most frequent linemate this season.

Although the Wild’s only truly elite scorer at the moment seems to be Kaprizov, plenty of other Wild forwards are on pace to have career seasons, including Zuccarello, Ryan Hartman, Marcus Foligno, and Joel Eriksson Ek. Dean Evason deserves some Jack Adams votes, because this team is performing much better than they look on paper. (jan15)

5. After being held without a goal in his first 19 games, Johan Larsson has four goals in his last five games. Larsson also has seven points in his last seven games, a stretch that includes a game with a hat trick and another game with three assists. For what it’s worth, he’s playing on a line with Phil Kessel. Although Larsson isn’t a player that you’ll probably get too excited about in fantasy leagues, he could have some appeal on the real-life trade market as the Coyotes continue to hoard draft picks. (jan15)

6. The Top 100 Roto Rankings for January were published on Saturday. COVID continues to keep me busier than normal in updating these rankings, so please forgive me if an obvious name or two is or isn’t on the active list! Looking past that, there are a few interesting risers and fallers from last month’s rankings. Tyson Barrie below, the others here. (jan15)

BTW, also out this week were this month's Top 200 Forward Prospects and Top 50 Defenseman Prospects.

7. Whether it was a fluke or not, Tyson Barrie led all defensemen in points last season (48) while finishing tied for second in power-play points (23). Want to know where he ranks this season? Outside of the top 30. In fact, he’s not even the top-scoring defenseman on his own team. Evan Bouchard is, and he’s doing it with far less power-play time (and power-play points) than Barrie. Bouchard has 16 even-strength points (plus one shorthanded point), while Barrie has just eight even-strength points.

Not surprisingly, Barrie led all defensemen with 27 secondary assists last season, with Adam Fox the only other defenseman registering more than 20. Barrie’s secondary assist percentage was significantly higher than Fox’s, as about two-third of Barrie’s assists were secondary. Barrie is more of a power-play specialist than all-around performer Bouchard, but if Barrie is on your roster, I’d start to worry a little that Bouchard might take over that money role on Edmonton’s PP1. (jan15)

8. Remember how high scoring the North Division was last season? Barrie was one player who seemed to rack up points at will in that division. Nick Suzuki seemed to be another, both during the regular season and also during Montreal’s Stanley Cup playoff run. Yet with the Habs now a fraction of the team they were last season, Suzuki’s point totals have suffered. Although he was projected to possibly take another big step this season, he may not even be able to stay in the top 100 next month if he doesn’t break the slump. Suzuki has just one point over his last eight games.

In spite of scoring at barely over a half point per game (19 points in 36 games), Suzuki actually leads the Habs in scoring. Montreal has missed Tyler Toffoli, Mike Hoffman, Brendan Gallagher, Josh Anderson, and Jonathan Drouin for stretches. That’s a huge chunk of their scoring attack. As a result, Suzuki’s linemates have been a revolving door of players. If the Canadiens can get back to health, then we could see more of the playmaking ability of Suzuki. That might have to wait until next season, as this one seems to be a writeoff for the Habs. (jan15)

9. The NHL announced their All-Star rosters on Thursday. While not directly related to fantasy, it gives us a good opportunity to talk about players across the league. As a reminder, there must be one player selected from each NHL roster, and each division produces an 11-man roster. There are 10 announced from each division today, with the 11^th to be voted in by the fans. The Last Man In options can be viewed here. So, below are some thoughts, see more by following the links at the end of each blurb.:

ATLANTIC: Rasmus Dahlin getting the nod over Tage Thompson is interesting. It does make sense, as Dahlin is skating 24 minutes a night and could push for 50 points this year. Maybe its just my personal bias that thinks it would have been nice to see Thompson go from basically an afterthought in 2020 to an All Star in 2022. He’s an All Star in my book! He’s one of the options for a Last Man In vote. (jan14)

10. METRO: Adam Pelech over Noah Dobson is just… I can’t describe it. I like Pelech. I had him pegged as a potential defenceman for Team Canada had the NHL decided to go. But that’s because he plays great defence. That’s not exactly what we need here. Pelech has five points this year (heading into Thursday night). Five! Great defence, sure, but come on. Five points! There’s a 22-year-old defenceman running the top power-play unit and pacing for over 40 points on his own team. Congrats to Pelech, he is a very good real-life defenceman, I just would have liked to see the offensive-minded Dobson go. *Edit: Pelech would go on to score about 90 minutes after I wrote this. The universe does have a good sense of humour. (jan14)

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GET IT NOW!

The Midseason Guide is now available for download! If you’ve ordered it already, go to the Downloads section on the Dobber website. Then you’ll see a link for both a spreadsheet for midseason projections and a PDF for the midseason guide itself.

Updated projections & line combos; Undreafted free agents of NHL interest; Prospect updates; Trading block; Goalie insights; and more!!

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11. CENTRAL: Ok, now this is getting exciting. The marketing machinations aside, seeing Cale Makar, Alex DeBrincat, Kirill Kaprizov, and Jordan Kyrou share the ice on the same team is a pretty cool thing to see. Those guys will all be very important to their respective teams for years to come, so it’ll be fun to see them skate together. I’m going to be honest, all great players here, but I want to see Makar-MacKinnon-Kaprizov skate together at 3-on-3. That is one of those combinations that you put together playing NHL ’22 and you start scoring at will. I imagine real life would be no different. (jan14)

12. PACIFIC: The biggest surprise here might be John Gibson from Anaheim. Realistically, he hasn’t even been the best goalie on his own team this year, so seeing him with an All-Star nod is weird. Also, I can’t help but feel that the NHL is really fumbling the bag by not letting Trevor Zegras, the guy with the most well-known NHL highlight this year and a Calder candidate, on the roster. He isn’t even on the last man in ballot, as Troy Terry has his spot. Again, it just feels like there needs to be a way to get Zegras to the All-Star Game instead of his team’s second-best goalie. (jan14)

13. For selfish fantasy purposes, Matty Beniers is the guy I’ll be watching on the USA Olympic team. He was the second overall pick last year and that was a difficult draft to pin down, given all the shutdowns due to COVID. He has 26 points in 22 games at Michigan and our writers have mostly been high on him. I have also seen some support from him from prospect people I follow. I trust our writers and the people I follow so I drafted him in a dynasty cap league this past October. These Olympics will give us a chance to see him play against good competition, if not true NHLers. One tournament doesn’t change a lot when it comes to perception, but it would be nice to see him have a good showing against professional hockey players, even if he’s a teenager.

This could be a big tournament for Jake Sanderson as well. Also a teenager, the Ottawa Senators would love to see a nice performance from him, on top of his great production at North Datoka this year. There were questions about this selection at the time but he’s had a great 2021-22 and now he’s on the Olympic team. A good showing here, playing a steady presence for them, would quell some of the remaining questions as to his upside. (jan14)

14. The 2022 Dobber Hockey Midseason Guide is now available in the Dobber Shop. For the Guide, I wrote about a lot of players that could be on the move at the trade deadline, and the general state of each team as they consider their seller/buyer status. Below are some thoughts on P.K. Subban, one of five those guys we should be keeping an eye on, how they’re doing this year, how much they can actually help a team and, in turn, help fantasy rosters. Follow the link for the other four from Thursday's Ramblings.

It will be interesting to see where Subban lands. He has a very big cap hit, even pro-rated to two-thirds of the season, for a team to acquire at the deadline. There aren’t a lot of contenders that can fit him in. Would a return to Nashville be in order? Just wondering

Regardless, it’s important to note that the Subban of today is not the Subban of 2017. At one point, despite what his detractors may say, he was good defensively, but that has disappeared. He still is good offensively, but it can lead to some risky passes and moves, and the defensive prowess isn’t there anymore to make up for the mistakes. Wherever he goes, it’s likely in a third-pair role, which is fine. He’s under 20 minutes a night as it is and is more reliable for peripherals than anything these days.

On the flipside, because he is still good offensively, maybe he finds another gear in a new location as a team chugs towards the postseason? It could be worth adding him for the peripherals alone and then seeing if the points can come. (jan13)

15. We saw Evgeni Malkin make his return to the Penguins’ lineup, as he started out on the second line between Jeff Carter and Kasperi Kapanen, while also lining up on the top power play. There’s just no easing him into the lineup, eh, as he put up two goals and an assist. Only injuries can slow him down it seems. 

In other big news, Jack Eichel is nearing a return, Evander Kane is apparently going to be receiving an NHL contract, and Tuukka Rask signed a one-year, $1 million contract with the Bruins.

I’m still curious how Eichel ends up getting deployed initially, especially with having been off for so long. With the Vegas lineup not at 100%, it might just make the most sense to move Chandler Stephenson over to the top line LW slot, keeping Max Pacioretty‘s spot warm for the time being. The incumbent centres in Vegas have a lot to gain or lose depending on how the lineup shakes out once Eichel returns. (jan12)

16. As for Rask, he is 34-years-old, and still has some good hockey left, having put up a save percentage of at least 0.912% every season of his career (minimum five games), while Kane actually put up a career-high points pace last year, pacing for over 70 points for the first time in his career. It’s likely that he won’t hit those levels in the second half of this season, but we could see him pace for 55-60 points, with his usual monster peripherals on top of it. He has topped 100 PIMs and logged over two hits per game in three of the last five seasons, on top of averaging at least 3.2 shots per game dating all the way back to the 2010-11 season. If you’re wondering how players like Eichel, Kane and Rask will do in the second half, make sure to get your copy of the DobberHockey Midseason Guide. (jan12)

17. The Dylan Strome/Nick Schmaltz trade was an interesting one at the time. Personally, I’ve long been a fan of Schmaltz’s offensive prowess. He is a good playmaker who can help wingers score more than they should, and that’s an important feature for any player on that Arizona roster. He has played to a 50-point/82-game pace over the last three years in the Desert, on likely the worst offensive roster in the league, skating 16 minutes a night. He’s underrated, in my opinion.

Going to Chicago was Strome, a guy with very uneven performance with the Blackhawks. He had 17 goals and 51 points in 58 games immediately following the trade, and looked to be making good on the third overall slotting from the 2015 Draft. Since then, though, he has 24 goals and 65 points in 123 games, pacing for between 40-45 points, skating 15:25 a night. The problem here is that he’s a good playmaker, but isn’t good defensively and doesn’t shoot. A one-dimensional player isn’t hard to defend.

If Strome wants to take another step, he has to start shoot more. Consistently being under two shots per game means minimal fantasy value and his real-world value even takes a big hit. If he doesn’t add that aspect to his game soon, well, it’s a wonder if he’ll take a big step forward. (jan11)

18. It sounds weird to say, but Sidney Crosby is quietly having a tremendous season. Maybe it’s just because we’ve come to expect such greatness from the Pittsburgh Penguins superstar that 22 points in his past 17 games (entering Saturday) doesn’t make a ton of headlines. 

Sometimes it feels like Crosby gets a tad overlooked as the fantasy hockey season approaches because his game maybe isn’t as exciting as some of his younger counterparts like Auston Matthews, Connor McDavid and Nathan MacKinnon, but the 34-year-old remains just as productive as ever. (jan10)

19. Someone who looks energized coming back from the pause is Taylor Hall. After recording only five points over a 13-game stretch before the break, the Boston Bruins forward now has nine points in his last eight outings. One good thing about Hall for the second half of the season is that the Bruins have played among the fewest games of all teams. That bodes well if you have Hall and are in a league with volume categories like shots on goal.

20. Flashy is one word you wouldn’t use to describe Cam Atkinson, but he certainly is efficient. Even though the Philadelphia Flyers aren’t having a great season this year, Atkinson is still providing tremendous value for those rostering him. Not only did he have eight points in his past six games entering Saturday – on pace for 60 on the year –, but his shots on goal numbers are some of the best in the league. Atkinson ranks in the top-20 in the entire NHL in the category and registered an eye-popping 22 shots on goal over his past four contests. (jan10)

21. A nice revenge game for Marc-Andre Fleury early last week: 30 saves, 1 goal allowed, and most importantly a win over the Vegas Golden Knights. Fleury’s last win and quality start had been December 15, which was six starts ago. Although shopping a $7 million contract isn’t easy, I wonder if the Blackhawks will offer him as trade bait to be a rental somewhere. (jan9)

Have a good week, folks – be safe!!

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