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. The Jeff Skinner comeback season continues. Skinner scored another two goals in the Sabres’ 5-4 win over Minnesota, giving him goals in back-to-back games. Skinner also fired seven shots in this game, giving him 13 shots over his last two games.

A one-time high-volume shooter (six consecutive seasons with at least 200 shots), Skinner is once again in the top 20 in the league with 177 shots so far. He’s back to taking over three shots per game after dipping to below two shots per game last season. He’s also back into the double-digits when it comes to shooting percentage. The advanced stats (13.0 SH%, 9.0 5-on-5 SH%, 2.6 PTS/60) suggest a bit of regression, so don’t be surprised if the goal scoring tails off somewhat over the final quarter. Yet he’s shown enough this season to make his way back into the fantasy conversation. (mar5)

2. Igor Shesterkin is a machine right now. Since the calendar flipped to 2022, Shesterkin has a 12-2-1 record with a 1.67 GAA and .950 SV%, with 14 of his 16 games classified as quality starts. The Rangers are 19^th in the league with 2.93 GF/GP (I thought they’d be higher), so they owe a ton of their success this season to their netminder. He’s definitely in the Vezina discussion and could even be fantasy hockey’s most valuable goalie by the end of the season. (mar5)

3. Patrik Laine has 15 goals in his last 15 games. Should you try to trade Laine while he’s this hot? Even though he’s known as a sharpshooter, he is shooting at over 20%, which is higher than his career average of around 15%. He is back to taking nearly three shots per game, which is closer to his career average than the < 2 SOG/GP from last season. He’s had luck on his side, but he’s also helped his own cause. He’s not a must-sell high, but don’t budget for a goal per game the rest of the way. (mar5)

4. Because of his prior praise for Russian dictator Vladimir Putin, Alex Ovechkin has seen his reputation take a major blow recently. With everything going on in the motherland, it will be interesting to see if Ovie’s on-ice results are affected.

Does he bury himself in his play and even become extra fired up, or does this situation start to get into his head and he becomes rattled? Obviously, he’s a competitor and you don’t want to bet against him. It is worth mentioning that the Capitals have a higher concentration of core Russian players than the average NHL team, which could also be something to watch.

Will fans be excited if (when?) Ovie breaks Wayne Gretzky’s goal record? Or will it generate the same “meh” reaction that happened when Barry Bonds broke Hank Aaron’s all-time home run record? (mar4)

5. Entering Friday action, no defenseman had more goals than Noah Dobson (10) since December 1. Strangely enough, those were his only 10 goals of the season, so he’s not even in the top 5 in that category among all defensemen this season. Regardless, he’s emerged as the clear PP1 option on the Islanders blueline and is at the point where he should be rostered in just about every league. (mar4)

6. On Thursday, Nils Hoglander scored his first goal since New Year’s Day, which was also his first point in nine games. His value has declined since the Bruce Boudreau hiring, as the latter has gone on the record stating that he thinks Hoglander needs to improve his overall game. He was placed on the Elias Pettersson line in that game. Overall, Hoglander is experiencing a sophomore slump, as his ice time is down about two minutes per game as well as his overall point pace. It wouldn’t be out of the question for him to spend some time in the AHL. (mar4)

7. J.T. Miller is far and away the Canucks’ leading scorer this season with 63 points, with no other Canuck forward having even reached the 40-point mark (defenseman Quinn Hughes has 43 points). If the Canucks are going to trade him before the deadline, it better be an offer that they can’t refuse – whether they are still in the playoff race at that point or not. Aside from maybe Thatcher Demko and his game-saving heroics, Miller is the team’s MVP. (mar4)

8. Playing on a Wild scoring line with Kevin Fiala and Matt Boldy, Frederick Gaudreau has 13 points (6 G – 7 A) in his last 16 games. Entering Friday, the “other” Gaudreau was just 3 percent rostered in Yahoo and 14 percent in Fantrax, so he’s at least worth a look in deeper leagues. (mar4)

9. I've talked about how Shayne Gostisbehere was likely much better towards the end of his run in Philadelphia than he was given credit for. Also mentioned was how he could take some PP time in a 3F/2D setup (that didn’t really happen, but nevertheless) and get to the 40-point mark. Yes, even skating for that awful Arizona team. That made him a lottery ticket worth taking regardless of fantasy format.

On the season, Gostisbehere had 35 points in 55 games, and that works out to 52 points over a full season. Ghost has shown why the Flyers made a mistake in dumping his contract and how he can be valuable for teams and for fantasy players. (mar3)

10. The movie ‘Moneyball’ features a famous scene where Brad Pitt’s character asks Jonah Hill’s character if he really believes in this thing (meaning baseball analytics). That is where Fiala fantasy owners found themselves after the first 25 games of the season. He had three goals (three!) in the first 25 games of the campaign, totalling just 15 points. It was horrific. And then it wasn’t.

Over his last 28 games, Fiala has 15 goals and 33 points. That gives him 48 points in 53 games on the season, with his 82-game paces working out like this: 28 goals, 46 assists, 74 points. My upside for him this season was 30 goals, 60 points, 250 shots, and 15 PPPs. The final 29 games of the season will give us his final fantasy ranking, but Fiala has shown what he can do offensively. The only thing keeping him from fantasy stardom is consistent top line/top PP roles. (mar3)

11. Not only was I wrong about Travis Konecny, but I was just really wrong about the Flyers in general. I had hopes that a healthy Kevin Hayes and Sean Couturier, a revamped blue line (including Ryan Ellis), and a rebounding Carter Hart would be enough to lift the Flyers in the East. I thought they could be a playoff team and if it all broke right, a Cup contender. They are none of those things.

We cannot fault Hayes given what has happened in his personal life and Sean Couturier was playing injured before his back surgery. Ellis has been a non-factor and that means the rest of the blue line doesn’t really matter because he was supposed to be an anchor, along with Ivan Provorov.

On the season, a season I thought Konecny would push for 30 goals and 100 hits, Konecny has nine goals. I think it’s safe to say he’s going to fall a bit short of the lofty goals I had for him. How much of it is on the player and how much of it is just being in an awful situation, well, that’s for the offseason. But this is a bust unless he goes absolutely supernova over the final eight weeks. (mar3)

12. Josh Anderson has turned it on of late, scoring six goals and seven points in his last seven games. The exposure to Cole Caufield and Nick Suzuki is playing a big part of that, and the trio looks to be one that could play a big role in how the second half plays out for their fantasy owners too. (mar2)

13. As a Luke Evangelista owner in a few of my leagues, I’ve been keeping a close eye on his goal-scoring pace, which is nearly a goal-per game (42 goals) 43 games into the OHL season. I’m not a prospect guy, but he’s definitely someone that should be on your radar in any kind of league with a prospect system. He has really upped his stock since being drafted in the early second round back in 2020. (mar2)

14. On the topic of prospects, we’ve seen a few ELC signings in recent days, and this is in part due to the fact that NHL teams can now sign players to their ELCs with them not kicking in until next year. A few of those players are highly-touted college free agents, and from year to year those can be a very mixed bag. Typically though, they aren’t huge upside guys, and the top options end up being middle of the lineup players such as Tyler Bozak and Danny Dekeyser. However, rolling the dice with these guys does give you the advantage of knowing if you have an NHLer, or even a high-impact player, a lot sooner. If the player flames out, you move on to the next one. A host of them were covered in the DobberHockey midseason guide. Something to keep an eye on depending on how your league adds players and prospects to your teams. (mar2)

15. Until he returned Thursday, Anthony Mantha had played just 10 games this year and none since early November due to the shoulder injury. It is a reminder that Washington has played a significant chunk of this season without Mantha-Nicklas Backstrom–T.J. Oshie, which is effectively their entire second line and 60% of the top power-play unit. They got Backstrom in the lineup a month ago, Oshie last week, and now Mantha. That is a big boost for any team heading into the home stretch. (mar1)

16. There was an article recently from Eric Stephens at The Athletic discussing the Anaheim Ducks and players that could be moved at the trade deadline. The usual suspects were untouchables, but one name stood out: Rickard Rakell. The reason for that is he is a UFA and does seem likely to be traded. It also pointed out that the price for Tyler Toffoli – likely a better player with a great contract – went for relatively cheap. Surely it wouldn’t cost much to trade for him and his final four weeks of the season could be on a much better team than where he is now. (mar1)

17. Speaking of the trade deadline, I do think Claude Giroux has one of the more interesting outlooks. Allow me to explain. Let’s assume that Giroux is traded before the deadline. For my money, there are two very obvious landing spots for him, assuming he doesn’t waive his NMC to go to the New York Rangers: Boston and Colorado. Where he does land could present very different fantasy values. (Follow the link for the entire analysis) (mar1)

18. The Calder Trophy race is heating up and there seems to be a handful of frontrunners but one player I don’t see mentioned enough is Anton Lundell. I get it, Moritz Seider is on the top pair and playing extremely well for Detroit, while Michael Bunting could put up 60 points, while Lucas Raymond could do the same. But then we have Lundell, also on a 60-point/82-game pace, who has been skating on the third line in Florida most of the year. (Remember discussing earlier how teams with Cup hopes probably need an effective/productive third line? There is a reason we did not include Florida as a potential Claude Giroux destination; Lundell and Sam Reinhart are there already.)

Over at Evolving Hockey, he has good offensive impacts and is not a drag defensively. That is important, considering he takes a fewer percentage of his faceoffs in the offensive zone than Sam Bennett and Aleksander Barkov. They have heaped significant defensive zone starts, and thus defensive responsibilities, onto a 20-year old rookie centre and he’s not only survived, but thrived.

For now, one issue is not generating prime opportunities for himself; his individual expected goals among Florida forwards this past week was outside their top-12. It isn’t make-or-break for a rookie, and he has decent playmaking numbers which should only improve. But it is something we, as fantasy owners, should keep an eye on in the coming seasons. It is an offensive dimension we love our fantasy players to have.

All that aside, it has been a wonderful start to his career, both in real terms and in the fantasy game. I would not be the least bit surprised to see him take the 2C role over from Bennett next season, as they’re pretty much equals by TOI lately anyway. It would not shock me to see Lundell with a 2C/PP1 role in Florida next year. (mar1)

19. I was looking through Frederik Andersen‘s game logs entering Friday action and noticed that he only had one RBS (Really Bad Start) all season. And that one ‘barely’ qualified, at three goals allowed on 16 shots. But he has 22 Quality Starts including Sunday. Only one other goalie has more Quality Starts this season with zero or one RBS – Igor Shesterkin. (feb28)

20. Alex Tuch had a case of the new-team adrenalin when he went all nutty in his Buffalo debut, posting 19 points in 16 games. But his heartrate has settled back to normal now, and his four points in eight games are slowly correcting his stats to a more realistic level. He’s also a minus-3 in that span. If he can stay healthy – and so far he hasn’t shown us that he can – I think he’ll have a surprisingly big year next season and flirt with 70 points. (feb28)

21. Early last week, Bryan Rust was tied for ninth in the entire league (minimum 20 games played) in points-per-game average (1.27). At this point, when I do these Ramblings every week, I don’t know what to say about this guy. Every week I look at him and it boggles my mind. I expect a slowdown and what happens is a ramp-up. (feb28)

I’ve always believed that generational players push weaker producers to be average, average producers to be stars, and stars to be elite producers. And after two or three years alongside the generational player these guys can continue producing huge numbers even after removing the generational player from their line. Rust has 141 points in his last 146 games. Prior to the NHL he was a mediocre producer in the AHL and a mediocre producer in college. Nothing to indicate that he had this kind of production in him. (feb28)

Have a good week, folks – stay safe!!

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