We've nearly reached the end of both the fantasy and regular seasons. Most teams have somewhere around 5-7 games left, the East is completely wrapped, and at least half the West (if not more, depending on how we view Edmonton's lead) is wrapped up as well.

For anyone that is still in need of some waiver wire help, but sure to check out Andrew Santillo's 'Looking Ahead' column. He breaks down which teams and players on the upcoming schedule are ones fantasy owners need to lock in on, or avoid. There is also the Dobber Schedule Planner to help fantasy owners map out which players can be used on which days, in order to maximize games played.

I wanted to take some time to go over some preseason predictions made in these Ramblings. Some misses, some hits, but there are always lessons to be taken away. Or, usually there are lessons, anyway. Sometimes it's just an injury that throws a wrench in everything.

Neal Pionk and Shayne Gostisbehere (article here)

Here we have one hit and one miss.

Pionk has been in and out of the top PP role this season with a lot of minutes going to Josh Morrissey. His real problem is a four-year low in shooting percentage at 2.3%. If he shoots his three-year average of 3.7%, we can add a couple goals and maybe he gets into the top-20. Regardless, I thought top-20 would be his floor in hits leagues and it very much was not.

Conversely, Shayne Gostisbehere hit the 40-point mark a month ago and has an outside shot at hitting 50 points with a little hot streak. This has nothing to do with fantasy but I do find it funny the Flyers dumped his contract so they could add Rasmus Ristolainen, and then extended Risto. Ghosts's plus/minus hurt, but that was expected.

Kevin Fiala

My hope was that he would be a 30-goal, 60-point winger with three shots per game. He cruised past 60 points, and then 70 points, and needs one more goal to crack 30 for the first time in his career. One of the biggest gaps between Yahoo's ADP and my personal ADP was Fiala, and he was a home run. Bonus points to anyone that traded for him after he started the year with 3 goals and 11 assists in 20 games.

Eeli Tolvanen

I really thought this was going to be the breakout year for Eeli Tolvanen. Maybe injuries played a factor at some point, but there were no sustained hot streaks for him, meaning he was mostly a non-factor in fantasy. As of today, he has as many points in 72 games (22) as he did in 40 games last year. Anyone using him in hits leagues might have been able to skate with decent value, but there has been no production. Shooting 6.8% is a huge problem here and that is the beacon of hope we need to carry into next year. With that said, the team just did not generate a lot with him on the ice, though there are some very good defensive metrics on his side. This is not a player to give up on yet.

Travis Konecny

Another player who suffered greatly because of shooting percentages is the Flyers' right winger. Over his first 349 games in the league, he shot 12.8%. That cratered to 7.1% this year. Had he shot his career average this year, he'd already be at 25 goals and threatening for 30 with a good hot streak. His high-danger shot rate was very much in line with his last three years, as was his expected goals rate. Sometimes, a player just has a bad shooting year for any number of reasons that include just bad luck. We are going to be running it back with Konecny at a cheaper draft price this coming September, but this was a miss.

Josh Norris and Drake Batherson

Anyone that reads my Ramblings regularly will remember my rants on these really rad rockstars; I did write about them a lot last summer. My hope was that both Norris and Batherson would be top-20 at their positions in hits leagues, and I thought Batherson had a real shot at 30 goals, 200 shots, and 150 hits. Unfortunately, both players suffered injuries that left them out of the lineup for weeks at a time and have combined for 98 games played going into Monday night's contest.  

As of Monday afternoon, Norris had already cruised past 30 goals (sitting with 33) while Batherson had 15 in 39 games played, pacing for over 30 in a full season. Norris is pacing for over 100 hits/82 games, too, while Batherson is averaging a shade over two hits per game. I feel comfortable saying these guys would have both been hits had they stayed healthy.

Jared McCann

I didn't think the Kraken would be very good; I bet under 88.5 points for them back in September and that bet hit weeks ago. I did think they could put together a good top line and Jared McCann would be a beneficiary of heavy top-line minutes.

WELL. That didn't go as expected.

McCann had 25 goals, heading into Monday night's game. That was a career-best, and that's good! He also had 18 assists, the same he did in 43 games last year, which is bad. For anyone in a league with plus/minus, well, it's also bad. I was very high on McCann, particularly because of where he was being drafted, but this is just a huge miss. Playing him 16 minutes a night? On that team? Whew.  

Timo Meier

He was one of my favourite draft values and I drafted him in as many best ball leagues as I could. My reasonable floor for him was 20 goals, 200 shots, and 125 hits. He hit 20 goals by the middle of January and 200 shots by late February. He was, flat-out, one of the best draft values we had this season, as he's around a top-25 player in standard Yahoo leagues this season. This is the season we've been dreaming about from Meier since his first 20-goal season in 2017-18. Sometimes, it just all comes together and it’s a beautiful thing when it does. I think there's still more upside for Meier, but he needs to get out of San Jose.

Elias Pettersson (article here)

It really is tough what to make of Pettersson and the Canucks in general. Clearly, hiring Bruce Boudreau was a big turning point for this team, and that gives the fans and team something to look forward to for next season. There may not have been a bigger beneficiary than the young centre, as he went from 13 points in 27 games under the previous coach to 47 points in 46 games under Boudreau. Now, shooting 22.3% over those four months helps a lot, but he shot 17.6% over his first three seasons. If Second Half Petterson from 2021-22 carries it into next season, he could be a great value at the draft table. We'll see what this team looks like in September.

Roman Josi

My big concern with Josi was peripherals, but in the article linked, I talked about how any sort of small rebound from a 'down' shortened 2021 campaign would lead to a 60-point season in 2021-22. My argument was with Josi going somewhere around the 10^th defenceman off the board, depending on leagues, that there was no need to draft an elite defenceman at the top of the board i.e. avoiding Makar, Carlson, Fox, Hedman, Hughes and so on. Now, Cale Makar ended up being worth it, but Josi has been an absolute superstar this year. This one was a slam dunk.

Kyle Palmieri (article here)

Palmieri has long been one of my favourite multi-cat wingers and I bought in again this season. I had ice time concerns that were discussed in that article but considering where he was being drafted, I was buying. He did have a nice turnaround down the stretch with 9 goals and 19 points in 26 games since March 1^st, but it was too little, too late at that point. He's lost 2-3 minutes in New York compared to his time in New Jersey and that makes it tough for him to be a reliable fantasy option. Not sure that gets any better in 2022-23, and we had a miss on this one.

Those are some hits and misses from me this season. What were some for you? Hit up the comments.

*

Robin Lehner was on the ice for practice on Monday:

Robin Lehner is on the ice for the Knights' morning skate. pic.twitter.com/AbugxsFeTi

— Ben Gotz (@BenSGotz) April 18, 2022

He had missed the team's last couple games because of a family member that he needed to tend to. Vegas has just six games left on the schedule, three this week (including Monday night's meeting against New Jersey) and three next week. Lehner may be starting all those games, including the back-to-back on the road next week in Dallas and Chicago.

*

Dylan Larkin's season is over:

#RedWings announce Dylan Larkin will miss the final six games after undergoing successful core muscle surgery.

— Ansar Khan (@AnsarKhanMLive) April 18, 2022

*

An update on Kaapo Kakko:

No Kaapo Kakko at #NYR practice today. They're calling it week-to-week, which probably isn't a good sign.

— Vince Z. Mercogliano (@vzmercogliano) April 18, 2022

The young winger was injured in Saturday's game against Detroit in what was just his fourth game since returning from the injury prior to that. It has been one of those seasons for Kakko where he just did not seem to get it going at any point.

There is a deep dive to be done here at some point but for now, I would just say I'm still a believer in the Finn being a top-line winger, though maybe the offensive upside isn't as high as we once imagined.

*

Boston had some pretty significant injury news:

Linus Ullmark, David Pastrnak, Hampus Lindholm, and Jesper Froden will not travel.

— Fluto Shinzawa (@FlutoShinzawa) April 18, 2022

That is a lot of players missing some upcoming games. They are looking like they'll finish in the top wild card slot, which means a date with Carolina in the first round. Regardless, the important part of the next two weeks for the Bruins is just getting everyone healthy.

They also had Marc McLaughlin skating PP1 in practice, though he was skating on the fourth line at even strength. All the same, this is the last week of fantasy playoffs and there are just a couple weeks left in season-long roto leagues. McLaughlin could be a cheap source of PP points, assuming he can hold on to the role for any length of time.

*

Lots of updates from the Avalanche, including Nazem Kadri and Devon Toews not playing Monday night, though the former is on the road trip:

Kadri is not playing tonight but getting closer. Helm is in for Cogliano. MacDermid in for Toews, who won't make the upcoming road trip. Jack Johnson is still in for Erik Johnson.

None of Toews, Cogliano or E. Johnson's injuries are reason for concern, Bednar said.

— Peter Baugh (@Peter_Baugh) April 18, 2022

The Avs have locked up first place in the Conference so there's nothing for them to worry about other than health. For now, it looks like both Kadri and Toews should be good to go relatively soon, or in other words, not worried about the start of the postseason. Of course, things can change quickly in the NHL.