Ramblings: McAvoy Returns; Berggren Recall; Oettinger Update; Top-Line Ruzicka; Eichel Soaring – November 11

Michael Clifford

2022-11-11

Jonatan Berggren was called up by Detroit for their home game on Thursday night against the New York Rangers. The second-round pick from 2018 has 71 points in 77 career AHL games and looks to help fill the lineup with all their injuries.

This is an interesting recall for the Wings. All of Robby Fabbri, Filip Zadina, and Jakub Vrana do not look to have an imminent return to the lineup so if Berggren plays exceptionally, there is very well a spot for him. Other players like Tyler Bertuzzi and Oskar Sundqvist likely returning shortly, maybe Berggren has a short leash in the NHL regardless of how he performs. With that said, it's worth paying attention here because he could earn a spot with a high level of play. We will see how this goes.

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Charlie McAvoy was back in the lineup for the Boston Bruins, his first game of the 2022-23 season after having shoulder surgery in the offseason. With Brad Marchand returning recently as well, this team is really starting to look like an upper-crust Cup contender.

This is big news for fantasy owners here. McAvoy, in a full season, is capable of 60 points, over 20 coming on the power play, with 2+ shots per game and triple-digit hits and blocks. He is one of the best multi-cat performers there is in the league and a bonus goes to everyone still playing plus/minus formats.

It'll be interesting to follow McAvoy's involvement in the Boston offence. Over the 2020-2022 stretch where he played 129 regular season games, his individual points percentage (IPP) was a shade over 33% at 5-on-5. That was outside the top half of the league among regular blue liners. With the wealth of skill Boston has up front, it makes sense that they're the ones creating offence more than McAvoy does. He just plays a lot with them at all strengths so he's going to be very productive by osmosis. However, many of the top point-producing defensemen were over 45% in that span: Roman Josi, John Carlson, Adam Fox, Quinn Hughes, Kris Letang, and Cale Makar, to name a few. Until McAvoy starts involving himself more, it seems the 70-point seasons those guys are capable of will be out of reach for the Bruins blue liner. With everything else he does, though, McAvoy can still be an elite multi-cat defenseman, he just has less value in points-only formats.

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A curious name to see was Adam Ruzicka line up on Calgary's top line in the absence of Jonathan Huberdeau. Last year, Ruzicka put up 20 points in 16 AHL games, landing over three shots per game, and was very productive on a per-minute basis in his 28 NHL contests. He has never been a monster producer at any meaningful level but sometimes it just takes time for players to develop other skills that they need to succeed in the NHL. If he can hold his own there, it would allow a lot more lineup flexibility for the Flames, being able to move around middle-6 guys like Nazem Kadri, Andrew Mangiapane, Blake Coleman, and Huberdeau. It would lengthen their lineup and make them that much more dangerous.

Of course, Ruzicka needs to prove he can hang at the top of the lineup, but he'll have plenty of opportunities to do it. This is a situation to monitor, at least.

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I wrote a bit about Oliver Wahlstrom's season yesterday, so we won't dive in there again. What will be noted is that he was back on Mathew Barzal's line in their game against Arizona, with Anders Lee rounding out the trio. From my fingers to the coaching staff's lineup pen, folks, we may have done it.

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Jake Oettinger looks about ready to return for Dallas:

It isn't as if Scott Wedgewood has performed poorly with a .903 save percentage on the season, but Oettinger looks like one of the top young goalies in the world. Consider that the only goalies with a higher high-danger save percentage (HDSV%) at 5-on-5 over the last three seasons (3000+ minutes per Natural Stat Trick) are Igor Shesterkin and Ilya Sorokin. He doesn't look amazing by every measure, but he's starting to look like the goalie Dallas has been looking for going back years now.

To complement that last paragraph, we should mention Spencer Knight. The Florida goalie had a 40-save shutout on Wednesday night, his top effort of the season. When I was looking at the aforementioned HDSV% numbers, Knight stood out: tops in the league for any goalie with at least 1700 minutes played. That level of ice time isn't enough to draw strong conclusions from yet, but it is a wonderful sign.

The reason Knight's save percentages haven't looked good is the penalty kill – over the last three seasons, Knight is 47th out of 54 goalies (175+ minutes) in SV% when his team is down a man. It is worse than MacKenzie Blackwood, Cal Petersen, and Kevin Lankinen. That is tanking his overall save percentage numbers and thus his fantasy value.

That is still a small sample. It really works out to two-thirds of a single season. His other numbers suffer from the same sample issue but there are some very good signs as well as some bad ones that may not be completely his fault. He is on the right track, we just have to see how he does on the penalty kill this year.  

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Carolina took full advantage of a back-to-back Edmonton team by stomping them with a 7-2 win. Andrei Svechnikov tallied a hat trick on four shots, his second three-goal game of the season. He is now up to 11 goals in 14 games, totalling 17 points. He is shooting a shade under 25% and that will come down but he's been on a heater to start the year and is starting to show the upside fantasy owners have been waiting for.

Teuvo Teravainen had a pair of assists but left the game due to injury. Martin Necas also had two helpers, pushing him to 19 points in 14 games on the season. Brent Burns also scored, his third of the season.

Jack Campbell was in net for all seven goals, facing 32 shots total. His rough start to the season continues.

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In another beatdown, the New York Rangers waltzed out of Detroit with an 8-2 win. Mika Zibanejad had a pair of goals, extending his point streak to seven games. He has five goals and 10 points in that span and is on pace for nearly 50 goals. He has been absolutely dynamic through the first 15 games of the year.

Barclay Goodrow had a goal and an assist while Chris Kreider had one of each and is now on pace for over 30 goals himself.

Adam Fox was the fantasy standout here with a goal, three assists, two shots, and three blocks. He is now over a point per game through this early portion of the campaign as the super-elite defenseman just gets better and better.

Like Campbell, Ville Husso was in for all eight goals managing 25 saves.

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Charlie McAvoy scored in his return to the Bruins lineup as they took a 3-1 win over the Flames. Boston got a goal and an assist from David Pastrnak, who managed eight total shots and added a hit. Pastrnak is also on a 50-plus-goal pace and could soar past 100 points. He will reap a very good contract, it appears.

McAvoy skated over 19 minutes but did not resume his PP1 duties. Boston stayed with the five-forward power play over several power plays.

Noah Hanifin managed Calgary's lone goal managing three points in four games after starting pointless in eight games. He had three total shots, a block and three hits as well. Hanifin is a real threat for 200 shots and triple digits in both hits and blocks if he keeps up this pace.

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Jack Eichel made his second return to Buffalo and put on quite the show. He capped off a hat trick by scoring into the empty net, giving him four points on the night. This was Eichel's first hat trick in three years, with his last coming in November of 2019. Eichel now has 19 points in 15 games on the season and looks to be back to form, if not more.

Alex Pietrangelo scored his first goal of the season, adding two assists, managing three total shots, and adding each a block and a hit. Despite the lack of goals (until now), Pietrangelo is pacing for over 60 points.

Chandler Stephenson had a goal and three assists in the win, giving him 14 points in 15 games. Who knew?

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Dougie Hamilton scored the overtime tally to lift New Jersey 4-3 over Ottawa. That is goals in consecutive games for Hamilton, who is just shy of four shots per game on the year. Some other peripherals aren't as strong but a very good start nonetheless.

Nico Hischier had a goal and an assist with four total shots in this game. He has 16 points in 13 games thus far, giving him 52 points in his last 45 games. If the power play can really get rolling, Hischier could end up a phenomenal draft value.

Shane Pinto scored twice in the loss, giving him eight tallies in 13 games on the year. Just an incredible start, if running a little hot.

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A solemn Remembrance Day or Veteran’s Day to the readers and their friends and families.

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UPCOMING GAMES

Jun 18 - 20:06 FLA vs EDM

Starting Goalies

Top Skater Views

  Players Team
MARTIN NECAS CAR
PATRIK LAINE CBJ
EVANDER KANE EDM
JOHNNY GAUDREAU CBJ
CONNOR MCDAVID EDM

Top Goalie Profile Views

  Players Team
SEBASTIAN COSSA DET
LINUS ULLMARK BOS
IGOR SHESTERKIN NYR
SERGEI BOBROVSKY FLA
DAMIAN CLARA ANA

LINE COMBOS

  Frequency T.B Players
20.1 STEVEN STAMKOS BRAYDEN POINT NIKITA KUCHEROV
16.8 BRANDON HAGEL ANTHONY DUCLAIR ANTHONY CIRELLI
14.6 NICHOLAS PAUL MICHAEL EYSSIMONT MITCHELL CHAFFEE

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