One thing that had plagued the Carolina Hurricanes for years was a lack of steady goaltending. That has changed in recent seasons with the additions of Antti Raanta and Frederik Andersen. Both of those guys are free agents after the 2022-23 season, though, so the team needs to look to the future. They did that with a Pyotr Kochetkov extension:

The #Canes have signed Pyotr Kochetkov to a 4-year contract extension, with an AAV of $2M 👊https://t.co/3zjkJCdb5Q

— Carolina Hurricanes (@Canes) November 23, 2022

This four-year deal will carry him through one year of unrestricted free agency. He has just seven NHL games to his record (heading into Wednesday night) but he's been good in the AHL and the team obviously saw something in him with an early second-round pick in 2019. He may not have a lot of fantasy value this year when the goalies are healthy, but he very well could be the starter as soon as October 2023. He could be one of the top goalies in salary cap formats.

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Seth Jones returned for Chicago on Wednesday night, having missed nearly four weeks of action with a thumb injury. He has 55 points in 86 games with the team since signing a year ago, but this is a franchise scoring the fewest goals per minute in the NHL so far this season. They also might be shipping out Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews at some point as well. Jones may be in tough for much fantasy value in points-only formats, though he can still bring very solid peripherals in multi-cat formats.

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Denis Gurianov also returned on Wednesday night, slotting into the Dallas Stars lineup. He had a real tough start to the year with one goal and three points in 12 games before hitting the shelf. He scored 20 goals in 64 games a few years back and has 24 goals in 140 games since. At the age of 25, he needs to start showing a lot more of that offensive upside if he wants to stay in the lineup because this team now has a few forward prospects that can take his spot in the lineup.

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St. Louis welcomed Vladimir Tarasenko back to the lineup as well, slotting on the top line with Ryan O'Reilly. He also had a tough start to the season with four goals in 16 games, bringing his goals/game mark to nearly half of what it was last year. St. Louis really seems to have found their game over the last couple weeks, though, so hopefully we see some better production from Tarasenko.

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Samuel Girard was back in the lineup for Colorado in their home game against Vancouver, though there still is no timeline on Bowen Byram. Girard's fantasy performance wasn't stellar to start the season, so we'll see how he performs over the next few weeks.

There was also a small Valeri Nichushkin update:

Per Bednar, Helm is skating now.

"Him and Val are both doing better."

Doesn't expect Nichushkin to skate this week but perhaps next.

— Ryan Boulding (@rboulding) November 23, 2022

If he can start skating next week, maybe they can get him back before Christmas. That is just conjecture and hope on my part, but this team needs him back in the lineup. They don't want to keep playing their top line 23 minutes a night to win games.

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San Jose gave us an update on James Reimer:

Quinn on Reimer: "Just started not feeling great in a certain particular area leading into (Monday's) game."

— Curtis Pashelka (@CurtisPashelka) November 23, 2022

The Sharks play Friday night in Anaheim but then are off until Tuesday. It seems reasonable that Reimer might only miss one more start before getting back in the cage.

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Lawson Crouse scored twice in Arizona's 4-0 shutout of Carolina. That makes 29 goals in his last 83 regular season games. With the three hits he added, he's hovering around 2.5 hits as well. He doesn't even have a brutal plus/minus, for those using that in their fantasy hockey leagues.

Karel Vejmelka managed a 36-save shutout and is turning in a good season so far, all things considered.

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Both Jack Quinn and Jeff Skinner had a pair of goals in Buffalo's 6-2 win over St. Louis. Posting four goals in his last two games has helped Skinner get above his goals/game mark from last year, when he finished with 33 in 80. Other guys besides Tage Thompson are having good years.

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Filip Hronek had a goal and an assist, leading the way in Detroit's 3-0 shutout of Nashville. He had three total shots with a block and a pair of hits. He is really performing across the board in the fantasy game this year, looking more like the player he was in his first couple seasons.

Ville Husso stopped all 26 shots he faced for his third shutout of the season, already surpassing his two from last year in 38 starts.

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Florida took a 5-2 win from Boston thanks to great games from Aaron Ekblad and Aleksander Barkov, each with a goal and two assists. Sam Reinhart had a goal and an assist as well, giving him six goals in eight games. His luck is starting to turn and hopefully people either held on or bought low.

Spencer Knight saved 38 of 40 shots as he rebounded from that shootout loss against Calgary.

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Matt Boldy had a goal and two assists with three total shots in Minnesota's 6-1 victory over Winnipeg. He had gone pointless in five straight with just one assist in eight games so hopefully this snaps him, and the team, out of the scoring funk. Kirill Kaprizov had a goal and an assist to help out, as did Calen Addison, who maintained his top power-play role over Alex Goligoski.

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Toronto snapped New Jersey's win streak with a 2-1 win at the Prudential Center. Matt Murray had another strong game, saving 34 of 35 shots. The Devils did have three goals disallowed though two of them were genuinely correct calls with the other a bit ambiguous. Either way, a great run from the Devils.

John Tavares scored in the win, putting him at 12 goals on the year. It will be interesting to see where he lands. Jordie Benn left the game in the second period and did not return, another apparent injury to the Leafs blue line.

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Happy Thanksgiving to all of our American readers! Hopefully, your day is filled with good food, good drink, good company, and maybe even some good football (both kinds). Perhaps some of you can even sneak in a good afternoon nap to keep fresh for the evening.

I thought it would be a good time to give thanks for certain players, teams, or stories from across the NHL. A themed Ramblings? Why not. Here are four players, teams, or stories I'm thankful for to date in the 2022-23 season. Data from our Frozen Tools or Natural Stat Trick (unless otherwise indicated) and as of Wednesday afternoon. We will go through four more tomorrow, seeing as there are no games on Thanksgiving Day itself.

Kirby Dach

As a Montreal fan, I have to start with the obvious story: the superlative play of Kirby Dach. When Carolina poached Jesperi Kotkaniemi and then the team saw Phillip Danault sign in Los Angeles, I was extremely worried about Montreal's future center depth. Dach has been playing mostly the wing this year, especially since moving to the top line, but I'm still hopeful he can transition back to the middle in the next couple seasons.

Regardless, Dach was a player I was very high on when Chicago drafted him. His performance in his rookie year, combined with dominant play in the 2020 Bubble Playoffs, did nothing to quell my excitement. He was unbelievably good in transition for a rookie (from CJ Turtoro's viz):

We all know what happened next: Chicago took a nosedive, Dach fought injuries for two years, and then he was shipped to Montreal for a first rounder (that the Habs got for Alexander Romanov) and a third-round pick. So far this season, he's posted 16 points in 18 games and is in the 80^th percentile for expected goal impacts, per Evolving Hockey, or a first-line rate. It is not even a quarter of a season yet, but he's been excellent.

So, yes, thank you Chicago for trading a 22-year-old third overall pick while you start the rebuild. It's working out great for Montreal.

Leaving Dallas's Top Line Together

One thing that frustrates me about NHL coaching is breaking up good lines because other lines are playing poorly. I understand that coaches love three or four balanced lines but often it just weakens one, marginally helps another, and they're not really better off for it. In recent seasons, Detroit with Anthony Mantha (and then Tyler Bertuzzi) with Dylan Larkin comes to mind, as does Nashville splitting up Matt Duchene and Filip Forsberg, Vegas moving Reilly Smith or Jonathan Marchessault to the third line, or Buffalo separating Jeff Skinner and Tage Thompson.

Dallas largely leaving the trio of Jason Robertson, Roope Hintz, and Joe Pavelski together for a few years now has been pretty awesome. Yes, Hintz or Robertson have moved to the second line at times, but it never seemed to last, and the rewards are obvious. They are one of the best lines in the league and all three are having fantastic starts to this season.

What helps is adding Mason Marchment, Jamie Benn finding his game again on the third line, and some young prospects adding depth. All the same, seeing these three forwards play together game in and game out is something special.

Tage Thompson's Continued Breakout

Sometimes, breakouts take time. I was very high on Valeri Nichushkin for years, but it took until he was 26 years old, while leaving the NHL for a time, until he finally rounded his entire game. Jordan Kyrou is another as he fought injuries and depth roles until he finally broke out last season at the age of 23. It took Troy Terry until the age of 24 to step forward as a high-end offensive player. All this is to say, it can take some time, and as years pass by, belief in a player can wane.

Enter Tage Thompson, another guy I was very high on after his first season in Buffalo way back in 2018-19. He had decent transition numbers and loved shooting the puck, he was just stuck in a depth role and was a unicorn as a scoring forward standing 6'7".

Two more seasons passed, including some time down in the AHL. However, he seemed to start to find his game in the 2021 Bubble season, even if the raw production wasn't great. Then he exploded for 38 goals and 68 points last year, continuing that offensive explosion into this year. He has finally rounded into a dual offensive threat and it's beautiful to see.

So, thanks to Thompson for finding his game. It helps me keep belief in prospects even if they don't pan out by 22 or 23 years old.

Anaheim Playing Trevor Zegras with Troy Terry

Similar to Dallas, I am thankful that the Ducks have seen fit to leave Trevor Zegras and Troy Terry together this year. The rest of the lineup isn't very good, but both Jamie Drysdale and Mason McTavish have looked like they'll be very good in the near-future, and it gives them a young core to build around, even if they don't take a step forward as a franchise in 2021-22.  

The simple fact is that watching Zegras/Terry play catch with the puck is so fun to watch. These are two guys with complementary skill sets that help them generate offense against nearly everybody and it makes the Ducks watchable night in and night out, something the team hasn't been in a few years.

We have to wait and see if they stick with this duo all campaign as they have played together before and then been split up, but I am thankful we get to see it for now. Watching two exciting young players tear apart team defenses is a lot of fun.