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. A lot of the teams that don’t play the Devils often seem to get surprised by how much they are attacking the middle of the ice this year, and how easily they seem to manage it. It doesn’t hurt that Jack Hughes can do it all himself some nights.

Hughes is up to 33 points in 27 games after starting the season with only three in six. That’s 30 points in his last 21 games, which would be a bit better than a 115-point pace. I said before the season that he was going to hit 100 points if he’s healthy all year, and I’m even more confident about it now.

Unlike Johnny Gaudreau and Jonathan Huberdeau and their 115-point marks last season, Hughes is a lot more likely to keep this pace up year after year. (dec7)

BTW, Hughes set an interesting record on Friday, logging the longest-ever recorded shift (since 2007-08) at 6:02. Hughes scored a goal and added an assist in 26:13 of overall ice time. The Devils were trying to overcome a deficit in this game, so who better to lead that rally than Hughes, who has 12 points in his last seven games. (dec10)

2. At age 24, Matthew Phillips has paid his dues in both the WHL and AHL. After two 90+ point seasons in the WHL, Phillips has built up his value in the AHL to the point where he is currently tied for the lead in scoring with 30 points in 20 games. The one reason Phillips has been held back is his size, which might be generously listed as 5-7 and 155 lbs. Yet with the game becoming friendlier to smaller players and more offense, Phillips has a chance to prove that he is more than a tweener – too skilled for the AHL, but unable to secure a full-time NHL job.

I’m not a prospects guy specifically, but I have followed Phillips more closely than most other prospects dating back to junior, when I came away impressed after seeing him live in a Victoria Royals game. This must have been somewhere between 2016 and 2018, not long after Phillips was drafted in the sixth round in 2016. All the writers here have a few favorite prospects, and Phillips qualifies as one of mine. So much so that I made a pre-emptive add a few weeks ago in a deep prospects league. Perhaps you could as well (8% rostered in Fantrax leagues). In case you missed it, the Flames recalled Phillips earlier this week. (dec10)

3. Entering yesterday's action, no goalie had more wins this week than Charlie Lindgren (three), who added to his total with a W against Seattle on Friday. Darcy Kuemper was injured during last Saturday’s game, which means that Lindgren has taken control of the crease in Washington this week. So far, he has delivered with a 1.34 GAA and .953 SV% with three quality starts.

Lindgren is rostered in just 16% of Yahoo leagues and 22% of Fantrax leagues, so he is worth a speculative pickup for Sunday’s game against Winnipeg. Lindgren had started about once every third or fourth game for the Capitals prior to Kuemper’s injury, so this recent run could help him grab a greater proportion of starts than he had been receiving, even when Kuemper returns. (dec10)

4. Josh Morrissey recorded two more assists on Friday, giving him five helpers in his past four games. Enterin Saturday, no defenseman had more assists than Morrissey (25) this season (tied with Erik Karlsson and Quinn Hughes). As well, only two defensemen (Karlsson, Rasmus Dahlin) had a higher point-per-game average than Morrissey (1.15 PTS/GP). On a Winnipeg team that has performed better than expected, Morrissey looks ready to reach 40 points for the first time in his career and perhaps go well beyond that. (dec10)

5. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins has back-to-back three-point games and is over the point-per-game mark this season (1.18 PTS/GP). The Nuge already has 14 goals in just 28 games, already ahead of last season’s 11 goals in 63 games. He is shooting an unsustainable 20.0% this season, but I wouldn’t count on these Edmonton guys to cool off completely, especially with that power play (nearly 30% conversion rate). Only three players – two of them with the surname McDavid and Draisaitl – have more power-play points than Nugent-Hopkins (17 PPP) this season. (dec10)

6. Alex Newhook has logged at least 19 minutes in each of his past four games, including first-unit power-play minutes. Newhook has three points in his last three games, including an assist last Friday. Since Nathan MacKinnon will be sidelined for a month, Newhook’s role has expanded, so he is worth a pickup in many formats (just 8% rostered in Yahoo).

BTW, Valeri Nichushkin returned to the Avalanche lineup on Friday, even though he was held without a point in 22 minutes of ice time. Nichushkin had been out for over a month with an ankle injury. (dec10)

7. Top Frozen Tools searched player Matias Maccelli recorded two more assists on Friday, giving him eight points over his last seven games. Only Matty Beniers has more points among rookies than Maccelli, who leads all rookies in assists (17). Maccelli has just two goals all season while averaging less than a shot per game, and he has scored just three goals in 46 career games. Despite a somewhat limited NHL sample size, that should give you an idea of what kind of player he is. (dec10)

8. Pavel Buchnevich missed St. Louis’s last game with an injury and did not play on Thursday night. Buchnevich has been plagued by injury this year, even if it is minor, as he’s played just 20 of 27 games on the season. Being on pace to play around 60 games is bad news for the Blues’ playoff hopes and Buchnevich’s fantasy owners. He had been on a hot streak of late with 14 points in 10 games, averaging 2.6 shots per game. Hopefully this is not something that lingers right to April. (dec9)

9. Arthur Kaliyev finally made it to the top line for Los Angeles a couple of games ago. The second-round pick from 2019 is building on a nice rookie season and he is hopefully taking the next step in his development.

With that next step is, hopefully, a full-time role on the top line alongside Anze Kopitar and Kevin Fiala. That duo has had its issues defensively, but they have been pretty good offensively and Kaliyev could really benefit from being higher in the lineup. This is a guy who could hit 30 goals, 200 shots, and 100 hits with a bit more ice time. It really isn’t unfathomable for him to have an excellent across-the-board multi-cat season if he’s skating 15 or 16 minutes a night regularly instead of 11 or 12.

Kaliyev is a player that I was high on as a prospect, which is saying something because I don’t really consider myself a prospect person. He always stood out when he played in lower leagues, though, and now he’s got a chance with top offensive options from his team. Here's to wishing he stays there for the balance of the season. (dec8)

10. Once Pavel Buchnevich was traded, one thing became obvious with this New York Rangers team: the kids would make-or-break their Stanley Cup potential. All of Alexis Lafreniere, Filip Chytil, Kaapo Kakko, and Vitali Kravtsov would have to make an impact among their forward lines. At least two of them would probably have to be top-6 wingers with the other two providing depth scoring on the third line. In 83 combined regular season games as of last Thursday, that quartet had 13 goals, or as many as Chris Kreider alone. It was also the same total as just Adam Fox and Barclay Goodrow. It isn’t nothing but it’s also a far cry from what fantasy owners (and Rangers fans) hoped for. Lafreniere had 19 goals in 79 games a season ago by himself.

For whatever reason, the Rangers are one of the teams I don’t mind rooting for when they’re not playing the Canadiens. I also have a fair number of Rangers stacks in my season-long best ball leagues but that’s neither here nor there. A bit of shooting percentage regression for Kakko and Lafrenière specifically would go a long way to curing what ails here. One of my Christmas wishes, as the Habs are in full rebuild mode, is for the Rangers to get significant contributions from the kids and make another deep playoff run. They are fun to watch, and it would help my fantasy season a lot. (dec8)

11. There is no telling what happens in Edmonton. This could be the Jeff Petry situation redux, or it could be Evan Bouchard turning into what Oscar Klefbom was, and then some. Bouchard has had wildly inconsistent ice time and roles this year, sometimes playing on the third pair and 14 minutes a night, sometimes on the top PP pair and over 23 minutes a night. The team has struggled with scoring depth, especially since Evander Kane‘s injury, and Bouchard being able to help the second and third lines generate offense consistently would be a game-changer for them. That I often drafted Bouchard this year has nothing to do with this, either.

Watching good offensive defensemen is one of my favourite things of the modern NHL. Whether it be Roman Josi, or Cale Makar, or Dougie Hamilton, or Adam Fox, or Rasmus Dahlin, or Erik Karlsson, these guys have revolutionized the position or taken cues from the preceding generation. Bouchard is one guy I’m hoping turns into something approaching these listed players and I think he has the talent and the (potential) situation to do it. The coaching staff should give him some more consistent leash and let him make his mistakes. If he can reach anywhere near the highs of some of those names, it’d be a monster win for Edmonton in the long run. (dec8)

12. Dougie Hamilton is up to 21 points in 27 games and back to his 60-point pace from the last few years before he joined the Devils and dealt with adjustments and injuries last season. Hopefully you bought low because that window is firmly shut now. Hamilton was our consensus pick for bounce-back player of the year in the DobberHockey Panel, so you can’t say you weren’t warned. (dec7)

13. The Blackhawks relying on Patrick Kane, Max Domi, and Jonathan Toews to lead the team has led to some very streaky offense. It’s also very likely at this point that all three are dealt before the deadline. The Hawks have given Kane and Toews no reason to stay, while Domi is also a UFA with no trade protection. A trade would help the values of Kane and Toews, but I’m not sure it would do much for Domi, as he would lose his high ice-time numbers, and would be unlikely to be paired with a linemate as talented as Kane. (dec7)

14. Two Blue Jackets also made their career debuts this past week, with Tim Berni playing 13 minutes on defense, and Kirill Marchenko playing 10 minutes up front. Marchenko is the fantasy relevant one of the two, with possible 70-point upside if everything spills right. He saw some time with both power play units in his first game, but came up empty. He lined up with Yegor Chinakhov and Cole Sillinger in an effective line that created five chances for, while giving up zero against. (dec7)

15. Pheonix Copley is 30 years old and hardly a prospect, but does he have a future in LA?

Jonathan Quick has been horrible this season (not surprised in the least) and Cal Petersen has been equally bad. I think Quick’s bounceback campaign last season was buoyed by a strong October, a solid November, and a decent April. But really, he was only above average in October alone. The Kings’ roster was winning games for him. That roster is still winning games, just not as many as they should.

Meanwhile, the better goalie, Cal Petersen, who was waived, demoted to the minors and to whom they are paying big bucks, was coming in cold every start and struggling with that. Very poor goalie management here. Team brass needs to shit or get off the pot. It should be Quick who comes in every three or four games, and not the other way around. But hockey politics are at play here, and they are going with their guy who brought them the Cups and has the track record.

Circling back to Copley. He was solid with the Ontario Reign (0.913 SV%, 6-4-0) and right now “solid” is good enough for a team like this. But as for the idea of Copley continuing to lead the charge towards a Cup run – that’s something to explore if Petersen continues to struggle. But good news for Petersen owners: he has been spectacular in four AHL starts. Perfect for his confidence. If Petersen continues, I still put my money on him being the answer. But if he returns to the NHL and struggles again – all bets are off. (dec7)

16. In the bad news department, Jakub Voracek says there is little chance of a return this season. He suffered a concussion a month ago and hasn’t played since. Voracek would later say that is his eighth documented concussion in the NHL, which means there are surely more undocumented ones. He is 33 years old with over 1000 regular season games to his name. It sure seems like he’ll have a major decision to make next summer presuming he doesn’t return in the next 3-4 months. (dec6)

17. Darcy Kuemper is listed as day-to-day for the Capitals. Kuemper had really turned his season around after a few tough games at the start of the year. He has a .922 save percentage in his last 15 appearances but has won just five of 14 starts in that span. Washington is another team that is struggling a lot to score at 5-on-5 so even a great season from him may not result in a lot of wins, at least until they start getting more players back from the injured reserve. (dec6)

18. Sublime setup man Jonatan Berggren is making it hard for Detroit to send him back down, compiling nine points in his first 14 NHL games. Five of those are assists, which are his specialty. He’s picking up these assists while playing on the third line – can’t wait to see what he does when he plays with top players.

19. Spencer Knight is coming along, and the most starts he steals – the worse Sergei Bobrovsky will play. Bob needs a heavy workload to thrive, but he hasn’t earned a heavy workload. The Panthers really want to justify Bobrovsky’s paycheck and will continue throwing him out there at least half the time. But when push comes to shove and the playoffs start to loom – you’ll see Knight run away with it, playing much of the final month. That should see him come in at 50 games. He turns 22 when the playoffs begin.

As for next season, it will be more of the same. Bobrovsky will get the early starts…probably start to slowly lose them as Knight comes on, and then Knight runs off with it yet again. After next season there will be no more pretending, no more pampering, no more justifying contracts. After next season, in 2024-25, Knight will be the de facto starter (60+ games) and Bobrovsky will mentor as the $10M backup. Ditto in 2025-26 when Bobrovsky continues making $10M (for the last time).

My prediction:

– Knight: 49 GP, Bobrovsky 36 GP this season.
– Knight: 53 GP, Bobrovsky 33 GP in 2023-24.
– Knight: 61 GP, Bobrovsky 26 GP in 2024-25.

Hopefully that helps with your planning. And of course this doesn’t factor in injuries or trades. (dec5)

20. Over in Calgary, the goalie situation is quite different. Jacob Markstrom isn’t coming off of a couple of questionable seasons (like Bobrovsky) and Dan Vladar doesn’t have the Golden Boy status that the Panthers’ Knight has. Markstrom may struggle all season long, but his leash will be a lot longer. And to be honest, he would need to struggle like this – and – Seattle would need to continue being unrealistic with their winning record – well into February before the starts really begin shifting Vladar’s way. I think Markstrom will get it worked out, and consider him a buy-low option at this point.

(Just to clarify, my Seattle statement refers to the fact that their presence in a playoff spot makes Calgary's odds of a playoff spot slip. So Seattle needs to come back down to earth, putting Calgary safely in, and thereby giving Markstrom a longer leash.) (dec5)

21. Our new DFS tools have had a lot of upgrades and additions. Eric and I worked hard on a better goalie formula that takes more into account the recent shots/per game of opposing teams, in conjunction with the recent shots allowed by his team – as well as home ice, back-to-back, and of course the goaltender’s own hot streak. It has shown tremendous improvement. Eric also put in stacked lineup tools, which have really panned out nicely for me (so far). There are also a couple of cool little tools that allow to evaluate the quality of the DFS contest you are looking at entering. And I had him add a chart at the end of the optimized lineups that lists all new players that don’t qualify for the optimized lineups algorithm. I’ve found that list handy at times when setting my Owners Box (the only available DFS option if you live in Ontario) lineup and I’m not liking the cheap suggested player given. Sometimes I’ll grab a player from the ‘new player’ list. Anyway, you can subscribe to the DFS tools here. (dec5)

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Have a good week, folks – stay safe!!

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