With Alex Tuch out of the Buffalo lineup, the team had been going with Jack Quinn alongside Tage Thompson in recent games. The acquisition of Jordan Greenway raised some eyebrows, given Greenway's history with Buffalo coach Don Granato, and the raised-eyebrow people had reason as the deadline addition was moved to the top line for Thursday's game against Dallas. We will see how long it lasts but it's very notable for Greenway given his very stout hit totals. If he can add even moderate scoring to that, it's a huge improvement for his fantasy profile.

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As New Jersey marches towards playoffs and they acclimate Timo Meier to the team, new line combinations were inevitable. On Thursday night, the team started with Jesper Bratt on the third line with Erik Haula and Ondrej Palat while Jesper Boqvist took his spot next to Jack Hughes. Line combinations like this are unlikely to last long-term but with fantasy players in (or nearing) head-to-head playoffs, even a week of screwy roster movement can end a fantasy season. It is something to monitor, at any rate.

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Minnesota gave an update on forward Kirill Kaprizov and it's not awful, but it's not great:

#mnwild Injury Update: Kirill Kaprizov is expected to miss three to four weeks with a lower-body injury. pic.twitter.com/DnHw6jit8F

— Minnesota Wild PR (@mnwildPR) March 9, 2023

It is 38 days until the playoffs start so if all goes well, he could be back with a handful of games left in the season. They do have a 10-point cushion on the Calgary Flames, the ninth-place team in the Conference. Kaprizov has been Minnesota's best skater this year, and the hope is he's good to go by the end of the month. The distance they've built up on the bottom half of the West should help them get to the playoffs, though seeding becomes a bit more uncertain.

This obviously has a lot of impacts in the fantasy game beyond just the loss of Kaprizov himself. He is a big part of the success of Mats Zuccarello, skating together at all offensive strengths for the most part. Minnesota's power play has had its ups and downs and now loses a key cog of the attack. Players like Joel Eriksson Ek and Matt Boldy lose a dual threat with the man advantage. Perhaps this is what finally gets Boldy to the top line and 20 minutes a night, but at a heavy cost. Newcomer Marcus Johansson, given his usage in Washington, could be an option to replace Kaprizov on the power play. I imagine we'll see a few different looks, though. Maybe an AHL call-up; perhaps someone whose rhymes with Rarco Mossi?

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Tyson Foerster, Philadelphia's first-round pick from 2020, was in the lineup for his NHL debut on Thursday. It is the Flyers, and it is Tortorella, so keep expectations extremely in check here, but it's nice to see him get the call as the team winds their season down and figures out who stays for next year.

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Detroit provided an update on forward Robby Fabbri, considering he left their game on Wednesday with a lower-body injury:

Lalonde says Fabbri is day to day; may not be available Saturday #RedWings

— Ted Kulfan (@tkulfan) March 9, 2023

It looked bad at the time, especially considering Fabbri's lengthy injury history. That he seems to have escaped anything serious is very good news for him and the team.

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Dallas peeled off five goals in seven minutes during the third period of their matchup in Buffalo on Thursday, finishing the game with 10 tallies in total and winning by a six-goal margin. Ten different Stars skaters had multi-point games so let's just breeze through the big ones:

• Jamie Benn: one goal, two assists, two shots, two hits
• Mason Marchment: one goal, two assists, three shots, one block, one hit
• Jason Robertson: three assists, nine shots, two hits
• Evgenii Dadonov: one goal, one assist, two shots, one block, one hit
• Ryan Suter: one goal, one assist, four shots

And so on.

Eric Comrie was in net for all 10 goals against, though he did save 39 shots.

Jordan Greenway scored in his first game on the top line, skating a little over 15 minutes.

Tyler Seguin left the game early with a lower-body injury and did not return.

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Goals from Hudson Fasching and Anders Lee (his second of the game) four minutes apart late in the third period of New York's road game in Pittsburgh pushed them to overtime. Brock Nelson sealed it, his 28^th goal of the year, and a big help to the Islanders' playoff hopes along with it.

Jason Zucker scored in the loss for Pittsburgh, giving him 22 goals in 60 games on the year. Only two of those are on the power play, so a lot of good even-strength scoring.

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Montreal lost in a shootout for the second game in a row, this time to the New York Rangers, by a 4-3 margin. Patrick Kane scored his first in a Rangers uniform, a power-play tally, and he added an assist with a couple of penalty minutes. Artemi Panarin had three assists, pushing him over 70 points on the year.

Jacob Trouba had a huge fantasy night with a goal, a power-play assist, five shots, three blocks, and two hits. A good night at the office for him.

Alex Belzile scored again for Montreal, his third game in a row with a marker. He has been one of the better stories in the NHL this season.

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Pyotr Kochetkov shutout the Philadelphia Flyers 1-0 on Thursday night. The game featured 48 shots in total. Andrei Svechnikov scored.

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At the least, New Jersey stuck with their line combinations all game against Washington last night, which means Jesper Boqvist with Jack Hughes and Timo Meier, while Jesper Bratt is on the third line. Boqvist skated 15:31 in the overtime game. A shootout game, actually, that the Devils won 3-2. Dawson Mercer had a goal and an assist as his unbelievable streak continues: 11 goals and 8 assists in his last 11 games with 39 shots on goal. It also makes three straight games with a power-play point for him as well.

Meier was held pointless but had six shots, two penalty minutes, and a hit. It is one of the nice things about owning him in multi-cat fantasy formats.

Trevor van Riemsdyk scored in the loss for the Caps as he passed 27 minutes in TOI. He had four shots and two blocks for peripherals. If he is going to play this level of ice time, he could have some real good fantasy nights from here on out.

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Two late goals from Nikita Kucherov and Brayden Point got Tampa Bay a point against Vegas but an overtime goal from Alec Martinez gave the Golden Knights the full two points. Martinez had four blocks as well, giving a nice multi-cat night to the fantasy players.

Kucherov (1+2) and Point (2+1) each had three-point nights while Mikhail Sergachev had two assists, three shots, and two blocks in a very well-rounded fantasy effort.

Jonathan Quick saved 34 of 37 in the win as he helps fill the gap left behind by the lengthy list of injured Vegas net-minders.

*

Considering the performance from Connor McDavid, the goal-scoring chase from Alex Ovechkin, and the higher-scoring NHL environment in general, there doesn't seem to be a lot of chatter about rookies this season. Last year, we had five rookies crack 20 goals, Trevor Zegras wowed fans with his dazzling hands, Cole Caufield re-awakened after Martin St. Louis was hired, Matt Boldy had a great second half, and so on. This year, we're still waiting for our first 20-goal rookie, though Matty Beniers sits just one shy. He may also be the only rookie to crack the 50-point mark. From an offensive perspective, it hasn't been an eye-popping campaign for first-year players.

With that said, there has been a lot of very good rookie performances that might be flying under the radar a bit. Let's talk about some of these guys. (All numbers as of Thursday afternoon and from either Frozen Tools or Natural Stat Trick.)

Matty Beniers

The clear standout from the rookie crop is the second overall pick from 2021. Including his brief tenure at the end of the last campaign, Beniers has 22 goals and 56 points in 72 regular season games. For just his rookie 2022-23 year, his points/60 minutes at 5-on-5 is in the 87^th percentile of the league, ahead of names like Claude Giroux, Jesper Bratt, Bo Horvat, and Andrei Svechnikov.

There is tracking data collected by Corey Sznajder that shows very good offensive performance as well. His scoring chance contributions aren't elite, but comparable to names like Elias Lindholm and Valeri Nichushkin (the red circle):

To be a rookie and performing like established veterans with good fantasy performances to their name is standing out. He is just starting to scratch the surface and he has the look of a Mark Scheifele-type fantasy performer moving forward, if not even better.

Matias Maccelli

I wrote about Maccelli a month ago and a lot of what was said then is applicable now, just with a larger sample. There is also this tweet about Maccelli from a couple days ago:

Matias Maccelli is currently sitting at 1.55 primary points/60 at 5v5. Notable names around that mark:
– Alex DeBrincat (1.52)
– Evgeny Kuznetsov (1.52)
– Mikael Backlund (1.55)
– Kirill Kaprizov (1.56)
– Mika Zibanejad (1.57)

— Michael Clifford (@SlimCliffy) March 8, 2023

Being in Arizona, not scoring many goals, and missing time to injury will keep him under the radar, but Maccelli has every bit the look of an elite playmaker for years to come. This looks like a fourth-round home run for the Coyotes, though a lack of goals/shots/hits could keep his fantasy value muted in a lot of formats unless there is significant progression in these areas.

Owen Power

On a team that features Tage Thompson pacing for 55 goals and 108 points, and with Rasmus Dahlin over a point per game, it is hard for Owen Power to stand out to people that aren't either Buffalo fans or fantasy fanatics. However, he is plus-19 in goal differential at 5-on-5 which compares favourably to Dahlin's plus-12. For comparison to other elite defencemen, Dougie Hamilton is plus-22, Roman Josi is plus-18, and Adam Fox is plus-16.

Now, we don't like to rely on 5-on-5 goal differential for player impact, but it's to setup what's coming next. The fact is that he's driving play while facing moderate competition:

His defence still isn't great – despite softer competition and lots of offensive zone starts, Buffalo allows more shots per minute at 5-on-5 with Power on the ice than any other regular defenceman. But he is showing good offensive instincts with his playmaking and transition work, and he is still just 20 years old. The fact he's driving play well while skating 23:45 a night is enough for now. Power won't stand out right now with Thompson and Dahlin around, but it may not be much longer before the spotlight is on him. The question, for fantasy, is whether he can ever take the top PP role from Dahlin. He could be stuck in a situation like MacKenzie Weegar's when he was in Florida and stuck behind Aaron Ekblad.

Jake Sanderson

Thomas Chabot patrolling the top PP unit and the addition of Jakob Chychrun is going to take a lot of shine off of Sanderson. It is a shame, because he's on pace for a 34-point/82-game season as a 20-year-old, and that's a very good campaign. Half his production has come on the power play, which is a concern given the options they now have for the power play, but points are points in the fantasy game, and the more PPPs, the better.

Of course, the problem was also Ottawa's 5-on-5 scoring. In the 50 games through the All-Star Break, only Anaheim and Chicago had a lower goal-scoring rate than Ottawa. Chabot, for example, had just eight points at 5-on-5 in his first 45 games, or one every 5.6 games. Over the previous three seasons, he had averaged one every 2.6 games. It would be hard for Sanderson to stand out in that regard, but he has been good offensively and, like Power, the defence will develop in future seasons. His problem in the fantasy game is just being stuffed down the depth chart.

Kirill Marchenko

Yes, yes, there's the shooting percentage, sitting at 20.8%, and that's why he has 16 goals in 41 games. But scoring goals in the NHL is very hard and when a rookie scores 16 in half a season, it's worth paying attention no matter what. However, he had a 32-game stretch from mid-December to the end of February that saw him post 70 shots, or 2.2 shots per game. At just 15:19 a night in that stretch, 2.2 shots per game from a rookie on a lottery team is good shot generation. On a per-minute basis, those 32 games saw him inside the 70^th percentile of the league.

Like a lot of rookies, there is inconsistency to his performance, but eight goals and 19 points in 16 contests with 3.2 shots per game in the AHL showed that he's too good for that level. Evolving Hockey also has him basically neutral by play-driving, which is good for a rookie, too. If he can maintain his top line/top PP role next season, there could be good fantasy value at the draft table, especially if he can improve on his solid hit rates.

Mason McTavish

There are other rookies to discuss at some point like Cole Perfetti, Logan Thompson, Jack Quinn, and Kent Johnson, but Mason McTavish is the last player we'll touch on. He was one of the favourites for the Calder Trophy and is second in rookie points with 38 in 64 games. One problem is nearly half (6) his goals (14) have come on the power play as Anaheim's 5-on-5 play has been horrific.

That is the crux to all this: McTavish's environment. This Anaheim team, by a number of measures like goal share or expected goal share, is among the worst teams in the salary cap era. So, when we look at a number of raw stats, whether play-driving, point production, or tracked micro-stats, he's going to look bad. However, his scoring chance contributions/60 minutes trail only Trevor Zegras and Troy Terry on the Ducks, as he's in a dead-heat with Frank Vatrano (and almost all of Vatrano's value is from shooting with little from his playmaking). McTavish is showing the early beginnings of a dual-threat offensive player, but he'll need time to develop, along with the rest of the franchise.