To little surprise, the Columbus Blue Jackets have decided to part ways with coach Brad Larsen. Even though Larsen didn't seem likely to last the offseason, I'm not sure anyone could have coached that team to a playoff spot, given the sheer volume of injuries they faced this season. As I mentioned yesterday, the Blue Jackets did not have a single player play all 82 games (the closest were Johnny Gaudreau and Andrew Peeke at 80 games), while only seven players were able to get into 70 games. With that many injuries, I might re-evaluate the strength and conditioning situation on that team, but there could be an awful lot of bad luck at play as well.

The fate of a coach is often tied to the performance of their goaltending. Although this isn't all on Elvis Merzlikins, it's fair to say that more was expected from him. In 30 games, Merzlikins had a league-worst 4.23 GAA among goalies that played at least five games. Team performance is a major factor in goals-against average, and the Jackets used 14 defensemen this season with only two (Peeke, Erik Gudbranson) playing at least 70 games.

That being said, only Spencer Martin and Kaapo Kahkonen had a worse goals-saved above average (-24.66 GSAA). Moreoever, Merzlikins had more really bad starts (8) than quality starts (7), which would have sabotaged your fantasy team if you left him in for an extended period. Merzlikins's season .876 SV% was not that far off from the .850 SV% threshold needed for a really bad start. His numbers will obviously improve if the team can remain healthier, and he's proven to be far superior than he showed in 2022-23 (remember the win streak in early 2020?) but he's far from trustable in fantasy right now.

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If you have a playoff pool or are making some series predictions, we have some stuff here for you.

Playoff Draft List at the Dobber Sports Store – I just had a go with this to pick my playoff pool. It's very easy to use. Just enter in your playoff bracket, and then the spreadsheet will calculate projected points for each player. I'm in a pick 20 player pool (thanks to the Five Hole Fantasy Hockey Podcast) where I pick five players for each position – C, LW, RW, and D. The spreadsheet allowed me to filter by position as well in order to fill in my roster slots. If you're not sure which teams to pick, you can go with Dobber's personal picks. Not much time before the playoffs start on Monday, so pick up yours today!

Writer's Predictions for the 2022-23 Playoffs – coming very soon! I won't share my picks here, but you'll be able to see them in the article, along with the other Dobber writers and staff. We'll also provide consensus picks for each first-round series, as well as the predicted Stanley Cup winner and finalist and Conn Smythe winner.

Free NHL Playoff Box Pools – Great for a simple pool with your friends

Dobber Hockey Bracket Challenge at NHL.com

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Now that all of my regular-season fantasy hockey leagues are in the books, I'll share my results using the glass half full/glass half empty approach. Usually when someone asks me whether I want the good news or bad news first, I tell them to lay on the bad news so we can get that out of the way.   

Glass half empty: I did not win a championship (first place) in any of my three leagues this year. "But Ian, you're an expert! You're supposed to win every year!" Ha. Real life doesn't always play out the way you think it should. I also need to give credit to my league competition, who are knowledgeable and passionate about fantasy hockey as well. Plus, there's a silver lining to this.

Glass half full: I earned something I can be happy with in all three of these leagues. Two second-place finishes, and a draft lottery tournament win where I can draft a certain someone first overall on a dynasty team. "But Ricky Bobby said that if you're not first, you're last!" Okay fine, but you're not going to win every race.

One second-place finish was on a salary cap team that I didn't have high expectations for when I took over last offseason, a team that I referred to as a "fixer upper" – I need to give credit to the previous owner, who built a better roster in a 20-team format than I first thought. The other second-place finish was in a league that I've never finished higher than third in and battled until the final day of the regular season, finishing just two power-play points shy of winning the whole thing. Losing that one sucks after getting so close, but I also earned two hard-fought wins in the two weeks before. (All leagues are head-to-head.)

In later Ramblings through the offseason, I'll share more about what went right, what went wrong, what I learned, and what advice I can give you with these three teams, referencing individual players who were either key to my success or factored into my shortcomings. I had a few players on these teams that either had seasons to remember or seasons to forget.

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The Top 100 Roto Rankings have been updated for April. If you play in a non-keeper multicategory league, check them out if you'd like to get an early start on next season or would just like to find out where your players sit relative to others. I'll be tweaking them throughout the offseason, so by no means are they a finished product. And I could always use your input.

Actually, I've got some space to fill, so why don't I take the opportunity to discuss a couple of players that I've seen Twitter comments on.

Travis Konecny

Konecny was in the Roto Rankings earlier this season, and I would not rule out adding him there again in the near future. During January, Konecny was on a near-100-point pace over a full season with 49 points in just 41 games (he missed a few games in November due to injury). Then the wheels fell off and Konecny went eight games without a point. He scored five points in four games after that, but he was then sidelined for over a month with an upper-body injury. He managed to finish the season with a bang, scoring two goals and adding two assists on Thursday against Chicago, which vaulted him over the point-per-game mark for the season (61 points in 60 games), along with cementing his first 30-goal season.

From the Midseason Guide: "Konecny's impressive campaign is being fueled by increased opportunity. He's seeing over 20 minutes of action per game, which is almost three more minutes than he averaged last year." That held true for the remainder of the season, as Konecny averaged just over 20 minutes per game. No Flyers forward averaged more than 18 minutes, so it seems like John Tortorella holds Konecny in high regard. Moreover, Konecny averaged more than three shots per game for the first season in his seven-year career.

The Flyers as a team didn't have an awful lot of good luck this season, but it appears Konecny might have had some himself. His 16.2 SH% was the second-highest of his career, noticeably higher than the 12.3 SH% average over his career. The plus side to this is that Konecny is shooting more, so his goal total shouldn't decrease dramatically if the pucks don't go in as frequently.

The Flyers have a group of mostly young forwards, so Konecny's potential to go further than a point per game could depend on the development of the likes of frequent linemates Joel Farabee and Noah Cates. A wild card here is the future of Sean Couturier, who has missed most of the past two seasons with a back injury. Couturier is one potential center for Konecny, although he may not be the same player once he returns from such a lengthy absence.

Erik Karlsson

Let's face it: No one predicted that Karlsson would have the kind of bounce-back season that he did. It was like the Karlsson of old from the Ottawa days: A dominant defenseman that could score points at will while carrying his team on a nightly basis – even getting a podcast named after him! The 100-point season is well documented, but another stat that isn't being mentioned enough is the fact that Karlsson played in all 82 games, something he hadn't done since his previous career-best 2015-16 season, when he registered 82 points.

So where does EK65 go from here? He is not an easy player to project for next season. For starters, he could be traded in the offseason. The Sharks are going nowhere fast and would be best served to pull in some futures to help expedite a much-needed rebuild. His current contract (four more years at $11.5 million) will make things difficult, although San Jose retaining salary would probably ease the burden. Still, inquiring teams will be worried that his 2022-23 output could be more of a one-off and/or the injury risk still looms. It would be interesting to see how Karlsson would fit on a new team and if he would either benefit from playing beside stronger offensive options or potentially decreased icetime.

I don't usually bet on a player getting to 100 points again unless they're Connor McDavid – especially not a defenseman. Lengthy injury absence aside, Karlsson has a long way to fall in order to be a major bust in fantasy leagues. Having said that, a healthy Jonathan Huberdeau experienced a 60-point drop from last season, so anything is possible. Paying for him to accrue 100 points again is a risky proposition, if not just plain foolish.

I've moved Karlsson up to the #12 spot, mostly due to his dominant performance this season. I may have some second thoughts about it during the offseason, given his age and injury history. I'd be curious to hear about where others may decide to rank him.  

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Follow me on Twitter @Ian_Gooding for more fantasy hockey.