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

—

1. Leo Carlsson had an encouraging NHL debut on Thursday. Not only did he score his first NHL goal, but he also logged 19 minutes on the top line with Trevor Zegras and Troy Terry, and he was also used on the first-unit power play. Remember that the Ducks selected him over Adam Fantilli as the second overall pick, so they seem to have extremely high hopes for him. Without the rookie treatment of limited and sheltered minutes, Carlsson could be worth rostering in single-season leagues as well as keeper leagues. He was 12 percent rostered in Yahoo entering Saturday. Some sort of winger eligibility would be more ideal, but he’s at least worth keeping on your watch list. (oct21)

2. A power-play projection that you probably didn’t expect: Luke Hughes is on the Devils’ top power play over Dougie Hamilton. (As someone who rosters the youngest Hughes brother in one league, I’m not complaining.) I knew this, so I was patient with Hughes and didn’t bench him this week even though he hadn’t scored a point in his first two (eventually three) games. Hughes scored a power-play goal on Friday, which was his first point of the season. Surprisingly, Hamilton has three power-play points and five points in four games, so his value has hardly been affected. The Devils are deep enough and Hamilton offers enough peripherals that he should be fine.

Luke’s older brother Jack Hughes is awesome. Yeah, pretty simple analysis. With two goals and two assists on Friday, Hughes has taken over the scoring race lead with 10 points in four games (now tied with Elasi Pettersson). That includes seven power-play points, with at least 1 PPP in each game. He’s also taken six shots in each of his last three games, with no signs of slowing down. 3-on-3 overtime was made for guys like Hughes. (oct21)

3. Matty Beniers recorded his first point of the season (an assist) in his fifth game. In terms of total ice time, it’s difficult to determine which power-play unit is the top one for the Kraken. So the fact that his percentage power-play time sat at around 45% before Saturday action isn’t overly concerning, but it reduces his upside somewhat. In addition, Beniers had a very modest shot total (7 SOG in 5 GP). I’ve seen him dropped in one of my leagues, but I’d be more tempted to add him once the power-play time and shot average start to climb, if the scoring doesn’t.

Vince Dunn was Seattle’s leading scorer at time of writing with five points in five games, including three power-play points. He’s currently the Kraken’s best fantasy option, and I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s still the case at the end of the season. (oct21)

4. Jesperi Kotkaniemi has seven points over his first six games. His average ice time is about a minute per game more than last year's, but what stands out even more is the fact that his shot average is over a shot higher per game. He recorded a career-high 43 points last season, so modest continual improvements could be in order for the 23-year-old. (oct21)

5. With no real replacement for Erik Karlsson on the power play, the Sharks have been using a five-forward power play for much of their four games. Rookie Henry Thrun, who at one point seemed like the most likely replacement, was sent to the AHL earlier this week mainly to work on his defensive game. Thrun is tied for the team power-play point lead with a single point. The Sharks at least have two power-play points, which is more than what some teams have. Anaheim, St. Louis, and even Washington have yet to score a power-play point this season. (oct21)

6. Zach Werenski returned to the Blue Jackets’ lineup on Friday, scoring a goal and adding an assist in a 3-1 win over Calgary. Werenski, playing in just his second game of the season, did not see much power-play time, instead conceding power-play minutes to Ivan Provorov.

It seemed like Provorov was added to the Blue Jackets more for his ability to log shutdown minutes than provide offense, but he has received significant power-play time as well. Provorov is far and away the team leader in icetime (24:23), which should allow him to pick up scoring and peripherals along the way.  

With Werenski back, Adam Boqvist and Andrew Peeke were healthy scratches on the blueline. Boqvist has been a healthy scratch twice this season. (oct21)

7. If you’re a Brandon Hagel guy hoping for that PP1 opportunity, the eye test suggests that Nick Paul is a viable option on the Tampa first-unit power play. He’s a big body (6-3, 229 lbs.) that is difficult to move in front of the net. Pretty simple concept.

It's not all bad for Hagel, though. In fact, it’s been pretty good for Hagel. He has six points in six games – all at even strength. The Lightning have invested in Hagel long term, so he’s at least been skating on either the Nikita Kucherov or Steven Stamkos line for much of the season so far. He’ll probably be the next man up on the top power play once there’s an injury or if Paul starts to look like he’s out of his league. (oct20)

8. Carter Hart has three quality starts in four games, including a 22-save 4-1 win over the Oilers on Thursday. Although the Flyers were picked to finish near the basement, John Tortorella has his team outworking their opponents, which resulted in three wins in Hart's first four games. Although this start probably isn’t sustainable, Hart might not be as bad of an option for fantasy teams as thought before the season if Torts’ message continues to get through to his players. (oct20)

9. I don’t think this will last once Aaron Ekblad and Brandon Montour return, but Oliver Ekman-Larsson has averaged nearly 25 minutes per game over his first five games with the Panthers. OEL might have a better season anyway now that he no longer has the pressure to deliver on a massive contract. (oct20)

10. Let’s discuss one of the players that Pierre-Luc Dubois was traded for in the offseason. Gabriel Vilardi‘s first two games with the Jets seemed extremely promising. Vilardi had a top-line role with Mark Scheifele and Kyle Connor, first-unit power-play time, and at least 20 minutes of ice time in each game. Unfortunately, Vilardi is expected to miss the next 4-6 weeks with a knee injury, so his potential sleeper or breakout or whatever you want to call it has been placed on hold. (oct20)

11. Back before the 2023 Draft, I had a Ramblings that covered some of the prospects I was keeping an eye on. As always, I am not a prospect evaluator, but I do read a lot from sources I trust and try to get an idea of what each player might be. One of the prospects in that article was Dalibor Dvorsky, who ended up going 10^th overall to the St. Louis Blues.

Dvorsky didn’t get much ice time with his team in Sweden and some fairly surprising news came down on Wednesday morning when IK Oskarshamn terminated his contract and returned him to the Blues.A subsequent tweet let us know that he will indeed be heading to the OHL to play for Sudbury. I would have liked to have seen him go to the AHL, but he will be in North America for the balance of this season.

What Dvorsky ends up being in the NHL is a long way off, but I don’t see this as a mark against him or his upside. It is not uncommon for teenagers to get almost no ice time in the European men’s leagues – more in the KHL than elsewhere, but still – so him wanting to go elsewhere doesn’t really mean much to me. It will be interesting to see if he can dominate the OHL or not. That will be a lot more telling than going from Sweden to Canada to play his first post-draft season. (oct19)

12. I watched the Los Angeles-Winnipeg game on Tuesday night for one specific reason: Arthur Kaliyev. No, I wasn’t overly interested in the Pierre-Luc Dubois vs. Winnipeg Fans matchup. I was interested in a player I was very high on in his draft year but whose performance, outside of the power play, left something to be desired. Kaliyev skated just 12 minutes but had a pair of points in the Kings’ beatdown of the Jets.

The line of Trevor Moore, Phillip Danault, and Kaliyev absolutely torched Winnipeg, managing eight shots in fewer than 10 minutes 5-on-5 time, scoring thrice. Kaliyev looked engaged in the offensive zone, but he was also hard on backchecks and that’s something that scouts worried about as a draft pick. He doesn’t have high-end straight-line speed or anything, but the effort was there, and if he maintains that effort level, the results will follow.

It will be very interesting to see how this line performs moving forward. Viktor Arvidsson is out for a while and he was very good on the Danault line. Kaliyev can’t directly replace him, but if he can keep that line dangerous offensively, it gives the Kings three legitimate scoring lines. It also gives their second PP unit a big boost, too. (oct19)

13. I am very much a believer in the Pittsburgh Penguins this year. Most of my fantasy teams reflect that perception even pre-draft, and the results have already been born out in a small sample size. Evgeni Malkin looks engaged and dangerous, Sidney Crosby looks as timeless as always, and having a lot more depth down the lineup is going to make a huge difference throughout the year. A healthy Tristan Jarry is going to be great value, and once Erik Karlsson really settles in the sky’s the limit. (oct18)

14. Roope Hintz is back on the ice after missing the Stars' first game of the year. As good as he may be, he’s not someone I have on any of my teams because I haven’t wanted to deal with the game-time-decision headache. He’s an excellent player, but someone that makes things very difficult for fantasy lineups. While he is in the lineup today, see if you can make a trade for someone like Tim Stutzle, Brayden Point, Sebastian Aho (though he didn’t play in last night’s game because of an upper-body-injury, so wait for an update there first), etc. Your season-long sanity will take a win, even if the per-game production is a push. (oct18)

15. The biggest hope and goal for Montreal this 2023-24 regular season was to see progress from its bevy of young players. To do that, the young players would need to stay healthy as the team was decimated by injuries last year. It took a grand total of two games for those hopes to be dashed as there was no Kirby Dach at Montreal practice on Monday. He suffered a “significant injury” to his lower body and won’t be back in the lineup anytime soon (update: Dach is out for the season). It is just an absolutely brutal break for a player that endured so many injury setbacks in his first few seasons and looked to build on a good, but injury-plagued, first year with Montreal. (oct17)

16. The injuries roll on as Matthew Boldy issue is considered week-to-week after being injured in Minnesota’s game against Toronto last week. That he’s not going to the long-term injured reserve is a good sign that he may be back in a couple weeks rather than a couple months, though.

This is just me throwing out some conjecture, but I wonder if this leads to Marco Rossi getting consistent power-play time. The team only has so many viable PP1 options and there’s no one who can truly replace what Boldy brings. It would be a good chance for them to get Rossi some ice time with Kirill Kaprizov, almost as a tryout for the future. Maybe I’m just filled with too much wishful thinking. (oct17)

17. Mikhail Gulyayev, Colorado’s first round pick from this year’s Draft, has extended his KHL contract for an additional year, until 2026. That will keep him out of the lineup for two more seasons after this one. Considering Colorado’s blueline depth, it’s not a huge problem, but it’s never ideal when you absolutely cannot play your first-round draft pick, no matter how good he may be, for three years.

Gulyayev was a guy I was hoping Montreal would take at the end of the first round with the pick Colorado eventually got in the Alex Newhook trade. He has a bright future in the NHL, it’ll just be in the 2026-27 season (or later). (oct17)

18. It’s early, and as some of you may know I’m pretty anti-knee-jerk when it comes to making moves after just a couple of games. I generally tend to wait until a team gets in 10 games before making significant moves. But that doesn’t mean I won’t do smaller moves based on what I’ve seen.

Depth players on my team in one of my leagues (full roster with deep bench, but Keep 12) include Mackie Samoskevich and Fraser Minten. Both have bright futures. Samoskevich I think is destined for a top-six role – just maybe not this year (update: Mackie was sent to the AHL this past week). I will often advise that we leave the scouting to the scouts, but in this case the eye test was pretty obvious. Mackie was overwhelmed from what I’ve seen. Turnovers, panicky passes…the regular season is a far cry from the preseason and he’s learning that first hand. Not the same confidence as what we’ve seen from a Zach Benson, for example. The Panthers will be patient with him and give it a few games, but either way – he can be dropped in favor of a player who can give you nice depth in the here and now. So that’s one minor move I made, adding James van Riemsdyk in his place. (oct16)

19. Minten seemed more composed, but in his case he’s not a big part of the offense for Toronto. His future strikes me as more of a middle-six type. I swapped him out for Nicolas Roy, who has both dual eligibility as well as modest Hits, BLKS and plus/minus stats. Roy has been a steady 0.9 points/game guy under our points system for the last two seasons, and early on he’s averaging 1.1. I can see him sustaining that, which makes him a decent depth option. And if not – it’s easy to drop him for the next hot player. I seriously doubt Minten becomes a keeper this year. (oct16)

20. Chandler Stephenson has posted back-to-back seasons of production in the mid-60s. With Ivan Barbashev in the fold and Jack Eichel healthy, it was looking as if not only would Stephenson get knocked out of key PP time, but he might possibly get pushed to the third line. That’s actually far from true. He’s playing with Mark Stone and seeing more PP time than ever. It’s looking like his career-high of 65 points will actually be surpassed butStone’s health will obviously play a role in that. The early assessment is – Stephenson is not taking a step back, and the added PP time is super-promising. (oct16)

21. One of my many Fantasy Guide hunches was that Matt Tomkins made a sneaky-good first-half waiver add. I had been hearing good things about him, but the driving reason was…well, Jonas Johansson sucks. Two games with Colorado last season plus an impressive preseason aside, Johansson has shown us for three years that he’s been really bad. I was a fan of him as a prospect, and I’m the first guy to tell you that many goalies won’t come into their own until they’re 28 or 29 (he’s 28 now). But he was just consistently bad with Florida and in his early days with Colorado, so I feel like it scared me from being bullish on him.

Needless to say, I was puffing my chest out with pride when Tampa was getting hammered early on against the Sens last Sunday, yet somehow came out of things tied 2-2. At one point, Tomkins had allowed just a goal on 20 shots (I think shots were around 20-8 at the time). A goal late in the second seemed to deflate him, and another one in the second half of the third period kind of ruined what was actually a pretty solid start. In the end, Tampa was outshot 38-24. (oct16)

—

Have a good week, folks!

Thanks for continuing to support the website and if you’re bored and need a fantasy hockey fix – visit the gang in the forum here.