Connor McDavid's original timeline was 1-2 weeks for his upper-body injury, but he skated on Saturday and could play in the Heritage Classic today. You shouldn't need us to tell you to make sure he's in your lineup, although this could be a true game-time decision. Hopefully he's not being rushed back to play in the Oilers' showcase event against their Alberta rivals.

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Frank Vatrano continues to hold the hot stick. With his second hat trick of the season during Saturday's matinee game, Vatrano already has eight goals in just eight games, tied for second in the league. He's taking 3.6 SOG/GP with a 27.6 SH%, both of which are well above his career average. Yet the most telling stat is the nearly 19 minutes of icetime per game that he is receiving, which is over two minutes above his average last season and over four minutes above his career average. Heck, Vatrano isn't even on the Ducks' top power play.

I mentioned earlier that Vatrano would be in line for better deployment for as long as free agent signing Alex Killorn is out of the lineup. As of late September, Killorn was expected to be out of the Ducks' lineup for 4-6 weeks with a fractured finger. That puts Killorn in line to return in about a week or two, which could affect Vatrano's situation. Aside from recently signed Troy Terry, Killorn is the highest-paid Duck at $6.25 million per season. Although Vatrano is a talented forward that has been buried down the depth chart in other organizations, his is a sell-high situation sooner rather than later.

Ryan Strome is another Duck that is cooking at the moment. With a goal and two assists, Strome now has seven points in his last four games and 10 points in eight games. Strome has cracked the 20-goal mark in his career just once (two seasons ago for NYR), so the bulk of his points will come in the form of assists. Strome is averaging 1.6 SOG/GP, similar to last season and has just two goals. Yet there are still red/orange bars throughout his Frozen Tools Buy/Sell Meter, which suggest that this isn't sustainable. That includes a 62.5% secondary assist rate, a 1096 PDO, 4.2 PTS/60, and a 13.6 5-on-5 SH%. All that being said, the Ducks play on two light days next week, and Strome is eligible at all three forward positions in Fantrax, so you could click that add button on him.

Surprisingly, Terry and super rookie Leo Carlsson were the only Ducks forwards that did not register a point during their 7-4 "pond hockey" win in Philadelphia.  Given the Ducks' situation and their decision to keep Carlsson on the big club, they need to take the training wheels off and let him ride. I'm not sure what their logic is with giving him 20+ minutes one game, then healthy scratching him for two games after that. I understand that they are playing him only two games per week and not on back-to-backs games. It's great that they don't want him languishing on the bottom line playing 10 minutes per game. But maybe healthy scratching him just on back-to-backs would suffice if they don't want him to be overwhelmed. Carlsson is not ideal for single-season leagues, but he's a must-roster for leagues with a keeper component.

Morgan Frost was a healthy scratch again, making it six games in a row that he has not suited up for the Flyers. The returns of Sean Couturier and Cam Atkinson meant that someone would get bumped down the lineup in a major way, and right now it's the Flyers' fourth-leading point getter from last season. As well, it doesn't sound like Frost is a favorite of John Tortorella. That being said, a 7-4 home loss to a rebuilding team might be a reason to elevate Frost into the lineup for the next game. Frost can be ignored in a lot of fantasy leagues, but a trade could be what he needs to get his career back on track.

Atkinson scored a goal on Saturday, giving him five points in his last three games, as well as five goals and eight points in eight games this season. Because he missed all of last season like linemate Couturier, Atkinson was a forgotten commodity in fantasy leagues (just 15% rostered in Yahoo leagues). A 23.8 SH% means that he'll cool off at some point, but he and the Flyers play four games next week, two of which are on light days. He's definitely a short-term streamer who could offer something more.

Travis Sanheim is the most-searched player on Frozen Tools as I write this. His four-game point streak ended on Saturday, and he was tagged with a minus-3 on top of that. However, Sanheim took a season-high five shots. Following the Flyers' game on Saturday, only Drew Doughty and Mike Matheson had averaged more minutes per game than Sanheim (25:59), so Torts is really leaning heavily on him. A point per game like he's scoring now isn't sustainable, but he logs enough minutes to make him worth rostering in leagues that count shots and blocked shots. He's also averaging close to 50% of the Flyers' available power-play minutes, so the scoring probably won't fall off a cliff either.

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Injury update on the key Panthers defensemen: Aaron Ekblad and Brandon Montour are expected to practice today (Sunday) in non-contact jerseys. Since they will not be practicing in full-contact jerseys, they should still be considered weeks away from returning. However, Panthers writer George Richards believes that the two defensemen are targeting US Thanksgiving for a return. That's late November, for those of you living in Canada or elsewhere. Although their returns still aren't immediate, it's still a positive development considering that one report had them returning as late as January.

You may not have noticed, but out in Seattle, Joey Daccord started his third consecutive game on Saturday. Although he was on the wrong end of a 3-2 decision against Florida, Daccord completed his second consecutive quality start. The Kraken have gotten off to a rough start, so Dave Hakstol decided to shake things up in net. In his quality starts, Daccord has faced 45 and 38 shots, which seems concerning. His season numbers are better than Philipp Grubauer's, although not by a wide margin. Grubauer is likely still the starter here, but Daccord might be worth a stream next week with home games against Nashville and Calgary after the Kraken finish off their road trip in Tampa on Monday.

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Zero G backers will reference the hot streaks of no-name goalies as reasons not to draft goalies early. Another example of this is Jake Allen, who has reeled off three consecutive quality starts for the Canadiens since last Saturday. His latest was a 42-save 4-3 shootout win over Winnipeg on Saturday. Allen has faced a minimum of 33 shots in each of these three starts, averaging just two goals allowed. The Habs have been better than expected this season, which is helping drive Allen's numbers, so this run may not last. But if you need short-term goaltending help and are feeling lucky (or bleed bleu, blanc, et rouge), he's just 20% rostered in Yahoo and 32% rostered in Fantrax.

If Mike Matheson misses games, Allen might be in more of a tough spot. Matheson left Saturday's game with an undisclosed injury. He leads all Habs defensemen in icetime with nearly 25 minutes per game on top of being a scoring threat. On top of that, veteran David Savard is also expected to miss 6-8 weeks with a broken hand.

Worth mentioning with the Matheson injury: Kaiden Guhle returned to the lineup and logged a season-high 25 minutes, also chipping in two assists. Guhle, a former first-round pick, could be worth adding to your watch list in single-season leagues if Matheson misses time.

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If you've been waiting on Drake Batherson, he finally scored his first goal of the season on Saturday. Batherson has disappointed fantasy teams that drafted him at an ADP of just over 100, even being featured as the anchor in this week's Looking Ahead. He is now rostered in just over 70% of Yahoo leagues, which means that quite a few teams have already dropped him. I tend to look at a much larger sample size before taking that kind of drastic action. Updating the line combination that Andrew mentioned, Batherson was back on a scoring line with Josh Norris and Vladimir Tarasenko on Saturday. I might not be as bullish on Batherson compared to when I drafted him, but there's reason to hold and perhaps even buy low, considering that many of his advanced stats are lower than expected.

With Tarasenko moved to that line, Ridly Greig might be negatively affected. However, that wasn't the case on Saturday. Greig scored a goal and added an assist, giving him seven points in his last seven games. Greig had a decent nine points in 20 NHL games last season, and he profiles as a potential Marchand-lite. I've added him in one deeper league hoping that he can build on last season. The Sens seem to have a predetermined set of top 6 forwards, which might not work for Greig if they keep them all together.

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With another goal on Saturday, William Nylander has an eight-game point streak to start the season. Nylander also fired a season-high seven shots in Saturday's game. One key to Nylander's success: He is averaging over four shots per game for the first time in his career. Contract year Willie might be career year Willie.

Ryan O'Reilly stuck it to his previous team, scoring two power-play goals against the Leafs. O'Reilly is at least getting better power-play time with Nashville than he was with Toronto.

Another player on Nashville's top power play is Luke Evangelista, who with two assists on Saturday has five points over his last four games. Evangelista is rostered in just 2% of Yahoo leagues, so he's an option in very deep formats if you need one.

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I was about to write about how Mika Zibanejad had not scored a goal yet this year. But he scored his first on Saturday, the go-ahead goal with just over six minutes left in regulation. Zibanejad recorded three points on Saturday, breaking a three-game point drought. He has eight points in eight games, so all is well.

The player with the most assists without a goal is Filip Hronek, who has seven assists. Hronek recorded two assists on Saturday. Reminds me a bit of when Hronek led a dreadful Red Wings team in points but had scored just two goals all season. That was the COVID-shortened season.

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Joe Thornton has officially announced his retirement in true Joe Thornton fashion. Congratulations on a great career and on being the top player on my very first Yahoo fantasy team back in 2003, Jumbo.

🚨 Important Shirtless Jumbo Message 🚨 pic.twitter.com/ZQJxCSr8zm

— San Jose Sharks (@SanJoseSharks) October 28, 2023

Also, RIP Matthew Perry, aka Chandler Bing and good Canadian kid.

The @LAKings organist plays the Friends theme song in honour of the late Matthew Perry who was a big Kings fan. ❤️🙏 pic.twitter.com/smXNb9mVSS

— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) October 29, 2023

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