Two big pieces of news came down on Wednesday though neither are directly related to this fantasy season. Kind of.

First off, Nicklas Backstrom announced he's stepping away from the team for injury reasons, which seems pretty clearly to be that his hip hasn't responded as he had hoped post-surgery. He did not look like himself at the end of last season and the start to the 2023-24 season has been worse, so this isn't a huge surprise, but still very unfortunate for him. Whether it's the end of his career remains to be seen, but he won't be back in a Capitals uniform anytime soon.

As it relates to fantasy, this likely means a lot of Dylan Strome and Evgeny Kuznetsov moving ahead, with Connor McMichael being virtually assured a fourth-line role at worst, and probably a third-line role.

Secondly, the Ottawa Senators will forfeit a first-round pick for the Evgeni Dadonov trade debacle:

The NHL announced the Senators will forfeit a first-round draft pick for their role in the July 2021 trade of Player Evgenii Dadonov from the Senators to the Golden Knights and the subsequent, invalidated March 2022 Dadonov trade between theKnights and the Anaheim #Sens

— Bruce Garrioch (@SunGarrioch) November 1, 2023

When they choose to give up the pick is up to them, but given the timeline of the current team, I would guess it's down the road and not in 2024.

It is hard to believe the two things are unrelated, so it led to the firing of Ottawa general manager Pierre Dorion. All this is not the start to the season the team had envisioned.

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Anaheim said there is no timetable for the return of Jamie Drysdale and Brock McGinn, and that they both need time. It has been a blessing for defenceman Pavel Mintyukov, who has done well in a bigger role than expected, but it's still unfortunate news for Drysdale as he was returning from injury.

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Florida announced Sam Bennett, a recent injury returnee himself, is now more week-to-week and that’s very unfortunate for him and the team considering all their injury issues already.

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Scott Mayfield was on the ice for the Islanders again on Wednesday:  

#Isles Scott Mayfield (lower body) on the ice for a third straight day.

— Stefen Rosner (@stefen_rosner) November 1, 2023

He doesn't seem quite ready to return but fantasy owners should be ready for that. Mayfield may not be much of a fantasy option outside of deeper banger leagues, but the impact of his return is going to be less ice time for Noah Dobson, Ryan Pulock, and so on. Dobson has been on a great production streak all year and it'll be interesting to see how much ice time he can hold onto once Mayfield is back.

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Carolina had Andrei Svechnikov on the top line in their practice with an interesting name on the fourth line:

A bit of a shuffle with the #Canes lines, as Andrei Svechnikov moves up into the top six.

Svechnikov – Aho – Jarvis
Bunting – Kotkaniemi – Teravainen
Martinook – Staal – Fast
Noesen – Drury – Necas pic.twitter.com/MbcIyKoVX0

— Walt Ruff (@WaltRuff) November 1, 2023

Given the way Carolina uses their lines – the Jordan Staal line will not be touched – it means that, when everyone is healthy, there are seven top-6 forwards for six spots. One player will always have to be used on the fourth line. I had assumed it would be one of Michael Bunting or Teuvo Teravainen but the coaching staff had other ideas.

This isn't panic time for Necas owners, but he was down to 12 minutes in their last game and only got roughly 7:30 of TOI in the second and third periods. Don't drop him, obviously, but this is certainly something to monitor.

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Both Jared Spurgeon and Matt Boldy were at practice for Minnesota:

#mnwild practice lines:

Kaprizov-Hartman-Zuccarello
Johansson-Ek-Boldy
Maroon-Rossi-Foligno
Duhaime-Dewar-Lettieri

D-pairs mixing, but Spurgeon is part of the drills.

— Joe Smith (@JoeSmithNHL) November 1, 2023

That Boldy was in his usual spot tells me he'll be back for Thursday night's game at home to New Jersey. They need all the help they can get as the team has managed one win in their last six games.

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With Devon Levi back on the roster, but backing up Ukko Pekka-Luukkonen, the Sabres took a 5-2 win over the Flyers in Philadelphia. Pekka-Luukkonen saved 38 of 40 shots faced in another very solid outing while Brandon Biro scored his first and second goals of his career, the latter on an empty net. Buffalo only managed 14 shots but it was more than enough offence in this game.

Carter Hart left mid-way through the first period with what the team described as a "mid-body" injury and he did not return. He had allowed three goals on five shots.

Tage Thompson had a goal and two assists, which puts him up to nine points in 10 games with eight points in his last four. It seems like his slow start is over with.

Casey Mittelstadt had a goal and an assist in the game, pushing him to nine points as well. Going back to the All-Star break last season, he has nine goals and 40 points in 42 games. Not bad for a guy that isn't on the team's top PP unit.

Owen Power had a goal and two blocks while Travis Sanheim assisted on both Flyers goals, giving him 10 points in 10 contests this season. Just an unbelievable start for a guy that has never had more than 35 points in a season.

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Troy Terry got in all four Anaheim goals on Wednesday night in their 4-3 overtime win against Arizona, scoring the OT winner to cap off his hat trick while adding a helper on a Leo Carlsson goal. The four-point game for Terry, including six total shots, was the first of his career but likely not the last.

Pavel Mintyukov had a power play assist, giving him points in three straight games and six of his last seven. Again, Drysdale's misfortune has been to Mintyukov's benefit so far this season. He is also up to 16 blocks and 22 hits in 10 games as those peripherals rack up.

Trevor Zegras was moved down to the second line with Ryan Strome a game-time scratch.

Lawson Crouse scored his first two goals of the year in the loss, failing to register a hit. In the early portions of the season, he's down to 1.5 hits per game rather than easily over 2.0, or even approaching 3.0. Something to monitor.

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Goals from Jason Robertson, Jamie Benn (SH and adding an assist), Evgenii Dadonov, and Mason Marchment lifted the Stars to a 4-3 win over Calgary. Roope Hintz had a pair of helpers, giving him back-to-back two-point games and pushing him over a point-per-game pace thus far.

Jake Oettinger stopped 43 of 46 shots in the win.

Dallas is starting to turn themselves into Carolina; a team that balances its forwards' ice time which can help keep them fresh/healthy for later in the season but is not helping fantasy owners of the top players. In a game where Dallas was losing 1-0 early, and down 2-1 early in the second period, no forward cracked 17 minutes of ice time. On the season, Robertson is the only member of the top line earning over 17 minutes a night. It is a problem.

Another problem is… just Calgary overall. Dustin Wolf is getting so much seasoning in the AHL he's basically jerk chicken at this point. At least Connor Zary scored his first career goal in his first career game.

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Jonathan Drouin and Tomas Tatar were scratched by Colorado before their 4-1 win over St. Louis. It has not been a great start for either and a deserved rest. Maybe they just need time to acclimate to the team and the next 70-some games will go better. We shall see.

The Avalanche won 4-1 over the Blues with Mikko Rantanen (1+1), Nathan Mackinnon (two assists), and Artturi Lehkonen (one goal) all had good fantasy performances on the top line.

Bowen Byram registered is second goal and third point of the year, all coming in the last five games, so hopefully his slow start is a thing of the past. He had three hits in the game and now has 16 on the year with significantly reduced ice time. Not a bad overall effort so far but we'd like to see more.

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There were only four games in the NHL, so it figures a good time to check in on some early line combinations. Be sure to check out the 'Lining Up' column from Peter Ryell as well as the 'Looking Ahead' articles from Andrew Santillo for more on line combinations each week.

We will pull the data from both Frozen Tools and MoneyPuck.

Montreal: Juraj Slafkovský – Alex Newhook – Josh Anderson

As a Habs fan, I had to start here. The season-ending injury to Kirby Dach was brutal for him, considering how well he's played since his trade from Chicago, and all the injury issues he's endured already. It was also brutal for the Slafkovský-Newhook duo. The coaches want to keep them together, and that necessarily means they won't play with either Nick Suzuki or Cole Caufield. It has been Josh Anderson on their wing of late, and that is perilous for them defensively; Anderson is in the 12^th percentile for defensive impact over the last three years. The young duo was already struggling without the puck, and now they have a winger that is making things worse. From HockeyViz, this is where opponents are shooting from with that line on the ice (red is bad, darker red is really bad):  

The concern is that the line is pinned in their zone so much they don't get a chance to create offensively as they could (or should). It also means a lot of high-danger shots faced by the Montreal goalies and that makes it an all-around problem fantasy-wise. We will see how long it lasts, but options are limited so they may get more games together than they should.

Los Angeles: Adrian Kempe – Anze Kopitar – Quinton Byfield

After Byfield rejoined the Kings last year, he eventually made his way to the top line, and they had a phenomenal stretch: 2.8 expected goals for (4.3 actual goals) and 2.3 expected goals against (1.4 actual) per 60 minutes at 5-on-5 in January, February, and March combined. Things slowed down in April, and they got steamrolled in the playoffs. It was a question if the three-month stretch would repeat itself in 2023-24, or if the downturn would carry into the new season.

So far, it has been a repeat of that three-month stretch as the Kings' top line is carrying 53.4% of the expected goals and 54.9% of the actual goals at 5-on-5. They have often been used in a shutdown role, are still finding success, and it's allowing their second and third lines to flourish offensively. Byfield is up to six points in nine games, too, as he starts to show the offensive promise he was drafted for. Both Adrian Kempe and Anze Kopitar are off to point-per-game paces, too, so there is fantasy goodness alongside good real-life play.  

NY Islanders: Pierre Engvall – Brock Nelson – Kyle Palmieri

This is another line that had a great, yet limited, sample in 2022-23 and the question was whether it would last in a new season. The answer to that question has been 'yes' as the Islanders are controlling a whopping 63% of the expected goal share and 74% of the actual goal share at 5-on-5 with them on the ice. They have the highest expected goal share of any top-6 line in the league with at least 60 minutes together this season, so the addition of Engvall and health of Palmieri are paying off very well for the Islanders.

It is fair to wonder if Engvall will have good fantasy value, though. He is skating under 15 minutes a game, is on the second power play unit, and his even strength shot attempt rate is a career-low by a wide, wide margin (35.8% lower than his worst year). Nelson shoots a lot, and the team also gets a lot of shots from its defencemen. Engvall could be a very good two-way winger for them, but it seems he'll bring much more real-life value than fantasy value.

Anaheim: Frank Vatrano – Mason McTavish – Ryan Strome

The offence provided by Vatrano and McTavish has already been discussed at length so it's the defensive side that I want to discuss here. This trio is averaging 2.6 expected goals against/60 minutes at 5-on-5, which is around the league average. It doesn't seem like something worth bragging about, but with the Vatrano-Strome duo on the ice last year, that number was a preposterous 4.1 expected goals against/60. Going from historically bad to league average is very much worth celebrating.

Assigning credit here is tough. Neither Vatrano nor Strome have typically been stellar defensive players, but McTavish seems to be improving by leaps and bounds and the blueline was overhauled in the offseason. Add in a new coach, and the ingredients are there for a turnaround. We will see if this lasts, but as long as they (and the top line) can remain anywhere near league average, it is a significant improvement for their goaltending duo of John Gibson and Lukas Dostal.

Pittsburgh: Reilly Smith – Evgeni Malkin – Rickard Rakell

This has been an interesting trio to start the year. Smith is in his first season with Pittsburgh and things have gone so well for him – four goals and seven points in nine games – that he's earned some top power play time. Meanwhile, Rakell has had an awful start with one point (an assist) and 24 shots. Malkin has again been the engine with 11 points in nine games.

In their 90-plus minutes together, the line is giving up just 36.1 unblocked shot attempts/60 minutes. To put that into context, the top line is allowing 48.2/60, and it's less than the aforementioned Kopitar line (39.0). With that said, getting an .850 save percentage behind them is not helping matters, and with Rakell's poor start, it's a wonder how long this line stays together.

Vegas: Paul Cotter – Chandler Stephenson – Mark Stone

One of the quieter stories for a while now has been the awful defensive play of the Stephenson-Stone duo. In the 2023 postseason, they were on the ice for 2.8 expected goals against and 2.9 actual goals against/60 at 5-on-5, numbers much worse than the team average otherwise. Things have degraded so far in 2023-24 as the team is giving up 3.4 expected goals against/60 with them on the ice, but just 2.4 xG against/60 otherwise. To show the difference, here is where opponents shot from with Stephenson-Stone on the ice in the 2021-22 season (per HockeyViz):

And the same but for their 110-plus minutes in 2023-24:

Their rate, relative to the league, is much worse, and there are a lot of shots coming from between the dots. Great goaltending has saved them so far but it's a wonder how long their netminders can maintain a save percentage over .940 with this two-man team on the ice. It's still not a large sample yet, and Stone has earned the benefit of the doubt, but the team's 10 games have included Seattle, San Jose, Chicago (twice), Anaheim, Winnipeg, and Montreal. That is a pretty easy stretch and things still look bad. We will check back in a month's time to see if anything has improved.