The injuries have piled up for New Jersey and despite getting back Timo Meier recently, and Ondrej Palat last night, they remain without Jack Hughes, Dougie Hamilton, Jonas Siegenthaler, and now Michael McLeod. All the injuries have forced a lot of line shuffling and their game last night saw Dawson Mercer start as the second-line centre behind Nico Hischier. We will see what he can do with it because this is a prominent role on a team fighting for their playoff lives.

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Alex MacLean released his top-200 cap league rankings recently and it's strongly encouraged to go check his projections for any fantasy hockey manager in a cap league.

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In wonderful injury-ish news, Calgary defenceman Oliver Kylington returned to the Flames lineup for his first regular season NHL game since April of 2022. He had been away from the game for nearly two years to deal with personal matters, and now he's back in the NHL. Just really awesome stuff to see.

Kylington was a very impactful defenceman for Calgary back in 2021-22 and is still just 26 years old. If he can regain that form, he is a big boost to their blue line.

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A very good sign on the hopeful return of Filip Chytil:

Chytil in no-contact red at #NYR practice this AM. Bonino (personal) not on the ice.

— Arthur Staple (@StapeAthletic) January 25, 2024

This is a player who is going to need some time to ramp up, and there's still no timeline for a return. All the same, just being on the ice for practice, even in a non-contact jersey, is a big step forward in his recovery.

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On the topic of recoveries, good news on Miro Heiskanen:

Miro Heiskanen on the ice more than 15 minutes ahead of scheduled morning skate pic.twitter.com/mK3TRuIWla

— Saad Yousuf (@SaadYousuf126) January 25, 2024

He ended up playing last night and the team went into that game 6-3-1 in their 10 games since Heiskanen's injury. After Thursday night, Dallas has just one more game – a home matchup against Washington – remaining before their extended bye week/All-Star break combination.

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San Jose got defenceman Ty Emberson back at practice yesterday. Emberson had missed the last seven games due to injury but he was having a good rookie year on what is a pretty bad Sharks team. It'll be interesting to follow his progression over the second half.

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Alex Lyon had another great game for Detroit saving all 29 shots he faced in a 3-0 shutout of Philadelphia. It is his second blank sheet of the season, which gives him a new single-season high. It also pushed his season's save percentage back over .920, landing at .923, as he's been a big reason for Detroit's success. He also has a .918 save percentage in 35 starts (36 games) going  back three seasons.

Dylan Larkin and Moritz Seider scored goals both assisted by Lucas Raymond, and Andrew Copp added a short-handed tally. Raymond needs just nine more helpers this season to set a career high. Seider finished the game with one shot, three blocks, and two PIMs. One more goal ties his career-high of seven set in his rookie year.

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With Montreal up 3-1 in the final 10 minutes of the third period, Brendan Gallagher took a very dirty 5-minute major after a brutal elbow to the head of New York Islanders defenceman Adam Pelech (he left the game and did not return). The Islanders scored twice on the ensuing power play to tie the game 3-3 before a late goal from Sean Monahan pushed the Canadiens back on top 4-3 for the win. Monahan finished the game with two goals (one PP), one assist, five shots, and a hit in a great fantasy night. He has 34 points on the season now in what has been a very productive campaign.

Nick Suzuki and Cole Caufield each had a goal and an assist while Sam Montembeault was great in net, stopping 44 of 47 in the win.

Kyle Palmieri had one goal and one assist with 11 (!) shots, two PIMs, and two hits in a great multi-cat effort. Mathew Barzal also had a goal and an assist, but just nine shots, that slacker. Bo Horvat rounded out things with a goal and an assist for himself with six shots and a block.

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An overtime goal from Brad Marchand lifted Boston to a 3-2 win over Ottawa on Thursday night. It was just Boston's 23^rd shot of the night, but it was all that was necessary for the second point. David Pastrnak (PP) and Trent Frederic also scored. Pastrnak assisted on that tally and Charlie Coyle had two helpers of his own. Going back to the Christmas break, Coyle now has 20 points in 16 games, which feels absurd.

On top of the two points, Pastrnak had a block, four PIMs, and three hits in a fantastic multi-cat effort. Jeremy Swayman stopped 34 of 36 shots in the win.

Thomas Chabot had a goal and an assist for Ottawa, landing seven total shots, blocking one, and registering a hit in a great multi-cat night of his own.

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Nikita Kucherov had a goal and two assists while Brayden Point, Steven Stamkos, and Mitchell Chaffee had a goal and an assist each as Tampa Bay cruised to a 6-3 win over Arizona. Kucherov overtook the league lead in points from Nathan MacKinnon and it looks as if those two will have a fun race over the next 30-some games.

Clayton Keller had a goal and an assist with three shots in the loss. He has six points in his last four games and has started to heat up a little bit. Lawson Crouse also scored once on two shots with a major penalty and a hit. He is now one goal short of his third straight 20-goal season.

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Antti Raanta stopped 23 of 25 shots he faced against New Jersey on Thursday night to help lead Carolina to a 3-2 win. In seven starts in calendar 2024, he has a .902 save percentage, and that's a huge improvement on what he did to start the season. With the team's defence, he can post good GAA and win totals as long as he can stay anywhere close to .900 rather than .850.

Teuvo Teravainen had a goal and an assist for the second game in a row. He still has just 13 points in 25 games since December 1^st, though, so the fantasy value has been inconsistent.

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Heiskanen's return helped Dallas to a 4-3 overtime win over Anaheim. He had a goal on four shots and was on the ice for three of Dallas's four goals. Thomas Harley was paired with Heiskanen and Harley had a goal, an assist, five shots, and a hit. The Marlboro Man now has 22 points in 30 games going back to American Thanksgiving.

Jakob Silfverberg had a goal and an assist while Troy Terry scored once on four shots. That makes seven goals and 18 points in Terry's last 18 games – he's been heating up after a slow start.

Jake Oettinger got the win but allowed three goals on 21 shots. After starting the season with four straight starts with at least a .930 save percentage, Oettinger has an .892 save percentage across his last 23 games, and just six of them with a .930 or better.

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Three third-period goals from Alexandre Carrier, Filip Forsberg, and Roman Josi lifted Nashville to a 3-2 win over Minnesota. Josi now has 10 goals on the year and it is his 10^th straight 82-game season with at least 10 goals (he had eight in 48 games in the shortened Bubble season). All things considered, he's been an excellent fantasy option once again, if not to the level of names like Quinn Hughes and Cale Makar.

Joel Eriksson Ek and Matt Boldy both scored power play goals as Eriksson Ek had a pair of hits while Boldy had five shots. Boldy has 15 goals in 29 games since John Hynes was hired.

Juuse Saros saved 22 of 24 shots for his 19^th win. Nashville is one of the few teams that has games next week, so he'll get at least two chances to reach 20 wins before the All-Star break.

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Zach Werenski returned to the Columbus lineup and made an immediate impact, assisting on a Yegor Chinakhov goal less than three minutes into Columbus's 5-2 win over Calgary. Chinakhov has 9 goals, 7 assists, 48 shots, and 10 hits in his last 20 games. Not bad fantasy production for the soon-to-be 23-year-old.

Adam Fantilli (EN), Alex Texier, Dmitri Voronkov, and Damon Severson all scored, and Fantilli and Severson each had a power play assist as well. Not for nothing, but Fantilli is on his way to a 20-goal, 200-shot regular season. He was in yesterday's Ramblings for his dual-threat nature offensively (more on that below) and has the look of the game-breaker Columbus hasn't had since Artemi Panarin.

MacKenzie Weegar and Connor Zary both scored in the loss for Calgary. Weegar had four shots, a block, two PIMs, and three hits in a great multi-cat night. He now has as many blocks (117) in 48 games as he did in 81 games a season ago. Kylington skated 13:16 and had one shot and two blocks.  

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Calvin Pickard stopped all 27 shots he faced as Edmonton blanked Chicago 3-0. Connor McDavid had two goals and an assist on seven shots while Leon Draisaitl had three helpers and Zach Hyman posted one goal on four shots with two hits.

Chicago now has 24 goals in their last 16 games. At least they'll get another high pick.  

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In yesterday's Ramblings, we went through forwards that have had a dual-threat nature to their offence this season. It is recommended that readers go check out the preamble there (and just the whole Ramblings) for more detail on what exactly it is we're looking for. In short, we are looking at shot attempts per 60 minutes (iCF/60) at all strengths and scoring chance assists per 60 minutes (SCA/60) at 5-on-5. Data for this will be taken from Natural Stat Trick and AllThreeZones.

The Top-10

We start at the top, and all the names make sense. Yesterday, we had a Danton Heinen Sighting among the top-10 forwards but there's nothing like that here:

When we look at those names, none of them should be much of a surprise. It is funny to see Cale Makar so far out in front of everyone else; that guy is just something very special. That he's been able to stay healthy as a lot of Avs have had to leave the lineup for one reason or another is a big part of Colorado's success this season, and fantasy mangers surely appreciate it.

Any sort of consternation around Evan Bouchard should probably stop. He has turned into one of the top young defencemen in the league and when we consider names like Makar, Quinn Hughes, Miro Heiskanen, and the like, that is no small feat. He has 61 points in his last 62 games and is threatening 40 power play points this season alone.

The name that might stick out a bit is Sean Durzi. He was traded by Los Angeles in the offseason, which looks suboptimal in hindsight with how much half their blue line has struggled for nearly two months now. Either way, he's been a tremendous add for the Coyotes and he might hit 50 points even as he's missed six games. If there is one complaint, it's that he's added 2:30 per night in ice time but has gone from roughly a hit-per-game guy to under one hit every two games. It might help him in real life but that's not helping his multi-cat fantasy value.

The Next Six

It is an arbitrary cutoff, but the next six defencemen outside the top-10 is where things get interesting. We have a rookie, a Norris Trophy winner (and runner-up), two All-Stars, and two very underrated players:

Pavel Mintyukov is clearly the standout here. He is a player we've highlighted in these columns several times, but he's been very impressive. Being out with an injury sucks to see, but hopefully he can come back healthy and regain this form. With Olen Zellweger making his debut recently, plus Jackson LaCombe and Tristan Luneau both looking solid so far, it makes a lot of sense that Anaheim felt they could part with Jamie Drysdale to add to their forward group.

Dmitry Orlov has been a clear bottom-pair defenceman for Carolina basically the entire season, and it's not helped his production. He won't have much value in the fantasy game but he's certainly someone who helps the team create offence from the back, as he has for many years.

The returns of Brandon Montour and Aaron Ekblad, plus Oliver Ekman-Larsson's resurgence, has meant a lesser role for Gustav Forsling but he's certainly made the most of his minutes. He had even been playing more per game at 5-on-5 than Ekblad up until Forsling's injury, so it does seem as if coach Paul Maurice saw how good Forsling had been as well. He (along with names like Mike Hoffman and Mikey Eyssimont) is why players put on waivers should never be dismissed out of hand. Something fun: if Forsling doesn't miss too much time, he could have his third straight season with at least 10 goals.

Border Guys

Right around the first standard deviation mark – around the 26^th player on the list – are five names that are as varied by fantasy hockey relevance as they are by real-life relevance:

At the start of the season, my assumption was Brandt Clarke would be on the Los Angeles roster and Jordan Spence would not. The reality is Spence has been in the lineup all season, outside of when he's been scratched for Clarke, and the team has done very well with him on the third pair; that is especially true when he doesn't have to drag Andreas Englund on the ice. Maybe Clarke ends up the better player long term, but Spence has been great in his rookie season.

With all the excitement about Erik Karlsson showing up in Pittsburgh – and he has been tremendous – Kris Letang has been excellent for the Penguins. For fantasy, he could still hit 50 points despite losing his power play role, and finish with good across-the-board metrics. We have seen better fantasy seasons, of course, but a really good year for the 36-year-old.

A quick shout out to Erik Gustafsson. He has bounced around the league for years now but, for the most part, he has been very good in bottom-pair roles wherever he's been. The lack of ice time means a lack of peripherals and without a power play role, points have been tough to come by with Adam Fox healthy. All the same, he has been good for New York in the role he's been asked to play, even if the goaltending behind him has been suspect.