There was good news out of Toronto as goalie Joseph Woll was sent to the AHL for a conditioning stint, the next step on his way back from an ankle injury that has kept him out of the lineup for two and a half months. How many games he ultimately plays down there remains to be seen but the team is on the road through the end of the week, not playing at home until Tuesday. The Marlies have a back-to-back this weekend but don't play until the Wednesday after, so if they want to give him more than one game, it seems like banking on a return to the NHL by next weekend, at the earliest, is a reasonable expectation.

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A bit of an update on the Nic Dowd injury:

Capitals call up forward Pierrick Dubé from Hershey (AHL) after Nic Dowd sustained an upper-body injury last night.

Dubé has 34 points (24 goals, 10 assist) in 50 games with Hershey this season. His 24 goals lead the Bears and are tied for the second most in the AHL.

— Tom Gulitti (@TomGulittiNHL) February 21, 2024

Dubé steps onto a roster that has had trouble scoring most of the year but has had a few big games of late, so maybe he'll have a chance to produce. We'll see how long he actually stays, but the Capitals do have some players that could be moved at the Trade Deadline and open a spot for Dubé the rest of the season.

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A not-insignificant update on Artemi Panarin:

UPDATE: Artemi Panarin (lower body, day-to-day) and Jimmy Vesey (lower body, day-to-day) will not practice today.

— NY Rangers PR (@NYR_PR) February 21, 2024

It is always preferable to see the day-to-day tag but the Rangers can cruise to a playoff spot and it's always worrisome for fantasy owners that they may take an extra game or two for a superstar to really rest up. New York is at home on Thursday night before a back-to-back this weekend. Anything more than three or four days out of the lineup could mean a few games missed.

The Rangers also announced that Jonny Brodzinski has signed a two-year extension for the team. He has done an admirable job filling in for an injured Filip Chytil, and could be the team's third-line centre again next season depending on how Chytil bounces back.

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An update on defenseman Scott Perunovich:

Drew Bannister said Perunovich will be a game time decision for Thursday buy by all accounts, he looks ready to go. Faulk started skating on his own yesterday but is not as close as Perunovich. Bolduc will make his NHL debut against the #isles    #stlblues

— Lou Korac (@lkorac10) February 21, 2024

Before his injury, he had been taking turns on the top power play unit. Whether he can get that role back is up to the coaches, but there could be some point-producing potential in the near-term for Perunovich.

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Los Angeles sent Jordan Spence to the AHL. This is a very bad decision from a front office and coaching staff that has lost the benefit of the doubt.

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Vegas GM Kelly McCrimmon said in a podcast with Jimmy Murphy and Pierre McGuire that forward Mark Stone will be "out for a while" following his injury on Tuesday night, and that's just as the team got back Shea Theodore.

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Boston announced defenseman Hampus Lindholm will not travel with the team as they started a four-game Western Canada road trip. That should mean a lot of minutes for Charlie McAvoy for the time being.

Edmonton stormed back from a 4-1 deficit to forced overtime but Charlie McAvoy's ninth goal of the season pushed Boston to a 6-5 win in the extra frame. McAvoy had a goal, an assist, three shots, two blocks, and five hits on the night. He is up to 40 points in 49 games, or 0.82 points per game. It represents the fourth straight season of increased points/game production from the defenceman as he's turned into one of the best two-way defencemen in the league. He also has 196 hits+blocks in 49 games, so there's a lot of multi-cat value here.

David Pastrnak and Jake DeBrusk each had a goal and an assist while Trent Frederic, Morgan Geekie (PP), and Brad Marchand all scored. That was DeBrusk's first multi-point game in a month, and his first points in 10 games.

With Ryan Nugent-Hopkins missing the game due to illness, Warren Foegele was moved to the top line with Connor McDavid and Zach Hyman. Foegele had a pair of goals on five shots with a hit. Foegele is up to 13 goals, which ties his career-high from last season but in 14 fewer games. His points/60 rate of 2.43 at 5-on-5 is now just a shade behind Leon Draisaitl's 2.49/60.

Jeremy Swayman stopped 37 of 42 shots in the win while Stuart Skinner allowed six goals on 36 shots in the loss. It was the first time Skinner allowed more than five goals in the Knoblauch era.

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Buffalo took a 3-2 win out of Montreal on Wednesday night thanks to goals from Alex Tuch, Jeff Skinner and Zemgus Girgensons. Skinner finished with three shots, the first time he's posted that many in eight games. It was also his first goal in 10 games, so this was a night he needed to have offensively. Tuch totaled two shots, two blocks, and a hit to go with his short-handed goal in what was a good multi-cat night.

Ukko Pekka Luukkonen saved 29 of 31 shots faced for his 15^th win of the season. Sam Montembeault allowed three goals on 23 shots in the loss.

Rasmus Dahlin had an assist, a shot, two blocks, and a hit in a balanced effort while both Jayden Struble and Arber Xhekaj scored for Montreal. Xhekaj had four total shots, a block, and four hits in nearly 19 minutes of ice time. That was the most he skated since being recalled and was his highest mark since November 4^th.

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Goals from Travis Konecny, Travis Sanheim, and Garnet Hathaway pushed Philadelphia to a 3-1 win in Chicago. Konecny finished the game with four shots and is up to 11 goals, 16 assists, and 81 shots in 24 games since Christmas. Sanheim had two total shots, two blocks, and a hit to go along with his goal in a good multi-cat night.

Samuel Ersson stopped 21 of 22 shots for the win.

Colin Blackwell had a goal, three shots, and two hits for the losing side.

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Auston Matthews kept the good times rolling in Arizona by scoring twice (once on the PP) on four shots and adding a hit in Toronto's 6-3 win in Arizona. That makes 51 goals in 54 games for Matthews, which is absolutely obscene. Going back to December 1^st, a span of 33 games, he has 37 goals. Just a surreal season.

William Nylander also scored twice, with one on the power play, registering seven total shots and four PIMs. John Tavares and Bobby 'McDavid' McMann each had a goal and an assist while Mitch Marner had a trio of helpers. Timothy Liljegren had two assists (one on the PP) with two shots and four blocks.

Mattias Maccelli, Barrett Hayton, and Dylan Guenther (PP) all scored in the loss for the Coyotes. Maccelli now has a higher points/60 rate at 5-on-5 this season than names like Jeff Skinner, Alex DeBrincat, Kirill Kaprizov, and Filip Forsberg. He has been tremendous for what he's been asked to do over the last two seasons, but power play time remains an issue for his fantasy value.

Karel Vejmelka allowed all six goals on 36 shots.

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In a game with important Draft Lottery implications, Columbus went into Anaheim and took a 7-4 win (!) from the Ducks. It was the first time in over two months that Columbus had scored more than five goals, and the fourth time in six games Anaheim had allowed at least five.

Both Boone Jenner and Johnny Gaudreau had a goal, two assists, and two shots but Jenner added two PIMs and a hit for the multi-cat fantasy owners. Sean Kuraly and Zach Werenski each scored twice with Yegor Chinakhov scoring the one remaining goal. Chinakhov now has 15 goals, 93 shots, and 38 hits in 43 games playing 15-16 minutes a night. A good season from the young forward thus far. Werenski has three goals, five points, 20 shots, eight blocks, and three hits in his last five games.

Mason McTavish scored twice on three shots, Troy Terry had a goal, two assists, and seven shots with a pair of hits, and Pavel Mintyukov had a trio of helpers with a shot and a hit in the loss. After posting just five goals and 14 points in his first 26 games of the season, Terry has 12 goals and 31 points in his last 27 appearances.

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Which players drive the bus (or the offensive play), and which players are just along for the ride is always important to parse. The former can transfer between teams while the latter relies often on others to boost their fantasy value. Using data from the tracking site AllThreeZones, let's look at some of the underrated bus drivers this season. For today, we are looking only to forwards at 5-on-5 (minimum of 200 tracked minutes which gives us 237 forwards). Additional data is from Natural Stat Trick, Frozen Tools, and Evolving Hockey as of Wednesday afternoon.

Nikolaj Ehlers

In this sample, the league leader by total entries per 60 minutes is Ehlers as he's the only forward responsible for over 30 entries per 60 minutes. Just below him are some key offensive names from across the league:

On the season, he leads Winnipeg's top-6 forwards by expected goals impact and actual goals impact at even strength. He is second among their top-6 by relative expected goal share at 5-on-5 and relative actual goal share at 5-on-5. He also leads the entire team in both shots/60 minutes and points/60 minutes at 5-on-5. It has been yet another great season for the winger.

The problem remains as it ever was: ice time. Without injuries (which have happened this season), Ehlers is being kept from the top power play once again. In fact, even with those injuries, Ehlers is seeing the share of power play time (47.8%) as last season (47.6%). Time is a flat circle.

Jeff Skinner

There are three forwards in the sample that carry the puck into the zone at least 80% of the time, but one of them does way less heavy lifting in terms of per-60 entries than the other two:

There are a number of reasons why Buffalo's offence has suffered this season, but it's notable that Skinner and Alex Tuch carry the puck into the zone much less often than Tage Thompson does – 9.76/60, 9.96/60, and 14.47/60, respectively. The team creates far fewer scoring chances off Tage's entries (20.5%) than the other two (both between 38-40%), so it appears that the wrong person is paddling the canoe and it's taken the offence over Niagara Falls.  

Skinner's 82-game pace is for fewer than 60 points, and that's a three-year low. Part of it is due to an awful power play, but part of it is that the team isn't doing a whole lot on Thompson's entries.

Martin Necas

Just below the three players in the graphic above is Necas, who has carried the puck into the zone on 77% of his zone entries. That number is just above those of Connor McDavid and Nathan MacKinnon and, unlike Skinner, Necas does a lot of the entry work himself as he comes in the 95^th percentile by carried zone entries/60, and in line with names like William Nylander and Brayden Point.

Given Necas's 14 points and 47 shots across the 12 games since his injury return, this may not be a huge shock to fantasy managers. It is easy to forget that he had just 26 points in 38 games to start the season, so he's being rewarded for his hard work. After a rough 2021-22 season, Necas has now posted two very good seasons in a row (assuming he finishes this season well enough). He is a pending RFA with one year until UFA status, though, so this summer's contract negotiations will be interesting.

Pierre-Luc Dubois

Ramblings over the last month or so have indicated that there was positive regression coming Dubois's way, and that has certainly kicked in with three goals and six points in six games since the All-Star break. When looking for players that have contributed to entries/60, zone-entry carry%, and percentage of carried entries leading to scoring chances, one player popped up as a comparable for Dubois:

It is worth noting that Dubois provides a lot more hits and similar shots to Robert Thomas despite much less ice time. Perhaps adding Quinton Byfield to Dubois's line is what finally unlocks Dubois's scoring upside, but his role is still a problem. If PLD stays at centre, it seems unlikely he ever overtakes Anze Kopitar in ice time, and probably won't exceed Phillip Danault, either. If Dubois can't earn more than 16-ish minutes a game, real fantasy value will still be inconsistent unless he goes on a big heater.

David Perron

At the risk of ending this on a down note, we have to highlight just how poor Perron's season has been. His points per game (0.55) are the lowest in any season since 2015-16 and he's recently lost his top-6 role as Detroit pushes for the playoffs. He can still provide some power play production, but if he's not skating with any of Dylan Larkin, Lucas Raymond, Alex DeBrincat, or Patrick Kane, then the power play production is the only way he retains any fantasy value.

There are any number of reasons for this, including age, but it's worth noting he is dead last in our sample by zone entries either carried in or with a pass:

Teams and players can create offence by dumping the puck and forechecking, but it's really hard to do it unless you're a high-end offensive talent like Matthew Tkachuk or Joel Eriksson Ek. Perron was that at one point, but it doesn't seem like he's that now, and for someone that turns 36 years old in May with his injury history, it's a wonder how much gas is left in the tank.