After missing 16 games due to an upper-body injury, Philadelphia Flyers defenceman Jamie Drysdale was back in the lineup on Monday night, and slotted onto the top power play unit. There had been top PP time for Cam York with Drysdale injured, and York had been playing heavy minutes, so this will cut into all of that. This is a big boost to the Flyers lineup as they try to hang onto a playoff spot, but it does hurt York's fantasy value down the stretch.

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We had new Winnipeg lines for Monday night as Nikolaj Ehlers jumped to the top line with Kyle Connor down on the second line. Connor has typically been next to Mark Scheifele for several years now but they have been split up at times this season, including in Saturday's loss. The power play units are status quo but this is an interesting development for Ehlers's fantasy value.

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Tomas Hertl was at practice for Vegas on Monday in a red non-contact jersey:

TOMAS HERTL IS JOINING THE TEAM IN A RED JERSEY‼️‼️‼️ pic.twitter.com/ZELBAH8Xqj

— Vegas Golden Knights (@GoldenKnights) April 1, 2024

Hertl has yet to play for Vegas since his trade but it looks like he's ramping up for the postseason.

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In a potential playoff preview, Toronto took a 6-4 win over Florida on Monday night. Tyler Bertuzzi kept his hot streak going with his seventh goal in his last nine games while Nick Robertson, David Kampf, Matthew Knies, and Auston Matthews also got on the board (Matthews doing so twice). Matthews is now up to 62 goals in in MVP-calibre season. Matthews also had three hits which pushed him to 81 on the year, setting a new career high.

Florida made a third-period push with three straight goals from Sam Reinhart, Sam Bennett, and Vladimir Tarasenko but couldn't find the tying goal. It was a three-point night for Tarasenko who had four shots and a hit in the loss.

Carter Verhaeghe was injured early in the third period and left the game. We will update when more is known.

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Two goals from Alex Nylander, and tallies from Kirill Marchenko and Cole Sillinger pushed Columbus to a 4-1 win over Colorado. Nylander now has 10 goals in 17 games since joining the Jackets while Marchenko reaches the 20-goal mark for the second season in a row.

The real story was Daniil Tarasov, who saved 46 of 47 shots in the win. He is now up to a .909 save percentage in 23 appearances (22 starts) this season, a nice rebound from a tough 2022-23 effort.

Boone Jenner was once again missing from the Columbus lineup and Dmitri Voronkov took his spot on the top line with Nylander and Johnny Gaudreau.

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Pittsburgh's top line did a lot of damage on Monday night as Bryan Rust had two goals on five shots with four blocks and two hits in 5-2 win and a great fantasy night. Sidney Crosby had two goals, an assist, three shots, a block, and a hit. That pushes Crosby to 82 points on the season and guarantees him another point-per-game season. Those two goals give Crosby 37 on the year, his highest total since 2016-17.

Jack Roslovic and Kaapo Kakko had the replies for the Rangers. Adam Fox had an assist and six shots to keep his hot streak going (15 points and 30 shots in his last 11 games).

Tristan Jarry was a late scratch for the Penguins and Alex Nedeljkovic stopped 28 of 30 shots in the win.

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The New York Islanders earned a very important two points thanks to a 4-3 overtime win over Philadelphia. A regulation win would have been better but points are points. The team received tallies from Bo Horvat, Anders Lee, Matt Martin, and Brock Nelson.

Morgan Frost, Noah Cates, and Travis Sanheim had the goals for the Flyers.

Samuel Ersson was pulled after allowing two goals on six shots as Ivan Fedotov took over. The newest addition to the team saved 19 of 21 shots he faced.

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A late goal from David Perron gave Detroit a 3-2 lead over Tampa Bay and Lucas Raymond added the empty netter to seal the 4-2 win. Patrick Kane and Robby Fabbri scored earlier in the game to help the team along. That empty-net goal was Raymond's 25^th of the season, his first 25-goal season of his career, but surely not his last.

Anthony Cirelli and Steven Stamkos (PP) replied for the Bolts.

Alex Lyon stopped 34 of 36 for the win and he was stellar in this game.

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An overtime goal from Brandon Saad pushed St. Louis to a 3-2 win over Edmonton. That was Saad's 25^th goal of the season, his highest total since his Columbus days in 2015-16.

Braden Schenn scored twice (once on the PP) and had three hits while Jordan Binnington stopped 36 of 38 shots for the win. That was Binnington's 27^th win of the season, tying last year's total in nine fewer starts.

Mattias Ekholm and Leon Draisaitl replied for Edmonton. Ekholm had a goal and an assist with four shots, a block, and a hit in a very good multi-cat fantasy effort. Those two points pushed him to 41, his first 40-point season since 2018-19. He also has a chance to break his prior career-high mark of 44 set back in that same campaign.

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Tyler Toffoli missed Monday night's game and in a very, very funny moment, Cole Perfetti stepped onto the second line after back-to-back healthy scratches, playing just his fourth game in three and a half weeks, and scored twice while adding an assist in Winnipeg's 4-3 win over Los Angeles. Sean Monahan also scored while Kyle Connor had a trio of helpers as that new-look second line carried the team to a victory.

Josh Morrissey also had a goal and an assist with three shots, two blocks, and four hits in a great fantasy night. That pushed Morrissey over the 60-point mark for the second straight season and though he won't reach last year's highs, it's another very good fantasy campaign from him.

Viktor Arvidsson, Anze Kopitar, and Kevin Fiala had the goals for the Kings. Kopitar now has seven goals and five assists in his last eight games.

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Vince Dunn returned to the lineup for Seattle and the Kraken skated out of San Jose with a 4-2 win. Dunn had an assist on Jared McCann's empty-net goal and managed two shots with three blocks. Oliver Bjorkstrand had a goal and an assist while Matty Beniers also found his way to the goal column.

Shane Wright scored his first NHL goal of the season after his recall from the AHL. He skated 15:14 with Jaden Schwartz and Jordan Eberle as his wingers.

Fabian Zetterlund had a goal (PP) and an assist while Klim Kostin also got on the scoreboard. All told, not a bad season for Zetterlund with 21 goals, 38 points, 180 shots, 109 hits, and 67 blocks thus far on this Sharks roster.

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Tracking data from AllThreeZones shows that carried entries per 60 minutes at 5-on-5 (or carries/60) has a stronger correlation to team goals-for per 60 minutes this season than the percentage of entry attempts that are carried, passing for zone entries, or just total entries per 60 minutes. We will review all this in the offseason when we have larger, full-year samples, but let's look at some improvements from the 2022-23 season to try and get a read on what's happened in 2023-24, and what could happen in 2024-25.

Again, the data is from AllThreeZones and all of this is at 5-on-5. Because we're looking at season-over-season change, there won't be rookies or players with substantial injury issues in either year. We are also going to limit it to players with at least 200 tracked minutes in either campaign.

Positive Changes

Our sample has 11 forwards who've added at least 4.0 carries/60 to their profile from 2022-23, and this is the list:

It was very interesting seeing Miles Wood's name on this list because in a Twitter thread I posted last weekend, Wood's name appeared on the list of top contributors off the rush this season (rush shots and rush assists per 60 minutes). For comparison's sake, he was in a tier with names like Jordan Kyrou, Nikita Kucherov, and David Pastrnak. It isn't as if Wood has been playing with Colorado's top stars this season, either, and the team's goal rate with he and Ross Colton on the ice is 2.6 per 60 minutes, which is solid for a depth line. A good banger season from Wood, too, as he set a career single-season high with 104 hits thanks to three hits on Saturday.    

It is not as surprising to see Filip Forsberg's name on the list. He has posted his second 40-40 season in three years, which puts him in elite company. Forsberg has already career-high totals for shots and hits, too. Nashville coach Andrew Brunette deserves an awful lot of credit for how he turned this team around in one season, but Forsberg has been a tremendous fantasy option this season, and arguably the best draft value in any format that counts hits.

There has been a big downturn in production for Brandon Hagel over the last month and I'm sure fantasy managers won't be happy with that, especially in head-to-head formats. However, he has already set a career-high of 66 points and just seven of those 64 points have been on the power play. It has been a very productive season that could have been a point-per-game effort had he gotten regular top power play minutes. The peripherals are still scant for multi-cat leagues, but he could get a lot more power play usage next season if Steven Stamkos does not return.

A recent hot streak has pushed Clayton Keller over 30 goals for the second season in a row but a lack of 5-on-5 scoring for the first five months of the season has left his scoring at that strength nearly 20% lower than either of his prior two seasons. This is just a guess, but the team needs more puck-moving defencemen on the blue line, and that puts a lot of pressure on their prospects. Either way, Keller turns just 26 years old this summer, so he has more excellent seasons ahead. 

It was interesting to hear Carolina coach Rod Brind'Amour talk about how they need more from Andrei Svechnikov. His 5-on-5 production has been fine relative to recent seasons, but the goal-scoring has dropped off. He has seen his shot attempts fall to a three-year low, and his shot rate is a career-low mark. The Hurricanes are also scoring with a five-year low goals-for rate with Svechnikov on the ice, and this has culminated with the winger being moved to the third line in recent games. It may be fair to wonder how his knee injury from last year is affecting this season (or any other injuries he’s sustained), but there are still positive developments in his game, and we know he can score.

Largest Drops

The players who've seen their rates drop is quite the eclectic mix of depth forwards and superstars:

Seeing Mitch Marner's name is a bit of a shock but when we look deeper, it's not as surprising. Auston Matthews has added nearly 3.0 carries/60 to his name from last season while Matthew Knies's carries/60 rate is higher than Michael Bunting's from 2022-23. In other words, Marner has declined, but the line mates have picked up the slack and that's kept the top line very productive. It does lend a bit of credence to the idea that Marner had been playing injured long before this recent stint on the shelf.

Chandler Stephenson's worst season in a Vegas uniform has shown huge drops in a lot of key underlying areas, and his carries/60 are among them. The defensive numbers have rebounded over the last month or so, and the offence has been fine, but he's clearly been three steps behind any season in recent memory.

We see Aleksander Barkov's name on this list, which is curious because Sam Reinhart isn't that far behind by ranking among the 20 largest drops in carries/60 from last season. The crux is this: Florida is passing a lot more on their zone entries this season than last, and their defencemen are carrying the puck a lot more. Florida creates a lot of 5-on-5 offence on the rush, and that has helped offset their drop in raw carried entries.

I will dig into Kirill Kaprizov a bit more in the offseason. The coaching change plus the team finally stacking their top line has meant a lot more offensive production for Kaprizov and co. when compared to 2022-23, and that muddles exactly what's going on here.