An update for those who have purchased the playoff draft list: Currently it is still in progress, but it should be ready early next week. I know Dobber mentioned that he would have it ready for early April, but unfortunately his current health situation doesn't allow him to work on it this season as he normally would. After discussion with the editing team over the past few days, we've decided to tackle it ourselves with myself as the lead.

Since it's my first time working on this fairly complex Excel file, I don't want to commit to an exact date. You can follow my X account Ian_Gooding, where I will try to provide updates where I can. It should be ready before the end of the regular season with a version containing all of the clinched and potential playoff teams up to that point. Then I will upload a finalized version with only the 16 playoff teams. My apologies if it won't be ready for your playoff draft, but we're trying to make the best of a less-than-ideal situation.

In terms of where it is today, I've just started on the projections with input from the editors on how far teams are expected to advance in the playoffs (which affects games played). That's kind of the meat of what a playoff draft list needs to be at the very least. I've reassigned some of my future Ramblings to the other editors, so you won't hear from me again for at least another week in the form of Ramblings while I get this completed. I am certainly grateful for their help here.

If you haven't already, you can purchase your Playoff Draft List here.

Also related to my workload: The Top 100 Roto Rankings will be paused for April and be back in May.

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In one of Thursday's late games, Devin Cooley turned out to be the streamer you didn't know that you needed. Cooley turned aside 49 saves as the Sharks secured a rare road in in Seattle by a score of 3-1. After his win against St. Louis on Saturday, Cooley has now won back-to-back games. He's a 26-year-old AHL/ECHL veteran set to become a UFA at the end of the season, so he's playing for a job somewhere next season – most likely as a backup. The Sharks finish the season with games against Minnesota, Edmonton, and Calgary, so expect Cooley to start one of those games. Since it's the Sharks, you should add him only if you need a Hail Mary goaltending performance.

With an assist on Thursday, Mikael Granlund now has points in 10 straight games, including assists in each of his last six games. I went to great lengths to get rid of Granlund from my keeper team last offseason, which in hindsight is not something I needed to do. He will finish the season as the Sharks' leading scorer while making a run for 60 points. This is remarkable because no other San Jose player will likely reach 50 points this season.

Granlund just outside the top 10 among league forwards in icetime (21:00 TOI/GP), a quantity he very likely would not receive with a contending or even a league-average team. We don't always know which players will step up on rebuilding teams that are simply trying to fill their lineups with warm bodies, but whichever players do can be beneficial for fantasy teams. Keep in mind that an offseason trade to a stronger team would likely reduce his value, as he's a middle-six forward on most other teams.

William Eklund has been on the top line with Granlund. With two assists on Thursday, Eklund has 13 points in his last 11 games. He's a legitimate streaming option for the last few games (9% Yahoo), and someone to add to sleeper lists in single-season leagues next season.

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File this under "you saw this coming from a mile away."

Mark Stone has been cleared to practice with the team on the ice as he continues to recover from a lacerated spleen sustained on February 20.

Stone is expected to participate in a non-contact jersey beginning on Friday during the team's morning skate.#VegasBorn

— x-Vegas Golden Knights (@GoldenKnights) April 12, 2024

If Mark Stone is ready just in time for Game 1 of the playoffs, there have to be changes to the salary cap system allowing a team unlimited cap space for the playoffs. Or at least more transparency regarding the nature and duration of injuries. I don't know what those changes would be or what is even possible, as salary cap management is not my specific area of expertise. Yet the focus should be on whether this passes the smell test, particularly if it's happened multiple times with the same player.

Here's one idea. Mike also mentioned that this would only apply to players on LTIR, not all players who were out of action on Game 82.

Definitely sounds like Mark Stone had/has a legitimate injury, but it would be very simple to implement a rule that if you want to play Game 1 of the playoffs you have to play Game 82 of the regular season.

— Michael Amato (@amato_mike) April 12, 2024

The fantasy take from all of this: Don't add Stone if you are still competing for a regular-season title. I'm sure he'll be readily available for playoff pools, though.

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While we're on the topic of leagues still competing, I'm not going to be the guy to tell you that your league playoffs should be wrapped up by now because of the possibility of load management. If you want to ensure teams all play the same number of games, or you simply want to get as much mileage as possible out of your season, great. But if you're worried about a league championship being lost because your top player wasn't available, then shut it down a week or two early. You play how you and the others in your league want to. If the majority of the league aren't happy, change the rules.

If you are still playing, today (Saturday) is the last true "busy night" of the season with 13 games on the schedule. After that, the number of games per day goes into the single digits, peaking at eight games on both Monday and Tuesday. There might be the odd schedule conflict, but there should generally be no issues being able to start everyone on your roster.

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Connor McDavid missed Friday's game, which was the second consecutive game he has missed with a lower-body injury. He should be considered questionable at best for Saturday's showdown with Vancouver for first place in the Pacific Division.

Some positive injury news regarding a top scorer: Mikko Rantanen participated on the top power play in Friday's practice, meaning that he is expected to be ready for Saturday's game. Rantanen suffered a concussion a week ago. Get him back into your lineup.

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The Canadiens have signed Lane Hutson to a three-year entry-level contract. Hutson's season ended when Boston University was eliminated from the Frozen Four. In his Dobber Prospects profile, Hutson is a perfect 10 in terms of fantasy upside, which means you shouldn't waste any time in adding him in keeper leagues (38% rostered in Fantrax). Hutson has demonstrated ability to score at the NCAA level, amassing 97 points in 77 games over two seasons. He has upside to be a top power-play contributor, and I'd expect the Habs to provide him with time on the power-play immediately. The big question is whether that tantalizing skill set for the undersized Hutson (5-10, 161 lbs.) translates to the NHL level.

Macklin Celebrini is this year's Hobey Baker Award winner. Celebrini scored 32 goals and 64 points in just 38 games as a freshman for Boston University this season, improving his stock as the potential first overall pick in the coming draft. He is the youngest player to ever win the Hobey Baker.

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Load management has already begun for at least a couple of teams. Both Gustav Nyquist and Ryan McDonagh were rested for Friday's game against Chicago. This game was the first of back-to-backs for the Preds, who face Columbus tonight (Saturday). Don't be surprised if more regulars are rested for that game.

The Predators did not hold out Filip Forsberg, and he made his presence felt with a hat trick on seven shots in a 5-1 win over Chicago. Forsberg is having a career year with 46 goals, 46 assists, 92 points, and 338 shots. The Preds have just two games left, but maybe they don't scratch Forsberg for either game so that he can take a run at 50 goals.

The Hurricanes held out Teuvo Teravainen, Jordan Staal, Brett Pesce, and Jalen Chatfield from Friday's game. The only significant name out of that group for fantasy purposes would be Teravainen. The announcement was made just before game time, so there's not much that can be done if you streamed Teravainen.

These scratches cleared the way for Scott Morrow to make his NHL debut. Morrow took three shots in 13 minutes of icetime paired with Dmitry Orlov at even strength.

Despite these absences, the Hurricanes were able to take care of business with a 5-2 win over St. Louis. Jake Guentzel scored a pair of empty-net goals to give him 30 goals on the season. Guentzel also finished the game with a plus-4.

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Elliotte Friedman is reporting that Arizona Coyotes staff and players have been told that the franchise will be moving to Utah for next season. After over a decade of finding a way to stay in Arizona despite the team hanging by a thread there, the Coyotes saga appears to finally be coming to an end. We will learn more details over the coming days as the deal is finalized.

Matias Maccelli provided what looks like one of the very last Arizona Coyotes highlights, scoring his 55^th point of the season on this play:

Matias Maccelli secures the OT win for the Coyotes! 🚨

(🎥: @Sportsnet) pic.twitter.com/kF88FlubsM

— theScore (@theScore) April 13, 2024

This obviously isn't an easy time for the Coyotes players, who deserve credit in finding a way to win back-to-back games on the road in Vancouver on Wednesday and Edmonton on Friday in spite of all of this. In fact, the Coyotes have scored an average of 3.65 goals per game since March 1 (not including Friday). All of those Coyotes waiver-wire pickups we've mentioned on here have added up to something on the real-life team. If this news is affecting the players, it sure hasn't shown. Continue to deploy as you normally would.

Logan Cooley has reached 20 goals in his rookie season. Only three other rookies have also reached that goal total this season. Cooley also has five points over his last five games.

The legend of Josh Doan continues. With a goal and an assist on Friday, Doan is up to eight points in nine games with the big club. Having grown up watching his dad play for the Coyotes for a long time, Doan must no doubt be disappointed with the recent developments.

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The last team to clinch a playoff spot in the Western Conference is the defending Stanley Cup champion Vegas Golden Knights. They did so with a resounding 7-2 win over Minnesota. The Vegas win officially eliminates the St. Louis Blues from playoff contention.

Points-wise, Chandler Stephenson led the Golden Knights with four assists. Tomas Hertl scored his first goal as a Golden Knight in his third game with his new team.

I took Geek of the Week author Ryan Brudner's advice and added Keegan Kolesar in my head-to-head final matchup for hits. Sure enough, he has delivered in that department with 13 hits in three games this week. Yet as an added bonus, Kolesar has scored goals in back-to-back games.

Liam Ohgren made his NHL debut on Friday, skating 14 minutes while playing on a line with Vinni Lettieri and Marat Khusnutdinov. Ohgren was the Wild's first-round pick in 2022 (19^th overall). For more, see his Dobber Prospects profile.

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Another NHL debut happened on Friday. Not only did Sam Colangelo play his first NHL game, but he also scored his first NHL goal. Colangelo played 12:47 on a line with Jakob Silfverberg and Isac Lundestrom. Colangelo, the Ducks' early second-round pick in the 2020 draft, just finished with 43 points in 38 games for Western Michigan University.

In the Flames' 6-3 win, Andrei Kuzmenko scored a hat trick. Kuzmenko's goal total has plummeted from the 38 goals in his first NHL season, but he has at least reached 20 goals in both of his NHL seasons. More recently, Kuzmenko has 14 points over his last eight games. He's been doing so while playing on a series of light days for a Flames team that has a very easy schedule opponent-wise over the last several games. Kuzmenko can be very hit or miss, but he could very well finish the season on a high note for fantasy teams.  

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