As an Eastern time zone dweller, the playoff seeding in the West being decided by the last two games of the season which are 10pm and 10:30pm starts is not ideal.

I wanted to go through a couple of quick thoughts on each series here, and I will update this section sometime Friday morning.

Carolina Hurricanes vs New York Islanders

This is the series that seems to be the most open and shut to my eyes. Carolina may be one of the favourites based on skill, defence, systems, and depth across every position. The Islanders still do have a chance, and his name is Ilya Sorokin. The Isles had a mediocre season though, and they just don't feel like they have that "IT" factor to make a difference against a top team like Carolina who will come at them in waves.

My pick: Carolina in six.

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New York Rangers vs Washington Capitals

This may seem backwards that I was just talking about how the Isles wouldn't be able to keep up with the Canes, and then here I am going to say that the series with a worse team (through the regular season) than the Isles will be able to put up a better fight against the President's Trophy team, but that's what this space is for. I like the Rangers in seven, with Lindgren willing this team as far as they can go, and the skater group playing with house money now that they're in. President's Trophy teams have a way of disappointing us, and I think at minimum the Rangers come out of the gate slowly here.

My pick: New York in seven.

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Toronto Maple Leafs vs Boston Bruins

Here we are, back to this again. We all know all of the storylines and history here, and at the expense of sounding cliché… this one feels different.

It’s not what you’re expecting though, so hear me out. The Leafs broke through to the second round last season, but most fans are already writing them off. As a Toronto resident and fan myself, there isn't even really that "but anything can happen" voice inside my head. This team has been as good as previous iterations in the regular season, and made moves last summer with an eye to have more playoff-style players for just this moment… and still no one believes it. For good reason, because the best predictor of the future, is the past. If the Leafs lose, then it feels like it was already written in the cards, and if they win then it will just be disappointment later down the line anyways, because that’s what it feels like this team does.

On the Boston end, the Bruins not only survived the departure of two hall-of-fame level centres, but they thrived this year. They are just as deep this year as they were last year (albeit slightly less potent at the top of the lineup). They shouldn't be running out an injured goalie this year either. All that to say, this has the makings of a classic series, but with all of the turnover and new storylines, don't expect it to just pile on to the same old narratives.

My pick: Boston in six (though on the forums I put myself down for Leafs in four because I could see something completely unexpected happening here).

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Florida Panthers vs Tampa Bay Lightning

If we could somehow have had this matchup as the Stanley Cup Final, would anyone have complained about the quality of the teams or the product on the ice? It would have been an electric matchup with Matthew Tkachuk against Nikita Kucherov, Aleksander Barkov against Brayden Point, Victor Hedman against Aaron Ekblad, two star Russian netminders facing off, and a whole lot of dislike for the other team. The upside for us as fans is that we instead get all of this in the first round, when players aren't worn down from a three-round gauntlet to get to the Final, which sometimes takes a little of the spark away. Try not to miss much of this series, it will be a classic. I see the Panthers and their more mobile defence core making the difference though.

My pick: Florida in six.

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Colorado Avalanche vs Winnipeg Jets

This feels like the regular season success story vs the playoff-tested success story, and we have seen that play out often over the years. The Avs have to be the favourite here, and in any versions of the story where they lose, then it likely comes down to a chasm in how the goaltenders perform. Alexandar Georgiev hasn't been stellar over the last few months, while Connor Hellebuyck has brought goaltending back into the Hart trophy race this year. This feels like it’s the Avs to lose, so lets write off the Jets early once again this year.

My pick: Colorado in five.

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Vancouver Canucks vs Nashville Predators

I'll acknowledge my bias here early, as one of the bigger Predators fans you will meet. That being said, Vancouver isn't the pushover that many people are making them out to be. They have star power at every position, and playoff-ready depth at every position too. That being said, the Predators have been the better team in the second-half of the season, which is different than just being the team that went something like 7-2-1 instead of 4-5-1 in the last 10 games and we say that one team is "hotter" than the other. With that noted, I don't think the Predators are necessarily the underdogs here that the standings note they are, and I think this will be a very back and forth series. Bridgestone arena is also not a fun one to play in come playoff time.

My pick: Nashville in six.

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Edmonton Oilers vs Los Angeles Kings

Yes, I'm writing off the Kings, whose first-half bubble popped, and they don't have the star power or the goaltending to keep the Edmonton scorers in check. Last night’s game aside as it was meaningless for the Oilers, they seem to have sorted out their goaltending and defence issues from earlier in the year. I don’t expect this to be as long as it has been the last couple of years with the same matchup.

My pick: Edmonton in five.

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Dallas Stars vs Vegas Golden Knights

I think Vegas is going to be a formidable opponent here, and won't go gently in any game or series, with the size, skill, and depth to take home a final win against any team in the West. Dallas is very strong on paper, but Jake Oettinger hasn’t been quite his usual self this year, and they just haven’t seemed to put it all together. It should be a very entertaining series, but I’m taking the defending champs here with their depth and experience, plus the late-season additions will make a big difference too. Just like Tampa in the East, this isn’t your ordinary wildcard team.

My pick: Vegas in seven.

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On a completely different note, I wonder if having the Coyotes saga finally come to an end with yesterday's affirmative Board of Governor's vote for their move to Utah is actually to this point a very underrated part in them finally turning the corner in the coming seasons. They have the prospect pipeline, they have a few solid pieces that make up an existing core, the option to try and attract a higher quality of free agents, and they have cap flexibility plus maybe even the ability to spend it now.

The Pacific (assuming that's where they still are and that the divisions aren't shifted much) has a couple of top teams in Vegas and Edmonton, but LA has some kinks to work out, and the Canucks aren't much of a sure thing year to year. Anaheim isn't quite ready to make the jump to playoff contender, so I'll be looking to next year's version of the Coyotes to add some spice to the playoff race.

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Tim Stutzle was someone that was a target for me in redrafts this year around the pick 10-15 range. He disappointed fantasy managers a bit from there, though still finished with a respectable fantasy season. There is some optimism for him jumping back up next year though, as it sounds like he was dragged down this season by multiple lingering injuries.

Tim Stützle says he was dealing with shoulder and wrist injuries this year, "haven't been feeling good for a year or something." Says he was hit in Game 4, hurt his wrist and that affected his ability to take face offs.

"It's frustrating when your brain is going but your body… pic.twitter.com/d1HSBfz6Li

— Claire Hanna (@clahanna) April 18, 2024

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After going through a bunch of the recent NCAA players making their NHL debuts on Tuesday, I wanted to highlight one of the earlier signings too. Collin Graf was the big undrafted free agent NCAA signing, and now has a handful of games under his belt. He only has one point thus far while playing middle-six minutes on top of a decent dose of power play time (over two minutes per game). He's playing with Luke Kunin and Klim Kostin, which isn't exactly setting him up for success. There has been very little exposure to William Eklund, Thomas Bordeleau, or Mikael Granlund for Graf. Maybe the third line spot with some power play time is the best we can expect from Graf in the short term.

Speaking of other seasoned prospects making debuts, we won't see Nikolai Kovalenko's debut until the playoffs at the earliest, but he could come in at some point as a black ace. He has had a few nice highlights in a couple of AHL games so far.

Nikolai Kovalenko's first AHL point in his debut: pic.twitter.com/tty5usJMX8

— Meghan Angley (@megangley) April 17, 2024

Someone to keep in your back pocket as a real dark horse in the playoffs if you like the Avalanche, or for drafts in the fall.

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We did also have a couple more debuts from Brad Lambert, Nikita Chibrikov, and Cutter Gauthier last night. Lambert scored his first NHL point, assisting on Gabe Vilardi’s opening goal for Winnipeg. Lambert has a lot of potential going for him, but at this point it’s just that, potential – and all the risk/reward that comes with that.

Brad Lambert makes his NHL debut.

Lambert was regarded as a top prospect in the years leading up to his draft year but after a less than stellar draft year he nearly fell out of the 1st round (going 30th to Winnipeg).

You always knew he would get some games in the NHL. Now can… https://t.co/xAiHa1YqYl pic.twitter.com/hMYociXe8w

— Byron Bader (@ByronMBader) April 18, 2024

Chibrikov, the 50th overall pick back in 2021, then one-upped Lambert with a go-ahead goal for Winnipeg in the third period. Neither player got a whole lot of ice time last night though, and it’s likely both start out in the AHL next season. The five shots and eight minutes of power play ice time between them though was fun to see. Keep an eye on whether either gets any time in the playoffs this time around.

Gauthier also recorded an assist in 15 minutes of ice time, playing a little further up the lineup with Alex Killorn and Leo Carlsson. That could even be a line going into next year, and they were even in shots and Corsi on the night against a much stronger Vegas team (although again, the game didn’t mean much to them – if they won they played the Oilers instead of Dallas). Gauthier I expect to have a full-time role next season, and the three shots last night without any other peripherals probably gives us a good sense of the kind of stat line we might be able to expect from him next year. Something similar to Carlsson’s rookie year, with a 40+ point pace, two shots per game, and only a few hits, PIMs and blocks sprinkled in.

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With Don Granato fired in Buffalo, we can try to look ahead through our now-useless eclipse glasses to get a faint picture of what might change for next season.

Tage Thompson and Rasmus Dahlin are obviously the first fantasy priorities, and it is interesting to note that both were unluckier this season than last, but otherwise the underlying numbers look similar despite the obvious drop off in their actual scoring numbers. A big area for the drop off is on the power play, and those can really fluctuate year to year regardless of coaching. Overall, the Sabres scored on 16.6% of their power plays this season, which is a very low number for any team, let alone one with all the weapons available that the Sabres have. Expect some obvious correction next year.

I have had a soft spot for Peyton Krebs since his draft year, and I think this is going to be his best opportunity to jump up the lineup before Matt Savoie, Jiri Kulich, Noah Ostlund and others arrive. There are already seven top-nine spots accounted for, even before including Jordan Greenway (who stands to lose time) and the prospects.

Interesting to watch as well will be the goaltending splits. Granato leaned heavily on Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen this year, though Devon Levi is showing signs of NHL readiness (not for long stretches, but as a moderately used backup, certainly), and we don't know if there will be anyone else brought in over the summer. UPL needs a new contract, and it seems unlikely that Eric Comrie will return. UPL might be a great albeit risky) buy earlier in the summer where there is still some uncertainty around the Sabres and whether he might be in line for over 55 starts next year, or less than 30.

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Jeremy Lauzon now holds the NHL record for most hits in a single season with 383. 💥

Matt Martin held the previous record with 382 during the 2014-15 season. pic.twitter.com/tMviCoa5pe

— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) April 16, 2024

He's been an amazing player to roster in fantasy leagues counting hits this year. With Nashville's lineup next year though, I don't know if he's guaranteed consistent playing time. Something to keep in mind through the summer in case another GM wants to overpay for him. The year after Matt Martin set the previous record, he only dipped slightly to 365, but after that he tailed off mightily, in part due to injuries. The longevity of these high-peripherals players is another thing to keep in mind. Martin was 25 when he set the record, while Lauzon is turning 27 very shortly. Great if he keeps it up, but no guarantee.  

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See you next Wednesday. In the meantime, you can find me on Twitter/X here, or BlueSky here if you have any fantasy hockey questions or comments.