I'm back after a brief hiatus as I'm trying to manage a full house. Thanks to Ian and Brennan for filling in for me.

I don't know about you but I'm also really ready to be done with election coverage. Let's get back to hockey.

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Artturi Lehkonen returned to action for the Avalanche last night. It doesn't sound like Jonathan Drouin or Valeri Nichushkin are far behind, so this could be about as low as this team falls. Get the bets in with odds now, or buy-low for a couple additions to your roster.

Lehkonen added a goal and an assist in the game, with Nathan MacKinnon and his five assists leading the way. Cale Makar added two points of his own before leaving with an injury. He did try testing it out between whistles, but ultimately left the bench in the third, so we’re hoping it’s not a long-term issue. His season-opening point streak remains active.

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Will Cuylle has really surprised me with his jump in production. I had him pegged as someone that would be stuck as a physical third liner, but his production so far says that he can be a solid second line player. However, that doesn’t mean he’s likely to keep up this current pace. He’s due to see his team’s shooting percentage with him on the ice regress by at least 20%. That would likely take about the same percentage away from his scoring pace, which currently stands at a 66-point full season pace. Expecting Cuylle to finish closer to a 50-point pace is much more realistic, as the rest of his underlying numbers don’t look too out of line. That would mean about 42 points in his last 70 games. Stack that on top of his two shots and four hits per game, and he’s still certainly worth rostering in setups that count all three of those categories. 

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More young guys: It's been a noteworthy start to the season for Jackson Blake and Connor Zary, both pacing for over a point every second game. Zary is racking up more shots, but Blake is producing despite playing nearly six fewer minute per game. Both look like decent options to keep producing in fantasy leagues. Your typical 12-team setups might see these guys as longer-term streamers, but anything deeper than that and these two should likely be rostered full time. Matt Coronato kept pace by scoring the equalizer in the third before potting the winner seven seconds into overtime. He’s up to four points (all goals) in eight games now.

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On the scary side of things, Dylan Holloway left last night's game on a stretcher. Look out for Blake Creamer's Injury Ward article later today, as it should have an update for you on Holloway's status.

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Evan Rodrigues had three points in the two Finland games. His first points since the third game of the season – a stretch of eight pointless games. His slump started as soon as Aleksander Barkov went down, and now that they have been reunited upon Barkov’s return to the lineup, Rodrigues is producing again. He should be good for his usual 45-point-pace the rest of the way. 

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Mikael Granlund coming up as one of the best value draft picks this year was not something I expected. After underwhelming with both Nashville and Pittsburgh, Granlund is thriving in San Jose as he eats up all the ice time available. It does look like instead of seeing a slightly diminished role with Macklin Celebrini returning to the lineup last night, Granlund is instead splitting faceoffs with him. If he does get bumped down the lineup he would be an immediate sell-high candidate, but it seems unlikely as Granlund paces the team in ice time from the forwards.

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Rick Roos is looking for a few more mailbag questions to be answered in next week’s article. To get your questions to him, private message "rizzeedizzee" via the DobberHockey Forums or email [email protected] with "Roos Mailbag" as the subject line. No one does a deeper dive on your questions than Rick, and now is the time to get those buy-low, sell-high, nd other roster fix questions in before it’s too late.

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The Islanders don’t have a lot going for them right now, and perhaps the only player exceeding expectations is Maxim Tsyplakov. When looking at free agents in one of my leagues though, Kyle Palmieri stood out as someone who is quietly producing well too. He has 11 points through his first 13 games after a two point effort last night, on top of some solid power play exposure. His 2.8 shots per game are a big fantasy boost as well. The underlying numbers show that he might have an extra assist or two thus far, but the shot volume and scoring seems relatively sustainable with the lineup as it is. 

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Sounds like Tyler Seguin will be dealing with and managing a lower-body injury for most of the season.

Pete DeBoer mentioned that the injury gets worse when Seguin plays in back-to-backs.

Also said Seguin will play this week, but the depth is nice to have. #TexasHockey

— Sam Nestler (@samnestler) November 5, 2024

Not great news for Seguin owners. He’s someone I would try to move on from this season if you can get 85 cents on the dollar, as the health headache isn’t worth his level of play while injured. 

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Lukas Dostal has been the big bargain goalie of the first portion of the season, but with John Gibson due back at this point, and goals being a very fickle position when projecting production, here are a few goalies to keep an eye on for the second quarter. 

Joel Hofer

Jordan Binnington always seems to fall off in the second half, so be ready for Joel Hofer to turn the second half of the year into a timeshare in the Blues’ net. The Blues seem to just churn out goalies over the last decade, and Hofer looks to have all the makings of being a full-time NHL starter in the near future as well. He just needs that window to crack open.

Alex Lyon

Cam Talbot is 38 years old, has already played in six of 11 games, and fell off last year in a very similar situation with the Kings. Detroit has the pieces to be a playoff bubble team, and they will ride the hot hand in net, which won’t be Talbot for the whole season. There are bound to be some hiccups. 

Ilya Samsonov

Samsonov is outplaying Hill to this point, and as long as he’s healthy then he should be able to keep this up behind the Vegas defence. The Golden Knights haven’t let politics dictate their decisions in the past, so the contract favoring Hill isn’t going to stop Samsonov from stealing starts as the year goes on. At the moment though, Samsonov is the one out with an injury, so he's not someone you need to jump on right away.

Charlie Lindgren

Lindgren was one of the best value goalies last season, and is playing behind a Washington squad that really seems to have taken a step or two forward from last year. Yes, Logan Thompson does seem to be taking more starts than Darcy Kuemper was, but Lindgren is still their incumbent goalie, who is more familiar with the team. I would expect him to finish closer to 50 starts than 40. 

Alexandar Georgiev

The Bulgarian netminder is struggling at the moment, to say the least. However, as I mentioned above, the Avalanche are getting healthy, and with that their goaltending is going to be a lot more valuable. Despite Georgiev taking a lot of flak for poor play, he is still the best bet to provide value here. There won’t be a better buy-low window on him. 

One other goalie note, is that the Leafs seem to be rotating with each goalie getting two games before rotating out, instead of every second game like we see with some rotations. Not much to it in fantasy right now as Anthony Stolarz and Joseph Woll should be owned and are must starts, but it might help with planning in the short term. 

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One trade I pulled the trigger on recently in my dynasty cap league was my William Karlsson for his Vladimir Tarasenko, Scott Perunovich, and a pick. Karlsson recently returned from injury and put up five points and 11 shots in his first four games. While he won’t keep those numbers up, his 60-point pace combined from the last two years should still be doable regardless of where in the middle six he is playing, as this Vegas lineup looks capable of carrying that level of offence down the lineup. 

However, for me it was a chance to buy low on Tarasenko, who could still be a winger scoring 50+ points, and adding a cheap defenceman as a lottery ticket, hopefully filling a weak spot on my roster. A day after the trade was accepted, Philip Broberg was injured, and that opens up a spot for Perunovich over the next 4-6 weeks, which is our preliminary timeline for Broberg’s return. 

Back to Tarasenko, he’s definitely showing down a bit, and he’s had some time on the third line as well, so there is risk here, but his underlying percentages are unsustainably bad, so there is guaranteed to be some level of correction. If the minutes and the shot rate tick back up, then that 50-point pace is certainly doable again. 

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Isaiah George made his NHL debut last night, and had an excellent game looking poised out there with a few intelligent breakout passes, and some excellent underlying xGF% numbers. Stick taps to him.

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See you next Wednesday, and if you want to keep up with it you can find me on Twitter/X here, or BlueSky here if you have any fantasy hockey questions or comments.