The Dallas Stars went into Wednesday night with a 16-8 record, so it has been a great start. However, it seems as if they need another top-6 winger to round out their top-9 forwards, and now may need two such wingers. The team announced on Wednesday that forward Tyler Seguin will likely miss the rest of the regular season with another hip surgery:

NEWS: Tyler Seguin will undergo surgery on Thursday to repair a left side FAI (femoral acetabular impingement) and the left side hip labrum, the Stars announced. He is expected to miss four to six months.

Difficult news after a strong start to the season for the veteran forward.
— Lia Assimakopoulos (@Lassimak) December 4, 2024

At the low end, Seguin could be back in time for the end of the regular season. At the high end, his season may be over unless they make it to the Stanley Cup Final. Either way, fantasy managers need to move on.

*

Philadelphia coach John Tortorella confirmed that goalie Samuel Ersson will be back in net Thursday night when the Flyers host the Florida Panthers:

Tortorella confirms Sam Ersson is good to go for tomorrow.https://t.co/lex2Y8Kr5K
— Kevin Kurz (@KKurzNHL) December 4, 2024

It will make nine games without Ersson and in that time, the Flyers went 6-2-1 with the eighth-best save percentage in the league (as of Wednesday afternoon, anyway). It pushed them firmly into the playoff race where a poor nine-game stretch would have knocked them out of it. How the goaltending carousel works from here is another question, but Aleksei Kolosov and Ivan Fedotov did their part to hold down the fort.

*

Calgary announced that forward Justin Kirkland is done for the season with a knee surgery:

Justin Kirkland is done for the season.

Had ACL surgery today. #Flames
— Pat Steinberg (@Fan960Steinberg) December 4, 2024

A tough break for Kirkland who had finally earned a regular NHL role.

*

Some more tough injury news for the Minnesota Wild, this time regarding Joel Eriksson Ek:

I'm hearing Joel Eriksson Ek is going to be week to week with a lower-body injury, so this is going to be a blow to the #mnwild. But this team has found a way to overcome lots of injuries so far this season. Of course, Eriksson Ek is considered their most irreplaceable center
— Michael Russo (@RussoHockey) December 4, 2024

The team already has Mats Zuccarello out for an extended absence and Jonas Brodin will also be missing in action for a while. One of the top teams in the West is doing to have its depth challenged for the time being.

In the fantasy realm, this is good news for anyone with Marco Rossi on their rosters, and if Ryan Hartman is somewhere on the waiver wire, it might be a good idea to look into him. He might be in line for an extended run on the top power play unit.

*

Cam Fowler returned to the lineup for the Anaheim Ducks on Wednesday night. In his place, Pavel Mintyukov was scratched. It has been a tough start to the season for Mintyukov, who has not found his footing defensively and that has led to this point. I am still very high on him, but this is a long-term project that will take time for his fantasy upside to show through as he, and the team around him, mature.

*

A pair of goals from Brad Marchand from Morgan Geekie was enough to give Boston the 4-2 win in Chicago on Wednesday night. Marchand managed three shots and a block to go with his goals, and he's now up to 10 tallies on the season. It also gives him 20 points on the season, though in 28 games played so not quite a 60-point pace.

David Pastrnak assisted on both Marchand goals, and Pasta added three shots along the way. He is sitting with nine goals on the year and his shooting percentage is down to 8%. For a guy that shot at least 12 % for the last three years, we are just awaiting the regression.

Jeremy Swayman, on the night of the Four Nations announcement, stopped 20 of 22 shots for the win.

Alex Vlasic got his first goal of the season for Chicago while Jason Dickinson scored his fifth. Connor Murphy assisted on both tallies, adding two shots, three blocks, two PIMs, and a hit in a great multi-cat night.

Petr Mrazek took the loss in net, allowing all four goals on 27 shots.

*

Three goals in under five minutes to start the third period was enough for Toronto to escape with a 3-2 victory at home to Nashville. Auston Matthews scored twice, his first two-goal game of the season, while William Nylander got on the board with a power play marker. All three goals were assisted by Mitch Marner, who had a pair of hits and a block in the win. Marner has been on a hot streak for about six weeks now with eight goals and 21 assists in his last 17 games.

Matthews finished the game with seven shots and three blocks as he looks to get his fantasy value going after a tough start, including that time missed due to the mystery injury.

Joseph Woll registered his seventh win in nine starts, stopping 22 of 24 pucks shot his way.

Jonathan Marchessault and Mark Jankowski had the goals for Nashville, and Juuse Saros got saddled with the loss, giving up three goals on 28 shots.

*

On the day he was named to Team Canada, Vegas defenceman Shea Theodore posted a pair of goals for Vegas in the team's 4-1 win in Anaheim. He totaled five shots and a block, is up to 20 points on the season, and is on pace for over 60 points. Going back to the start of the 2022-23 season, he is seventh among the league's defencemen by points per minute.

Alex Holtz scored his first goal in six weeks while William Karlsson had the other marker. Tomas Hertl had a pair of assists, a shot, and a block as well.

📢 advertisement:

Ilya Samsonov started 19 of 20 shots faced in the win.

Jackson LaCome registered the lone tally for Anaheim. John Gibson faced 32 shots and allowed three goals in the loss.

*

Dallas got out to a 2-0 lead over Los Angeles in the first period, but second-period goals from Tanner Jeannot and Joel Edmundson, and a third-period goal from Warren Foegele, lifted the Kings to victory. Foegele and Jeannot assisted on each other's goals, too, giving them multi-point nights. Foegele finished with four shots, two blocks, and a hit, and is on pace for his second consecutive 20-goal, 40-point season.

David Rittich was solid in goal, stopping 26 of 28 pucks thrown his way for the win.

Wyatt Johnston (PP) and Mason Marchment scored in the loss for Dallas. Johnston now has three goals and five assists in his last eight games, to go with 23 shots and six hits. He is starting to round into form, which is a very important development.

Jake Oettinger allowed three goals on 17 shots for the loss.

*

Of course, the big news on Wednesday was the announcements for the rosters of the Four Nations Cup. Back on Tuesday, I took a shot at building my Team Canada roster using their first six players named and then the players I would take to the tournament.

That is an easy segue, so we'll start with Team Canada. Here is the full roster:

Canada's roster for the #4Nations Face-Off is set! 🇨🇦 pic.twitter.com/9W9lw6LR40
— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) December 4, 2024

For anyone not wanting to zoom in on that, the forwards work out to something like this (these aren't expected lines, they are just assembling the roster together):

LW	C	RW
Brad Marchand	Sidney Crosby	Mark Stone
Seth Jarvis	Nathan MacKinnon	Sam Reinhart
Brandon Hagel	Connor McDavid	Mitch Marner
Anthony Cirelli	Brayden Point	Travis Konecny
	Sam Bennett

There are two names on this list that weren't on mine: Bennett and Jarvis. I had Connor Bedard and Zach Hyman instead. Bedard not being there is less surprising than Hyman. I get Hyman had a tough start to the season, but he plays a great forechecking game, has chemistry with McDavid, and is a high-end net-front presence on the power play. I suspect that two months ago, Hyman would have been there over Bennett, but the tough start and the injury seems to be enough to have tipped the scales to the defending Stanley Cup champion. And Team Canada historically likes having a bevy of centres and it gives them another one to use should the need arise.

Here is the blue line:

LHD	RHD
Devon Toews	Cale Makar
Josh Morrissey	Colton Parayko
Shea Theodore	Alex Pietrangelo
Travis Sanheim

Again, there are two names here that weren't on my list: Pietrangelo and Parayko. Instead, I had MacKenzie Weegar and Evan Bouchard. Perhaps Weegar was always a longshot to make the team, but it genuinely is surprising not to see Bouchard here. He is near the top of the league in terms of puck-moving defencemen and if actual defence is a concern, it isn't as if Pietrangelo is having a good season defensively (honestly, go look at his on-ice numbers at 5-on-5). A third-pair defenceman probably shouldn't tip the scales much, but it is still a bit surprising.

The three goalies are Jordan Binnington, Adin Hill, and Samuel Montembeault. I mentioned this on Twitter, but since the start of the 2022-23 season, Montembeault is seventh among all goalies with one goal saved above expected every 83 shots, and that's easily the best mark of any Canadian goalie:

As I said in my write-up, this isn't something to fret over. Canada has no elite goalie options so they're hoping one guy can get hot for two weeks.

Here is the Team USA roster:

Ready to rep the red, white and blue. Team USA's #4Nations Face-Off roster is set! 🇺🇸

Roster Details: https://t.co/NbrfSOihmL pic.twitter.com/sO9WTzTvSK
— USA Hockey (@usahockey) December 4, 2024

The big surprises here have to be no Cole Caufield or Tage Thompson. It isn't as if they Justin Abdelkader'd this thing, but not having at least one of them on the roster is leaving a lot of goal scoring at home. They seem to want Brock Nelson and Vincent Trocheck to kill penalties, and they have a lot of high-end talent anyway, but those two names stuck out to me as guys who should probably be on the roster. I did find it kind of funny that Chris Kreider was named for USA and Zach Hyman was not for Canada, given how their teams have fared and their respective roles. So it goes.

On paper, the US team seems to be the team to beat. With that forward group, a defence group that might have four of the top-10 defencemen in the league (Charlie McAvoy, Quinn Hughes, Adam Fox, Zach Werenski), and an elite goalie trio, this team is loaded from top to bottom.

Here is Team Sweden:

This roster looks pretty Swede! 🇸🇪 #4Nations pic.twitter.com/yRJU3NR3QQ
— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) December 4, 2024

One name that had been floated in recent weeks was San Jose's William Eklund. To be clear: I am a big fan of Eklund and think he's developing into a high-end playmaker. Perhaps there is concern about his scoring ability or defence, which is why he's not here, but he's someone that might deserve to be there. It would be interesting to see what the roster would look like if each country didn't have to name six players months ago. Would Mika Zibanejad be on the roster?

I will say, that defence group looks absolutely loaded. Erik Karlsson had a tough start to this season but has turned things around over the last month, and there is a good mix of high-end offensive puck-movers and lockdown defenders. This team doesn't have the offensive upside that Canada or USA do, but a lot of these tournament games aren't 6-5 score-fests, either. This looks like a team designed to beat high-octane offences 2-1 or 3-2.

And finally, Team Finland:

A solid roster from start to Finnish 🇫🇮 #4Nations pic.twitter.com/DMyk64ztpG
— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) December 4, 2024

There is a lot of talent on this roster, but when we get to names like Erik Haula, Joel Armia, and a couple names on the blue line, it's clear there's a gap between the on-paper talent from the other three rosters and the talent Finland is boasting. The thing is that the games aren't played on paper, and they could be an upset machine with enough scoring to keep them in games and a great trio of goaltenders.