As has been rumored since the summer, Jacob Trouba was finally moved out of New York. Trouba was traded to Anaheim for Urho Vaakanainen and a conditional 2025 fourth-round pick. Read the Fantasy Take here.

That wasn't it for Rangers transactions on Friday, as they signed Igor Shesterkin to an eight-year extension worth $11.5 million per season. Shesterkin is on the final year of his contract paying $5.67 million per season. Since Trouba has another year left on his contract after this one, trading him seemed to free up what was needed to finally get Shesterkin over the hump. Just like shedding Trouba, the piece of mind of having the #1 goalie under long-term contract might ease tensions for the Rangers.

Shesterkin snapped his own five-game losing streak on Friday with an 18-save effort in the Rangers' 4-2 win over Pittsburgh. He now has as many wins (9) as regulation losses. The likes of David Rittich, Kevin Lankinen, and Joey Daccord have more wins than Shesterkin, which is not something we had expected at this point in the season. Shesterkin might be worth a buy low, as the Rangers seem capable of turning things around.

Artemi Panarin scored two goals and added an assist, giving him six points over his last three games. His linemate Vincent Trocheck scored a goal with two assists, so he has five points in his last four games.  

Reilly Smith scored his first goal in 11 games (plus a healthy scratch) and also took a team-high six shots on goal.

Philip Tomasino scored his third goal as a Penguin, giving him a four-game point streak and goals in three of those four games. Playing on a line with Evgeni Malkin seems to be agreeing with Tomasino, who seemed to need a fresh start away from Nashville.

–

Trouba obviously wasn't in the lineup for the Ducks on Friday, given the timing of the trade. They could have used him, losing 5-1 on home ice to the red-hot Wild.

Minnesota's top line of Matt Boldy, Kirill Kaprizov, and Marco Rossi connected for three points each on Friday. Rossi scored two goals, while Boldy and Kaprizov scored one each. Boldy and Kaprizov are obviously rostered everywhere, but Rossi is unclaimed in 80 percent of Yahoo leagues. With the three points on Friday, Rossi has six points over his last four games. He is also scoring at a near point-per-game pace (23 PTS in 26 GP).

Jared Spurgeon picked up a power-play assist on Friday, giving him five points over his last four games. Now on Minnesota's top power play, Spurgeon is rostered in just 15 percent of Yahoo leagues and 37 percent of Fantrax leagues, making him worthy of being added in many leagues.

Meanwhile, Brock Faber has assists and a plus-3 in back-to-back games, but he has barely gotten a sniff of the power play over those past two games. Faber is a skilled offensive defenseman, but both his power-play usage and his advanced stats are trending in the wrong direction. Something that stands out is that nine of Faber's 11 assists this season are secondary assists. He could continue to log enough icetime to remain fantasy relevant, but you could try to sell based on his fine rookie season.  

–

In the Devils' 3-2 win over Seattle, Luke Hughes scored his first goal of the season. After an offseason shoulder injury and a slow start of one point in his first 10 games, Hughes has been coming on recently with seven points in his last seven games. Even if he isn't on the top power play, Hughes should be rostered or added in many fantasy formats.

With a goal and assist on Friday, Jesper Bratt now has goals in three consecutive games and nine points over his last four games.

Shane Wright started the season with just two points in his first 18 games, then he was healthy scratched for the next three games. That seemed to be what Wright needed, as he has seven points in seven games since then. With a goal on Friday, Wright now has goals in back-to-back games. Playing on a line with Oliver Bjorkstrand and Eeli Tolvanen seems to help, although his icetime (usually under 15 minutes) should probably increase some more before he is safe to add in single-season leagues.

–

Mark Stone returned to the Vegas lineup on Friday, assisting on Tomas Hertl's first-period power-play goal. Stone had been out of the lineup for the past month with a lower-body injury. Prior to the injury, Stone was among the league scoring leaders with 21 points in 13 games. As it stands now, only Kaprizov and Martin Necas have a higher points-per-game average than Stone (1.57 PTS/GP). Get him back into your lineup and keep him there until the next injury.

Adin Hill is making his selection for Team Canada at the Four Nations Tournament look like a wise choice. Hill made 38 shots in picking up a 3-2 win over Dallas. That gives him six wins and six quality starts over his last eight games. If I were coaching Canada, I'd let Hill start the first game and go from there.

–

On Friday, the Hurricanes placed Brendan Lemieux on unconditional waivers in order to terminate his contract. Lemieux has had deep bangers league value in the past, but he has spent the entire season in the AHL. He will likely try to catch on with another NHL organization.

–

Thatcher Demko dressed for Friday's game as the backup, although he did not see any action. Demko sounds like a possibility to start Sunday against Tampa Bay, but with that being an afternoon game, I don't think it's a certainty. But get ready to activate Demko if you've been holding on to him for this long. Hang onto Kevin Lankinen, though, as I don't expect Demko to take on his usually heavy workload once he's back in business.

With a goal on Friday, Jake DeBrusk has goals in four consecutive games with six goals over that span. With J.T. Miller out of the lineup, DeBrusk has found his way back onto the top power play and taken full advantage. DeBrusk has scored nine goals over his past seven games, with five of those goals coming on the power play. Beware that he could cool off not only with Miller's return but also because of regression (21.8 SH%, 12.8 5v5 SH%, 66.7 Sec. Asst%).

Pius Suter is another player taking advantage of Miller's leave. Although Suter had been used as a top-6 forward at times, he has moved to second-line center and seen his icetime increase 3-4 minutes per game as a result. Suter has scored five goals over his past five games and is only trailing DeBrusk by one goal for the team lead (11 goals for Suter). Miller has started skating again and could return to the Canucks' lineup as early as next week.  

Ivan Provorov left Friday's game with what is described as an upper-body injury. On the TV replay, it looked like Provorov's thumb bent awkwardly. Hopefully nothing serious.

With a first-period goal on Friday, Mathieu Olivier added to his career-high total of eight goals. I doubt he continues to score at this pace, but Olivier is flexing some bangers league value. Olivier is in the top 10 in penalty minutes (47) and just outside the top 10 in hits (83).

–

Finally, Friday featured not one, but two Elvis giveaways in two separate games.

Only in Vegas pic.twitter.com/6qANlS81Qq

— SinBin.vegas (@SinBinVegas) December 7, 2024

This was great.

Elvis then walked up the stairs and gave the puck to a kid. https://t.co/3ID5EFyQpT

— Jesse Granger (@JesseGranger_) December 7, 2024

MERZLIKINS MISPLAYED THE PUCK IN NO MAN'S LAND AND THE CANUCKS CONVERT 😱😭 pic.twitter.com/us2TtEVB8X

— Gino Hard (@GinoHard_) December 7, 2024

On that note, check out the new Elvis documentary on Netflix. It's pretty interesting.

–

Follow me on X @Ian_Gooding and Threads @goodsfantasyhockey