Edmonton winger Viktor Arvidsson was at the team's morning skate before the game Monday night at home against Florida. Arvidsson has been out over a month with an undisclosed injury, though he seems to be on the mend. Edmonton has three games later this week, including a back-to-back on Saturday and Sunday. We will see if he can get back in for one of those before they take off for their holiday break.

Aleksander Barkov was not in the lineup for Florida as they went into Edmonton for a rematch of last season's Stanley Cup Final.

This was one of the more entertaining games of the season as Florida jumped out to a 2-1 lead, and then Edmonton peeled off three straight goals in the second period to go ahead 4-2. Florida then scored the next three goals after that to go up 5-4 before Edmonton tied things back up 5-5. Carter Verhaeghe scored with under seven minutes left to give the Panthers a 6-5 win in a true back-and-forth contest.

Verhaeghe had a goal and an assist (PP) with four shots, two blocks, and a hit in a great fantasy night. Sam Reinhart also had a goal and a power play assist while Niko Mikkola had one of each as well. Matthew Tkachuk, Jesper Boqvist, and Gustav Forsling had the other tallies. Tkachuk finished the game with four shots and a hit.

Sergei Bobrovsky wasn't his best, but he made a key stretch save on Leon Draisaitl in the waning minutes to preserve the win, stopping 25 of 30 shots faced.

Zach Hyman had a pair of goals on six shots for Edmonton, and had enough quality chances to have three or four goals in this one. Hyman now has seven goals in six games since returning from injury, and 10 goals in 16 games since going goalless in his first 10 appearances. Safe to say that buy-low window has slammed shut.

Leon Draisaitl had a goal (PP) and an assist with three shots and a hit while Connor Brown and Kasperi Kapanen had the other tallies. Connor McDavid had a trio of helpers (one PP) and has 34 points in 18 games since returning from his own injury.

Stuart Skinner took the loss, allowing six goals on 28 shots.

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After leaving Pittsburgh's game on Saturday with an injury, defenceman Marcus Pettersson was not at practice on Monday. After practice, coach Mike Sullivan provided an update on the blue liner:

Sullivan: Marcus Pettersson is out week to week.

— Shelly Anderson (@_ShellyAnderson) December 16, 2024

The Penguins are in the thick of the Wild Card playoff race in the East and can ill-afford to lose key players like this for an extended period.

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A sort-of update on Chicago defenceman Seth Jones:

Started skating over the weekend but sounds like it's still going to be a bit. https://t.co/DrTS395RQv

— Tracey Myers (@Tramyers_NHL) December 16, 2024

Jones has been out for nearly a month with a foot injury and the initial timeline was four weeks. If he's not that close to returning, fantasy managers should probably cross him off until at least after Christmas. Chicago starts a five-game homestand on December 29^th, so hopefully he can be back at some point in that span.

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Thomas Harley missed Dallas's game on Monday night with an illness.

A pair of goals from Roope Hintz, one on the power play and one at even strength, helped lift the Stars to a 3-1 win over the Washington Capitals. That makes nine goals in the last 17 games for Hintz as he's on his way to another 30-goal campaign.

Prospect defenceman Lian Bichsel was back in the lineup thanks to Harley's absence, and he scored again, his second goal in three games with Dallas. He won't have a roster spot once everyone is healthy, but it's hard to make a better first impression than he has. He finished the game with four hits in 16:31 of ice time, too.

Jason Robertson had two helpers on the night, one on the power play, to go with a shot and a hit.

Jake Oettinger was stellar in goal, stopping 25 of 26 shots for his 16^th win of the season, second-most in the league behind Connor Hellebuyck's 19.

Dylan Strome scored the lone goal for the Capitals, a redirection off a Jakob Chychrun shot-pass. That was Strome's 11^th goal of the season, and puts him on pace for his first career 30-goal campaign.

Charlie Lindgren took the loss in net, allowing three goals on 24 shots.

It is worth noting that Mavrik Bourque was moved up to Dallas’s top line for the second half of the game and the team scored twice. Dallas only has two more games this week, but they’re both at home and on lighter Wednesday/Friday slates.

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Valeri Nichushkin scored with under a minute left in Colorado's game in Vancouver on Monday night and that broke Thatcher Demko's shutout, but the Canucks still skated away with a 3-1 win. Demko stopped 30 of 31 shots for his first win since returning from injury in what was easily his best game since that return. Vancouver's other goalie, Kevin Lankinen, was still out of the lineup with an illness and the Canucks have a back-to-back situation on Wednesday and Thursday. Something to keep an eye on.

Aside from Demko, Kiefer Sherwood was the story on Monday night, registering the first hat trick of his career, scoring all three Vancouver goals. One was a very nice short-handed tally where he stripped Nathan MacKinnon of the puck and sniped on the breakaway:

Sherwood finished the game with seven shots, a block, and three hits. He now has 11 goals, 6 assists, 61 shots, and 184 hits in 30 games. Truly one of the beast banger-league performers this season as he currently has 58 more hits than the next-closest player (Mark Kastelic, 126).

Quinn Hughes had an assist on Sherwood's empty-net tally, posting two shots and a block. Hughes is still racking up the points, but it's worth noting that after posting 3.7 shots per game across his first 15 games, he's down to 2.7 shots per game over his recent 15 outings.

Cale Makar assisted Nichushkin's goal, and totaled four shots, a block, and a hit.

Mackenzie Blackwood was solid again for Colorado, but took the loss, allowing two goals on 24 shots.

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In last week's Ramblings, I discussed players I wasn't high on before the season that are having good-to-great fantasy campaigns, as well as players I was high on that aren't finding much success.

Today, we're going to turn things positive. Let's discuss some players I was high on before the season and are finding fantasy success. When discussing preseason projections, all players were projected for 82 games, so keep that in mind.

John Tavares

Different leagues and different league settings will mean different ADPs, but Tavares was somewhere between the 90^th-100^th player off the board in standard Yahoo! leagues and outside the top-100 on Underdog Fantasy. My preseason projection was the 36^th skater off the board, projecting for 32 goals and 41 assists with 273 shots. His 82-game paces this season are 41 goals, 36 assists, and 271 shots. Overall, he is not far from what I had. The hat trick on Sunday helps.

The bet was that a player who had six straight seasons of at least 11% shooting would not shoot 10.4% again, and that Toronto's offence would be as good, if not better, than it was in 2023-24. So far, so good, as he's a top-40 player in both standard Yahoo! leagues and ESPN points formats. It is notable he has just one (1) power play assist after averaging 16 PPAs across his prior three seasons. Even if his shooting percentage declines a bit, I bet he picks up some more helpers along the way.

Dylan Guenther

It has been an outstanding start to Guenther's first full NHL season with 13 goals, 16 assists, and 74 shots in 30 games. That is a 36-goal, 44-assist, 202-shot pace over a full season. My preseason projection was for 31 goals, 36 assists, and 218 shots in an 82-game campaign. Like Tavares, a little off on goals and assists, but in a good way, and close to the shot rate expectation. When removing players who were injured going into the season (Valeri Nichushkin, Artturi Lehkonen, Patrik Laine, Boone Jennner, etc.), Guenther was 101^st overall on my board. His Yahoo! ADP was outside the top-150 players, but Underdog was closer at about 112^th. So far, he's a top-40 player in Yahoo! standard formats and a top-60 player on ESPN.

There are concerns here. He is shooting 17.6%, which is probably a bit high. Also, he's averaging less than 16 minutes a game in his last 10 games. It will be hard to maintain his goal, assist, and shot rates if he's skating 15:30-16:00 per game as opposed to the 16:30-17:00 he was skating in the 15 games prior. Nonetheless, a tremendous start and if he can earn a bit more ice time, there's a very good fantasy season waiting here.  

Robert Thomas

This is cheating a bit because Thomas did miss significant time due to injury. However, he does have 6 goals, 17 assists, and 39 shots in 20 games. That works out to 25 goals, 70 assists, and 160 shots in a full season. My projection was for 27 goals, 62 assists, and 170 shots in an 82-game effort, which is awfully close to what he's done so far. Due to the games missed, he hasn't been a successful overall fantasy option, but on a per-game basis, he's been a top-50 player in ESPN points formats. If he can keep doing this and stay healthy from here on out, he may even pay off his Yahoo! ADP of a 10^th-round pick.

The good news is that by things we typically look to for signs of regression – high individual or team shooting percentages, abnormally high individual points percentage – Thomas's season doesn't stand out in any particular way. In other words, he could very well be an 80-point player if he stays healthy, even with a dozen games missed. It is hard to complain about what he's done when he's been on the ice.  

Zach Werenski

There is no defenceman I drafted more often this season than Werenski. I had him as a top-10 blue liner, even with the lack of hits, simply because of his potential production and shot rates: I had him down for 15 goals, 51 assists, 244 shots, 155 blocks, and 24 hits. His current paces are for 27 goals, 56 assists, 296 shots, 130 blocks, and 24 hits. I have my doubts he'll finish with 27 goals, but it's worth noting his 8.9% shooting isn't far off what he did from 2018-2021 when he shot 8.8% across 180 games.

It is worrisome he has a 62% individual points percentage (IPP), which would be a career-high (he has never exceeded 51% in any season where he's played at least 40 games) – it's nowhere close to certainty that he'll be a point-per-game defenceman. However, it seems likely he gets close to the 66 points espoused by projections, and barring a severe injury, he'll blow his preseason ADPs out of the water.

Jake Walman

Whether by standard Yahoo! leagues or ESPN points formats, Walman has been a top-15 defenceman this season. He was around the 175^th pick off the board in Yahoo! leagues and should easily clear that. He was ranked as my 27^th overall defenceman, and the 97^th skater on my board with a projection of 15 goals, 22 assists, 192 shots, 193 blocks, and 54 hits. So far this campaign, he's pacing for 15 goals, 50 assists, 208 shots, 129 blocks, and 73 hits. I was very light on assists and very heavy on blocks, but the rest isn't far off.

Walman's ADP never made sense to me. He was going to a team that was clearly going to have to give him heavy minutes and he was going to get some run on the top power play unit. He showed goal-scoring ability in his two years with Detroit and more ice time meant more peripherals. It is doubtful he keeps up a 65-point pace – his IPP is 59.5% and that's going to come down – but he is in line for a 50-point season and even that will easily pay off his ADP in almost any format.