The holiday trade freeze has now begun and will be lifted on December 28. That means there won't be any new trades to discuss for about a week. No worries. There's enough to discuss from a busy Thursday night, including the fallout of a couple of recent deals.

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With two assists on Thursday, Nikita Kucherov has extended his point streak to nine games. Over that span, Kucherov has 20 points, although just three of those points are goals. Kucherov has an 82-game pace of 144 points – the exact same total he reached last season. Watching Kucherov play live was something I was able to add to my bucket list recently.

Although the Blues lost on Thursday night, Pavel Buchnevich added another point. Since around the time of the coaching change to Jim Montgomery, Buchnevich has picked up 10 points in his last 11 games. That may not be considered a streak by some, as it was broken up by two games that Buchnevich missed with a lower-body injury.

That being said, a number of St. Louis players have cooled off recently. That includes offer sheet signings Philip Broberg (0 PTS in last 6 GP) and Dylan Holloway (0 PTS in last 5 GP). Prior to that, Holloway had piled up 11 points in his last seven games with a five-game point drought before that. In his first full NHL season, Holloway seems like a hot-and-cold player as opposed to a set-and-forget player.

Broberg was a late scratch for Thursday's game due to illness.

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Elvis Merzlikins made 43 saves, including this beauty, in a 4-2 win over the Devils.

ELVIS MERZLIKINS GRAND LARCENY 🙅‍♂️ pic.twitter.com/bCZ8Y0t8J1

— NHL (@NHL) December 20, 2024

A total of 13 of those shots came off the stick of Jack Hughes. That's the highest single-game total from a player this season. Unfortunately, Hughes did not score on any of those shots, so he'll have to settle for one assist. With 115 shots on the season, Hughes is in the top five in that category. Despite that effort, Hughes' shots per game total is actually down from 4.4 SOG/GP last season to 3.7 SOG/GP this season.

In the Blue Jackets' win, Sean Monahan scored two goals and added a power-play assist. Monahan had been held without a point in his previous three games. In his first season in Columbus, Monahan is on pace for 70 points, which would be his best total since the 2018-19 season. It seems that he has been able to completely recover from hip surgery a few seasons ago.

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Anze Kopitar keeps chugging along. With two goals on Thursday, Kopitar has five points in his last three games. He is also scoring at over a point per game (37 PTS in 32 GP), something he hasn't done since the 2017-18 season. Kopitar is not usually a point-per-game scorer anyway, but he has very consistently scored at a 60-75-point full-season pace for a significant portion of his career. He's very easy to make projections for, and a nice surprise this season.

Kevin Fiala also scored a pair of goals in the Kings' win. Despite the Kings' success this season, Fiala is currently on pace for just 53 points. It is worth mentioning that he has been stronger in the second half than he has in the first half for much of his career, which could mean he's worth waiting it out for. Fiala has just three primary assists all season, which is an area of concern.

Despite the Flyers' loss, Tyson Foerster had a nice game with two goals, an assist, a plus-3, and five shots.

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Sidney Crosby and Bryan Rust each picked up four points in the Penguins' 5-4 win over Nashville. Crosby scored a power-play goal, which ended a rare 10-game goal drought for him. Also adding three assists, Crosby now has eight points over his last four games. Crosby didn't look frustrated at all before the game discussing his "slump."

All Sidney Crosby needed was a reporter to ask him about his goal-scoring slump. 😂

He's back, folks. pic.twitter.com/43DUont9dH

— NHL (@NHL) December 20, 2024

Meanwhile, Rust had two goals and two assists, giving him 12 points over his last six games. Rust registered another four-point game, which included a hat trick, a week ago against Montreal. He's rostered in under half of Yahoo leagues, so you may still have an opportunity to add him.

With a goal and an assist on Thursday, Brady Skjei snapped a nine-game point drought. Skjei has just 11 points in 33 games and his rostered in nearly half of Yahoo leagues, so I'm thinking he's droppable by now.

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Kaapo Kakko made his Kraken debut on Thursday against Chicago. Even though he was held without a point in 13 minutes of icetime, Kakko was handed a spot on the top line with Jared McCann and Matty Beniers. He had to settle for Seattle's second-unit power play, though. Kakko is worth at least adding to your watch list in the event that he can come closer to reaching his draft-day potential (although he will probably never reach it). We'll find out soon enough if a change of scenery is what he needed. For more, Cliffy wrote the Fantasy Take for the Kakko trade.

In the Blackhawks' 3-1 win over Seattle, Ilya Mikheyev scored a pair of goals. Mikheyev has scored four goals over his last three games after being held without a goal in his previous 12 games. Traded to the Hawks by the Canucks in a salary cap dump, Mikheyev doesn't score consistently enough to be rostered in fantasy leagues.

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Brady Tkachuk's final tally on Thursday: an overtime game-winning goal, four shots, three hits, nine stitches, and one less tooth. Maybe the various fantasy hockey platforms should add the final two as roto categories.

Brady Tkachuk is tough. 🫡 pic.twitter.com/a5TtCt4i2v

— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) December 20, 2024

Linus Ullmark continues to be must-start. Thursday's win is his seventh consecutive win and ninth consecutive quality start. Over that seven-game win streak, Ullmark has not allowed more than two goals in a game, posting a sparkling 0.99 GAA and .967 SV% over that two-week span. Now that they have a legitimate starting goalie, the Senators are looking like a playoff team in an Atlantic Division that has been difficult to crack for a few seasons.

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Zach Hyman was held to just three goals in his first 20 games. After missing a few games, he returned and has scored eight goals in his past seven games. Goal scoring is a tricky art.

Leon Draisaitl assisted on all three Oilers' goals in their overtime win over Boston. That gives him 18 points over his last seven games. He has multiple points in each of those seven games. Already at 50 points, Draisaitl is now nipping at the heels of Nathan MacKinnon in the Art Ross race.  

Viktor Arvidsson returned to the Oilers' lineup after 15 games missed. He played just 11:56 while on a line with Adam Henrique and Connor Brown. That doesn't seem like the best deployment for Arvidsson.

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Whether it's because of their personal differences or simply an out-of-the-box strategy from Rick Tocchet, separating J.T. Miller and Elias Pettersson so that they're not on the power play at the same time hasn't moved the needle for the Canucks. Simply put, the Canucks' top two forwards aren't playing like their top two forwards at the moment. Pettersson is without a point in his last five games, which is when Miller returned from his leave. While Miller was gone for 10 games, Pettersson picked up 15 points. Miller himself is also without a point in his last three games.

The focus will be on Miller and Pettersson because who doesn't like a soap opera, but the fact is that the Canucks' lack of scoring goes beyond those two players. Conor Garland is without a point in his last five games, while Jake DeBrusk and Brock Boeser are without points in their last four games each. Hopefully you're not still waiting on Nils Hoglander, who has been held without a point in 21 games and was a healthy scratch on Thursday. A lack of shots is a reason for the lack of scoring recently, as the Canucks rank in the bottom five in the league in both shots and shot attempts. Tocchet seems to want the Canucks to play low-event hockey, which could hurt the team's scorers from a fantasy perspective.

A feud between Miller and Pettersson may not necessarily affect their overall results – even if it seems that it will. Remember Shaq and Kobe? Teams have been successful even if their top stars aren't exactly the best of friends. Yet if the on-ice results aren't there, it's easy to assume that the two not getting along is reaching a boiling point and is thus at least part of the reason.

In the Golden Knights' 3-1 win over Vancouver, Alex Pietrangelo picked up his first point in nine games and his first goal in 15 games. His strong start has made his overall numbers (16 PTS in 29 GP) look okay, but he should be downgraded from previous seasons based on the fact that he has no power-play points this season and no longer plays on the top unit.

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In a battle of goaltenders recently traded for each other, Joel Kiviranta scored a pair of third-period goals to give the Avalanche a 4-2 win over the Sharks.

As for the goaltenders, the Avalanche look like they have upgrading their goaltending in swapping Alexandar Georgiev for Mackenzie Blackwood. The new Colorado goalie made 32 saves to pick up his third quality start in his third game with the Avs. Blackwood has allowed two goals in each of those games. It's fair to say his value has improved tremendously with the trade to Colorado. If he's somehow available in your league, go add him, as he should help your team with wins at the very least. He has the potential to be much better than what he showed with a dismal Sharks team.

Meanwhile, Georgiev is still Fourgiev, having allowed four goals for the second consecutive game. He has neither a quality start nor a really bad start in his three games with the Sharks, so he hasn't been downright terrible. Georgiev had already been hurting fantasy teams with his numbers in Colorado this season, with his value taking a further hit with the trade to San Jose. Only Cayden Primeau has a worse goals-saved above average number than Georgiev (-13.30 GSAA) this season. Although Georgiev was a high pick in many fantasy drafts, he is a potential drop depending on how many goalies you need.

For more on the trade, Brennan wrote the Fantasy Take shortly after the deal went down.

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