Every Sunday, we share 21 Fantasy Rambles from our writers at DobberHockey. These thoughts are curated from the past week’s 'Daily Ramblings'.

Writers/Editors: Ian Gooding, Michael Clifford, Alexander MacLean, Brennan Des and Dobber

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1. The much-anticipated J.T. Miller trade finally went down on Friday afternoon. The Canucks shipped Miller, Erik Brannstrom, and Jackson Dorrington to the Rangers for Filip Chytil, Victor Mancini, and a top-13 protected 2025 first-round pick.

Was the return underwhelming for the Canucks? Absolutely. That shouldn’t be a surprise, though. Miller is on the wrong side of 30, he carries a $8 million cap hit for five more seasons after this one, and teams knew that the Canucks were trying to trade him because of the very public issues with Elias Pettersson, with only a limited number of teams making serious inquiries. All of these factors meant that interested teams did not have to offer a wealth of assets to acquire him. That’s how the trade market works. (feb1)

2. As someone who watches the Canucks more than any other team, the increasing coverage of the Miller/Pettersson saga combined with the team’s declining results meant that something had to give. The Canucks on paper are a weaker team now than they were before the trade, which isn’t a good thing when they are competing for a playoff spot with Calgary, who appeared to upgrade in their recent trade with Philadelphia. Yet now that this trade has finally been completed, the Canucks can hopefully move on and focus on the on-ice results. “Addition by subtraction” is a phrase I’ve seen often to describe the Canucks’ new situation, especially if the dressing room is a happier place without Miller. (feb1)

3. As for the Rangers, this is a win-now move focused on pushing toward a playoff spot. Having Miller, Mika Zibanejad, and Vincent Trocheck taking up $22 million in cap space while all over 30 is risky long-term. Trocheck’s contract expires in 2029, while Miller’s and Zibanejad’s contracts both expire in 2030. I think at least one of these contracts could be bought out before they are set to expire. (feb1)

For more on the Miller trade, I wrote the Fantasy Take.  

4. The Canucks weren’t done on Friday night! Following the game, they sent the first-round pick they acquired from the Rangers along with Danton Heinen, Vincent Desharnais, and Melvin Fernstrom to Pittsburgh for Marcus Pettersson and Drew O’Connor. Pettersson (the third Pettersson in the Canucks organization and the first one not named Elias) is the key piece for the Canucks, as he fills a much-needed spot as a top-4 defenseman. The quality of the Canucks’ defense plummets significantly after Hughes and Filip Hronek, and Pettersson has averaged over 20 minutes per game for each of the last three seasons. Yet for this return to make sense, the Canucks will need to sign Pettersson before July 1, as he is set to become a UFA. Overall, this trade doesn’t have major fantasy implications, but it certainly has some real-life ones. (feb1)

5. After he was waived by St. Louis earlier this week, Brandon Saad has quickly resurfaced, signing a one-year contract (for the remainder of the season) with the Vegas Golden Knights worth $1.5 million. Although Saad has scored seven goals this season, he has also been held without a goal in 40 of 43 games this season. Since Saad had registered just 15 points in 43 games on a $4.5 million cap hit, the Blues thought that his roster spot and cap space would be better used elsewhere. Fantasy leaguers can ignore this signing unless Saad finds the right linemates in Vegas and goes on a run. (feb1)

6. The Islanders seem to be collecting offensive-minded defensemen, claiming Adam Boqvist off waivers from Florida. Although he was given a run on the top power play in Florida earlier this season, Boqvist has just six points in 18 games. Three of those points were on the power play. The Islanders are currently short on right-shot d-men, as both Noah Dobson and Ryan Pulock are on injured reserve. As far as their other recently acquired defensemen, Tony DeAngelo is also right shot, although Scott Perunovich is left shot. (feb1)

The DeAngelo icetime tracker entering Saturday action: 25:07, 22:11 and 28:14 on Thursday. Meanwhile, Perunovich logged 18:52 and 17:53 in his first two games with the Islanders. Perunovich had an assist in each of his two games, but TDA has the upper-hand with the power-play time. While Noah Dobson is out, both could hold short-term value. (jan31)

7. Late Thursday, Calgary and Philadelphia hooked up on a trade. The Flames are adding Morgan Frost and Joel Farabee to their forward group while sending Jakob Pelletier, Andrei Kuzmenko, a second-round pick, and a seventh-round pick to Philly.

This deal addresses both short- and long-term needs for the Flames. They add two forwards that can help them now with secondary scoring as they push toward an unexpected playoff spot. As well, both forwards are only around 25 years of age and are under team control for one more year (Frost) and three more years (Farabee). They don’t deviate from the Flames’ preseason plan of retooling and getting younger. (jan31)

8. Miro Heiskanen is being listed as week-to-week after taking a hit to his knee from Mark Stone in last Tuesday’s game. Heiskanen has also been ruled out for the 4 Nations Face-Off in mid-February, which means that the earliest he would likely return would be later in February – nearly a month from now. But because of the length of the 4 Nations, Heiskanen won't actually miss as many games as a player normally would (assuming this is not a season-ending injury). One positive about the 4 Nations is that it could give numerous players a much-needed break to rest various ailments – at least those players not participating in the tournament. (jan31)

9. Time for an “outjury,” as Keeping Karlsson likes to say. Charlie McAvoy returned to the Bruins’ lineup on Thursday from an upper-body injury. McAvoy finished without a point with a minus-3 in 21:41 of icetime, but he was on the top power play. You’re free to drop Mason Lohrei, who was on the top power play in McAvoy’s absence. Lohrei picked up four points in seven games (1 PPP) while McAvoy was out. (jan31)

10. While we’re on the topic of defensemen, let’s discuss the Kings’ situation. Drew Doughty playing his second game of the season following a return from injury meant that Brandt Clarke was a healthy scratch for the second consecutive game (entering Saturday action). Clarke was one of the top early-season waiver-wire pickups with 15 points (6 PPP) over his first 23 games. However, that production has cooled off since then with nine points in his next 24 games, including just one power-play point.

That being said, Clarke may return to the lineup soon, as the Kings have scored a grand total of ZERO goals since Doughty returned to the lineup. In addition, Mikey Anderson left Thursday’s game with an upper-body (possibly hand) injury. Hold on for another day or two if you can (although I’ve already dropped Clarke in one league). (jan31)

11. Matvei Michkov played just 8:30 last Thursday, which was the lowest total on the team. Of course this was John Tortorella’s decision, although Michkov has been held without a point in his last five games (entering Saturday). After a strong start to his rookie season with 27 points in his first 27 games, Michkov had just seven points in his last 24 games. You won’t want to drop him in keeper leagues, but you can at least consider looking elsewhere in single-season leagues. There are certainly coaches that are more suited to coaching a player like Michkov than Tortorella is. Maybe Andrei Kuzmenko will be the Michkov whisperer. Or maybe Tortorella will bench them both. (jan31)

12. Bravo, Marc-Andre Fleury. The veteran goalie made 19 saves in earning his first shutout of the season late last week. This is more of a feel-good story than one with major fantasy implications, although Fleury is still a dependable streamer in net that is a strong bet to pick up a win (11-5-1 this season). (jan31)

13. John Klingberg made his Oilers debut on Thursday, logging 16:39 while being held without a point with one shot. No power-play time though. Klingberg may need time to get his game legs back, as his last game was over 14 months ago, on November 11, 2023. You might have to look elsewhere for instant gratification. (jan31)

14. Columbus got a nice sight at practice on Wednesday as both Yegor Chinakhov and Boone Jenner were on the ice with the team. They were skating on a ‘fifth’ practice line, so nothing seems imminent about their returns. Jenner’s timeline is still for after the Four Nations Cup, and that break starts 10 days from now. Chinakhov hasn’t played since the day before American Thanksgiving, and was off to a solid start to the season with 7 goals and 7 assists with 55 shots and 32 hits in 21 games before the injury.

Eventually, the Blue Jackets' top nine could look something like this:

Dmitri Voronkov – Sean Monahan – Kirill Marchenko
Yegor Chinakhov – Adam Fantilli – Kent Johnson
Boone Jenner – Cole Sillinger – Mathieu Olivier

That lineup looks pretty good when everyone is healthy, and they’ll need all the healthy bodies they can get as their push for a playoff position continues. (jan30)

15. The Ottawa Senators got their top goalie back at practice on Wednesday. Entering Saturday, Linus Ullmark hadn’t played since before the Christmas break, so it’s been over a month now, but Leevi Merilainen has a 6-3-1 record and a .929 save percentage in 10 appearances (nine starts, at time of writing) since Ullmark was injured. He has been more-than-competent with Ullmark out, which is why they may be a little cautious here. It also makes the starting goalie rotation interesting because it seems like it would be hard to take a goalie who is playing so well and either send him back to the AHL or give him one start every 2-3 weeks. (jan30)

16. Some not-very-great news on New Jersey forward Nico Hischier from @NJDevils: Head coach Sheldon Keefe said Nico Hisher will miss tonight’s game, is “week-to-week”, and the team will see how he feels next week.

If Hischier is week-to-week, he’s not coming back before the Four Nations Cup break. It is a bit fortunate for the team that two weeks of his recovery time will be chewed up by that break, but he’s not returning to the lineup anytime soon. (jan30)

17. Montreal provided an update on defenceman Kaiden Guhle laceration after he left the team’s game on Tuesday night. It was unclear what happened at the time, but they confirmed suspicions that it was a cut to his leg. Specifically, it was a laceration to his quad muscle that required surgery. He is out indefinitely, and as we know from other players who’ve had bad lacerations like this (Adam Fantilli last year, though his was the calf), this could be months. It is a real tough break for a guy who started the season injured, too, as the Canadiens are trying to stay afloat in the playoff race. (jan30)

18. Kirill Kaprizov is now scheduled to miss the next four weeks after undergoing surgery for a lower-body injury. Two of those weeks are covered by the break for the Four-Nations tournament, which is good news, meaning Kaprizov may only miss about two weeks, and less than 10 games. (jan29)

19. Somehow Jackson Blake is the one who comes out of the Mikko Rantanen trade with the biggest glow-up. Entering Saturday, he was lining up with Rantanen and Sebastian Aho, playing 17 minutes a night at even strength alone. The rookie winger was brought along slowly with fourth line and PP2 duties to start the year, but could be a big breakout candidate in the second half if this deployment keeps up. He registered a helper last night on Andrei Svechnikov‘s second of the game, just as a power play expired. (jan29)

20. Washington announced they signed Logan Thompson to a six-year contract with $6M a season. He has been tremendous for Washington this season, sporting a sparkling .925 save percentage with 22 wins in 26 starts (at time of writing). Dating back to the start of the 2021-2022 campaign, Thompson sat fifth by save percentage (.915) among goalies with at least 120 starts. Goalies are goalies, which means they are voodoo, but this seems like a good bet for the Capitals, and kudos to Thompson for earning the security he did. If he plays like this for the next 10 months, he seems destined to be on the Olympic roster for Team Canada. (jan28)

21. We got some interesting news early in the week from @GoldenKnights: Alex Pietrangelo will be withdrawing from the 2025 4 Nations Face-Off to tend to an ailment and prepare for the remainder of the regular season with Vegas. 

Whatever ailment Alex Pietrangelo is dealing with didn’t stop him from playing on Sunday as he ranked up 24 minutes against the Panthers. It’ll be interesting to see who replaces him in Team Canada’s lineup (Mackenzie Weegar, Aaron Ekblad, Dougie Hamilton, Drew Doughty, Evan Bouchard, Chris Tanev and Thomas Harley all seem to be in the mix) but also if any other players opt out of the tournament to nurse nagging injuries. (jan27)

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Have a good week, folks!

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