Kirby Dach will miss the rest of the regular season after undergoing right knee surgery. Dach was the third overall pick in 2019 by Chicago, but his development has unfortunately been stalled by multiple injuries, hence the Band-Aid Boy designation. Dach has not played 60 games in a season for the past three seasons, while he played just two games last season after tearing his ACL. He finishes the 2024-25 season with 10 goals and 22 points in 57 games. In addition, his minus-29 is tied for second-worst in the league. The good news is that Dach is expected to be ready for the start of next season.

Related to Dach's absence, Owen Beck was recalled by the Habs earlier this week. Beck picked up his first career point (an assist) on Thursday against San Jose whiel playing on the second line with Patrik Laine and Alex Newhook. With Dach now gone for the season, Beck could receive a longer look with the big club. In his first AHL season, Beck has 32 points in 47 games. For more, see his Dobber Prospects profile.

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Friday was a light night of action, with only three NHL games played.

Oliver Ekman-Larsson, Matthew Knies, and William Nylander each scored a goal in the Leafs' 3-2 win over the Rangers. Nylander's goal was his 34^th of the season, which places him 10 behind league leader Leon Draisaitl (could we have only one 50-goal scorer this season?) Nylander seems to be a strong bet to reach 40 goals for the third consecutive season, however.

If you include the 4 Nations Face-Off, Auston Matthews is now 13 games without a 5-on-5 goal. Despite the lack of 5-on-5 goals, Matthews is riding an eight-game point streak with 11 points over that span. A total of 10 of those points have been assists, with the goal being an empty-netter. Matthews is producing, just not the way you'd expect him to.

Anthony Stolarz stopped 33 of 35 shots in picking up the win. He leads the NHL among qualified goalies with a .927 SV%. He has also won all four of his starts since returning from a knee injury. Remember when his Yahoo preseason ranking was artificially high? Take away the injury that cost him nearly two months and Stolarz has actually lived up to that ranking.

Earlier on Friday, the Leafs placed Max Pacioretty on injured reserve with an undisclosed injury.

Mika Zibanejad and Will Cuylle scored the Rangers' goals. With an assist as well, Zibanejad is up to 13 points in his last nine games. He appears to be salvaging something this season after a subpar first half (27 points in his first 42 games). That coincides with the addition of J.T. Miller, who has spent over half of his even-strength minutes on a line with Zibanejad. So when we're talking about players that were helped by the Miller trade, Zibanejad qualifies here. Miller, by the way, has ten points (5 G, 5 A) in nine games with the Blueshirts.

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In the Stars' 6-2 win over the Kings, Logan Stankoven scored a pair of goals. Stankoven had a strong multicategory game as well with a plus-3, four shots, and three hits. In his first full NHL season, Stankoven's production has been hit or miss, and he's been moved down the lineup at times and was even a healthy scratch on Sunday. However, Stankoven was elevated to a scoring line with Jason Robertson and Roope Hintz on Friday. Among rookie scorers, Stankoven currently sits fourth with 28 points (9 G, 19 A) in 56 games. He's on pace for a 41-point season, which may not cut it in shallow to mid-sized single-season leagues. Yet having just turned 22, Stankoven has a very bright future.

Hintz assisted on four of Dallas's goals, two of which were on the power play. That gives him seven points over his last three games. Hintz has taken exactly three shots in each of those three games.

The Stars are the highest-scoring team since the calendar turned to 2025, having scored 84 goals and averaging 3.65 GF/GP. No other team has reached 80 goals over the past two months.

Robertson, Sam Steel, Wyatt Johnston, and Matt Duchene scored the other Stars' goals. Duchene missed the last few minutes of the game after taking a puck to the face and needing stitches, but coach Peter DeBoer said the injury is nothing serious.

Trevor Moore and Warren Foegele scored the goals for the Kings.

Darcy Kuemper has been super reliable for the Kings this season. So reliable that the really bad start on Friday (six goals allowed) was just his second all season and first since October 14 – his third game as a King.

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Ross Colton led the Avalanche with two goals (one on the power play) in their 5-2 win over Minnesota. Colton also added an assist with five shots, doing all of this in just 10:11 of icetime. Colton hasn't been that reliable recently, as he recently went 14 games without a point. He managed to snap that slump with an assist on Wednesday. After an early-season surge, Colton has reverted to being a deeper bangers league option and not much more.

The recently returned Valeri Nichushkin, Jack Drury, and Jonathan Drouin also scored goals for the Avalanche. Oliver Kylington chipped in two assists.

Vinnie Hinostroza and Mats Zuccarello scored the goals for the Wild. Zuccarello broke an eight-game point drought with the goal. His scoring has taken a major hit with Kirill Kaprizov out of the lineup. Right now, the only reliable Wild scorers seem to be Matt Boldy and Marco Rossi.

Claimed off waivers in early February by the Wild from Nashville, Hinostroza has found his way onto Minnesota's top power play. Two of Hinostroza's three goals over six games have been on the power play, including his goal on Friday. Hinostroza also skated on a scoring line with Boldy and Rossi, which like the power-play time is a result of the Wild's absences up front. Kaprizov, Joel Eriksson Ek, and Ryan Hartman all missed Friday's game. The 30-year-old Hinostroza's career path seems to be short-term replacement forward, as he is now on his seventh NHL team.

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Any trades yet? With just a week left before the trade deadline, it's been crickets lately as far as trades to announce. Yet it seems like one major deal can set off the dominoes, so don't write off this year's trade deadline just yet. Check back with DobberHockey closer to the trade deadline, as we will provide fantasy analysis on the major deals that happen over the next week.

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This tweet from Mark Spector made me think about whether overall scoring is down this season.

McDavid on pace for 1st sub-100 pt season—in a full NHL season—ever.

"If I'm not touching the puck, it's usually a sign that I'm not playing very well. The more times I touch it means I've won more battles, been around it a little bit more. Just haven't been around it enough."

— Mark Spector🇨🇦🇺🇦 (@SportsnetSpec) February 27, 2025

Last season, nine players finished with at least 100 points.

Name	GP	G	A	PTS	PTS/GP
NIKITA KUCHEROV	81	44	100	144	1.78
NATHAN MACKINNON	82	51	89	140	1.71
CONNOR MCDAVID	76	32	100	132	1.74
ARTEMI PANARIN	82	49	71	120	1.46
DAVID PASTRNAK	82	47	63	110	1.34
AUSTON MATTHEWS	81	69	38	107	1.32
LEON DRAISAITL	81	41	65	106	1.31
MIKKO RANTANEN	80	42	62	104	1.30
J.T. MILLER	81	37	66	103	1.27

This season, only seven players are projected to finish at a 100+ point pace (current paces showing below).

Name	GP	G	A	PTS	PTS/GP	Pace PTS
NATHAN MACKINNON	60	23	67	90	1.50	123
LEON DRAISAITL	58	43	44	87	1.50	122
NIKITA KUCHEROV	55	27	59	86	1.56	124
KYLE CONNOR	60	31	42	73	1.22	100
CONNOR MCDAVID	52	22	51	73	1.40	105
DAVID PASTRNAK	60	31	42	73	1.22	100
MITCH MARNER	57	18	55	73	1.28	104

Last season, the top two scorers (Nikita Kucherov and Nathan MacKinnon) finished with at least 140 points or more. This season, the top two (also top three) scorers are projected to finish with just over 120 points. As well, last season five players finished with at least 110 points, while this season only three are projected to finish above that total.

Connor McDavid is not one of those three players on pace for at least 120 points, or even at 110 points. He could finish below 100 points for only the third time in his career – once in his rookie season when he missed 37 games, and the other during the COVID-shortened 2019-20 season when he finished with 97 points in 64 games. I'd still bet on McDavid finishing with triple-digits, but the possibility of a sub-100-point season is greater than zero percent.

To finally answer my question, these scoring totals from the top players seem to line up with what is happening this season. For the second consecutive season, goals per game by team are down from 3.14 GF/GP in 2022-23 to 3.08 GF/GP in 2023-24 to 3.00 GF/GP this season. Goals-against averages are also slightly lower as a result, but surprisingly, save percentages are also lower. That appears to be due to a reduction in shots. (Source: Hockey Reference)

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