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 trade deadline came and went on Friday with lots of activity. For a full list of trades, go to the Trade Deadline Tracker. For the most impactful trades from a fantasy perspective, go to our Fantasy Takes page. (mar8)

2. Friday was a memorable day for the Dallas Stars. Moments after acquiring Mikko Rantanen in a monster deal, the Stars announced the signing of up-and-coming star (see what I did there?) Wyatt Johnston to a five-year extension with an $8.4 million AAV. After a lukewarm start of three goals and 12 points in his first 21 games, Johnston has cranked up the scoring with 29 points in his last 20 games. He could be immediately impacted by the Rantanen trade with a move off a hot scoring line with Jason Robertson and Roope Hintz, but I wouldn’t worry too much about that. With this signing, the Stars have signaled that the 21-year-old Johnston is a major part of their plans both now and in the future. (mar8)

3. More Friday signings: The Sabres pulled Jason Zucker off the trade market before the deadline, signing him to a two-year extension worth $4.75 million per season. Zucker has had a strong first season in Buffalo, scoring 44 points (18 G, 26 A) in 54 games, good for a 67-point pace over 82 games (at time of writing). That being said, he may be a bit of a surprise signing, as he is now 33 years old and his production has been all over the map throughout his career. The young Sabres could probably use a veteran stabilizing force, particularly since they have been stuck in a rebuild for so long.

Elsewhere, Johnathan Kovacevic has signed a five-year extension with a $4 million AAV to stay in New Jersey. In his first season with the Devils, Kovacevic is averaging nearly 20 minutes of icetime per game while working in a shutdown role with Jonas Siegenthaler. By the way, Siegenthaler is expected to be out for the rest of the regular season with a lower-body injury. (mar8)

4. Canucks fans were not a happy bunch on Friday, as their team could not orchestrate a trade involving UFA-to-be Brock Boeser for assets that could help beyond this season. The Canucks could still sign Boeser before July 1, but the two sides are reportedly still far apart.

Canucks fans did find something to be happy about in their game on Friday night, though. Elias Pettersson scored his first goal in 16 games, finally channeling the one-timer that we haven’t seen for a while. Pettersson has looked much more engaged and confident in his past two games. Although he was held off the scoresheet again on Wednesday, he won 20 faceoffs in that outing against Anaheim. If you’ve been patient all this time, I’m here to tell you there appears to be a light at the end of this tunnel.

Kevin Lankinen was outstanding on Friday, stopping 37 of 38 shots in the Canucks’ 3-1 win over Minnesota. With Thatcher Demko‘s return date still a mystery, expect Lankinen to start the bulk of the games for the Canucks down the stretch. (mar8)

5. The Oilers have announced that Evander Kane will not return to the lineup during the regular season. The focus immediately turns to whether Kane will be ready just in time for Game 1 of the Stanley Cup playoffs. I won’t try to speculate whether that will or won’t happen, but at least we now know that Kane will not play in a single game this regular season after undergoing abdominal surgery in September. He has one more year left after this one on his contract with a cap hit of $5.125 million. (mar8)

6. Aliaksei Protas has now reached 25 goals this season, which is a huge jump considering his previous career high was six goals last season. In addition, Protas is on pace for 70 points, which also seems out of nowhere. Digging a little deeper, Protas continues to ride a 21.2 SH%, 13.5 5-on-5 SH%, 3.1 PTS/60, and 1044 PDO, all of which suggest that a regression will occur next season if not sooner. Entering Saturday action, the 6-6, 247 lb. Protas was sporting a plus-33 on the season, placing him behind only Ryan McDonagh in the plus-minus race. (mar8)

7. With a power-play assist on Friday, Jackson LaCombe has 10 points over his past eight games. LaCombe is the breakout candidate that you didn’t expect, currently on a full-season pace of 50 points while playing on the top power play over Pavel Mintyukov and Olen Zellweger. The trade of Brian Dumoulin to New Jersey on Thursday appears to have created room for both Mintyukov and Zellweger, as either one or the other had often been healthy scratched up to that point. Those smaller deals often don’t have major fantasy impacts, but this one does. If LaCombe really starts to cool off, Mintyukov or Zellweger might be granted a turn on the top power play. (mar8)

8. It’s possible that we see Eric Comrie more often than usual down the stretch as the Jets prepare Connor Hellebuyck for the playoffs. No problem, says Winnipeg. Comrie made 21 saves on Thursday, giving him four wins and four quality starts over his last five games. If you need a goalie stream, Comrie is probably worth a look (4% Yahoo/12% Fantrax at time of writing). However, as a goalie on a team at the top of the standings, Comrie doesn’t show an impressive record (7-8-1), so a win might not come that easy. (mar7)

9. Colton Parayko will be out for at least six weeks, as he will undergo a scope on his left knee and be re-evaluated then. That could effectively end Parayko’s season, as the regular season will end at around that time. Parayko has already matched his career high of 35 points in just 62 games this season, while he is also in the top 30 in combined hits and blocks this season (231 HIT+BKS). The leader in icetime for the Blues (23:51), Parayko is a big loss for the Blues in their pursuit of the final wild-card spot in the West. He can probably be cut from single-season fantasy rosters given his injury timeline. (mar7)

10. The Utah Hockey Club has signed Karel Vejmelka to a five-year extension worth $4.75 million per season. Vejmelka is having a career year between the pipes, as his 14.03 GSAx was 10th among all goalies at time of writing. His standout play for the Hockey Club can also be backed up by his six “steals”, which is tied for third among all goalies.

Not familiar with GSAx or steals? These are stats that have been recently added to Frozen Tools. GSAx is defined as “expected goals against minus goals against,” with the bigger the number the better. Steals is “when goals saved above expected exceeds the margin of victory.” (mar7)

11. Circling back to the Trade Deadline: Alex MacLean had his take on the Yanni Gourde/Oliver Bjorkstrand to the Lightning trade and it can be read here.

Here are a few thoughts from Michael Clifford: "In real-hockey terms, I like Tampa Bay adding Gourde. He is still a good third-line centre who can contribute well at both ends of the ice. It’ll give that team a much-needed boost to that third line, even if he’s not very fantasy relevant in most formats.

Bjorkstrand is the interesting name. He has never had a huge fantasy season (no 30-goal seasons, no 60-point seasons, only reached 25 goals once) but that also underrates his production. Over the last three seasons in Seattle, he has posted 0.8 goals and 0.67 primary assists per 60 minutes at 5-on-5. Here are some names with very similar rates to that over the last three seasons: Tim Stutzle, Andrei Svechnikov, Brock Boeser. When looking at things like shot and hit rates, the only real difference between Bjorkstrand and Boeser is ice time.

That is what makes the landing spot interesting. Tampa Bay has enough players for a great top PP unit, but we have seen them experiment at times with guys like Mitchell Chaffee and Nick Paul. Who is to say that Bjorkstrand won’t get a crack at that top PP unit at some point? If he’s skating in the top-6, and can get top PP time, he would be in a perfect spot to start posting career-best rates.

This is as good a landing spot as Bjorkstrand could hope for. It would not be surprising to see him go on a tear for the next six weeks." (mar6)

12. Some very bad news for the New Jersey Devils and Jack Hughes, as he underwent shoulder surgery last week and was placed on long-term injured reserve.

This always seemed likely when he was initially injured, but now that it’s confirmed, all we can hope for is that he can return to his normal self at some point. He is still 23 years old and has now had three shoulder surgeries. That is not a good sign, but the hope is always there he can return and be as productive as ever (I think of Taylor Hall as an example here).

Even worse was New Jersey also said that defenceman Dougie Hamilton is week-to-week after being injured in their most recent game. With only six weeks left in the season, even 20-or-so days would be a huge hit to fantasy managers. For the foreseeable future, we should expect a lot more ice time, including top power-play minutes, for Luke Hughes. (mar6)

13. After Jake Evans signed an extension with the Montreal Canadiens, a couple of other Eastern Conference teams signed some depth players to extensions as Buffalo extended Jordan Greenway for two years while Mathieu Olivier got a six-year deal from the Columbus Blue Jackets. According to PuckPedia, Olivier’s deal is for $3-million per season while Greenway’s is for $4-million per season. On top of that, Olivier got a 10-team no-trade list while Greenway got a 5-team no-trade list.

To be clear: good for these guys in getting their money and securing their futures. I am never against a player getting that.

With that said, how is Olivier, who has 55 career points at the age of 28, getting a six-year contract with a partial no-trade clause? Did he want a *seventh* year instead of a no-trade? Maybe $3.5-million a season? I am not against signing depth players to serve as mentors, but for a couple years (like Greenway). Six years? With a partial no-trade? What? (mar6)

14. Earlier in the week, Charlie Lindgren signed a three-year extension with the Capitals for $3 million per season. This gives the Caps a lot of cap certainty on their core heading into next year, with only Jakob Chychrun as another important piece. I wonder if we see an extension there before the end of the month, something around an eight-year by $8.5 million cap hit. (mar5)

15. Tom Wilson now has 51 points on the season. He needs two points the rest of the way to set a new career-best mark, and one goal to reach 30 for the first time in his career. He has truly been a fantasy stud this season in multi-category formats with 29 goals, 22 assists, 16 power-play points, 142 shots, 179 hits, 54 blocks, and 59 penalty minutes in 62 games. (mar6)

16. It’s easy to get ahead of ourselves in trying to project trades and impacts around the Trade Deadline, so I didn’t make an effort to project anything for fantasy purposes. What I wanted to outline is making sure we have our expectations set on a few points (that we can think about next year, too):

• Players are going to be sat, and they might or might not get traded. Don’t overreact, just be ready to work around them. Occasionally the service providers will make those players IR eligible, but not always.
  
• Sometimes when a player goes from a US team to a Canadian team (or vice versa) they end up stuck with visa delays. It happened with Andrei Kuzmenko and Jakob Pelletier young to the Flyers, and they missed multiple games as a result. A bit more of a risk for the players on Canadian teams, but not much you can do about it.
  
• Trying not to over-expect or over-react can be difficult this time of year. You hear a name in the rumour mill often enough and you eventually start to believe that it's a certainty that they get moved, when in reality there are usually less than a handful that are a sure thing. Try not to get ahead of yourself, with players that might not get traded, or in dreaming up best case scenarios with lines as soon as someone is traded. For example, Frederic isn't going to end up alongside Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl, expect him on line three with Adam Henrique.
  
• Generally, just prepare to be disappointed. (mar5)

17. Rick Roos is looking for fantasy-based questions that need answers. To get your questions to him, private message “rizzeedizzee” via the DobberHockey Forums or email admin@dobbersports.com with “Roos Mailbag” as the subject line. No one does a deeper dive on your questions than Rick, and now is the time to get those keeper and draft questions in before it's too late.

18. There was a topic on the forum where a few people were debating a few lists of goalies who have the most fantasy value over the next five years. There were some varied opinions, and that’s expected with goalies. It’s hardest with them, as they’re not only rated based on talent, but the team in front of them as well. If you want to project goalies, you need to look at talent, the team in front of them, and how they’re trending based on age and other factors. 

For the team to be a big factor, they need to be young enough, have the star power locked in, and have a good set of management to know that a steady hand is being kept on the wheel. To me, and despite not having a superstar on the roster, the Dallas Stars feel like they have the optimal setup to project as a top team for the next five years. That bodes well for Jake Oettinger, who has had some ups and downs, but has generally been a very good fantasy goalie over the last couple of years. Plus he’s only 26. 

To round out my top-five goalies for the next five years:

Igor Shesterkin (29): He’s a top goalie on a team that wants to win, they’ll figure it out. 

Connor Hellebuyck (31): I’ve been skeptical of him in the past with his prior history of one bad year followed by one good year, but there’s three straight seasons of elite play now. 

Ilya Sorokin (29): Maybe the most talented goalie in the league, the team in front of him is the question.

Pyotr Kochetkov (25): The Canes are perennially talented and support their goalies well. Koch is going to be hugely valuable once he starts seeing the majority of starts and matures a bit more. (mar5)

19. Basically, the above looks like a list of the best goalies right now, well that’s because it mostly is, as those guys are the best now, will be the best in 2-3 years, and will still be decent after that. Compare that to trying to guess with someone like Spencer Knight or Dustin Wolf, and they might be good next year, they might be good they year after, they should probably be good further out than that, but we don’t know what their teams will look like, how they’ll handle a starter’s workload, etc. Overall, keep it simple and stop trying to find the best guy for three years from now when often it’s still the guy who is best now. 

A few other names who I considered for that top-five list: (mar5)

[Follow the link for more…]

20. The Florida Panthers did provide a firm update on forward Matthew Tkachuk, and it’s not a good one: 

@GeorgeRichards: Bill Zito says the Florida Panthers expect Matthew Tkachuk to miss the remainder of the regular season, hopes to have him "back for the playoffs.''

Florida has enough of a cushion that making playoffs isn’t in danger, but whether Tkachuk can return and be healthy for the playoffs themselves is another matter. Either way, fantasy managers better be ready to make some waiver moves because they will be without his services until next October. (mar4)

21. One player fantasy managers may want to target is Florida forward Mackie Samoskevich, who was moved to the team’s top power-play unit last Monday. He has spent time there before, and hasn’t remained there, so it’s very uncertain how long this lasts. Either way, top power-play time along with a second-line role next to Sam Bennett is pretty good deployment to find on the waiver wire this late into the season. (mar4)

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Have a good week, folks!

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