The biggest beneficiary of the Brock Nelson trade has been Jean-Gabriel Pageau who is playing second line minutes and has five points in his first five games there. The linemate quality hasn't really improved, as Anders Lee has been and still is his most frequent partner, while one of Simon Holmstrom or Anthony Duclair have been on the other wing. It's a small sample size and something not to over-value, but Pageau has been a 50-point player before and can produce at least that in stretches – it's looking like this may be one of them.

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Yegor Chinakhov has been back for two weeks now and was recently promoted to the "top" line, alongside Dimitry Voronkov and Kirill Marchenko. That means Voronkov and his LW eligibility is back at centre. His 45% FOW rate is better than Adam Fantilli's 42% rate, and with Boone Jenner back and healthy, you only need two of them at centre in the top-six (until Sean Monahan returns in a few weeks anyways). 

Voronkov sticking with the top line and adding faceoffs likely isn't relevant for most though, so what we need to look at is Chinakhov, and how he affects the line. Chinakhov is a volume shooter who was performing very well early in the season, but missed three months and doesn't have a point in five games since returning. In fact, he's a minus-eight in those five games, and moving him up to the top line is likely to try and get him going instead of a typical promotion. With Columbus fighting for their playoff lives, it's not a spot that will stick long without any production. He had an empty six shots and five hits on Monday, but he likely won't have much more leash on the top line without any results.

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St Louis and Nashville played their first of three games that they have against each other over the next two weeks. This could become a solid source of PIMs with two teams who have some big players, and don't like each other to begin with. To top it off, Nashville doesn't have much more to play for outside of next year and pride, so their fighting rate could tick up from depth players trying to make a point. 

Last night it was Jake Neighbours and Michael McCarron each getting five for fighting, with an extra misconduct to McCarron and an interference major to Luke Evangelista on the lead-up play. Two teams that didn’t like each other before, and they just threw some powder on the keg.

Neighbours actually notched a Gordie-Howe hat-trick for one of the best fantasy stat lines of the night. 

Tyler Tucker and Cole Smith added another tilt at the end of the game too. Buckle up.

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Montreal, Utah, Vancouver are the three teams with four games next week who also do not play on a busy Saturday, so those are your best streaming options. Prioritize Montreal if you like looking ahead as well, because they have four games the following week compared to three each for Utah and Vancouver. 

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Leo Carlsson scored two goals last night to put another exclamation mark on the improvement of his play since the Four Nations break. He has 14 points in his last 14 games, and if your league-mates haven’t noticed that he's hit a new level, then this may be your last chance to grab him before they do. 

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The Habs/Sens game had some big playoff implications, and it was the elder statesmen who put their mark on it. Travis Hamonic led the way for the Sens with two points, while a four-point night from Christian Dvorak and three points from Brendan Gallagher made the difference in the win from the Habs. They feel like a long shot to make the playoffs, but they’re making a good run of it. I’m just hoping one of them play the Leafs in the first round. 

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Luca Cagnoni looks to be making his NHL debut tomorrow night (Thursday) against the Hurricanes. He was a fourth-round pick in 2023 and is only five-foot-nine as a defenceman, so to say he's beating the odds is an understatement. He's barely 20 years old and has a knack for finding space and teammates as someone who processes the game very well – comparisons to Sam Girard seem well-founded and not solely based on the height. We'll see how it translates to the NHL game, but his scoring numbers in the minors have been extremely promising, so depending on your league he's worth keeping an eye on.

More immediately, he has been running PP1 at practice, and San Jose doesn’t have an incumbent who would be difficult to displace. 

It's also fun to see him lined up opposite six-foot-seven Vincent Desharnais (Cagnoni in yellow). 

Definitely a hockey buddy comedy movie script here

— Sheng Peng (@shengpeng.bsky.social) 2025-03-18T18:55:32.912Z

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There was a question on the forums asking which of the top-tier of four prospects from the upcoming 2025 people preferred at this point, and this was my initial response with my initial feeling of how they should be ranked for fantasy:

Michael Misa

James Hagens

Matthew Schaefer

Porter Martone

I'll note though that Martone could jump a spot or two if it’s a heavily weighted multi-cat league, defence aren’t worth as much, or he finishes the year a little hotter.

Misa seems like the highest upside/most dynamic guy, and that’s what you have to bet on at this stage.

To provide a note on the other two, Hagens and Schaefer both have excellent claims to be picked first overall in the NHL draft in June, but Schaefer's position and Hagens' lack of a step forward in production this year are the cause of some uncertainty for fantasy managers. 

There are a few other names to note, between Victor Eklund, Anton Frondell, Jake O'Brien, Caleb Desnoyers, and others, but already it feels like this draft is getting into the top-six potential players, and that the four big names are the only real high-end players at this point. Some scouts have Frondell and/or Desnoyers as part of that top-four group as well, while the PNHLe metrics show that O'Brien and Frondell have been putting up the best numbers. The underlying metrics favour Eklund though, and scouts are fawning over Desnoyers as a complete player who will thrive as an NHL centre, so there's lots of variables to consider with these top players. 

It does feel a little like the draft class won't be a very impressive one, though I preface that with the fact that every draft has a few stars come out of it, even the infamous 2012 year. Now I'm not saying 2025 is going to be that low on quality, but I would say it looks like a below-average set, so if you can turn those picks into something a little more substantial, then that might be the best direction for your team. 

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Jonathan Lekkerimaki is back up on the top power play for the Canucks. The team may be in trouble at the moment, but it's still a decent gig. Coming into last night’s game, Lekkerimaki had 28 minutes of power play time this season without any power play points, then the dam broke, notching an assist on Brock Boeser’s tally. We could see a few more moving forward.

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Some relevant news here for fantasy managers who own Capitals. Be ready with some alternate options over the next few weeks:

Load management will be a reality for the Capitals in these final 15 games of the season, as coach looks to rest some of his top players for playoffs and get Alexevev & McIlrath into the mix.Ovechkin will not sit as he chases the record.

— Sammi Silber (@sammisilber.bsky.social) 2025-03-18T15:52:37.008Z

The Capitals also noted that they are going to stop rotating goalies down the stretch, which likely means we see more of Logan Thompson as they get him adjusted to a more regular workload. 

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With Sidney Crosby‘s 24th goal of the season, hepassed Wayne Gretzky last night for the fourth-most points with one team. Still a long ways to go for his overall points record though. 

I always like to close out with a first career goal when I can, and we get to stick with the Penguins here. This time around the marker is courtesy of Joona Koppanen, who scored a deflection goal last night in what was his first game of the season, and 10th game of his career. The Penguins picked up Koppanen almost two years ago after he wore out his time with the Bruins franchise. The 27-year-old Finn tops out as a fourth line player at this point, so there's no fantasy relevance, but it's still great to see. 

Joona Koppanen opens up the scoring for Pittsburgh with his first goal in the NHL!#LetsGoPens

— Hockey Daily 365 – NHL Highlights & News 🏒 (@hockeydaily365.bsky.social) 2025-03-18T23:18:46.108Z

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See you next Wednesday, and if you have any fantasy hockey questions or comments you can find me on BlueSky here, as that's now my primary platform.