It was never ideal that the Edmonton Oilers announced that both Leon Draisaitl and Connor McDavid would miss a week (or more) with injuries. While it does appear that McDavid is a little ways off from returning to action, there was some good news to come down on Wednesday as the Oilers announced that Draisaitl will be returning sooner rather than later:

Per Kris Knoblauch, Leon Draisaitl is closer to a return than Connor McDavid. Roughly a week, perhaps less, for Draisaitl. That leaves the door open slightly for a possible return Saturday vs. CGY.

— Daniel Nugent-Bowman (@DNBsports) March 26, 2025

Edmonton has a home game against Calgary on Saturday before heading out on the road, so maybe he returns by the weekend, but if not, then Draisaitl looks to be on track to return by Tuesday.

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The Florida Panthers had some interesting lines at practice on Wednesday:

#FlaPanthers forward lines today:

Verhaeghe – Barkov – Rodrigues
Samoskevich – Nosek – Marchand
Luostarinen – Lundell – Boqvist
Greer – Sturm – Gadjovich

Reinhart & Bennett not skating.

— Jameson Olive (@JamesonCoop) March 26, 2025

It appears as if Brad Marchand looks set to return to action, and make his Panthers debut in relatively short order. There is no further update on Matthew Tkachuk, so Marchand looks ready for a top-6, and likely top PP, role very soon.

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On top of getting Sean Monahan and Erik Gudbranson back recently, the Columbus Blue Jackets look set to welcome back Cole Sillinger to the lineup:

#CBJ Cole Sillinger and Jake Christiansen have been medically cleared and could play vs. Vancouver on Friday.

— Aaron Portzline (@Aportzline) March 26, 2025

Sillinger has not played since the end of February and has 29 points in 54 games on the season.

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The New Jersey Devils snapped a three-game losing streak thanks to a 5-3 win over the Chicago Blackhawks on Wednesday night. It was partly thanks to another great offensive effort from Luke Hughes, who managed three assists (two on the power play) with one shot. That gives Hughes 12 points in his last 11 games, or the stretch without Dougie Hamilton in the lineup. He needs two more points for his second straight 40-point season to open his career.

Dawson Mercer had a goal and an assist, both on the power play, to go with three total shots and four hits. That pushes Mercer over the 30-point plateau for the campaign.

Timo Meier (PP), Nathan Bastian, Ondrej Palat, and Stefan Noesen had the other goals. Meier's marvelous March continues with eight goals in 13 games this month.

Jacob Markstrom stopped 21 of 24 shots for the win, his 23^rd win of the season. He needs one more to pass the totals from each of his last two campaigns.

Tyler Bertuzzi (PP), Ilya Mikheyev, and Frank Nazar had the goals for Chicago. That goal gives Bertuzzi 20 on the season, his second consecutive season with at least 20 goals. He has now reached 20 goals in every campaign in which he's played at least 60 games.

Artyom Levshunov had a pair of assists (one PP) with two shots, a block, and a hit. He is still looking for his first career NHL goal but has four assists in eight games.

Spencer Knight allowed four goals on 19 shots for the loss.

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The Vancouver Canucks fought back from a 2-1 deficit in New York on Wednesday night to take a 5-2 win over the Islanders. Kiefer Sherwood scored twice for the Canucks, adding an assist on a goal from Aatu Raty, while totaling four shots, a block, and four hits. Aside from recently setting the NHL record for hits in a season, Sherwood now has reached the 30-point plateau for the first time, and needs three goals to reach 20 for the first time.

Derek Forbort and Teddy Blueger had the other goals.

Marcus Pettersson had a very good multi-cat night with an assist, two shots, two blocks, two PIMs, and a hit.

Thatcher Demko stopped 26 of 28 shots for the win.

Casey Cizikas had a goal and an assist for the Islanders while Tony DeAngelo had the other goal. DeAngelo managed four shots, two blocks, and a hit. That makes nine points in 10 games for the defenceman.

Ilya Sorokin was pulled after giving up four goals on 19 shots.

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The Anaheim Ducks put up six goals for the second game this month as they took a 6-2 win at home against Boston. Over Anaheim's last 25 games, the team is 20^th by expected goal share, 13^th by goal share, and 15^th by points percentage. They have definitely been on an upward trajectory in the second half of the season.

Leo Carlsson scored twice, totaling four shots, a block and two PIMs. He is up to 16 points in 17 games since the Four Nations break, but is also shooting 32.1% in that span, so let's be a little cautious here.

Cutter Gauthier, Mason McTavish, and Nikita Nesterenko also got on the board. McTavish's goal was his 19^th of the season, tying his career-high mark from last season.

Jackson LaCombe managed a multi-point night with a goal, an assist, two shots, and a block. He sits one point shy of a 40-point campaign.

John Gibson got the start for the Ducks and stopped 23 of 25 shots for his second win in the last week.

Morgan Geekie posted a goal and an assist (PP) for the Bruins while David Pastrnak added a power-play goal to his season's total. Those two points give Geekie 41 on the campaign, his first 40-point season, and he now sits four goals shy of a 30-goal effort.

Joonas Korpisalo was in net for all six goals on 37 shots faced.

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A hat trick from Jason Robertson (one goal on the PP) powered the Dallas Stars to a 4-3 win over the Edmonton Oilers on Wednesday night. Robertson finished the game with five shots and two PIMs in 18 minutes of ice time. That was Robertson's second hat trick since the Four Nations break, and he now has 27 goals and 31 assists in 49 games since December 1^st. It took him a while to get going this season but once he got past American Thanksgiving, he's been one of the best offensive players in the league.

Wyatt Johnston had the other goal for Dallas and needs three more for a 30-goal season.

Mikael Granlund had a trio of helpers for the Stars (one on the PP) to go with two penalty minutes. He now has 16 points in 21 games in a Dallas uniform, so he's been as advertised offensively. Roope Hintz also had three assists (one PP) and that gives him 60 points on the year for the fourth straight season.

Thomas Harley registered two assists (one PP) with three shots and a block. That gives him 8 goals, 16 assists, 11 power-play points, 48 shots, 26 blocks, and 10 hits in 21 games since Miro Heiskanen's injury.

 Jake Oettinger was stellar in goal, stopping 41 of 44 shots.

Adam Henrique registered a goal and an assist for the Oilers, both on the PP, while Zach Hyman scored his 26^th goal of the campaign. Since returning from injury on December 5^th, Hyman has 23 goals and 35 points in 45 games.

Stuart Skinner was clipped in the head by Mikko Rantanen after making a save halfway through the period and went down, subsequently leaving the game. He is not with the team for their road game in Seattle tonight, and we will update as we get more.

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There are always young players who kind of turn things around in the second half of a season and that helps catapult them forward the following year (and years after). That is no exception this season, so here are a handful of guys who've caught my eye (and the stat sheet) since the Four Nations break. Data from Natural Stat Trick and as of the afternoon of Wednesday, March 26^th.

Josh Doan (Utah Hockey Club)

The overall production isn't massive for Doan in these recent 15 games, posting one goal and five assists, but his rate of shot attempts at 5-on-5 is second among Utah forwards (Dylan Guenther is far in front), his rate of individual expected goals is also second (Barrett Hayton slightly ahead), and those two marks are in the 95^th percentile and 91^st percentile of all regular forwards in the league (at least 125 minutes). Add that to an above-average rate of hits, and this is a guy who has been putting up solid peripheral stats on a per-minute basis.

Of course, the problem moving forward is ice time. As a winger on this roster, he won't be ahead of Clayton Keller or Dylan Guenther anytime soon, and Nick Schmaltz is likely ahead of him for at least another year. There is a cap to how much ice time he could possibly earn, and that also lowers his potential for top power-play time at some point. All the same, this is a prospect who was producing well in the AHL and is on the rise in the NHL. That is a player to keep an eye on as next season rolls around.

Will Smith (San Jose Sharks)

The hype in San Jose is around Macklin Celebrini, and that makes a lot of sense when we see how good Celebrini has been as an 18-year-old rookie. It has also overshadowed the season that rookie Will Smith has had. To this point of the season, Smith (2.0) and Matvei Michkov (2.1) are the only rookie forwards to exceed 2.0 points per 60 minutes at 5-on-5. Smith's primary assist rate at 5-on-5 is 1.07, which leads all rookies, and is tied for 9^th in the league among all regular forwards (minimum of 700 minutes). It exceeds names like Leon Draisaitl, Nathan MacKinnon, Mitch Marner, and Aleksander Barkov.

A lot of that production has come recently. Smith has 22 points in his last 25 games while averaging under 17 minutes a night, and he has been a point-per-game player since the Four Nations break (13 points in 13 games with 2.7 shots per outing). After a very slow start to the season, Smith came alive around Thanksgiving and has not looked back. It will be interesting to dive deeper into this player over the offseason because riding shotgun next to Celebrini and being a super-talented player on top of that could mean a very productive season as soon as next year.

Philip Broberg (St. Louis Blues)

It is hard to overstate just how good Broberg has been for the Blues. His 53.8% expected goal share at 5-on-5 leads all regular St. Louis defencemen (at least 500 minutes), and his actual goal share leads their blue line as well, sitting at 63.1%. With Broberg on the ice, his team is +17 at 5-on-5 in his 60 games played. That is just remarkable play at even strength.

That also doesn't even get into how productive he has been. His 1.35 points per 60 minutes at even strength is 25^th out of 161 regular defencemen in the league (at least 800 minutes played), which is better than names like Lane Hutson, Thomas Chabot, Noah Hanifin, Noah Dobson, and Mikhail Sergachev. He hasn't put up huge peripheral totals, but the fact that his 82-game pace is for 37 points in his first full NHL season despite minimal power play time tells us how good the production has really been.

The issue for Broberg is that everyone on this blue line is signed for at least one more season except for Ryan Suter. That includes Torey Krug, depending on if he returns or not. That means Broberg may be in tough for a regular power-play role, or big minutes, anytime soon. However, he is on a little hot streak right now with 10 points in his last 17 games and if he can keep that up for the next few weeks, and into the playoffs? He may just force the coaching staff's hand.