Nikolaj Ehlers was not back in the lineup for the Winnipeg Jets on Monday night after missing Saturday's game in Utah. The good news for the Jets is he was a game-time decision and was at morning skate, so it seems as if he’s very close to returning, at any rate. A positive sign for a team that can't afford to lose another offensive piece on top of Gabriel Vilardi.

Speaking of Vilardi, the Jets said that he is close to returning to the ice, an important step as he makes his way back from an upper-body injury.  

The Jets pulled out a big win in that game taking a 3-1 win over the St. Louis Blues. That win puts them five points up on the Dallas Stars with Winnipeg having four games left and Dallas five. Whoever wins the division avoids Colorado in the first round, so this was an important two points for Winnipeg.

Morgan Barron, Alex Iafallo, and Adam Lowry had the goals for the Jets. The goal from Lowry was his 16^th of the season, setting a new career-high for him. Iafallo, meanwhile, finished the game with six shots, a block, and a hit in a very balanced fantasy effort.

Johs Morrissey assisted on the Barron goal, and added three shots, two blocks, and two hits on the night. He won't reach the point totals of the last two seasons, but Morrissey is up to 57 points, putting him within reach of his third straight 60-point season.

Connor Hellebuyck faced just 15 shots and stopped 14 of them for his 44^th win, tying a career-high set back in 2017-18.

Pavel Buchnevich scored the line goal for St. Louis. That goal was assisted by Phillip Broberg, who is up to 29 points in 66 games despite rarely getting any power-play time. He is a player to keep in mind for drafts next season because they can't keep him away from the power play forever.

Joel Hofer gave up just two goals on 25 shots but it was enough to take the loss.

*

The Carolina Hurricanes have been hit by the injury bug recently but got good news at practice with Andrei Svechnikov, Jordan Staal, and William Carrier all participating:

Jesperi Kotkaniemi was not at practice, so it's not all-hands-on-deck just yet, but a good sign for the team as they march towards the postseason.  

*

A bunch of updates from the Colorado Avalanche:

On top of this, Nathan MacKinnon and Jonathan Drouin were not at practice. I would be more worried about the latter than the former.

*

A not-so-good update on San Jose defenceman Shakir Mukhamadullin:

Mukhamadullin had been having a solid stretch for the Sharks since being called up, especially considering the circumstances of the team. He is a player to keep an eye on in drafts because the multi-cat value will be there with more ice time next season.

*

The Tampa Bay Lightning scored three goals less than two minutes apart in the first period on Monday night, cruising to a 5-1 win in New York over the Rangers. That loss keeps the Rangers six points back of the Montreal Canadiens for the final playoff spot and each team has five games remaining. New York does have the tiebreaker, but the runway is getting short for them to make a playoff push.

Brayden Point scored a pair of power-play goals and assisted on a PP goal from Nikita Kucherov. In turn, Kucherov assisted on both of Points power-play markers. The three-point night for Kucherov gives him 115 for the season, putting him into a tie with Nathan MacKinnon for the points lead this season.

The goals from Point give him 41 tallies this season, his third straight year with at least 40 goals (and his fourth overall). He needs two more assists for his third straight 40-40 season, too.

Yanni Gourde had one of the other Lightning goals, his first since re-joining the franchise at the Trade Deadline, while Brandon Hagel added an empty-netter. That goal from Hagel gives him 83 points, assuring he'll be over a point-per-game player for the first time in his career.

Andrei Vasilevskiy was excellent in goal, stopping 39 of 40 shots for his 37^th win of the season.

Mika Zibanejad scored his 17^th goal of the season, also on the power play, to provide New York with their lone tally. It was assisted by Artemi Panarin, who is one assist shy of his fourth straight 50-assist season, and seventh straight not including the shortened COVID season.

Igor Shesterkin allowed four goals on 22 shots in the loss.

*

Both Leon Draisaitl and Connor McDavid were out of the lineup for Edmonton again on Monday night as the Oilers suffered a 3-2 in Anaheim to the Ducks. Cutter Gauthier scored a pair of goals and Mason McTavish put his 21^st tally in the goal column to get their team the win. More on McTavish later.

The real star of the night was Lukas Dostal, who stopped 45 of 47 shots to earn his 24^th win in his 47^th start. It was a welcome sign after the young netminder got lit up for six goals on Saturday night and had allowed at least four goals in six of his previous nine starts.

Adam Henrique had a goal and an assist for Edmonton and Jeff Skinner had the other tally. That makes five goals in his last nine games and he's up to second on the Oilers roster in goals per 60 minutes at 5-on-5 this season (Leon Draisaitl is still ahead).

Jake Walman and Evan Bouchard both had an assist, five shots, and two blocks each.

Olivier Rodrigue got his first start in an Edmonton uniform and allowed three goals on 21 shots.

*

Matty Beniers and Brandon Montour scored less than a minute apart in the latter stages of the first period in Seattle's road game in Los Angeles on Monday night, and that was all the Kraken needed to finish with a 2-1 win. That goal from Montour was his 17^th of the season, setting a new career-high by surpassing his total of 16 set back in 2022-23. It also pushed him to the 40-point plateau for the 2024-25 campaign.

Joey Daccord was stellar in net, stopping 28 of 29 shots for his 27^th win, one shy of being in the top-10 for goalie wins this season.

The Kings may have lost, but Quinton Byfield brought us a late entry for a goal-of-the-year candidate by redirecting the puck on net with one hand on his stick, then corralling the rebound still with one hand on his stick to score his 20^th goal of the season:

Quinton Byfield with ONE HAND 😮

The Kings open the scoring less than two minutes in 👑 pic.twitter.com/KgE52AJJLc

— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) April 8, 2025

Was he also holding onto Shane Wright's stick as he did it? Sure. But just like art heists, if how it is executed is super cool, and no one gets hurt, it should be legal.

Darcy Kuemper took the loss, allowing two goals on 28 shots.

*

Calgary kept their playoff hopes alive with a 3-2 win in San Jose on Monday night. According to HockeyViz, that win brought them to roughly a 15% chance of earning a playoff spot so it's still unlikely, but there's still a reasonable chance.

Matt Coronato, Jonathan Huberdeau (PP), and Adam Klapka all scored for the Flames. That was Huberdeau's 28^th goal of the season, surpassing his combined total from his first two years in Calgary (27).

Nazem Kadri assisted on Klapka's goal, totaled four shots, and landed a pair of hits in the win. That was Kadri's 30^th assist this season, officially giving him his first 30-goal/30-assist season of his career. He fell one goal shy last season, and two goals shy in his final season with Colorado.

Dustin Wolf faced 31 shots and allowed just two to get past him for his 26^th win of the year.

Will Smith scored twice for San Jose, one of those goals coming on the power play, totaling four shots along the way. In 20 games since the Four Nations break, Smith has 8 goals, 9 assists, 8 power-play points, and 50 shots.

Macklin Celebrini assisted both of Smith's goals, giving Celebrini 57 points on the season, and well within range of a 60-point rookie effort.

Georgi Romanov was back in net for the Sharks and allowed three goals on 32 shots.

*

These Ramblings have seen posts, dating back to the preseason, covering players I was specifically high or low on, their draft positions, how they've fared this season, and so on. We will get back to that once the season finishes.

There are also players that I was largely ambivalent about. They are players that I wasn't specifically targeting or avoiding. The next couple of Ramblings will cover these specific skaters, starting today with the forwards, and what has stood out to me this season. Data from Natural Stat Trick or Frozen Tools and as of the afternoon of Monday, April 7.

Mason McTavish (Anaheim Ducks)

McTavish has already registered his first 20-goal season and needs one more assist for his first 30-assist season, which would also give him his first 50-point effort. Add 2.4 shots and nearly 1.0 hits per game, and there has been solid across-the-board value here from the young Ducks forward.

What has stood out to me about McTavish is how productive his line has been offensively no matter the players next to him. McTavish's most-common line mate this season has been Cutter Gauthier. In their 448 minutes together at 5-on-5, they are creating 14% more expected goals and 70% more actual goals than when they're off the ice:

Those two skated a lot with Robby Fabbri, but McTavish's third-most common line mate is Trevor Zegras. In their 245 minutes together at 5-on-5, McTavish and Zegras are creating 30% more expected goals and 54% more actual goals per 60 minutes than when they're off the ice:

Sometimes, players just find some chemistry with the right line mates and have a good season. The fact that McTavish has found a lot of offensive success with completely different sets of line mates is a great sign for his offensive future.

Bo Horvat (New York Islanders)

It hasn't been a wildly successful offensive season for Horvat with 26 goals and 27 assists in 75 games, but he's also just a shade below 3.0 shots per game (2.96) and is three hits shy of his first-ever 100-hit season. In fact, it's the across-the-board production that has made him valuable because here's the entire list of forwards with at least 1 goal, 1 assist, 8 shots, 4 hits, and 1.5 blocks every 60 minutes at even strength this season:

He also sits 10^th in the league with 712 faceoff wins, for those in formats that reward that. The over-arching problem has been the Islanders power play, which is dead last by both goals per 60 minutes and goals per game (hence the focus on even-strength production here). If this Islanders power play can even approach league-average next season, Horvat absolutely has 70-point upside with good peripheral coverage.  

William Eklund (San Jose Sharks)

This is a weird one because I'm high on Eklund long-term, but didn't think much of him for the 2024-25 season given how bad the Sharks would be (and they are). All the same, he has exceeded last year's totals (outside of blocks) in nine fewer games and could realistically crack the 60-point mark (he needs five points in the final six games).

Eklund's passing and vision have always been his calling card, and this season is no different. His assist rate at 5-on-5 has increased by 46% compared to last season and tracking data from AllThreeZones shows him in elite company by rate of scoring chance assists (helpers on teammate chances) and high-danger passes (across the slot or from behind the net):

These measures were good for Eklund last year and are even better this year. The Sharks still have a lot of holes in their lineup, but they have their elite play-making winger.  

Kirill Marchenko (Columbus Blue Jackets)

Ever be right for the wrong reasons? Well, one team I was high on for fantasy purposes before the season was Columbus. The issue was that my focus was specifically on Adam Fantilli and Zach Werenski. While those picks certainly worked out, the latter especially, Marchenko was not one of the Jackets I was targeting, even if I did draft him a couple times.

Fast forward six months and he has 31 goals, 39 assists, and 192 shots in 73 games. The goals are great, but the assists are unexpected and a fantastic sign for him. He has more primary assists at 5-on-5 this season (13) than his prior 137 games combined (11) and that's backed up by an increased rate of assists on teammate scoring chances compared to the last two years:

This isn't an elite mark, but it is well above the league average of 3.07, and that is a marked improvement from his first couple of seasons. Marchenko doesn't need to be an elite playmaker – simply improving to 'above average' is a world of difference in his future fantasy upside.