There's not a whole lot of advice or info we can give you at this point to help with the rest of the fantasy season, as we're in the last week and it's likely just at the point of setting and watching your team do all the work now. What I will note, is that it's best to stay on top of news as players do get scratched and rested a lot more often this time of year. Additionally, if you are looking for some late streaming options, Detroit and Los Angeles might be your best bet, as they're the two teams with three games across the final four days of the season – a stretch where every team has at least one game, except for the Avalanche, who finish their 82-game regular season on Sunday April 13th, in Anaheim.

Otherwise, good luck!

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Aleksander Barkov returns to the lineup tonight for the Panthers. It looks like Sam Reinhart, and Gustav Forsling will also return. That's great news for the team, and also for fantasy managers who have a Panthers stack. I'm noting those absences for my playoff pools though, as it's likely all of them are nursing something at this point in the year, and I'm balancing that with how much I may or may not want to select them – more on that later. The Panthers defeated one of their possible first (or second) round opponents last night, earning a convincing win over the Leafs. Brad Marchand notched his second point as a Panther, in what was his seventh game. Hopefully the lack of production here drops his stock for playoff pools. He'll be his usual productive self in the postseason.

It was also noted today that Sam Bennett is not expected to return in the regular season, joining Matthew Tkachuk as "likely" to return sometime in round one of the playoffs.

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David Pastrnak doesn't seem to be missing Brad Marchand at all though, in fact he's playing his best hockey of the season. His third point last night was his 100th of the campaign, the third year in a row that he has hit the mark. He's up to 16 points in his last seven games, the second time he's had a seven-game stretch that productive this season.

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On the positive side of injury news, Jonathan Marchessault made it back into game action before the end of the year, and here I was thinking he would just be shut down for the season. He was pointless in his last five games before returning, so fantasy managers (rightly so) were likely hesitant to rush him back into their lineups. Unfortunately for them (and me) he put up two points, bringing him nearly back up to a 60-point-pace on the year.

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The Canucks won after scoring three goals in the final minute of regulation, then icing it in overtime. Regardless, their playoff hopes are pretty much done for on the year. Elias Pettersson may be shut down for the rest of the season, which would be ideal for the team to make sure he's healthy for next year. In hindsight, maybe he should have been shut down sooner, as his nagging injury derailed his whole season, and by proxy the Canucks' season as well.

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Over in Minnesota, we have a lot of uncertainty with lingering injuries: https://bsky.app/profile/russohockey.bsky.social/post/3lmcxvze75c2z

Otherwise for injuries, I'll let Chad and the Injury Ward cover the rest.

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The big news from yesterday was that Ivan Demidov was freed from his Russian contract and can now sign with the Canadiens. He is on their reserve list, which means he could sign at any time and still be eligible for the playoffs. What a coup by the Canadiens to jump up into a playoff spot and then suddenly add a top-six scoring winger into their midst. They will really want to get him in for a game or two before the end of the season to see how he fits and get him up to speed. If you're chasing points, then he's an excellent dart throw at this stage.

On the ice, the Habs continue to shine, skating out of Detroit with a regulation win which brings them very near to a 100% lock to make the playoffs.

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Zayne Parekh was recalled yesterday, and could make his NHL debut as early as this evening against Anaheim. After putting up 107 points in 61 OHL games this year, putting him as the top drafted prospect outside of the NHL by Mason Black's PNHLe mark, we have to take his offensive ceiling seriously. I've speculatively added him in one Roto league where I'm trying to make up a couple slots in the scoring categories. Between him and Demidov you now have some options for offence at the end of the year.

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With the regular season coming to a close, we're getting into the prime time for playoff pools and drafts. The first game of the playoffs will likely be on Saturday April 19th, which means we have 10 days to get those playoff drafts, selections, and brackets done.

Rick actually has a part of his article coming out this morning where he discusses playoff pool drafting strategies and tips, so I won't bother duplicating any effort there. Instead, I'll look at teams this year, and talk about who I'm targeting, and what opportunities I see this year to try and gain an edge.

Looking at the matchups, we're just about locked in with CAR/NJ, WSH/MTL, COL/DAL, and LA/EDM. The Atlantic in the East and the Wildcards in the West still have some jockeying left to do before we have matchups set. It looks like the 16 playoff teams should stick as they are today, which is nice for those of us starting slow drafts early.

COL @ DAL is the most interesting series of the set, with the Avs having a long break before game one (often leading to a slow start) while both teams are dealing with injuries, between Miro Heiskanen out for at least one round, Martin Necas, Jonathan Drouin, Tyler Seguin, and others having various levels of concern at the moment as well. The pick I think is going to be Colorado, as Heiskanen's absence is going to loom large, when the team is running Cody Ceci as a top-pair defenseman. Colorado has some concerns, and may lose game one, if not the first two games being away from home, but I think in the end their star power wins out. I'm likely not going to end up loading up on either team though, as they have some red flags, and a tough road through to the Final.

EDM @ LA is going to be fascinating, as this will be year four of the Oilers and Kings meeting in round one, with Edmonton taking the previous three series. However, this time the Kings have home ice, and if their home record this season transfers to the playoffs in any capacity, then that could be the difference in flipping the script this time around. Connor McDavid (assuming he's healthy) and the Oilers may still be the favorites despite the placement in the standings, but I'm picking the Kings with some confidence, as they have more depth than previous years, and Edmonton's injury situation between McDavid and starting goalie Stuart Skinner causes some concern. You should be able to grab a few top players from another team or two before needing to move to the Kings in drafts as well, as they don't have the top star players that you need to draft early to get. Andrei Kuzmenko being hot lately with seven points in his last five games and playing on the top power play would make him a great late sleeper target too.

NJ @ CAR is one where I expect the Canes take this series nine out of 10 times. The Devils are missing some top players due to injuries, and they don't seem to be playing with much consistency or confidence. Sheldon Keefe's issue in Toronto was his lack of being able to make effective adjustments on the fly when things started to keel over. I think we're seeing more of the same here, so the Devils might be my lowest rater team out of the 16 here. The Canes on the other hand get a big boost from that, and may be one of the teams I target, not having a perceived top-five Cup threat that they would have to match up against in Round two either. The entire top line of Sebastian Aho, Seth Jarvis, and Jackson Blake should be available at reasonable draft slots as well. I also expect Frederik Andersen to get the majority of the goalie starts, instead of the current every-other-game setup between him and Pyotr Kochetkov.

MTL @ WSH has some (old) history dating back to the Jaroslav Halak days, and in my eyes the best part of that story, is that Lars Eller, the player the Habs traded Halak for,

now plays for Washington. The other storyline now is with Alex Ovechkin passing Wayne Gretzky for the all-time goal scoring mark, can the Capitals keep their momentum going, or is there a bit of an adrenaline drop that sees them crash out earlier than expected? I'm likely not picking either of these teams to top Carolina in round two, so selecting any of them would be unlikely, but I'll say that with the depth and the record this season, I think it would be silly to bet against the Capitals here.

The Atlantic: It's looking at this moment like one of the Leafs or the Bolts will finish first in the division, with the Sens and Panthers still sorting out which of them finishes third and which becomes WC1. That means we could end up with a couple different iterations of the matchups. It's tough to pick the Leafs in the playoffs, so I'll let another fan go down that road. It's also a little worrisome to see how many injuries the Panthers are dealing with, though even missing a handful of stars they have the depth to continue to be a great team. The Sens have been inconsistent this season, and Brady Tkachuk's status bears monitoring as well, making them a risky pick to make it out of round one, let alone two.

That leaves the Lightning, as the team I think is the most likely to come out of the Atlantic corner of the bracket. They have the top-end forwards, they have the Norris-level defenseman, they have the special teams, they have the world-class goalie, they have experience, size, and the longest tenured coach in the league, who has guided them to three titles already. Their biggest flaw early in the year was their lack of depth, so they went out and they brought in an entire third line, and the trio of Yanni Gourde, Gage Goncalves, and Oliver Bjorstrand has been fantastic together since being assembled. We'll wait until the end of the regular season and see if there are any seismic shifts, but if there's not, then the Bolts will likely be my pick to come out of the East.

The West wildcard: With St. Louis and Minnesota neck-and-neck in the wildcard slots, who falls into which corner of the playoff bracket has yet to be decided. Playing against Vegas or Winnipeg is really just a poor game of pick your poison. With Minnesota possibly getting both Kirill Kaprizov and Joel Eriksson Ek back soon, and St. Louis coming off a 12-game win streak, neither is going to go quietly in the first round, and both have some upset potential despite the juggernauts they're facing. Personally, I like Minnesota as a better bet to put a scare into one of the top teams, while Vegas may end up being my Cup pick, and the team to come out of the West. That assumes that Jack Eichel's injury that caused him to miss last night's game isn't serious.

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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 @alexdmaclean, as that's now my primary platform.