Because one of the teams has a local connection to me, I’ll give you Calder Cup updates as long as I can provide them on my Ramblings days.

Game 1 in the Calder Cup Final went to double overtime, with Danila Klimovich breaking the deadlock to give the Abbotsford Canucks (Vancouver's AHL affiliate) a 4-3 win and 1-0 series lead over the Charlotte Checkers (Florida's AHL affiliate).

DANILA KLIMOVICH CALLS GAME IN 2OT 🚨@abbycanucks | @Canucks | @CanucksArmy#AHL #CalderCup #ProudlyAbbotsford #Canucks pic.twitter.com/HRmi99QaoZ

— FloHockey (@FloHockey) June 14, 2025

Klimovich has scored three goals during the playoffs, with two of them coming in double overtime.

Charlotte thought they had won the game moments earlier, but the goal was waived off because Arturs Silovs was not ready in the Abbotsford crease. Quite a bizarre sequence, which I've never seen before in a game. Should this goal have counted?   

NO. GOAL. 😮#AHL #CalderCup pic.twitter.com/Z4CWv63dQv

— FloHockey (@FloHockey) June 14, 2025

Silovs continues to add to his stock, making 51 saves to steal this one for the Baby Canucks. Silovs has been outstanding during the AHL playoffs with a 1.94 GAA, .929 SV% and five shutouts. One item of note: Silovs is no longer waivers-exempt next season, which means he can be claimed off waivers if the Canucks decide to send him down to the AHL again next season. With the Canucks in need of scoring help, I wouldn't be surprised if either Silovs or Thatcher Demko is traded this offseason.

Game 2 is back at the Bojangles Arena (what a name!) in Charlotte on Sunday before the teams move to Abby for Game 3.

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Let's discuss some of the top Frozen Tools searches from the past week. These are players that have been in the news for one reason or another.

Chris Kreider

In case you missed it earlier in the week, the New York Rangers shipped Chris Kreider and a 2025 fourth-round pick to the Anaheim Ducks for prospect Carey Terrance and a 2025 third-round pick. Cliffy wrote the Fantasy Take here.

One interesting stat from Kreider's 52-goal season three seasons ago was that he led the league with 17 tip-in goals that season. The next-highest tip-in goal total that season was nine from Joe Pavelski. Two seasons later (in other words, last season) Kreider led the league again with 15 tip-in goals while scoring 39 total goals. Yet this season, Kreider managed only five tip-in goals on 22 overall goals. Here's a sample of what I could find of typical Kreider goals.

Chris Kreider in front with the tip for his 2️⃣6️⃣ goal of the season to tie it for #NYR pic.twitter.com/L9pqqfU3qN

— Rangers on MSG (@RangersMSGN) March 2, 2023

Chris Kreider's power play redirect finds twine to push the Rangers lead to 2!#NYR pic.twitter.com/Y0jUQWdpSj

— Hockey Daily 365 l NHL Highlights & News (@HockeyDaily365) November 8, 2023

The tip, the goal, the celly. Chris Kreider did it all. pic.twitter.com/Eb1VZj5oFV

— NHL (@NHL) November 25, 2021

Whether you call it a tip-in or a deflection (which Frozen Tools also lists, but far less often than tip-ins), Kreider's area of expertise is moving in front of the net and getting his stick on the puck so that it goes in.

Kreider dealt with back and hand injuries this past season, so the question will be whether the decline in 2024-25 (just 22 goals and a super-low eight assists) is injury-related or age-related. Kreider is now 34, so he will be an elder statesman on a youthful roster.

Although the Ducks might be an up-and-coming team, they finished 30^th in the league with 217 goals in 2024-25 – something that Kreider should help improve. With Kreider's power-play experience and cap hit ($6.5 million), he should be given ample runway on the top power play. The Ducks' power play was a league-worst 11.8% in 2024-25, so changes are needed beyond running it back with the same guys simply because they will be another year older.

Playing on the Ducks probably won't boost Kreider's power-play goal total a great deal, not just because of the ineffective power play overall but also because icetime has been spread out fairly evenly between the first and second units. In 2024-25, no Ducks player logged at least 60% of the team's available power-play minutes, and only Troy Terry was on the ice for more than 55% of those minutes. One caveat is that a coaching change to Joel Quenneville might change that.

Kreider was a player that I regrettably drafted too high on one of my teams this season. When the Rangers were deep in their December slump, I eventually decided to drop him. He was subsequently added and dropped by two more teams, clearly a fraction of the player that he has been in seasons past. Perhaps he can bounce back to some degree in Anaheim, but he's not a player I'm betting on rebounding in a major way in 2025-26.

Also keep in mind that the Ducks may not be finished with the major offseason additions. PuckPedia shows Anaheim still with $32 million to play with this offseason, although Mason McTavish and Lukas Dostal are RFAs requiring new contracts.

Lane Hutson

The fantasy community was on to Hutson well before he became a household name. Drafted in the second round (62^nd overall) in 2022, the Dobber Prospects Guide that year had Hutson ranked as a potential late first-round pick. If teams had only followed our guide! Teams have typically placed a premium on size at the draft, so Hutson fell significantly because he was only 5-8 and 150 lbs. as a defenseman.

Hutson smashed all of those limitations during his 2024-25 Calder Trophy winning season. Playing like someone who should have been picked high in the first round, Hutson led all rookies with 66 points – as a defenseman. In addition, Hutson also led all rookies with 26 power-play points, also blocking 123 shots for good measure. His defensive play might still need work, but the Canadiens will gladly take the hiccups there for offensive production (0.80 PTS/GP) that outpaced Quinn Hughes's rookie output (0.78 PTS/GP) on a point-per-game basis.

Fantasy leaguers are now wondering whether Hutson can build on that and join Hughes and Cale Makar among the elite d-men in fantasy. Among defensemen with at least 40 games played, only Roman Josi had a higher offensive zone start percentage than Hutson (66.1 ZS%). If the Habs can continue to supply Hutson with that ideal percentage, then that will help. That being said, over half of Hutson's assists (35 of 60) were of the secondary variety. Hutson was tied for second in assists among defensemen, so don't be surprised to see that number drop a little bit in 2025-26.

Regardless of a possible sophomore slump, Hutson appears to be on a path toward becoming one of fantasy hockey's top defensemen, if he isn't there already. Defensemen of his type are never a guarantee to successfully translate well into the NHL, but those who rolled the dice on him in keeper leagues early on have quickly reaped the rewards.

Nicolas Hague

Vegas blueliner Hague is reportedly on the trade market for a number of reasons. Hague is an RFA with arbitration rights who is scheduled to become a UFA next summer. In addition, the Golden Knights already have seven other defensemen under contract for next season, and they are tight against the salary cap again this offseason.

For fantasy purposes, Hague doesn't seem to register. During his six NHL seasons, Hague has never reached the 20-point mark, although he has played at least 65 games only during the last three seasons. Mainly playing the equivalent of third-pair minutes, Hague reached over 100 hits and 100 blocks in both 2022-23 and 2023-24, although he failed to reach 100 in either category in 2024-25.

Hague's real-life value probably exceeds his fantasy value, although a change of address to a much shallower defense corps than Vegas could place him in a position of fantasy relevance. Jake Walman moving from Detroit to San Jose could serve as a template, although Walman lost some of that value moving from San Jose to Edmonton. That scenario is rare among defensive defensemen, though.

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Don’t forget about the 19^th annual Fantasy Prospects Report! Pick up yours at Dobber Sports today so that you can get ahead of your offseason keeper league decisions.

The latest Dobber’s Take is 60 seconds on Connor Bedard. Is he going to be a generational player or ‘merely’ a star?

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Enjoy Game 5 of what has been a very entertaining Stanley Cup Final so far! I'll be back to discuss it tomorrow. In the meantime, follow me on X @Ian_Gooding and Threads @goodsfantasyhockey and Bluesky @goodsfantasyhockey.bsky.social