The 2025 Dobber Hockey Prospects Report is now available in the Dobber Shop! It has everything fantasy hockey fanatics need to know about this year's crop of draftees, as well as a dive into each NHL team's current prospect pool, and a whole lot more. Dobber and the prospect team worked all year to get to this point so help support what they do by grabbing a copy today.

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With the playoffs behind us, the true offseason has begun. We have already seen some signings and trades, but they should come more frequent now, and yesterday that started with the New York Rangers extending Matt Rempe for two years:

Rangers and Matt Rempe have agreed to two-year deal for what is believed somewhat under $1M per, Post has learned…Removes No. 73 an offer-sheet possibility…Rempe has been back in NY/CT for a couple of weeks, working with skills coach and in the gym…

— Larry Brooks (@NYP_Brooksie) June 18, 2025

According to Mollie Walker, the AAV comes in under $1M. He will have fantasy value if he has a regular lineup spot just because of his hit and PIM totals but he needs to have a regular lineup spot.

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The Chicago Blackhawks took another free agent off the board as Ryan Donato signed a four-year extension with an AAV of $4M:

BREAKING: Ryan Donato has re-signed with the Blackhawks on a four-year deal with a $4 million cap hit, according to a source.

— Scott Powers (@ByScottPowers) June 18, 2025

Donato is coming off a career year with 31 goals (nearly double his career-high of 16) and 31 assists (previous high of 18), having turned 29 years old in April. Given how extreme his totals were, even adjusting for the extra ice time, last year should be seen as his high-water mark fantasy-wise. It is a nice little deal for him and ensures the Blackhawks keep one NHL-calibre player in their forward group (of which there aren't many).

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Dobber has been doing individual player breakdowns over on YouTube and his latest is on Philadelphia Flyers defenceman Travis Sanheim:

Be sure to check that out and subscribe to the channel while you're there!

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Recently, these Ramblings covered what each team across the league has for a weakness that hurts fantasy hockey owners, going division by division with the Atlantic, the Metro, the Central, and the Pacific. I just wanted to link those one more time for anyone that wants to get an overview of the offseason.

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A couple days ago, I wrote about some postseason observations from the eliminated teams, including guys like Wyatt Johnston and Ryan Leonard, some general thoughts on puck-moving defencemen, and more. With the playoffs now over, I want to take one final look back and highlight some individual player performances that may have been forgotten or lost over the course of the last two months. Data is from Evolving Hockey unless otherwise indicated.

Vasily Podkolzin (Edmonton Oilers – W)

Edmonton losing in the Cup Final would make it easy to overlook the fact that the team had two forwards with a positive goal differential at 5-on-5 in the Final itself, with Podkolzin being one of them with four goals four and three goals against (Mattias Janmark was the other). It would also make it easy to overlook the fact that just two Oilers forwards scored more than one goal at 5-on-5 in the Final with both Podkolzin and Leon Draisaitl having two. Over the entire postseason, here is who Podkolzin compared to by primary points (goals and first assists)  per 60 minutes at 5-on-5 among forwards with at least eight games played:

There is one year left on Podkolzin's deal, and he'll get another crack at staying in Edmonton's top-6 forward group. He won't have a huge breakout season because he won't get top PP minutes, but he had 211 hits in the regular season and shot just 7%. A bit more ice time and improved shooting like he saw in the postseason could make him a 15-goal, 30-point, 250-hit option.

Anton Lundell (Florida Panthers – C)

Sam Bennett won the Conn Smythe, praise was effusive for Aleksander Barkov and Sam Reinhart, and Brad Marchand turning back the clock got a lot of press for Florida's repeat Stanley Cup run. That is all true, but it also leaves Lundell a bit on the outside looking in despite the fact that among forwards with at least eight games played, he led the postseason in primary points per 60 minutes at 5-on-5:

Overall, Lundell finished tied for second with line mate Eetu Luostarinen in total points at 5-on-5 with 17 (Connor McDavid, 18). This comes following a regular season where Lundell set a career-high in 5-on-5 points (34) and had nearly as many primary points (28) as he did in the prior two years combined (29). It is what makes me wonder if the team doesn't let Bennett go in free agency and elevate Lundell to a true second-line centre. We will find out in the next couple of weeks.

Phillip Danault (Los Angeles Kings – C)

The Kings lost to the Oilers in six games, and the Kings finished with a minus-1 goal differential at 5-on-5 (+14/-15). Despite that, Danault finished the postseason with a plus-4 goal differential at that strength (+6/-2), had the most 5-on-5 points of anyone not on the top line with eight, and did all that while facing off against Connor McDavid more than any other Los Angeles King forward. In that matchup, the Kings had a plus-1 goal differential:

Danault is going into his age-32 season so we always wonder when age-related decline will hit, but he's been nothing but a superb player for the Kings ever since he moved to California. He took a lot of difficult minutes for Los Angeles in the postseason and not only held his own but thrived. He is a player whose real-world value will always outstrip his fantasy hockey value, but he is making a good case for Los Angeles to completely transition to Danault and Quinton Byfield to be the team's top two centres with Anze Kopitar as the third option.

Ryan Hartman (Minnesota Wild – C)

While a lot has been made of Marco Rossi being moved to the fourth line during Minnesota's brief playoff run, it isn't all because of Rossi. There has to be someone on the other side of the equation, and that's Hartman. He was 1 of 3 Wild forwards to have at least five points at 5-on-5 in their six-game first-round loss (Matt Boldy and Kirill Kaprizov were the others). Production aside, he led all playoff forwards in rate of 5-on-5 shot attempts per 60 minutes and this is the list of comparable postseason attackers by that measure and individual expected goals per 60 minutes:

This could be the inverse of Lundell/Bennett where that may be a younger player supplanting an older one next season. In Minnesota, it could be the team moving on from Rossi for scoring help on the wing while elevating Hartman to the second-line centre role. He has found a lot of success next to Kaprizov before (who hasn't?), so maybe that's the plan here again.

Dylan Samberg (Winnipeg Jets – D)

In terms of goal differential, it was a tough postseason for Samberg as the Jets were outscored 9-6 in his 5-on-5 minutes. That overlooks the fact that with him on the ice, the Jets had a plus-20 differential on the shot clock (+116/-96). It also overlooks the fact that relative to their teammates, Samberg was the only Jets defenceman to have a positive goal differential rate (0.22) and positive expected goal differential rate (1.03):

Where Samberg ran into trouble is the team didn't score well when he was on the ice at 5-on-5 with a team shooting percentage of 5.2%, the lowest mark of their regular blue liners. Over the last two regular seasons, that number was nearly 9%. Just being at 9% would have given him a positive goal differential overall, and those are the margins in small samples when teams get to the postseason. Regardless of Winnipeg's letdown, Samberg was tremendous in the regular season and very good in the playoffs. He is a pending restricted free agent but with Winnipeg's cap space and Samberg's modest point totals, he won't be expensive to extend. He is on the cusp of being a guy who can push 30 points with over 200 combined hits and blocks.

Sean Walker (Carolina Hurricanes – G)

It wasn't a good regular season for Walker as he lost over two minutes of ice time per game (16:50) compared to the prior season (19:14) and that was part of what fueled his drop from 29 points in 2023-24 to just 16 points in 2024-25. However, he led the regular Carolina defencemen by points per 60 minutes at 5-on-5 in the playoffs (0.93) and, across the league, was 1 of 2 defencemen to:

• Play at least eight games.
• Finish at least one standard deviation above average by rate of 5-on-5 goal differential relative to teammates.
• Finish at least one standard deviation above average by rate of 5-on-5 expected goal differential at 5-on-5

This is the list:

Jaccob Slavin is still around, so he'll still be the number-1 defenceman. Shayne Gostisbehere still has the inside track for top power-play minutes, the Hurricanes brought in Alexander Nikishin, and Scott Morrow made an appearance in the playoffs. There are both established veterans taking important production minutes and young players the Hurricanes hope can move into a regular NHL role. In that sense, Walker may not be a whole lot better fantasy-wise in 2025-26 than he was in 2024-25, but we shouldn't take away from his solid postseason.