Every Sunday, we share 21 Fantasy Rambles from our writers at DobberHockey. These thoughts are curated from the past week’s 'Daily Ramblings'.

Writers/Editors: Ian Gooding, Michael Clifford, Alexander MacLean, Puneet Sharma, and Dobber

—

The 2025-26 Fantasy Guide is available for download! Projections by team and by point totals, sleepers, drafted players, rookies, goalies, advanced stats, and much more!

The French-language version of the Guide can be purchased here.

—

1. The 2026 free agent draft class was looking to be a monster, but Kirill Kaprizov signed his mammoth deal a week ago, Connor McDavid signed a two-year extension a few days ago, and now the Winnipeg Jets have extended Kyle Connor for eight more years at $12-million per season, as reported by Darren Dreger. Connor is about to enter his age-29 season, his ninth full year (10^th overall) with the Jets. This extension carries him from age-30 through age-37, and he is 13^th in goals and 17^th in points over the last four seasons.

Kaprizov signed that mega-deal and McDavid signed his team-friendly two-year extension, so those are more outliers than this Connor contract is. That sets a barometer of what to expect (if a little less) for other top free agent wingers like Alex Tuch, Adrian Kempe, and Martin Necas. Presumably, with Artemi Panarin turning 34 years old soon, his contract will look different than these other wingers. (oct9)

2. In cap leagues, it’ll be up to managers to decide if they want to hang onto Connor. He is a great point producer with a high shot rate, but he has 89 blocks and 78 hits over his last 229 regular season games. In multi-cat leagues, he’s a drag in non-shooting peripheral categories, so whether being a fringe top-10 producer is enough to stomach what is going to be a top-10 cap hit in the league is up to the individual. It seems steep to me, but that also depends on the format and whether the rest of the roster has undervalued/underpaid options. (oct9)

3. Speaking of extensions, Dreger also reported that the Vegas Golden Knights have extended Jack Eichel for eight more years with an average annual value of $13.5-million. That takes another free agent off the board for next summer and will carry Eichel through his age-37 season. It sure seems as if he’ll retired a Golden Knight.

Like Connor, cap league participants will have a decision ahead of them on Eichel. This will make him a top-10 player by AAV next season, and he also doesn’t hit or block very much. He also plays centre, which is a very deep position, unlike Connor’s left-wing status. (oct9)

4. Mattias Ekholm signed a three-year extension himself, carrying an AAV of $4M per season. That will carry him through his age-38 season. At that cap hit, if he can keep doing anything close to what he did last year – half-point per game, over two shots per game, about 1.5 blocks per game – he’s going to be a great value in multi-cat salary cap leagues. At his age, though, that’s always a big ‘if’. (oct9) The Oilers also signed defenceman Jake Walman to a seven-year contract extension with an AAV of $7-million. (oct7)

5. I just wanted to give a few thoughts on this season's first night of games that saw Chicago in Florida, Pittsburgh in New York, and Colorado in Los Angeles.

First, I watched the entire Chicago/Florida game, and I think two things are true about Frank Nazar: he is going to have a good surface stats season, but the underlying numbers won’t be pretty. I say that now to pre-empt the ‘but his analytics’ arguments we’re undoubtedly going to see. Chicago just doesn’t have the forward or defensive depth to keep pace with teams from the top half of the league, and it’s going to lead to a lot of games like Tuesday night where they look over-matched basically from start to finish. I have him projected for a 20-plus-goal, 50-point season with over two shots per game, and this tilt was a good start on that front. With that said, Tuesday night showed us that the growing pains the Blackhawks will go through for 2-3 more years will be numerous, and that will make their top-end players look bad on some nights. (oct9)

6. I watched less of Pittsburgh/New York because it coincided with the Toronto Blue Jays game (mistake on my part) but that was a game that says more about the Rangers than the Penguins. Vladislav Gavrikov is a nice addition to the blue line, but there still isn’t good depth there, and four of the team’s top-5 forwards by ice time were Artemi Panarin, Vincent Trocheck, Mika Zibanejad, and J.T. Miller. Panarin turns 34 years old in a few weeks, Trocheck and Zibanejad are 32 years old, and Miller turns 33 years old in March. The first game of the season isn’t indicative of what will happen over the next 81 games, but it’s conceivable that a team with bad defensive depth and is heavily reliant on several 32-plus-year-old forwards won’t be very good. (oct9)

7. The big concern for Los Angeles was how Cody Ceci and Brian Dumoulin would fare as replacements for Gavrikov and Jordan Spence. Well, the Kings were outscored 2-0 and outshot 8-2 at 5-on-5 (per Natural Stat Trick) with that pair on the ice. In the good-news department: Brandt Clarke led the team in 5-on-5 ice time, wasn’t on the ice for a goal against, and the Kings outshot the Avalanche 7-6 in those minutes. If Ceci and Dumoulin don’t show that they can be significantly better than they were on Tuesday night, the Kings will need a true star breakout performance from Clarke this season. A positive step forward on that front, at least. (oct9)

8. Mike Clifford had a good roundup regarding opening night rosters in Tuesday's Ramblings here: (oct7)

9. I don’t like to assume what happens one or two games into the season will be telling about what will take place over an entire season. Observations are more of what I’m aiming for at this point. A lot can change between now and the end of the season, so it’s easy to become hyper focused on a roster that was just drafted. That being said, I’ll start off by pointing out a few players that could benefit from very favorable early-season line combinations.

Trent Frederic: The 6-3, 221 lb. forward was on the Oilers’ top line with Leon Draisaitl and Connor McDavid for their opener against Calgary. If that seems unusual, remember that the Oilers signed Frederic to an eight-year contract shortly after the Stanley Cup Final, so they may view him as a power forward with untapped potential. This probably won’t last the entire season, as Draisaitl and McDavid usually play on separate even-strength lines, and Zach Hyman is out of the lineup. Bangers leaguers should take note of Frederic anyway, as he seems certain to exceed 100 hits with a healthy dose of penalty minutes.

Ivan Barbashev: The Golden Knights are trying their latest shiny toy Mitch Marner with leading scorer Jack Eichel, with Barbashev the lucky third man. Barbashev took full advantage of the situation on opening night, scoring a goal with an assist along with five hits. Barbashev seemed like a candidate for regression after a season with a 20.7 SH% and 15.3 5-on-5 SH% on his normal average of 1.5 SOG/GP. However, he has experience in playing on a line with Eichel and Mark Stone last season, with Eichel far and away his best even-strength linemate. Barbashev is also an asset in bangers leagues, although his hits frequency dropped last season to less than 1.5 hits/GP. (oct11)

[Follow the link for more…]

Don't forget that you can check out last game line combinations over at Frozen Tools.

10. Filip Chytil isn’t on the Canucks’ top line or the top power play (entering Saturday), but things are looking up for him after the first game. Chytil scored two third-period goals on Thursday, appearing to be past the concussion issues that ended his 2024-25 season early. The talent is noticeable for Chytil, so I think he has sleeper potential IF he can avoid further concussions. The Canucks would consider a healthy and productive Chytil exactly what they need to fill the second-line center role they unsuccessfully spent the summer trying to fill. For that reason, don’t expect him to be buried down the lineup as he was in New York. (oct11)

11. An early-season prediction: Dustin Wolf will lead the league in games played for goalies. Wolf started both of the Flames’ first three games, which were on back-to-back nights in Edmonton and Vancouver. Coach Ryan Huska doesn’t seem overly confident in the Flames’ backup goalie options, which include Devin Cooley and Ivan Prosvetov. Cooley, who currently holds the role, is a 28-year-old with six career NHL games. Prosvetov is 26 years old with 24 career games, returning to the NHL after a season in the KHL.

The way goalies are managed now, I doubt Wolf reaches 70 games like Miikka Kiprusoff did for seven consecutive seasons. But I could easily see 60 games, which only five goalies reached last season. (oct11)

12. The Philadelphia Flyers have had concerns about their goaltending situation for several years now, which is why it was interesting that Dan Vladar got the call for the season opener on Thursday night, and not Samuel Ersson. (oct10)

13. It was a bit of a good news/bad news situation for the New York Rangers as they blanked the Buffalo Sabres 4-0 on Thursday night. While Igor Shesterkin was tremendous with a 37-save shutout, and both Alexis Lafreniere and JT Miller had a goal and an assist, Vincent Trocheck left the game halfway through the second period with an injury and did not return. As it is, the team is thin on centre depth and cannot afford to lose him for an extended period. Lafrenière took Trocheck’s spot on the top PP unit in his absence. (oct10) (Update: Trocheck, upper body, is week-to-week)

14. K’Andre Miller had a memorable debut for the Hurricanes as he scored twice on four shots, one of them on the power play, while managing a block, two PIMs, and two hits. He looked great in the bits of the game I was able to see, fitting in with the aggressive gameplan of the Hurricanes. (oct10)

15. Going back to the start of the 2022-23 season, Joey Daccord was tied for third in save percentage among the 31 goalies with at least 75 starts (he has made 102 starts). It is getting hard to argue he’s not among the upper-tier of goalies in the league. Not quite the level of Igor Shesterkin or Connor Hellebuyck, but at-or-near the top of the next group. (oct10)

16. It is interesting to look at Spencer Knight's splits from Florida/Chicago last year. Overall, his numbers with a 17-16-5 record to go with a 2.70 GAA and a .902 save percentage, look reasonable and like they could even be repeatable this year. However, his numbers solely with Chicago are a little different. In 15 games with Chicago, Knight put up a 5-8-2 record with a 3.12 GAA and a .895 save percentage. I would expect things to be a little better than those latter numbers, but his ceiling this year is likely those full-season numbers from last season, though with a much higher save volume due to more starts and more shots against. (oct8)

17. I’m surprised by the Pittsburgh Penguins who really are letting the youth earn their ice time, and aren’t letting veteran contracts get in the way of that. Danton Heinen, Ryan Graves, and a few other one-way contracts were left off the starting lineup for their opening game in favour of rookies and younger players. It will be interesting to see if this works out for them, as they try to find some way to keep a spark in the team that is right now the shell carrying the careers of Sidney Crosby, Kris Letang, and Evgeni Malkin to their ends. In fact, those three are the first trio in NHL history to play 20 seasons together. They have had quite a laundry list of teammates over the years, but never so many with such limited NHL experience.

The best example of that youth movement though might be in net, with Pittsburgh acquiring the Calder Cup winning goalie Arturs Silovs in the offseason, and giving him the opening day start over the incumbent Tristan Jarry who also has the big contract. His shutout last Tuesday night certainly sets the stage for Silovs to be in more of a tandem situation with Jarry at the very least, if not the main starter outright. (oct8)

18. Ville Koivunen is especially interesting playing on the top line, and he was pegged to me pre-draft by one public scout as having one of the best fantasy hockey profiles of players outside for the top group of names from his draft year (one of the others was Ayrton Martino though, more proof no one is perfect). He’s someone worth a speculative add or watchlist depending on your league size.

Ben Kindel, a recent 11^th overall pick, is one of the names I’m most curious to see as well. He was viewed as a bit of a reach when the Pens grabbed him, but he has a chip on his shoulder now, and lots of runway to make the most of it, with an offensive pedigree to back it up.

Justin Brazeau was playing on Evgeni Malkin‘s wing, and opened the season scoring for the Penguins, and added an empty netter as well while also pacing the team in SOG with six. He’s unlikely hitting more than a point every other game, but 35 points and some solid SOG/Hit totals are certainly doable from the late bloomer. He had 123 Hits last season, but his scoring and value were limited due to a lower shot rate. If that continues from what we saw in game one, then he’s certainly worth keeping an eye on. (oct8)

19. In a bit of a surprise, Gavin Brindley earned himself a spot in the Avalanche's opening night lineup at the expense of Zakhar Bardakov, who is new to North America. He was a favourite of mine in his draft year, but injuries have derailed his development a little. He’s a shorter player, but has a sturdy foundation and plays with an intensity that makes his size irrelevant. He was a top scorer in college playing alongside Adam Fantilli, so he knows how to play with top-tier linemates. We’ll see if he gets a chance up in the lineup this year in Colorado. (oct8)

20. Matt Grzelcyk parlayed a PTO into a one-year deal with Chicago after posting 40 points in a full 82-game slate with Pittsburgh last season. One goal and 39 assists does not scream “must draft,” but the production shows he can move the puck and log steady minutes. With the Blackhawks rostering a relatively young blueline, Grzelyck offers some experience on the back end and could see some occasional power play time. (oct6)

21.I am very interested in how the Flyers are going to deploy Trevor Zegras. Over the course of the preseason the coaching staff kept him in a top-six role and in most cases, was paired with Matvei Michkov, which should bode well for this fantasy value. That arrangement may not hold all season but it is a bold start that could pay off for Zegras if they click. On the back end, Jamie Drysdale posted three assists in four preseason games and is worth keeping an eye on as he pushes for a larger role. His skillset fits the mold of a top power-play quarterback, he could become one of the more important swing players on this roster. (oct6)

Have a good week, folks!

Thanks for continuing to support the website and if you’re bored and need a fantasy hockey fix – visit the gang in the forum here.