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

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1. Catching players when they’re showing signs of an upswing, but before anyone else can grab them off the waiver wire, is important to the success of any fantasy season. With the regular season roughly one-third finished, let’s look at some defencemen with on-ice improvements that have – or could lead to – regular fantasy relevance, particularly in multi-cat formats. We are going to use player data from Natural Stat Trick and roster% numbers from the Frozen Tools Percent Rostered Report. We are splitting the season in two with the first ‘half’ being the first four weeks and the second ‘half’ being the most recent nearly-four weeks.

All data is current as of the morning on Monday, December 1^st.

Simon Nemec (New Jersey Devils)
Rostered: Yahoo – 32%, Fantrax – 71%, ESPN 39%

With New Jersey constantly changing their defenceman on the top PP unit, relying on any of Dougie Hamilton, Luke Hughes, or Nemec feels like a fool’s errand right now. All the same, Nemec has seen one of the largest ice time increases in our two halves, and that is paired with a sizeable improvement in the team’s shot rate with him on the ice:

Importantly, over New Jersey’s last five games with their blue line mostly healthy, Nemec is still third in ice time per game at 21:19. There hasn’t been much change in his rate of shot attempts per 60 minutes between the two halves, but that he’s getting so much more ice time has led him to averaging 2.2 shots per game over his last 10 games. Nemec has 15 even strength points on the season, which is as many as Lane Hutson and more than Jake Sanderson or Miro Heiskanen. With the additional ice time, there’s multi-cat value here, even if Nemec rarely hits anyone. (dec2)

2. Artyom Levshunov (Chicago Blackhawks)
Rostered: Yahoo – 22%, Fantrax – 69%, ESPN – 10%

As with almost anyone of note, Levshunov is going to be gone in most Fantrax leagues, as well as deeper formats on other sites, particularly since taking over top PP duties in the last few weeks. But it’s still worth highlighting that the top PP role, combined with about 45 more seconds per game in even-strength ice time, has led to a huge TOI increase of 2:45 per game and the team is taking nearly 9.5 more shot attempts (CF/60) with him on the ice per 60 minutes:

On top of all this, his individual shot attempt rate has jumped from 6.6 per 60 minutes in the first half to 10.8 in the second half. He has also seen a 22% increase in shot blocks. It is important to highlight that peripheral improvement as his last 10 games have seen him average 1.5 shots and 2.2 hits+blocks per game, compared to 0.86 shots and 1.6 hits+blocks per game in the first half. It will be hard for him to gain much more ice time until the team finally stops using seven defencemen nearly every game, but there are good improvements under the hood, and that puts him in line to just be more and more productive as the season wears on. (dec2)

3. Radko Gudas (Anaheim Ducks)
Rostered: Yahoo – 26%, Fantrax – 37%, ESPN – 21%

Oddly enough, the defenceman who has seen the largest improvement in his team’s shot attempt rate with him on the ice isn’t someone like Levshunov or Nemec – guys who have seen some top PP time. Rather, it’s Anaheim’s Radko Gudas, who is a long ways away from being a top PP guy:

The funny thing about Gudas is that even with nearly four fewer minutes per game than last season, he’s averaging about the same amount of hits+blocks per game (5.5 this year, 5.4 last year), more shots per game, and has about the same rate of points per game. Anaheim is clearly a different offensive team this season than at any point in the last decade, so if Gudas can keep earning some more ice time, he could be useful for more things than just hits and blocks. (dec2)

4. Honourable Mentions

We should quickly shout out a couple other defencemen.

Hampus Lindholm has been running Boston’s top PP unit without Charlie McAvoy in the fold. Lindholm has also averaged over 24 minutes a game since the injury to McAvoy and while he hasn’t had much production with just two points in those last seven appearances, they were both PP assists. He also has 12 shots and 16 blocks in those seven outings. He is currently under 10% owned on both Yahoo and ESPN, though Boston only has six games in the next two weeks, and only one of those on a light day, so beware of a suboptimal upcoming schedule.

There is a bit of a good news/bad news situation with Columbus’ Denton Mateychuk. The bad news is that after being Zach Werenski‘s partner for much of the first four weeks, he’s been moved to the second pair over the last month. The good news is that has led to more ice time – about 2:40 per game more. It would be preferable if he were playing those minutes with Werenski, and he won’t get close to the top PP unit without a Werenski injury, but his additional ice time is a boon for his fantasy value. Just be cautious here because like Lindholm, Mateychuk has just six games in the next two weeks and only one on a light day. (dec2)

5. Former Devil Akira Schmid has a solid 2.35 GAA this season, but he might otherwise be the goaltending definition of “mid.” Schmid has just six quality starts in 16 games, but he also has only three really bad starts. Even with Carter Hart now eligible to play, Schmid should still be able to receive regular work while Adin Hill is injured. By the way, Hart was injured in his first game of the season on Tuesday against Chicago. Jesper Vikman was Schmid’s backup for this game, so expect Schmid to remain the starter for the time being. I’d recommend continuing to hold onto Schmid, as Hart may need some time to find his game after a long layoff. (dec6)

6. Since taking over as the starter from the injured Connor Hellebuyck, Eric Comrie has five quality starts in eight games. He was still available in 75% of Yahoo leagues entering Saturday, so he’s worth a short-term add. Keep in mind that the Jets haven’t been as strong this season as they were last season, so Comrie isn’t necessarily a sure win every game. (dec6)

7. For the Sabres, Josh Norris is back, and he’s producing: five points in the three games since he returned from an upper-body injury. Norris is on a scoring line with Tage Thompson and Zach Benson and he is on the top power play, so he is getting the best possible deployment in the Buffalo lineup. Ride him in your lineup until the next injury. Norris is playing in his seventh NHL season, yet he has never reached 70 games in a season and has only reached 60 games in a season once. (dec6)

8. Mikko Rantanen has produced as you’ve hoped recently with goals in three consecutive games and 10 points in his last five games. Entering Saturday, Rantanen was also tied for the league lead in power-play points with teammate Wyatt Johnston. He’s getting the job done in the scoring department, as you would have expected.

An added bonus that you wouldn’t have expected at the start of the season, if your league counts penalty minutes: Rantanen was leading the league with 65 PIM. This is mainly to do with the penalty minutes he piled up one week from vicious hits on Alexander Romanov and Matt Coronato. Rantanen seems to be playing with more of an edge this season. (dec6)

9. Ryan Leonard left Friday’s late game in Anaheim with an upper-body injury after taking a hard hit from Jacob Trouba. Leonard entered this game with seven points in his last four games, including a four-point effort against the Sharks on Wednesday. Leonard has also been making a statement in the rookie scoring race with 18 points in 29 games, good for fourth among rookies. He was also one of the hottest adds of the week with his recent play, but that will have to be put on hold. After the game, coach Spencer Carbery said that both Leonard and Charlie Lindgren are "going to be out." That's not a detailed description, but it sounds like he'll miss some games. (dec6)

10. I can already say with some certainty that this won’t be my best overall fantasy hockey season. But one player that I drafted on multiple teams and I’m pleased with is Tom Wilson. With a goal on Friday, Wilson has 17 on the season, 11 points in his last eight games, and over a point per game with 31 points in 29 games. Wilson’s 27.4 SH% means regression is likely, but he’ll still be a valuable contributor in my league that counts hits. Wilson has gotten progressively better as a scorer throughout his career and is now making a strong case for a spot on Team Canada at the Olympics. (dec6)

11. Some bad injury news for Dallas Stars forward Tyler Seguin as reported by Mike Heika. Seguin will be undergoing knee surgery on his ACL and it looks like his season is over. There is no firm timeline yet on if/when he can return to the ice, but all indications are that he won’t be returning for the regular season. Just a brutal break for a guy who has had so many significant injuries. (dec4)

12. We have an interesting case with the Philadelphia Flyers as long-time Flyer Travis Konecny is adapting to a new coach in Rick Tocchet. While the team is in the thick of the playoff race, Konecny is not having anywhere near the fantasy season that managers were hoping for – going into Wednesday night’s game, he was on pace for 15 goals and 64 points in 2025-26 after averaging 39 goals and 39 assists every 82 games from 2022-2024 and posting 24 goals and 76 points in 2024-25. What has changed? Well, a lot, and here’s some of it… (dec4)

[Follow the link for more…]

13. The Red Wings just can’t seem to prevent goals, especially when John Gibson is in net. What gives?

Well, John Gibson right now (and over the last few years) is just straight up a worse goalie than Cam Talbot. I know Gibson was amazing at his early peak, but that was a very long time ago. He helped me win a Roto league on the last day of the season with a clutch win over a decade ago and I still haven’t forgotten how good he was then. Unfortunately, the last six seasons worth of data is telling us a very consistent story, with the move to Detroit seeming to have exacerbated a shift into mediocrity.

At this point, I’m not sure there’s any saving Gibson, especially since his in-season numbers never seem to improve the farther into a season he gets. From the first quarter of the year, the numbers either stay the same or get worse. I typically give goalies lots of time to recover from slow starts, because they can be so volatile, but I have no issue cutting bait with Gibson at this point in 99% of league setups. (dec3)

14. Looking at disappointing goalies around the league, I have hope in Stuart Skinner and Sam Montembeault who have recovered from poor starts before, Jordan Binnington who has always been a bit streakier (same with the Blues as a whole), and Linus Ullmark, who also has streaky stretches, and whose team is getting healthier in front of him.

Dustin Wolf‘s growing pains with a bad team are expected, and he should be fine. Juuse Saros I have less confidence in for the rest of this season, but he has the talent to be fantasy relevant again very soon.

Kevin Lankinen, Frederik Andersen, and Jacob Markstrom all worry me at this point as well. (dec3)

15. A lot of the talk around the Sharks this year has involved Celebrini, but we shouldn’t overlook the season Smith is having. He now has 12 goals, 15 assists, and 69 shots in 27 games. Going back to the 2024 Christmas break, Smith has 61 points in 72 games, and his rate of points per 60 minutes (2.89) is a top-50 mark in the league, higher than names like Nikolaj Ehlers, Mikko Rantanen, Filip Forsberg, and Matt Boldy. (dec2)

16. St. Louis announced that winger Jimmy Snuggerud underwent wrist surgery and he will be out for up to six weeks, which puts a return sometime in the middle of January. Additionally, as if the injuries to Jack Hughes and Eetu Luostarainen weren’t enough, Blues forward Alexey Toropchenko suffered burns in an accident at home and will be out of the lineup for the foreseeable future. These off-ice injuries have been something else. (dec2)

17. Brandon Hagel was the most common choice among Dobber writers as a player to disappoint this season in the 2025-26 Season Predictions. It seemed as though they were on to something early on when Hagel got off to an awful start with just a single point in his first seven games. However, Hagel turned things around after that, and right now he might be the hottest player in the league.

Despite that, Hagel still can’t seem to find his way onto Tampa’s top power play, but that might not matter much at the rate he scores at even strength. As of Saturday afternoon, Hagel was tied for ninth in the league with 23 even-strength points. Only three of his points this season have been on the power play. He is back on pace for another 90-point season. (nov30)

18. Having captain Gabriel Landeskog back might be the difference between the Avalanche being a good team and the Avalanche dominating the league. His stats this season (14 PTS in 28 GP) won’t blow anyone away, but after starting the season with just four points (all assists) in his first 16 games, Landeskog has heated up recently with eight points over his last eight games. (nov30)

19. The injury that Kyle Palmieri suffered last week turned out to be quite serious. Palmieri is expected to need 6-8 months of recovery time, as he will undergo surgery to repair an ACL tear in his left knee. That will effectively end Palmieri’s season, unless the Islanders make a deep playoff run. (nov30)

20. In a couple of my leagues we’re getting to the point of the year where people are obviously getting antsy with a desire to upgrade their roster or change things up after a slow start. I have found though, that there are a lot of inefficiencies with how people update their trade blocks, or list players as being available. It is a bit of an art-form, updating your trade block in order to make other teams interested in what you have, and to give them some incentive to reach out.

To break it down, I find there are two main styles for block updates:

First, you have your “Specific Idea” update. This one is straightforward in both its name and undertaking. For the update, you have a specific roster need and an area of excess that you are willing to move to fill the need. For example, you might desperately need a LW, maybe because of an injury or a previous trade, and you suddenly have an excess of roster-able defensemen that you’re willing to move. Sometimes you can specify one or two players that are the specific guys on the block, and the specifics that you’re looking for in the return player (age, categories, cap hit, etc).

The upside with this kind of block update, is that it’s clear, (can be) concise, and gives your fellow GMs an easy path to communicate their interest with you. I have had a lot of success with this in the past, however this kind of block update can often be pre-empted with a quick look around your league, and noting who needs defensemen and who has excess LWs. If there are only one or two teams that fit the description, you should probably check in with them first, and then after striking out then you can update the block with your options. If you’re not looking around and always waiting for someone to come to you, then you’re much more likely to get a lopsided amount of poor offers. (dec3)

21. The other type of block update is more of a “General Store” kind of layout. With this setup, you put at least a third of your team on the block, maybe some picks or prospects too if your league has them, and then note that you’re “open to offers”. The idea is often just to spark change with your team, or see what nibbles you get from other teams in the league just to open up some interesting discussions. The issue with this, is that teams see too much, and if the block is updated too often with these big sweeping selections, there comes a bit of analysis paralysis.

Either approach can work, but there are some flaws, as noted. The biggest issue with any approach to trade blocks is managing to have your fellow GMs tune it out. The more you can add specifics, humor, and avoid spamming their inboxes with options, the more likely you are to get the replies you’re looking for. (dec3)

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Have a good week, folks!

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