Welcome fantasy managers to another edition of the Eastern Edge. This week we are going to take a closer look at the Florida Panthers' resilience without its two star forwards, the Pittsburgh Penguins making a swap at the goaltending position, and the Montreal Canadiens' continuing  search for consistent play between the pipes. Let's get to it!

The Florida Panthers are one resilient bunch as the two-time defending Stanley Cup champions are right in the thick of an Eastern Conference playoff race. The Panthers of course have been without their two best players since Game 1 of the current NHL campaign as star winger Matthew Tkachuk has been sidelined with a torn abductor muscle injury in combination with a sports hernia while team captain Aleksander Barkov succumbed to an ACL / MCL injury during a pre-season practice that could cost him the entire 2025-2026 campaign.

All that being said, the team has more than stepped up in the absence of their two franchise stars with a current record of 17-13-2 which is a mere two points out from the second wild card spot in the East currently held by the Boston Bruins. What's more impressive is the fact that the Panthers have still produced at a more-than-reasonable rate considering the massive holes that those two star players leave in the lineup as the team is currently ranked 12th overall offensively at 3.19 GF/GP.

It has been a total team effort with contributions coming from up and down the lineup, most notably the wily veteran Barad Marchand (19G 16A 35PTS, 1.13PPG), Sam Reinhart (17G 15A 32PTS, 1.00PPG), first-line centreman Anton Lundell who has stepped in admirably for the aforementioned Barkov (10G 16A 26PTS, 0.81PPG), Carter Verhaeghe who has 16PTS in his last 10GP (10G 16A 26PTS, 0.84PPG) and lastly Seth Jones (5G 14A 19PTS, 0.59PPG).

On the defensive side of the ledger, Florida is holding its own without their reigning Selke winner with the team currently ranked 19th defensively at 3.13 GA/GP (finished 7th in 2024-2025 at 2.72 GA/GP) with the ageless wonder Sergei Boborovsky playing as well as one could expect after three long post-season runs sporting a 14-8-1 record accompanied by a 2.80 goals against and .888 save percentage including 3 shutouts and a 65.2% quality start rate (4W, 3QS his last 4GP).

If Barkov can recover and somehow make it back in time for the playoffs, along with the return of Matthew Tkachuk sometime in mid-January, in addition to the team tightening things up defensively, then in my opinion you have a group that I would not want to face in round one of this year’s postseason.

The Pittsburgh Penguins made a move towards the future by shipping out veteran netminder Tristan Jarry to the goalie graveyard that is the Edmonton Oilers in exchange the Penguins receive goaltender Stuart Skinner, defensemen Brett Kulak, and a second-round selection in the 2029 NHL Entry Draft (Skinner / Kulak are both on expiring contracts). Pittsburgh will move forward with an Arturs Silovs / Stuart Skinner tandem for the remainder of this year unless the Penguins decide to flip Skinner to accrue additional assets at the deadline. As for Jarry, I would expect his win total to get a little boost now that he is with Edmonton although fantasy managers should remain slightly cautious as it relates to peripheral number with the Oilers playing a more run-and-gun style of hockey as evidenced by their defensive metrics (26th overall at 3.39 GA/GP) compared to the Penguins (13th overall at 2.94 GA/GP).

The Montreal Canadiens are one of the most exciting teams to watch this year with an offense ranked in the top ten (9th overall at 3.22 GF/GP) along with one of the league’s deadliest power plays that is currently firing at a 26.4% success rate (4th overall). The Habs offer several fantasy options throughout the lineup that include team captain Nick Suzuki (9G 28A 37PTS, 1.16PPG) sniper Cole Caufield (17G 16A 33PTS, 1.03PPG) reigning Rookie of the Year winner Lane Hutson (5G 23A 28PTS, 0.88PPG), and of course Calder candidate Ivan Demidov (7G 18A 25PTS, 0.78PPG).

The issue lies with the team’s defense, most notably the team’s goaltending as Montreal ranks 28th overall defensively giving up an average of 3.47 GA/GP. The team was becoming so increasingly desperate for a save that they called up their goaltender of the future Jacob Fowler from the Laval Rocket (AHL) with the 21-year-old starting consecutive games against the Pittsburgh Penguins and the New York Rangers. Both starts were on the road, culminating with a 1-1 record accompanied by a 3.42 goals against and .894 save percentage.

Meanwhile, the club's de facto number one Jakub Dobes has strung together an 11-5-2 record followed by a 3.03 goals against and .891 save percentage which includes a 55.6% quality start rate and a 1.18 GSAx, not the worst statline when considering the defensive play in front of him. However, Montreal's number one netminder from last year Sam Montembeault has not fared so well behind that same defense as the Quebec native is sporting a 5-6-1 record accompanied by a putrid 3.65 goals against and .857 save percentage which includes a 26.7% quality start rate and -8.26 GSAx.

Needless to say, if the Montreal Canadiens are to take that all important next step in becoming a perennial contender in the National Hockey League, they will certainly need to shore up their team defense along with much more consistency from the club's goaltenders.     

That's it for this week folks, keep an eye out for my Weekend Waiver Wire column every Friday morning over at the Goalie Post for streaming options as it relates to upcoming games this weekend.

Thanks for reading and feel free to follow me on X @mikeouellet9 or BlueSky @mikeouellet9.bsky.social