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. Right before the NHL holiday roster freeze kicked in, NHL GMs quickly consummated two trades. Merry Christmas, pal. Pack your things, because you’re on the move.

• The Kings sent Phillip Danault to the Canadiens for a 2026 second-round pick. Fantasy Take here.

• The Kraken sent Mason Marchment to the Blue Jackets for a second-round pick and a fourth-round pick. Fantasy Take here.

2. Since trading Quinn Hughes, the Vancouver Canucks were 3-0 (entering Saturday), with all of the wins coming on the road in metropolitan New York. That means the Canucks don’t need a rebuild anymore, right? Sometimes hockey doesn’t make sense. (Ed.note: Make it 4-0 for the Canucks without Hughes and an injured Elias Pettersson, thanks to a 5-4 shootout win in Boston yesterday.)

To try to explain this, let’s start with Thatcher Demko. Over those three wins (and three quality starts), Demko has allowed a total of two goals with a .972 SV%. The Canucks have managed to keep Demko from being overworked during that time, as he has faced less than 30 shots in each of the three wins. If he can avoid any more injuries this season, Demko might sabotage the Canucks’ tank effort. No, he’s not getting traded, because teams will be scared off by his upcoming contract and injury risk. The Canucks are a decidedly better team when Demko plays, as their worst stretch of the season occurred when Demko was injured. Demko is okay to start in all fantasy formats, even when the Canucks inevitably fall back to earth.

You probably expected more than two hits from Kiefer Sherwood on Friday, but you’ll take that because he scored three goals. Also entering Saturday, Sherwood was up to a team-high 16 goals, but with just four assists. Sherwood was also averaging a career-high 17:29 per game, and he was shooting at over 21%. The shooting percentage should drop, which will mean fewer goals. His icetime could also drop if he is traded, which has a high probability of happening because he is on an inexpensive expiring contract. In the end, Sherwood’s goal frequency could plummet, but he should continue to provide hits because of his energetic style of play.

Overall, the Hughes situation was a distraction for a team that has had more than its share of distractions the last few years. This winning streak is probably only a dead cat bounce for the Canucks, but at least getting the trade out of the way has allowed them to focus on hockey and not on more drama. (dec20)

3. Just one week after being acquired by Edmonton from Pittsburgh, Tristan Jarry has been placed on injured reserve while he undergoes further evaluation for a lower-body injury. In the meantime, Connor Ingram has been recalled from the AHL. (Ed. note: During the second intermission of the Flames/Golden Knights game Saturday, Elliotte Friedman said that the Oilers are hopeful that Jarry’s injury is short-term, although more could be known on Sunday (today).)

Entering Saturday, Ingram has an .856 SV% in the AHL after 11 appearances, so I wouldn’t bank on him taking the Oilers job and running with it while Jarry is out. However, Calvin Pickard hasn’t exactly been outstanding this season with a 3.91 GAA and .857 SV% with just three wins in 12 games. Pickard has more of a track record with the Oilers, especially when he has been called upon to play a stretch of games when the recently traded Stuart Skinner needed a break. While Jarry is out, Pickard seems like the default option for an Edmonton team that has been playing better of late but still struggles defensively. (dec20)

4. It will be interesting to see if Stuart Skinner can right that ship in Pittsburgh. Entering Saturday, the Pens had lost seven games in a row, giving up 30 goals in those seven contests. (dec19)

5. In a game that saw both starting goalies wearing helmets of the opponents colours, the biggest milestone for the Oilers versus the Penguins last Tuesday was Leon Draisaitl notching point #1000 with an assist on Zach Hyman‘s tally. Then 24 seconds later, he started on the road to the 2000-point mark, assisting on Connor McDavid‘s tally.

Neither Stuart Skinner and Tristan Jarry were especially strong in that first outing against each other, but it did look last night like Edmonton managed to pick the right goalie. Jarry earned the win despite allowing four goals, while the Oilers scored five times on their former mate Skinner. (dec17)

6. There just simply aren’t enough injuries this season. Seth Jarvis left Friday’s game against Florida in overtime after crashing into the net. After the game, Rod Brind’Amour said that the injury is “not good” and that Jarvis is “going to be out for a while.” Jarvis recorded two assists in this game, giving him four points in his last four games. (dec20) (Ed. note: During his intermission segment on Hockey Night in Canada, Elliotte Friedman mentioned that the Hurricanes are hopeful about Seth Jarvis although he still needs to be evaluated by doctors. Hopefully the injury doesn’t cost Jarvis a chance at the Olympics if he is in fact on the list again.)

7. The Philadelphia Flyers announced that winger Tyson Foerster is out for the year after surgery on his arm. Technically, if the Flyers win a couple of playoff rounds, maybe he can return some in May, but that is about the best to be hoped for. A tough season for a player who has become an excellent two-way winger in Philadelphia. (dec18)

8. Dylan Holloway was injured in practice and the team announced he will be out six weeks with a high-ankle sprain. It is a brutal hit for St. Louis as they can ill-afford to have any of their top players for an extended period, and this only adds to Jordan Kyrou et al. being out of the lineup. (dec16)

9. Logan Thompson recorded his second shutout of the season in his 24^th start on Thursday, or as many as he had last year in 42 starts. His save percentage was sitting at .925 – it seems impossible he’ll be left off the Team Canada Olympic roster at this point. (dec19)

10. Also on Thursday, Linus Ullmark posted his first shutout of the season, keeping 23 shots faced in Ottawa’s home game against Pittsburgh out of his net in the Senators’ 4-0 win. Ullmark seems to have turned a corner in December. At time of writing, he had given up just 13 goals in six starts with a .913 save percentage. With how good the Sens are defensively, if he can just be around the .900-.910 mark, they are a completely different team. (dec19)

11. Late last week, Lane Hutson was leading all defencemen with 62 assists since January 1, and he was the only defenceman with at least 60 (Evan Bouchard was next with 58 assists). Overall, that span saw Hutson post 71 points in 79 games. (dec19)

12. Friday morning, the Wild's Jesper Wallstedt had 10 wins in 13 starts and had allowed just 26 goals in those 13 starts. (dec19)

13. In his first outing with the Blues, waiver addition Jonatan Berggren scored the lone goal in a 2-1 overtime loss, skating over 17 minutes and finishing the game on the top line with Robert Thomas and Pavel Buchnevich. (dec19)

14. Entering Saturday's slate, Nazem Kadri had amassed 20 points and 48 shots in his last 15 games. He was up to 0.66 assists per game on the season, quite a bit higher than his 0.45 assists/game average over the first three years of his Flames career. Another hot Flame, Rasmus Andersson had 5 goals, 15 assists, 53 shots, 40 blocks, and 6 power-play points over his last 18 games. (dec19)

15. Fun fact: over the last calendar year, Jake Allen was 7^th by save percentage in the league (minimum of 35 starts) at time of writing and the only goalies higher are Andrei Vasilevskiy, Connor Hellebuyck, Darcy Kuemper, the two Colorado goalies, and Logan Thompson. Pretty good company! (dec18)

16. Rasmus Ristolainen threw his weight around with multiple open-ice hits in his first game of the season. He has missed a lot of time over the last few seasons because of injury, and that will likely take the edge off of his peripherals volume over the course of the season. However, like most players, an initial burst of Hits and maybe SOGs is something we are more likely to see because of the adrenaline compared to everyone else who is already into the mid-season “lull”. He finished the night with a plus-two rating, one SOG, three Hits, and two blocks. (dec17)

17. Igor Chernyshov made his NHL debut for the Sharks on the top line with Macklin Celebrini last Tuesday, and recorded one assist in 12 minutes of ice time. He’s certainly someone that’s worth keeping an eye on, especially while playing with Celebrini, who jumped into a tier with Nathan MacKinnon and Connor McDavid as the only three players to have reached 50 points at that stage in the season. (dec17)

18. One of the most productive AHLers this season has been Grand Rapids’ John Leonard, who has put up 19 goals and 29 points in 20 AHL games. In the wake of Patrick Kane‘s injury, Leonard has been called up to fill a scoring role on the second line. No points in his first game in two seasons, but his line with Alex DeBrincat did dominate the shot share. With Emmitt Finnie fading after a hot start, and no one else grabbing the LW role on the top line, there is a chance that Leonard could stick even after Kane’s return, and hold a spot in the top six. (dec17)

19. A league mate of mine was asking me whether I believed in the recent stretch of scoring we’re seeing from Luke Evangelista. I took one look at his Frozentools page last Tuesday, and the answer was a resounding “yes”. As soon as you open his page, the red marker for his career GP number being at his breakout threshold (BT) catches your eye. Then a quick glance over to see that yes his ice time is tracking upwards, his shooting percentage isn’t overly high (it’s too low actually), and it’s easy to say on the surface that the 13 points in his last 11 games is a sign of a breakout and not just some crazy hot streak.

Looking under the hood, you see that his underlying numbers are all indicative of someone who isn’t being inflated by luck, and there’s even more room to grow, so he’s not capped out either. He’s not exactly someone that his owners will be looking to sell low on, but he’s a great option to try and buy in on now while the breakout is still masked by some previous struggles, and by the overall ineptitude of the Nashville offence. (dec17)

20. With the above in mind, I wanted to look at a few other names who could be worth checking in on as they hit/approach in-season breakout thresholds, and aren’t already viewed as top-of-the-lineup type players. 

Bobby McMann is someone I have been trying to acquire in my cap league dynasty, as he has a safe floor, and a low cap hit. We’re seeing some streakiness from him with three successive multi-point games followed by a few pointless outings, and he is still 30 games away from his BT. There is room up the lineup in Toronto with all the injuries, line juggling, and overall lack of success that they have seen in the standings to this point. He’s a buy-now in hopes of him putting it together for the last 20-30 games of the year, where there is likely some added value for H2H playoffs and such. (dec17)

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21. As things stand, we have passed the 40% mark of the regular season and for those in head-to-head leagues, we are probably halfway through the fantasy regular season. It is time to make decisions on players ranging from depth options to roster cornerstones, and today’s Ramblings will attempt to do that. We are going to look at three areas ripe for regression:

• Percentage change in On-Ice Shooting Percentage, or the change in a team’s shooting percentage with a given player on the ice.
• Percentage change in Secondary Assists Per Goal.
• Percentage change in Individual Points Percentage, or how often a player registers a point when their team scores a goal with them on the ice.

We are including only forwards with at least 1500 minutes played across the 2023-2025 seasons and at least 300 minutes in 2025-26. Data is from Natural Stat Trick and current as of Wednesday, December 17^th.

For example, Dylan Guenther (Utah Mammoth):

It’s hard to say what should be done with Guenther because his frequent line mate (Logan Cooley) is going to miss a lot of time (possibly until after the Olympic break). Guenther may only have 25 more games this season with Cooley as his centre, and with the Mammoth loading up the top line, there’s not much talent left for Guenther to skate alongside.

With that preamble finished, there should be some positive regression heading Guenther’s way:

At -83.2%, Guenther has seen the 10^th-largest drop in secondary assists per goal scored with him on the ice. On the year, he has just one (1) secondary assist in 35 games after posting 15 in 70 games last year and 21 in his prior 115 games. At that rate, we’d expected him to have six secondary assists, not one. That is the difference between a 75-point pace and the 63-point pace he’s currently on.

Again, it’s hard to say to run out and trade for Guenther because Cooley may not be back until after the Olympics, which is over two months from now. As with Bratt, those at the top of their leagues will want to wait a couple weeks and then look to acquire Guenther for the stretch run – he is not a player to grab if you’re on the fantasy playoff bubble. (dec18)

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Have a good week, folks!

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