Welcome fantasy managers to another edition of the Eastern Edge. This week we are going to take a closer look at the New York Rangers' lost season, the Toronto Maple Leafs' changing fortunes, and Andrei Svechnikov's offensive resurgence. Let's get to it!

The New York Rangers currently find themselves in the Eastern Conference basement in what is quickly becoming a second lost season in as many years. Over the weekend the Rangers sent out "The Letter 2.0" outlining the club’s decision to retool the roster with several key members likely to play their final game for the Blueshirts sometime before this year’s trade deadline.

The Rangers have struggled mightily this year with a record of 21-23-6 which includes a -20 goal differential (second-worst in the East). The team has actually been rather solid on the road with a 16-10-2 record away from the (friendly?) confines of Madison Square Gardens, however, their home record sits at a putrid 5-13-4 mark which is the league’s second-worst behind only the Vancouver Canucks home record of 4-14-3.

The addition of former Pittsburgh bench boss and 2-time Stanley Cup winning coach Mike Sullivan had many believing the Rangers would challenge for the division with the team’s current level of talent, so to say this season is a disappointment would be a severe understatement. A current lack of secondary scoring is clearly evident with New York ranking 27th offensively at 2.66 GF/GP while generating under 26 shots per game (25.7 shots/GP).

Injuries to star goaltender Igor Shesterkin – who was having quite a solid campaign until succumbing to a lower-body injury – and star defenseman Adam Fox, who is now on his second LTIR stint this year, have not helped in any way, shape or form. The club has had to lean heavily on a now-39-year-old Jonathan Quick who is sporting a 0-9-2 record in his last eleven games played with a 3.46 goals against and .864 save percentage in addition to -5.18 goals saved above expected.

Unfortunately for the Rangers faithful Quick has been even worse since Shesterkin's injury with an 0-4-1 record accompanied by a horrendous 3.80 goals against and .814 save percentage in addition to -8.79 goals saved above expected (per Frozen Tools).

Regardless of the teams current level of play, there have been some solid fantasy hockey contributors with Artemi Panarin (1.14PPG, 93PT pace), Mika Zibanejad (0.96PPG, 78PT pace), Vincent Trocheck (31PTS in 36GP, 0.86PPG) and Adam Fox (28PTS in 30GP, 0.93PPG) all offering differing levels of production no matter the format.

All that said, the New York Rangers begin and end with the play of their All-Star netminder who had been putting together another solid if unspectacular campaign with a 17-12-4 record accompanied by a 2.45 goals against average, a .913 save percentage, a 67.6% quality start rate, and 19.28 goals saved above expected with one shutout. The silence coming from team brass as it relates to Shesterkin's injury timeline is a tad concerning, but the way the team has played in front of him this year only furthers my resolve to not rush him back simply due to his importance to this franchise.

Things sure feel different in LeafLand don't they? After fumbling much of the first half of the campaign, Toronto has been on quite a heater of late with the team going 6-2-2 in their last 10 games played while outscoring the opposition 41-34 during that span. Auston Matthews continues to look more like himself with 15PTS over his last 10GP, as does running mate William Nylander who has put up 12pts over his last 6GP. Meanwhile, wily vet Oliver Ekman-Larsson has held a hot stick of late with 8PTS in his last 10GP while sharing power play time on the team's top unit with Morgan Reilly.

The Leafs' goaltending, which always seems to be a topic of conversation, has been rather steady lately with Joseph Woll (3-1-1 in his last 5GP, 3.00 goals against and .904 save percentage including an 7.48 goals saved above expected) and Dennis Hildeby (3-1 in his last 4GP, 2.75 goals against and .905 save percentage including a 5.64 goals saved above expected) holding down the fort in Anthony Stolarz's absence.

Lastly with the Toronto Maple Leafs, Matthew Knies has been on a bit of a cold spell of late production wise with 6PTS in his last 10GP, however, Knies has continued to deliver when it comes to banger or category leagues with some fairly decent coverage across the board (100 hits to date this year).

Andrei Svechnikov has been on fire for a number of weeks now as the big Russian has clearly put his early season struggles behind him. Svechnikov has put up 15PTs in his last 11GP riding shotgun on the 'Canes' top line alongside Sebastian Aho and Seth Jarvis while also being deployed on Carolina's first power play unit.

The 25-year-old has taken full advantage of his current deployment and is reminding fantasy managers of his immense talent. This level of production seems to be quite sustainable as well as Svechnikov has been shooting the puck with more regularity this year with a bump in shot rate from 2.5 shots/GP in 2024-2025 to 2.8 shots/GP this year with a 12.3% shooting percentage, which is not far off from his career average of 11.7%.

As with many Carolina Hurricanes his ceiling may be stunted a little due to the manner in which coach Rod Brind'Amour spreads out the ice time across all four lines, however, when given increased opportunity Svechnikov can deliver the mail and has been doing just that for most of the current campaign. Will Svechnikov reach or better his career high of 69 points in a season? Let's just say I'm not betting against the big fella!        

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 coming weekend.

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

See you all again next Tuesday!