The Columbus Blue Jackets welcomed Mason Marchment back into the lineup on Thursday night after missing the last eight games. He was back on the top line with Adam Fantilli and Kirill Marchenko, looking to pick up where he left off.

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Ottawa announced that winger David Perron will be out over a month due to hernia surgery. With two weeks until the Olympic break, he could be back as soon as the NHL returns five weeks from now, but it'll all depend on his rehab.

If nothing else, this should mean Ridly Greig stays a top-9 option for the Senators for their next several games. Maybe someone like Stephen Halliday gets a crack at some point, but Greig had already replaced Perron in that top-9 mix and if the Sens keep winning games, that's where he'll stay.

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The St. Louis Blues got Pius Suter back with the team as he works to return from his high-ankle sprain, according to Andy Strickland. Given all the injuries the team has had recently, it's not a moment too soon, and it may already be too late for any real second-half playoff push.

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The Vancouver Canucks got good news on centre Filip Chytil as Jeff Paterson reports that he may be back in the lineup as soon as Friday night when the Canucks host the New Jersey Devils. Chytil has missed over three months with his latest concussion, which is his sixth documented in his career. At this point we can only hope that he can stay healthy because he can be an impact player for Vancouver when he's in the lineup, but at a certain point his long-term health has to be at the forefront of any conversation.

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In yesterday's Ramblings, we covered three young forwards (Cole Perfetti, Mason McTavish, and Quinton Byfield) who've yet to really take that next step in their offensive production, why they haven't, and whether they will. In today's Ramblings, we're going to do the same thing, but move to the blue line and see why a couple highly-touted defencemen haven't taken a big leap forward in their offensive production.

Player data is from Evolving Hockey or Natural Stat Trick with tracking data from All Three Zones.

Cam York (Philadelphia Flyers)

In 2018-19, York put up 65 points with the US National Team Development Program. It remains the second-highest total ever with the three-highest totals after him being Lane Hutson, Adam Fox, and Quinn Hughes. The all-time leader is Cole Hutson, who is currently at Boston University and leads the NCAA in points per game among defencemen. Given that company, we could be forgiven for thinking York would be an offensive force.

At the time, some prospect analysts noted that York's profile wouldn't necessarily translate to a lot of points in the NHL, something I dismissed. Well, so far, those analysts have been correct as York's 82-game pace from 2022-2025 was 27 points every 82 games. He is on a 39-point/82-game pace in 2025-26, but his points/60 minutes rate of 1.24 isn't that much higher than his career-best mark of 1.13 back in 2022-23. A mark of 1.24 points/60 this season, a career-best, is still outside the top-50 blue liners in the league.

Prior to the 2025-26 campaign, there were two reasons why York wasn't producing much:

1. The Flyers' power play was dead last in the NHL at 4.44 goals/60 minutes from 2021-25. That mark was 1.39 goals/60 lower than the next-worst team (Anaheim, 5.83), which is a bigger gap than Anaheim and the 10^th-worst team (Buffalo, 7.2). Not really a spot to rack up the power-play points.
2. York didn't really get involved in the offence once the puck crossed the red line.

To that second point, here are the two defencemen with rates of zone entries/60 minutes and contributions off the cycle+forecheck/60 minutes (shots and assists) in the four years from 2021-2025:

Needless to say, ranking next to Simon Benoit and Connor Murphy in terms of zone entries and getting involved in the cycle is not where a defenceman wants to be if they want to rack up the points. There is a reason why York's rate of points/60 at 5-on-5 across those four seasons was in the 32^nd percentile, or a bottom-pair rate.

Looking at the 2025-26 season, things have improved for York as he sits with 1.01 points/60 at 5-on-5, which is a 63^rd percentile mark, or a high-end second-pair option. That still isn't great, but it's above-average, and much better than his first four years. With that said, being a 63^rd percentile point producer at 5-on-5 on a team with a bottom-3 power play by goals per 60 minutes still isn't very good. And when looking at the tracking data again, here is York's closest comparable by percentage drop in both contributions off the rush and off the cycle+forecheck while having a below-average rate of zone entries:

Much like ranking near Simon Benoit and Connor Murphy earlier, ranking near a 33-year-old Justin Faulk is not the place for York to be by rush and cycle contributions combined with zone entries. Faulk is having a decent fantasy season, but it's also because he's shooting 11.7% against a three-year average of 3.8%. If Faulk were shooting around 4%, his 82-game pace would be for 26 points.

York turned 25 years old earlier this month. Under new coach Rick Tocchet, there has been a change in the team approach to their offence compared to recent seasons as they focus less on offence off the rush. That wasn't a spot where York ever thrived, so it's not a big deal for him, but that he's seeing declines elsewhere is not a great sign. Maybe he finishes close to 40 points, but that may very well be his realistic fantasy upside. York's saving grace is the team doesn't have a reliable PP defenceman, and he may be the best option of a bunch of lesser options. Some top PP time, even on a bad PP team, is better than none.

Owen Power (Buffalo Sabres)

Going into Thursday night's game in Montreal, Power was sitting with 0.94 points/60 minutes at 5-on-5. That is lower than last year (1.25), the year before (0.99), and the three-year average prior to 2025-26 (1.05). Buffalo's goals against rate at 5-on-5 with Power on the ice is by far the lowest of his career (2.40), and the team will be happy with that, but the point production is what matters for fantasy managers, and the production has been modest.

To start with, Power is fighting an uphill power play battle. Having Rasmus Dahlin as a teammate provides a significant impediment to top power-play time, and while Power may take that role eventually, it doesn't seem as if it'll happen anytime soon (as in years, plural).

Last week, I wrote about how defencemen botching defensive zone retrievals or failing to exit the defensive zone when they have the puck is very detrimental to their team's offence.  However, limiting those botches and failed exits can help a team's offence. That is exactly what Power did as a young defenceman as he was among the best defencemen limiting those botches and failed exits (red and blue lines are league averages, his bottom-left quadrant is the lowest in both areas):

There are a few reasons why Buffalo's goal-scoring rate with Power on the ice from 2021-2025 (3.1 goals for/60) was tied for 10^th in the league among all regular defencemen and in line with names like Cale Makar (3.12) and Erik Karlsson (3.1). That is one of them.  

It has been a different story in 2025-26. He has seen one of the largest increases in his botch+fail percentage while also seeing a big decline in his rate of zone entries per 60 minutes. Put it all together, and the decline in those two aspects has him among a very mixed bag of defencemen:

Charlie McAvoy is a fantasy-relevant defenceman in all formats, but that is largely because of his top PP role. Without that, he'd be most viable only in multi-cat formats. Other than McAvoy, these defencemen are streamers, multi-cat guys, or deep-league options. And Power is similar to McAvoy in the sense that if he can get top PP time, then he's viable in a lot of formats. If he can't (and Power won't), then he turns into a streamer/deep league option.  

We should give Power some grace as he's under 300 NHL games and as a 6'6" defenceman who just turned 23 years old in November, he still has some improvements to come. However, he has yet to take that next step offensively, and even when (if) he does, there is a Rasmus Dahlin-sized roadblock to getting top PP minutes. Considering his limited peripherals – yet to have a season with either 1.8 shots or 0.6 hits per game – and the lack of top PP time, Power may very well end up being one of those 'Better In Real Life Than Fantasy' options.