Ramblings: Treliving Fired; Askarov Returns; Notes on Meier, Fantilli, Boldy, Zellweger, and Wolf – March 31
Michael Clifford
2026-03-31
With eight games left in the season and three weeks after the Trade Deadline, the Toronto Maple Leafs fired General Manager Brad Treliving, and no immediate replacement was named. Not sure why they did this – things had been going so well.
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Jordan Greenway was lined up on Buffalo's fourth line at their practice on Monday, per Matthew Fairburn. Without Noah Ostlund in the lineup, now is the time to get Greenway some minutes before the Sabres start their playoff run.
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Tom Gulitti reported that Washington winger Aliaksei Protas will miss at least Tuesday's game against Philadelphia and likely more, but should be back before the end of the season. With so little time remaining in the regular season, it's always notable when a player doesn't have a firm timeline for a return. That should mean good minutes for guys like Connor McMichael and Ryan Leonard for the short-term.
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Yaroslav Askarov was at San Jose's morning skate on Monday, according to Sheng Peng, which led to him starting on Monday night against St. Louis.
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The Pittsburgh Penguins fell behind the New York Islanders 3-1 with half the game remaining on Monday night, and then peeled off seven consecutive goals to win 8-3. Anthony Mantha Had two goals and an assist, Rickard Rakell scored twice, Bryan Rust had one of each, and Justin Brazeau tallied three assists in the win.
Mantha is now up to 29 goals, one shy of his first-ever 30-goal season. He also needs two more assists for his first-ever 30-assist season. His career year has been something else to watch.
Mathew Barzal posted a goal and an assist with a block and two PIMs in the loss. He needs three more points for his second 70-point season in three years. Goalie Ilya Sorokin was in net for seven goals against for the first time in his career.
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Not to be outdone by Pittsburgh, the Colorado Avalanche laid a thrashing on the Calgary Flames by a 9-2 margin. Nathan MacKinnon, Martin Necas, Parker Kelly, and Jack Drury each had a goal and two assist in the win, Nazem Kadri scored twice on the power play, and Sam Malinski tallied one of each with four shots, four blocks, and a hit.
Scott Wedgewood stopped 27 of 29 shots in the win.
Ryan Strome scored in the loss for Calgary. He now has as many goals (3) and assists (6) in 12 games with Calgary as he did in 33 games with Anaheim this season.
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The Vegas John Tortorellas won their first game under their new coach as both Shea Theodore and Rasmus Andersson scored for Vegas in their 4-2 win over Vancouver. Andersson has three goals and four points in his last four games with eight shots, four PIMs, five blocks, and a hit in that span.
Adin Hill stopped 22 of 24 shots for the win.
Brock Boeser scored in the loss for the Canucks. His team is awful, but Boeser finishes the month of March with 6 goals and 7 assists in 14 games.
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Toronto and Anaheim met for the first time since Radko Gudas ended Auston Matthews' season, and there were plenty of fights and penalties on both sides. The Leafs ended up winning that game 5-4 in overtime on John Tavares' second goal of the game. It was a nice comeback with for the Leafs, who were down 3-1 with 14 minutes left in the third period.
William Nylander managed a goal and three assists with eight shots and two PIMs in the victory. He has 18 points in 18 games since the Olympic break.
Leo Carlsson scored twice in the loss. He is up to 8 goals, 11 assists, 52 shots, and 6 PP points in 18 games since the Olympics.
Anthony Stolarz earned the win in goal for the Leafs, stopping 28 of 32 shots.
Cutter Gauthier scored halfway through the first period but left the game and did not return. In his absence, Troy Terry jumped to the top PP unit.
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Adam Gaudette scored with 22 seconds left in the game as San Jose beat the St. Louis Blues 5-4. That was Gaudette's 16th goal of the season and pushes him to 5th overall by goals per 60 minutes at 5-on-5 over the last two seasons (minimum of 1250 minutes). Only Tage Thompson, Cole Caufield, Alex Ovechkin, and Nikita Kucherov are higher.
Both Macklin Celebrini and Alex Wennberg posted two goals and an assist with Celebrini managing five shots and a hit. Those three points pushed Celebrini past the 100-point mark, becoming the first teenager since Sidney Crosby to cross the 100-point barrier. If Celebrini scores two more goals, he'll be the first teenager in nearly 40 years to have 40 goals and 100 points (all from Hockey Reference).
Philip Broberg scored in the loss for the Blues. He finishes the month of March with 3 goals, 6 assists, 8 hits, and 7 blocks in 14 games. Not great multi-cat stuff, but solid nonetheless.
Askarov earned the win in goal for the Sharks, stopping 22 of 24 shots faced in his return.
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It is a bit of a dead zone for fantasy hockey right now. Most fantasy players are not in contention for a league title no matter the format. I have written about role/deployment changes that can matter for any fantasy players still pushing for a championship, and a couple of weeks ago some guys to monitor for the stretch run. Caleb Desjardins' 'Looking Ahead' column evaluates the upcoming week in fantasy hockey and Frozen Tools can help managers in a variety of ways. Anyone still in fantasy contention is covered.
I wanted to do something a bit more fun today – let's call it a 'Did You Know' section. We are taking a handful of players to see what they have done this year, or in recent seasons, and make sure those performances are highlighted.
Data is from Natural Stat Trick and current as of Monday, March 30th.
Timo Meier Is 1 of 4 Forwards With 20+ Goals, 200+ Shots, 100+ Hits Each of Last 3 years
To be sure, Meier has not lived up to expectations in New Jersey since making his way from San Jose. His last two seasons with the Sharks saw him post 128 points in 134 games (0.96 points/game), and he has just 157 points in 238 games with the Devils (0.66 points/game). That he's not produced to expectations should not cloud the fact that Meier has still be an excellent multi-cat option year after year with the Devils. In fact, he is 1 of 4 forwards to reach at least 20 goals, 200 shots, and 100 hits in each of the last three seasons. Two of those three others were top-15 picks in multi-cat drafts this past September and the last is the best multi-cat fantasy option of his generation:

The lack of assists this season without a big goal total means that Meier won't be a multi-cat monster like he can be, but he's still been very solid. On top of that, he had 4 goals, 1 assist, 27 shots, 10 hits, and 9 blocks across the previous two weeks, so anyone who made their fantasy playoffs with Meier on the roster is probably not complaining too loudly. In head-to-head leagues, timing is everything, and Meier's timing has been great this season.
Adam Fantilli Has 40+ Non-PPG and 40+ Non-PPA Across The Last Two Seasons
Connor Bedard has had a big 2025-26 season (when healthy), Leo Carlsson has had a breakout year for the division-leading Anaheim Ducks, and Zach Werenski dominates the coverage in Columbus, so it kind of makes sense that Adam Fantilli has been… I don't want to say forgotten about, but certainly not celebrated like the others. However, there are just six forwards age-22 or younger with at least 40 goals and 40 assists outside of the power play over the last two years.
One of them is Macklin Celebrini, and the other is Columbus' top-line centre:

Fantilli's playmaking has seen an improvement, so even if he's not going to reach the 30-goal mark like he did last year, he's added another dimension to his game. He also has more shots on goal already this season than he did as a sophomore, so there's an improvement there as well. If Fantilli were shooting 16% as he did last year, he'd already have a 30-30 season, and the conversation is probably a lot different. He just crested the 200-game plateau a couple of weeks ago and is the locked top-line/top PP centre for a rising Blue Jackets squad. That he's not filling the net will probably make him a draft discount in September, and we like draft discounts.
Matt Boldy Is the Only Player With 60 Goals, 60 Assists, 100 blocks, 100 hits, and 400 Shots Over the Last Two Years
Boldy is known as one of the top young goal scorers in the league, and he's definitely that as he's tied for 20th in goal scoring over the last two seasons. That also overlooks that he's a great multi-category producer, though. In fact, across the last two seasons, he is the only forward with at least 60 goals, 60 assists, 400 shots, 100 blocks, and 100 hits:

Notice that of that group, only Boldy and Mark Scheifele have at least 60 goals and 80 assists, and Boldy has over 500 shots, far exceeding everyone else. Hagel needs two blocks to get to the 100-block mark, so he'll probably join Boldy in this group.
Depending on league size and all that, Boldy was probably picked somewhere between picks 20-35 in most fantasy drafts back in September. In multi-cat formats, it'll be hard to argue for him outside the top-25 for the 2025-26 season, and there's probably a case to be made for him somewhere in the 10-15 range.
Olen Zellweger Has More Goals, PIMs, Hits, and Blocks Than Luke Hughes Over the Last Two Years
Staying with multi-cat value, there's a player bringing some that might not be expected, and that's Anaheim's Olen Zellweger. At the least, for a player his age who doesn't get top-pair minutes, Zellweger is doing pretty well, especially compared to a contemporary who gets a lot more attention in the fantasy realm than Zellweger does:

In over 500 fewer minutes played, Zellweger has more goals, PIMs, hits, and blocks, and only 13 fewer shots. Hughes has a big edge in assists, so it kind of washes out the multi-cat edge that Zellweger has, but that the Ducks blue liner has done all that in over 500 fewer minutes played should underscore the upside he has if he gets a bigger role. The problem Zellweger will run into is that he's on a roster with Jackson LaCombe and if the Ducks re-sign John Carlson, there are a couple of big roadblocks to top-pair or meaningful power-play minutes. Zellweger has the tools to see a big increase in his fantasy value, but if he doesn't have the role, he won't have the materials to fabricate that fantasy value.
Dustin Wolf Is 1 of 10 Goalies With 50+ wins, .900 Save Percentage Last Two Years
Across the last two seasons, there are just 10 goalies with at least 50 wins and a .900 save percentage. That Wolf find himself on this list, considering the quality of the Calgary Flames across the last two seasons, is nearly a miracle:

Of course, Wolf has just 22 wins in 50 starts so far in 2025-26. Among 31 goalies with at least 35 starts, that ranks 25th by win percentage (44%). The average win percentage of that list is just under 52%, and that includes Kevin Lankinen (21%). Calgary's lack of offence puts a lot of pressure on Wolf to keep the opposition to 2-or-fewer goals, and that might not get a whole lot better next season. Regardless, he's been about as good as could be hoped for in that situation, and keeper/dynasty owners should be happy to have him on their rosters for the next decade.