The Florida Panthers announced that forward Tomas Nosek has a broken leg and will obviously not finish the season. It just puts a cap on an incredibly injured year for the defending Stanley Cup champions, which naturally brings a lot of intrigue to how they'll be viewed heading into the 2026-27 campaign.

At the least, Florida ended their season with quite the bang as they completely squashed the Detroit Red Wings 8-1. Luke Kunin had two goals, an assist, four shots, two blocks, and two hits in the win. Matthew Tkachuk was back in the lineup and managed a pair of assists, and two PIMs.

Daniil Tarasov stopped 24 of 25 shots for his 13^th win. A nice finish to a solid season for the guy who could very well be the team's starting goalie next season.

Justin Faulk scored the lone goal for Detroit, and that goal gives him 40 points on the season marking the first time in three seasons he posted 40 points.

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Buffalo provided some positive updates on forward Noah Ostlund and goaltender Alex Lyon:

Ruff says Alex Lyon "feels a lot better" and Noah Östlund is "really close."

— Heather Engel (@engelheather) April 15, 2026

Time is running short for them to be good to go, but this certainly seems like a good sign that they may be ready for the start of the postseason.

They lost their last game of the season, falling in the shootout, as Dallas took a 4-3 win in the skills competition. Zach Benson had a goal and an assist for the Sabres as he finishes the season on a five-game point streak and with 14 points in his last 14 games. He can be a genuine difference-maker for the Sabres in the postseason.

Both Esa Lindell and Justin Hryckowian had a goal and assist for Dallas in their win. Lindell ends the campaign with 32 points, tying his career-high set back in 2018-19.

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Dallas gave us some news on Miro Heiskanen:

Miro Heiskanen Injury Update:

Glen Gulutzan said Heiskanen is progressing:

"We hope that we can have him for Game 1. He's getting better, but it's kind of day-to-day right now to see where he's at. Very hopeful, obviously a big player for us."#TexasHockey

— Owen Newkirk (@OwenNewkirk) April 15, 2026

The injury to Roope Hintz is bad enough – he won't be in the lineup for Game 1 – but losing Heiskanen for any extended period would have really put the Stars behind the 8-ball. That Heiskanen may be ready to go for what should be an incredible series against the Minnesota Wild.

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The New York Rangers ended their season on a high note, beating Tampa Bay 4-2. Tye Kartye had two goals, an assist, three shots, a block, two PIMs, and two hits in the victory. He totaled 14 points in 24 games with the Rangers after posting just 13 points in 63 games with Seattle last season. With his hit totals and penchant for shooting, he's a name to keep an eye on for multi-cat formats next season.

Mika Zibanejad had a goal and an assist in the win. He posted 48 points in 40 games in calendar 2026 as he showed he still has some very good production left.

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In the final Battle of Ontario for the 2025-26 campaign, the Senators topped the Leafs 3-1. It ends a miserable season for Toronto and puts a cap on a great second-half run for Ottawa. Dylan Cozens had one goal on four shots with three hits, finishing the season with 28 goals, 31 assits, 204 shots, 215 hits, and 29 power-play points. Just a tremendous multi-cat season in his first full year with the Sens.

James Reimer stopped 19 of 20 shots in the win.

William Nylander scored the lone Toronto goal. He finishes the year with 30 goals and 79 points in 65 games. That is his highest point-per-game rate of his career (1.22).

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Chicago finished their season with a 5-2 home win over San Jose. Louis Crevier scored twice on two shots, adding a pair of blocks and a hit. It was a nice multi-cat season from him with 7 goals, 18 assists, 13 shots, 95 blocks, and 124 hits in 78 games. He also saw a big ice-time jump down the stretch, going from 16:19 per game up until the Olympic break to 18:58 after. The injury to Artyom Levshunov and trade of Connor Murphy are part of the reason, but notable, nonetheless.

Spencer Knight held the Sharks to two goals on 17 shots for his 19^th win of the year. His first full year in Chicago totaled 55 starts – by far a career-high – with a .902 save percentage. That is not a bad save rate considering how poor the Blackhawks were defensively.

Michael Misa scored in the loss for the Sharks. It gives him 20 points in 44 games this season while skating 12:48 per game. Solid work for an 18-year-old rookie on a non-playoff team.

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Vegas beat Seattle 4-1 on Wednesday night, and that locked up Vegas' Pacific Division title. That means they're locked into a first-round matchup against Utah, so the only seeding left to determine is Edmonton (91 points, 31 regulation wins), Anaheim (90 points, 25 regulation wins), and Los Angeles (90 points, 22 regulation wins). All three teams play Thursday night. Whichever of those three finishes as the second Wild Card plays Colorado in the first round while the two others face each other.

Reilly Smith totaled two goals and an assist with five shots in the victory. He didn't have a hugely productive season, but his 16 goals is his highest total in three years.

Jack Eichel posted a pair of assists and four shots in the win. That pushes him to the 90-point mark for the second season in a row and second time in his career. He also did that in 74 games while shooting a four-year low 10.4%. If he plays the full season and shoots 12%, he might have reached 100 points.  

Carter Hart stopped 22 of 23 shots for the win.

Shane Wright scored a goal in the last game and his return from injury. He has played just 168 career NHL games, and I do think there's more to come from him (someone I'll write about extensively this summer).

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My last few Ramblings have covered a quick playoff preview for the 2026 NHL postseason. We started with the Carolina Hurricanes, Colorado Avalanche, Dallas Stars, and Minnesota Wild in the first Ramblings and then the Tampa Bay Lightning, Buffalo Sabres, Montreal Canadiens, and Pittsburgh Penguins in the second Ramblings. On Tuesday, we reviewed the Ottawa Senators and Boston Bruins. Today, we'll cover three more teams.

Player/team data is from Evolving Hockey or Natural Stat Trick and current as of Wednesday, April 15^th.

Fantasy managers in playoff pools wanting a more overall view of the postseason will want to head to the Dobber Shop and grab a copy of Dobber's 2026 Interactive Playoff Draft List!

Vegas Golden Knights

The firing of head coach Bruce Cassidy at the end of March highlighted a big slide from Vegas: they started the season 16-6-9 and then went 16-20-7 over their next 53 games. It put the playoffs in peril, so Cassidy is gone, and in came John Tortorella. The turnaround was immediate, going 6-0-1 in seven games heading into Wednesday night, but the schedule needs to be highlighted as those seven games included Vancouver twice, Calgary, Seattle, and Winnipeg. It also included an Edmonton team missing both Leon Draisaitl and Zach Hyman. It has been a very easy start to Tortorella's tenure.

With Mark Stone, Jack Eichel, Mitch Marner, and Pavel Dorofeyev off the ice at 5-on-5 this season, the Golden Knights are getting annihilated:

With none of those guys on the ice, Vegas is getting outscored by 32 goals, and it's costing them 1.25 goals per 60 minutes. Those depth forwards are getting roughly 40% of the 5-on-5 ice time, and Vegas spends nearly 50 minutes per game at 5-on-5. In a 7-game series where no games go to overtime, the bottom-6 forwards will cost the team roughly three goals. Depth forwards are usually out-performed by the top of the roster, but there's a difference between "out-performed" and "getting throttled", and Vegas has had the latter.

It also highlights the approach fantasy mangers should take. Vegas has five forwards with at least 60 points, and Tomas Hertl has 57. No other forward on the roster has more than 26 points. They aren't Anaheim with Cutter Gauthier and Mason McTavish on the third line, or Carolina with Nikolaj Ehlers and Jordan Staal. Vegas heavily relies on the top of the roster for production, so they're not a team to mine deep for fantasy goodness. 

Edmonton Oilers

The long-and-short in Edmonton is that if Draisaitl and Hyman aren't healthy for the postseason, they will be in very tough. They are like Vegas in the sense that they heavily rely on the top of the roster for production, and that's no surprise to anyone.

Of all players that will be important for the Oilers, the addition of Connor Murphy needs to be highlighted. He has been a key cog of the improved penalty kill in Edmonton and has also lifted the play of Darnell Nurse. Here is how Edmonton's PK fared before and after Murphy's arrival on March 6^th:

And here is Darnell Nurse's on-ice goal differential per 60 minutes before and after the trade:

In a seven-game series, at these goal differential rates, Murphy could save the Oilers 2-3 goals. That is in immense change in such a short timeframe, and while all this is predicated on continuing these improvements, if they do continue, the post-Trade Deadline Oilers are not the same team as the pre-Deadline Oilers.

We all know the names to draft in fantasy. Managers might want to take chances on guys like Matt Savoie or Jake Walman, but the team will only go as far as their top guys take them, and those top guys need to be healthy.

Anaheim Ducks

As goes Anaheim's goaltending, so goes the Ducks. That is true for every team in the NHL, but it's stark when looking at their team goal differential and save percentage by game this season. In the graph below, look between Games 20 and 45. When the rolling 5-game save percentage averages crashed, so did the goal differential:

After the first 20 games, the Ducks had a +10 goal differential, good for 6^th in the league. They also had an .896 team save percentage at that point. Over the next seven weeks, their goalies posted a league-worst .851 save percentage and their +10 goal differential cratered to -22. If they get goaltending anything close to that in the postseason, it will be a quick exit, regardless of their opponent.

If Anaheim's goaltending can keep them in games, it is their depth scoring that will help them make a run. When looking across the league, the Ducks are 1 of 4 teams to have at least nine forwards post 30+ points and at least four defencemen post 20+ points with that team alone (traded players like Nazem Kadri and John Carlson don't qualify):

Notice that the other three teams – Pittsburgh Penguins, Ottawa Senators, and Buffalo Sabres – all made the playoffs as well. Playoff teams need their stars to play like stars, so the Ducks need big games from the likes of Leo Carlsson, Troy Terry, Cutter Gauthier, and John Carlson, but those guys can't score every game. When they don't, it'll be up to Mason McTavish, Ryan Poehling, and Pavel Mintyukov to pick up the slack. They did that in the regular season, and now they need to do it when it matters most.

Los Angeles and Anaheim both have 90 points, and both teams play Thursday night. Anaheim has the tiebreaker, but whichever team finishes behind the other will be locked into the Central Division bracket, get Colorado in the first round, and one of Minnesota or Dallas in the second round. The other team is locked into the Pacific bracket and the likes of Vegas and Edmonton.

If Anaheim gets in the Pacific bracket, fantasy managers should consider stacking them in the second half of their drafts. In nine games against Edmonton, Vegas, and Utah this season, the Ducks went 3-0 against Vegas, 2-1 against Utah, and 1-2 against Edmonton. They had a minus-4 goal differential in those games, but that is entirely due to a 7-0 loss against Utah that probably won't be replicated. Which seed the Ducks end up with will determine what is realistic for them, but if they get the Pacific bracket, they have the depth to overcome any of those three teams, and that makes them a roster to target in the back end of playoff pools once the top teams are picked clean.