The Hurricanes turned to goaltender Brandon Bussi In game four, after Frederik Andersen was not able to be a positive difference maker in the first three games of the series. Bussi wasn't extremely busy, but the Knights had a lot of high quality chances so he had t be sharp. He was good enough to earn the win, stopping 18 of 21 shots against him.

Jordan Staal scored a pair last night, which gives him four goals and five points in the series, having scored in every game of the Stanely Cup Final thus far. The 37-year old is making a late Conn Smythe case, and is trying to will his team to a Cup 20 years after his brother won with the same franchise.

Nikolaj Ehlers and Jackson Blake also had multi-point efforts for the Canes, who still haven't really received much offence at all from their first line, but they have managed to tie the series regardless.

William Karlsson had a goal and an assist, Brett Howden scored again for his 14^th (!) of the playoffs, and Mitch Marner continued to add to his playoff-leading point total with an assist, bringing him to 29.

Game five goes on Saturday June 11^th, with another 8pm start. It heads back to Raleigh, tied two-two, in what is now a best-of-three series.

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One question I wanted to look at was whether either team winning would have a specific impact on the fantasy landscape.

Well, both teams had one big Free Agent signing this past summer (yes I know technically Mitch Marner was traded), but it's the idea behind it. Both have run through multiple goalies this season, neither one has a top-tier defenseman playing every second shift in regulation, and neither one made a huge swing at the trade deadline either.

The Flames first round would transfer if Vegas wins the Cup, while Carolina's approach might be more likely to change whether they win the Cup or not. The Canes might go big-game hunting for a goalie if they lose, but if they win they would more likely run things back with Brandon Bussi and Pyotr Kochetkov. The cap space they have going into the summer allows for more change as well, especially for a roster that is more locked into place.

If Vegas wins, be warned that the late-season coaching change may become a more frequent tactic as well, hoping to time the new coach bounce perfectly for a 20-game run through the playoffs.

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There have been a few players who have already signed over in Europe this summer. We have seen Marcus Johansson leave for Sweden despite the likelihood that he would have had multi-year NHL offers. Lassi Thomson signed overseas as well, perhaps not liking the outlook of his chances to move up the Sens' depth chart. Neither was extremely fantasy relevant for next year, but both were owned in my Cap League dynasty and were dropped as a result, so if you happened to miss the news then you can move on from these guys.  

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The Wild did manage to re-sign Michael McCarron to a six-year deal with a $3.3 Million annual cap hit. McCarron saw his ice time, SOG rate, and Hit rate decline upon joining the wild last season, and that should be expected to continue next season, making him less rosterable even in multi-category leagues, and droppable in most every Cap league. In his first game with the Wild, McCarron potted two points, but then only had three points in the last 19 games. Again, this re-iterates the point of his fantasy value dropping in Minnesota.

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As we're less than two weeks away from the Cup being awarded (and likely sooner than that), we're now approaching the opening of the first buyout window, and there are a few notable candidates this year. With the cap rising there is less need overall for it, and especially with so many contracts working in buyout proof bonus structures, so there are less options this year than we might typically see.

Jesperi Kotkaniemi – Current Contract: $4,820,000 Cap hit for four more years

This is an interesting case, since Kotkaniemi is still only 25 years old, which would mean his buyout cap hit would only be one-third of the total amount remaining, spread out over twice the length of time. Usually an eight-year buyout would be intimidating, but here the annual cost against the cap would just be $850,833 or less, which is very palatable for a team in the middle of their Cup window, and with a nearly full roster signed already.

Looking at Kotkaniemi's numbers, his career high of 43 points came four seasons ago, and this past year he paced for less than 20 in a bottom-six role. If he was given middle-six minutes and secondary power play time again, could he regain his 40-point form? Looking under the hood, the previous IPPs, luck metrics, and expected goal share numbers all seem to indicate someone who still has another gear. He would make a great reclamation project for someone like Calgary or Vancouver who has the roster space and nothing to lose.

Brendan Gallagher – Current Contract: $6,500,000 Cap hit for one more year

Like Carolina, the Canadiens are looking at their Cup window and they are going to try to find ways to maximize it. They have some cap space at the moment, but with Kirby Dach, Zack Bolduc, and Arber Xhekaj needing new contracts, along with an extension likely coming for Ivan Demidov, some extra cap space would go a long way towards providing some remaining space to fill the second-line centre role.

Brendan Gallagher has already noted that he will likely be moving on from the Canadiens, which could happen via a trade, or a buyout. As the Canadiens are not extremely capped out at the moment, it would make more sense for them to swallow the buyout in the short term and keep the extra asset that it would likely cost to move Gallagher's contract off of their books.

Gallagher's underlying numbers actually show that he might have been a little lucky in his previous two seasons compared to the most recent campaign, which would make the scoring drop off even more concerning. He's not someone I would target in any league, unless a 25-point fourth-line player is actually useful based on your league size.

Ilya Lyubushkin – Current Contract: 3,250,000 Cap hit for one more year

Dallas might be the team with the most Cap issues this year, as they need to sort out what new contracts look like for Jason Robertson and Mavrik Bourque, decide whether they bring back Jaime Benn and what that costs, and then re-sign RFA Arttu Hyry who was a great support player last season up and down the lineup. Sounds simple, but the issue is that they only have $10 million in cap space to do it, and Robertson alone is going to cost that much.

Ideally for Dallas that means a trade, and not tying up dead money in a buyout, but it has to be on the table for them. The buyout cap hit would be $1.65 Million and then needing to bring in someone else at a cap hit of at least the league minimum of $850K means that this buyout doesn't save much, and every penny counts. What makes it more likely is that Lyubushkin isn't even guaranteed a lineup spot anyways, as he was severely deemphasized last season, so one way or another his contract is likely coming off the books for Dallas this summer.

Ross Colton – Current Contract: $4,000,000 Cap hit for one more year

After Colton was a healthy scratch in the playoffs and again failed to take a step forward in the regular season, he's now being pushed down the lineup, and a top contending team like Colorado can't really afford to have a $4 Million player so far down the depth chart.

Colton's buyout would save the Avs $2.6 Million for the 2026-27 season, costing only $1.3 Million the following season. This would nearly double the available cap space for the Avs this upcoming season, which will be needed in order to fill out at least three more roster spots, two of them being defensemen who are typically more expensive.

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Puneet had his fantasy take from the Peter Laviolette hire in LA here. He noted Panarin's offensive surge under Laviolette, and it's interesting that Kevin Fiala broke into the league as a full-time player under Laviolette as well, so there's some additional familiarity there (assuming Fiala is fully healthy after his Olympics injury).

Overall LA is not a team I'm targeting for next year, but the outlook seems to at least be less negative now that Laviolette is in charge.

It's also an interesting transition year for the team, as two of the top-three centres that the team started the year with in Anze Kopitar and Philip Danault are gone. That's a whole lot of defensive zone starts that have suddenly disappeared, and there are hardly any centres on the market. We could see a lot more faceoffs next year from Alex Laferriere and/or Adrian Kempe, who both took a fair share this past season.

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When looking at free agents, buyout candidates, mock drafts, etc, it does feel like sometimes we get stuck in a rut of thinking until the real process unfolds in a different way and we think "why didn't we see that as an option before". Well, if you think you know where I'm going with this, it's not sending Dylan Larkin to Ottawa or Mat Barzal to Edmonton, but instead looking at the small chance that Alex Ovechkin plays in the NHL next year… somewhere other than with the Capitals.

Could he really move on from the team he has spent his whole career with? Well, with John Carlson gone, Tom Wilson is the only player left on the team from the prime days of Ovie's career and the Capitals' Cup win back in 2018. Perhaps Ovie wants to stay and play, but maybe he doesn't feel a need to do it in Washington. Could playing with Evgeni Malkin (and Sidney Crosby) be an interesting enough proposition for the soon-to-be 41-year-old? As hockey fans, we can dream about seeing them play together, even if the chances seem slim.

I'm holding out hope and still believing that Ovie will return, though his production will likely continue to slip, just as we saw this past season.

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See you next Wednesday, and if you have any fantasy hockey questions or comments you can find me on BlueSky @alexdmaclean.