Macklin Celebrini signed his anticipated contract extension with the San Jose Sharks, the team announced on Wednesday. Not sure what readers may have been expecting for the new deal, but this is a five-year extension with an $18.8-million cap hit, per Chris Johnston. Celebrini has one year left on his entry-level contract, then his new contract will carry him to unrestricted free agency.

Because this doesn't kick in for another year, salary cap managers don't have to make any decisions just yet. The salary cap is expected to rise significantly again next season, potentially reaching $113.5-million. If that is indeed the case, Celebrini's contract will subsume 16.6% of the cap. For reference, when Connor McDavid's previous contract kicked in for the 2018-19 season, his cap hit was 15.7% of the cap. When Alex Ovechkin's first big contract began in 2008-09, he was 16.8% of the cap. The burden will ease on fantasy managers as the years wear on, but in 2027-28, Celebrini's cap hit will be one of the biggest of the last 20 years for a player his age. Not that Celebrini isn't worth it (he is), but I wonder if he sent a nice watch to Leo Carlsson and his agent.  

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Dobber's 2026-27 Fantasy Hockey Guide is now available in the Dobber Shop! This year's edition includes the Fantasy Guide itself, which features team-by-team overviews, a schedule breakdown, players due for positive and negative regression, long-term projects to invest in, and a whole lot more. Also included with the purchase is an interactive draft list that includes point projections, peripheral projections for blocks, hits, shots, penalty minutes, and plus/minus, as well as goalie projections. All this is updated through to the start of the regular season to reflect injuries, trades, or other pertinent information. Help support what we do year-round and grab a copy of the Draft Guide!

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I have been perusing the Dobber guide and for anyone still on the fence about how it can help readers in their quest for a fantasy championship, I thought it was worth going through different sections of the Guide to highlight some interesting takeaways. This is just a tiny fraction of what's available in the Guide itself, so for all the rest, be sure to head to the Dobber Shop and order a copy!

Player data from Evolving Hockey and contract data from PuckPedia.

Schedule Breakdown by Caleb Desjardins

Back-To-Backs for the Calgary Flames

Caleb Desjardins, who writes the weekly 'Top 10' column and covers the 'Looking Ahead' column during the season, has a thorough breakdown of the 2026-27 NHL schedule. The schedule looks a bit different this year thanks to the season starting in late September and moving to 84 games. What stuck out to me immediately is that the Flames are tied for the fewest back-to-back situations this campaign with eight.

Last year, Calgary goalie Dustin Wolf finished tied for seventh in the league with 55 starts. Over the last two seasons, he is ninth in the league with 108 starts. Despite having 730 fewer minutes played across those two seasons than Utah Mammoth goalie Karel Vejmelka, Wolf only had 12 fewer total saves. If he's healthy and doesn't fall on his face, Wolf should make at least 55 starts again and because of Calgary's lack of back-to-back situations, he's a threat to make 60 starts. Wins may be tough to come by on a low-scoring Flames roster, but he has a realistic shot at finishing top-5 in total saves.

Among 34 goalies with at least 35 starts in 2025-26, Wolf finished 17^th by save percentage but he was sixth in total saves. This is why scoring settings matter because he might not be a big help in roto leagues using save percentage, but points formats using total saves is another matter entirely.

A Light-Heavy Schedule for the Nashville Predators

Fantasy success is not just about raw production, but when that production comes. Caleb has a section highlighting how many Light Days a team has, or how often they play on Monday, Wednesday, Friday, or Sunday, the days which typically have the fewest games on the NHL schedule. There are 24 teams who have at least 30 games on light days, only two have fewer than 25 games on light days, and Nashville has the fewest light-day contests with 22.

This is a problem for a team like Nashville. They aren't the Florida Panthers or Dallas Stars where they have at least five skaters that are locked into fantasy lineups on a game-in, game-out basis. Filip Forsberg and Roman Josi fit that category, but they have a lot of borderline options like Ryan O'Reilly, Luke Evangelista, Mavrik Bourque, and Brady Skjei. Maybe we include Steven Stamkos, but remember that he had just six goals in his first 25 games last season, and is now 36 years old. Even if we include him, it makes three skaters at most.

Nashville could have a half-dozen skaters whose fantasy value at the end of the season finishes inside the top-200, but only two end up inside the top 100, and the more marginal options end up riding the bench because of the high number of Tuesday/Thursday/Saturday matchups. Something you head-to-head fantasy managers should keep in mind.

Outliers by Rick Roos

Beware of Jason Zucker's Production

Over the last two seasons in Buffalo, Zucker has averaged 27 goals, 60 points, 165 shots, 26 blocks, 76 hits, and 49 PIMs every 82 games. That is good across-the-board coverage, and it has made him a sneakily valuable multi-cat fantasy option when he's been healthy.

Zucker is starting to get up there in age as he'll turn 35 years old in January. With the regular season breakout of Josh Doan, Zach Benson's excellent playoff performance, and Konsta Helenius showing a lot of promise in his brief stint, there is a lot of competition for meaningful offensive ice time among Buffalo's forwards. In his 'Outliers' write-up, Rick Roos noted there were 14 forwards who played at least half their team's contests and averaged at least a 50-point pace while skating under 16 minutes a game. One of them was Zucker, who had the fifth-highest point-per-game pace (0.73) for the under-16 group. Roos also noted that many older players who had similar production rates at that ice time level in 2024-25 saw a decline in 2025-26, and that is the group where Zucker finds himself for 2026-27. 

A big reason for Zucker's success was shooting 18.6%, a career-high mark and far exceeding his three-year average of 12.7%. If he shoots just 14%, he drops from a 60-point pace to a 52-point pace. He has one year left on his current contract and will be a free agent at 35 years old next summer. If players like Doan, Benson, and Helenius continue their ascension, not to mention a full season from Noah Ostlund and a returning Jiri Kulich, Zucker's role and ice time could shrink even further. Given his production, his ice time, and his age, Zucker is showing a lot of red flags for fantasy value.

Players to Invest In for Long-Term Payoff by Logan Clarkson

The Toronto Maple Leafs' Easton Cowan Showing Promise

The issues facing Cowan for his true ascension in the fantasy realm are the roadblocks ahead of him. Auston Matthews and John Tavares are signed for two and three more years, respectively, while William Nylander and Matthew Knies are signed long-term. Add in Gavin McKenna and for now, Cowan is no higher than sixth on the forward depth chart. There are very few teams where the sixth-most important forward will be a significant fantasy contributor in most formats.

However, as Logan points out, Cowan was very productive as a rookie with 29 points in 56 games, and he has a significant production pedigree from his OHL days. Toronto's forward depth might keep Cowan from a top PP role, and thus a lot of fantasy value, but it also gives him talented forwards to skate with at 5-on-5 and he'll be a staple of the second PP unit. There are some defensive issues to clean up, and there are roadblocks to overcome, but this is why it's an investment for a long-term payoff. Cowan has the skills and the support group to really take off a couple of years from now, just don't expect it in 2026-27.

Pavel Mintyukov Ready to Step Up

The Anaheim Ducks have overhauled their blue line, and while that makes Jackson LaCombe the go-to guy at even strength and on the power play (I wrote about why he's one of my favourite defence targets this year), it also makes Mintyukov the second guy on the depth chart. Per Frozen Tools, Mintyukov was fourth among Ducks defencemen by ice time in the playoffs, and two of the guys ahead of him (Jacob Trouba, John Carlson) are now gone from the organization.

LaCombe taking top PP time will keep Mintyukov's production modest – in 2025-26, there were 22 defencemen who posted at least 50 points, none of them had 10-or-fewer power-play points, and only two of them had fewer than 15 (Carlson had 14 and Brock Faber had 11). However, for his career, Mintyukov has averaged 28 points every 82 games and that's with just five power-play points every 82 games. He has done that averaging 18:16 per game. At a consistent production rate, if he skates 21 minutes a game, he pushes up to 32 points. If his production rate improves as the young Ducks forward group improves? It puts 40 points within reach. That would be his upside, but he can get there. It may not happen right away, but he doesn't turn 23 years old until November, so a couple more years of development with more ice time means he can be a 40-point blue liner in future seasons.

Goalies to Watch by Garrett Finlay

Joey Daccord's Support

Since finishing 4^th in scoring back in 2022-23 with 3.53 goals per 60 minutes, the Seattle Kraken have scored under 3.0 goals per 60 minutes in each of the last three seasons. It has been a problem for Daccord as among 28 goalies with at least 110 starts over the last three years, he has the third-worst win rate (45%), picking up the victory in just 66 of his 147 starts. If a goalie makes 50 starts and is a relative longshot to win 25 of them, it's a big issue for his fantasy value.

However, as Finlay points out in his write-up on goalies to watch, the Kraken might finally have a scoring top line thanks to the additions of Bobby McMann and Mackie Samoskevich. With productive veterans like Jordan Eberle and Jared McCann, and improving youngsters like Jani Nyman and Berkly Catton, the Kraken boast some scoring depth, too. The team probably won't be a top 10 scoring roster, but if they can be just below-average, rather than outright bad, Daccord has a real chance of not only reaching 25 wins, but reaching or surpassing his career-high win total of 27 set back in the 2024-25 campaign. That year, Seattle finished 16^th in the league and Daccord won 27 of his 55 starts. It isn't a monster total, but it would put him easily in the top 20 for the season in goalie wins, and that would be a big change in his fantasy value. The Kraken have to prove it, but the potential is there.