An interesting note from Tampa Bay's practice on Wednesday as reported by Diandra Loux. Defenceman Charles-Edouard D'Astous was slotted on the top PP unit alongside John Carlson with Brandon Hagel being sent to the second unit. We are just a few games into the season so this is likely to change several more times, but you never know what will work/stick, so deep leaguers looking for a short-term boost might want to consider D'Astous.

*

With the signing of Michael Bunting, the Philadelphia Flyers have sent forward Alex Bump to the AHL. The Flyers have looked absolutely dreadful to start the season, and this isn't all on Bump, but he's better off thriving in the AHL than drowning in the NHL.

*

Montreal goalie Sam Montembeault was injured at practice:

Samuel Montembeault vient de quitter la séance d'entraînement à Brossard.

Visiblement incommodé à la jambe droite.

Il s'est blessé en réalisant un arrêt et il a quitté rapidement.

Les images sous peu. @RDSca

— Patrick Friolet (@PFrioletRDS) October 7, 2026

After practice, the team recalled Jacob Fowler from the AHL. This is a brutal break for Montembeault, who had yet to get into a game this season, and we wait for further updates.

*

Some bad news for New York Islanders blue liner Alexander Romanov:

Big blow for the Islanders: Alexander Romanov tore his ACL in last night's game and will miss 6-8 months, the team announced.

— Peter Baugh (@Peter_Baugh) October 7, 2026

A six-month absence would take us pretty much to the end of the regular season, so unless the Islanders reach the playoffs, it looks like Romanov's season is over once again. He missed most of last year with a shoulder surgery, and now this knee surgery is doing the same.

*

Kyle Connor scored with a minute left on the clock, his second goal of the game, to lift the Winnipeg Jets to a 3-2 win at home over Colorado. Cole Perfetti also scored one goal on two shots, adding a hit in 19:02 of ice time, while Mark Scheifele had a pair of helpers.

Dylan Samberg had a pair of assists, too, with two shots, a block, two PIMs, and five hits in a very good multi-cat night.

Goaltender Stuart Skinner stopped 32 of 34 shots faced for his second win of the season.

Josh Morrissey left the game early in the second period and did not return. In his place, Neal Pionk took a spot on the top power-play unit.

Jaden Schwartz and Fedor Svechkov each had a goal and an assist in the loss for the Avalanche, and goalie Mackenzie Blackwood allowed three goals on 19 shots.

*

The Washington Capitals built a 4-1 lead over Pittsburgh on Wednesday night and held on for a 5-3 win. Tom Wilson managed a goal, two assists, two shots, two blocks, and two hits in a great multi-cat effort, while his centre Pierre-Luc Dubois had a goal, an assist, three shots, and two PIMs.

Alex Tuch, Ryan Leonard, and Anthony Beauvillier all scored as well. Tuch totaled six shots, two blocks, and a hit, too.

Logan Thompson stopped 27 of the 30 pucks sent his way for the win.

Bryan Rust returned to the lineup for the Penguins and scored one goal on three shots while adding two blocks. Nick Robertson and Tommy Novak also scored.

Arturs Silovs gave up all five goals on 27 shots faced.

*

The Edmonton Oilers welcomed Jason Dickinson back to the lineup as he had yet to play this season. He figures it be a key part of the third line and penalty kill when the team is fully healthy.

*

We are a week into the NHL season and while there isn't a lot of useful data right now besides ice time, one thing to keep track of is 'Market Share'. That is just the percentage of a team's shots taken by a specific player with that player on the ice. So, if Kirill Kaprizov is on the ice for 50 shots, and he takes 10 of them, his Market Share is 20%. It helps identify players that could be relevant fantasy goal scorers if their role improves. It also helps identify players who aren't shooting much, even if their team or line is. Using play-by-play data from the NHL, here are some players to keep an eye on, for better or worse.

We are going to limit our sample to teams who've played at least four games, and for now we'll only look at even-strength play (including empty-net situations and overtime). For a frame of reference: in a full season, the absolute high-end Market Shares among forwards are between 30-35% with high-volume guys over 25%. Among defencemen, the elite Market Shares are 22-25% with the high-volume options over 20%.

Let's start with a trio of forwards before reviewing defencemen. These will include all shot attempts: goals, on net, missed, and blocked. Here are the market shares among select forwards from the New York Rangers, Seattle Kraken, and Carolina Hurricanes:

Will Cuylle (New York Rangers)

There are many interesting stories around the Rangers: a 4-1 start, Alberts Šmits making the team, both top two scoring lines looking dangerous, and Adam Fox's reduced usage. It is easy to overlook the fact that Cuylle has three points in five games (all assists) with 14 shots on goal and 18 hits in his five appearances. He has yet to score, but the fact that he's taking a whopping 46.5% of the team's shots at even strength shows how involved he is in the offence.

The avenue for Cuylle to top-6 minutes is taking Tye Kartye's spot, and it may happen for reasons that have nothing to do with Kartye's play: Through five games with Cuylle and Noah Laba on the ice at 5-on-5, the Rangers have a -35 differential by shot attempts. That third line is getting annihilated and play like that will lead to them being broken up sooner rather than later. What the lines look like after being broken up is a fair question, but there is a way for Cuylle to get a bigger role in short order.

Bobby McMann (Seattle Kraken)

The early returns on the McMann-Chandler Stephenson duo aren't bad, all things considered, as they are +2 by scoring chances with three goals scored at 5-on-5 in their four games. McMann has 15 shots on goal in those four appearances, scoring twice, and posting a Market Share of nearly 30% at even strength. Going back to last year, in 22 games with the Kraken, McMann's Market Share at even strength is over 35%. Maintaining that rate for a season would make him one of the elite shot-volume guys in the league.

Keep in mind that ice time matters. McMann might be an elite shot-volume option for his role, but if his role is 16-17 minutes a night, he won't post the raw SOG totals that guys like Tage Thompson or Nikita Kucherov will. All the same, at every step of his Kraken career, he has shown the penchant for being a guy who can post 3+ shots per game. We won't know with any certainty for a few more months, but this is a great start to the season for him.

Jackson Blake (Carolina Hurricanes)

With the news of Seth Jarvis' surgery and recovery, there was (justified) excitement among fantasy managers about what Blake could do. He would get top PP time, and maybe his line would get some extra EV ice time with Jarvis out. Well, he's getting top PP time, and that's jacking up his TOI rates, but he has just eight shot attempts at even strength through four games, good for a 13.7% Market Share. Last year, Blake's Market Share was just under 21%. If this gap were to hold, and the team generates the same number of shots with him on the ice as they did in 2025-26, we are looking at maybe 50 fewer shots on goal.

There is no massive concern here yet – it is just four games. However, the fact that Blake's shots per game have risen slightly from last year is entirely because of the additional ice time, not an improvement in his shot profile. This is a player to watch over the next month, and particularly once Jarvis returns in the next 4-6 weeks.

There is one defenceman I want to talk about quickly, so here is what it looks like among St. Louis Blues defencemen:

Adam Jiricek (St. Louis Blues)

Jiříček has only played three games, but the Blues have played four, and the fact that he's so high on our chart is why he stands out. He has yet to register a point and has yet to play 20 minutes in any contest, so the current and near-future fantasy value isn't very high. Regardless, being around a 24% market share so early in his career is something to monitor; anything over 20% would indicate a high-volume blue liner. Let's see how the next couple of months go, but this first week of his career has been encouraging.

* Additional data from Natural Stat Trick or Frozen Tools.