Some good news for the Montreal Canadiens as captain Nick Suzuki was practicing with his usual top line mates on Monday, per Patrick Guillet. He skated in an optional skate over the weekend and has now put in a full practice. It is yet to be confirmed, but it seems his injury return is very near.

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Last year, the New Jersey Devils frequently used winger Connor Brown on the top PP unit, and he was back there once again at their practice on Monday:

And this is in fact how #NJDevils are practicing during special teams work at today's practice:

PP1: L. Hughes, Jack, Nico, Bratt and Brown
PP2: Dougie, Timo, Gritsyuk, Evangelista and Mantha

*Rodrigues has played on that PP2 as well but is not on this ice today. https://t.co/HooGcWa6Pa

— Amanda Stein (@amandacstein) November 2, 2026

This is not great news for Luke Evangelista, as this would cap his fantasy upside. It is good news for anyone needing a Hail Mary in deeper fantasy formats.

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Some significant lineup news from the San Jose Sharks as Tyler Toffoli was skating both on the top line with Macklin Celebrini as well as on the top PP unit in Monday's game against Calgary. The Sharks have three more games this week, and two of them are on Wednesday/Friday. Provided he keeps this role for at least two more games, that is a streamer's delight.  

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Something to keep an eye on with defenceman Brandt Clarke:

Brandt Clarke helped off the ice at practice. Didn't see what happened but appeared to have been struck near the eye.

— Jesse Cohen🌴All The Kings Men (@KingsMenPodcast) November 2, 2026

There is no update as of yet, so hopefully this isn't anything serious, but anytime a player takes a puck to the face it is a significant concern. I wrote a bit more on Clarke's start to the season later in these Ramblings.

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Last week, I had a pair of Ramblings on players to sell high or buy low on. The former included Leo Carlsson, Alexis Lafreniere, and Steven Stamkos, while the latter included Sidney Crosby, Adam Fantilli, and Tyson Foerster.

The early portion of any hockey season is not just finding which players to buy high/sell low on, it's also figuring out which players to hang onto. They could be young players breaking out or veteran players with hot starts, but not trading away guys who have the hallmarks of a big year is crucial to fantasy success. Today, we'll do that by looking at a variety of measures like points rate, team goal rate with the player on the ice, their expected goal rate, shooting percentages, and more.

All data comes from Natural Stat Trick and is current as of the morning of Monday, November 2^nd.

Tage Thompson (Buffalo Sabres)

With 10 goals and 17 points in 14 games, Tage is pacing for 60 goals and 102 points, both marks being career-best totals. Even if we pro-rate for 82 games rather than 84, his paces are career-high rates. For a guy with three 40-goal seasons in the last four years, that could be a worry.

There is reason for belief, though, and a big reason is that the team's goal rate (+0.24) and expected goal rate (+0.04) per 60 minutes with Tage on the ice are not that much higher than they were last year:

The Sabres are also shooting 12.4% with Tage on the ice, a three-year low. His shot attempt rate (22.5 per 60 minutes) is also higher than last year, and he's earning a career-best 19:25 per game in TOI. He might not get to the 60 goals he's currently pacing for, but everything is lining up for Buffalo's star centre to reach 50 goals for the first time in his career.

Filip Forsberg (Nashville Predators)

Nashville is shooting 16.7% with Forsberg on the ice, and he's been between 11.5-12.5% each of the last three years. That is the clear issue here, as it's giving him an extra 4-5 points, which would drop him from well over a point per game to under a point per game.

The good news is that his goal participation is down slightly from last year (Individual Points Percentage, or IPP) and so is his individual shooting percentage:

Fantasy managers should not expect a 100-point season from Forsberg, but the fact that he's skating a career-high 20:44 per game, about two minutes more per game than his two-year average, puts point-per-game status firmly within reach. Despite some drops in per-minute volume, the additional ice time makes up the difference, and makes him a guy to hang onto (for now).

Tye Kartye (New York Rangers)

Compared to his three years in Seattle, Kartye is earning 4:46 per game in additional ice time, which is a massive leap that helps explain a big portion of his production increase. There are signs of regression we'll touch on in a second, but he's also added to his rates of unblocked shot attempts (iFF) and individual expected goals (ixG), while the team's expected goals with him on the ice is also higher than last year:

The signs of regression are an 83.3% goal participation rate (67.3% across the last two years) with an individual shooting percentage of 19% (two-year average of 12.5%). However, even if we drop him to about 10% shooting, which would normalize his IPP, he's still sitting with 8 points in 15 games, which is a points/game rate 57% higher than his prior career high. Ice time matters, and Kartye's huge TOI increase makes him a guy to hold in banger leagues that count hits, even with the signs of regression.

Brandt Clarke (Los Angeles Kings)

Throughout the offseason, I stated that I was not sold on Clarke being Los Angeles' regular top PP defenceman, and he already lost the role. Whether he gets it back remains to be seen, but the good news is that if you drafted Clarke, it isn't a deal-breaker for his fantasy value. Here is the push/pull of his season so far, as the team's goal rate with him on the ice is down nearly a half-goal per 60 minutes, but his goal participation rate is far higher than in 2025-26:

If we normalize his rates, Clarke should have 6-7 points in 13 games rather than the 10 he does have. As long as fantasy managers are fine with Clarke sitting around a full-season pace of 40 points from here on out, he's a guy to hold onto. If fantasy managers were expecting more, then it might be a good idea to ship him to another roster.  

Ryker Evans (Seattle Kraken)

Here we have a case of a player running hot. So far, the Kraken are generating 0.9 more goals per 60 minutes with Evans on the ice against a decline of nearly 0.3 expected goals:

That does tell us that Evans maybe has an extra point or two that he shouldn't. But that doesn't tell the whole story because the mitigating factor is he's averaging 22:24 per game, an increase of 4:36 per game compared to last year. He has averaged over 22 minutes a game across his last five outings, all with Brandon Montour healthy and in the lineup. We shouldn't buy on Evans being a 40-point defenceman, but he averaged 24 points every 82 games across the first three years of his career. He finally has the role to cross the 30-point mark, doing so with notable increases in his blocks and hits per game. That is a valuable multi-cat blue liner, and anyone that drafted him/added him this season should hang onto the found money.