Welcome back to Forum Buzz, where I peruse the DobberHockey Forums and weigh in on active, heavily debated, or otherwise relevant recent threads, reminding folks just how great a resource the Forums are. Nearly anything might be covered here, other than trades and signings, which usually get their own separate write-ups on the main site and are also normally covered in the next day’s Ramblings, or questions that are specific to salary cap issues, which is the domain of the weekly Capped column. To access the specific forum thread on which a question is based, click on the “Topic” for that question.

As is now becoming tradition, I'll start the column with a nod to the sadly now dormant "Who am I?" thread in the Forums where someone thought of a real-life hockey player or persona, who can be from the past or present, male or female, in the NHL or not, and they give clues to help people guess who it is. You get to enter one guess per clue, and if you guess correctly you think of the next player, so it just keeps going indefinitely. For your enjoyment, here is a "Who am I?" sample. See how many clues it takes for you to guess who I am.

CLUE #1 – I'm a former NHL forward born outside of North America

CLUE #2 – I was a first round pick

CLUE #3 – I played over 1000 NHL games

CLUE #4 – Despite this success, and being a first round pick, I did not spend a full season in the NHL until age 22

CLUE #5 – I made my NHL debut in my age 20 season

CLUE #6 – I played one season for the team who drafted me, then only one for my second team

CLUE #7 – The deal that brought me, and a future HHOFer, to my third team, is considered one of the most lopsided in NHL history

CLUE #8 – It is with my third team where I had the majority of my NHL success, and my only two point per game seasons

CLUE #9 – I was a triple digit minus player for my career

CLUE#10 – Perhaps not surprisingly given how minus I was, my teams did not have a lot of success, and in fact I appeared just once in the Stanley Cup playoffs

CLUE #11 – But I played over 100 games representing my home country in International play, over a nearly two decades time span

CLUE #12 – After my third team I became a journeyman, playing for a total of ten different NHL teams, including one team twice

CLUE #13 – The teams I played for, in order, were Kings, Islanders, Panthers, Coyotes, Flames, Rangers, Flames again, Jets, Predators, Maple Leafs, and Blues

CLUE #14 – My initials are O.J.

So, who am I? Hopefully you figured it out. Check the end of the column to confirm, or, if not, to find out who I am. Now onto regularly scheduled Forum Buzz programming. 

Topic #1 – In an 18 team, keep 12 (three of which have to be D) league with categories of points for skaters and W and SO for goalies, a GM is considering a trade of their Connor Bedard, Anton Lundell, and Jared McCann for Beckett Sennecke, Logan Cooley, and Will Smith? If they make the deal, they would likely keep all players they receive in the trade, but not keep Quinton Byfield and Frank Nazar. Does it make sense to do the deal, or is it not enough return to get for trading away Bedard?

As was importantly pointed out by the Forum responses, the trade really isn't Bedard, Lundell, and McCann, but Bedard, Byfield, and Nazar, if indeed the three who are coming will be kept in place of the departing Bedard, plus those two. Always remember trades have effects beyond the here and now, and to bear that in mind when contemplating whether or not to do the deal.

To me, trading Bedard is something I'd be trying to avoid. I realize he's not performing up to lofty expectations; however, he's not to blame. He has points on 80.8% of all goals scored while he has been on the ice, and 100% on the PP. The team is shooting 15.7% at 5×5 with him on the ice. Those metrics are about as elite as they can get, with him not being a superstar because of the weak team around him. If he gets better players to surround him, his scoring should skyrocket. In short, selling on Bedard now would be selling low, unless the return is amazing.

As for the return, it's three players who figure to have point per game downside sooner rather than later, and realistic 90- to 100-point potential. So even if Bedard rises to 120+ point scoring, the aggregate might be better via the three players coming than Bedard plus Byfield and Nazar. What is the outlook for Byfield and Nazar though? I've always warned that Byfield, due to his size and playing center, was a risk to get hurt and perhaps even have a shorter career, as there have been no recent cases of centers as tall and as heavy as him who had prolonged success. Byfield was also expected to make major strides this season, with Anze Kopitar retired and Byfield getting a chance to be a true #1 center. Despite him centering Adrian Kempe and Artemi Panarin for the most part, Byfield has disappointed. He is shooting more, plus is finally a PP1 fixture, yet his overall IPP is 42.9% and on the PP it's 37.5% and the team is shooting 4.5% at 5×5 with him on the ice. Maybe those are unsustainably low, but it paints the picture of a player who doesn't generate offense, or find a way to factor into the scoring for the little offense is occurring. He's not quite hit his 400-game large frame breakout threshold, so we can't say he's a bust just yet; but hopes for him to fulfill anything near his original potential are dwindling.

Nazar is in a strange situation where he's likely among the most talented other forwards on the Hawks, yet he rarely plays with Bedard at ES. His numbers are worse this season than last. Still, there is lure in him, not just because he found success at both the NCAA and AHL level, but also that someday he should get a change to skate alongside Bedard. It's also worth noting the team who has Bedard also has Anton Frondell, meaning they'd have a lot of eggs in the Chicago basket and that could pay dividends in the long term.

Looking at the team's other projected keepers, their D is amazing in Rasmus Dahlin, Quinn Hughes, and Jake Sanderson, and in net they have Ilya Sorokin and Yaroslav Askarov. Their forwards are decent, with Tim Stutzle, Alexis Lafreniere, Lucas Raymond, Connor McMichael, and Elias Pettersson. The infusion of those three would be impactful. I want to say that Bedard has to be kept, since he's tracking to be among the elitest of the elite, and if Bedard rises to one day become a 125-point scorer, and let's say the other three who would be acquired would be 270-point combined scores in future seasons. That would mean Byfield and Nazar would need to combine to be 145 point scorers. That seems plausible, notwithstanding my Byfield concerns. Or even if they aren't, then the team could end up getting other players in their place who would be. What this shows is indeed how huge it is to have one player s able to score in the highest of echelons. I think in the end I turn down the trade, although it's close enough that I could support since the return, in the aggregate, is quite good, as all three of the players seemingly have quite bright futures in store.

Topic #2 – A GM is looking for wins and shutouts. Which of these three "risk/reward" goalies figures to do the best in those categories: Tristan Jarry, Anthony Stolarz, Arturs Silovs?

Looking at these categories, to succeed three things have to happen, namely the goalie plays a lot, plays well when he plays, plus plays for a good team. Let's consider each with these three factors in mind.

Jarry is part of a three-headed monster in Edmonton, although one head is Frederick Andersen, who is out until at least December plus has not played in over 35 games in any of the past four seasons. Another is Devon Levi, whose injury paved the way for Jarry to start this run of games which saw him do well, plus Levi has never played in more than 23 games in any NHL season, although he had already played in seven for 2026-27, winning six, plus is now back. The path is there for Jarry to become a true starter. But is he up for the task? 

Let's not forget he looked decent in Q1 of last season, before imploding. He's also seen both his SV% and Quality Start rates fall, and GAA rise, in each of the past four seasons. Normally when a goalie starts a downward slide like this, he doesn't recover. But Edmonton is a very good team, especially where GAA and SV% don't matter, as they will likely win plenty of games by scores like 6-4 or 7-5, etc. Still, that cuts against shutouts, where Jarry has two already, which is as many as he had in each of the past two seasons. He also hasn't carried a starter load since the 2023-24 season. He does make $5.4M though, which, while not so high as to be impossible to put him on the bench, is well higher than the salaries of Andersen and Levi.

Shifting to Stolarz, other than last season he's been a very good goalie of late. In fact, Toronto likely was prepared for Stolarz to be a 1A this season; however, when a goalie with the resume of Sergei Bobrovsky became available, they grabbed him. Although Bobrovsky has already turned around his career once when it looked like he was on a downward slide, that was four years ago, and he is now 38, which, even accounting for goalies being able to achieve success at ages much older than skaters, is quite old. Although Bobrovsky does make twice as much as Stolarz, Toronto also realizes its window to win with Auston Matthews is closing, so I can see them pushing Bob aside if Stolarz outclasses him. Even if that occurs, Stolarz never having played even 35 games in a season would make it difficult to envision him manning the crease for half of Toronto's games, let alone a true starter's workload. As such, even if he's great when he plays, wins and shutouts are volume-based stats, so number of games is a key factor.

Lastly there's Silovs, pressed into duty last season when Jarry was dealt, and Stuart Skinner was both injured and ineffective. Despite Silovs' 39 games last season being more than double how many he'd cumulatively played in three prior seasons, Silovs was anointed the starter for 2025-26. Still though, many felt Sergei Murashov, who had achieved success at every level, was likely to take over, or at least become a 1B. So far neither has played well though. If it's a lost season for the Pens, as is shaping up to be the case, chances are Silovs plays a lot more, as the team won't want to sap Murashov of his confidence, with him being their future. All-in-all, Silovs won't likely get many wins in the process, nor shutouts.

I think Silovs will play the most, followed by Jarry and Stolarz. Stolarz will likely play the best when he plays. In terms of the team in front of them, I'd give the edge to Jarry, followed by Stolarz and Silovs in the rear. All things considered, I'd choose Jarry, with Stolarz being a close second even if he plays ten fewer games, while Silovs brings up the rear.

Topic #3 – What's happening with Lukas Dostal? Is he in danger of losing his #1 spot?

When I went to look at Dostal's stats, from this season and previous ones, I didn't realize he had done so poorly. It's also interesting to note that in winning 30 games last season despite not a single shutout, he joined a "club" that consists, since 2000-01 of Braden Holtby, Corey Crawford, and Alex Auld. Holtby did it well into his career, whereas Crawford and Auld did it early like Dostal. The question thus becomes – is Dostal going to be like Crawford, Auld, or somewhere in the middle of the two? Let's look more closely at his numbers to find other comparables.

Through 2025-26, when Dostal was 25, he had three seasons with a GAA over 3.00, a SV% under .905, and a Quality Start Percentage of 50% or lower, in 41+ games. Since 2000-01, only two other goalies met those same criteria more than once by that age: Steve Mason (three times also) and Marc Denis (twice). Mason went on to be a quite good goalie for a couple of years before a poor season which led to lack of interest from teams and him leaving hockey before age 30. As for Denis, he was out of hockey by age 32 and only had one decent season along the way. These comparables do not bode well for Dostal.

If there was a silver lining, it was Dostal's low percentage of Really Bad Starts. Last season that rose quite a bit and it's even worse so far for 2026-27. What's interesting is Dostal got an average of 3.04 goals scored by his team per game in 2025-26, but the Ducks averaged 3.33 goals per game on the season as a whole, plus his GAA was 3.10, but the team's GAA for the entire season was 3.51. While he did have a poor season, a lot of that was due to his team and he made them better. As such, if the team around him improves, he should be able to as well.

What I don't like is although his SV% looks to have stayed fairly steady over the past three seasons, in fact his ES, PP, and PK SV%s have all dropped, the first for three straight seasons and the second and third for two consecutive campaigns. His SV% on shots within 1-15 feet also has dropped for three straight seasons.

There are reasons to be concerned that Dostal might not be as good as was envisioned. However, is there a chance he loses his starting job? Not when the other near-term options are the likes of Ville Husso and Laurent Broissoit. They are pure back-ups, and Anaheim is all-in on Dostal, at least for the time being. They do have Damian Clara and Vyacheslav Buteyets, both of whom are ranked in the top 30 for Fantasy Goalie Prospects. Dostal will eventually have to right his ship or one of those two could cloud the Ducks' goalie picture. For now though, I don't see a universe where Dostal loses his gig as starter, and I'd look for him to once again play around 55 games as he has the past two seasons.

Topic #4 – In a league with goalie categories of W(2), OTL(1), SO(5), a GM is worried about Logan Thompson and has a chance to swap in Linus Ullmark. This would be one of only 11 total moves they're allowed to make for the season. Should they make the switch?

I included this question as a reminder to readers about resisting the temptation to push the panic button and when to keep the faith in a player, versus knowing if someone is actually on a downward trajectory from which they are unlikely to recover. The short answer is no, as it would be overreacting to Thompson's less than stellar start to the season, but also putting faith in Ullmark in a league that is far from well suited for him.

Before looking at Thompson, and can be discerned from his early struggles, let's first focus on Ullmark. Despite being 33 years old and having first debuted in the NHL in 2015-16 Ullmark still has yet to play 50+ games in any NHL season. It was understandable for this not to have occurred while he was in Boston, sharing the net with Jeremy Swayman. But the Sens acquired him to be their number one, and he is paid like a true starter. Yet in 2024-25 Ullmark appeared in 44 games and last season it was 49. Even entering 2026-27 having played in 11 NHL seasons, Ullmark had never appeared in 50 games in any campaign. Sure enough, after playing in eight of Ottawa's first nine games, Ullmark is now on the IR. It is true that Ullmark has a very solid winning percentage and started amazingly; but if he never finds a way to manage to play in 50+ games, that is not ideal in a league with goalie scoring like this.

Turning to Thompson, his Quality Start Percentage is still superb; he's just had a string of worse than usual games clustered together, and this follows a poor ending to 2025-26. But even when he was doing great, he had hiccup periods, such as January of last season, where, in a stretch of ten starts, he gave up only one goal in two starts, but three goals in three, four in two, and five in one. In short, great goalies can fall into ruts. That being said, until/unless proven otherwise with a longer track record, they are still great goalies. Despite Thompson’s lackluster play, he won six of his first 11 starts. Yes, it is true Ullmark won seven of eight, and ended last season with 11 wins in 16 games; however, if we presume Thompson will once again play 55-60 games as he did last season, he wouldn't even have to be as good as Ullmark to be better in this league, since volume matters most.

In short, don't cut Thompson for Ullmark. It was stated in the thread that the GM's other goalie is Pyotr Kochetkov, who, despite playing far better than Brandon Bussi as of now, has not been a #1 or 1A previously. But he also plays for a better team than Ottawa. Thus, if he plays even half of Carolina's games he figures to be better to own than Ullmark unless somehow Ullmark finds a way to play 50+ games, which, as I noted, if it hasn't already happened in a prior season, seems unlikely to occur now, especially with him finding himself on the IR already. I would stick with what they have, especially since there are a limited number of moves that can be made.

Topic #5 – In a 10 team, H2H, Keep 6 league with rosters of 2C, 2RW, 2LW, 1UTIL, 4D, 3G, 6 Bench, 2IR+, 1NA (minimum of four goalie appearances per week) and categories of G, A, SOG, PPP, FOW, HIT, BLK, Wins, GAA, Sv%, SHO, a team has started 5-0 with the following roster, with Hughes and Sanderson having been obtained in trade a little over a week ago in exchange for Rasmus Dahlin and Tim Stutzle:

C: Vincent Trocheck, Elias Pettersson, Dylan Strome, Robert Thomas
LW: Leon Draisaitl C/LW, Jack Hughes C/LW, Carter Verhaeghe, Michael Brandsegg-Nygard LW/RW

RW: Dylan Guenther RW/LW, Will Cuylle RW/LW, Vasily Podkolzin RW/LW
D: Cale Makar, Jake Sanderson, Quinn Hughes, MacKenzie Weegar, Darnell Nurse, Travis Sanheim
G: Andrei Vasilevskiy, Spencer Knight, Pyotr Kochetkov
I/R: Filip Gustavsson, John Tavares C

With Tavares and Gus nearing returns, they're unsure about who to drop. Their thinking is Podkolzin and MBN, but are unsure those are the right choices, and, if they are, who would be the one to drop first. Are they the right drops, and if so, who gets dropped first?

Looking at this team, it covers the categories well. Both MBN and Podkolzin are HIT machines; but so are plenty of its other players. That having been said, it has guys like Strome, Thomas, Guenther, and both Hughes brothers who are light on HIT. So they will need to ensure they can stay competitive in that category, although as I always say, HIT is something I feel is given too much emphasis, as you can get it quite easily, whereas top-tier scoring is in far shorter supply.

I also wonder what Gus' role will be. Jesper Wallstedt has looked nothing short of amazing, plus was the goalie of choice for the Wild in last year's playoffs. Gus does have the big contract; but whereas most felt once Gus returned he'd be at worst in a timeshare, he might be looking at starting more like 30-40% of Wild games barring an injury or implosion from Wallstedt. One thing to consider is approaching the GM who has Wallstedt to see if they'd want Gus as an insurance policy. Gus would not fetch much in return; however, it would address the issue as to who to drop. Or Gus could be packaged with Podkolzin, who certainly has gotten a lot of hype this season, but has quietly started to come back to earth, not even getting a spot on PP1 after Zach Hyman got hurt. I would explore what Gus and Podkolzin could bring in return. Of course, with how well Minnesota is playing, Gus could be kept for spot starts, especially since only two of the three goalie categories are volume-based and Spencer Knight has terrible peripherals.

If forced to choose between Podkolzin and MBN, I'd value Podkolzin higher. MBN's stats are buffed by his amazing start. Since then, however, there's been a pronounced drop-off, plus he hasn't been hyped like Podkolzin, making him less likely to net anything in trade. It could even come to a point where MBN gets removed from the top six. If a trade isn't made, MBN would be my first drop, then Podkolzin second, but I'd even consider dropping Knight if Podkolzin gets back into a scoring groove.

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THE ANSWER TO WHO THE PLAYER IS……….Olii Jokinen!

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Questions for Mailbag column needed

I have plenty of room for mailbag questions. To get yours to me, you can either private message “rizzeedizzee” via the DobberHockey Forums, or email [email protected] with “Roos Mailbag” as the subject line.