Dawson Mercer was fittingly the one to open the scoring against his former team, after they dumped him in the Connor Hellebuyck trade. He added the game winner in the third period for good measure, as fellow tradee Nico Daws stopped 20 of the Devils' 22 shots to earn the win against his former team.

For reasons we may never firmly know (whether it was Hellebuyck or someone else's call), it was actually Jake Allen starting for the Devils. Allen stopped 21 of 24, allowing three goals against for the sixth time in the past seven games.

Jesper Bratt and Cody Glass scored for the Devils in the loss, and we now wait to see if Hellebuyck plays in the next WPG/NJD game, which takes place in just over two weeks on Nov 28th. This one will be in New Jersey though.

*

In what was a fairly slower-paced goalie game, Bobby Brink scored the game's first goal (unassisted) in the third period. Nick Suzuki tied it late, before Kirill Kaprizov put the game away in OT. The game won't be a huge help to most fantasy teams though unless you own one of Jesper Wallsedt or Jacob Fowler.

Brink led the Wild with five shots in the game. Jared Spurgeon was next on the team with three, though he has yet to pick up a point in his five games back from injury.

*

Hayden Hodgson scored his first career goal last night, and as far as first NHL goals go, getting a nice one on a goalie like Logan Thompson has to feel pretty great:

Despite picking up the OT win, Thompson hasn't been great this season, but the team in front of him has still been reasonably solid, and when the full D-core is finally at full health in the next few months (fingers crossed) then that should help his numbers too. He didn't have a single quarter last season with a save percentage under .900, but he's now at .891 on the season in 2026-27. The Quality Start percentage is still hovering around 65%, but the Really Bad Start percentage is much higher this season, nearly double what it has been the last couple of years. That speaks to his lack of consistency this season, which makes him much tougher to play on the whole. Still, goalies don't get much better or more consistent than Thompson, so this is a wave that owners just have to ride for the time being.

The Capitals lost Remi Poirier on waivers to Dallas on Monday. Poirier was initially waived by Dallas at the beginning of the season where they expected him to clear before he was claimed by New Jersey. The Devils and Capitals haven't had room to get him into the goalie rotation despite Poirier's fantastic AHL numbers from 2025-26. The Stars don't either, but all of this interest from around the league has Poirier on my watch list, because he will get an opportunity sooner or later.

Ottawa has their own interesting goalie situation, as Linus Ullmark remains out, Jonas Johansson has proven to a second NHL franchise that he's no longer an NHL goalie, and Samuel Ersson has been average at best this year. I'm curious whether recent call up Jackson Parsons can continue his hot run up the depth chart after joining the Sens as an undrafted free agent in 2025. He put up fantastic numbers in the ECHL last season, and then has been one of the better AHL goalies early this season, with a 2.6 GAA and a .916 save percentage. Ottawa plays the Avalanche on Thursday which would be a tough spot to put a rookie goalie in for his debut, and it does sound like Ullmark is going to be back soon to take on the majority of starts from there.

Thomas Chabot had two assists in the win, while Ridly Greig scored his third of the season in his first game back after a short injury absence.

Cole Hutson scored the OT winner for the Caps, his sixth point in the last five games. Alex Ovechkin snapped a seven-game pointless streak with the assist on the OT winner. He saw his lowest share of the power play time yet this season, skating for only 52% of the team's man advantage minutes. If he gets de-emphasized on the power play too, then he's going to have absolutely zero value the rest of the way.

*

📢 advertisement:

Darren Raddysh scored his first goal of the season for the Leafs.

Raddysh also picked up an assist on Jack Roslovic's third-period goal, jumping him to 12 points in 20 games with the Leafs. A very reasonable number, though not quite the 70 he put up last season. His underlying numbers are low though, which means he should easily finish over a 50-point pace this season, and maybe over 60 if things pick up early enough.

Easton Cowan also scored and picked up an assist on the Roslovic goal, bringing his totals up to seven goals, 15 points, and 41 SOG in 20 games this season. That snaps a four-game pointless streak for him as well.

The Avs got two-point games from Cale Makar, Gabe Landeskog, and Devon Toews, as well as points from 13 different skaters. It was only Nathan MacKinnon, Fedyor Svechkov, and the bottom three Dmen on the roster that Sergei Bobrovsky was able to hold off of the score sheet.

*

Sam Bennett had two goals while Aaron Ekblad picked up three assists for the Panthers in their 4-1 win over Columbus. For the Blue Jackets, Ivan Provorov countered with his second goal of the season (through five games, with zero assists to this point). Sam Reinhart scored an insurance marker to notch his ninth point in his last seven games.

Columbus has been alternating two wins and two losses for a while now, so after dropping their second straight, they're due for a bounce back to close out the week against Tampa and Philly. Who are we to argue with the patterns.

Sticking with the patterns, Cam Talbot has been seeing the larger share of the starts of late, and this was his first loss in three weeks. He isn't the present or the future in net in Columbus, but he is the hot hand at the moment and that should earn him some rope.

The Panthers are on a roll, and should be getting Aleksander Barkov back in the next 10-14 days, as Paul Maurice noted that the Panthers are "within two weeks" of having both Brad Marchand and Barkov returning.

*

The Blues snapped a three game losing streak with their 3-1 win over the Red Wings, Jimmy Snuggerud led the way with a goal and an assist. That brings him up to 14 points in 18 games, pacing just above his rate from last year that saw him finish with 51 points in 70 games. He's still not even at 100 NHL games, and he's due a big extension pretty soon. The Blues would do well to get that sorted soon.

Dylan Holloway had an assist, seven SOG, two Hits, and three Blks for the Blues. Solid way to break out of a slump, though he has gone the last eight games without a goal.

Michael Brandsegg-Nygard has been one of the few bright spots for the Red Wings, and put up his second game of the season with double-digit hits. His scoring has slowed of late, but the peripherals have been consistent.

*

Victor Eklund has been added a few of my leagues and I'm annoyed with myself that I missed the boat on him after highlighting him earlier in the season. He is on quite the streak with three goals and four points in his last four games, but not only that, he is also bringing some fantastic peripherals. Eklund's first two weeks of the season saw him put up 1.0 SOG per game and 2.1 Hits per game, but that has jumped to 2.0 SOG and 3.9 Hits per game over the last three weeks, coinciding with a jump in ice time.

📢 advertisement:

Eklund is also seeing some power play time now, and while his most recent goal was with the man advantage, we can't expect him to make a habit of that. With Mat Barzal now only day-to-day and making his season debut anytime now, that could push Eklund down the lineup, and definitely off the power play. Make the add, but keep an eye on his ice time as the lineup changes over time.

One other player that caught me completely off-guard when I looked into him in my dynasty league was Judd Caulfield. I had barely even heard of him before, and here he is with nine points and 56 Hits in 16 games. The scoring will likely regress, but the Hits are trending up with his ice time, which should minimize the drop in scoring as well. Worth a look in deeper leagues.

*

As the Nikita Kucherov owner in two leagues, it has been notable to me that he has been good but not great thus far. The trade request has been a bit of a distraction, but I don't think that has really had an impact on his play. He is still putting up over a 100-point pace, but it's a far cry from his usual 130+ pace.

The good news for Kucherov owners is that some of the underlying numbers do point to there being some positive regression coming. The good news for non-Kucherov owners, is that being 34, there's the worm of doubt in his owners that this drop off may be constant and permanent, so you may be able to buy him as a 100-point player as opposed to a 125-point player that he still should be for at least this season and next.

*

For those still hanging onto Evander Kane in dynasty setups, it appears his NHL career is likely over.

*

Update on the LA/NSH game in the morning.

*

All stats courtesy of Frozentools.

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