Every Sunday, we’ll share 21 Fantasy Rambles from our writers at DobberHockey. These thoughts are curated from the past week’s 'Daily Ramblings'.

Writers/Editors: Ian Gooding, Michael Clifford, Cam Robinson, and Dobber

1. Well, it's finally happened. Nikolaj Ehlers has officially arrived. We all knew it was coming. The ridiculous junior career, the incessantly amazing transitional effectiveness, the flirtatious point totals while being locked on L2 and PP2. But the 24-year-old has now broken through the glass ceiling.

He's found a way to hit the scoresheet in six of the Jets' first eight games and has looked great doing so. And here's the best part, HE'S STILL STUCK ON L2 AND PP2!

With Winnipeg moving out Patrik Laine, you'd think there'd be a spot for the slick Dane, but it hasn't happened yet. And with Pierre-Luc Dubois coming soon, you'd have to think he pushes Paul Stastny out of the way. But at least PLD and Ehlers will have each other at even-strength. It's never easy to truly breakout without 60-plus percent of the power-play ice, but Ehlers is going to give it a go this season. And I'm ready for it. (jan27)

2. The Patrik Laine plane has finally landed in Columbus. After quarantine, Laine is expected to join the Blue Jackets on Monday with his debut expected Tuesday against Dallas. [Fantasy Take: Dubois Going to Winnipeg for Laine, Roslovic] Assuming that holds true, fantasy owners will have the services of Laine for all three of the Blue Jackets’ games next week. Go ahead and add the sniper back into your lineup. (jan30)

3. How bad has it been for Matt Murray? He’s allowed at least three goals in each of his six starts. He’s posted three consecutive Really Bad Starts ©. His goals-against average calculates out to 4.40, while his save percentage is an unsightly 0.859.

Stay away or get out (or bench at the very least), as you’re doing considerable damage to your goaltending if you’re starting Murray. He’s 40 percent owned in Yahoo leagues and being left untouched in one of my leagues where the competition keeps getting better and better. (jan29)

4. Plugging an article from this past week, new Geek of the Week writer Logan Doyle advised you to watch for the emerging Joel Eriksson Ek, who has five goals in nine games. The pucks won’t always be going in for Eriksson Ek at this rate, but he is benefitting from the opportunity stemming from the Wild lacking real top-6 options at the center position. Although only one of his seven points is on the power play, the power-play time itself is something he’s never really had before. Sure, why not. (jan29)

5. Carter Verhaege is off to a nice start with three goals and five points in five games. He has been skating almost exclusively on the top line with Sasha Barkov, and that’s led to over 18 minutes a night with three shots on goal per game.

I will remind everyone that this is a guy who put up 130 points in his previous 134 AHL games playing for Syracuse, Tampa’s farm system. The Bolts are notorious for finding under-valued guys and turning them into valued assets (Tyler Johnson, Jonathan Marchessault and Yanni Gourde, to name a few). That Verhaege could be the next in this list isn’t impossible. (jan28)

6. Bo Horvat is a unique bird. The proverbial 'they' like to remind us that development is seldom linear. Ups and downs, ebbs and flows, peaks and valleys. We can expect them all as a player traverses the NHL. Yet for the 25-year-old Horvat, that has not been the case. Now in his sixth NHL season, the Ontario-native has miraculously improved on his point-per-game output in every successive campaign. It's just something we don't see. And early in 2021, the results have been excellent. Clicking along around the 70-point/82 zone is certainly within reach. (jan27)

7. K'Andre Miller grabbed his first-career goal on Tuesday. The 20-year-old has been more than just a pleasant surprise for the Rangers, he's been damn impressive. Paired with Jacob Trouba since camp, he's immediately stepped in and started chewing up the minutes.

This is a player that I planted my flag in some time ago. He's 6-5 and has incredible abilities at that size. His physical profile coupled with his skill set screams star. He's obviously stuck behind a couple of very strong power-play options in Adam Fox and Tony DeAngelo, so the boom will be difficult to traverse to. But at the very least he should develop into a studly multi-cat type. (jan27)

8. Cam brought up K'Andre Miller in his Ramblings on Wednesday and I’m glad he did. I have watched every Rangers game to date because there are many guys with a lot of fantasy upside for decades to come on that roster and getting an accurate picture now will help a lot down the road. With that in mind I want to say that Miller has probably looked like their best defenceman outside of Adam Fox.

That comes as a bit of a surprise to me because I did not expect Miller to be ready this soon, if at all. I was much lower on him as a prospect than most and assumed if he did make it, it would take a few years. That doesn’t look to be the case at all. His physical gifts are obvious but it’s his decision-making with and without the puck that has impressed me. He is not making many typical rookie mistakes, and it’s showing well in his numbers and play. High-level stuff from the rookie. (jan28)

9. Let this sink in. A player on the top-producing even-strength line is owned in just 3% of Yahoo leagues. Yet Chandler Stephenson seems like the third wheel on his line. To give you an idea, when Max Pacioretty recorded a hat trick on Tuesday, Mark Stone assisted on all three of his goals. Stephenson? Not a thing, in spite of nearly 20 minutes of ice time.

One of the goals was on a 5-on-3 power play when Stephenson wasn’t on the ice, but hopefully you get the idea. Stephenson was involved in some nice passing on another Pacioretty goal, but he was not one of the two Vegas players to touch the puck before the goal. You can watch this game’s highlights and break down the numbers in the new Fantasy Hockey Game Boxscore at Frozen Tools.

The Patches-Stone line is nothing new for Stephenson, who also spent considerable time on that line after joining the Golden Knights partway through last season. His fantasy value has increased significantly from being a spare part in Washington to just over a 40-point pace with Vegas. Because of his linemates, it’s highly possible that he could go on a run that generates interest in many fantasy leagues. For now, he’s probably best reserved for deep leagues. (jan30)

10. Nearly six years ago I wrote one of my first columns at DobberHockey. It begged the question of whether John Klingberg was the next Erik Karlsson. And while neither of those two defender's next five seasons really went to plan, at 28, it sure looks like Klingberg is ready to seriously pop off.

We shouldn't be all that surprised either. The guy is damn good. I mean, the fact that Miro f*cking Heiskanen can't unseat him as the top-dog on the Stars blueline speaks incredible volumes. He's also coming off of a tremendous playoff run that saw him post 21 points in 26 contests.

We're looking at peak Klingberg time. With just one more year left on his sweetheart deal, it'll be fascinating to see what the Stars decide to do with him. Do they pay him large money and term, securing a boatload of cap (and skill) on the backend, or do they cash in via trade and go full bore with Heiskanen? (jan27)

11. Jordan Kyrou looks like he’s finally making good on all that promise he has shown for years. Not that it’s entirely his fault – injuries ravaged him for a while – but he’s getting the shot he deserves and is up to 10 points in eight games. (jan26)

12. Just a casual reminder that all the kind words being lobbed towards Jesse Puljujarvi after his season’s debut on the top line with Connor McDavid early last week was true three years ago. Was he as good then as he is now? No, of course not. But he was good enough to skate on the top line and the numbers in their limited time together said as much. The Oilers have been looking for a right winger for McDavid for five years and they were too dumb to realize they had one the whole time. (jan26)

13. Be sure to check your waiver wires for Ty Smith. He has taken over the top PP duties from P.K. Subban and quite honestly has looked great. The usual caveats for young players apply but he looked a year early last year. At this moment in time, he looks like he truly belongs. He is an exciting player to watch. (jan26)

14. I wonder how Mike Hoffman feels about the cut in his ice time. Nearly three minutes per game down versus last year, which was a full minute below the year prior. His PP time is down a buck-thirty per game too. I know it would be selling low right now, but part of me thinks the sell-high window is still kind of open. After two great years and then lots of hype in the summer, I think some of that is still sticking and you can still get a good return on him. (jan25)

15. Pushed out of his job by Robin Lehner, a younger top goaltender, Marc-Andre Fleury seems to be at his best. Undefeated with just three goals allowed in three games. So far, Vegas is taking turns with the goalie starts and I think this will continue as long as the team keeps winning. Why fix what ain’t broke? Fleury has been the superior goalie so far, though. For fantasy purposes, both great goaltenders are worth less than they should because they cannibalize each other’s starts. (jan25)

16. I thought Ilya Sorokin would come in and make the same splash as Igor Shesterkin. So far, it would appear that I was wrong. I figured he would show enough this season that by next year he would split the starts equally with Semyon Varlamov, primarily spurred on by a Varlamov injury that seems to happen often. But Varlamov is stepping up his game when pressed – back-to-back shutouts in his first two starts, just one goal allowed in Start 3. Give Sorokin some time.

It’s early, but my goalie predictions are off to a rocky start. This has been my strength over the years – really just evaluating talent and properly balancing that with opportunity as well as the talent of what is above him on the depth chart. Sorokin is in a good spot in terms of timing, with Varlamov’s contract up after the 2022-23 season. (jan25)

17. My other big call – Collin Delia – isn’t doing so shit-hot either. Then again, all Chicago goaltenders began poorly. Delia was the first goalie on the team to get a second start, so that speaks to who the coach was leaning towards. But he blew it. So coach Jeremy Colliton has now turned to Kevin Lankinen, 25, who is now 2-1-2, with a 2.16 GAA and 0.930 SV%. The job is his for now. And with the Chicago offence figuring it out, he makes for a good add.

I still lean Delia long-term, but Lankinen is absolutely the guy who will get most of the starts over the next 10 games. Last year in the AHL, Lankinen had seized the Rockford job over the first six weeks. But then Delia fantastic after mid-November while Lankinen stumbled. I suspect they’ll be back and forth throughout the year. The only thing we can be sure of with Chicago goaltending is that Malcolm Subban is weak link and will never be a fantasy option. I think. (jan25)

18. Pius Suter got the hat trick last week, his first goals in the NHL. The diminutive (5-9) forward made the team thanks to all the injuries and the team’s desperation to be cap compliant. Otherwise, he was probably looking at a year of AHL service time, or at least a partial year there. But he made the big club and was given a prominent role. He was never the shooter that Dominik Kubalik is, but he’s a potential top-sixer. I only like Suter for the short term, with hope for something longer. I suggest caution.

Another one is Philipp Kurashev. The 21-year-old is on the team a full season earlier than I expected, and this one is due to the Alex Nylander injury. He plays with Dylan Strome and Dominik Kubalik. Strome has a couple of volume shooters on his wing. Kurashev has at least a shot on goal in seven of the eight games he has played so far, while we all know how much Kubalik likes to shoot – he has 30 of them in nine games. (jan25)

19. After being shipped back and forth repeatedly from the AHL to the NHL, Nick Paul seems to have secured a more permanent role with the Sens. In the times I’ve watched the Senators this season, he’s been fairly noticeable. If your league is deep enough that Josh Norris and Drake Batherson are taken, you might even want to consider taking a flier on Paul for a three-game set against a porous Canucks defence. (jan24)

20. Braden Holtby and Thatcher Demko have been okay, but they haven’t been able to cover up the defensive woes the way Jacob Markstrom used to. (jan24)

21. Playing on a second line with Paul Stastny and Nikolaj Ehlers, Andrew Copp has never assumed a major offensive role for the Jets, but it’s possible that the shuffling resulting from the Dubois trade helps him land a more permanent role on a scoring line.

On a side note for the Jets, you may have noticed that Josh Morrissey is back running the first-unit power play. As a Morrissey keeper owner, this has been a nice bonus. Moving Neal Pionk to the second unit hasn’t exactly hurt his production either, as he has five assists in eight games. (jan24)

Have a good week, folks – be safe!!

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