The Anthony DeAngelo issue has come to a head. Big time. The offensive defenseman, who is one of the best in that role in the entire league in terms of creating offense and putting up points, can't keep his mouth shut and can't control his temper. Rumor has it that he blamed Alexandar Georgiev for screwing up on Saturday, costing the Rangers the game-winning goal and making DeAngelo look bad in the process. The rumor is that DeAngelo and Georgiev got into a fight after the game – and what isn't a rumor but a fact is that the Rangers placed DeAngelo on waivers Sunday. He'll clear Monday at noon – I don't see a team claiming a black sheep like that, who is just eight games into his two-year $9.6 million contract. As I feared in a Ramblings two weeks ago – DeAngelo will get Sean Avery'd right out of the league over the next two years. Other teams will give him a chance, but barring a personality change I fear that he won't get his footing again. Not saying he won't, just saying that I doubt it.

If he goes to a new team…when he goes to a new team, the Rangers will eat some of that salary first.

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Ty Smith is trying to become this year's Makar/Hughes. Eight points in nine games now to start off his NHL career. So far PK Subban is still getting PP time over Smith. That won't last too much longer – and in fact on Sunday Smith had more, so maybe they're already shifting to the youngster.

Miles Wood had a three-point game Sunday, boosting his overall points total to eight in nine games. He's not the first checking-line player to enjoy a bit of a breakout so far this year (Andrew Copp and Adam Lowry come to mind right off the top). Don't be fooled by the big numbers early. While I do believe Wood is having a breakout year, so me a "breakout year" means he's 45-point player. Or in the case of a 56-game season, a 30-point player. As a solid 90 PIM option, there is value in that in a lot of leagues. Surprisingly he's not much for the Hits category. Just two so far this season.

By the way, Lowry I consider in a similar mold in terms of offensive upside. But for Copp I think there's more there. I compare Copp to Zach Hyman in terms of potential production – could do very well if he can stick with Nikolaj Ehlers, but I question if that can happen given the impending arrival of Pierre-Luc Dubois.

Eric Comrie won his first NHL game in three years on Sunday in his first start with the Devils.

Nikita Gusev has just one point in nine games for the Devils so far. Very unexpected, obviously, and no real explanation for it other than poor puck luck (just 2.7 5on5 S%). His linemates aren't bad – Pavel Zacha and Andreas Johnsson. But even if they were bad, that has never stopped the talented Gusev before. His PP time is up, but he has yet to convert a point on it. I consider him a 'buy' right now – ripe for the picking.

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Well the Eric Staal acquisition has done absolutely nothing for Jeff Skinner. Just a point in 10 games. So Skinner gets 63 points in 82 games, signs a seven-year contract worth $9M AAV, among the richest contracts in the league… and then manages 24 points in 69 games. How does he sleep at night?

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Carter Verhaeghe continues to fly, potting his fifth goal on Sunday in just his sixth game. He has seven points in all. I had him as the fourth candidate in line for playing with Aleksander Barkov, behind Anthony Duclair, Frank Vatrano and Vinnie Hinostroza (in that order). What I didn't count on was for Barkov to get two (!) new wingers instead of just one, as Jonathan Huberdeau was put on a different line. After Duclair was signed, I knew Hinostroza would be in tough, likely having to earn his way up from the fourth line. Instead, Hinostroza has had to earn his way from the press box. Without an injury to help him out, Hinostroza odds have dipped to zero.

But I digress. Back to Verhaeghe. I had him as fourth in line because I feel he is a star AHL player. He has top-shelf hockey sense and a pretty good stick, but his skating was (as a prospect) something I hadn't seen before – it was that bad. So is this, like, a Jason Allison thing? Thriving despite the lack of wheels? There are a couple of concerns with Verhaeghe's sustainability. First, his 5on5 S% is high at 12.5%. Second, his ice time has slipped in each of the last two games (though he did get penalties in those games). So I'm leery of this guy, but am perfectly fine with riding the wave while it's still rolling.

Should we be surprised at Florida's hot start? Last year most of us had Florida as the most improved team in the offseason. Then we pretty much had them as the most disappointing team of the season. Is this just a market correction?

Keith Yandle Watch: six points in six games now. His ice time is down a full three minutes from last year, but he's still getting it done. You'll recall last season he started off huge and then really tailed off in the second half. I would advise shopping him, he's a 'sell'. But no rush – I think this rate of production will last several more weeks yet, so you can hold for the right price.

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The Red Wings are trying to create offensive NHL players using a formula that I (as a fantasy owner) enjoy. Chicago does this a lot. They take two veteran guys who can produce, and stick them with an experiment (either from the AHL or from Europe). In this case, Taro Hirose has been playing with Anthony Mantha and Vladislav Namestnikov. Hirose was a college star, and then made a big splash right after he turned pro, but spent last season in the AHL. Now he's on the big club and has two points in five games. He's seeing great PP time, too. He's averaging nearly four minutes PPTOI.

The other guy getting this treatment is Swedish star Matthias Brome. He was signed as a free agent after a big year in the SHL. At 26, he's in his prime. He lines up with Bobby Ryan and Dylan Larkin, but 10 games in he is still looking for his first point and he's minus-6.

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John Klingberg played 31:01 on Sunday, including over seven minutes of PP time (nearly double Miro Heiskanen). Despite Klingberg going pointless, Heiskanen isn't taking that PP time soon. Klinger has eight points in six games, including six PPPts. I believe that's a career high in ice time for Klinger.

Jordan Staal has four points in his last three games. He's not playing with good players (Ryan Dzingel and Steven Lorentz) so this run isn't too sustainable, but he's there on the wire for you I'm almost certain, if you need a streaming option.

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Both Josh Bailey (two points) and Ryan Pulock (one point) broke out of slumps for the Islanders. The Isles shuffled their lines, take a look:

Time	%	EV – FORWARDS	GF	GA	+/-	SF	SA	SF%	CF	CA	CF%
9:05	18.3	JOSH BAILEY – ANDERS LEE – MATHEW BARZAL	1	0	1	6	2	75.0	8	6	57.1
8:57	18.0	CLUTTERBUCK – CASEY CIZIKAS – MATT MARTIN	0	0	0	1	3	25.0	3	9	25.0
5:24	10.9	J-G PAGEAU – AUSTIN CZARNIK – M DAL COLLE	0	0	0	3	0	100.0	7	1	87.5
3:39	7.3	JORDAN EBERLE – BROCK NELSON – D TIMASHOV	0	2	-2	3	3	50.0	4	3	57.1
2:53	5.8	J-G PAGEAU – ANDERS LEE – MATHEW BARZAL	1	0	1	3	2	60.0	4	3	57.1

Ilya Sorokin is still looking for his first NHL win, but he did follow up his first NHL Quality Start with an OTL.

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The Flyers scratched Thomas Konecny on Saturday. And on Sunday it was Erik Gustafsson who got the scratch. Alain Vigneault isn't accepting any poor play at all, even though his team is 7-2-1.

Joel Farabee picked up four points in Game 1… then he had one point in eight games… and then he scored a hat trick yesterday. What are fantasy owners in weekly leagues supposed to do with that? More than one fantasy GM got burned I'm sure. Farabee has been off the power play for the last four games after being a part of it in the first six. So that's a bit of a red flag in terms of sustainability. I think what we've seen so far is what we'll get this year – production in big spurts.

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Seth Jones and Zach Werenski have combined for four points in 10 games so far (and minus-15). Raise your hand if you think that will continue. A big 'buy' stamp on those two, as their fantasy owners get a little itchy.

Jack Roslovic, in his third game, picked up his first point as a Blue Jacket. He has yet to really play with Oliver Bjorkstrand and until that happens I don't see him as a fantasy asset this year, despite this being his targeted Breakout Threshold season. But I can assure you that if he starts putting up points, it won't take long before he's placed on the Bjorkstrand line.

Speaking of Bjorkstrand, while I think he's great and can produce with almost anyone, he's been playing mostly with Nick Foligno and Alexandre Texier. That makes it tough, and even so – he has eight points in 10 games. He finally got to play with Max Domi on Sunday but was held pointless. I'd like to see him with Cam Atkinson and either Roslovic or Domi at center. Or even better – Patrick Laine instead of Atkinson.

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Chicago rookie Philipp Kurashev was moved up to the Patrick Kane line and responded with the first two-point effort of his NHL career. It's a situation worth watching. Mattias Janmark was the other winger. Janmark is an interesting fantasy option in that he has five points in his last six games (one on Sunday). As long as Alex DeBrincat is on Covid watch, these two wingers are worth grabbing.

The coach is really trying to make Dylan Strome work with Dominik Kubalik. Spreads out the offense.

Kevin Lankinen continues to shine, picking up a win and a team point in his fifth start in six games. He has five Quality Starts. If this keeps up, do the Blackhawks wave one of Malcolm Subban or Collin Delia? How long do they wait to do this? Lankinen is the only goalie who can be sent down without waivers. But he's also the only goalie that is winning. The Hawks don't want to be stuck with unproven goaltending (more unproven than what is currently there), so they'll be very careful before waiving Subban. They want to be absolutely sure that Lankinen is here to stay. I say Lankinen getting 10 games under his belt is the line.

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Ville Husso picked up his first NHL win with a Quality Start. Jordan Binnington so far is back to being Winnington, so Husso hasn't been able to give us much of a look as of yet.

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Devon Toews could be out for the long term. We'll know more later Monday, but he took a shot off the leg and they suspect that there is a fracture. Sam Girard has seen a bump in his power-play time. Girard has nine points in 10 games this year (!).

No word on Nathan MacKinnon, who did not come out of the dressing room for the third period and has a suspected upper-body injury.

Joel Eriksson Ek has eight points in his last seven games, with another two on Sunday. This year is his BT season (Breakout Threshold) and I do expect a breakout. I don't think it's this kind of production, but I think he can be a 60-point guy, which is 42 points in a shortened season like this. Be cautious and hope for 40 but expect low 30s for now. His career high was last year, which was a 38-point 82-game pace.

Eriksson Ek's linemate Jordan Greenway has 10 points in 10 games. As a 6-6 forward, the expectation is that he will breakout around the 400-game mark. It would seem that he's early – he's played 164 games, which is even early for regular-sized players. Current production is unsustainable, but it would seem that a breakout is here. Look for just over a point every two games in the end.

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And finally.

Leon Draisaitl – six points

Connor McDavid – five points

Just worth noting, not a big deal. It was against Ottawa.

What is more interesting is the fact that Tyson Barrie is finally getting settled in. He has five points in his last three games. He saw 5:55 of PPTOI on Sunday. He now has seven points in 11 games this season.

Meanwhile, the guy who got zero PP time (Darnell Nurse), picked up another point and has eight points in 11 games. Barrie has averaged 4:30 PPTOI, Nurse 1:40. Barrie has four PPPts, Nurse has three. Barrie was brought in for a role. He's paid well for that role. So he'll continue to get that role. But Nurse could do so much more for fantasy owners, it's a real shame.

Here is our comparison tool for Barrie vs. Nurse:

https://frozenpool.dobbersports.com/frozenpool_compare.php?period=2020-2021:R:99&players[]=3879&players[]=2734

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See you next Monday.