Every Sunday, we 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, Alexander MacLean and Dobber

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1. In his push for 100 points, Elias Pettersson has put together a 14-game point streak. With a goal on Friday, Pettersson is now at 96 points. The Canucks have seven games remaining, which should be more than enough time for him to get to 100 points. Prior to that, Pettersson had never cracked 70 points, although it seemed inevitable that the now-24-year-old would smash that number. One key to his success is that he has been using his lethal shot more, averaging more than a shot per game over previous seasons (3.3 SOG/GP compared to 2.4 SOG/GP). (apr1)

2. Jason Robertson is also pushing for 100 points, and he took a big leap forward toward that milestone on Friday. Robertson scored a goal and added three assists, which takes him all the way to 95 points. In the process, he’s also set a Dallas Stars record for most points in a season, breaking Mike Modano’s record.

In around the same number of games as last season, Robertson has taken 68 more shots, which is nearly a shot per game higher than last season and 1.3 shots higher than two seasons ago. Robertson probably won’t get to 50 goals this season, but a 50-goal season could be in his future because he’s only 23. (apr1)

3. Devon Levi‘s debut with the Sabres was a success. In his first NHL game last Friday, Levi stopped 31 of 33 shots in picking up a 3-2 overtime win over the Rangers. The Sabres have a logjam in net with Eric Comrie, Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen, and Craig Anderson all looking for starts. Anderson is currently dealing with an upper-body injury, which means that they’re down to a three-headed monster.

Buffalo’s odds of making the playoffs are paper thin, so expect Levi to pick up at least one more start before the end of the season. Over the past six games, the Sabres have used all four goalies. (apr1)

4. In case you missed it, the Red Wings recalled Marco Kasper from the Swedish Hockey League. Kasper, the eighth overall pick in the 2022 draft, was not in the lineup for Friday’s game. He could make his NHL debut on Sunday against Toronto. See his Dobber Prospects profile for more. (apr1)

5. The Canucks have decided to shut down Filip Hronek for the season, as he is still battling a shoulder injury. With Hronek out of the lineup, Quinn Hughes logged just over 30 minutes on Friday. Hughes has 73 points, so he could make a run for 80. Entering Saturday, Erik Karlsson was the only blueliner with more points than Hughes, and these two are the only defensemen with at least 70 points, although a handful of defensemen could crack 70 before the end of the season. (apr1)

6. The Flames have had a tumultuous season, but one player who is performing above expectations is Tyler Toffoli. With two goals on Friday, including the game-winner in overtime, Toffoli has a career high 33 goals, while his 69 points is easily a career high. I’ll bet you didn’t have Toffoli leading the Flames in scoring, but that’s where we are. (apr1)

7. Matthew Tkachuk doesn’t need his dad to motivate him. We know Tkachuk is his own player and not propped up by the other talent around him, since his two 100-point seasons have been with two different teams. Even though Calgary brought in reinforcements this offseason, it’s fair to say that the departures of Tkachuk and Johnny Gaudreau were significant and even resulted in a net loss for the Flames. (mar31)

8. Speaking of Gaudreau, remember when the Flames’ top line put up those astronomical plus/minus numbers last season? Tkachuk was a plus-57 and Johnny Hockey led the league with a plus-64?

What a difference a year makes. Tkachuk’s plus-26 is still very good, but Gaudreau is in the bottom 10 of the league with a minus-33 this season. It goes to show that the team is more of a factor than player with the stat. No regular on the Blue Jackets is a plus player this season. (mar31)

9. The Bruins have officially clinched the President’s Trophy. They’ve also set a franchise record when they won their 58th of the season this past week. So, how many of our writers picked them to win the Atlantic Division in the preseason predictions? Zero. (My prediction of Florida to win the division looks especially soft.) It’s interesting that the last President’s Trophy winner to win the Stanley Cup was Chicago in 2012-13, meaning that the Bruins shouldn’t be considered an obvious pick to win the Cup. (mar31)

10. The Jakub Vrana train keeps on rolling. Vrana has nine goals in 14 games with the Blues. He’s also averaged over three shots per game. Although his scoring will inevitably drop a bit (over 20% shooting), Vrana can be added in just about all formats. For some reason the Red Wings didn’t want him, but he is picking up the scoring slack for a St. Louis team that has won six of its last nine games even after trading some key veterans before the deadline. (mar31)

11. An Oilers goalie finally posted a shutout this season! I guess shutouts don’t really matter with run support from the likes of Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl, but it’s nice to have when those two are held to “just” one point each. Stuart Skinner received credit for the goose egg, stopping 43 shots from the Kings last Thursday. The Oilers have to be considered one of the favorites in the Western Conference and can score with the best of them, but is their goaltending strong enough for a deep run into the playoffs? (mar31)

12. With a goal on Thursday, Daniel Sprong has reached 20 goals and 40 points for the first time in his career. Unbelievably, Sprong has been a healthy scratch a few times in March, which speaks more to Seattle’s depth at forward than any lack of scoring. Among Kraken players, only Jared McCann and Matty Beniers have more goals than Sprong. However, the Kraken really spread out the scoring after that, as they have 13 players total with at least 10 goals.

At time of writing, there were about 110 players with at least 20 goals, none of which had logged as little ice time as Sprong (11:10 TOI). He seems poised to thrive with a bigger role, but I have a hard time recommending him if he’s playing on the fourth line with Brandon Tanev and Ryan Donato. As well, a healthy scratch is the last thing you need when you’re in a do-or-die fantasy playoff match. (mar31)

13. I thought it’d be fun to take a little retrospective on the season and look at some predictions. Namely, we’re going to go through my personal preseason picks from our 2022-23 Dobber Panel where the editors and writers select division winners, award winners, and so on (we don’t know award winners, clearly, but we do have a good idea of whether we could be right or wrong). It is a good opportunity to discuss a wide swath of players and teams while keeping myself accountable, to an extent.

Let’s start with the awards, or at least the ones we have a good idea about. My predicted winner will be listed next to the trophy.

Hart Trophy – Auston Matthews

Not only is Matthews not going to win, the question is just how far down the balloting he’ll finish. Even if he completes the year on a hot streak, what does 40 goals and 85 points get him? He will surely finish behind Connor McDavid, David Pastrnak, and Erik Karlsson, and that doesn’t even get into the goalies (or more borderline cases for runner-up like Jason Robertson, Jack Hughes, Nathan MacKinnon, and others). Injuries and under-performance kept Matthews from an elite season, something I’m sure fantasy players reading this know extremely well. He is a perennial threat to be the league’s MVP, but it certainly won’t happen this year for the four-time 40-goal scorer. (mar30)

14. Vezina Trophy – Ilya Sorokin

This is going to be contentious. It does appear as if Linus Ullmark is the favourite for Goaltender Of The Year honours, and he is having a marvelous season. However, out of 28 goalies with at least 2000 minutes played this season (at time of writing), Sorokin was fifth in high-danger shots against per 60 minutes (9.7) while Ullmark was 20^th at 8.4 thanks to the Boston Bruins being a much better defensive team. Another example of this: Ullmark’s average shot distance on a shot against was 37.3 feet, which was by far the furthest distance in the league (Vitek Vanecek was closest to him at 36.2 feet). Comparatively, Sorokin was just under 34 feet in average shot distance faced, worse than goalies in San Jose and Philadelphia. Boston’s latest game had a top line of Marchand-Bergeron-DeBrusk, with a 50-goal scorer on the second line. Comparatively, New York’s latest game had Hudson Fasching and Zach Parise on the top line. Sorokin had put up 50% more Goals Saved Above Expected at 5-on-5 (per Evolving Hockey) than Ullmark did. Those are my arguments, and I know it’s a losing argument overall, but I really wish voters took team quality more into context. It really is incredibly important to a goaltender. (mar30)

15. Calder Trophy – Matty Beniers

It seems like it’s a wrap for Beniers at this point. At time of writing, he was second in rookie goals (20), first in points by seven (50), second in TOI among forwards, and he’s being relied upon for a significant role on a playoff team. All those factors are going to get him the Rookie Of The Year, and it will have been well-deserved. Per tracking data kept by Corey Sznajder, Beniers has roughly 9.0 scoring chance contributions per 60 minutes at 5-on-5 (individual scoring chances plus assists on teammate scoring chances). It is the same number as names like Jack Eichel and Sam Reinhart, a bit behind Leon Draisaitl (9.1) and a bit ahead of Elias Pettersson (8.8). He has more growth to do before really reaching the heights of some of those players, but the team itself needs to change a bit as well. No forward is skating over 19 minutes a night for Seattle, and just 2/18 forwards currently with at least 82 points have skated under 19 minutes a night: Jason Robertson and Tage Thompson. They’re on elite scoring lines with heavy PP1 minutes, something Beniers doesn’t have (and may not have for a couple seasons). He will be very good in the fantasy game, just don’t expect 90-point seasons right away.

(Follow the link for more…) (mar30)

16. Some fantasy-relevant youngsters I am looking forward to seeing as they could/will make their debuts over the next three weeks:

– Emil Andrae: Someone I have had on my watch list for a while, Andrae’s height is the only thing that is really holding him back from being viewed as a real fantasy hockey prospect. If you’re happy with Lane Hutson and his production versus height, then there’s no reason you can’t get on board with Andrae, as well. The five-foot-nine, former second-round pick, may actually be the top prospect defenseman in the pipeline, even ahead of Cam York or Egor Zamula. If he doesn’t get a couple games this season, then he will at least get a long look for the team in the fall.

– Matthew Coronato: Assuming he does actually see game action and Darryl Sutter doesn’t just sit him in the press box to watch, then there is a possibility he will see some time on either or both of the top-two lines to see if he (and any of the rest of the team) can find some chemistry that has been missing this year in Calgary. Getting to play with at least one of Elias Lindholm or Jonathan Huberdeau would be a boon for a player with an excellent shot like Coronato has.

– Matthew Knies: Wit h Michael Bunting having been shuffled down the lineup, there is a world in which Knies sees a few games on the Leafs’ top line before season’s end. He was excellent in college the last two years, and has an NHL frame to go along with a few NHL level skills already. (mar29)

17. I wish Jonathan Toews all the best health-wise. As a fantasy asset, his day as a must-own player are over. However, in deeper leagues that also count faceoff wins, he could still be a useful flier for next year. He may be a big risk to play or stay healthy, but when he’s on the ice he still has the talent to produce in spurts. He will be much better off next year if he does in fact choose to move on from the Blackhawks, as he could slot in as a solid third-line center on a top-heavy team such as Carolina, Winnipeg, or Toronto. His value will likely depend on whether or not he moves on from Chicago though, because if he does return to the Blackhawks, then there’s almost no point at which he will be worth using a pick on or spending an asset to acquire him. (mar29)

18. One of the concerns for any team interested in acquiring Jakob Chychrun over the last couple of seasons was his health. This will make five straight 82-game seasons where he’s failed to reach 70 games played (though he did play the entire 56-game Bubble campaign). Those concerns came up again recently as he'll be out with a hamstring injury.

It seems that, at best, he could be back for the last week of the season. Whether Ottawa is still in a playoff race at that point remains to be seen. If Chychrun has played his last game of the campaign, he’ll finish with 33 points in 48 games overall, but just five points in 12 games with Ottawa. He was still putting up great peripherals, though, and he’s not been reliant on PP production for his fantasy value. A good offseason of training and a full camp with the team in September should have him as a great multi-cat option once again. (mar28)

19. At some point, likely in the offseason, I’m going to do a dive on Filip Zadina, who was back practicing with the Red Wings this past week. He clearly hasn’t reached the lofty heights Detroit fans and fantasy players had for him, but I don’t think he’s been as bad as his boxcar stats have shown thus far. Like Alexis Lafrenière, there could be something here for those that exercise patience, but I’ll wait until I do the dive before reaching any firm conclusions.

On the downside, Robby Fabbri is done for the season. Between injuries and a handful of scratches, when this season is over, Fabbri will have played just 114 of a possible 220 regular season games over the last three years, or about 52% of the games. Unfortunately, injuries have been the hallmark of his career as 61 games are a single-season high for him since his 2015-16 rookie campaign. He has two more years left on his contract, so there is time to figure it out in Detroit, but he needs to stay on the ice to do it. Until we see that, it’s hard to rely on him in fantasy beyond a streaming option. (mar28)

20. In the 29 games since Rick Tocchet took over as Vancouver’s head coach, Andrei Kuzmenko has 18 goals and 27 points. Amazing that the Canucks signed this guy last summer – got him for nothing. He'll probably get 40 goals! (mar27)

21. And yes indeed – the Predators look very different from a month ago. Cody Glass, Luke Evangelista, Philip Tomasino and Tommy Novak have each taken on top-six roles thanks to the injuries. Novak and Tomasino in particular are establishing themselves as top-sixers for next season, while Glass is still in that second-third-line ‘tweener’ category. Evangelista is showing that he is likely a future top-sixer, but I suspect he may see some AHL time in 2023-24 before making the jump for good. (mar27)

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