The Prospects Report will be released June 1. THURSDAY!! You can now pre-order all of the 2023-24 fantasy products in the shop here (or subscribe!).

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Sports. The Celtics in the NBA have come back from a 3-0 deficit to tie the series at 3-3 against Miami. In NBA history, teams that are up 3-0 in a series have won 150 of 150! That series closes out Monday night, one way or the other.

Can the Dallas Stars echo that feat? Teams that hold a 3-0 lead in a best-of-seven Stanley Cup Playoffs round own an all-time series record of 200-4 (.980), including a 46-0 (1.000) mark during the round before the Final. So no team has ever come back from 3-0 in the Conference Finals, out of 46 opportunities.

On the plus side for Dallas, they get Jamie Benn back from his suspension.

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Cup notes: The road team has won 45 times so far in the postseason. The record is 47, set in 2012. Next is 46, set in 1987.

Jason Robertson has five goals in the Conference Finals. No Dallas player has scored six.

Florida was in a playoff spot for only 28% of the regular season (54 of 190 days). They are the only team in the last 50 years to reach the final four after spending less than 30% of the season in a playoff spot. The previous low was 32% by the St. Louis Blues in 2019.

Here's a link to Matt Tkachuk's interview on the Celtics/Heat pregame.

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Tkachuk has factored in on eight game-winning goals. Here are the only players to do so more times in one playoff:

Brad Richards (2004), Wayne Gretzky (1985) did it 10 times.

Jonathan Toews (2010), Jarome Iginla (2004), Mario Lemieux (1992) did it nine times.

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For your consideration: Matthew Tkachuk was available last summer. He is a unicorn (well, his brother Brady too). There is nobody like him, as we now see, with that combination of skill and power. Toronto would not have even considered giving up Auston Matthews and Rasmus Sandin for him (but that would have landed him I have no doubt). Had they done it, would that have been the missing piece?

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The World Hockey Championships concluded on the weekend with Team Canada taking gold. Team USA dominated the prelims and then the first playoff game against Czechia. But things fell off the rails for them as they lost in OT to Germany…and then lost the bronze medal game to Latvia in OT. The two worst times to suffer your only two losses.

Rocco Grimaldi led the tournament in production with 14 points in 10 games. But the next two top scorers are of fantasy interest.

Dominik Kubalik led the tourney in points-per-game average (12 points in eight games) and he's a curious case. If you recall, he started the season with 22 points in 21 games before hitting a wall and managing just 23 in 60. He fell off a cliff! There's a market correction and then there's…whatever that was. Write him off as a 45-50 point player? Or is he a big star finally coming into his own? I tend to lean towards the former. His ice time was down by two minutes after that first quarter of the season. His PPPts was 10 in that first quarter, but just seven the other three quarters combined. His PP TOI went down by nearly two minutes. He's a shot-volume producer, and his SOG went from 61 in the first quarter to an average of just under 40 per quarter after that. He's very reliant on PP time and linemates.

In third spot, also with 12 points, was Buffalo rookie JJ Peterka. He and Moritz Seider were the top players on the silver medal winners. When we talk about the young Sabres stars in the lineup or on their way to the lineup, not enough is said about Peterka. Like he's the forgotten one. But he was a very high draft pick (34^th overall) and in his North American debut season he had 68 points in 70 games in the AHL. And then he made the Sabres when there really wasn't room – he just made it clear that he was an NHLer, and he stole a roster spot. There's only so much ice time and PP time to go around. By my count – Jeff Skinner, Dylan Cozens, Tage Thompson, Alex Tuch, Casey Mittelstadt, Jack Quinn and Peyton Krebs are also in the mix, and that's assuming Jiri Kulich stays in the AHL for another year.

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Other notes:

Mikko Rantanen…didn't score. At all. Nine assists in eight games for Team Finland to lead the team in points, but zero goals.

Vancouver prospect goalie Arturs Silovs stood on his head. Safe to say he was key in his country take bronze. He's only 22, so he needs a couple more years, but the 6-4 netminder is swiftly gaining notice.

New Jersey prospect Simon Nemec was pointless in five games for Slovakia.

Impressing for Team Sweden in what was a disappointing tournament for them, was Detroit teammates Jonatan Berggren (seven points in eight games) and Lucas Raymond (eight in eight). Longer term, Raymond is the better goal scorer, and 'should' have higher upside. But Berggren's upside is very close – close enough where I wouldn't be paying too much more for Raymond than I would for Berggren. If you're trying to get Raymond from his keeper owner, and the price is just too high – Berggren makes for a great Plan B at a much better price. And it may end up working even better for you.

Also impressing for Sweden was Timothy Liljegren, who managed four points in five games.

Denis Malgin, who really needs an NHL team to let him settle down and get comfortable (Colorado seems to be doing that), let Team Switzerland in scoring with six in six, tied with other players including Kevin Fiala. Malgin had 11 goals in his last 37 games with the Avs. Although he was pointless in the playoffs, he did only average 7:39 TOI per game. Not draftable…but I would be super-quick on the waiver wire when the season begins and he's on a good line or does well early.

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Team USA was made up of Alex Tuch, Conor Garland, Nick Bonino and a bunch of prospects and a few journeymen.

Cutter Gauthier (Flyers) scored seven goals in 10 games. For my money, he's been one of the three or four most improved prospects of the past year. His fantasy value has really spiked.

Lane Hutson and Scott Perunovich led the USA defense corps with six points and eight points respectively. Hutson had tied Luke Hughes for the NCAA lead in scoring among defensemen. He is Montreal's prospect, and will remain with Boston University for another season. He desperately needs to add bulk and get stronger, but nobody is denying his talent.

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Prospect notes of the past week:

Defenseman Ryan Johnson (BUF) has turned pro and signed his ELC. He will need time in the AHL.

Defenseman Oskari Laaksonen (DAL, formerly BUF), has signed for two years to play in the SHL.

Forward Sampo Ranta (COL) has signed to play the next two years in Sweden as well.

Undrafted defenseman Nikolas Matinpalo also impressed at the WC for Team Finland, and the Sens signed him to a contract. The 24-year-old, from what I could dig up, doesn't hold much in the way of fantasy value other than as perhaps a shot blocker. He's 6-3, 207, so perhaps he has potential with Hits, but I couldn't say for sure having not really seen him nor heard of him.

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Exciting new tool/section over at Frozen Tools page forthcoming.

Cementing Frozen Tools as the premier hockey stats reporting site for #FantasyHockey

Check here and @FrozenTools for announcement in the coming days

— Dobber (@DobberHockey) May 26, 2023

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See you next Monday.