The biggest hope and goal for Montreal this 2023-24 regular season was to see progress from its bevy of young players. To do that, the young players would need to stay healthy as the team was decimated by injuries last year. It took a grand total of two games for those hopes to be dashed as there was no Kirby Dach at Montreal practice:

Pas de Kirby Dach à l'entraînement de ce matin.

— Marc Antoine Godin (@MAGodin) October 16, 2023

Word came out that he suffered a "significant injury" to his lower body and would need further testing. There is no timeline yet but it's safe to say he won't be back in the lineup anytime soon, and potentially for months. It is just an absolutely brutal break for a player that endured so many injury setbacks in his first few seasons and looked to build on a good, but injury-plagued, first year with Montreal. More updates as we get it.

There were a lot of changes to the Montreal lineup with Dach missing at practice. Josh Anderson was moved into his spot on the top power play unit but was moved down the lineup at even strength. In his place, Rafael Harvey-Pinard headed to the top line to play with Nick Suzuki and Cole Caufield. The duo of RHP/Suzuki was very good in a limited sample last year, creating 2.9 expected goals and 4.0 actual goals per 60 minutes at 5-on-5. The new top-line winger started this year on the fourth line, which was playing well, but he's made his way back up to the top trio.

Harvey-Pinard is an interesting fantasy option. Having him also on the top PP unit would be ideal, but he has 15 goals in 40 career NHL games. He has done it by shooting 22.4%, but even half that would be a 15-goal, 30-point forward who can give roughly two hits per game (I believe he has a much higher offensive upside than that). His level of physicality will play just fine in multi-cat formats. Montreal has only two games this week but four games next week including Buffalo and Columbus. Just a thought. 

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The injuries roll on as Matthew Boldy issue is considered week-to-week after being injured in Minnesota's game against Toronto on Saturday. That he's not going to the long-term injured reserve is a good sign that he may be back in a couple weeks rather than a couple months, though.

This is just me throwing out some conjecture, but I wonder if this leads to Marco Rossi getting top power play time. The team only has so many viable PP1 options and there's no one who can truly replace what Boldy brings. It would be a good chance for them to get Rossi some ice time with Kirill Kaprizov, almost as a tryout for the future. Maybe I'm just filled with too much wishful thinking.

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Staying on the injury front, Scott Mayfield was not at Islanders practice and is being considered day-to-day for now. The obvious replacement option is Samuel Bolduc, but cap issues have to be worked out. Either way, there are four defensemen that are going to be used in a regular rotation now, and that should be good for them in the short-term, fantasy-wise.

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Maybe it's just returning to action after so long away, but this is always something to keep an eye on with Sean Couturier:

Sean Couturier did not participate in practice. "Banged up" per John Tortorella.

— Bill Meltzer (@billmeltzer) October 16, 2023

We'll see if we get any concrete updates from the Flyers. It would be just brutal if he had an injury-riddled season after working so hard to get back from his back surgery.

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A note on Mikhail Gulyayev, Colorado's first round pick from this year's Draft:

Avalanche prospect Mikhail Gulyayev appears to have extended his contract in the KHL for an additional year until 2026.

— Evan Rawal (@evanrawal) October 16, 2023

That will keep him out of the lineup for two more seasons after this one. Considering Colorado's blueline depth, it's not a huge problem, but it's never ideal when you absolutely cannot play your first-round draft pick, no matter how good he may be, for three years.

Gulyayev was a guy I was hoping Montreal would take at the end of the first round with the pick Colorado eventually got in the Alex Newhook trade. He has a bright future in the NHL, it'll just be in the 2026-27 season (or later).

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Boston is off to a 2-0 start but haven't played their best yet so there were some line changes:

Prax lines:

DeBrusk-Zacha-Pastrnak
Marchand-Poitras-Geekie
Van Riemsdyk-Coyle-Frederic
Lucic-Beecher-Lauko
Heinen-Brown

Grzelcyk-McAvoy
Lindholm-Carlo
Forbort-Shattenkirk
Mitchell

Ullmark
Swayman

— Fluto Shinzawa (@FlutoShinzawa) October 16, 2023

Jake DeBrusk being where he is captured my eye. He is not someone that can necessarily create offence himself and it's fair to wonder if Brad Marchand is still the same player he was just a couple seasons ago. This at least gives DeBrusk a for-sure elite offensive winger on the other side and that's only good news for DeBrusk's fantasy value.

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We got some new Oilers lines:

Line shuffle this morning.

Kane-Draisaitl-McDavid
Foegele-RNH-Hyman
Holloway-McLeod-Brown
Erne-Janmark-Ryan

Ekholm-Bouchard
Nurse-Ceci
Kulak-Broberg
Desharnais

— Tom Gazzola (@TomGazzola) October 16, 2023

The Connor Brown Experiment was a great band I saw at a small pub in Halifax, but as far as skating next to Connor McDavid in the NHL, the team clearly hasn't found the results it's looking for yet. It seems unlikely that McDavid and Leon Draisaitl stay together for an extended period of time, but now is the time for Evander Kane to start filling the net. He won't get a better line than this.

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Florida is missing Sam Bennett, so they decided to push Sam Reinhart to the top line on Monday night, with a second line of Matthew Tkachuk, Carter Verhaeghe, and Eetu Luostarainen. Not for nothing, but I'm wondering if Florida shouldn't just keep those lines long-term (maybe sub Bennett in as the 2C when he returns) and try to do what Colorado did a couple years ago by riding the top half of their roster to a Stanley Cup while basically forgetting that the bottom half of the roster exists.

The Panthers took a 4-3 win over the Devils on Monday night, even as New Jersey scored three in the third period to make things interesting. Sam Reinhart's power play goal early in the third period stood as the game-winner, his second tally of the night. Carter Verhaeghe also scored as the top guys for the Panthers came to play. That includes Matthew Tkachuk, who had a pair of assists, four shots, a block two penalty minutes, and five hits in a huge multi-cat night.

Evan Rodrigues kept up his hot start to the year with an assist, four shots, two PIMs, and a hit in 15:53 of ice time. Both Gustav Forsling and Oliver Ekman-Larsson cracked the 25-minute mark.

Both Jesper Bratt and Erik Haula registered a goal and an assist in the loss. Luke Hughes finished second on the Devils blueline in overall ice time (20:49) and PPTOI (3:39).

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Vancouver coach Rick Tocchet said that Ilya Mikheyev may be back on the upcoming road trip for the Canucks. They have a three-game swing through the East and then head to Nashville before returning back home. Not a bad couple matchups in there so keep an eye on when/if he slots back in the lineup. He would be a nice addition alongside JT Miller.

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Alex Pietrangelo was not at practice for Vegas after missing a game over the weekend. In that game, Shea Theodore got an absurd amount of PPTOI, sometimes playing both units, while Nicolas Hague wasn't far off from 23 minutes. Just something to monitor because Hague does have three points in three games and has generally been a very good multi-cat fantasy option even playing 18 minutes a night. If he plays 22 minutes for a couple weeks? He might be a must-add in multi-cat formats.

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Thomas Bordeleau remained in his new spot for San Jose:

#SJSharks lines this AM

Hertl w/Duclair, Zadina
Bordeleau w/Eklund, Hoffman
Peterson w/Barabanov, Kunin
Sturm w/Zetterlund, Labanc, Smith

D-pairs were scrambled a bit with seven defensemen, but it looked like Ferraro-Burroughs, Knyzhov-Kunin were together at the start.

— Curtis Pashelka (@CurtisPashelka) October 16, 2023

After practice, the team said Logan Couture's health status was improving so it's fair to wonder if Bordeleau will last long as the second-line centre. Not that there'll be much fantasy goodness in San Jose this year, but every little bit counts in deeper formats.

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Arthur Kaliyev was back on the ice and he was and skating with Phillip Danault and Trevor Moore. I like the idea of trying to use Kaliyev to replace Viktor Arvidsson's goal scoring. I may be biased as someone who has been pulling for Kaliyev since his draft year, but I digress.

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Detroit took a 4-0 win in Columbus with the Blue Jackets missing Elvis Merzlikins due to an illness. Andrew Copp, Michael Rasmussen, Dylan Larkin, and Shayne Gostisbehere all scored in the win.

Moritz Seider had an assist, a shot, three blocks, and a hit as his good start to the year continues. Our old friend Jake Walman had an assist and a pair of blocks. Alex DeBrincat had a power play assist and now has five overall points in three games, having registered at least one in all of them. Pretty good start for him.

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James Reimer stopped all 23 shots he faced for the shutout.

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A power play goal from Vincent Trocheck midway through the third period broke a 1-1 deadlock and helped lift the New York Rangers to a 2-1 win over Arizona. It was a tight-checking game at times, which was not what I expected from this one.

Chris Kreider scored again, quelle surprise. He now has four goals and five points in three games to start the year. Oddly enough, he has just one hit. I wonder if his fantasy managers are complaining. I somehow doubt it.

Clayton Keller scored Arizona's lone goal. He managed five shots in over 22 minutes of ice time and has three points in two games to start the season.

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In just a fascinating turn of events, Washington got wildly outplayed for most of their home game against Calgary, but goals from Matthew Phillips (yes, former Calgary Flame Matthew Phillips) and Connor McMichael just three minutes apart tied the game 2-2 in the second period. That carried all the way to a shootout where the Capitals pulled out the extra point. Phillips also assisted on McMichael's goal so that was a multi-point night for him against his former team. How about that.

Dillon Dube had a pair of points in the lost including a power play goal. Adam Ruzicka had 1+1 as well while Noah Hanifin had two assists and four shots to go with each a block and a hit.

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Toronto lost 4-1 at home to Chicago in the first matchup between Auston Matthews and Connor Bedard. Funny enough, Bedard didn't get a point in this one as MacKenzie Entwistle, Corey Perry, Tyler Johnson (PP), and Taylor Raddysh (EN) did the damage. That is three goals in four games to start the year for Johnson.

Seth Jones had an assist, two shots, five blocks, and a pair of hits in a very good multi-cat night. Arvid Soderblom stopped 36 of 37 shots for the win.

John Tavares scored the lone goal for the Leafs, assisted by William Nylander. The latter player has looked tremendous in every game this season. It looks like he's in line for another big year.