Jack Campbell being waved was a first step in Oilers management pushing the panic button. It sounds as though the plan is to look internally first, but I would imagine if that doesn't work, then a trade for Cal Petersen, Jake Allen, Dan Vladar, Anton Forsberg, or Chris Dreidger could come to fruition very quickly.

Sounds like #Oilers plan is to recall Cal Pickard from AHL Bakersfield once Campbell clears.

Pickard has a .939 Sv% in Bakersfield this season and 116 games of #NHL experience. Perhaps Pickard can spur EDM a couple wins and allow Campbell time to find his game again.

— Frank Seravalli (@frank_seravalli) November 7, 2023

Cal Pickard is worth a speculative add in case he goes on a run, but be ready to drop him just as quickly for the next flavour of the week. In the same vein, maybe all Campbell needs is a break or a few AHL games to get his mojo back. We have seen him go on excellent runs before, so be ready to grab him cheaply two weeks from now if you have room to make that stash, as there's nowhere for him to go but up for the second half. Whenever Edmonton does get going, owning their goalie is going to be an excellent fantasy gift.

In the meantime though, both the Oilers and the Sharks look like they can't win, and they're on a collision course for their game Thursday night. One of them is going to have to walk away with two points, and it feels like the kind of game that both sides might rack up a few extra goals.

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Nikita Kucherov is playing at an unprecedented pace for even his lofty standards, currently sitting at 222 points through 13 games (thanks in part to 11 points in his last three along this Canadian road trip). His shot rate has also increased, up to nearly 4.5 per game, where his previous career high pace in a season was 3.5. A small part of that can be attributed to a small bump in ice time, as the team isn't as deep as it used to be. The shot rate is likely to come back down a little as the season wears on.

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With last night's power play tally, Tony DeAngelo pulls into the lead for Carolina defencemen power play scoring. Power play points scored thus far:

Tony DeAngelo – 4

Brent Burns – 3

Dmitry Orlov – 2

Brady Skjei – 1

For the top-three, that looks to be about the division of how the points should be distributed the rest of the year. DeAngelo finishing at or above 20, Burns at 15, and Orlov at 10. I was apparently mistaken when in the summer I pegged Burns and Deangelo's roles to be flipped, but at least it hasn't pushed Burns out completely.

Seth Jarvis is your current leader for Carolina's power play scoring among forwards. He sees over 19 minutes per game, puts over 2.5 shots on net per game, and appears to be breaking out about a half-a-season ahead of when his breakout threshold would have told us he was due. Hopefully you weren't waiting until the mid-way point of the year to get in on him.

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I traded (very cheaply) for Kevin Hayes recently, and he rewards my team with a three-point night immediately upon arrival. I don't have extremely high hopes for him, but at his floor he should be a 35 or 40-point-player.

His underlying numbers from last year were good, showing that he might have been able to maintain or even slightly exceed the 55-point-pace that he maintained last season. However, with a 10-game sample so far in 2023-24 Hayes is pacing for 41 points, and the underlying numbers don't indicate anything positive towards a coming return to average. The big difference between this year and last then? Linemates.

Last season with Philly, Hayes skated primarily with Scott Laughton, Wade Allison, Owen Tippett, and Travis Konecny. This year, he's down on the third line with Sammy Blais, Jake Neighbors, Alexey Toropchenko, and recent healthy-scratch Jakub Vrana, Additionally, Hayes' shooting rate has plummeted, and he is currently averaging a single shot per game, compared to the 2.5 he has averaged the last number of years.

According to the NHL Edge data, Hayes' skating and shot have both lost speed as compared to last year, which makes me think this decline is overall related to an injury, or just age. 

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Three points for Alex Iafallo last night gives him nine points in 12 games. He's playing in a plum spot between Mark Scheifele and Kyle Connor, and as long as he sticks there, his current 60-point-pace is not too high.

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The next two fantasy weeks have some odd schedules coming up. The Rangers play only one game in the upcoming week (Mon-Sun), while the Senators play only one game the following week (in part due to the travel schedule from Sweden). The Wild, Maple Leafs, and Red Wings are the other three teams along with the Senators that will play games in Sweden from Nov 16^th to the 19^th. All four teams have light schedules around those dates to accommodate the travel.

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It seems that shaving his head in the offseason to change his mojo has worked:

That's points in 12 straight games to start the season for Artemi Panarin! 🍞 pic.twitter.com/32HZg27r5y

— NHL (@NHL) November 8, 2023

Artemi Panarin is now up to 20 points in 12 games, and a few of the same points that were mentioned with Kucherov apply here. Panarin is shooting a lot more, which isn't necessarily sustainable when contrasted with his ice time and career norms. While his scoring pace is at a career high, it likely won't plummet too far, as he has paced for over 100 points in three of the past four seasons. A drop from a 130-point-pace to something in the 110-115 range is what I would expect.

Panarin, at 32, is two years older than Kucherov, though Kucherov has a few more NHL miles on him with an earlier career start, and a lot more playoff games. Both should still have at least two or three seasons left as 100-point-players before the decline arrives, so don't feel worried about either dropping off a cliff soon if someone in your league is looking to sell high here and get younger.

Alexis Lafreniere has been stapled to Panarin's wing all season, and despite a slower start of six points through his first 12 games – he posted one assist last night – he is worth a look as the line should continue to rakc up numbers at even strength, so it's a matter of time before Laf's production there increases.

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Mike Reilly made his season-debut for the Panthers on Monday night. He was one of my picks as a possible late-round dart for slightly deeper leagues, because the opportunity was there for someone to step into the temporarily vacant top power play spot, and Reilly is better known for his offence than his defence. However, the Panthers opted to give rookie Balinskis a 10-game rope, as he has a more-rounded two-way game. Well, just as news comes out with an updated timeline for the injured Brandon Montour and Aaron Ekblad, Reilly finally pokes his head up to that closing window of opportunity.

Quote from Maurice on Ekblad/Montour:

"Their rehab and recovery has been very, very good. … There's a chance that near the end of the trip and then when we come back for the homestand off the West Coast we could see one or two of them."

— Jameson Olive (@JamesonCoop) November 6, 2023

He wasn't all that noticeable in nearly 15 minutes of ice time. The three shots are a good sign, but no power play time (it was split between Oliver Ekman-Larsson and Gus Forsling), means that there's unlikely to be any real value here. I think I'm finally ready to let him go as having any hope as a fantasy asset.

More relevantly, I also dropped Gus Forsling in a redraft league already, as he just wasn't getting it done on offence or enough in the peripherals columns to be worth keeping around now, let alone once Montour and Ekblad return. His shot and hit rates are down, in spite of added ice time, and he will likely be off the power play completely once the blueline is healthy, as OEL has passed him there as well.

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For those of you already looking ahead to the 2024 draft, some of our favourites are already dropping rankings.

My November top-32 for the #2024NHLDraft: pic.twitter.com/GgpdxJwbN7

— Hadi Kalakeche (@HadiK_Scouting) November 7, 2023

Based on my opinions and understandings as a non-scout, the top of this draft isn't quite as deep as last year, nor does it have the superstar/generational level talent that Connor Bedard brought to the 2023 crop. However, Macklin Celebrini is certainly going to be worth owning in fantasy very soon, and could be relevant in the NHL as early as next year.

There should be a few more defencemen available early compared to years prior, and it seems like most of the group near the top of the 2024 class can handle the puck well in the offensive zone as well as defending as a high level.

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Marc Del Gaizo now has points in his first two NHL games. He's never going to catch Roman Josi as the top dog in Nashville, but it is fun to see an offensive-defenceman thrive when they step up to the big leagues. We're going to see a lot of ups and downs from young players in Nashville over the next few years, but at least they're getting an opportunity in an offensively welcoming environment to show what they can be.

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See you next Wednesday! You can find me on Twitter/X here, or BlueSky here if you have any fantasy hockey questions or comments.