It has been a frustrating year for Andrei Svechnikov. He started the season late due to his knee surgery and was slow out of the blocks with zero goals in his first 11 games. He started torching the opposition afterwards to the tune of 11 goals and 12 assists in 18 games, but another injury forced him out of the lineup a couple weeks before the All-Star break. He was still in a non-contact jersey as Carolina returned from their time off, so it doesn't appear he'll return soon.

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Max Pacioretty was on the ice for Washington's practice:

Max Pacioretty is on the ice before Capitals practice after leaving their final game before the all-star break with a lower-body injury.

Sonny Milano (upper body) on ice in a non-contact jersey again.

— Tom Gulitti (@TomGulittiNHL) February 5, 2024

Pacioretty had seven points in nine games before being injured, and he's a candidate to be moved at the Trade Deadline. Staying healthy over the next month will be important for him, and a move to the right team could see a big boost in his fantasy value.

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After missing 17 games, Tampa Bay defenceman Mikhail Sergachev was back at practice:

Some great signs at the start of #Bolts practice as Tanner Jeannot, Mikhail Sergachev, Haydn Fleury, Erik Cernak and Austin Watson are all on the ice in regular colored jerseys.

— Chris Krenn (@Chris_Krenn) February 5, 2024

He was also on the second PP unit, so that indicates he should be back for the team's game in New York on Wednesday.

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Tanner Pearson looks like he'll be the Sean Monahan top power play replacement in Montreal for the time being (read my take on the Monahan trade here). How the power play fares without Monahan remains to be seen, but it had been an important source of production for their top players, especially Mike Matheson who has gotten half (17) his points (34) on the power play this season.

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Marc-André Fleury hasn't had a start since January 15^th, but was at Minnesota's practice on Monday. It looks like he's good to go and could be moved at the deadline if he waives his no-move clause.

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Aleksander Barkov was back on the top line for Florida after the team experimented with him on what could have been billed as the third line. Adding another middle-6 winger would really help round out their top three lines.

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Kyle Okposo looks to be getting some prime slotting, skating on the top line and top power play for the Sabres in practice:

PP1: Thompson, Cozens, Okposo, Skinner, Dahlin
PP2: Greenway, Mittelstadt, Peterka, Tuch, Power

— Paul Hamilton (@pham1717) February 5, 2024

Alex Tuch was down on the third line with Jack Quinn injured. Okposo is a pending free agent so this could just be a showcase for an eventual trade.

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Elias Lindholm was once again on Elias Pettersson's line in practice for Vancouver, so it does seem as if he'll get a huge boost in fantasy value for the time being.

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Jack Hughes was at New Jersey's practice but in a non-contact sweater. That he was back with his teammates is a big step in the right direction, though.

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As was mentioned last week, it appears as if Viktor Arvidsson is nearing a return to the ice for Los Angeles

Viktor Arvidsson is expected to join the team for practice on Thursday.

Rob Blake hopes to have him back during the first road trip after the break.

— Russell Morgan (@NHLRussell) February 5, 2024

Adding Arvidsson, a five-time 20-goal scorer and two-time 30-goal scorer, should be an offensive boost to a team that needs it. It will go a long way in giving them three true scoring lines, but we'll have to wait to see where, exactly, he lines up.

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Adam Pelech and Ryan Pulock were both back in the lineup for the Islanders on Monday night. The latter had been out two months with a lower-body injury while the former has been in and out of the lineup all season.

The Islanders ended up winning that game against the Leafs in Toronto by a 3-2 score. Pierre Engvall, of all players, cleaned up a scramble in front to put the Islanders ahead with just over two minutes left in the game. That was just Engvall's sixth of the season, but it was perfect timing for his club.

Mathew Barzal also scored, as did Kyle MacLean, which was the first of his career. That was Barzal's 14^th goal, tying last season's total in eight fewer games, and his 52^nd point, passing last year's mark of 51.

John Tavares had a goal and an assist in the loss, totaling six shots on target. Mitch Marner also scored.

Ilya Sorokin stopped 34 of 36 shots faced for the win.

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An overtime winner from Alexis Lafrenière, his 13^th goal of the year, pushed the New York Rangers 2-1 over Colorado in overtime. Artemi Panarin scored late in the third period to tie the game, and his line mate sealed the win to grab two points for his team. That was Panarin's 31^st goal of the year in just his 50^th game, and he needs just two more goals to set a career high.

Nathan MacKinnon scored his 32^nd of the season in the loss.

K'Andre Miller had an assist, two shots, two PIMs, and a hit in a very balanced multi-cat night.

Jonathan Quick gave a night off for All-Star Igor Shesterkin and saved 31 of 32 shots for his 11^th win in 17 starts.

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It has been a week since the Elias Lindholm trade but with the NHL back in swing, here are some thoughts on the deal. (Alex's take can be read here.)

In the fantasy hockey realm, there may not have been a better landing spot for Lindholm. Assuming he lines up with Elias Pettersson – which makes sense because they're opposites by handedness, so each can take faceoffs based on where the faceoff is located – then he gets a guy that pushed Andrei Kuzmenko to a 39-goal, 74-point season, and has helped Sam Lafferty get on his way to a career-high in goals scored. Pettersson boosts the fantasy value of those around him greatly and that is tremendous news for Lindholm.

Also, with Kuzmenko going the other way in the trade, the biggest impediment for top PP minutes in Vancouver is gone for Lindholm. Pius Suter has been getting those of late, but it's hard to see that continuing as the PP usage with Lindholm's prior team is a checkmark in his favour. Going to skate with Pettersson both at 5-on-5 and on the power play is absolutely prime slotting.

As for Kuzmenko in Calgary, I have my doubts. In his NHL career, Kuzmenko produced 1.83 points/60 at 5-on-5 without Pettersson next to him, but 2.92 points/60 with him. Aside from Kuzmenko's absurd shooting percentage, 16 of his 26 assists at 5-on-5 in 2022-23 were secondary, partly thanks to Pettersson shooting 14.5%. Assuming Kuzmenko skates with either Nazem Kadri or Mikael Backlund (likely the former), neither has been a regular high-percentage shooter, and Kadri is under 10% over his last four seasons. It'll be hard for Kuzmenko to rack up assists in that environment, and the Calgary power play is definitely not the Vancouver power play. Anything can happen in a 10-week sample, but my money is on Kuzmenko not improving very much, if at all, fantasy-wise.

Hunter Brzustewicz is an interesting name because he wasn't on my radar but some prospect analysts I follow started talking about him more after his 2023 third-round selection. (Victor Nuño from Dobber Prospects had a bunch of tweets about his impressive skills.) With MacKenzie Weegar's ability to play the left side, Chris Tanev likely being traded, and a lack of right-hand shots after them besides Rasmus Andersson, Brzustewicz has a clear path to an NHL role in 2024-25.

For now, the interesting part is what Calgary does at centre. Lindholm was part of a three-headed centre group that is now one player short. They don't really have anyone on the roster that can slide into his role. More minutes for Kadri/Backlund seems likely, but what they do in the bottom-6 will be fascinating to see. Do we see Connor Zary move to the middle?

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Most of the NHL has returned from its All-Star break/bye week combo and that means it's time to look at the stretch run of the fantasy hockey season. With the NHL Trade Deadline on Friday, March 8^th, there are five full weeks of games from the following Monday (March 11^th) through April 14^th. That is the time fantasy leagues will be running their playoffs, so let's look at different teams during those weeks to see if there are players that fantasy managers should be looking to acquire to help push themselves over the top during crunch time.

As usual, data from Natural Stat Trick and Frozen Tools (especially the Schedule Planner), unless otherwise indicated.

St. Louis Blues

The Blues are 1 of 14 teams with at least 17 games in that span (no team has more than 18). What is key for them is that they have the most home games (11) and are tied for the most games on lightly-scheduled days (8). They have two four-game weeks and one of them is in early April, during the thick of the fantasy postseason. That week has three road games, but they're in Nashville, San Jose, and Anaheim. If a team has to play three straight away from home, that is a pretty good schedule for it.

Last week, we discussed Scott Perunovich and his new PP role (health pending). Jordan Kyrou's rebound from an unlucky start to the year has been often mentioned, and he's started to turn things around. With health, they still make good targets.

Some consideration should also be given to Jake Neighbours. St. Louis has made him a fixture of the team's top power play unit and as long as he stays there, he can provide solid-enough production. A lack of scoring from the middle-6 in St. Louis will keep his assists low, but he can score around the net and has 76 hits in 49 games. He has banger value, has a top PP role, and 7 of 17 games in that stretch are against Minnesota, San Jose, Anaheim, and Ottawa, which all make for very good power play matchups.

New York Rangers

There are three teams in our five-week stretch with at least 18 games on the docket, and the Rangers are one of them. They also have 10 home games, which are the most of the 18-game teams, and five total matchups are on off-days. With the brutal news that Filip Chytil is shut down for the year, it seems very likely the Rangers go acquire another middle-6 centre, along with another right winger and probably some defensive depth, so what the lineup looks like in a month's time could meaningfully change.

The top power play guys are spoken for, and Friday's Ramblings touched on Igor Shesterkin. In that sense, a huge breakout for someone that gets traded to the Rangers seems unlikely. Perhaps we should take a closer look at Alexis Lafrenière.

Lafrenière has seen a huge drop in his hits with just 31 in 49 games after hitting triple digits in each of his prior two seasons. The plus side is he sits with 2.6 shots per game, managing 0.9/game more than the career-high set last season. He has averaged over 18 minutes a game since the Christmas break and his second line with Artemi Panarin has been tremendous all year. AllThreeZones has him assisting on 3.8 scoring chances/60 minutes at 5-on-5, over 20% better than the league average and third-highest among Rangers forwards. What is key about his passing is that he is, quite literally, making more seam passes per 60 minutes at 5-on-5 than any other forward in the league:

Playing with Panarin is clearly part of this, but as long as they stay together, it's clear that the 2020 first overall pick has hit another level offensively. When looking to acquire him, just keep in mind that without top PP minutes, sustained, high-level production is near-impossible. 

Los Angeles Kings

The team has three wins in their last 17 games, which is never ideal, and that led to a new coach. (I wrote about what new coach Jim Hiller has to do to turn the team's fortunes around here.) However, 9 of 14 losses were by one goal, and six of them in overtime/shootout. This isn't a team getting blown out of the water, but they are having a tough time scoring. The good news for the stretch run is that they play 17 games and seven of them are on off-days. Assuming this team can right the ship – I'm a believer – there are light days where we can take advantage of the depth.

This is a reminder to keep an eye on Viktor Arvidsson. He has been out of the lineup all season with his back problem, but an update from Scott Coffman at the Mayor's Manor blog indicates he may return before February ends. Alex Turcotte also appeared before the All-Star break, registering a multi-point game. Fantasy-relevant levels of ice time are a concern, though.

This is a second reminder that fantasy production is at the mercy of coaches. If the team keeps giving Jordan Spence low third-pair minutes, when they don't actually scratch him, fantasy value will be negligible. With that said, Spence leads all Kings blue liners by 5-on-5 points/60 this season, and it's not even close as his rate is 53.6% higher than the next-closest Kings defenceman. He is 1 of 9 regular defencemen this season to average 1.0 points, 11 shot attempts, 3.5 blocks, and 3.5 hits per 60 minutes of 5-on-5 play. It seems very unlikely he works his way up the lineup given the prevalence of their top-4 blue liners, but a guy can dream.

Seattle Kraken

In this span, Seattle is 1 of 2 teams – along with St. Louis – to play at least 17 games, have 10 of them be at home, and at least six of them are on the light-schedule days. The six teams they play on those light days are Buffalo, Arizona, Montreal, St. Louis, Los Angeles, and Anaheim. That is not a difficult schedule at all, so even if Seattle is tough to rely on for offence given how they evenly use their even-strength and power play lines, their schedule means they need some consideration.

Seattle's power play usage has started to change, though. Over the team's last 10 games, each of Oliver Bjorkstrand, Alex Wennberg, Jared McCann, and Jordan Eberle are all earning between 56-62% of the team's power play time, and no other forward is over 40%. That is notable because this is a team that, for the first 40 games of the season, did not have any forward close to 55%, let alone over 60%.

It might be time to look into Eberle in a trade. His value in banger leagues is tenuous because of his 96 shots and 13 hits through 46 games, but that he's getting a much bigger PP role is great for his production. AllThreeZones has his assist rate on teammate scoring chances at 4.2/60, and that leads all regular Kraken forwards. He snapped a 12-game goalless streak on December 20^th, and he was shooting just 4.9% to that point. In the 17 games since, he's scored six goals and shot 17.1%. That regression has kicked in, and the added power play role can help sustain a double-digit shooting percentage moving forward. 

Washington Capitals

Washington is tied for the most games played in this span, and they also are tied for the third-most games on off-days (7). Relying on anyone from this roster to be consistent offensively, especially after the Trade Deadline that could see Max Pacioretty moving on (he does have a no-move clause), is hard to do and pickings will be slim.

Perhaps Dylan Strome can be wrangled for cheap in a fantasy trade. He is up to 19 goals and 31 points in 47 games, and just one of those points was a secondary assist. Even if there's some pullback coming in shooting percentage, and the team struggles to score, he should have more second helpers than that at this point. This is another guy who, like Eberle, will see his value reduced in banger formats, but he's the best offensive player Washington has, and volume of games/off-days matter for fantasy playoffs.

I will be honest: if a fantasy manager is at the point where they're considering Washington Capitals forwards in fantasy playoffs, outside of deep leagues, I'm not sure if they're really in championship contention. All that aside, it should make for an interesting trade deadline for the Capitals.