Checking the news Thursday morning, I saw that the Carolina Hurricanes signed defenceman Oliver Kylington to a professional tryout (as well as forward Givani Smith). Kylington played just 19 games between Colorado and Anaheim last season, totaling five points. He sustained an upper-body injury at the end of November and did not return until early February.

Kylington has only had one season where he's played at least 50 games, and it was 2021-22 when he had 31 points in 73 games with Calgary. He missed the entire 2022-23 season due to a personal matter, returning in January of 2024. Since May of 2022, he has played just 52 games.

The Kylington signing is interesting for two reasons.

The first reason is that he had a solid start to his career. From 2019-2022, which finished with his age-24 season, he was second on Calgary's blue line in 5-on-5 goal share (55.9%) and expected goal share (53.8%). Of all Calgary defencemen to play at least 100 games in those three seasons, those numbers exceeded those of Noah Hanifin, Rasmus Andersson, and Mark Giordano. His 0.96 points per 60 minutes at 5-on-5 led the team's blue line, exceeding those names plus Chris Tanev. There was very good reason to believe he'd be at least a long-term second-pair option in the NHL, and a future 40-point fantasy defenceman.

Then Kylington missed a season and a half with the personal issue (in an interview with Sportsnet, he makes it clear it was a mental health issue, but what caused that hasn't been made public), and he hasn't been the player he was since his return. He just turned 28 years old in May, so it's not as if there's a significant age-related decline coming.

Even if he does regain his form, having fantasy relevance is another matter. Even with a big rebound, he's not going to be ahead of K'Andre Miller and Jaccob Slavin on the even-strength depth chart, or Shanye Gostisbehere on the power play. At best, he'll be a third-pair option if all goes well, but if he can be the guy he was, he gives the Hurricanes a guy who can anchor the third pair, and that helps everyone else on the roster.

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Over the last couple of Ramblings, I have been going over some of my preseason projections, going team by team and offering one player per team. The first Ramblings covered Anaheim through Colorado and the second was Detroit through New Jersey. Today, we are moving to the third batch of teams, and that's Nashville through Seattle.

For anyone new here: Rookies haven't been added yet, all players are projected for 82 games played, and there are going to be some tweaks made for age-related progression or decline. All data used for the projections come from Evolving Hockey, AllThreeZones, or Frozen Tools. 

*** For projections covering the entire league, as well as team-by-team reviews, and a bunch of analysis articles covering sleepers, stock drops, a schedule breakdown, and a whole lot more, go grab a copy of the 2025-26 Dobber Hockey Fantasy Guide! ***

Nashville Predators

Rather than look at the veterans, this projection from Luke Evangelista gives us a nice glimpse into his potential future:

That shows his first career 20-goal season, his first career 40-point season, and doing that with under 10 power-play points expected. Given the veteran names ahead of him, his being stuck largely on the second power-play unit is going to keep his upside tempered, but if any of the top players get hurt, or grossly underperform, Evangelista is in line for a crack at the top PP unit, and then we're in business.

In general, the projections show a modest rebound for most Nashville forwards given how bad things were in 2024-25. Evangelista's sticks out because once age adjustments are done, he'll probably have the highest point projection for any Nashville forward not expected on the top PP unit. If he can ever get those top minutes, this is a potential 25-goal, 55-point player right now.

New York Islanders

Last week, I wrote about some early ADP placements and one player named was Mathew Barzal because his ADP had dropped so far from 2024-25.

Over the last three years, Barzal has averaged 21 goals and 53 assists every 82 games. Here is his 82-game projection for 2025-26:

The power-play projection seems lofty, but if he can hit even 20 power-play points, his overall point projection is still in the mid-70s. If he can be a 20-goal, 50-assist, 20 PPP, 225-shot guy, that is still valuable for where his ADP is, even in multi-cat leagues where he won't help much as much (though he has averaged 57 blocks and 58 hits per 82 games over the last two years, and that's something).

Looking into why the projection is where it is, improvements from Maxim Tsyplakov and Simon Holmstrom, a healthy blue line (even without Noah Dobson), and a full year from Tony DeAngelo, who is still a horror show defensively but is very good offensively, all factored in. I wouldn't begrudge anyone who thinks the Islanders will be pretty bad or Barzal's ability to stay on the ice is problematic. But if he can play 80 games, I think fantasy managers will be happy with what he gives them.

New York Rangers

What to make of Will Cuylle's breakout 2024-25 season is something we have all been wondering, which is what makes his projection interesting:

It basically shows him repeating another 20-goal season but with a serious cut back on his assists (14 here down from 25 last year). The two reasons are the assumptions that he'll be splitting time between the second and third lines – there is a big delineation between either of the top two lines and whatever the third line looks like – and a pullback in secondary assist rate – in 2024-25, Cuylle managed 0.62 secondary assists per 60 minutes at even strength. That was just behind team leader Artemi Panarin (0.66) and far ahead of the next-closest player (Filip Chytil, 0.45).

If we get some sort of confirmation that Cuylle is going to be a fixture of the second line, this projection moves up closer to a 25-goal, 25-assist season. Regardless if he's a 20/15, 20/20, or 25/25 player, the fact he can do that and put up over 300 hits is going to make him a target in multi-cat formats, and I don't have any big concern that last year was a complete mirage.

Ottawa Senators

During Bubble Keeper Week, someone had a question about Troy Terry, Aliaksei Protas, and Dylan Cozens in a multi-cat format. My answer was Cozens, so it's worth following up with his projection:

When I looked at why the 230-shot total, it comes down to the power play. Last year, Ottawa led the league in power-play opportunities, and over the last two years, has averaged 0.61 more power plays per game than Buffalo. In a full season, that is an extra 50 power plays. Projecting power play opportunities is a very precarious thing, and the potential range is wide, but my projections have Ottawa with 40 more projected PP opportunities than Buffalo. It adds over 45 seconds per game of PPTOI for Cozens compared to his last two years with the Sabres. That alone means around 15 additional shots to his shot total.

Even if the shot total is inflated, Cozens looks like a 20-goal, 30-assist, 200-shot, 180-hit forward, and that is incredibly valuable in multi-cat formats.  

Philadelphia Flyers

One player whose projection is of keen interest is Matvei Michkov, and this is what I have right now:

That isn't anything crazy, but a 35-goal, 38-assist season would be a huge number for a second-year player, and the notable part is the power-play production. Because of how bad the Flyers PP has been for years, it's hard to project them with a huge improvement, which is why Michkov's PP point total is basically in line with last year. If there can be a sizeable improvement and he's somewhere around 25 PPPs, then he can flirt with point-per-game status.

The Flyers are a curious team because aside from Trevor Zegras, this is basically the same roster from last year, and virtually an identical blue line. That team finished 28^th in the league overall and 24^th by goals per game. New coach Rick Tocchet has his work cut out for him but as long as Michkov's role stays consistent to last year and he shows even moderate growth in his sophomore season, he has every bit the look of a 30-goal, 70-point player with upside to go as high as a 40-goal, point-per-game option.

Pittsburgh Penguins

One player I feel is constantly undervalued but has found good value over the last several years is Kris Letang, so this projection stood out to me:

Once we factor in age-related adjustments, and they're likely going to be harsh for a 38-year-old defenceman, this is probably closer to 10 goals and 35 assists. Regardless, the projections would have him pushing, or exceeding, double-digit goals and 40 points. If he can do that while putting up 2.0 shots, 1.5 hits, and 1.5 blocks per game, that is a very valuable multi-cat defenceman. He did have a minor procedure on his heart back in April, but the recovery timeline put him on track to be ready by June, so he should have a full offseason of training. On FanTrax, his ADP is outside the top-40 defencemen.

In 2024-25, Letang factored in on just 27% of Pittsburgh's goals at even strength. It was the first time since his rookie 2007-08 season that he finished under 30%, and he averaged 43% from 2021-2024. If that number was just 40% last year, he adds eight points to his final total and paces for 42 points. There is always a concern about when the bottom will fall out from Pittsburgh, and maybe it's this year, but there is still enough talent at the top of the roster to have Letang push for a 40-point season with very good peripherals. 

San Jose Sharks

In 2024-25, Will Smith managed 1.71 primary points (goals and first assists) per 60 minutes at even strength. For perspective, that is the third-highest mark for a teenager in the last four years, trailing only Seth Jarvis in 2021-22 (1.86) and Connor Bedard's rookie year (1.73). That is why I looked for his name when the Sharks projections popped up:

There is a lack of peripherals here – a shade under 2.0 shots per game and under 40 combined hits and blocks – so the settings of a given league will heavily influence Smith's fantasy value. All the same, a 25-goal, 30-assist season would be an excellent year for the fourth overall pick from 2023. It is with modest power-play production, too, so a full year on a decent top PP unit would push this projection over 60 points.

It is always hard to fully trust a player's numbers after just one season and project that forward. I do think he falls into the Adam Fantilli category, though, where we know how talented he is and the fact that he showed that talent without great underlying numbers shouldn't dissuade us from our belief in what he can do. The Sharks won't be a good team, but Smith is a player to circle for later rounds in points league fantasy formats.

Seattle Kraken

Let's wrap up today with a defenceman who is simultaneously undervalued and also properly valued:

I thought the 11-goal, 49-assist projection for Dunn was high, then I saw that over the last three years, his 82-game paces are for 15 goals and 46 assists, so this isn't really all that different from what he's done. When he's on the ice, he's a 60-point defenceman, and I'm not sure he's valued as such.

The issue is that he missed 20 games last year and 23 games the year before. Two seasons doesn't make him a high level of injury risk, especially given he missed 10 total games across the two seasons before that. Looking at early ADPs, Dunn is going anywhere between the 25^th and 40^th defenceman off the board in multi-cat formats. On Underdog Fantasy (a points league system), Dunn is going later than names like Luke Hughes, Brandt Clarke, Aaron Ekblad, and Brock Faber. I would rather have Dunn than all four of those names.