It has been a fun start to the season thus far. The Leafs are causing panic, the Sabres are patrolling the basement, and the Avs and Panthers lead the way in the standings after the first week. Teams are also dealing with things in their usual ways. The Leafs are asking for more out of William Nylander and wondering why they still have limited secondary offence. The Sabres are hoping the return of Zach Benson sparks them, instead of calling up one of their top prospects who could add some additional offence alongside Benson. This is making me wonder whether we see another contract dispute in Colorado, as Martin Necas (with his eight points in four games) is up for a new contract this summer. If you need a reminder of what happened the last time the Avs had a top-line winger approaching free agency and he asked for too much, they turned around and traded him, which is how Necas ended up in Colorado in the first place.

All in all, it feels like there have been fewer surprises, and thus fewer early-season players to buy/sell on than in lots of other years. What we will work with anyways though, is looking more at the trends rather than the numbers themselves, which leads to correct assumptions of future production far more often than the

Let's look at a few anyways though, starting at the upper end of the standings. The Bruins stand out the most, with their 3-1-0 record, and a 13:9 ratio of goals scored to goals allowed. Jeremy Swayman has been excellent thus far, with Joonas Korpisalo also putting up a split of one good game and one poor. On defence there's lots to like for fantasy teams, with tons of peripherals being racked up. Charlie McAvoy's season hasn't been exceptional to start, but he has been solid. However, in Nikita Zadorov, Mason Lohrei, and Andrew Peeke's 13 Blocks through four games, there's a lot of value to consider in peripherals leagues. Last year though their plus-minus knocked them down a tier or two, but that may no longer be an issue.

Somewhat surprisingly up front, the points are also flowing in. The combined top line of Morgan Geekie, Elias Lindholm, and David Pastrnak are averaging a point per game, while Pavel Zacha (who joins that trio to make the top PP unit) has also started the season hot with five points of his own. I would expect the scoring to slow a little, but this team should be much better than last season's bottom-of-the-conference finish, especially if the goaltending can hold up. It is interesting to see Korpisalo get two starts already, and it could be part of a plan not to overwork Swayman, keeping him fresh for much longer.

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Sticking with goalies on teams with early success, it has been good to see that the new contracts for Logan Thompson and Igor Shesterkin haven't led to any slacking, with both looking like early candidates to help carry a few championship fantasy teams.

Shesterkin has the upside to be the best goalie in the league, and it looks like he's putting together that kind of stretch. On the flip side, Edmonton seems to be a strong goalie away from finally winning a championship. Stuart Skinner has flashes of dominance, but the lows are much lower and more frequent with him. Last night was one of the good ones, but Oilers fans and fantasy owners are always going to be wondering when they're getting which version.

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Joey Daccord is also worth noting, with only one goal against in each of his first two games. Seattle has come out with a 2-0 record, but their 2.5 goals for per game and negative-five shot differential will need to improve if they're going to try to push for a playoff spot this year. Otherwise they could be one of the biggest sellers at the deadline with more than a handful of key players on expiring contracts.

Daccord allowed more than one goal in this one, but after a late surge by Seattle Ivan Demidov willed the tying goal, before Cole Caufield finished it in overtime.

Seattle is likely going to be a bit more prone to these bigger blowups with a large number of goals against than many other teams, but it does seem like they are trying to work on an identity that minimizes those big games.

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Similar to Seattle, the Predators are also looking to jump back into the playoff picture and have had some solid goaltending carry them through their first few games. Juuse Saros has five goals against through three games. Justus Annunen got the start last night against Toronto though, and it was not nearly as solid as Saros hass been to this point. Annunen struggled last year too, and it makes me wonder how long they will run with him as a backup. Regardless of backup, the Predators will need to fix their negative shot ratio as well.

On the offensive end, Erik Haula continued his hot streak with another goal, and he sticks at the point per game mark through four games. I have added him as a streamer in a couple of leagues (both count faceoff wins as well), and the combo with him, Jonathan Marchessault and Michael Bunting really seems to be gelling.

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Easton Cowan notched his first point on an Auston Matthews goal in the third period that turned out to be the game winner. Matthews potted an empty netter after that to help pad some early season numbers, and help get the monkey off his back.

Cayden Primeau made his first start for Toronto, and did enough to earn the win, stopping 26 of 30 shots. He’s streamable for fantasy owners, but the Leafs are sure hoping to have Joseph Woll back soon.

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Brady Tkachuk might need surgery on his broken hand/wrist, and it sounds like he will be out a minimum of four weeks either way, though it could be much longer. Hopefully he has a smooth recovery and we have a better update soon. As noted by Dobber yesterday, that should be a boost for Claude Giroux as he gets bumped up the lineup. This is the last thing the Sens needed right now, as they're already off to a slow start and near the bottom of the league.

Interestingly, the Lightning have also started out slow, and like the Sens and Leafs, they lost two of their first three games. The good news for them is that the offence is clicking, and they scored 11 goals in those three games. The bad news is that they allowed 13. Andrei Vasilevskiy hasn't looked to be quite his usual self, and it could be also that the Bolts were feeling the absence of J.J. Moser, who missed the first two games of the year (both losses).

Last night Tampa did a little better, with only two goals against through regulation, but they lost it in overtime on Jakob Chychrun's first of the season. The unfortunate part of their slide is that there aren't really offensive players that you can buy low on.

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Beckett Sennecke has made quite the impression through his first few games. In his first two NHL appearances, he notched three points on eight shots, while adding five hits and a block. The only red mark on his ledger is a minus-one rating, but considering how many goals against the Ducks have already allowed, we won't hold that small sample size against him. He added another assist last night to go with one SOG, one Hit, and a plus-one rating.

Over in Calgary, 2024 first round pick Matvei Gridin is up on the top line, and while he hasn't yet had the same impact as Sennecke, he's much more likely to be available too if you need some upside and top-line exposure.

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Sidney Crosby sitting at four points in four games wouldn't be overly concerning most years, but the fact that he is now 38, and his shot rate and ice time are both declining is a reason to at least keep a closer eye on him moving forward. He's still a fantastic player, but this could be another little step down the age-related-decline ladder that we're getting some hints of early on in the season.

The bright side for the Penguins in the loss was another goal from Justin Brazeau, and two points from young defenceman Ryan O'Shea. The latter likely doesn't have much fantasy value, but Brazeau is worth a stream at this point if he's still available, considering his goal per game rate, and the SOG/Hit peripherals he brings.

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Brandon Bussi got his first NHL start against the Sharks, and he was as solid as he needed to be, stopping 16 of 17 shots to help secure a win for the Canes. All but five Canes recorded a point last night, with two of those scoreless stat lines belonging to Nikolaj Ehlers and Andrei Svechnikov. Logan Stankoven was the only Cane with more than one point, and his two assists brought him up to three points in three games on the season. He's more than managing to hold his own after the shift to centre, which is a great sign for the Canes. His faceoff percentage is still below 47% on the year, but that should grow with time and experience.

William Eklund scored the only goal for the Sharks, to put him at two points through three games. He should be able to keep up a similar pace until the mid-point of the season, when he then hits his Breakout Threshold and we could see the scoring spike even further.

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After Adin Hill allowed two goals on 10 shots in the first period, we saw another young goalie brought in, with Akira Schmid starting the second and shutting out the Flames the rest of the way. He is fighting for a job with the Golden Knights rumoured to be looking at signing Carter Hart, who is eligible to sign as of today, but still ineligible to play until December. Only three goals against through five periods so far for Schmid.

Jack Eichel continued his torrid start with another two goals. Mitch Marner meanwhile quietly has four points through four games, but really seems to be freeing others up to score more as well. His scoring will pick up in time too, back up around his usual 100-point range; especially if he keeps seeing the ice for 22:30 a game.

Zayne Parekh is now scoreless through two games, though he hasn't been given the reins to the top powerplay unit yet. It could be a slow burn for him this year.

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Zeev Buium meanwhile, has five points through four games after potting two last night, and all of them are on the powerplay. The power play won't keep clicking at these ridiculous levels for Minnesota all year, but it is a good sign for Zeev's staying power that he is carving out a successful role despite his defensive miscues. The rest of the Wild defense core is very responsible, so they should be able to shelter him, making it less likely that we see him in the press box much at all this season.

Matt Boldy played 26 minutes, and scored for the fourth straight game. He's going to pace for over 100 points this year if Kirill is also healthy all season.

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See you next Wednesday, and if you have any fantasy hockey questions or comments you can find me on BlueSky @alexdmaclean.