Just a reminder that the NHL Trade Deadline is tomorrow and we will have you covered here at Dobber Hockey. We will have the instant fantasy hockey analysis in the 'Fantasy Take' column on the big swaps to make sure fantasy managers have the information they need to make the best decisions they can.

For a bit of Deadline reading, last Friday's Ramblings had some fantasy trade targets managers should consider, both among forwards and defencemen, including names like Beckett Sennecke, Jordan Kyrou, Simon Holmstrom, and Brandt Clarke.

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Toronto Maple Leafs defenceman Chris Tanev underwent core surgery and will be out for the rest of the season, per Lance Hornby. Tanev hadn't played since December, so it's pretty much status quo for the Leafs blue line, but it's always nice to get a firm update.  

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Ansar Khan reported that Detroit goaltender John Gibson skated before practice and he's currently day-to-day. That is good news after leaving the game on Monday afternoon due to what seemed to be a stinger.

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Paraphrasing Colorado Head Coach Jared Bednar, Evan Rawal tweeted that while Artturi Lehkonen was injured in the game against Los Angeles on Monday, it doesn't seem as if it'll impact his availability for the NHL postseason. Without a firm timeline, though, it doesn't look good for Lehkonen to be available in the near-term.

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The San Jose Sharks have extended winger Kiefer Sherwood to a five-year contract with an average annual value of $5.75-million, as reported by Elliotte Friedman. After a breakout season with 19 goals and 40 points in 2024-25, Sherwood has 18 goals and 25 points so far in 2025-26 between his time in Vancouver and San Jose. This extension will carry him through the end of his age-35 season.

Sherwood will be moved around the lineup, but this provides the Sharks with a reliable veteran winger who will give younger guys like William Eklund, Will Smith, and Philipp Kurashev some competition for ice time.

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Tyler Myers was traded from Vancouver to the Dallas Stars for a second-round pick and a fourth-round pick. He gives the Stars a much-needed right-shot defenceman as the likes of Ilya Lyubushkin and Alex Petrovic are options but not great ones while Nils Lundkvist can't stay healthy. Expect him to slot on the second pair, but going from a poor offensive team to a good one is a boost to his fantasy profile. It isn't good news for Lundkvist's potential upside for the next 1.2 seasons, though.

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Jason Dickinson was traded from Chicago to Edmonton on Wednesday night and I wrote about the trade here when it happened.

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MacKenzie Weegar was traded from Calgary to Utah and Alex had his take on the trade last night.

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Anthony Stolarz put on a clinic on Wednesday night stopping 44 of 47 shots between regulation and overtime in Toronto's game against New Jersey. That is 10 more saves than he's made in any game this season and the most for him in a game since February of 2024. Unfortunately, the Devils scored twice in the shootout to take a 4-3 win.

Easton Cowan skated on the top line with Auston Matthews and William Nylander, managing a power-play assist (on the second unit). Cowan skated 17:15 in regulation, his highest total for him in any game since November.

New Jersey tried a three-forward, two-defenceman top PP unit to start the third period that included Simon Nemec and Luke Hughes. Something to keep an eye on there.

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Vegas scored twice in the final 10 minutes of the third period to tie their game in Detroit 3-3 and then Tomas Hertl sealed the game in overtime with a power-play goal.

Mitch Marner finished with a goal, two assists, three shots, and a hit in the win.

Not for nothing, but Rasmus Andersson got the call for the overtime power play alongside Hertl, Marner, and Jack Eichel. That it was him and not Shea Theodore is kind of interesting.

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Nikolaj Ehlers registered a hat trick in Carolina's 6-4 win in Vancouver on Wednesday night. That is his second hat trick of the season – the other came on January 14^th – and Ehlers now has 11 goals and 11 assists in 22 games since the calendar turned to 2026.

Andrei Svechnikov, Sebastian Aho, and Sean Walker each posted a goal and an assist.

Filip Hronek posted a goal and two assists in the loss. Since the Quinn Hughes trade, Hronek has 19 points in 30 games, or a 52-point pace over a full season.

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Cutter Gauthier scored twice and Beckett Sennecke managed a goal and an assist in Anaheim's 5-1 win over the New York Islanders. Cutter stuffed the stat sheet with two goals, four shots, a block, two PIMs, and a hit. That also pushed him past the 30-goal plateau as Sennecke reached the 20-goal mark.

Frank Vatrano and Ryan Strome were both back in the lineup for the Ducks with Vatrano scoring an empty-netter and Strom assisting a Ryan Poehling tally.

Ville Husso stopped 42 of 43 shots in the win.

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Robert Thomas posted a goal and an assist in St. Louis' 3-2 win in Seattle. That gives him two straight multi-point games since returning from injury, and he has 24 points in his last 25 games overall.

Brayden Schenn had three assists and two hits as Joel Hofer stopped 34 of 36 shots in the win.

Vince Dunn managed a goal, an assist, and three shots.

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In Tuesday's Ramblings, we went over some secondary forward fantasy options that managers may want to either target in a trade or off the waiver wire. Today, we're going to do the same thing but for defencemen, and focusing on five low-owned blue liners (under 20% on Yahoo/ESPN). We are taking tracking data from All Three Zones, player/team data from Evolving Hockey, and schedule and roster percentage data from Frozen Tools.

Everything is at 5-on-5 unless otherwise indicated, and is current as of Wednesday, March 4th. We are limiting the sample to defencemen with 400 minutes at 5-on-5 and 100 tracked minutes.

Sam Malinski (Colorado Avalanche)

Yahoo Roster:18%

FanTrax Roster: 45%

ESPN Roster: 7%

A couple of weeks ago, these Ramblings discussed improvements from defencemen, and Malinski was one of them. It was noted how much more he has been contributing to offence off the rush and cycle this season compared to the previous couple campaigns.

Mentioned in those Ramblings is that there was more good news under the hood, and this is it: by rate of chance assists per 60 minutes (helpers on teammate scoring chances), zone entries/60, and percentage of entries carried in, here are the comparable defencemen to Malinski this season:

There is teammate Josh Manson, the young Simon Nemec, and then four good-to-great offensive defencemen. Malinski is obviously in a great environment in Colorado, but it's still impressive that his 1.4 assists per 60 minutes at 5-on-5 is the fourth-highest rate in the league, trailing only Shayne Gostisbehere, Lane Hutson, and Evan Bouchard.

From here on out, Colorado's opponents have a combined .540 points percentage, which gives the Avalanche the fourth-easiest schedule as they're tied (with a lot of teams) for the third-most games remaining. Ice time is an issue – Malinski is unlikely to earn 20+ minutes a game without an injury elsewhere – but this level of involvement on a great offensive team makes him appealing down the stretch.

Philip Broberg (St. Louis Blues)

Yahoo Roster: 5%

FanTrax Roster: 37%

ESPN Roster: 8%

The Trade Deadline could be both a boon and a hit to Broberg's value. If Justin Faulk is dealt, that would open a lot of minutes at all strengths. If Robert Thomas is dealt, the team's best player and best offensive player being sent elsewhere is rarely a good thing for those left behind.

With that said, Broberg has been showing very well by the same measures we just went over with Malinski:

In calendar 2026, the Blues are 22^nd by goals per 60 minutes. Being below average isn't ideal, but it's much better than being dead last by goals/60 as the Blues were up until December 31^st. Broberg is averaging nearly 23 minutes a game over his last five games and that could rise if Faulk is dealt. If Broberg is skating 23-25 minutes a game, the Blues don't need to be a great offensive team for him to have meaningful fantasy value; they just need to not be awful as they were in the first half. That, with an average schedule by opponent strength, could see Broberg's best 20-game stretch of the season yet to come.

Braden Schneider (New York Rangers)

Yahoo Roster: 5%

FanTrax Roster: 25%

ESPN Roster: 3%

In three games with Adam Fox back on the Rangers' roster, Schneider is still skating 20:41 per game. That is more than enough ice time to rack up peripherals, which is what Schneider has done this year as he's 1 of 6 defencemen to average at least 1.0 shots, 1.5 blocks, and 2.0 hits per game at all strengths (minimum of 500 minutes played). Looking just at 5-on-5, here are the comparable names to Schneider by rate of blocks, hits, and shots:

All three names have value outside of shallow multi-cat formats, and Schneider does, too. He is very unlikely to rack up points on a Rangers squad that traded Artemi Panarin, put J.T. Miller on injured reserve, and is likely to trade Vincent Trocheck, but Schneider has 50 shots, 56 blocks, and 64 hits in 33 games since December 1^st. The Rangers have the eighth-easiest remaining schedule by opponent points% and are tied for the third-most games remaining.

Tyler Kleven (Ottawa Senators)

Yahoo Roster: 2%

FanTrax Roster: 9%

ESPN Roster: 0%

The clear issue for Kleven is ice time. He has averaged 16:33 per game this season and 14:52 in the three games post-Olympic break. That is not a lot rope to work with. However, when we look at his 60-minute block, hit, and shot rates, he compares very well to most of the names we just saw in the list with Schneider:

Ottawa is one of those several teams with 22 games left, tied for the third-most in the league. Additionally, they have nine games on light days, tied for the fourth-most in the league. Kleven is only someone to consider in the deepest formats, but the Senators have a very good schedule over the next couple of weeks – Calgary, Seattle, Vancouver, Anaheim, San Jose, Montreal, Washington, NY Islanders, and Toronto – and that gives him a chance at more than just blocks, hits, and shots.

Ryker Evans (Seattle Kraken)

Yahoo Roster: 0%

FanTrax Roster: 20%

ESPN Roster: 0%

Volume matters, and a lot of ice time can lead to a lot of points, shots, peripherals, and so on. That isn't the only thing that matters, though, as being efficient is becoming more important with each passing NHL season.

One area that helps with efficiency is what I call 'Botch/Fail%'. That is a combination of two tracking stats: botched defensive zone retrievals and failed zone exits. I have found that defencemen, and defence groups, that can keep their botched retrieval% and failed exit% low are generally good at scoring goals. When considering that botch/fail%, percentage of zone entries carried in, and shot attempts per shot on goal, here are the comparable names to Evans:

It isn't a super-elite list, but there are plenty of useful fantasy defencemen like Manson, Vince Dunn, Brandt Clarke, and Jamie Drysdale. The big problem is the Kraken only have four games remaining on light days, tied for the fewest in the league. However, Evans can provide solid-if-unspectacular numbers across the board for desperate fantasy managers in deeper formats.