Ramblings: Updates on Chabot, Hayton, Rantanen, and Lehkonen; Karlsson and Rakell 3-Point Nights; Montour’s Big Multi-Cat Effort, and More – March 27

Michael Clifford

2026-03-27

The Ottawa Senators announced that defenceman Thomas Chabot required surgery on his arm after J.T. Miller broke it with a cross-check. Chabot will be out 4-8 weeks which means that the earliest he might be back is for the end of the first round of the playoffs – should Ottawa get that far – and may be out until around the time of the Eastern Conference Final. It is still wild that the NHL deemed the Miller cross-check as legal even though he broke a guy's arm, but that's the modern NHL.

 The Sens did offer some good news on defenceman Jake Sanderson:

Sanderson returning will lessen the blow of losing Chabot, and it will mean a lot of minutes for Sanderson once he does return. It should also mean a heavier workload for Jordan Spence and Artem Zub, at least to what they were getting a month ago.

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Brogan Houston reported that Utah forward Barrett Hayton is week-to-week after being injured on Tuesday against Edmonton. Hayton had been skating as the third-line centre while earning top PP minutes, and that third-line centre role is now going to Jack McBain. Logan Cooley is taking the top PP minutes while Daniil But lined up on the second line with Cooley as J.J. Peterka was moved to the third line.

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Robert Thomas was not in the lineup for St. Louis on Thursday night after being injured on Tuesday by Pierre-Luc Dubois. Dalibor Dvorsky took Thomas' top-line duties. We do not have more of an update than that right now.

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Bruce LeVine noted that Dallas Stars forward Mikko Rantanen is joining the team for their upcoming road trip and he's going to get into one (or more) of those games at some point. Exactly which games are still up in the air, but he is on the verge of returning for the first time since being injured in the Olympics.

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Artturi Lehkonen was back in the lineup for Colorado on Thursday night following an injury back on March 2nd. First it was Gabriel Landeskog and now it's Lehkonen, so the Avalanche are starting to get healthy at just the right time.  

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Jakub Dobes stopped 25 of 26 shots as Montreal beat the Columbus Blue Jackets 2-1. That moves him to a .915 save percentage in nine games since the Olympic break with 24 wins in 35 starts this season. For his career, he has 31 wins in 50 starts.

Zach Bolduc broke a goal drought going back to December of 2025 while adding an assist and three hits. Those three hits move him to 150 for the season in 69 games played. Not bad value for banger leagues.

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Jet Greaves allowed two goals on 20 shots in the loss for the Blue Jackets.

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Ilya Sorokin stopped 26 of 27 shots he faced as the New York Islanders toppled the Dallas Stars 2-1. That moves Sorokin to a .913 save percentage, which would be top-3 in the NHL, depending on whatever else happens throughout Thursday night's games. Barring a collapse over the final few weeks, he should absolutely be a Vezina Trophy finalist.

Bo Horvat scored his 30th goal of the season while Matthew Schaefer assisted on both Islanders tallies. That moves him to 54 points, needing six more over the next nine games to break the 60-point mark as an 18-year-old defenceman. Simply remarkable.

Sam Steel was injured in the third period for Dallas and left the game. Michael Bunting had been in his role the previous few games, so maybe Bunting gets another shot at skating with Matt Duchene and Jamie Benn.

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Christian Dvorak, Noah Cates, and Alex Bump each had a goal and an assist in Philadelphia's 5-1 win over Chicago. Those two points give Cates his first career 40-point campaign, and his 110 shots tie his career high from last season. He needs seven more hits for a  career-high mark in that regard, too (87). It has quietly been an excellent season for Cates, who had developed into a reliable, two-way middle-6 centre.

Connor Bedard scored the lone goal for Chicago, his 30th tally of the season in his 59th game. He also had four shots on goal, so he has more shots in 59 games this season (196) than he did last season in 82 games (195). It feels like he's going to go supernova next season.

Samuel Ersson stopped 25 of 26 shots in the win. After a very poor start to the season, Ersson has allowed just seven goals in four starts since the Olympics.

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Joel Eriksson Ek scored in the waning seconds of Minnesota's game in Florida on Thursday as the Wild earned a 3-2 regulation win over the Panthers. He totaled four shots and a pair of hits in a solid multi-cat effort.

Brock Faber stuffed the stat sheet with an assist, six shots, two blocks, and a hit.

Daniil Tarasov took the loss in net for the Panthers but was excellent for them, giving up just three goals on 49 shots faced. He has had a very good season for the Panthers, given all the injuries on the roster. He makes for an intriguing name in fantasy drafts next season.

Matthew Tkachuk had a goal, an assist, five shots, and a hit in the loss. That gives him 10 goals and 15 assists in 24 games since returning from his offseason surgeries.

Speaking of the Florida injuries, Evan Rodrigues was injured early in the first period, left the game, and did not return. Add him to the list.

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Brandon Montour scored a pair of goals on Thursday night, including the overtime winner, as the Seattle Kraken beat the Tampa Bay Lightning 4-3. Montour finished with five shots, two blocks, and four PIMs in over 23 minutes of ice time. When Montour has been healthy this season, he has been a very good multi-cat fantasy option (10 goals, 21 assists, 136 shots, 57 hits, and 69 blocks in 53 games).

Bobby McMann had another multi-point game for the Kraken with a goal and an assist. That is his third multi-point effort in seven games with Seattle (nine points in all).

Jake Guentzel posted a goal and an assist in the loss.

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Erik Karlsson had another huge game for the Penguins with a goal, two assists, eight shots, a block, and two PIMs as Pittsburgh toppled the Ottawa Senators 4-3 in a shootout. Since returning from the Olympic break, Karlsson has 22 points in 16 games as he's a big reason why the Penguins have stayed afloat amidst the injuries and suspensions.

Rickard Rakell also had a big game with two goals, an assist, six shots, a block, and a hit in nearly 21 minutes of ice time.

Stuart Skinner was solid enough in net, giving up just three goals on 29 shots.

Drake Batherson scored twice for the Sens, giving him 29 tallies on the season, which is a new career-best mark.

Linus Ullmark was very good for the Sens, but took the shootout loss, stopping 35 of 38 shots before the skills competition.

Jordan Spence and Tyler Kleven both skated between 27-28 minutes but Carter Yakemchuk remained on the top PP unit.

Speaking of injuries, it appeared Sidney Crosby suffered another leg injury (not his knee from the Olympics) and left the game in the second period. We are awaiting further updates. With Malkin already out of the lineup, it leaves a lot of big minutes open again for guys like Egor Chinakhov and Ben Kindel.

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Dylan Holloway posted a goal and an assist, including the overtime winner with a couple of seconds left on the clock, as St. Louis managed a 2-1 win over San Jose. Holloway has 17 points, 46 shots, and 26 hits in 14 games since returning from injury after the Olympics.

Yaroslav Askarov was injured halfway through the game and he did not return. After missing two weeks with injury and leaving after 29 minutes in his first game back, it's not a great sign.

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Jesper Bratt is on one of the quieter hot streaks in the NHL right now as he registered a goal and two assists on Thursday night in New Jersey's 4-2 win in Nashville. That makes 19 points in 14 games for Bratt since returning from the Olympics, and 23 points in 20 games going back two months. That is a lot more like what we expected from him.

Nico Hischier scored twice in the victory. That gives him 26 goals on the season, leaving him four tallies and one assist shy of his second straight 30-30 season.

Luke Evangelista had an assist in the loss, his 50th point of the season. It is the first time he reached 50 points, and the first time he reached 40 assists, in a season.

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In Lehkonen's return to Colorado's lineup, he assisted in Nathan MacKinnon's game-winning goal but skated just 12:06 while mostly lined up next to Brock Nelson on the second line. No problem with Colorado easing Lehkonen back into action, but a second-line, PP2 role doesn't leave a lot of room for high-end fantasy value.

MacKinnon scored twice on seven shots and that leaves him two goals shy of his second 50-goal season in the last three years. His 310 shots are 45 more shots than the next-closest player (Cutter Gauthier).

Josh Morrissey had a good multi-cat night in the loss, managing an assist, three shots, three blocks, and a hit. He needs three more assists to cross the 40-assist mark for the fourth straight season.

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An Alex Ovechkin hat trick helped lift the Washington Capitals to a 7-4 win in Utah on Thursday night. Ovechkin finished with five shots and a hit overall as he posted his second hat trick of the season. He needs one more goal to reach 30 goals for the 20th time in 21 seasons, the only time he missed being the Bubble season when he played just 45 games.

Ivan Miroshnichenko scored twice in the win but had under 10 minutes of ice time so don't get too excited on the waiver wire. Rasmus Sandin managed a goal and an assist in the win and he's now three points shy of reaching 30 points for the second straight season. Considering the 1.7 blocks and 1.2 hits per game he's posted, not a bad multi-cat year again for Sandin.

Logan Thompson stopped 36 of 40 shots for his 25th win, his third straight season reaching that mark.

Dylan Guenther scored twice in the loss for Utah, totaling eight shots. Since the start of last season, Guenther is top-10 in the league in goals per 60 minutes and shots per 60 minutes. The only thing standing between him and fantasy hockey superstardom is more ice time.

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Troy Terry was a game-time scratch and Radko Gudas was injured during their game, but Anaheim managed a 3-2 overtime win in Calgary. Mikael Granlund was the hero, scoring all three goals for the Ducks, totaling six shots while adding a block and a hit. He has 7 goals and 14 shots in his last four games. Sure?

John Carlson had a pair of assists for the Ducks while adding three shots and a hit. He has six assists in his last four games.

With Terry out of the lineup, Frank Vatrano started the game on the top line but Cutter Gauthier moved up late in the game.

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Evan Bouchard fired home the OT winner off a faceoff win as the Edmonton Oilers triumphed over the Vegas Golden Knights 4-3. Bouchard assisted on an earlier goal from Matt Savoie while adding two shots, a block, and two PIMs. Bouchard now has 20 goals (a career-high), 84 points (also a career-high), and 30 power-play points (the second time in three seasons he reached that level).

Darcy Kuemper stopped all 19 pucks sent his way as the Los Angeles Kings shut out the Vancouver Canucks 4-0. Kuemper had a tough stretch in January and February as he returned from injury, but he has a .905 save percentage in nine starts in March, allowing just 21 goals in that span.

Quinton Byfield and Trevor Moore both scored a goal and an assist. Byfield has 7 goals, 5 assists, 37 shots, and 15 hits in his last 14 games.

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