News out of the World Championships as Canada and the USA were facing off in the quarter-final. Canada (and Edmonton Oilers) defenceman Evan Bouchard took a high hit from Team USA defenceman Ryan Lindgren which forced Bouchard to leave the game. Lindgren was assessed a 5-minute major and was ejected from the contest. The rules for IIHF hockey differ in tolerance and severity for these kinds of hits, but here is what happened:

#Oilers D Evan Bouchard levelled with a high hit at the Worlds and leaves woozy.

Ryan Lindgren assessed 5 mins and a game misconduct.pic.twitter.com/cUMFVxK3dc

— Brenden Escott (@BrendenEscott) May 28, 2026

That is just not great news for Bouchard. Frank Seravalli noted on Twitter that Bouchard took a hard hit during the Oilers' postseason run and had post-concussion symptoms. A hit like this just a month later is not ideal, but we'll wait until we get more information about Bouchard's health.

*

We are four weeks away from the 2026 NHL Entry Draft, but we are only two days away from the release of the 2026 Dobber Hockey Prospects Report! It is available for pre-order now in the Dobber Shop. Not only does it include a fantasy-centric profile of potential 2026 draftees, but also an in-depth look at each team’s prospect pool, including expected arrival time, near-term outlooks, and more. Help support the Dobber Prospects team and get all the information you need on both current and future prospects by ordering a copy of the Dobber Prospects Report, available on June 1st.

*

Over the last couple of weeks, these Ramblings have covered changing shot, hit, block, and penalty minute rates across the league. We went through:

• Changes among forwards in 60-minute rates of those four stats.
• Changes among individual forwards in the end-of-season totals of the four peripheral stats.
• Changes for defencemen in 60-minute rates of the four peripheral stats.
• Changes for individual defencemen in the end-of-season totals of the four peripheral stats.

Now that we've gone over the changes across the league at each position, as well as the improvements or declines of individual totals, we can wrap things up by looking at the top peripheral performers.

We are going to use per-game averages for shot, hit, block, and PIM totals because that's what determines fantasy performance. We are also going to compare the per-game averages to the league average of the specific stat being discussed to illuminate how well (or poorly) a player performed relative to that league average. So, if all the league's defencemen average 1.0 shots per game, and Darnell Nurse averages 2.0 shots per game, then his relative shot performance is 100% above league average. Conversely, if Lian Bichsel averages 0.5 shots per game, then he is -50% below league average. We add the percentages of the four stats together to give us our top peripheral performers.

In the first graph, the highest peripheral performers start on the left, and value decreases as we go to the right. Remember, as we have done the previous few Ramblings, when discussing penalty minutes, we are including only 2-minute minors and 5-minute majors.

Data is from Evolving Hockey and we are going to limit our sample to players who played at least 41 games. Today's Ramblings will focus on forwards, so let's get going:

The first thing that stands out is just how much the top peripheral forwards rely on hits and PIMs. These are the top-15 peripheral forwards on a per-game basis, and not a single one of them have a hit-per-game rate under 100% relative to the league average.

Tom Wilson (Washington Capitals)

In a fun quirk of the 2025-26 season, of those top-15 peripheral forwards, Wilson was the least reliant on heavy hit totals to rack up his value outside of goals and assists. This past season saw him post 2.5 hits per game, his lowest rate in an 82-game season since his rookie year, and down from the 3.0 hits per game he averaged across the prior four seasons. However, a great PIM total with some help from shots and blocks meant that he was still one of the top peripheral performers, even if he wasn't laying the body near as much as he had in prior seasons.

Will Cuylle (New York Rangers)

There may have been fantasy managers who were hoping for Cuylle to improve upon his breakout 2024-25 season, but he posted the same number of goals (20), seven fewer assists, only five more shots, and just one more hit than the year before. He was basically the same player, but there was one fundamental difference.

In 2025-26, Cuylle took nine more minor penalties and one more major penalty than he did in 2024-25. Overall, he added 23 penalty minutes to his season total and that took him from a decent total to one that made a significant impact – if he had the same total PIMs in 2025-26 that he did in 2024-25, he would go from the 2^nd-best forward by peripheral contributions per game to 13^th. Fantasy managers might be a bit disappointed with Cuylle's 2025-26, but if you were in a league that counted PIMs, his decrease in assists was offset by the rise in PIMs, and just being a consistently elite peripheral performer is a positive sign.

Jeffrey Viel (Anaheim Ducks)

This is a fascinating player. His season didn't really get going until he was traded to Anaheim, but he posted 10 points in 35 games with the Ducks. To put that into context, he played 64 games across five seasons before being dealt, and he posted just five points in those 64 games. If he can be a 20- to 25-point bottom-6 forward, it greatly changes his outlook in multi-cat formats because of what he does elsewhere.

In 2025-26, Viel totaled 121 hits in 45 games, averaging 2.5 hits per game. With 0.5 blocks, 1.4 shots, and 0.8 PIMs per game on top of those hits, there are modest-to-great per-game peripheral rates across the board. The problem for Viel is staying in the lineup – that he had just 54 career games to his name before this season meant a lack of reliable fantasy value. But after the trade to Anaheim, he appeared in every regular season and playoff game for the Ducks. It was mostly in a third-line role, sometimes landing in the fourth line, but he's shown he can put up big peripherals playing 10 minutes a game, let alone 12. He is a free agent this summer, but if Anaheim brings him back, he could be a late-blooming staple of multi-cat leagues.

Adam Klapka (Calgary Flames)

Over the last two seasons, there are seven forwards who've played at least 100 games and who've averaged at least 300 hits per 82 games. Klapka is one of those seven forwards, and despite his modest point production, he has averaged 21 points every 82 games across those two campaigns. That isn't a lot, but it's not nothing, and when considering all the hits he provides, getting some production is key to making him a reliable multi-cat option.

On top of the hits are all the blocks and PIMs. This is a guy who has averaged 56 blocks and 105 PIMs every 82 games across the last two seasons. That gives him excellent per-game numbers in those two stats, so while he doesn't offer much shot volume, Klapka has offered a lot of hit, block, and PIM value.

Klapka is coming off a season where he played 79 games, being a regular of Calgary's depth forward group. He has one year left on his current contract and cannot be sent to the AHL without being exposed to waivers. How much offensive upside he has is a fair question to ask, but Calgary might be hoping for a late-blooming physical producer in the vein of Kiefer Sherwood or Mathieu Olivier, and he is a risk that fantasy managers looking for multi-cat upside might want to take.

Kiefer Sherwood (San Jose Sharks)

The funny part about Sherwood's hit rate is that it fell significantly this season (4.7 per game) compared to the year before (5.9 per game) and he still has the 2^nd-highest per-game hit rate among all regular forwards. If his rate of hits had dropped by 15% instead of 20%, he would have led the league in hits per game. When you start from such a high perch, there is a lot of cushioning to soften the blow of a decline, and that's encapsulated here.

For some definitively good news, the drop in Sherwood's per-game hit rate was offset by an improvement in PIM rate (+53%), block rate (+11%), and shot rate (+32%). His value still comes from his hits, but the increases in the other peripheral stats kept him as one of the most valuable multi-cat producers in the league, and that's a good sign for stability in his fantasy value.

Sherwood's 2026-27 outlook is intriguing. He is on a Sharks team that is firmly on the rise, and depending on their offseason, are a solid bet for a playoff appearance next spring. They have a lot of youth on the wing – William Eklund (23), Collin Graf (23), Will Smith (20), and Igor Chernyshov (20) – so Sherwood could find himself with another season of 17 minutes a game. If the Sharks can improve the blue line, and he skates that kind of ice time on this rising team? There could be a career-best fantasy performance brewing.

Yakov Trenin (Minnesota Wild)

There may not be a crazier peripheral performance from this season, at least among forwards, than that of Trenin. He played all 82 games and posted over 5.0 hits per game. He was the only forward to reach 400 hits, the only forward to reach 350 hits, and 1 of 3 forwards to reach 300 hits. Nearly all his peripheral value came from his hit total, which is why his bar on the chart is almost entirely green.

There is a bit of a warning sign here. Trenin registered over 5.0 hits per game, which is great. His previous career-best mark was 3.2 hits, so he increased his previous career-best hit rate by nearly 60%. For a guy who just completed his seventh NHL season and turns 30 years old in the winter, a near-60% increase from his best-ever performance is a huge jump.

We saw Sherwood do something similar with his hit rate from 2023-24 to 2024-25 where he increased his prior career-best by over 70% before declining in 2025-26. As we mentioned earlier, though, Sherwood's drop in hits this past season was offset by increases elsewhere. Those increases were largely because he added 2:23 per game in ice time. If Trenin's hit rate drops, will he be able to offset the decline by adding elsewhere? He won't get 17 minutes a game in ice time, so how much can he really improve his PIM, shot, or block totals?

Any fantasy manager that had Trenin on their roster in 2025-26 is likely extremely happy with his performance. My concern would be expecting the same thing in 2026-27, but with a lot of Minnesota veterans being free agents, maybe there's a TOI boost coming to Trenin just because of a lack of other depth options. Let's wait to see what the Wild do in June and July before making a determination of Trenin's role in September.