Nikolaj Ehlers (the Canes' game-breaker) opened the scoring early for Carolina, giving them a 1-0 lead 25 seconds in, and then a 2-0 lead 12 minutes in. The two goal-lead lasted all of a minute though, before Frederik Andersen's shaky start came back to bite him.

Neither goalie played all that well, with Anderson looking worst off, with only 18 saves on 23 shots. Carter Hart was also not the reason Vegas won the game, with 23 saves on 27 shots.

Brett Howden scored his playoff-leading 11^th goal. His three years left at $2.5 million are looking like more of a bargain than it has from the angle of his previous few seasons.

Aside from Ehlers' two-point game, Jalen Chatfield (two assists), Shea Theodore (goal and two assists), and Brayden McNabb (three assists) of all players also posted multi-point games.

Tomas Hertl scored the winner late, which was great to see for him after he struggled so much this past year.

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Mem Cup winner, Sam O'Reilly, the Tampa Bay prospect, has probably played his way onto their roster projections for the fall with his fantastic season. The Lightning saw something similar happen with Anthony Cirelli a decade ago, after his fantastic OHL season in 2016-17 was highlighted by a solid WJC performance and punctuated by a dominant Memorial Cup run. Cirelli then made his AHL and NHL debuts the next year, most notably thriving in his NHL run with 11 points in 18 games. A similar two-thirds of the season in the AHL might serve O'Rielly best this coming year, but if he does make the team out of camp this year, he could be a big part of that production from the bottom-six that the Bolts lacked this year.

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Cliffy touched on Mackenzie Weegar yesterday, specifically noting his peripheral impacts, where he is one of the best fantasy defensemen because he provides such excellent peripheral coverage while also bringing some offence. As Cliffy noted though, the offence has been limited recently because of a lack of PP time.

From my angle, I wanted to take a look at how Weegar looked in Utah, and how we might be able to project that across a full 84 games next season (yes, we have 84-game seasons coming in next year – keep up).

Weegar played 19 games with Utah and saw notable shifts in quite a few production columns. Starting with the offence, Weegar jumped from 18 points in 60 games (25-point pace) to seven points in 19 games (30-point pace). In the final 10 games with Utah, when he would have been a bit more settled, he notched six points in 10 games, while seeing second-unit power play time. He likely won't see notable power play production next year, or pace for six points every 10 games, but even shaving off a little, a 40-point pace with five PPPs included adds a lot of value to his peripherals.

Speaking of the peripherals, Weegar did see a bit of a drop in SOG and Blks, both sagging from around 2.0-2.5 per game the last few seasons in Calgary to the 1.5 range with Utah. The Hits and PIMs stayed constant at around 2.0 and 1.0 per game respectively. The biggest change comes for those of you in leagues that count plus-minus, where Weegar was minus-35 in 60 games with the Flames, and then flipped it to be plus-two in 19 games with the Mammoth. This was all after seeing his ice time cut a little in Utah, though I would expect that to climb back up by a minute or two in his first full season with the team.

Overall, Weegar still looks like a peripherals star with his floor of SOG+Hits+Blks of at least 5.0 per game. The plus-minus and scoring increase with Utah will keep his floor elevated, but unfortunately the ceiling isn't nearly as high as it was in his peak years with the Flames or Panthers either.

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Quick hits on a few other minor moves from the last couple of days:

The Leafs hired Judd Brackett and Freddie Hamilton to their front office staff. Brackett's history running the scouting department in Vancouver and Minnesota shows a reasonable resume but doesn't provide much to draw conclusions about the upcoming draft. Freddie Hamilton meanwhile is most notable for being Dougie Hamilton's brother, which also doesn't mean much other than to give the rumor mongers something to link another player to the Leafs. Don't get sucked into that one.

Speaking of family ties, Manny Malhotra was promoted to head coach of the Canucks (fantasy take here) while the team is also strongly considering his son Caleb Malhotra with the third overall pick in the 2026 draft. Both father and son are deserving of those spots, and neither choice seems to be solely influenced by the family ties, though they would be part of the discussion for the team. Looking at it through a personal story lens, it would be an awesome moment to see them on the bench together for the Canucks in future. It has happened a few times in NHL history with a father coaching a son, but it is a very unusual occurrence.

Anton Silayev signed his ELC with the Devils. Silayev was the 10^th overall selection in the 2024 draft and has played over in Russia since. This marks a move to North America, where he won't necessarily make the NHL team in the fall, but will continue to grow towards that. Big players, and especially defensemen, can take a while to reach their peak ability, so patience is needed if he's on or around your fantasy roster.

The Nashville Predators handed the keys to their ship over to Chris McFarland, who, up until yesterday, was the general manager of the Avalanche. McFarland did a solid job in his shorter tenure as GM of the Avs, keeping the team as a perennial powerhouse. He was part of the management group since 2015 as an assistant GM, before being promoted to GM in 2022, and has made some big and bold moves in that time. He is a big prize for Nashville at the GM position, especially since the team has a range of useful pieces but needs someone at the helm to decide the exact direction that the team is steering towards. Longer-term this helps the outlook for their younger players, but any fantasy impact in the short term will depend on the direction which should become clearer in the next month.

Zach Werenski won the Norris Trophy, with Rasmus Dahlin and Cale Makar as the other finalists.

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I'm keeping half of an eye on the AHL playoffs, and I thought that it might be interesting to see which of the top AHL playoff scorers might be playing their way into consideration for a full-time roster slot with their NHL team in the fall.

Three young Chicago Wolves (Carolina Hurricanes prospects) catch the eye off the bat, with Ryan Suzuki (10 points), Felix Unger Sorum (nine points), and Bradly Nadeau (nine points) leading the way. All three have a case to make the Hurricanes next year, with Suzuki the most developed (at 25 years-old and now recovered from a freak eye injury that robbed him of some key developmental time), Unger Sorum (the most well-rounded), and Nadeau (the best offensive tools) all players worth a look for the Hurricanes in camp. However, they may be hoping for an injury or a trade to get a chance, as the Hurricanes have their full forward core signed for next season.

For the Coachella Valley Firebirds (Seattle Kraken affiliate) we have Oscar Fisker Molgaard leading the way with 11 points in 12 games. The 21-year-old is reliable enough at both ends of the rink, and with some offensive talent to boot, he seems ready to push for a full-time lineup spot after a full year in the AHL. He is one of 12 forwards signed for next year, but if some of the free agents return then space could be tight for the young players.

Ivan Ivan might not be young by NHL prospect standards, but at 24 he's the youngest of the main scoring group on the Colorado Eagles, and has had a very successful postseason with 11 points in 12 games. He has shown flashes of NHL ability in his brief stints with the Avalanche, and could be someone that makes the roster as a bottom-six depth scorer in the next year or two. Not a ton of NHL upside here, but still a better bet than some.

William Villeneuve is the only defenceman in the top-25 scorers from the AHL playoffs this year, and his 14 points have him sitting third entering Tuesday night. That is in part due to a few more games played, with the Toronto Marlies having had to play more games in each round than the other remaining squads. Regardless, it's a feather in the cap for the 24-year-old Villeneuve who appears to be as NHL-ready as he will ever be. His scoring numbers show that he could be a solid secondary producer at the NHL level, and his size and handedness (right shot) make him a better bet to be able to break camp with the big club. The Leafs could use some more youth in the lineup, especially on defence, and this would be the best way to do it.

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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.