The fun thing about fantasy hockey, or any fantasy sport, is that it can humble you very quickly. Case in point: last week, I had a Ramblings where I discussed defencemen and goalies I had yet to draft and probably wouldn't draft before the season started. One of them was Edmonton Oilers blue liner Evan Bouchard. It wasn't that I was terribly low on him – he was sixth in my rankings – but that was low enough to ensure I wouldn't get to draft him.

Then, in Edmonton's season opener, Bouchard goes out and scores the first opening-night hat trick for a defenceman in nearly 50 years, adds a pair of assists, totals six shots and three blocks, and is already a week-winning blue liner for anyone in head-to-head leagues. Egg, meet face. Sometimes, it do be like that.

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The Dallas Stars announced they've extended goalie Casey DeSmith extended for two years at $2.5-Million per season. That puts him under contract for the next three seasons, carrying him to his age-38 season. For a guy who never reached the NHL until he was 26 years old and had fewer than 60 career starts by the time he turned 30 years old, he will have gotten a decade in the league. An interesting trajectory.

The Stars don't really have any high-rated goalie prospects banging down the door – Arno Tiefensee split time between the AHL and ECHL last year – so this buys the team a few years to figure out their goaltending depth past Jake Oettinger.

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Some good news from the Buffalo Sabres on defenceman Mattias Samuelsson:

Mattias Samuelsson is on the ice this morning for practice, which is set to begin soon. pic.twitter.com/5si8tN3MRK
— Heather Engel (@engelheather) September 30, 2026

He is one of a handful of Sabres skaters dealing with injury right now, and it was also reported that Samuelsson has a chance to play in Buffalo's season opener in Columbus on Thursday night. Olen Zellweger won't be in the lineup, though, and looks unlikely to return this weekend, either.

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The Detroit Red Wings were running power-play practice on Wednesday and it did not include Dylan Larkin:

#RedWings power play:
1. Copp (net front), DeBrincat (bumper), Arvidsson/Raymond (flanks), Seider (point).
2. Kasper (net front), MBN (bumper), ASP-Finnie (flanks), Faulk (point).
Larkin is working the PK. pic.twitter.com/VxKomS6scp
— Ansar Khan (@AnsarKhanMLive) September 30, 2026

Larkin is considered day-to-day for now and there's no commitment to him playing or not playing this weekend. He did eventually get a bit of run on the power play in practice.

This PP setup does make some sense. The team is still trying to trade Larkin and that could happen at any moment. Detroit needs to prepare its current roster to play without Larkin, and that includes the power play. It also gives a lot of fantasy upside to Andrew Copp. Not that he's a burgeoning offensive talent, but he's going to get top-6 and top power-play minutes for the time being. He is also someone who blocks a lot of shots for a forward, so there's some specific multi-cat fantasy value here.

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Here is a look at line combinations, including Matthew Knies, for his first practice with the Columbus Blue Jackets:

#CBJ lines/pairs today:

Knies-Fantilli-Johnson
Nichushkin-Monahan-Garland
Sillinger-Coyle-Olivier
Lomberg-Heinen/LDBB-Voronkov

Werenski-Mateychuk
Christiansen-Gudbranson
Soucy-Andrae
— Dylan Tyrer (@DylanTyrer) September 30, 2026

This is a chance for Knies to really be a team's top winger and he's being given the role and opportunity to do it. Let's see how it goes.

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A bit of good news from the Pittsburgh Penguins regarding Ben Kindel and Bryan Rust:

Kindel and Rust are skating in non contact jerseys. A good sign.
— Josh Yohe (@JoshYohe_PGH) September 30, 2026

A non-contact jersey means they're still a little ways away, but that they're skating at all is a very good sign. We will provide more updates as they become available.

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A sort-of, sort-of-not update on Ottawa Senators defenceman Jake Sanderson:

Jake Sanderson skated today.

Travis Green is hopeful he returns Saturday.

Burakovsky isn't skating and unlikely to play on Saturday.
— Alex Adams (@alexadamsBTP_) September 30, 2026

There was a point in the preseason where the line from Ottawa was that whatever was going on with Sanderson wasn't even an injury, just a precaution. Now, he played basically one period of one preseason game and hasn't practiced for days. Clearly it's more than just a precaution, but we have to wait and see on his availability for this weekend.

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An update on Dallas Stars forward Matt Duchene:

Matt Duchene is doubtful for the season opener, Glen Gulutzan said.

He had a setback while on the road. It's the same injury from the start of camp. Lower-body.

Stars are planning to go 11-7 against the Blues.
— Lia Assimakopoulos (@Lassimak) September 30, 2026

The team said it's not related to the concussion issues from last year, so that's the good news. It is a lower-body injury and he was subsequently placed on injured reserve. There will be more updates passed along as they become available but this is not a team that can afford to see some of its top forwards miss time.

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With Ben Kindel and Bryan Rust injured, and Andrei Kuzmenko away from the team for family matters, the Pittsburgh Penguins opened the season in Philadelphia to face a full-strength Flyers team. And the Penguins absolutely brutalized them.

Offseason addition Nick Robertson opened the scoring less than 7:30 into the game and the Penguins piled on six more goals to take a 7-0 win against the Flyers. Robertson would add a second goal (short-handed) in the third period, totaling four shots, two PIMs, and a block. It was Robertson's first two-goal game since April of 2025, and not a bad way to endear himself to a new fanbase.

Evgeni Malkin, Egor Chinakhov, Ville Koivunen, Hendrix Lapierre, and Filip Hallander added the other goals. Hallander added two assists, totaled three shots, and threw in a hit for good measure.

Both Sam Girard and Kaedan Korczak had a pair of assists in the win. Korczak also had three shots, two blocks, and a hit. It was a great first night for him as he also made his Penguins debut.

Goaltender Arturs Silovs stopped all 19 shots he faced for the shutout.

No one on the Flyers side did much, though Owen Tippett did have four shots and six hits in 14:11 of ice time. At least when he's not getting on the scoresheet, he has other ways of contributing.

Dan Vladar was in net for all seven goals, facing 38 shots in total.

It is a quick turnaround for the Flyers, who head to New Jersey to face the Devils in their home opener on Thursday night.

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Colton Sissons and Easton Cowan (PP) both scored in the first period for the Toronto Maple Leafs as they took a 2-1 win at home to the New York Islanders. Cowan also assisted on the Sissons goal, ending the game with three shots and a pair of hits. That gives Cowan three points, four shots, and three hits in two games to start the season.

Emil Heineman scored the lone goal for the Islanders, a short-handed third-period tally. Heineman landed three hits to give himself a solid multi-cat night.

Anthony Stolarz was stellar in net for the Leafs, stopping 26 of 27 shots for the win.

Ilya Sorokin gave up the two goals on 26 shots in the loss. Both teams are now off until Saturday.

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One of the weirder quirks of the 2025-26 season was that the Colorado Avalanche, who scored 15 more goals at 5-on-5 than any other team in the league, was 29^th in the league on the power play by goals per minute.

That is what makes their 8-4 win over the Los Angeles Kings on Wednesday night such a statement. Not that they put up eight goals – including the postseason, they put up 8+ goals five times last season – but that they did it by scoring four times on five power-play opportunities. They had four PP goals in the first 10 games of the season last year and have already equaled that mark after Game 1. Not bad.

Nathan MacKinnon and Artturi Lehkonen both scored twice, Nicolas Roy and Gabriel Landeskog each score once, Parker Kelly totaled a goal and an assist, and Brock Nelson managed a goal and two assists. MacKinnon finished with eight shots, two hits, and even got in a fight with Brandt Clarke.

Cale Makar and Devon Toews managed a pair of assists each, Makar getting one from power play while Toews got both from the PP. Makar finished with a shot and three blocks to give him a well-rounded fantasy effort.

MacKenzie Blackwood allowed four goals on 31 shots, but Colorado's offence was able to carry him to the win.

Artemi Panarin, Joel Armia, Trevor Moore, and Brian Dumoulin all scored for the Kings. Alex Laferriere had a nice multi-cat night with two assists, two shots, a block, and five hits.

Kings goalie Darcy Kuemper was in net for all eight goals on 29 shots faced. The team went 0-for-4 on the power play, which ended up being the entire difference in the game.

Both the Kings and the Avalanche have a couple of days off before returning to action on Saturday.