Hey everyone. This is normally Ian's day for Ramblings, but he has a family trip for Thanksgiving so I'm filling in for this Saturday.

*

The Winnipeg Jets provided an update on defenceman Josh Morrissey, and Mitchell Clinton reported that he is currently day-to-day. He did not play on Friday night, but it seems they've avoided a seriously negative outcome, and that's always good news.

*

The Montreal Canadiens provided an update on goalie Samuel Montembeault:

Une absence de 10 à 14 jours pour Samuel Montembeault.

Blessure au bas du corps.

— J-F Chaumont (@JFChaumontLNH) October 9, 2026

That isn't as bad as it could have been, so any fantasy manager that grabbed Jacob Fowler off the waiver wire, enjoy him for the next week or two, but have a plan beyond that because Montembeault won't be out very long.

*

The news was a bit worse for Florida Panthers forward Brad Marchand:

Marchand out 6 weeks, per Maurice.

He'll resume skating in 3 weeks.

— Jameson Olive (@JamesonCoop) October 9, 2026

It is a good thing that this isn't season-ending as we just saw with Alexander Romanov, but between Marchand and Aleksander Barkov, the injuries are already piling up for the Panthers and their division/conference remains as difficult as last year.

*

The news on Ottawa Senators forward William Eklund was even worse than Marchand:

Travis Green says William Eklund has an ankle injury and will be out an extended period of time "it's unfortunate." Eklund was seen at the rink using a knee scooter.

— Coming In Hot (@ComingInHotSens) October 9, 2026

No firm timeline on an ankle injury is never good news. Any fantasy manager with Eklund on the roster should be ready for him not to be back in October, and it could stretch out well beyond that.

*

The Los Angeles Kings gave us some news on Mats Zuccarello

Zuccarello out "week-to-week" per Peter Laviolette. No further info on his injury, PL preferred to keep internal.

Alex Turcotte also did not practice today, his timeline is "day-to-day". https://t.co/PpYsyRi7ZI

— Zach Dooley (@DooleyLAK) October 9, 2026

A week-to-week designation is never ideal, but it's better than hearing months, plural.

*

The New York Rangers lost 3-1 in Washington on Friday night, but the bigger concern was goaltender Igor Shesterkin. He seemed to injure his leg sliding into the post halfway through the second period, skating off the ice without putting much weight on it, and leaving the game. Here is what happened:

Igor Shesterkin went down with a leg injury and had to be carried off the ice without putting weight on his right leg

Hope he's okay 🙏 pic.twitter.com/uDg7SAZ3c8

— B/R Open Ice (@BR_OpenIce) October 10, 2026

There is obviously no update yet, but with the injury to Joonas Korpisalo, any sort of absence from Shesterkin means it's Dylan Garand time all the time.

Timothy Liljegren, Boone Jenner, and Tom Wilson scored the goals for the Caps. Wilson is up to five points in four games on the year.

Logan Thompson held the Rangers to one goal on 23 shots against in the win.

Alexis Lafreniere tallied the lone goal for New York. He is up to four goals and six points in six games.

*

The Detroit Red Wings played a good game at home to Seattle on Friday night but still fell to the Kraken by a 6-3 margin. The Kraken depth did a lot of the damage as Frederick Gaudreau potted two goals, Ben Meyers managed a goal, two assists, three shots, a block, two PIMs, and three hits, while Berkly Catton had a goal and an assist as well.

Mackie Samoskevich scored once again for the Kraken, totaling two shots and a block along the way. He now has three goals in three games since getting back into the Kraken lineup.

Vince Dunn had the other goal for Seattle, maintaining his point-per-game pace with five points on the season.

Philipp Grubauer got the start in net, stopping 38 of 41 shots for the win.

Viktor Arvidssson, Michael Brandsegg-Nygard, and William Wallinder all scored for Detroit. MBN also had an assist, managed five shots, added a block, threw in a couple PIMs, and landed four hits to cobble together a tremendous multi-cat night.

John Gibson was pulled after giving up five goals on 15 shots.

*

On Thursday, I had a Ramblings covering early shot Market Shares for different players. The term 'Market Share' here is just the percentage of a team's shots a specific player takes when they're on the ice. So, if Dylan Guenther is on the ice for 100 shots from the Utah Mammoth, and he takes 30 of those shots, his Market Share is 30%. This helps identify players who have high shot volume but whose team, or line, doesn't shoot much.

We are using all shot attempts (missed, blocked, or on goal) and only at even strength (including empty nets) with data scraped from NHL play-by-play. In addition to those from Thursday, there are three players who stood out for different reasons.

Emil Heineman (New York Islanders)

Heineman has two goals in four games, with those two goals coming on three SOG. It is nice to shoot 67%, but it also should be noted that among Islanders forwards, he has a high share of shots:

To this point, Heineman sits at 27.6% of the Islanders shots at even strength. Last year, that number was 22.4%. In his one full season with Montreal, he finished at 24.4%. His first four games of the 2026-27 campaign stand out by comparison, so that's the good news. What is also good news is just two of his eight shot attempts have landed on goal. Over the prior two seasons, he landed over 48% of his even-strength shot attempts on goal. He has been short-changed a couple shots so his SOG total will rise.

The reason this is important is that by shot attempts per 60 minutes, Heineman has dropped by nearly 30% compared to last year. That drop is a function of the team creating far less offence when he's been on the ice, not because he's less likely to take a shot. Once (if?) the team's offence starts to find itself, and Heineman's attempt/SOG ratio improves, so will his SOG totals.  

Owen Tippett (Philadelphia Flyers)

Even for a guy who typically shoots a lot anyway, what Tippett has done through the Flyers' first five games stands out:

He has never finished a season above 36% and has averaged 33% over the last four seasons. A rate over 40% assuredly comes down as even the elite Market Share guys in a season will finish around 35-37%, but understanding Tippett's Market Share puts his even-strength shot-rate drop in context. His attempts per game and per 60 minutes are a four-year low, but his Market Share is sky-high. His drop in shot rate is a function of the team's struggles to generate offence, not Tippett's unwillingness to shoot.

Zayne Parekh (Calgary Flames)

As of yesterday afternoon, the Flames sat second in the league by shot attempts per 60 minutes at even strength, trailing only the New Jersey Devils, who've played one fewer game. They are last by goals per 60 minutes, but that's kind of expected. Regardless, the Flames are firing the biscuit, and Parekh stands out on the blue line

The fact that Parekh, Simon Nemec, and Yan Kuznetsov have three of the six highest shot attempt rates among all NHL defencemen this season might explain why the Flames are struggling to score, but it also indicates all three are not being shy about getting heavily involved in the offence. That is a balance Calgary has to strike: letting their young blue liners lead the charge offensively but not sacrificing goals at the altar of generating a disproportionate number of low-danger shots.

This is going to be a tough year for Calgary, and this brand of offence likely won't lead to many goals, but it is very encouraging to see all three blue liners, each under the age of 25, being so offensively-minded.

It should also be mentioned that the shots from the Flames' defencemen are largely coming at the expense of the forwards. Yesterday, I mentioned how high-end shot volume guys typically end up in the 25-30% range. The only forwards in Calgary over 25% are Mikael Backlund (a preposterous 40.2%) and Martin Pospisil (26.1%), who has been a bottom-6 regular. Matt Coronato sits at 22.4% after averaging 26.5% over the prior two seasons, and Yegor Sharangovich (15.2%) has also seen a decline from his prior two years (21.9%). Again, it's encouraging for the defencemen to be so heavily involved offensively, but until the tide shifts back to the forwards, this is going to limit the already-meagre fantasy value of their top scoring options.