The Wild West

I thought we could check in on some of the young prospects who are in the AHL and see how they are doing and what progression/regression that they might be showing. I’m not going to include players who are currently in the NHL or players over the age of 25. Abbotsford Canucks (Vancouver) Kirill Kudryavtsev [...]

I had included 23 sleeper picks in the 2024-2025 Dobber Fantasy Guide and was curious to see how each of them was doing to this point in the regular season. It’s still early to have a conclusion on most, but there are some that are already in the trash. In 2023-2024, I had included 20 [...]

We ran a power play article a few weeks back and I thought it would be interesting to see what changes to the power play units teams from the West have made in the past three weeks. Changes can happen quickly! Anaheim Ducks (27th in the NHL at 13.9%; 5 goals/36 PP opportunities) Players that [...]

We are going to look at some sell-high candidates from the Western Conference. I’m going to look at shooting percentage, PDO and 5on5 shooting percentage (5on5%). It’s not that some of these players won’t get to the levels they are currently at some time in the future, but they will have a very difficult time [...]

Most teams have now played between four and six games in 2024-25 and we might be able to glean an idea of how each team is deploying their lineup and what players are off to good starts and what players are struggling. Anaheim Ducks Cutter Gauthier (5-0-0-0) and Alex Killorn (5-0-0-0) have both gotten off [...]

Some teams have only played one or two games, so this is a very early look at what players are on what power play unit on each team in the West. These could change by the next game, but it gives us an idea who the coaches see as the options on their teams right [...]

I do this every year to try and pinpoint what rookies will emerge to become regulars in the NHL and who might prosper. I’m only going to look at the West, so I won’t be including Matvei Michkov or any Eastern Calder candidates. I’m going to divide the rookies into dark horses and front runners. [...]

Today we will look at the final eight teams in the West and determine what roster spots actually have openings for competition.  Each year, we get excited at the idea of a young prospect having an outstanding training camp and making the NHL roster as an 18- to 20-year-old rookie. Unfortunately, more often than not, [...]

Today we are going to look at the first eight teams in the West and determine which roster spots, if any, actually have openings for competition.  Each year, we get excited at the idea of a young prospect having an outstanding training camp and making the NHL roster as an 18- to 20-year-old rookie. Unfortunately, [...]

We should look at each team in the Western Conference and see what players have been, or could be, an injury risk in 2024-25. This is such a contact sport that any player can be injured at any time, but these players seem to have either bad luck or a style that leads to more [...]