Hockey Rambling

After missing Saturday’s game due to illness, Mathew Barzal was back at Islanders practice on Monday, skating in his usual spot on the top line. It seems as if he should be good to go for the team’s home game Tuesday night against San Jose. Brock Nelson and Noah Dobson were both absent from practice [...]

John Hynes remains undefeated as head coach of the Wild, with Sunday’s 4-1 win over Chicago marking his third-straight victory. The sample size is miniscule, but Minnesota hasn’t allowed more than one goal in a game since Hynes took over. That shouldn’t come as a huge surprise considering the team was playing solid defense even [...]

Alex Newhook is expected to miss the next 10-12 weeks with a high ankle sprain. In his first season with Montreal, Newhook has been on his highest point pace (46 PT 82-GP pace), as well as his highest average icetime (16:34) and power-play time (38.2 PP%). Newhook is also currently tied for the team lead [...]

Sam Montembeault has signed a three-year extension worth $9.45 million (cap hit $3.15 million) to remain with Montreal. This is a significant raise over his current cap hit of $1 million, set to expire at the end of the season. Given the Canadiens’ rebuilding state, Montembeault has performed reasonably well (2.73 GAA, .910 SV%) while [...]

If you haven’t checked whether Patrick Kane is available in your league, chances are you’re out of luck by now. It’s rare that players with the upside of Kane are up for grabs, and of course he’s worth an add in most formats. Yet as I was preparing a large auction bid for Kane in [...]

There was lots of Buffalo Sabres news so let’s tackle that first. The Sabres have recalled Brandon Biro from the AHL in response to sending down goaltender Devon Levi. Biro has already appeared in the NHL this season and with the team’s injuries, this bouncing back and forth is likely to persist for him for [...]

Some fun news yesterday with the return of Patrick Kane, signing a one-year deal in Detroit with a full no-movement-clause, and a cap hit of $2.75 million. He could line up with Alex DeBrincat and Dylan Larkin and be plugged into fantasy lineups immediately, though there is lots of reason for caution as well: https://twitter.com/Hockey_Robinson/status/1729520790297862349 [...]

Going into Monday night’s game against Buffalo, the New York Rangers had been surviving the injury to defenceman Adam Fox. They had gone 8-1-1 without him in the lineup, their lone loss coming in Dallas. He wasn’t expected to miss a significant amount of time, and they got good news about Fox at Monday’s morning [...]

Shea Theodore was recently placed on Injured Reserve, a move which requires him to miss at least a week of action. Given that he last played on November 22nd, Theodore won’t be eligible to face the Flames on Monday or the Oilers on Tuesday. The earliest he can return is Thursday against the Canucks. However, [...]

In allowing seven goals to the Rangers, Linus Ullmark was tagged with his first really bad start of the season. That being said, he had to face 40 shots, which tied for the highest number of shots faced in a single game for him this season. I was more confident than most on Ullmark this [...]