After going dark on Friday night, the NHL was back with every team in action on the first Saturday night of the season. I didn’t have room for something from all 16 games in here, but I’ll share what stood out to me fantasy-wise.
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Mark Scheifele is off to a fast start. The Jets’ first-line center scored a pair of goals on Saturday, which when combined with his three assists on opening night gives him five points in just two games.
Not surprisingly, Scheifele’s linemates have also been productive. Kyle Connor has three goals and an assist in his first two games, while Gabriel Vilardi has three assists. Connor and Scheifele would have been drafted in all leagues, and Vilardi was drafted in most leagues. Vilardi has a chance to exceed his draft-day ADP of 126 at Yahoo and 145 at Fantrax if he can stay healthy for an entire season.
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In the Blues’ 4-2 win over Calgary, Jake Neighbours led the way with a pair of goals. Neighbours also contributed in multiple categories with three shots, a plus-2, and six hits. He has value in bangers leagues, as he has averaged over 150 hits per season over the past two seasons.
In the Flames’ loss, Matt Coronato scored his first two goals of the season on four shots. One of his goals was on the power play.
After being scratched for the first two games, Zayne Parekh made his season debut on Saturday. Parekh logged 17:21 while playing on the second-unit power play, although he was held without a point. Parekh was on the ice for the final minute when the Flames net was empty, as was fellow rookie Matvei Gridin. Expect the Flames to ease Parekh into an NHL role, as they likely don’t trust the defensive side of his game yet.
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According to Sabres coach Lindy Ruff, Josh Norris is expected to miss a “significant amount of time” with an upper-body injury. Norris played every game of the COVID-shortened 2020-21 season, but since then he has failed to reach 70 games in a season and has averaged 45 games over each of those past four seasons. Norris seemed worthy of a late-round flier in many fantasy drafts for his upside when healthy, but his injury history deems him too unreliable to invest significant draft capital on. Norris had a strong preseason and was lining up with Tage Thompson and on PP1, so the potential was there.
Same situation for Norris, and same situation for the Sabres. They’ve lost two games to start the season and scored just one goal while doing it. That means the only two players to record a point for Buffalo so far are Jason Zucker (goal) and Mattias Samuelsson (assist). The good news is that the Sabres have three home games next week, but the bad news is that the games are against tougher opponents (Colorado, Ottawa, Florida). Do with that what you will.
Meanwhile, the Bruins are 3-0-0. Who saw that coming? Jeremy Swayman is helping teams win their week with two wins, a 1.00 GAA, and .966 SV%. The opposition has been Washington, Chicago, and Buffalo, which leans toward a softer schedule. It could get more difficult for Swayman and the Bruins next week. Although the Bruins provide a four-game stack, the opponents are Tampa Bay, Vegas, Colorado, and Utah. That represents a solid litmus test as to whether Swayman is for real.
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Just as Swayman might be helping you win your fantasy week, his former goaltending and hug partner Linus Ullmark might be a reason you’re losing your fantasy week. Ullmark has been tagged with really bad starts in both of his games this week, allowing 10 combined goals. Starting the season in the state of Florida with games in Tampa (4 GA) and Florida (6 GA) hasn’t helped, but surely you could have expected better. Ullmark and the Senators will have a chance to redeem themselves after the 6-2 loss to the Panthers with some easier matchups next week (vs. Nashville, @ Buffalo, vs. Seattle, vs. NY Islanders – Buffalo and Seattle are back-to-back).
Shane Pinto scored both goals for the Senators while taking five shots. That’s his second consecutive two-goal game. Pinto has burst out of the gate with five points in his first two games. Pinto has found himself on the Sens’ top power play with Drake Batherson out of the lineup, although all of his goals have been even strength. He’s worth at least a short-term add while he’s holding a hot stick.
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In an impressive second career game, Matthew Schaefer scored his first NHL goal. Quite the situational awareness for the rookie to poke the puck in the net while everyone else seemed to be looking for it. Schaefer also finished with eight shots in 26:04 of icetime, which is quite something for an 18-year-old. Schaefer also logged the bulk of the PP1 minutes over Tony DeAngelo, so we might be witnessing a quick changing of the guard after DeAngelo was there for the first game. If Schaefer is already ready for that, then there’s no looking back. He’s not returning to junior.
So far, my player to disappoint hasn’t exactly performed like a bust. Aliaksei Protas scored two goals and added an assist with a plus-3 and five shots in the Capitals’ 4-2 win over the Islanders. It’s still early, so I say sell high. The worst is when the player you think will stumble does the opposite – and he’s in your opponent’s lineup.
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Vincent Trocheck has been listed as week-to-week with an upper-body injury. That meant that Conor Sheary moved up to one of the Rangers’ scoring lines with J.T. Miller and Will Cuylle. A clear divide exists between the Rangers’ top 6 and bottom 6, so Sheary could have some short-term value after a few years of nothing. Sheary assisted on Cuylle’s goal in the 6-1 win over Pittsburgh.
In the Rangers’ win, Adam Fox led the way with two goals and an assist. Fox fell to 61 points last season after posting three consecutive 70+ point seasons. He’s on the right track for a rebound with four points in his first three games. As well, Fox has registered four shots in back-to-back games.
The Penguins’ lone highlight was 18-year-old rookie Ben Kindel scoring his first NHL goal. For more on Kindel, see this week’s The Journey.
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Let’s talk about a couple of Kirills. First, Kirill Marchenko registered a hat trick on four shots in the Blue Jackets’ 7-4 win over Minnesota. Marchenko was held without a goal despite taking eight shots in his first game, so he is proving to have a nose for the net. Marchenko will try to surpass his career high of 31 goals from last season.
Despite the loss, Kirill Kaprizov had a solid game… sort of. Kaprizov finished with two goals, an assist, 11 shots on goal, and a minus-3. Yes, you read that right. All four of Minnesota’s goals in this game were on the power play, hence the dash-3. That is very much what we like to call here a Draisaitl hat trick… although the term might now be outdated with the Oilers now a better team than when Eric Daoust first coined the term.
Kaprizov wasn’t the only Wild with a DHT. Matt Boldy finished with a goal, two assists, and a minus-3, while rookie Zeev Buium had his first NHL goal and an assist with a minus-4. For Buium, such is life for a 19-year-old with sky-high offensive upside. Meanwhile, Boldy has two consecutive games with a goal and two assists, so his fantasy stock is continuing to rise.
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Yesterday I mentioned Emmitt Finnie, the rookie who has been on a scoring line with Dylan Larkin and Lucas Raymond. Finnie registered his first NHL point with an assist on Larkin’s goal on Saturday. Finnie was also covered in this week’s The Journey.
On Saturday, it was the Patrick Kane – Alex DeBrincat unit that did the most damage for the Red Wings with three points each in their 6-3 win over Toronto. The Wings had something to prove after an unimpressive 5-1 loss to Montreal in their opener, and it didn’t look good for them after they fell behind 2-0 in this game. The Wings are hoping that some new blood will finally get them above the playoff bar, as Finnie, Michael Brandsegg-Nygard, and Axel Sandin-Pellikka are all in their first NHL seasons. The two players with the hyphenated names were both first-round picks.
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Zack Bolduc has three goals in his first three games, including a power-play goal in Saturday’s win over Chicago. Brought over in an offseason trade with St. Louis, Bolduc has landed on the Habs’ top power play. That means that both Patrik Laine and Ivan Demidov have been bumped to the second unit. That could be one of the league’s stronger PP2s, but certainly a question during the offseason was which one of Laine, Demidov, or Juraj Slafkovsky would be on the second unit. (Answer: two of them.)
Bolduc is worth a flier in multicategory leagues, as he finished with 19 goals and over 100 hits last season. This may also surprise you, but Bolduc tied for the Blues’ team lead in power-play goals last season (7 PPG), even with sub-50% power-play time.
In the loss, Sam Rinzel scored his first NHL goal while logging 25:58. Rinzel has been on the ice for over 50% of Chicago’s available power-play minutes in each of their three games. The fact that he appears to have the PP1 role along with reaching 25 minutes in two of his three games means that he is worth adding if he happens to be available in your league (39% Yahoo).
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The Nathan MacKinnon – Martin Necas duo will be a dynamic one. MacKinnon and Necas each scored a goal while adding two assists for the Avalanche, giving them each six points in three games. Expect the Avs to lean heavily on both, as MacKinnon logged 25:01 and Necas was on the ice for 23:11 in a game that went to a shootout. The Avs lost 5-4 in said shootout to the Stars in a matchup of Central Division powers.
Gavin Brindley scored his first NHL goal in this game. The 34th overall pick in 2023 was acquired by the Avalanche in the offseason from Columbus. Brindley was held to just 6:25 while playing on a line with Parker Kelly and Joel Kiviranta, which doesn’t leave him in a great spot to contribute to fantasy teams.
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The late Sharks/Ducks game provided plenty of offense if you needed it. Chris Kreider and Cutter Gauthier each scored a pair of goals, while Leo Carlsson and Mason McTavish each contributed three points in the Ducks’ 7-6 overtime win over their California rivals. Gauthier fired nine shots on Yaroslav Askarov, while Alex Killorn had seven shots, and Beckett Sennecke had six shots. In his second career NHL game, Sennecke had a multipoint game while logging 19 minutes of icetime. The Ducks could have a very strong top 9, especially if their young players can develop quickly.
Macklin Celebrini and Will Smith each had three assists for the Sharks, who had six different goal scorers.
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Thatcher Demko is looking like his old self. Demko stopped 34 of 36 shots on Saturday, giving him identical .944 save percentages in each of his two games. Demko didn’t register the W despite some impressive saves, but he will steal at least a few games for the Canucks as long as his injury issues are past him.
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