Brady Tkachuk will be out six to eight weeks due to surgery on his thumb, according to Bruce Garrioch. If that timeline holds, it looks like he’ll be out until December. Including Wednesday and Thursday night’s games, if Tkachuk returns on December 2nd, that would mean 22 games missed, or a quarter of the season. That is a huge chunk of time missed for fantasy purposes, though he’ll clearly be back in time for both the Olympics and the fantasy hockey playoffs.

Arthur Kaliyev was recalled and he played his first game of the season on Thursday night.

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New Jersey hosted the Florida Panthers on Thursday and a big note from that game was that Devils defenceman Luke Hughes was moved back to the top PP unit. He and Dougie Hamilton are in a monkey knife fight for those very valuable top minutes and the younger Hughes has the inside edge for now.

The Devils won that game 3-1 after Evan Rodrigues got the Panthers out to a 1-0 lead early in the first period. Jack Hughes scored his first goal of the season, a power-play tally of all things, with Timo Meier and Nico Hischier adding the game-winning and insurance goals in the third period. Meier also assisted the Hughes PP goal, had six total shots, a block, and a pair of hits. He now has five points, two power-play points, 17 shots, and eight hits through four games.

Brenden Dillon had a nice multi-cat night with an assist, and two shots, blocks, PIMs, and hits each.

Jake Allen had his first start since the Jacob Markstrom injury and stopped 20 of 21 shots for the win.

Daniil Tarasov was in net for the Panthers and took the loss, allowing three goals on 33 shots.

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On the night Cam Atkinson officially retired from the NHL, the Columbus Blue Jackets lost to the Colorado Avalanche 4-1. The Avs got the first big night of the season from their second line as Valeri Nichushkin scored twice, Brock Nelson tallied his first goal of the season, and Gabriel Landeskog registered his first point, assisting on Nichushkin’s second goal.

Cale Makar had a goal, an assist, three shots, and a block. He now has two goals and seven points in five games to start the season. He has managed 50 points in his last 41 regular season games dating back to January. Being on a 100-point pace for an 82-game season is pretty good, I think.

Scott Wedgewood got another start for Colorado, stopping 22 of 23 shots.

Ivan Provorov scored the lone goal for the Blue Jackets.

Elvis Merzlikins was solid in net, but took the loss for Columbus by allowing three goals on 36 shots.

Both Kent Johnson and Boone Jenner were taken off the Blue Jackets’ top PP unit in favour of Charlie Coyle and Dmitri Voronkov.

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In a game that featured just 32 total shots on goal, Winnipeg skated into Philadelphia and skated out with a 5-2 win. Mark Scheifele scored twice, including once on the power play, with single goals from Vladislav Namestnikov, Morgan Barron, and Tanner Pearson.

Those goals give Scheifele five tallies in four games, totaling eight points overall. Despite all the injuries, the Winnipeg top line is still cruising along just fine – Kyle Connor had a pair of helpers, and now has seven points on the campaign.

Connor Hellebuyck saw just 17 shots and two got by him, but it was more than enough for his second win this season.  

Matvei Michkov scored his first goal of the season and Owen Tippett scored his second. Tippett now has two goals, nine shots, and six hits in four games, so he’s living up to his score/hit/shoot reputation.

Samuel Ersson was in net for the Flyers and allowed four goals on 14 shots.

Cam York was back in Philadelphia’s lineup. He skated 22:32 and had a blocked shot.

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After a thrilling overtime win on Tuesday, the Montreal Canadiens did it again on Thursday. Trailing 2-1 late in the third period, defenceman Lane Hutson blocked a shot when Montreal had their goalie pulled, and fired a pass down the ice to Cole Caufield. Caufield skated in and launched a goal short-side on Nashville goalie Juuse Saros to tie the game 2-2. Then, with just two seconds left in overtime, Nick Suzuki won a board battle, dished off to Caufield, and he fired home his second overtime winner in three days. Caufield finished with two goals, four shots, a block, and a hit. He is up to five goals, seven points, three PPPs, 16 shots, and seven hits in five games. Just a tremendous start.

Oliver Kapanen had the other goal for the Canadiens, his third goal of the campaign.

Lane Hutson assisted Montreal’s first two tallies, added a shot, two blocks, and a hit in a very good multi-cat night.

Montreal goalie Jakub Dobes got the start for the Canadiens, and won the start, saving 17 of 19 shots.

Nick Perbix and Steven Stamkos scored for the Predators. That was Stamkos’ first goal of the season.

Saros was good, but took the loss by allowing three goals on 30 shots.

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Ottawa staged a comeback of their own as they were trailing 3-2 late in the third period before Dylan Cozens scored with under two minutes left to tie things up 3-3. Tim Stutzle and Shane Pinto scored in the shootout to secure the extra point for the Senators.

David Perron and Shane Pinto had the other goals for the Senators. That is Pinto’s sixth (!) goal of the season, and he now has seven points, 15 shots, and four hits in five games. For those keeping score, Pinto now has as many goals in five games as he had in his first 32 games of the season last year. Just a terrific start for a guy who really looks to becoming a pillar of this franchise that Ottawa hoped he’d be (and that dynasty managers were hoping, too).

Jordan Spence had an assist on the Cozens goal, adding a pair of shots and a hit along the way. He has now been on the ice for five Ottawa goals and just one against at 5-on-5 in his three games. Over the last two games, he trails only Jake Sanderson for even-strength ice time among Sens defencemen.

Chandler Stephenson scored twice (one PP) and Shane Wright scored his first of the season in the loss for Seattle. The Kraken have still yet to lose in regulation, starting their campaign 2-0-2.

Linus Ullmark was back in net for Ottawa and managed the shootout win, allowing three goals on 33 shots. At the other end, Phillipp Grubauer took the shootout loss, allowing three goals on 24 shots.

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In another extra-frame contest, Auston Matthews played the hero, scoring just under a minute into overtime to lift the Toronto Maple Leafs to a 2-1 win over the New York Rangers. Matthews finished the game with the goal on two shots, adding three blocks along the way. He has four goals and five points in five games, but he also has a whopping 15 blocks shots in those five contests.

Matthew Knies (PP) had the other Leafs goal, their first power-play goal of the year. William Nylander, who missed skate on Wednesday, played on Thursday night and assisted on both goals, adding two shots and a block to that production.

Anthony Stolarz was stellar in net, allowing just the one goal on 29 shots.

Juuso Parssinen had New York’s only tally. Igor Shesterkin was solid, but took the loss thanks to two goals against on 24 shots.

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With Edmonton leading 2-1, Bo Horvat took charge of the game and scored short-handed late in the second period, on the power play with just under five minutes left in the third period, and added an empty-net tally with just under 10 seconds left in the game. That was just his second career regular season hat trick with his last coming in October of 2019. He totaled seven shots, a block, and a hit along the way.

Mathew Barzal posted a goal and an assist (PP) along with a hit in 24:31 of ice time. Matthew Schaefer got the other PP assist and added two shots to his season total.

David Rittich was in net for the Islanders, and posted the win by giving up just two goals on 33 shots.

Leon Draisaitl (PP) and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins scored for Edmonton.

Stuart Skinner took the loss, giving up three goals on 24 shots.

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Matt Duchene was out of the lineup for Dallas on Thursday night after he took that hard hit on Tuesday. He did skate with the team in the morning so it looks like it may be more of a precaution than anything.

Dallas lost that game thanks to Vancouver’s tremendous comeback of their own. After falling behind 2-0 in the first period, the Canucks scored four goals in a 12-minute span in the second period to take a 4-2 lead, eventually hanging on for a 5-3 win.

The Canucks got two power play goals – the team’s first two of the season – thanks to Brock Boeser and Quinn Hughes. They also got goals from Filip Chytil, Max Sasson, and Conor Garland.

Hughes had that PP goal, a PP assist, four shots, and a hit in over 25 minutes of ice time.

Thatcher Demko stopped 28 of 31 shots he faced for his second win of the season. He’s off to a great start with a .929 save percentage and 2.03 goals against average in three starts.

Wyatt Johnston and Mikko Rantanen each scored PP goals themselves, and Mavrik Bourque tallied his first of the season. Jason Robertson assisted both of the PP goals and added five shots, pushing his season totals to six points and 21 shots in four games.

Dallas goaltender Casey DeSmith got his first start of 2025-26 and allowed five goals on 26 shots.

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On a night of comebacks, the Pittsburgh Penguins had one of their own as well, erasing a 2-0 first-period deficit for their road game in Los Angeles thanks to a pair of goals in the second period, and then scoring twice again in the third period.

Evgeni Malkin scored his first goal of the year (PP), totaling two shots and a hit. He has points in four of five games thus far, and is over two shots per game with 11 in five appearances.

Connor Dewar, Filip Hallander, and Sidney Crosby all scored for the Penguins, while defencemen Erik Karlsson and Parker Wotherspoon each had a pair of assists. For Karlsson, that snaps a four-game pointless streak that he had to start the year. It is nice to see, but he skated just 18:45 in this contest and is now at just 20:09 in TOI per game in 2025-26. As it stands, that would be his lowest per-game ice time rate since 2010 by over three minutes.

Arturs Silovs stopped 30 of 32 shots for his second win of the year. He is now up to a .908 save percentage, and if he can stay there, it would give the Penguins a chance to win more games than they did last year.

Kevin Fiala and Warren Foegele scored for the Kings. That was Foegele’s first goal of the year and he has just eight shots in five games; this is a guy who averaged between 2.4 and 2.5 shots per game in each of the previous two seasons.

Anton Forsberg started in net for the Kings and gave up three goals on 25 shots.

Anze Kopitar was not in the lineup for Los Angeles. Phillip Danault took his spot on the top line at even strength and Alex Turcotte took his place on the power play. That is something Brandt Clarke fantasy managers need to keep in mind – even with an injury to one of the five PP1 forwards, Clarke doesn’t seem to be the next man up.

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A three-point night from Seth Jarvis (one PP goal, one ES goal, and one assist) powered the Carolina Hurricanes to a 4-1 win over Anaheim, extending their win streak to four games. Jarvis totaled seven shots in this one and now has five goals, seven points, and 16 shots in four games.

Sebastian Aho had a goal and an assist in this contest, giving him six points in four games thus far, while defenceman Alexander Nikishin scored his first career NHL goal. He has a four-game point streak to start the regular season and has eight shots, five blocks, and 10 hits to go with it. Just a wonderful start to his fantasy campaign.

Shayne Gostisbehere had a trio of assists (one PP) with one shot and two blocks.

Frederik Andersen stopped 23 of 24 shots for his third win.

Leo Carlsson scored the lone Anaheim goal, finishing with five shots. He is up to six points in four games this campaign, and now has 35 points in his last 35 games dating back to the start of February.

Anaheim’s Lukas Dostal took the loss in net, allowing four goals on 31 shots.

Andrei Svechnikov remained on the fourth line for Carolina, a position he was moved to in their previous game. Taylor Hall was again on the second line with Logan Stankoven and Jackson Blake, and Blake also took Svechnikov’s spot on the team’s top PP unit. That is good news for Blake fantasy managers and very bad news for Svechnikov fantasy managers.

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Vegas hosted Boston on Thursday night, and it was a goal-filled affair as the Golden Knights escaped with a 6-5 win.

William Karlsson had a pair of goals (one PP), both Jack Eichel and Pavel Dorofeyev had a goal and an assist (each with a power-play point), and Mark Stone had three assists (one PP) in the win. Eichel is now tied for the league lead with 11 points and Stone is in a four-way tie for second with nine. Stone has yet to score this year, so all nine of those points are assists, but he does have 15 shots in five games and his per-game ice time (19:27) is actually the highest it’s been since 2018-19.

Tomas Hertl (PP) and Cole Reinhardt had the other goals for Vegas. Hertl wound up with six shots, two PIMs, and a hit in a solid multi-cat night. He has four points, 12 shots, and eight hits in five games.

Akira Schmid was in net for Vegas and gave up five goals on 24 shots but held on for the win. Vegas still doesn’t have a regulation loss on the year (3-0-2).

It was a depth scoring game for Boston as David Pastrnak scored, but Mikey Eyssimont, Tanner Jeannot, Mark Kastelic, and Nikita Zadorov each had a single tally. Pasta now has two goals, four assists, 23 shots, and 11 hits to start his fantasy campaign.

Zadorov had that one goal on three shots, adding a block and two hits. He has two points, five shots, 10 blocks, and 25 hits in five games, giving him a lot of early multi-cat fantasy value.

Jeremy Swayman allowed six goals on 37 shots to take the loss.

Morgan Geekie was taken off Boston’s top line halfway through the second period and was replaced by Pavel Zacha. Geekie did stay on the top PP unit, though, so don’t drop him just yet.  

Vegas signed goalie Carter Hart to a two-year contract. He is now practicing with the team and we’ll see how long it takes him to get into game action.