In a Ramblings full of underperformers, the poster-boy for it on my teams this year has been Steven Stamkos. Somehow though, with another goal last night Stamkos has quietly put up five points in the last four games, including his first two assists in 20 games. Stammer still has some positive regression coming based on his underlying numbers, but even that should still only bring him up to a 50-point pace or so. I don’t regret dropping him in one 12-team league, but in anything deeper he’s worth holding onto.

Last night’s goal was point number 1200 for his career, which is an incredible accomplishment.

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With Kurtis MacDermid getting back into the lineup for the Senators in a game against the Xhekaj brothers and the rest of the Habs, I was expecting fireworks. I picked him up in my one league that still counts PIMs to try and stream a fight or two. When the players with more truculence get back into the lineup after an extended stay in the press box, they usually have something to prove, and make an impact on the fantasy boxscores. Unfortunately, he put up complete zeroes across the board in this case. Can’t win ’em all.

On the Montreal side, the team is currently being led by the big-four, who are all on hot-streaks, while 80% of the rest of the roster is sporting cold streaks. That’s how you end up losing games by scores like five-to-two. Nick Suzuki, Cole Caufield, Lane Hutson, and Juraj Slafkovsky did all the scoring for the Habs, who really need to bring in some reinforcements soon.

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Laurent Brossoit was taken off the non-roster Injured Reserve, and while it’s a little fuzzy as to how that differs from being removed from a standard IR stint, the gist of it is that he’s ready to return very soon. This will likely prompt some sort of goalie move from the Blackhawks, who would likely prefer not to gamble on Brossoit’s return to form, and move him out for an asset. However, the interest around the league could be limited, so it will be interesting to see if we hear and rumors of Arvid Soderblom being on the move instead.

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In one of my leagues (12-team Roto setup) I have been greatly struggling with goalies thus far. I initially drafted MacKenzie Blankwood, Joseph Woll, Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen, and the Red Wings tandem, thinking that I would certainly get to my 164 GP maximum with that volume, and there was some solid win numbers to be found from the Colorado starter, in addition to a timeshare on another top team in Toronto, and every game from the Red Wings locked up, who are a team on the rise and aiming for a return to the playoffs (UPL would then add some save volume too).

Well, thus far, Blackwood has taken longer to return, and even longer to make an effort to entrench himself back in a role that sees him with more than an even split of starts (though that’s more so due to Scott Wedgewood‘s success than any fault on the part of Blackwood). Wedgewood did depart last night’s game though between whistles in the second period, so keep an eye out for updates.

Woll also missed time at the beginning of the year and returned to a Leafs team in complete disarray, though he did win again last night, making it two of his last three games. UPL has also been hurt, and while streaming Colten Ellis has provided a few solid games, the Buffalo group has been inconsistent at best. To top it off the Red Wings’ tandem has been downright disappointing, even before their recent losing skid down from where there were earlier in the year when they were sitting near the top of the Atlantic Division.

The Red Wings just can’t seem to prevent goals, especially when John Gibson is in net. What gives?

Well, John Gibson right now (and over the last few years) is just straight up a worse goalie than Cam Talbot. I know Gibson was amazing at his early peak, but that was a very long time ago. He helped me win a Roto league on the last day of the season with a clutch win over a decade ago and I still haven’t forgotten how good he was then. Unfortunately, the last six seasons worth of data is telling us a very consistent story, with the move to Detroit seeming to have exacerbated a shift into mediocrity.

At this point, I’m not sure there’s any saving Gibson, especially since his in-season numbers never seem to improve the farther into a season he gets. From the first quarter of the year, the numbers either stay the same or get worse. I typically give goalies lots of time to recover from slow starts, because they can be so volatile, but I have no issue cutting bait with Gibson at this point in 99% of league setups.

Of course that means I didn’t have him in my lineup for last night’s win against the Bruins. Gibson stopped 31 of 35 shots, while the offence was just enough to get the win anyways, fueled by Moritz Seider‘s first three-point night of the season. Still not a great start for Gibson, but at least it was his first win in seven starts.

Looking at disappointing goalies around the league, I have hope in Stuart Skinner and Sam Montembeault who have recovered from poor starts before, Jordan Binnington who has always been a bit streakier (same with the Blues as a whole), and Linus Ullmark, who also has streaky stretches, and whose team is getting healthier in front of him.

Dustin Wolf‘s growing pains with a bad team are expected, and he should be fine. There’s no competition from backup Devin Cooley.

Juuse Saros I have less confidence in for the rest of this season, but he has the talent to be fantasy relevant again very soon. He had a good showing last night at least with 27 saves in a 5-1 win.

Kevin Lankinen, Frederik Andersen, and Jacob Markstrom all worry me at this point as well.

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In a couple of my leagues we’re getting to the point of the year where people are obviously getting antsy with a desire to upgrade their roster or change things up after a slow start. I have found though, that there are a lot of inefficiencies with how people update their trade blocks, or list players as being available. It is a bit of an art-form, updating your trade block in order to make other teams interested in what you have, and to give them some incentive to reach out.

To break it down, I find there are two main styles for block updates:

First, you have your “Specific Idea” update. This one is straightforward in both its name and undertaking. For the update, you have a specific roster need and an area of excess that you are willing to move to fill the need. For example, you might desperately need a LW, maybe because of an injury or a previous trade, and you suddenly have an excess of roster-able defensemen that you’re willing to move. Sometimes you can specify one or two players that are the specific guys on the block, and the specifics that you’re looking for in the return player (age, categories, cap hit, etc).

The upside with this kind of block update, is that it’s clear, (can be) concise, and gives your fellow GMs an easy path to communicate their interest with you. I have had a lot of success with this in the past, however this kind of block update can often be pre-empted with a quick look around your league, and noting who needs defensemen and who has excess LWs. If there are only one or two teams that fit the description, you should probably check in with them first, and then after striking out then you can update the block with your options. If you’re not looking around and always waiting for someone to come to you, then you’re much more likely to get a lopsided amount of poor offers.

The other type of block update is more of a “General Store” kind of layout. With this setup, you put at least a third of your team on the block, maybe some picks or prospects too if your league has them, and then note that you’re “open to offers”. The idea is often just to spark change with your team, or see what nibbles you get from other teams in the league just to open up some interesting discussions. The issue with this, is that teams see too much, and if the block is updated too often with these big sweeping selections, there comes a bit of analysis paralysis.

Either approach can work, but there are some flaws, as noted. The biggest issue with any approach to trade blocks is managing to have your fellow GMs tune it out. The more you can add specifics, humor, and avoid spamming their inboxes with options, the more likely you are to get the replies you’re looking for.

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Carter Hart returns to the NHL, with Vegas really needing some depth in net. After going through his trial, and being found not-guilty, Hart has been cleared to return for his first game since January of 2024. He showed some rust early, and after a mediocre AHL conditioning stint, that is to be expected for the next few weeks.

Just because the five players from the 2018 Canadian World Juniors team who were on trial were found not-guilty, doesn’t mean that they didn’t make mistakes. I do wish they were more forthcoming with their efforts to make amends though.

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Your sub-five-percent rostered player to watch: Pavol Regenda.

One game, and one power play goal for the Sharks. He’s a large player with speed and some skill who has never been a super point producer, but has held his own and adapted well as a depth scoring player at all levels. He can add some volume in the Hit, Blk and SOG categories as well.

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See you next Wednesday, and if you have any fantasy hockey questions or comments you can find me on BlueSky @alexdmaclean.