Cliffy touched on the first game with the new coach for LA in yesterday’s Ramblings, and I just wanted to dive further into a couple of other details that might be fantasy relevant there.

Alex Laferriere has been a multi-category beast over the last two months since he was moved to centre full-time. He is averaging over two SOG per game, over three Hits per game, and adding a handful of faceoff wins to boot. His last 19 games are where those numbers have really picked up, and do you want to guess what milestone he hit exactly 19 games ago? Yes, that was his breakout threshold of 200 career GP.

In those 19 games, he has seen upwards of 20 minutes six times, with that happening only once in the 40 games prior. In his first game under the new head coach, that ice time remained consistent, but he was playing mainly with Warren Foegele and Corey Perry. Tough to blame Laferriere’s lack of an offensive jump at his breakout threshold on just him, when he’s having to prop up a 40-year-old and a nine-point player. The offence will come with Laferriere, but the breakout seems to be a little delayed due to the linemate situation. In the meantime, his peripherals can help keep his value up.

LA had only six seconds of power play time in Monday’s game against Colorado, scoring quickly on their lone power play opportunity, so we don’t get to read too much into that, but the top unit did feature Anze Kopitar in place of Quinton Byfield. If it keeps clicking, Byfield could be on the outside looking in for the rest of the year.

The Kings have their next game Thursday night, and by then Darcy Kuemper might be ready to return from his illness. Keep an eye on the Frozentools boxscore from that game for any additional changes under the new bench boss. 

*

After entering the Olympic break on a four-game point streak, Marat Khusnutdinov found the back of the net again last night on one of his four shots. He’s not due to hit his breakout threshold until the midpoint of next season, but he’s showing some good signs of progress in the meantime.

Over the last 10 Penguins games, split evenly between Arturs Silovs and Stuart Skinner, Silovs has been by far the better goalie, and could push to take a larger share of the workload through the stretch run. Last night, Skinner played very well, and only allowed two goals on 28 shots. It still wasn’t good enough though, as the Penguins were only able to get one of their 35 shots past Jeremy Swayman.

Over in Edmonton, we’re seeing something similar to with the Penguins, where Tristan Jarry has opened the door for Connor Ingram, who started for the third consecutive game. After last night’s high scoring affair, Ingram likely won’t be starting the next game. It sounds like the Oilers will be juggling between Ingram and Jarry until the end of the year, continuing to ride the hot hand. We’ll see if the addition of Connor Murphy helps play a role in that, because the defense prior to his addition was not one that looked capable of sustaining a hot run from any goalie, let alone Jarry or Ingram. Murphy wasn’t in the lineup last night, and it was actually Evan Bouchard and Jake Walman that were on the ice for the biggest culprits on defence, not Spencer Stasney who likely loses his lineup spot to Murphy. 

*

Buffalo’s depth came through against Vegas, with the trio of players they received in return for Jack Eichel (Alex Tuch, Peyton Krebs, and Noah Ostlund – via a first round selection) combining for two points, five hits, five of six faceoffs won, and a plus-two rating.

Jack Eichel meanwhile put up only one assist, one shot, and lost eight of his 15 faceoffs. It’s definitely fair to compare the stats of one player to the stats of three, or at least that’s probably what you’re going to hear from some of your leaguemates in the coming days as they try to poach your top players. While it’s fun to compare trade pieces here, the three-for-one deals rarely work out for the fantasy team giving up the best player in the deal.

Vegas has now lost three straight games, including giving up 15 goals in their last four games. If any team is going to make a move for a goaltender, it might actually be Vegas instead of Edmonton. Akira Schmid can’t be faulted too much for three goals against in each of his last two starts, but Vegas also hasn’t been able to outscore their problems. They’re certainly a team to keep an eye on in the coming days, especially with Mark Stone out injured again…

*

In a game featuring two players with outside shots at the playoffs who might be better served selling off, the Blue Jackets showed that they were the team closer to making a run in the playoffs, skating away with the 3-2 victory despite missing Zach Werenski for the second straight game.

For the second straight game without Werenski, Denton Mateychuk took advantage, recording an assist, with a couple of shots, and over 20 minutes of ice time. He’s worth streaming anytime Werenski isn’t around.

Cole Smith left the game after only three seconds of ice time (before being traded to the Golden Knights), Ryan O’Reilly left in the third period, and with Michael McCarron traded earlier in the day (more on that later) the Preds are suddenly short a few forwards, with the possibility of more moving out the door soon. I don’t think either Ryan O’Reilly or Steven Stamkos get moved, but Michael Bunting and Erik Haula could fetch decent returns and be replaced from within next year. This could be a good opportunity for Matthew Wood, or for some peripherals players like Zachary L’Heureux or Ozzy Weisblatt to make the most of a boost in ice time.

*

Dougie Hamilton boosted his trade stock with a two-point night, as the Devils claimed a 5-1 win over the Panthers (two of those goals were empty netters, so it wasn’t as bad as the score suggests). The two-point night gives Hamilton 17 points in his last 20 games, and there aren’t any better defencemen available on the market right now. It still doesn’t really feel like he’ll be moved until the summer at the earliest,

The Panthers meanwhile are now very much in seller territory, but with their ageing roster they also likely want to run in back nextyear when they have a healthy Aleksander Barkov and Matthew Tkachuk to start the year, so don’t expect them to sell off too much.

*

Dylan Guenther was up on the top line with Clayton Keller and Nick Schmaltz. He hasn’t played much with those two this season (less than 25 minutes total on the year), but with Logan Cooley nearing a return it seems like Utah is trying out a few different combinations to see if anything clicks in ahead of time. For the short term, this might have to stay, as Guenther notched two points, though only one was at even strength.

Logan Thompson had another shaky start to the game, which has been happening a lot in the last dozen games for the Capitals, but as has been the trend he settled in and put up a decent start in the end. This time the Capitals couldn’t outscore their intitial hole though, losing the game 3-2. John Carlson is still working his way back from an injury, while Aliaksei Protas missed the game for personal reasons.

*

Dallas was missing Roope Hintz for the second game in two days, and while he might be able to return from his illness for Friday’s game, the Stars aren’t missing him (or Mikko Rantanen) all that much in the meantime. The Sam Steel, Jamie Benn, and Matt Duchene line led the way for the Stars with two points apiece. All three have been scorching hot lately, with the kind of production that can cause upsets in fantasy playoffs if you’re looking for a bit of a spark.

*

In news of moves that won’t affect your fantasy team, the Minnesota Wild acquired six-foot-six centre Michael McCarron from the Predators in exchange for a 2028 2nd round pick. The pick loses some value being a few years out, and unless you’re in a league where your sole needs are Hits, PIMs, and a couple of FOWs, then you’re not interested in McCarron. The best case for Minnesota is that he takes away a few more defensive assignments from the Ryan Hartman and Joel Eriksson Ek lines.

Cole Smith being traded to the Golden Knights for a third-round pick likely makes even less impact in the fantasy realm.

*

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