Welcome back to Forum Buzz, where I peruse the DobberHockey Forums and weigh in on active, heavily debated, or otherwise relevant recent threads, reminding folks just how great a resource the Forums are. Nearly anything might be covered here, other than trades and signings, which usually get their own separate write-ups on the main site and are also normally covered in the next day’s Ramblings, or questions that are specific to salary cap issues, which is the domain of the weekly Capped column. To access the specific forum thread on which a question is based, click on the “Topic” for that question.

As is now becoming tradition, I’ll start the column with a nod to the sadly now dormant “Who am I?” thread in the Forums where someone thought of a real life hockey player or persona, who can be from the past or present, male or female, in the NHL or not, and they give clues to help people guess who it is. You get to enter one guess per clue, and if you guess correctly you think of the next player, so it just keeps going indefinitely. For your enjoyment, here is a “Who am I?” sample. See how many clues it takes for you to guess who I am.

CLUE #1 – I’m a retired non-North American NHL forward

CLUE #2 – I never played an NHL game for the team that drafted me

CLUE #3 – I didn’t debut in the NHL until age 27

CLUE #4 – My career nearly ended in my early 20s due to an on ice injury that left me legally blind in one eye

CLUE #5 – When I came to the US, I fared well, with a 54 point scoring pace in my first season

CLUE #6 – Little did anyone know, but that would be the best scoring rate of my NHL career

CLUE #7 – Due to how old I was when I debuted, I was a UFA after two NHL seasons, and signed with a new team

CLUE #8 –I was successful on that team at the outset as well, topping the 50 point mark in my first season for them

CLUE #9 – But the following season I had fewer than a third that many points and my minus rating was nearly double my point total

CLUE #10 – I did bounce back to nearly 50 points though a couple seasons later, but it was all downhill from there, and my career culminated with poor seasons on three different teams

CLUE #11 – After my NHL career, I played in my home country for two more seasons

CLUE #12 – The NHL teams I played for, in order, were Boston, Colorado, Arizona, Chicago, and then Colorado again

CLUE #13 – I was born in Sweden

CLUE #14 – My initials are C.S.

So, who am I? Hopefully you figured it out. Check the end of the column to confirm, or, if not, to find out who I am. Now onto regularly scheduled Forum Buzz programming. 

Topic #1 – In a points only keeper, how should these defensemen be ranked/tiered? Adam Fox, Victor Hedman, Shea Theodore, Darren Raddysh, Dougie Hamilton, John Carlson, Roman Josi and Jacob Chychrun?

First off, there are some unknowns involved. Does Raddysh, who’s a UFA, re-sign with Tampa? Will Dougie Hamilton, despite not being traded by the deadline, get moved in the offseason? Will Carlson re-sign with Anaheim? For purposes of answering, I’ll assume everyone will be on their current team in 2026-27, including upcoming UFAs Raddysh and Carlson.

Topping the list is Fox. New York is poised to be a lousy next season, and perhaps well beyond. Many make the mistake of thinking if one plays for a poor team they can’t produce. Yes, the best teams tend to score a lot; but plenty of bad teams have players who are solid scorers. If anything, New York will need to lean on Fox more than ever to do what he does best, which is provide blueline offense. Of the eight, he’s still the best bet to produce the most points.

Chychrun has thrived this season, with over three SOG per game and now PP1 is unquestionably his. But he’s underperformed on the PP, with the 11th highest PPTOI of any d-man this season, but only tied for 18th in PPPts. But for what it’s worth, he only had three of his 14 PPPts in his first 21 games, with 11 in his last 41. Still not superb, but better. If he can improve in that area, he could be tops on the list; but for now, the uncertainty puts him only in second place.

After those two, it gets murky. Josi has bounced back nicely; but he’s past the age when d-men normally slow. Yet he’s still the unquestioned source for blueline offense in Nashville and to me that puts him in third. I’ve got Raddysh just behind him. I covered Raddysh in my past two mailbags, and he’s a unicorn in what seeing. He’s done well enough for long enough that I see him as having arrived. Still though, expecting this level of production isn’t realistic, and instead I’d pencil him in for 50-60 points, yet with a better chance at 60+ than falling below 50.

Next is Hamilton. When he cares, he can produce, and produce well. The issue is he often just does not care, or so it seems. We may see him score at a 70-point rate in a coming season, but if so then he’d likely disappoint thereafter, as has mainly been his pattern. That only puts him in this spot. After him, and given his move to Anaheim, is Carlson. He’d been supplanted by Chychrun, but with Anaheim he could have another lease on life, ala Brent Burns upon arrival in Carolina. Still, with so many other options for the Ducks, I cannot rank Carlson higher.

Had this been a season ago, I’d have put Theodore second, as until then the knock on him was he got hurt too much, but when healthy he produced superbly. In fact, he was eighth in d-man points per game over the prior two seasons. Perhaps due to not trusting his durability, or a surplus of forward talent, Vegas has opted for a 5F PP1, and stuck with it, and the results have been great, as their PP conversation percentage is third best in the NHL. Predictably this has gutted Theodore’s scoring, as has him going from taking the ice for 72.1% of his team’s PP time and 4.9% of its SH time last season, to 32.5% of the PP and 43.5% of the PK. The latter might be due to Alex Pietrangelo being out; but it’s not a good sign for Theodore, as are the presences of Noah Hanifin and, for now, Rasmus Andersson. Regardless, he still does have the potential to be great.

Hedman brings up the rear. He’s in the twilight of long and outstanding career, but he’s no longer the chief source of blueline offense for his teams, and it is taking a toll on his scoring. If things stay as they are, I don’t see this changing, making it tough for me to envision him posting more than 50 points, if even that.

Topic #2 – In the top 300 keeper league rankings for March, Peyton Krebs is now 218th. Can he do even better than what we’re seeing now in terms of scoring?

A former eighth overall pick who was seen as a key piece in the Jack Eichel trade, Krebs has since disappointed, having never reached even 30 points. But he’s only 25 and has been used in a top-six role at times by Buffalo. Does this improve his outlook? Not from where I sit.

Perhaps in response to his scoring having fallen well short of expectations, Krebs has become a more physical player, with his hits per game rising from 1.25 in his first full season with Buffalo, to 1.35 in his second, to 1.63 last season, to 2.36 per game for 2025-26. This has seemingly caught the attention of the Sabres’ coaching staff, with Krebs being used at times in the top-six, which hadn’t happened with any regularity at any point in his Sabres tenure.

Here’s the issue – it hasn’t made a difference for his offensive production. In a recent game he took the ice for over 20 minutes but nevertheless had zero SOG and not a second of PP time. Yet again his SOG rate is where it’s been all his career, between 0.9 and 1.1 SOG per game. If you don’t shoot the puck, and are not logging PP time, it is virtually impossible to have any measurable scoring impact. In fact, looking at forwards since 2000-01 who had two or fewer PPPts, the highest point total for any forward who took fewer than 100 SOG (i.e., at least 1.2 per game) was 37 in 66 games, with 65 SOG, by Rem Pitlick in 2021-22. We know that he went nowhere from there. The next highest was Jake Evans, with 36 points in 82 games with 80 SOG last season. His production has fallen off this season. In short, if you don’t shoot and don’t get PPPts, tallying even a point per every other game would essentially be a miracle. If somehow Krebs does continue to be a top-six player, until/unless he starts to shoot more and/or gets PP time, he’s unlikely to see his scoring rate go much above 30 points, if even that high.

Topic #3 – In a H2H keep 4 league with starting lineups of 3C, 2LW, 2RW, 3D, 1UTIL, 2G, plus 9 Bench and categories of G, A, Pts, +/-, PPP, SOG, HIT, BLK, W, GAA, SV%, a GM is planning to keep Nathan MacKinnon (C), Connor Bedard (C, RW), Brayden Point (C), and Tim Stutzle (C, RW) but has been offered Mikko Rantanen (RW, LW) and a 10th round pick for Stuzle, Jet Greaves and an 11th round pick. Should they accept the deal? 

Normally wingers are coveted because there as so many centers who produce so well, versus comparatively fewer wingers. It’s happening this season as well, with 36 centers producing at a 70+ point scoring rate, versus 11 LWs and 18 RWs. But for this set up, up to four centers can be in one’s starting line-up, versus, at most, 3 RWs and 2 LWs or 2 LWs and 3 RWs. Whereas normally the thought of keeping four forwards who are all center eligible would be seen as too many, for this league it might be fine, especially since two also are RW eligible. Still, none can slot as a LW, leaving a hole there. Although these would be great centers to have, it would force the team’s hand in terms of drafting, having to perhaps reach to take LWs earlier than normal or risk being left with scraps. Rantanen’s diversification would be nice, even though it would come at the expense of one of the two center eligible players who also happens to be RW eligible as well.

If this was me, I’d do my best to swap in Point for Stutzle as the player to be traded. It’s perfect since after returning from injury Point has been scorching, which masks the fact that despite him being tethered to Nikita Kucherov, one of the most elite forwards in the NHL, and shooting over 20% in his two prior season while adding 30+ PPPts, Point had seen his scoring rate drop, as well as his SOG rate. His IPPs are not great, and he’s still on track to do worse this season even though Tampa is shooting 14.9% at 5×5 with him on the ice. His SOG rate and TOI are on track to be the worst in five seasons. If the other GM will take Point instead, I’d make the trade in a heartbeat, even if I had to send back an even better draft pick. Rantanen is the same age as Point and a 100-point floor player, while Stutzle has had a very solid season, plus is far better in multicat than Point.

Would I still do the deal if the other GM is unwilling to swap in Point, and insists upon Stutzle? Most likely yes, due to Rantanen being so consistent and checking that important LW box. It would hurt to lose Stutzle, and the likelihood is Point will continue to disappoint; however, perhaps the move is to make this trade then look to move Point for a defenseman, to again further diversify keeper positions.

Topic #4 – Should Jesper Bratt owners in keepers be genuinely concerned? Or are his struggles this season likely a blip in the radar?

With two point-per-game seasons in a row going into 2025-26, both of which occurred despite lengthy absences of Jack Hughes, it was thought by most that Bratt had “arrived” as a player with point per game floor. But this season he’s faring considerably worse, especially when we pause to consider he had 19 points in his first 20 games. Despite being back with Hughes in Q3, Bratt is not producing anywhere near his normal rate. Are there reasons for concern? Let’s find out.

His SH% is 9.7%, with a career rate of 12.2% entering this season. If he was at his usual rate, that would mean four more goals. His personal SH% is below his norm, and the team’s at 5×5 with him on the ice, at 5.8%, is both really low in general and for him, as his average over the past four seasons was 9.8%. That most definitely has nowhere to go but up, and, with that, his scoring rate. Why am I so confident? Because Bratt yet again has an overall IPP over 70%, which is the rate I associate with elite players. It would be one thing if he’d faltered in that area too; but he hasn’t, suggesting he should rebound.

Where I do have concerns though is PP production. He seemed to be on the rise in that area, with 22 in 82 games in 2022-23, 27 in 82 games in 2024-25, and 34 in 81 games last season. For 2026-27 though, he stands at 15 in 63 contests. His PP IPP is low, but not glaringly. To me, this suggests that his PP rate from last season was unsustainably high. Yet even acknowledging that, for him to be only at 15 seems low, and he should right that ship at least somewhat over the remainder of 2026-27.

As far as other metrics, Bratt’s OZ% and secondary assist rate are comparable to his norms, as are his TOIs, both overall and on the PP. I think the conclusion to draw is his flirtation with 90 points last season likely was an outlier; however, him being at a 61 point scoring rate is certainly too low. I’d bank on him producing at roughly an 80-point rate of the rest of the season, and setting that as his benchmark for future seasons.

Topic #5 – In a points only keeper league, who’s the best own among Thomas Chabot, Rasmus Andersson, and Bowen Byram?

This is an interesting question because each player is at a different point in their career. Chabot is a veteran who despite being displaced from PP1 by Jake Sanderson has proven that he can remain a 45-50 point player. In fact, he’s almost as consistent as they come, and this despite his TOI being down a full minute since last season. Although it seems like he’s been around forever, he only just turned 29 and is signed for a few more seasons, so he likely can continue to produce for a number of years.

Andersson had flashes of solid production in Calgary; however, his production had been on a downward swing the past two seasons. That’s why him rebounding to the extent he has this season, on the cusp of becoming a UFA, is sounding alarm bells in my head. But if we peel back the onion, there might be legitimacy to his scoring rate. Yes, his team SH% of 10.0% is the first season of his career that he’s been in double digits there, so he might be due to give back some points; however, he has a secondary assist rate of only 28%, which would be low for a forward but for a d-man is almost unheard of and would more than offset any points he’d lose if his 5×5 team SH% drops. His OZ% is also low, likely due to Calgary’s struggles. With Vegas, that should rise, placing him in situations more conducive to scoring. Also, his IPPs, both overall and on the PP, are right at normal levels. Most likely he does not re-sign with the Golden Knights, who already have Shea Theodore, Alex Pientrangelo and Noah Hanifin in their top four. I could see him going to a team where he’d be able to best the point per every other game mark in most seasons, although topping 50 again likely would be a stretch.

Byram is the wild card. After starting the season with five points in 15 games, he’s since tallied 26 in 48, for a scoring rate right near those of Andersson and Chabot. He’s also well younger. But he has not made inroads to getting PP time, and hardly shoots. In truth, a rising Buffalo tide might be lifting his boat more so than he is himself. For sure he’s the wild card, with the lowest floor but perhaps also the highest ceiling, albeit one which is far from assured to happen.

I think the choice among them depends on the team and its trajectory. If a team is trying to win now and needs a “steady eddie” then Chabot is the safest bet. But if a team is rebuilding or is looking more ahead, then Byram is likely worth the risk. Andersson seems like the odd man out, although if he signs somewhere that will likely put him on PP1 and the team has a pretty solid group of consistent performers, then Andersson’s higher risk but higher reward would likely make him the pick.

Topic #6 – In a H2H, keep 3 for (up to 4 years maximum), 12 team league with starting lineups of 2C, 2RW, 2LW, 1F, 4D, 1 Util, 2G, 3 Bench, 1IR, 2IR+ and categories of G, A, P, +/-, SOG, PPP, HIT, BLK, W, GAA, SV%, SV, a GM has the following roster:

C – Connor McDavid, Vincent Trocheck, Bo Horvat, Nazem Kadri
RW – Owen Tippett, Drake Batherson, Jean-Gabriel Pageau
LW – Jason Robertson, Dylan Holloway, Evan Rodrigues
D – Cale Makar, Noah Dobson, Darnell Nurse, Jackson Lacombe
G – Connor Hellebuyck, Ilya Sorokin, Brandon Bussi

They’ve made the playoffs and want to win it all. So they’re considering a trade of Makar and droppable players for Mark Stone, Tage Thompson, Matthew Tkachuk, and Matthew Schaefer. Is it unthinkable to make this trade, given it’s Makar, who’s a top five scorer in this format?

Interestingly, one piece of information not given in the question, nor asked in the thread, is how many years Makar has already been kept. The key is Schaeffer can be kept for four seasons for sure since he’s a pure rookie. If Makar, as amazing as he is, can be kept only one more season, or perhaps two, that matters, and almost assuredly tilts the scales. But let’s assume Makar has the most possible value, meaning he too could be kept for four more seasons. Is this indeed a deal that should be entertained?

Looking at the team, I’d say yes. The three forwards would be nice upgrades, and the team is already set in net, plus Schaefer, although a downgrade from Makar, is playing at a high level already, and seemingly will only improve. The good news is the trade would not cause the other team to block this team’s path to victory. Yes, almost assuredly the other team would be in a better spot with respect to keepers. hat is a later problem though, whereas winning is a now issue. When you can go for the win, you go for the win; and 20+ games from those four will almost assuredly amount to more than the same number for Makar and three worse forwards.

Also, if Makar is not traded, he’d be kept with McDavid. In his place Schaefer is kept, and assuredly for up to four more seasons. The last keeper can be someone who was on the roster already, or perhaps even one of the other acquisitions. In short, this gives the team a better chance to win, and seemingly does not set them back too far as far as keepers. As difficult as it is to part with Makar, I think it is the right thing to do under these specific circumstances.

Topic #6 – What’s the trajectory of Beckett Sennecke? How good can he be, and how soon?

As of now, the Ducks have three players age 22 or younger on pace for 65+ points. Sennecke is the youngest, and only true rookie, but he’s shining thus far. I think he’s only going to get better from here.

My reasoning is his IPPs, both overall and on the PP, are both over 70%, which is what I see from most elite players. It would be one thing if he was at those rates playing with less talented forwards; however, it’s coming while on PP1 and on scoring lines. Unlike most rookies, who hit a wall when faced with the rigors of an 82 game NHL schedule, he’s only getting better, as his scoring rate and SOG rate have both increased each quarter. For Q3 he’s been at a point per game and nearly three SOG per game, this despite skating mainly with Mikael Granlund and Alex Killorn, rather than Cutter Gauthier and Mason McTavish, as he did in Q1 and Q2.

Sennecke’s PP scoring is also starting to rise, as of his total of 11 PPPts on the season, six, i.e., more than half, have come in just the last ten games. His TOI also has been 18:43+ in all but two of those ten games, after being above that TOI threshold just four prior to the calendar flipping to 2026.

His OZ% is 59.3%, which does show he has been sheltered to some degree. It’s far less than many other rookies, and not concerning. Also, his 35.5% rate of secondary assists suggest he has room for more points in the normal course, as does his 986 PDO and 9.2% team SH at 5×5 with him on the ice.

There is concern in that at most four forwards will be on PP1, and veterans Chris Kreider and Mikael Granlund have thrived on the PP in the past. But Sennecke has been on PP1 more than not of late, although admittedly there has not been a time since he started emerging that all of the team’s PP1-caliber forwards have been healthy. For example now Granlund and Terry are out, whereas earlier it was Carlsson. Has Sennecke done enough to keep a PP1 spot once all of Kreider, Terry, Carlsson, McTavish, Gauthier, Granlund and him are healthy? Tough to say, but even if not we should keep in mind that Kreider’s deal ends after next season, and Granlund’s after 2027-28. So even if he’s not a PP1 fixture now if all are healthy, he figures to be.

If Sennecke is not on PP1 consistently, he likely will have a tough time rising to much more than a 70-point pace. If he is though, then 70 should be a breeze, with point-per-game upside in the near term and 90+ potential once he hits his breakout threshold. Indeed, he seems like the real deal and a player to try to acquire before the asking price gets too high.

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THE ANSWER TO WHO THE PLAYER IS……….Carl Soderberg!

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Questions for Mailbag column needed

The upcoming edition of my monthly mailbag still has room for more questions, which you can send me by either private messaging “rizzeedizzee” via the DobberHockey Forums, or emailing [email protected] with “Roos Mailbag” as the subject line.