Joseph Woll could be a bit of a difference maker for the Leafs. Even if on paper he isn’t much better than Anthony Stolarz, sometimes teams get in their own head and play better in front of one goalie than another, and I wonder if we see a bit of that moving forward, as the Leafs have been terrible in front of Stolarz thus far, but last night they played a generally solid game in front of Woll for his first win of the season.
Very strange play there with the puck batted in from William Nylander leading to the goal against on Woll. Luckily, Nylander made up for it in overtime, dancing through the Blues on route to the OT winner.
On the St. Louis side, Jordan Binnington has been terrible, with only one game so far where he has allowed less than two goals. Not exactly how you show your country that you’re ready to be the starter at the Olympics.
Robert Thomas had an assist on the Blues’ second goal. After finishing last season with 48 points in 38 games, Thomas has started on a similar pace from last season’s first half, with 13 points in 16 games thus far. It almost seems like a big second half surge is a sure thing this year too.
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Joey Daccord returned to the net for Seattle, which was just in time too as Matt Murray was injured in his last game, and Philipp Grubauer doesn’t appear to be starter material anymore. Unfortunately for the Kraken, Nate Danielson got to him for his first career goal, plus his first career assist on the next Detroit goal. The Wings held on for the win, and we have to wonder if the bubble is popping for Seattle, who on paper looks primed more to be a deadline seller than a Playoff/Cup contender.
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The Devils had quite a shakeup to their lineup compared to last game with Jack Hughes out for a couple of months, and the trio of Dougie Hamilton, Evgeni Dadonov, and Connor Brown back in the lineup. Here’s how the lines looked:
#NJDevils’ lines in warmups tonight:Gritsyuk – Hischier – BrattMeier – Mercer – BrownPalat – Lammikko – NoesenCotter – Glendening – DadonovSiegenthaler – NemecDillon – HughesCholowski – HamiltonMarkstromAllenEveryone is back
— Alex Chauvancy (@alexcthw.bsky.social) 2025-11-18T23:49:51.578Z
That’s a great spot for Arseni Gritsyuk, and maybe a boost for Nico Hischier too. Dawson Mercer gets a bit of a step up on his flanks, while Dadonov starts back at the bottom of the lineup after being up on line one to begin the year.
The top line combined for the only Devils goal on the night, as they fell to Tampa who had only Emil Lilleberg and Darren Raddysh as their two healthy defencemen left from their opening night lineup. In spite of that, they rode Jake Guentzel‘s hat-trick and Raddysh’s three points to the win.
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Elvis Merzlikins got the second game of a back-to-back. I noted last week that him and Jet Greaves had alternated starts all season, then immediately after Jet Greaves was given five straight starts (in part due to Elvis recovering from and illness and missing his last scheduled start on the back-to-back games a week ago). Elvis didn’t have the best night on the goaltending side of things, but instead he at least went all out on offence though last night, and earned himself a secondary assist, for leagues that count such trivial things.
Josh Morrissey‘s goal and assist in the 5-2 win had him jump back ahead of Quinn Hughes and Miro Heiskanen for second place on the Dman scoring ladder this year. He has 10 points in his last six games, and has really rebounded after last year’s dip down below a 70-point pace. The underlying numbers are still high this year, but he should be able to keep above the 70-point mark like he did the two years prior to 2024-2025.
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Jamie Benn made his return to the lineup after missing the entire season to this point after having a procedure done on a collapsed lung. He started out on the fourth line, but don’t expect that to stick for very long. He’s not at the Art Ross winner level that he once was, but he’s still a middle-six winger, even though he’s playing catch-up a quarter of the way into the season. Benn did make sure to throw the body around a bit and get himself into the thick of things. He might be good for a bit more peripheral volume over the next few games before he settles into the season for the long-haul.
For the Islanders, Cal Ritchie scored his first career goal. He has had a bit of a rocky development path after being drafted in the first round back in 2023. The Isles could use some new blood up in the lineup, and Ritchie might be able to turn that into a solid scoring role moving into the second half of the season.
There’s likely some supplemental discipline coming for Mikko Rantanen after a brutal hit on a vulnerable Alexander Romanov. He got a five-minute boarding call and a game misconduct from the play, and it would be surprising to see him avoid a suspension at this point.
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Connor Bedard‘s hat trick included the empty net goals in a 5-2 win over the Flames. It was expected this year that one of those teams might be on the playoff bubble, in part due to a young goalie carrying the team, while the other was stuck in the basement, but for now the two teams are on opposite ends from where they were projected to be. Calgary is sinking, while Spencer Knight and Bedard lead the charge for the Hawks.
It was Arvid Soderblom who got the win last night though, and he has been similarly solid in the backup role for the last month. He might not be at the top of your streaming radar, but he’s worth a look when he gets the occasional start.
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After recording two assists in last night’s 3-2 win over the Rangers, Tomas Hertl is now pacing for his best season since 2018-19, at the age of 32. He’s shooting at 15%, which is a touch high, but not outside of the realm of normal. He’s shooting a little more than his usual rate, but that’s likely in part due to laying in a more offense-first role, especially since he’s being flanked by Mitch Marner. Expect the 70-point pace to continue.
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Not to be outdone by Bedard, Macklin Celebrini put the Sharks on his back last night, and carried them past the Mammoth with his three goals on four shots, including the OT winner. His scoring rate should slow at some point, but for now he’s still chugging along.
Yaroslav Askarov has been lights out lately, and allowed two goals or less in eight straight starts over the last three weeks.
JJ Peterka scored both goals for the Mammoth, his seventh and eighth of the campaign. Vitek Vanecek took the loss, which was his third straight.
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At this point in the year we start to get some of the AHL leading scorers called up when there are injuries or a need to shake up the NHL roster. We’ve seen a few of them in recent days who have made an impact, such as Braeden Bowman (12 points in 12 AHL games) with nine shots and two goals (one last night) while playing in the top six through his first four games with Vegas, and Riley Tufte (16 points in 13 AHL games) scoring a late power play goal for the Bruins on Monday evening. Bowman is out of the lineup again though, while it’s possible that Tufte beats out some other options in Boston to stay in the lineup when everyone gets healthy again.
Jacob Quillan (14 points in 14 AHL games) made his season debut last night as a bottom-six centre for the Leafs. He didn’t get a lot of time to make an impact, only playing nine minutes, while logging a shot and four hits.
These players though are all young enough that there’s a chance that they could carve out a ten-year career as bottom-six players, perhaps with some stretches filling in as top six options too. However, many of the top AHL scorers are the career AHL players who never quite made the jump to the NHL. For the sake of looking at those relevant to us in the fantasy hockey realm, we’ll try to filter through the options for just the ones with some eventual upside.
Stephen Halliday (16 points in 15 AHL games) – One of the better (read: only) forward prospects in the Senators’ system, Halliday has been on an upward trend the last few years, getting steadily better every season. The Sens have dealt with a couple of injuries up front, and he just got the call up yesterday, possible being an option to play in the next game or two. Keep an eye out for him moving up and down throughout the year as the Sens search for offence.
Rory Kerins (14 points in 13 AHL games) – A later-blooming former 6th round selection, Kerins has made a big jump in his scoring numbers the last couple of years, and if he keeps this up he might earn a shot with the Flames after the inevitable sell-off at the trade deadline.
Alex Bump (13 points in 15 AHL games) – Bump was someone that I thought had a real shot to not only make the NHL out of camp, but make an impact too. Thus far as an AHL rookie, he has at least shown that he is not overwhelmed by the pro game. The flyers have some depth at wing, but the team also isn’t too good that he can’t force his way up. Certainly someone to monitor in the shorter-term.
Amadeus Lombardi (13 points in 11 AHL games) – It feels as though with many other franchises, Lombardi might have earned himself a bit more of a look with the big club, but the Red Wings have so much depth in the forward ranks (and have been generally healthy over the last calendar year) that even putting up a point per game at the AHL level hasn’t put Lombardi head and shoulders above his peers. If he gets moved to another team, I’m immediately taking notice, but otherwise any potential impact will be slower on the uptake at best relative to some of these other names.
Matvei Gridin, Jagger Firkus, Daniil But, Nick Lardis and other younger players with some higher profiles also end up in the AHL for a season or two as a stepping stone to the NHL, and that’s what we’re seeing with this group. They’re all in the point-per-game range, and more likely to already be owned in deeper keeper leagues and dynasties.
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We’re just over a month away from the start of the World Juniors, and now might be about the time to see if you can add or buy-low on any players who are projected to be bigger scorers at the event, because there isn’t really a bigger stage that can boost the trade value of a prospect than the World Juniors.
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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.