The morning after I listed Simon Nemec as a potential weekend add, he was declared out for both of the Devils’ weekend games. Sorry about that. The Devils are dealing with a rash of injuries and absences at the moment, as Jack Hughes, Timo Meier, Arseny Gritsyuk, and Brett Pesce (among others) also missed Saturday’s game. After a top line of Nico Hischier, Jesper Bratt, and Dawson Mercer, the scoring talent really drops off for Jersey.
Fortunately for the Devils, they were able to take a 4-1 decision over Anaheim on Saturday. Jake Allen stopped 30 of 31 shots to earn the win and quality start, which were both his first in his last four games.
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Quinn Hughes‘ Minnesota debut is expected to be today (Sunday) against the Bruins, but the Wild still had a game to play on Saturday. Joel Eriksson Ek scored the game-winning goal with 24 seconds left to give Minnesota a 3-2 win over Ottawa. Eriksson Ek now has six points over his last three games.
Fantasy Take: Hughes to Minnesota for Rossi, Buium, Ohgren, and a First
With two assists, Marcus Johansson now has five points in his last three games. Johansson continues to be surprisingly productive, already equaling his goal total (11) from last season. Many of his advanced stats (22.9 SH%, 10.4 5on5 SH%, 2.8 PTS/60, 1047 PDO) hint that he won’t continue to produce at a 60+ point pace. Add to that the fact that he is not on the Wild’s top power play and you can probably try to sell high.
Just in time for Hughes’ arrival, Brock Faber does not have a point in his last eight games. Faber should pick up some even-strength points simply from being paired with Hughes, similar to how Filip Hronek did in Vancouver. However, Faber stands to lose power-play time, where he has sometimes been on the first unit. Faber is a superb two-way defender, but he may be evolving into a better real-life defenseman than fantasy defenseman, especially with the arrival of Hughes.
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As for Vancouver, it seems that both of Marco Rossi and Zeev Buium will be on the top power play. Something to watch for in their early game in New Jersey.
#Canucks start off practice with what looks like a power-play install at one end of the rink.
First unit through:
🥅
DeBrusk
Rossi-Boeser-Garland
Buium
— Thomas Drance (@ThomasDrance) December 13, 2025
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I turned off the Penguins/Sharks game when it was 4-1 Pittsburgh after two periods because I had to go somewhere). So I was kind of surprised when the final score turned out to be 6-5 San Jose in overtime. The Pens actually made it 5-1 early in the third period, but then the Sharks stormed back with five goals in a crazy comeback.
Tyler Toffoli led the way for San Jose with two goals and two assists. Toffoli broke a five-game point drought with the four-point effort. Prior to Saturday, the last time Toffoli recorded a point was December 1, when he also had two goals and two assists. All or nothing, I suppose.
Macklin Celebrini scored a goal while adding two assists in this game. Celebrini has seven points in his last four games and back-to-back games with six shots. Celebrini also did a great job in sticking up for Will Smith, which might have been the TSN turning point of this game. No update was provided regarding Smith’s status after the game.
With a pair of goals on Saturday (including the OT winner), John Klingberg also has seven points in his last four games. Klingberg can be feast or famine, but right now he is on the Sharks’ top power play and he has logged at least 22 minutes in each of his last three games. He has also been contributing on that power play, as seven of his 14 points this season have been with the man advantage. Klingberg is rostered in just 4% of Yahoo leagues and 38% of Fantrax leagues, so he’s at least a short-term add if you need scoring and/or power-play help.
With three assists on Saturday, Alexander Wennberg has eight points in his last four games. He is rostered in less than 1% of Yahoo leagues and 14% of Fantrax leagues, so he’s more of a deep league option.
In the Penguins’ loss, Anthony Mantha and Bryan Rust each scored a goal while adding two assists. Rust might remember this game for the post that he hit in the third period, which if he were a bit luckier would have resulted in an empty-net goal that would have made the score 6-3 and probably would have put away the Sharks for good. What could have been.
Recently acquired Stuart Skinner was not in the Penguins’ lineup on Saturday. Arturs Silovs was in for all six Sharks goals. Expect Skinner and Silovs to battle for starts going forward.
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Tristan Jarry‘s first start as an Oiler was under the bright lights of Hockey Night in Canada in Toronto for everyone to see. Jarry was good enough to earn a win, stopping 25 of 28 shots in the 6-3 Edmonton win. With the Oilers sending more for Jarry than the Penguins exchanged for Stuart Skinner to facilitate the goalie swap, expect Jarry to receive a long rope as well as the bulk of the goalie starts over Calvin Pickard for the rest of the season.
Fantasy Take: Oilers, Penguins Swap Skinner and Jarry
Connor McDavid led the way for the Oilers with two goals and an assist, while Leon Draisaitl picked up three assists. McDavid has 15 points in his last five games with multiple points in all five of those games. No big deal. He has also pulled within four points of Nathan MacKinnon in the scoring race.
Playing on Draisaitl’s line, Vasily Podkolzin scored a pair of goals. That gives Podkolzin four goals in his last five games. Podkolzin also recorded four shots and five hits on Saturday, also reaching 101 hits for the season. Podkolzin has been on Draisaitl’s line for much of the season, so he is making some noise as a bangers league option.
Oliver Ekman-Larsson played on Saturday after being injured in Thursday’s game. Although he scored a goal, he finished with a minus-3.
With an assist on Saturday, Matthew Knies is tied for the league lead with 22 even-strength assists. All of Knies’ assists this season have been at even strength, even though he is usually on the Leafs’ top power play.
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If you’re compiling a list of most disappointing players this season, J.T. Miller might be included. However, Miller scored two goals including the overtime winner in the Rangers’ 5-4 come-from-behind win over Montreal (they were trailing 3-0 at one point). Miller’s scoring is down for the second consecutive season, as he is currently on a 53-point pace after regularly producing at around a point per game since being traded to Vancouver in 2019-20. Wear and tear might be a factor, as Miller is now 32 and he plays a physical, all-out style. The Rangers hope that’s not the case, as Miller still has four more years on his contract after this one.
Artemi Panarin scored a goal while taking eight shots on Saturday. Panarin now has 13 points in his last nine games.
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Connor Hellebuyck‘s return to the Jets’ lineup on Saturday couldn’t have come any sooner. Hellebuyck stopped 24 of 25 shots in Winnipeg’s 5-1 win over Washington. Hellebuyck had been out of the lineup for nearly a month with a knee injury. The Jets had gone 2-8-1 while Hellebuyck was out of the lineup, which included five quality starts and four really bad starts from Eric Comrie. The past month will reaffirm that Hellebuyck is the far superior goalie and should receive the vast majority of the starts for a Winnipeg team that should be better than they’ve shown while he was out of the lineup.
Gabriel Vilardi scored two goals for the Jets, giving him eight points over a six-game point streak.
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Sergei Bobrovsky‘s season has been kind of up and down, which might be expected after three consecutive runs to the Stanley Cup Final. However, Bobrovsky is trending upward again. Bob stopped 15 shots in the Panthers’ 4-0 win over Dallas. He now has three wins and three quality starts over his last four games. Although he has a 13-8-1 record on the season, his .885 SV% and below-average -4.04 GSAx (goals saved above expected) remains a concern.
In the win, Brad Marchand scored two goals and added an assist, ending a three-game point drought. Marchand still leads the Panthers with 18 goals and 34 points. His offseason signing has been critical for the Panthers because of the injuries to Matthew Tkachuk and Aleksander Barkov.
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John Gibson has recovered from a rough November, where he went 0-4-1 with a 3.91 GAA and an .853 SV%. With a shutout on Saturday against Chicago, Gibson has a 5-0-0 record with a 2.00 GAA and .940 SV% for December, which is more of what the Red Wings were hoping for when they acquired him from Anaheim in the offseason. Gibson is rostered in fewer than one-third of Yahoo leagues, so he is worth adding and rostering while he is on this run. He could pay off for fantasy teams if the Wings can prove to be a legitimate playoff team.
In the win, Alex DeBrincat scored two goals and added an assist. DeBrincat now has 11 points in his past seven games.
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Despite losing 2-1 in overtime to Calgary, Darcy Kuemper now has five consecutive quality starts as well as quality starts in eight of his past nine games. Although his win-loss record is so-so (10-6-6), Kuemper has solid ratios (2.21 GAA, .916 SV%) as well as 14 quality starts compared to just three really bad starts. Kuemper is proving that last season as a Vezina finalist was not a fluke. I would pick him as one of the three goalies for Team Canada.
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