Week 1: Seven games for the Rangers, Canucks, Flyers and Hurricanes
Four teams play seven times in Week 1 while Columbus, Los Angeles and New Jersey play four. Here is who to start, stream and avoid.
The schedule
League average is 5.4 games. Four teams clear that by a mile: NYR, VAN, PHI and CAR all play seven. Behind them sit a thick band of six-game weeks: PIT, VGK, SEA, UTA, CHI, BOS and TOR. On the other end, CBJ, LA and NJ play four.
That gap is the whole week. Andrei Svechnikov (seven games, top line with Sebastian Aho, first power play) and Sebastian Aho himself get three more nights than Jack Hughes, Zach Werenski, Adrian Kempe and Artemi Panarin. For this week only, that makes a mid-tier Hurricane the equal of a light-week star. For the season, it does not: Hughes and Werenski stay ahead. Do not trade season-long value for one week of schedule unless you need the points now.
Six-game names worth leaning on: Jack Eichel, David Pastrnak, Dylan Guenther, Clayton Keller, Mark Stone, Auston Matthews, Evgeni Malkin. Guenther has been the loudest early, with 5 power-play points on 12 shots across his first three games on Utah's first unit. Keller skates the top line between Nick Schmaltz and Vincent Trocheck and shares that same power-play group.
The light-week caution is Werenski. Nobody disputes his workload, 26:37 a game last season, second in the league, and he is the lone defenseman on Columbus's first unit. He is still a four-game player this week. Same for Kempe and Panarin on a Kings line with Quinton Byfield, and for Hughes, whose stacked first unit includes Jesper Bratt, Nico Hischier, Luke Evangelista and Luke Hughes.
The goalie starts
Igor Shesterkin tops the board at roughly 3.9 expected starts on seven Rangers games. He is the unquestioned starter; the open question is whether New York actually rides him after last season's absence, with Joonas Korpisalo and Dylan Garand behind him. Nobody has settled that, so treat 3.9 as a projection, not a promise.
Karel Vejmelka (about 3.8) and Sergei Murashov (about 3.8) are next. Vejmelka is Utah's workhorse behind an offense that wins him games even when his ratios sag, with rookie Sebastian Cossa now a real backup. Murashov is the trickier one: Pittsburgh Hockey Now reported September 25 that he appears to have won the second goalie job behind Arturs Silovs, with Joel Blomqvist carrying an injury designation. A projected 3.8 starts for a 1B is aggressive, so confirm the matchup before you commit.
Jeremy Swayman (3.7) is settled as Boston's starter with rookie Michael DiPietro behind him. Dan Vladar (3.7) has the Flyers' seven games, but his status was genuinely hedged: the Inquirer had him a full practice participant and on track, while Rick Tocchet said he would not call him 100 percent and named Joseph Woll as the fallback. Check before you stream him.
Below those: Ilya Sorokin, Andrei Vasilevskiy, Brandon Bussi and Carter Hart around 3.2, Joey Daccord and Jake Oettinger near 3.1, Logan Thompson at 3. Bussi and Hart are both in unresolved tandems, with Pyotr Kochetkov and Adin Hill respectively. Vasilevskiy and Thompson are the safest low-variance options here.
Streams for the week
Two names top the weekly value list and both come with a warning. Oliver Bonk (127.7) lost the Flyers' camp battle to David Jiricek and was loaned to Lehigh Valley on September 25. He has no path to NHL minutes absent injury or trade. Hunter McDonald (72.5) is in the same bucket: not in Philadelphia's September 24 exhibition lineup while other candidates dressed. Both numbers are schedule math applied to players who are not currently in the lineup. Skip them.
That leaves the real options. Porter Martone (112.3, seven games) is the best of them: a top-six piece in his first full season, with a September 24 practice unit of Michkov, Foerster, Zegras, Martone and Jamie Drysdale. Pavel Dorofeyev (77.2) and J.T. Miller (76.9) share the Rangers' second line and the first power play with Alexis Lafreniere, Mika Zibanejad and Adam Fox. Fox himself (74.5) gives you seven games on the top pair with Vladislav Gavrikov.
Nikolaj Ehlers (76.3) is on Carolina's third line with Jordan Staal and Jordan Martinook but on the first power play with Svechnikov, Aho, Jackson Blake and Shayne Gostisbehere. Seven games plus PP1 is a fine stream even from the third line, and if he, rather than Eric Robinson, wins the Jarvis vacancy, better still. NHL.com favored Robinson on September 29; other coverage calls it open.
Owen Tippett (74.3) is Philadelphia's top-line right wing with Zegras and Martone but on PP2. Travis Konecny (74.7) has a genuinely unsettled slot: camp and the September 24 preseason game had him with Christian Dvorak and Matvei Michkov, Daily Faceoff projects him with Noah Cates and Tyson Foerster, and he has been on the second power play. Will Cuylle (73.3) brings seven games, PP2 and penalty-kill work.
Adds for good
Mitch Marner, ranked 61st, is the most interesting name just outside the elite tier. He is on Vegas's second line with William Karlsson and Brett Howden, but Pavel Dorofeyev's trade to New York opened a seat on a power play that also features Eichel, Stone and Tomas Hertl. Six games this week. If he is somehow free, take him.
William Nylander moved off Auston Matthews at five on five and onto a line with John Tavares and Gavin McKenna, while keeping his spot on Toronto's top power play with Matthews, Tavares, Kirill Marchenko and Darren Raddysh. Six games. The power-play role is the part that matters and it did not change.
Elias Pettersson has seven games, centers Jake DeBrusk and Jonathan Lekkerimaki, runs PP1 with Marco Rossi, Brock Boeser and Filip Hronek, and anchors the top penalty kill. That is every-situation usage on the busiest schedule in the league, with the caveat that two down years are why he is available at all.
Dylan Cozens centers Ottawa's second line and sits on the top power play with Tim Stutzle, Drake Batherson, William Eklund and Thomas Chabot. Five games, but the role is better than his rank. Batherson's own spot is less settled: Ottawa used him two different ways in split-squad preseason games.
Injuries that matter
Seth Jarvis carries seven games on his schedule line and none of them help you. He is on IR after June labrum and rotator cuff surgery, with an expected return of October 24. Not rosterable in shallow leagues yet.
Charlie McAvoy is the cleanest known absence on the board: a six-game suspension, not an injury, with a return listed as October 13 at San Jose. Hampus Lindholm fills in at the Boston point until then. Plan for zero from McAvoy and do not panic-drop him.
Connor Bedard is out until at least early November after July shoulder surgery, with Chicago unable to give a firm timeline until October. Zach Hyman is out roughly two weeks, at least six games. Kevin Fiala has a lower leg fracture, three weeks minimum, just starting to skate on his own. Dylan Larkin is on non-roster IR with an upper-body injury and a trade request clouding the timeline; treat him as unrosterable until that clears.
Two to monitor rather than cut: Bryan Rust, on IR with an upper-body injury and an expected return around October 5, projected on Sidney Crosby's right wing, and Mathew Barzal, knee, not yet skating but expected back reasonably soon. One flag on Aleksander Barkov: his designation reads long-term IR with a knee issue and an expected return of October 4, which conflicts with a note describing him in the season opener on September 29. I cannot reconcile that from what I have. Check his status yourself before you start or drop him.
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