Week 3: Five teams play four, Washington and Calgary play two
MIN, ANA, SJ, COL and TOR get four games while CGY, WSH, BUF, CHI and CBJ get two. Plus goalie starts, streams, and the injuries that change lineups.
The schedule
Four games: Minnesota, Anaheim, San Jose, Colorado, Toronto. Two games: Calgary, Washington, Buffalo, Chicago, Columbus. League average is three, so the gap between the top and bottom of that list is a doubling of opportunity for one week only. Nothing here changes a season-long valuation.
The four-game rosters are stacked with names you already start: Nathan MacKinnon, Macklin Celebrini, Kirill Kaprizov, Auston Matthews, Matt Boldy, Martin Necas, Cale Makar and Quinn Hughes. Kaprizov played 22:32 on Oct. 18 and scored on the power play, which is the relevant fact behind his day-to-day tag. Celebrini's role is not in question (top line, first power-play unit, 22:50 per game over six games), but his lower-body issue is unresolved in the reporting and his status for Saturday against Edmonton is unconfirmed.
On the light side, the comparison worth making is weekly, not seasonal. A two-game week from Tage Thompson, Zach Werenski, Alex Tuch, Tom Wilson or Alex Ovechkin is beatable by a mid-tier four-game skater in a one-week matchup. It is not beatable over a season. If you are chasing a category this week, that is a reason to bench a Capital. If you are thinking about a trade, it is not.
Two Toronto caveats on the four-game week: Kirill Marchenko's work visa is unresolved, and nothing I found confirms his availability. John Tavares is on IR. So Toronto's four games do not all arrive with a full lineup.
The goalie starts
The most expected starts belong to Scott Wedgewood (about 1.8 on Colorado's four games) and Connor Hellebuyck (about 1.8), and both come with large asterisks. Wedgewood is the backup behind Mackenzie Blackwood, who started the first three games; Wedgewood's only appearance was Oct. 8, 26 saves in a 7-3 win at Calgary. No beat writer has reported the actual rotation. Blackwood himself projects to about 1.6. Colorado's four games therefore produce roughly three starts split between two goalies you cannot confidently time.
Hellebuyck has played no games for Winnipeg this season. Per Elliotte Friedman, the team-imposed suspension for missing camp ends Friday, Oct. 23, and Friedman also raised the possibility the Jets pay him to stay home. He is listed IR. Do not plan a week around him.
The cleaner names: Ilya Sorokin (1.7) is the Islanders' No. 1 but Pete DeBoer has given Semyon Varlamov real starts, three of the last five for Sorokin through Oct. 17. Andrei Vasilevskiy (1.7) has started Oct. 3, 5, 10, 13 and 15 and is the clear starter despite 15 goals allowed in six games. Linus Ullmark (1.4) was 5-0-0 with a 1.27 GAA and .948 save percentage through Oct. 12 and was named the starter on Oct. 10, 12, 15 and 17. Karel Vejmelka (1.6) is listed ahead of Sebastian Cossa for the Oct. 19 Penguins game.
Jake Oettinger (1.6) has started all six Dallas games, but he carries a day-to-day note and I could not find what it is for or whether he misses a start. Jesper Wallstedt (1.4) has started all four Wild games with Filip Gustavsson on LTIR after hip surgery and no return date given. Logan Thompson gets only about one start on Washington's two-game week.
Streams for the week
The top weekly number belongs to Tristan Luneau (ANA, four games), and I want to be honest about it: I found no current coverage of him at all. No pairing, no power-play unit, no confirmation he is on the NHL roster today. The number comes from the schedule and last season's five games. Verify he is dressed before you add.
The streams I would actually trust are the Colorado four-gamers below the top 90. Artturi Lehkonen is the top-line left wing with MacKinnon and Necas across Oct. 17 practice lines and the Oct. 19 preview, with second-unit power play and first-unit penalty kill. Brock Nelson centers the second line between Gabriel Landeskog and Nazem Kadri, with second power play and second penalty kill; Daily Faceoff has that line at 3.71 xGF/60. Kadri is the one with first-unit power-play time in the Oct. 19 projection, and he still has no goal this season. Landeskog is the shakiest of the four: 14:09 to 17:52 over his first five games, no power-play points.
Darren Raddysh (TOR, four games) is the deepest-league play with the most evidence behind it: 23:33 per game over five games, 4:05 of it on the power play, now paired with Jake McCabe after Toronto moved Morgan Rielly to Chris Tanev. Kiefer Sherwood (SJ, four games) brings hits but an unsettled line, second or fourth depending on which report you read, and a day-to-day tag.
Three-game options with real caveats: Oliver Bonk was recalled Oct. 11 to cover Flyers blue-line injuries (Cameron York day-to-day, Rasmus Ristolainen on IR) and has no confirmed lasting job. Porter Martone is in Philadelphia's top six on paper but averaged about 13 minutes before getting 15:12 against Carolina. Angus Booth is not in the Kings' listed six defensemen and is a recall candidate, nothing more.
Adds for good
Mika Zibanejad is the most straightforward of the rising group: top-line center, first power-play unit, first penalty-kill unit on Daily Faceoff's Oct. 12 page. The only churn is on his wings, Perreault with either Lafrenière or Dorofeyev. Jesper Bratt sits on New Jersey's first line with Jack Hughes and on the first power-play unit, with no reported threat to either spot.
Nick Schmaltz is projected first-line center between Clayton Keller and Lawson Crouse in every Utah source checked Oct. 19, on the first power play and first penalty kill. Mark Scheifele's Connor-Scheifele-Perfetti line has held together, and NHL.com had him with a goal and two assists in a 5-2 win over Minnesota. Artemi Panarin is on the Kings' first line with Quinton Byfield and Adrian Kempe and on PP1.
Two situational ones. Dylan Larkin was activated off non-roster IR on Oct. 6 and has centered Detroit's first line since, with first-unit power-play work; the unresolved trade request is the risk, not the role. Vincent Trocheck has bounced from third-line center to second-line center between Logan Cooley and Dylan Guenther in the Oct. 13 projection and the Oct. 17 game lines. Buy the higher slot only if you can tolerate it moving again.
Tomas Hertl is a third-line center with first-unit power-play, net-front duty. That is a power-play add, and you should price it as one.
Injuries that matter
The long absences first. Aleksander Barkov is on LTIR with a lower-body injury and an explicit six-to-eight week timeline, expected back around Nov. 27. Brad Marchand is out until at least Nov. 21, with coach comments cited suggesting longer. Neither is rosterable in a standard league. Kevin Fiala has a lower leg fracture, at least three weeks, just beginning to skate on his own.
John Tavares is on IR with a lower-body injury and a Oct. 31 target, which costs Toronto a second-line center through most of its four-game week. Travis Konecny is on IR with a lower-body injury and confirmed out at least three games; the 10/17 platform date is stale. Mathew Barzal misses at least the two-game road trip with a knee injury and no team timeline, despite a listed 10/20 return.
The near-term ones worth a bench spot. Seth Jarvis has an expected return of Oct. 20 after labrum/rotator cuff surgery and is traveling with the team. Rasmus Dahlin is day-to-day with an upper-body injury, targeting Oct. 21, on a two-game Buffalo week. Roope Hintz is day-to-day with an Oct. 20 target and no body part disclosed. Mikael Granlund was listed day-to-day with an Oct. 19 return.
Three more day-to-day tags with no reported cause: Auston Matthews, Cale Makar and Jake Oettinger. For Makar, I found no source saying whether it connects to the family reason that cost him a game this month or to something physical. Check lineups before puck drop on all three rather than assuming.
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