Week 5: Eleven Teams Play Four, Five Play Two

The Schedule

Eleven teams get four games: Florida, Chicago, San Jose, Calgary, Colorado, Pittsburgh, Tampa Bay, Detroit, Vegas, Anaheim and New Jersey. League average is 3.2, so a four-game team is giving you a quarter more work than a typical roster spot. Five teams get two: Ottawa, Los Angeles, Seattle, the Islanders and Washington.

The heavy side is loaded at the top. Nathan MacKinnon (#2) and Martin Necas (#19) both get four on the same Colorado line with Artturi Lehkonen (#65), who holds second power-play and second penalty-kill work. Brady Tkachuk (#4) and Matthew Tkachuk (#9) get four apiece on the Bennett line with both of them on Florida's first unit. Add Nikita Kucherov (#6), Macklin Celebrini (#13), Jack Eichel (#14), Jack Hughes (#20), Alex DeBrincat (#21) and Mark Stone (#24). Stone is at 17 points through 15 games, nine of them goals.

The two-game side is where the week-only calls get hard. Tim Stutzle (#26), Bo Horvat (#43), Drake Batherson (#47), Alex Tuch (#48), Adrian Kempe (#52), Artemi Panarin (#56), Dylan Cozens (#68), Ilya Sorokin (#69) and Matthew Schaefer (#70) all play twice. For this week only, a four-game Tristan Luneau or Beckett Sennecke can out-produce a two-game Stutzle. Over the season that comparison flips hard and it is not close. Do not confuse the two. Schaefer, for what it is worth, logged 24:33 on Oct 31 and runs the Islanders' first power-play unit at 19.

The Goalie Starts

Connor Hellebuyck and Andrei Vasilevskiy lead the week at about 2.1 expected starts each, on New Jersey's and Tampa Bay's four games. Hellebuyck's Devils share is not settled: he debuted Oct 27 at Dallas with a 17-of-18 win, Jake Allen took the back half of that back-to-back at Colorado, and nobody has published a target number. Vasilevskiy is the clear No. 1 and the reigning Vezina winner, with a slow start that no source ties to injury or workload.

Carter Hart comes next at about 1.8. The Nov 2 previews from Inside the Rink and Sportskeeda project him to start at Boston with Adin Hill second, but those are projections, not confirmations, and Hart is coming off an undisclosed injury that took him out of the Oct 27 morning skate. Hill sits at about 1.4. ESPN expects Hart to take one half of the Boston and Pittsburgh back-to-back; which half has not been confirmed. Colorado is a true coin flip: Scott Wedgewood at about 1.7 and Mackenzie Blackwood at about 1.5, on a tandem that split 43 starts to 36 last regular season. I found no 2026-27 reporting on a set rotation there.

Jacob Markstrom shows 1.7 expected starts on Florida's four, but he is on IR with an upper-body injury and Maurice's 10-to-14-day estimate dated Oct 20 is the last word I have. Akira Schmid is carrying the starts. Jeremy Swayman and Jake Oettinger each sit around 1.4 to 1.5 on three-game weeks; Oettinger carries a day-to-day wire note with no practice report or coach update after it.

Streams for the Week

Tristan Luneau (ANA, #134) tops the board at 52.5 for four games. He is a right-shot defenseman on the third pair and second power-play unit per Daily Faceoff's Oct 25 page, with first penalty-kill work, and he put up a goal and two assists in the Oct 24 win over Philadelphia. He was also a healthy scratch on Oct 22, so this is a volume play, not a safe one. Beckett Sennecke (ANA, #91) is next at 45.7, listed first in the forward group and on PP1 on Daily Faceoff's Oct 11 page, though a more recent Sportsnaut/Anaheim Hockey Now item has him at second-line left wing.

Pittsburgh's four games give you Erik Karlsson (#103, 44.4) and Sidney Crosby (#104, 44.3) on the same first power-play unit, Karlsson quarterbacking it from the top pair at 23:32 per game in October. Detroit's Moritz Seider (#118, 43.8) is the first-pair right side and the PP1 point man with first penalty-kill minutes, which is the stream profile you want in a category league.

Then the four-game forwards: Carter Verhaeghe (#108, 44.1), Timo Meier (#111, 44), Luke Evangelista (#112, 43.9), Brayden Point (#120, 43.6) and Sam Bennett (#122, 43.3). Point is the cleanest of these: every current source has him centering Kucherov with a first-unit spot. Verhaeghe, Evangelista and Bennett all carry day-to-day notes I cannot explain, and an undated officepools snippet says a groin issue keeps Bennett out Monday against Toronto. That is unconfirmed, so check lineups before you lock him in.

Adds for Good

Mitch Marner (VGK, #62) gets four games, sits on Vegas's first power-play unit with Eichel, Stone, Hertl and Connelly, and works the first penalty kill with Karlsson at even strength on line two. Vegas's power play ranked eighth at 25.7% in a recent preview. Seth Jones (FLA, #64) is averaging 25:55 per game, eighth in the NHL and more than four and a half minutes clear of any other Panther, and he runs the top unit. Four games, top-unit quarterback, heavy minutes. The only caveat is an unexplained day-to-day note.

Artturi Lehkonen (COL, #65) is the four-game add nobody is excited about and should be: first line with MacKinnon and Necas, second power play, second penalty kill, every source agreeing. Connor Bedard (CHI, #66) also has four, but the wire note says only that he might be available Tuesday against Pittsburgh, and I found no practice report or club statement on the shoulder.

Dylan Guenther (UTA, #67) and Vincent Trocheck (UTA, #61) each get three. Guenther is on PP1 in the Nov 1 preview and moved up to line one with Keller and Schmaltz, after sitting on line two with Cooley and Trocheck on Oct 22. Utah shuffles, so expect movement. Dylan Holloway (STL, #71) has three games and was demoted off the Thomas line to the third line with Dvorsky and McMichael, plus a drop to PP2. The Oct 31 shift data shows Montgomery still mixing him back with Thomas and Snuggerud for 5:42. Hold if you have him; the path back exists.

Injuries That Matter

Nick Suzuki (MTL, #15) is out with an upper-body injury to a Nov. 18 target. That is close to a month from a top-line center and power-play quarterback, not a day-to-day blip. Linus Ullmark (OTT, #11) is on IR with a lower-body strain and a 1-2 week window; Inside the Rink projects a Nov. 7 return, but that is a site projection with no club or beat confirmation, and Ottawa only plays twice anyway. Ersson and Johansson have the crease.

Kirill Marchenko (TOR, #41) is on IR with a lower-body injury and a Nov. 7 expected return: treat him as out for this stretch. Zach Hyman (EDM, #82) is on IR with a neck injury and a Nov. 3 expected return, so watch for activation. Mathew Barzal (NYI, #105) misses at least the road trip with a knee injury and no team timeline, despite a stale 10/20 date on the platform.

Adrian Kempe (LA, #52) is day-to-day with an undisclosed issue and a Nov. 4 expected return. Daily Faceoff's Oct 31 page has Martin Chromiak in his line-one and PP1 spot. With the Kings playing twice, there is no reason to burn a roster spot waiting. The long-term group: Aleksander Barkov (FLA, #87) on LTIR roughly four weeks out per Maurice, Kevin Fiala (LA, #92) week-to-week with steps remaining before he is even in consideration, and Jared McCann (SEA, #106) out around 10 weeks. Drop or IR-stash those three.

One to resolve yourself: Dylan Larkin (DET, #63) is listed IR with a suspension through Nov. 14, while the role research has him centering Detroit's first line since Oct. 6. Those cannot both be true. Check his actual status before you start or sit him.