What We Learned in Week 3 of Fantasy Hockey
Florida is back, and Kirill Kaprizov (ADP: 11.0) became the first skater to reach double-digit goals just nine games into the 2026-27 campaign. We’re back for another edition of “What We Learned” as Week 3 comes to a close and the fantasy hockey season reaches its 20th day. The schedule was rough, but we learned a few things along the way and, as always, we’ll try not to overreact.
THE GOOD
Did Olen Zellweger Just Lead the NHL in SOG Last Week?
He sure did. The newly acquired 23-year-old defenseman stepped up in captain Rasmus Dahlin’s absence, tying Brady Tkachuk for the NHL lead with 20 SOG last week. Meanwhile, Neal Pionk recorded five points in three games while filling in for Josh Morrissey, showing just how valuable a well-timed stream of an injury replacement can be. Injuries aren’t the end of the world; there’s always the next man up.
Hat-Trick City – Population: Panthers (+ Others)
Brady Tkachuk (2), Sam Bennett, Sam Reinhart, Mark Stone, Kirill Marchenko, and Matt Boldy all made hats fly this week, as the NHL saw seven hat tricks over the last seven days. All that lid-slinging helped Tkachuk (6), Carter Verhaeghe (5), and Reinhart (5) lead the NHL in goals in Week 3. It also kept fantasy managers who took a chance on a Panthers stack happily in the win column after a couple of weeks of unwarranted early-season stress.
Creases Are Shifting All Over the Place
Starting goaltenders are changing so frequently across the NHL that it’s easy to feel like the netminder you drafted was the wrong choice. We’ve seen three notable crease shifts over the last week in Montreal (Dobes/Fowler), San Jose (Askarov/Nedeljkovic), and Carolina (Bussi/Kochetkov), with the backups earning consecutive starts and outperforming their counterparts. We’ll have to keep an eye on these tandems in the coming weeks, but it’s a long season, and these creases could shift back and forth plenty of times.
Move Aside Benson and Doan, Jack Quinn Is the Sabre to Own
With excitement surrounding a young, up-and-coming Sabres team following a deep playoff run last season, Josh Doan and Zach Benson found themselves on plenty of breakout and must-draft lists entering the year. While both have played well, it’s Jack Quinn who has us most excited as an early-season fantasy pickup. The 25-year-old’s shot volume and TOI were already eye-popping before his two-goal, four-point breakout performance Thursday in Toronto. Now, he’s firmly on fantasy radars regardless of league size. With nine points and 24 SOG through nine games, Quinn has also secured a comfortable spot on Buffalo’s top power-play unit.
The Wall of St. Paul Is Standing Tall
A year removed from starting the 2025-26 season with a 10-1-2 record, Jesper Wallstedt looks dominant once again. The 23-year-old led all NHL goaltenders in wins during Week 3 (3) and leads the league with six victories on the season. With Filip Gustavsson sidelined following hip surgery, Wallstedt has stepped up in a big way, posting a 6-1-1 record, 1.99 GAA, and .921 SV%. Minnesota will lean heavily on him early in the season, and we’re all hoping he can keep it up after last year’s late-season collapse.
THE BAD
Week-to-“EEK” with Stars Around the League
As injuries continue to pile up less than a month into the NHL season, two more notable fantasy assets have been ruled out week-to-week. Josh Morrissey and John Tavares are the latest additions to the injury list, leaving fantasy commissioners wondering if they need to add more IR+ slots as they continue to field the dreaded “everyone is hurt, what do I do?” texts from league mates.
Breakout Candidates’ Highs Can Make the Lows Hurt That Much More
Early breakout candidate Luca Cagnoni found himself a healthy scratch on Saturday after failing to surpass 16:35 TOI in either of San Jose’s previous two games. That’s a far cry from the PP1 role that had us all licking our chops in Week 1. Meanwhile, deeper-league target Tristan Luneau has fallen off our radar and down Anaheim’s depth chart after failing to surpass 18:17 TOI in either of the Ducks’ last two games. Both players are likely headed back to the waiver wire in plenty of redraft leagues.
Frozen Frenzy Is Fun, but it Kills Streaming
It’s fine; we can all admit it. The off-night streaming options this week sucked. We had three nights (Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday) with just two games on the entire slate, leading to tough lineup decisions on the busier nights and, more often than not, the wrong ones. Fantasy matchups were won or lost strictly because of lineup decisions in Week 3. We all just have to live with that.
Get the Boys Some Soup
Wyatt Johnston, Luke Evangelista, and Pierre-Luc Dubois were three notable names who missed most of Week 3 due to illness. This could become a growing trend as we get deeper into the 2026-27 season, with illnesses keeping players sidelined for extended periods. With the NHL playing a longer 84-game schedule, teams appear to be taking a cautious approach with their key assets.
Kings Are Putting the L in Los Angeles
With Philadelphia finally entering the win column Saturday in its 10th game of the season, Los Angeles remains the NHL’s only winless team. Unfortunately, the Kings’ struggles have dragged fantasy favourites Artemi Panarin (0 points) and Adrian Kempe (1 point) down with them. Both failed to produce this week despite averaging more than 22 minutes of ice time per game. Better days are surely ahead in Hollywood, especially with Kevin Fiala on his way back. For now, it’s a week both players will want to forget as we add their names to our buy-low lists.