NHL Player News

Donovan was recalled from AHL Belleville on Sunday.

Donovan returned to Belleville on Tuesday when the Senators needed Jonas Johansson to back up Samuel Ersson with Linus Ullmark sidelined, but with the latter fully healthy, Ottawa had the space to recall the young defenseman. The 22-year-old Donovan has appeared in three games for Belleville to open the 2026-27 campaign, where he has logged zero points and five shots on net. He'll likely serve as a depth option for Ottawa until Jake Sanderson (lower body) and Artem Zub (knee) are ready to return.

Marino buried a power-play goal, dished out an assist and placed two shots on net in Saturday's 4-1 win over the Sabres.

Marino helped build up the Mammoth's lead down the stretch in Saturday's contest, where he recorded the primary helper on Anders Lee's goal before finding twine himself on a power play early in the third period. With the pair of points, the 29-year-old Marino is up to three points, five shots on goal and two blocked shots across six appearances. Marino should continue to play a complementary role for Utah for the foreseeable future after signing an eight-year extension with the organization in late July. He posted a career-high 36 points across 80 regular-season games in 2025-26, and if he can get back to that level of production in the new season, he'll hold decent fantasy value in deeper leagues.

McAvoy has finished serving his six-game suspension for slashing Buffalo's Zach Benson on May 1.

McAvoy will be eligible to return to the lineup against San Jose on Tuesday. He registered 11 goals, 111 shots on net, 129 blocked shots, 79 hits and a career-high 61 points in 69 appearances for Boston during the 2025-26 regular season.

Reilly notched two assists, two shots on goal, two hits and a plus-2 rating in Saturday's 5-2 win over the Blackhawks.

Reilly began the season in the press box, but he's since played in four straight games as a third-pairing option. He got on the scoresheet for the first time Saturday with the pair of helpers, and he's added five shots on net, six hits, three blocked shots and a plus-3 rating. Reilly is likely to see the bulk of the playing time over Juuso Valimaki, but he probably won't produce enough overall to justify a roster spot in fantasy.

Ekholm scored a goal on two shots in Saturday's 3-1 win over the Sharks.

Ekholm tallied the opening goal at 12:37 of the first period. The 36-year-old defenseman is seeing heavy minutes in a top-four role since the Oilers have gotten poor results from all iterations of their third pairing so far. Ekholm has two points, five shots on net, four hits, two blocked shots, 10 PIM and a plus-11 rating over five contests. He's topped the 30-point mark in each of the last five campaigns and should also maintain a strong plus-minus rating while recording a decent total in blocks.

LaCombe scored a power-play goal, blocked two shots and added two PIM in Saturday's 4-2 win over the Flames.

With the tally, LaCombe extended his season-opening point streak to five games. He has a goal, four assists, four shots on net, four hits, eight blocked shots and a minus-1 rating so far this year. It wasn't all sunshine for LaCombe in this contest -- he was briefly benched during the game. Still, he's the Ducks' most reliable defenseman for fantasy, and he's already delivering on offense.

Schaefer picked up an assist Saturday in a 5-3 loss to the Lightning.

Initially, Schaefer was credited with a goal that would have tied him with Bobby Orr for goals by a defender under 20, but the goal was given to Jean-Gabriel Pageau after a review. Schaefer has 23; Orr had 24. The former turned 19 in early September, so the record will be shattered this season. Who knew?

DeAngelo scored a goal and added an assist in Saturday's 5-3 loss to the Lightning.

The points were his first this season. DeAngelo is averaging 16:40 so far, and his 16:33 was fifth among Isles' defenders on Saturday. Sheltered minutes 5v5 plus second-unit deployment on the power play means DeAngelo will deliver decent lower-risk production for fantasy managers.

Hedman picked up an assist in Saturday's 5-3 win over the Islanders.

Hedman has settled into a different role this season -- his ice time has dropped and this assist was his first of the season. His season average ice time is 14:00, down from a career average of 23:16 and 18:52 last year. Saturday, Hedman played just 10:34, the least of the Bolts' seven defenders. His assist was his 812th career point to move him into third place by a defenseman born outside of North America in NHL history. The only others with more are Nicklas Lidstrom (1,142) and Erik Karlsson (941).

Crozier put up two assists Saturday in a 5-3 win over the Islanders.

It was the second two-point game of Crozier's career. The other came Oct. 11, 2005. Crozier has impressed beside veteran star Victor Hedman, but he won't put up a lot of offense. His best pro output came in 2024-25 when he tallied nine goals and 25 assists in 52 regular-season games with the Syracuse Crunch (AHL).