NHL Player News

Daccord (upper body) appeared in relief Thursday, stopping all four shots he faced in a 6-2 loss to Columbus.

It was his first appearance since Dec. 22 when he went down the an injury. Philipp Grubauer has struggled this season, so we expect Daccord to get the starter's reins fast. He's 12-9-2 with a 2.47 GAA and .913 in 24 appearances, compared with Grubauer's 5-13-1 record, 3.62 GAA and .875 save percentage.

Grubauer allowed five goals on 19 shots to Columbus on Tuesday before being replaced at 15:45 of the second period. The Kraken lost 6-2 to the Blue Jackets.

Columbus was good, and Seattle was sloppy, especially in the second period. Grubauer has lost four consecutive games (0-3-1), and he's 5-13-1 with a 3.62 GAA and .875 save percentage in 19 games. Don't trust him with your net.

Hofer allowed two goals on 23 shots in Thursday's 6-2 win over the Ducks.

The Blues spotted Hofer a 4-0 lead before he let in a goal, and that initial lead was never threatened. Hofer has allowed 11 goals over his last three games, but he's won two of them. The 24-year-old is now 9-4-1 with a 2.86 GAA and a .902 save percentage over 15 appearances this season. A little consistency could go a long way for Hofer to try to challenge Jordan Binnington's grip on the No. 1 role in goal.

Merzlikins made 29 saves in a 6-2 win over Seattle on Thursday.

Merzlikins has won three consecutive games, and he's 6-1-1 in his last eight games. He allowed five goals in those two losses, and two or fewer in just three games. In other words he tends to let in more goals than any of us would like. Merzlikins is keeping his team in pretty much every game, but his overall stats remain inflated (3.12 GAA and .889 save percentage).

Swayman made 27 saves in a 4-1 loss to Tampa Bay on Thursday.

He allowed three goals. The game was 2-1 until Brandon Hagel put an empty-net goal in at 18:28 of the third period and Brayden Point scored a power-play goal at 19:24. Swayman has lost five straight games and allowed 14 goals in that span. The Bruins have lost six consecutive games. With Swayman struggling, fantasy players may need to consider another option in their net until he rights the ship.

Gustavsson stopped 21 of 27 shots in Thursday's 6-1 loss to the Avalanche.

Gustavsson had to take this one on the chin -- Marc-Andre Fleury dressed as backup despite battling an illness because the Wild also have two injured goalies at AHL Iowa and couldn't make a recall work with limited cap space. This was a second poor outing in a row for Gustavsson, who has allowed 10 goals on the last 45 shots he's faced. He dropped to 18-7-3 with a 2.44 GAA and a .918 save percentage over 29 appearances, but he's also started seven of the last eight games since returning from a lower-body injury. The Wild have a back-to-back up next with road games in San Jose on Saturday and in Vegas on Sunday.

Blackwood stopped 24 of 25 shots in Thursday's 6-1 win over the Wild.

Blackwood picked up his second win in a row and his seventh victory in his last eight starts. This was the fifth time in that span he allowed exactly one goal, and he hasn't allowed more than two in 10 straight outings. Blackwood is now at 14-10-4 with a 2.00 GAA and a .911 save percentage through 29 appearances. He'll likely start again Saturday in a tough matchup versus the Jets, which will be the second half of a back-to-back for Winnipeg.

Vasilevskiy made 27 saves in a 4-1 win over Boston on Thursday.

He made 11 of his 27 saves in the third period to keep the score 2-1, and his mates did the rest in the last 1:32 of the game. Vasilevskiy has had a save percentage above .905 in 10 of his last 12 games (8-4-0), and he's allowed no more than two goals in nine of those games.

Sorokin will protect the road goal versus the Golden Knights on Thursday, Andrew Gross of Newsday reports.

Sorokin has gone 4-6-0 with a 3.54 GAA and an .873 save percentage over his last 10 games. He's seen a heavy workload in the absence of Semyon Varlamov (lower body), and that may be impacting Sorokin's performance. It'll be tough for him to turn things around, as the Golden Knights have scored 23 goals over their last six games, winning five of them.

Fleury (illness) took the ice for warmups and is expected to serve as the backup goalie for Thursday's home game against the Avalanche, Michael Russo of The Athletic reports.

Fleury was deemed questionable to suit up Thursday, but the Wild's organizational goaltending depth is in dire straits with injuries to Jesper Wallstedt (undisclosed) and Dylan Ferguson (undisclosed). As such, Fleury will attempt to power through -- he likely won't make an appearance unless Filip Gustavsson gets hurt.