Monday Morning Ramblings: News and Notes On Gustavsson, Stolarz, Ingram and More

Welcome fantasy managers to another week of the Monday Morning Ramblings. Now that most fantasy drafts have concluded, it’s time to turn our collective attention to the start of the 2025-2026 NHL season with plenty of news regarding the league’s masked men.

Don’t forget it’s never too late to pick up your copy of Dobber’s 2025-2026 Fantasy Guide for all of your last minute updates to the NHL season.

Now, let’s get to it!

Things sure do feel different in Leafland don’t they? Having now freed themselves from the financial commitment that was the “Core 4”, the organization can now support their elite talent with a much more balanced approach to the teams roster construction.

Enter exhibit A, the Toronto Maple Leafs newly signed goaltender Anthony Stolarz. Now Stolarz may not come across as a world beater or have the track record of a clear cut number one netminder, however, if you take a closer look at his stats you’ll see that the Leafs have themselves a solid option to turn to in goal.

Stolarz was putting together quite a season in 24-25 before succumbing to injury with a rather impressive 21-8-3 record combined with a sensational 2.14 goals against (3rd) and .926 save percentage (1st). It’s not as if it was a one off either as the New Jersey native has enjoyed some solid career numbers with a stat line of 64-39-12 along with a 2.55 goals against and .918 save percentage.

If Stolarz can come remotely close to replicating those numbers, the Leafs will have themselves a quality goaltender at a very reasonable cost. With an ever increasing salary cap and the team still employing more than enough offensive talent, Stolarz shouldl be a great source of wins while providing solid peripheral numbers for your fantasy squad.

The Minnesota Wild locked up another piece to their puzzle over the weekend in signing number one goaltender Filip Gustavsson to a contract extension worth 6.8M average annual value (AAV) for five years.

Fantasy managers will continue to reap the benefits of rostering one of the games top ten goaltenders for the foreseeable future with the added bonus of what should be a fairly heavy volume of starts combined with being a reliable source of wins throughout the season.

Most of the burden from the Parise/Suter buyout is now in the rearview mirror and to say that the Wild have taken care of some contractual work would be an understatement. After signing former ninth overall pick Marco Rossi to a new deal at the end of August, general manager Bill Guerin backed the Brinks truck up to hand over the richest contract in NHL history to the uber-talented Kirill Kaprizov.

In keeping the Wild’s core offensive weapons in house, along with his own raw talent, Gustavsson will continue to rack up wins while maintaining solid peripheral numbers for years to come.

My gut tells me that Andrei Vasilevskiy owners were able to breathe a sigh of relief as the two time Stanley Cup champion finally made his pre-season debut on Saturday for the Tampa Bay Lightning. It goes without saying that any kind of long term injury to “The Big Cat” would severely hamper the Lightning’s ability to make any kind of deep postseason run.

As it currently stands, Vasilevskiy is slated to be in the crease on opening night as the team continues to take a cautious approach with their all-star netminder. If Vasy can remain healthy expect his usual dominance as one of the games elite. Set it and forget it!

The Edmonton Oilers made a move to add another option in goal for the coming season with the low-risk, high-reward acquisition of former Utah Mammoth Connor Ingram. It may not be the sexy name that Oilers Nation would like but it is a very shrewd move on the part of general manager Stan Bowman.

Ingram has certainly had his challenges over the course of the last year having entered the Players Assistance Program in order to better cope with the loss of his mother in December of 2024. Once he had been given the green light to continue his NHL career, both he and Mammoth management opted for a clean break and a fresh start.

That is a decision that could pay dividends for an Edmonton organization looking for any kind of sustained, high level consistency in goal. Ingram may not be the second coming Dominik Hasek, however, the newest member of the Oilers organization can certainly give this team a boost when it comes to the crease.

Ingram had a bit of a write off year in 2024-2025, however, during his last run as the team's clear cut number one in Arizona (2023-2024) he put up some decent if unspectacular numbers with a 23-21 record accompanied by a 2.91 goals against and a very respectable .907 save percentage behind what was a bottom dwelling team.

If Stuart Skinner falters in any way to start the year, Ingram may just find himself in a battle with current backup Calvin Pickard for playing time behind what we all know is a vaunted offense with great chance to make a solid impact on the fantasy season even if it is only in a spot start / waiver pickup type of situation.

Good luck to all the fantasy managers out there and here's hoping your rosters have a phenomenal start to the 2025-2026 NHL season………with the exception of course to anyone I may be up against to begin the year!

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See you all again next Monday!