Fantasy Focus: Checking in on the rookies

Last week, this column covered the season of Tampa Bay Lightning rookie Conor Geekie, and a few weeks ago we covered Anaheim Ducks rookie Cutter Gauthier. Then the idea came to do a league-wide rookie check-in, so that’s the idea today: What is the good, and the bad, from some of the top first-year forwards, all from a fantasy perspective? We will exclude Logan Stankoven because of his 24 games played in 2023-24, as well as Matvei Michkov and Macklin Celebrini because they deserve their own articles eventually. 

Jackson Blake (Carolina Hurricanes)

The Good: At the time of writing, Celebrini leads regular rookies with 1.28 goals per 60 minutes at 5-on-5. In second is Blake at 1.14, and he’s the only other rookie above 1.0. One thing he is doing extremely well is getting to the front of the ne