NHL weekly

NHL Week 4 Schedule Planner: Four-Game Teams, Back-to-Backs and Returns

Published October 18, 2026 • 6 min read • Fantasy Chalk Talk

By Fantasy Chalk Talk. Built from the NHL schedule, standings, rosters and injury report on our week planner; source notes live in Credits.

Will Smith
Will Smith • SJS • C

Set your fringe skater slots around workload, then leave room for goalie and injury updates before lineup lock.

The week at a glance

Week 4, Oct 19–25: 48 games over 7 days. 5 teams play 4 or more games: ANA, COL, MIN, SJS and TOR. 5 teams play 2 games or fewer: BUF, CBJ, CGY, CHI and WSH.

For a close weekly lineup call, use Anaheim to break a tie at a flexible forward slot.

Four-game teams to lean on

Team Games Schedule Opponents' avg. points
ANA 4 Mon at NYR, Tue at NYI, Thu at NJD, Sat at PHI 8.8
COL 4 Mon at PHI, Tue at NJD, Fri vs TBL, Sun at NSH 8.5
MIN 4 Tue at EDM, Thu at CGY, Sat at SEA, Sun at VAN 7.8
SJS 4 Mon at TOR, Tue at MTL, Thu at OTT, Sat at BOS 10.8
TOR 4 Mon vs SJS, Tue at CBJ, Thu vs NYR, Sat at EDM 10.3

Key players on these teams, with their 2025-26 lines:

Player Team Pos Games Goals Assists Points PPP Shots Hits Blocks
Cutter Gauthier ANA LW 76 41 28 69 19 285 66 20
Leo Carlsson ANA C 70 29 37 66 17 192 14 29
Beckett Sennecke ANA RW 82 23 37 60 13 196 97 24
Kirill Kaprizov MIN LW 78 45 44 89 32 266 52 27
Matt Boldy MIN LW 76 42 43 85 30 252 61 58
Quinn Hughes MIN D 74 7 69 76 34 187 7 87
Macklin Celebrini SJS C 82 45 70 115 33 287 53 53
Will Smith SJS C 69 24 35 59 17 166 16 12
Alexander Wennberg SJS C 80 18 37 55 15 94 28 93
William Nylander TOR RW 65 30 48 78 21 156 14 26
John Tavares TOR C 82 31 40 71 21 192 74 24
Darren Raddysh TOR D 73 22 48 70 26 212 69 69
Nathan MacKinnon COL C 80 53 74 127 30 349 64 35
Martin Necas COL C 78 38 61 99 24 205 85 26
Cale Makar COL D 75 20 59 79 29 200 35 116

If you need center help in a points league, consider Will Smith for your flex slot.

Cutter Gauthier
Cutter Gauthier • ANA

Light weeks to plan around

Team Games Schedule Opponents' avg. points
BUF 2 Wed vs PHI, Sat at WSH 7.5
CBJ 2 Tue vs TOR, Sat vs VGK 12
CGY 2 Thu vs MIN, Sat vs DET 9.5
CHI 2 Fri vs MTL, Sun vs FLA 10.5
WSH 2 Tue vs LAK, Sat vs BUF 6

If you rely on Washington skaters in a weekly league, compare your fringe forward with a busier option before lock.

Back-to-backs and goalies

9 teams play on consecutive nights this week.

Team First night Second night
ANA Mon at NYR Tue at NYI
COL Mon at PHI Tue at NJD
SJS Mon at TOR Tue at MTL
TOR Mon vs SJS Tue at CBJ
FLA Wed at OTT Thu at PIT
OTT Wed vs FLA Thu vs SJS
TBL Fri at COL Sat at UTA
MIN Sat at SEA Sun at VAN
NSH Sat at PIT Sun vs COL

On a back-to-back, the backup could start one of the two games: nobody knows who starts in goal on a given night until the team confirms it.

Goalies on those teams, with their 2025-26 lines:

Player Team Pos Games Wins SV%
Lukas Dostal ANA G 55 30 .888
Ville Husso ANA G 20 10 .884
Filip Gustavsson MIN G 50 28 .904
Calvin Pickard MIN G 16 5 .870
Jesper Wallstedt MIN G 35 18 .915
Yaroslav Askarov SJS G 47 21 .884
Alex Nedeljkovic SJS G 39 18 .895
Sergei Bobrovsky TOR G 51 27 .876
Anthony Stolarz TOR G 26 10 .893
Mackenzie Blackwood COL G 38 23 .903
Scott Wedgewood COL G 45 31 .921
Jacob Markstrom FLA G 44 23 .883
Akira Schmid FLA G 34 16 .893
Samuel Ersson OTT G 33 14 .869
Linus Ullmark OTT G 49 28 .890
Dennis Hildeby TBL G 20 5 .914
Andrei Vasilevskiy TBL G 58 39 .912
Justus Annunen NSH G 27 10 .905
Juuse Saros NSH G 59 28 .893

If you carry Scott Wedgewood in a daily league, keep your goalie slot flexible and check starter announcements before each lock.

Scott Wedgewood
Scott Wedgewood • COL

Due back and injury changes

Players with a listed return date this week:

Player Team Status Injury Listed return
Nicolas Roy COL DTD Lower body Mon, Oct 19
Zachary L'Heureux COL DTD Upper body Mon, Oct 19
David Perron DAL Out Not injury related Tue, Oct 20
Marco Kasper DET IR Upper body Tue, Oct 20
Marcus Foligno MIN IR Lower body Tue, Oct 20
Mats Zuccarello LAK IR Undisclosed Tue, Oct 20
Nico Sturm MIN IR Concussion Tue, Oct 20
Sam Montembeault MTL IR Lower body Tue, Oct 20
Seth Jarvis CAR IR Shoulder, surgery Tue, Oct 20
Matt Grzelcyk BUF IR Lower body Wed, Oct 21
Radko Gudas FLA Out Undisclosed Wed, Oct 21
Rasmus Dahlin BUF Out Upper body Wed, Oct 21
Alex Turcotte LAK IR Undisclosed Thu, Oct 22
J.T. Compher DET IR Undisclosed Thu, Oct 22
Jared Spurgeon MIN Out Upper body Thu, Oct 22
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins EDM IR Lower body Thu, Oct 22
Samuel Honzek CGY Out Lower body Thu, Oct 22
Bowen Byram CHI Out Upper body Fri, Oct 23
Alec Regula EDM IR Undisclosed Sat, Oct 24
Alex Lyon BUF IR Upper body Sat, Oct 24
Conor Timmins BUF IR Lower body Sat, Oct 24
Jack Rathbone BUF IR Undisclosed Sat, Oct 24
Jan Jenik LAK IR Undisclosed Sat, Oct 24
Kevin Fiala LAK IR Left lower leg, surgery Sat, Oct 24
Mikael Granlund ANA Out Upper body Sat, Oct 24
Taylor Hall CAR Out Upper body Sat, Oct 24
Andrew Mangiapane CHI IR Lower body Sun, Oct 25
Cameron Hughes DAL IR Upper body Sun, Oct 25
Logan O'Connor COL IR Lower body Sun, Oct 25
Luke Krys DAL IR Undisclosed Sun, Oct 25

Also on the injury report for teams with 4 or more games:

Player Team Status Injury Listed return
Ian Moore ANA IR Lower body Sun, Nov 8
Ryan Poehling ANA IR Lower body Wed, Nov 25
Troy Terry ANA IR Hip, surgery Sat, Nov 21
Georgii Merkulov COL IR Undisclosed Wed, Oct 28
Brock Faber MIN IR Skull, surgery Tue, Nov 3
Filip Gustavsson MIN IR Hip, surgery Sun, Nov 1
Nick Foligno MIN IR Upper body Sun, Oct 18 (date passed)
Kyle Keyser SJS IR Upper body Tue, Dec 1
Quentin Musty SJS IR Upper body Tue, Dec 1
Cade Webber TOR IR Elbow Sat, Oct 31
Chris Tanev TOR IR Upper body Thu, Oct 22
Dakota Joshua TOR IR Abdomen Sat, Oct 24
Elvis Merzlikins TOR IR Shoulder, surgery Tue, Mar 30
Max Domi TOR IR Back, surgery Sat, Nov 21
Miles Wood TOR IR Undisclosed Thu, Oct 22
William Villeneuve TOR IR Knee, surgery Sat, Oct 31
John Tavares TOR Out Lower body Sat, Oct 31

Injury report changes since Fri, Oct 16 (report of Sat, Oct 17):

Player Team From To
Cutter Gauthier ANA DTD Off the report
Mikael Granlund ANA DTD Out
Pavel Zacha BOS Not listed DTD
Rasmus Dahlin BUF DTD Out
Topias Leinonen BUF IR Off the report
Bowen Byram CHI DTD Out
David Perron DAL Not listed Out
Jake Walman EDM DTD Off the report
Jason Dickinson EDM DTD Out
Zach Hyman EDM DTD Off the report
Jacob Markstrom FLA Out Off the report
Oliver Kapanen MTL IR Off the report
Luke Evangelista NJD DTD Out
Jake Sanderson OTT DTD Out
Nikolas Matinpalo OTT Out Off the report
Cam York PHI DTD Out
Owen Tippett PHI Not listed DTD
Egor Chinakhov PIT Not listed DTD
Felix Trudeau STL IR Off the report
John Tavares TOR DTD Out

If Seth Jarvis occupies your injured reserve slot, check his status before moving him into a weekly lineup.

Seth Jarvis
Seth Jarvis • CAR

Looking ahead

Next week, Oct 26–Nov 1: 5 teams have 4 or more games: CGY, EDM, LAK, OTT and WPG.

If Calgary skaters are on your bench, keep a flexible roster spot open for next week.

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Player photos (cropped): Wikimedia Commons contributors under open licenses, credited on Credits.