NHL Line Changes & Fantasy Alerts: Thursday, Dec 18, 2025
10 games on Dec 18, 2025 produced 11 notable changes: 2 power-play changes (1 up, 1 down), 5 line moves (5 promotions, 0 demotions), 2 big ice-time swings and 2 big games. The biggest: Denton Mateychuk moved up to D1 with Werenski (2 straight games).
Biggest changes
Denton Mateychuk moved up to D1 with Werenski (2 straight games).
Line promotion · CBJPickup alertGame reportTeam lines
Sean Monahan dropped off PP1 (2 straight games).
Off PP1 · CBJGame reportTeam lines
Adam Klapka moved onto the top power-play unit with Kadri, Huberdeau and Andersson, +4:42 of PP time.
PP1 promotion · CGYPickup alertGame reportTeam lines
Adam Engstrom moved up to D2 with Xhekaj (2 straight games).
Line promotion · MTLPickup alertGame reportTeam lines
Egor Chinakhov moved up to L2 with Jenner and Monahan (2 straight games).
Line promotion · CBJPickup alertGame reportTeam lines
Changes by team
Denton Mateychuk moved up to D1 with Werenski (2 straight games).
Line promotionPickup alertGame reportTeam lines
Sean Monahan dropped off PP1 (2 straight games).
Off PP1Game reportTeam lines
Egor Chinakhov moved up to L2 with Jenner and Monahan (2 straight games).
Line promotionPickup alertGame reportTeam lines
Adam Klapka moved onto the top power-play unit with Kadri, Huberdeau and Andersson, +4:42 of PP time.
PP1 promotionPickup alertGame reportTeam lines
Kirill Kaprizov moved up to L1 with Eriksson Ek and Boldy.
Line promotionGame reportTeam lines
Adam Engstrom moved up to D2 with Xhekaj (2 straight games).
Line promotionPickup alertGame reportTeam lines
Jamie Oleksiak moved up to D2 with Lindgren (2 straight games).
Line promotionPickup alertGame reportTeam lines
Jamie Oleksiak played 22:06 (+6:00 vs his recent average).
TOI spikePickup alertGame reportTeam lines
Oliver Bjorkstrand played 20:54 (+7:18 vs his recent average) (2 straight games).
TOI spikePickup alertGame reportTeam lines
Linus Ullmark stopped all 25 shots for a shutout.
ShutoutGame report
Logan Thompson stopped all 22 shots for a shutout.
ShutoutGame report
How Line Watch works
- •Deployment is rebuilt from the official shift charts: the forward trio and defense pair a player shared the most 5-on-5 time with, and the power-play unit he spent most of the man advantage on.
- •Each game is compared with the player's previous five games (at least three), so a change means a change from his own recent role.
- •Changes that last only one game, come out of blowouts or move by a few seconds are filtered out. What remains is ranked by fantasy impact: first-unit power play and top-line moves first.
120 raw deployment changes were checked for this date; 9 passed.
FAQ
What is Line Watch?
Line Watch flags fantasy-relevant role changes from the NHL shift charts: players moving onto or off the first power-play unit, forwards and defensemen moving up or down the lineup, new defense partners, and big swings in ice time. Each night gets its own dated digest.
How is a line change detected?
After every game we rebuild each team's lines, pairs and power-play units from who was on the ice together, then compare every player with his own previous five games. A change only counts once the team has three games of history to compare against.
Why are some line changes left out?
Coaches shuffle lines constantly, so a one-game move is usually noise. Power-play and line moves must hold for at least two straight games (three after a blowout decided by 4+ goals). Ice-time swings must be at least three minutes, not come from a blowout, and either repeat or reach five minutes.
Where do goalie and injury alerts come from?
Goalie flips come from our starting-goalie snapshots, taken every 15 minutes: a different goalie listed, or a confirmed starter going back to expected. Injury notes come from the public injury report, matched to NHL players and limited to regular-lineup players.
Can I get these alerts by email?
Yes. Create a free account and follow as many players as you like from their player pages; you get one morning email with their changes. If you connect Yahoo, your roster's changes are included too. Every email links back to these free pages and has an unsubscribe link.