NHL Line Changes & Fantasy Alerts: Saturday, Jan 3, 2026
13 games on Jan 3, 2026 produced 23 notable changes: 8 power-play changes (4 up, 4 down), 8 line moves (8 promotions, 0 demotions), 1 big ice-time swing and 6 big games. The biggest: Kiefer Sherwood moved onto the top power-play unit with Boeser, DeBrusk and Pettersson, +4:07 of PP time (2 straight games).
Biggest changes
Kiefer Sherwood moved onto the top power-play unit with Boeser, DeBrusk and Pettersson, +4:07 of PP time (2 straight games).
PP1 promotion · VANGame reportTeam lines
Tom Willander moved onto the top power-play unit with Boeser, DeBrusk and Pettersson, +5:01 of PP time (2 straight games).
PP1 promotion · VANPickup alertGame reportTeam lines
Valeri Nichushkin moved onto the top power-play unit with Nelson, Lehkonen and MacKinnon, +3:22 of PP time (2 straight games).
PP1 promotion · COLGame reportTeam lines
Oliver Ekman-Larsson moved up to D1 with McCabe (2 straight games).
Line promotion · TORPickup alertGame reportTeam lines
Alex Iafallo moved onto the top power-play unit with Scheifele, Morrissey and Connor, +4:22 of PP time.
PP1 promotion · WPGPickup alertGame reportTeam lines
Changes by team
Valeri Nichushkin moved onto the top power-play unit with Nelson, Lehkonen and MacKinnon, +3:22 of PP time (2 straight games).
PP1 promotionGame reportTeam lines
Nathan MacKinnon had 4 points (1 G, 3 A, 2 SOG).
Big nightGame report
Kiefer Sherwood moved onto the top power-play unit with Boeser, DeBrusk and Pettersson, +4:07 of PP time (2 straight games).
PP1 promotionGame reportTeam lines
Tom Willander moved onto the top power-play unit with Boeser, DeBrusk and Pettersson, +5:01 of PP time (2 straight games).
PP1 promotionPickup alertGame reportTeam lines
Oliver Ekman-Larsson moved up to D1 with McCabe (2 straight games).
Line promotionPickup alertGame reportTeam lines
Morgan Rielly moved up to D2 with Stecher.
Line promotionGame reportTeam lines
Oliver Ekman-Larsson played 26:40 (+6:35 vs his recent average).
TOI spikePickup alertGame reportTeam lines
Alex Iafallo moved onto the top power-play unit with Scheifele, Morrissey and Connor, +4:22 of PP time.
PP1 promotionPickup alertGame reportTeam lines
Matt Coronato moved up to L1 with Backlund and Coleman.
Line promotionPickup alertGame reportTeam lines
Adam Klapka moved up to L3 with Huberdeau and Frost (2 straight games).
Line promotionPickup alertGame reportTeam lines
Andre Burakovsky moved up to L1 with Bertuzzi and Greene.
Line promotionPickup alertGame reportTeam lines
Wyatt Kaiser moved up to D1 with Levshunov.
Line promotionPickup alertGame reportTeam lines
Artyom Levshunov dropped off PP1.
Off PP1Game reportTeam lines
Alex Ovechkin moved up to L1 with Strome and Beauvillier.
Line promotionGame reportTeam lines
Tom Wilson dropped off PP1.
Off PP1Game reportTeam lines
Jonathan Drouin dropped off PP1.
Off PP1Game reportTeam lines
Matthew Schaefer dropped off PP1 to the second unit.
Off PP1Game reportTeam lines
Pavol Regenda scored a hat trick (3 G, 0 A, 6 SOG).
Hat trickPickup alertGame report
Darren Raddysh scored a hat trick (3 G, 0 A, 3 SOG).
Hat trickGame report
Nikita Kucherov had 5 points (1 G, 4 A, 2 SOG).
Big nightGame report
Jordan Binnington stopped all 26 shots for a shutout.
ShutoutPickup alertGame report
Joel Armia moved up to L3 with Foegele and Byfield (2 straight games).
Line promotionPickup alertGame reportTeam lines
Michael Bunting had 4 points (1 G, 3 A, 2 SOG).
Big nightPickup alertGame 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.
163 raw deployment changes were checked for this date; 17 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.