FANTASY GUIDE is updated NOW. Buy it here. Bonus – I don’t know why I didn’t think of this before, but I added a chart of the Top 100 preseason scorers to the guide. List also updated.

Ah, now the Junland cut is explained – the Blues signed Darryl Sydor.

Radek Smolenak was waived by TB and claimed by Chicago. Interesting. Why did they want him? They are already too deep up front. Someone is drunk over there. Also indications from TB Tribune beatwriter that Ashton will be cut today.

The Preds have cut Jonathan Blum and Ben Eaves, also two others.

The Blues have cut Jonas Junland.

Florida is off to Finland tonight. They are taking two more players than the roster limit of 24, including Kulikov, Matthias, Repik, Backman, Taffe and Salak. Looks promising for Matthias and Kulikov.

Michael Russo Tweets that Danny Irmen and Robbie Earl have been waived by the Wild.

The Flyers have released Randy Jones. If he clears waivers, he will play in the AHL this year. I doubt the Flyers would risk paying half his salary via re-entry waivers, so he’s gone if no team claims him. For the season.

The Devils have reportedly signed center Rob Niedermayer to a contract. I still think Bergfors will make the team.

Angus here – got a fantasy hockey question you need an answer to? Ask me here!

I saw the writing on the wall when I read a quote from Sutter playing down how solid Fleury has been. The Flames released Theo, according to TSN. No details yet if their farm team will sign him.

The Canucks have released Mark Parrish.

Carolina has cut Zach Boychuk and Patrick Dwyer. Still there – McBain.

He gave it a good run, but Mat Perreault has been sent down by the Caps. Frankly, I like the little guy’s potential and upside in about two-three years. Almost as much as I like Gerbe.

In a Star interview, Ron Wilson indicated that Rickard Wallin has won a spot at center with the Leafs. I saw that coming a month ago, but after seeing some preseason action, I changed my mind. Guess that’s why I’m not a coach. Don’t expect him in a scoring role, though.

Al Montoya has been cut. The ‘Yotes will go with Jason Labarbera as their backup. Montoya had impressed at the end of last year, but didn’t show enough in camp. Labarbera was brought in to push him and he pushed him right out the door.

Dobber around the ‘net – here is yesterday’s piece at Puck Daddy. Here is my column from Tuesday over at The Hockey News.

Colorado extended Milan Hejduk for one year. This is significant because a year ago he said that he was 1) playing through pain in his knee 2) needed surgery to fix it and the surgery requires a good eight months of recovery 3) he can play through it, and just retire after the 2009-10 season. Now that he’s signed through the 2010-11 season, I guess he decided to put the surgery off for another year. That makes me believe he should have had the surgery in 2007 and missed the time. By now he’d be back to the Hejduk of old.

Tomas Tatar was among Detroit’s cuts. He had a huge camp and is a little closer than I thought. Still three years though. The Dan Cloutier experiment is over – the Wings have released him.

Atlanta (re)acquired journeyman defenseman Steve McCarthy from the Ducks for some reason.
Chicago cut Richard Petiot and placed him on waivers.

Patrice Breeze-by retired yesterday.

KEY CUTS (you may have missed here yesterday afternoon):
Mikael Backlund, Brett Sutter, CGY
Tomas Tatar, DET
M-A Cliche, Kyle Clifford, LA
Ryan Ellis, NSH
Alex Vasyunov, Patrice Cormier, Nick Palmieri, Matt Corrente, NJ
Bob Sanguinetti, NYR
Joel Perrault, Al Montoya, PHO
Barry Tallackson, Yan Stastny, STL
Eric Walsky, Daren Mchesney, Yann Sauve, Dave Scatchard, Ronald Petrovicky, VAN

The new DobberHockey t-shirt shop can be found here. Use the code DOBBERHOCKEY and get 15% off your purchase. No duty paid if you’re in Canada.

Fantasy Guide to be updated later this afternoon. Also the picklist as well. Also – look for Dobber Nation, the best damn fantasy hockey radio show on the ‘net. Guests include Proteau, Filppula, Glencross and myself.