Fantasy Guide – buy here – is updated through last night.

Angus here. Dallas has just extended Loui Eriksson for six years. The cap hit is a shade over $4.2 per season. Very fair contract for both sides. Eriksson is a terrific two-way forward who can play in all situations. Should be a consistent 30-35 goal scorer for a long time.

Tomas Vokoun was awesome today as the Florida Panthers stole the two points from Chicago, winning 4-3 in a shootout. Michael Frolik was dynamic and all over the ice.

Atlanta has claimed Christoph Schubert off of waivers from Ottawa. No fantasy significance here, but he does have some real life value because of his versatility.

Andrei Markov’s ankle was cut into the tendon and required surgery. He is out 2-4 MONTHS. Paul Mara is my pick for PP QB, but look for the team to recall Yanick Weber – he may be a decent darkhorse. It will be Spacek, Mara, Weber, Hamrlik.

I love Aaron’s comment below. It says it all: “No one mentioned Craig Anderson’s amazing game yet, so I’ll throw it out there. Sharks outshoot the Avs 40 – 20 in the game, out ‘face-off’d’ them 32-13 and lose 5-2. They outshot the Sharks 19-1 in the 3rd period and got nothing. A sweet ‘Worst’ vs ‘First’ upset on opening day.”

Welcome to hockey! The big winner so far is Brooks Laich, who not only is lining up with Ovechkin and Backstrom, but the trio combined for nine points. If he continues to produce even mediocre points with these guys, he will hold the job after Fleischmann returns. Laich has the skills and upside to hang in there, too. He’s just 26, which is not even his prime yet, and his last three seasons have been 18, 37 and 53 points in that order. A nice, steady graph that we like to see – upwards. EDIT – Laich was a part of the power play, and not the top line after all. In my blurb above, I was going by the highlights and the final stats, and didn’t think that looking at the line combo charts in this case was necessary because it seemed so obvious. Oops. The big loser is indeed Mike Knuble, as he didn’t see any time with the big scorers at all.

I’m in a league where I own Matt Stajan. It’s a keeper that is strictly points. I couldn’t give him away for a song in the summer. If I mentioned him in a trade offer, I had to take him out of the offer or I couldn’t talk to anybody. It could be a six-player offer – six for six – and all that I would get in response back is “not interested in Stajan”. Meanwhile, he was practically a throw in when the rest of my offer involved names like Zetterberg, etc. I never understood that because he was a great junior scorer, he was drafted in the second round, scored in his first AHL and NHL games, and was an NHLer at 19. He was in my rankings around the 200 mark right from the start – so he didn’t come THAT much from out of nowhere last year. But its not just my league – THN’s pool guide has him for 44 points. The Forecaster and McKeens each have him for 56, and I have him for 61. After watching him last night and his chemistry with Blake and Stalberg, I wonder if we’re all coming in low.

Matt Duchene and Ryan O’Reilly tallied their first points of the season. All the same, I don’t expect anything huge from either of them this campaign.

The top ice time logger in Colorado? Kyle Quincey. That’s why I think he’ll be just fine this year. THN had him for 25 points, McKeen’s 26, Forecaster 36. Dobber – 36. I find that even though I can be conservative, I tend to be the least conservative of the mags.

Mark Giordano’s two points were impressive last night. As you may remember, I had him as a decent dark horse last season for points and penalty minutes. This year, I lost a bit of faith in him, but perhaps I was pushing him too soon? Two points, two PIM and plus-1

In Sergei Shirokov’s first NHL game he was pointless and a minus-1 in 13 minutes of ice time.

As expected, Jared Aulin will continue his career in the AHL, as he has signed with Syracuse. For those who were following his comeback. Both of you.

The Thrashers have cut Nathan Oystrick and he has cleared waivers. This is the result of the Popovic signing.

Dallas has signed veteran rearguard Stephane Robidas to a four-year extension. He’ll be making over $3 million when his contract ends at the age of 38. He won’t beat his career high of 26 points, as the Stars’ young defensemen come of age.

The Coyotes have signed Colin Long to ELC. I think we’ll see him up for a game or two this year, even with Porter, Turris and Tikhonov ahead of him on the call-up list.