One hurdle passed – Sid the kid cleared for non-contact practice with his team. Keep an eye on who he skates with.

If I was picking second in a prospects draft from 2011 eligible players, my pick would be Ryan Strome. Love his situation in Long Island. Won’t play there this year, but probably in 2012-13.

Phoenix’s defensive situation – I’d say a top four featuring Yandle, Morris, Ekman-Larsson, and one of Klesla or Aucoin. Rozsival is in the mix too but I wouldn’t count on him to play top four minutes on a consistent basis.

The Fantasy Guide is now updated as of September 14th. Including: the Experts League Draft analysis. Buy it here!

One of my favourite players is back for another season – Teemu Selanne. One year, $4 million. His 80 points last year came out of nowhere (to me, at least, I had him pegged for mid 50's). His presence kills the one-year value of Kyle Palmieri.

I was debating this trade yesterday in my keeper H2H – sending away Lecavalier, Eriksson, and Ian White for Weiss, Callahan, and Yandle. My breakdown:

Yandle may regress this season. Phoenix downgraded in goal, and his final 20 games of the season were nothing to write home about. However, people say they will struggle to score goals. They were a middle of the pack offensive club last year – how did the roster change all that much? Ed Jovanovski doesn't count – he's a shadow of his former self.

That being said, this was a case of me overvaluing a player I like.

With our league categories (hits, especially), Callahan is very valuable. However, at the end of the day I like to focus in the offensive categories (goals, assists, PPP, etc) and go after the peripheral stats later. It is much easier to add a hit specialist off of the waiver wire (Matt Martin, for example) than it is an offensive specialist.

Not sure what to think of Lecavalier – if he plays with St. Louis (which I don't see happening much at even strength), his value is good. Without Marty, I'm not sure where I peg him.

Check out this North American-wide fantasy hockey pool.

Calgary has to be happy with the very early returns on Sven Bartschi. Looked phenomenal during the rookie camp, and much bigger than he did last season. He's skilled and feisty, and he always seems to be involved in the offensive attack. Calgary doesn't have much (any) top end forward talent on the farm, but Bartschi will change that quickly.

A great read on Philadelphia's rookies who could make the team in 2011-12 – Schenn, Couturier, Rinaldo, and so on.

Fire Chris Nichols a question for his fantasy mailbag via email [email protected] This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Coming Sunday!

Time to plug the Fantasy pool manager – Hockey Knight. They are opening their site as a BETA for business as they add more features. Become a KEY part of this by adding your pool with them! Then get your say and help mold what they do. The vision – create the ultimate keeper-league pool manager. Already set up in a league? I ask that you set it up a second time over at HK. The more leagues/feedback we get in there the better it will be. Like I said, it's FREE for this year while it's in BETA mode so I'm not profiting a penny. I really just want to get this thing right and you can help us do that.

A great video to get pumped up for 2011-12: