Thoughts on Merrill, Heatley, Beau Bennett, Brendan Smith, the domino effect in Columbus at forward – and more …

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Pre-season games? Pre-season games!

Soon there will be pre-season points available, and Frozen Pool has such a report. Click here. When it’s ready with the pre-season games, you simply select “exhibition 2014-15” and off you go.

Just a note about Frozen Pool – right now some of the features will not work if you are logged into DobberHockey. Weird, I know, because it’s supposed to be the opposite of that. But anyway, if you have any trouble with a Frozen Pool tool, simply return to the DobberHockey home page and logout. Then try it.

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Devils defenseman Jon Merrill collided with Ruslan Fedotenko during drills late last week and Merrill was forced to leave, reportedly “feeling woozy“. The team is playing it safe and holding him off the ice. I doubt this causes Merrill to miss much more than a week or so, but it being a concussion you can never know for sure. In the Guide I have him pencilled in for 75-6-24-30 with 28 PIM. In a three-year forecast for him – I have him favored over both Marek Zidlicky and Eric Gelinas, so keeper leagues keep that in mind.

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Not at all unexpected, Dany Heatley is practicing with Getzlaf and Perry in scrimmage sessions. Heatley has completely lost the magic and about the only thing in the NHL that can turn things back around is a Getzlaf-Perry situation like this one. I don’t have my hopes up, but if anything is going to work it will be this. Still, the experiment could be over surprisingly quick. As we saw with Selanne last season, Coach Bruce Boudreau will have little patience for big name vets who aren’t contributing due to an erosion of talent.

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It’s early of course, but Danny Cleary has been playing with Henrik Zetterberg and Johan Franzen and apparently showing no signs of knee problems. NHL.com reports that Coach Mike Babcock has been impressed with his play. However, if he forces his way into the lineup (and on a scoring line, at that), this is to the detriment of talented youngsters such as Gustav Nyquist, Tomas Tatar and Riley Sheahan. I’m all for kids “earning it”, but I get the sense that even if they earn it…they won’t earn it. Nyquist will never spend time in the press box, but I can see Tatar and/or Sheahan there once in awhile in the first month. Even though they won’t deserve it. Sounds ridiculous I know. But when a team signs too many vets, this is the result. One of the tougher teams to project for, that’s for sure.

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Dmitry Orlov is still sidelined with a broken wrist suffered back in May at the Worlds. But there is no pain in the wrist now and he hopes to return to practice before the season starts. An infection to the wrist had extended the healing process and at this point he may miss the first week or two of the regular season. I have Orlov for 72-6-20-26, 28 PIM in the Fantasy Guide.

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Derek Stepan blocked a shot Saturday and is now sidelined with a “foot contusion“. Consider him day to day. But you know Stepan – he’d probably play a regular season game minutes after a leg is chopped off.

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You don’t like seeing stuff like this – Jonathan Drouin is day-to-day with an upper-body injury. No more details beyond that. But anytime you have a player who is on the cusp of making the team and potentially debuting with 60 points, it makes drafting him in one-year leagues a more difficult decision if he misses camp time.

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Uh oh, Beau Bennett owners – not only do you have a Band-Aid Boy on your roster, but now the coach is happy with how he looks playing with Brandon Sutter and Steve Downie. Yes it’s early, but the line actually does look good together on paper, which of course means that another winger will be on the Malkin line.

Still with the Penguins, the team is sticking with Crosby – Malkin – Kunitz – Letang for the power play, but that precious fifth spot is up for grabs. It really looks as though they will go with four forwards though – and list Hornqvist, Bennett, Downie and Sutter as candidates. If so, then the puck movers such as Ehrhoff, Martin, Määttä and Pouliot will be in tough to produce points. I already have Martin ranked fairly low in terms of production, and I’m pretty cautious with the currently injured Määttä and Pouliot as well. But with this news, I would be a little more cautious – or rather “less excited” – when it comes to Ehrhoff.