In the fantasy world, there was the big release yesterday by Yahoo of their daily fantasy platform. For right now, there is just baseball going on, so that's all that's available on the app (which is available as an update to their mobile app, or can be used on their site).

For those that may be unfamiliar with daily fantasy, you have likely seen the DraftKings or FanDuel advertisements during sporting events over the last year. It's still a fantasy game, but reduced to one day instead of a full season. Owners are given a salary cap to work with, and the players vary in salary based on a number of factors. Owners can play head-to-head, in 50-50 games where half the field wins the same amount, small tournaments, or large ones with tens of thousands of people. Scoring differs from sport to sport, with the weight and nature of the scoring changing from site to site.

Note I said in that paragraph about winning an amount. The vast majority of daily fantasy games charge an entry fee, with costs ranging from a dollar to thousands of dollars. ESPN paired up with DraftKings, and now Yahoo has rolled out their own platform.

This is a huge move by a major player. Regardless of what readers may think of Yahoo and their fantasy games (and interface), they are a widely popular site. This brings more exposure to a fantasy game that seems to be growing exponentially.

It appears that there will be NHL games as well, as their main site has a shadow image of a puck with the letters "NHL" below it, placed alongside the MLB, NFL, and NBA. DFS hockey has still remained fairly niche, with far fewer players than the other sports, and smaller contests as a result. I'm curious to see if Yahoo's rollout adds a lot of newer players, or if they just provide another place for existing players to play.

The caveat here is that it is not open to Canada yet, though the other sites are. If they want to grab a share of the NHL market from DraftKings, FanDuel, and others, they should probably figure this one out soon.

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Despite signings like Saad and Tarasenko, the bridge deals are still occurring around the NHL. One of these was offered to Minnesota's Mikael Granlund, who signed a two-year, $6-million deal to stay with the Wild for the next couple of seasons.

Granlund is kind of an interesting case for me. He is a player who plays the style of the new NHL, and has done so since coming in. He likes to carry the puck, look for teammates, and wait for plays to develop. He's not a scorer, and he's not a grinder. What he is, is a player that wants to maximize his team's chances, while keeping the puck away from the other team.

While his goal differentials have been solid to date (like, second line solid), his defence has as well (though how he does this is up for debate). He has solid assist totals (31 and 33 the last two seasons), but has just 16 goals in those years. He's not worth much in a roto league.

I still hold out hope that Granlund becomes a mini-Joe Thornton. A player whose ability to keep the puck away from the other team prevents offence from finding the back of his net, while putting up 40-50 assists. He has two years to prove that he can be that player.