5. Thomas Greiss

A year ago, I made a big deal of Chad Johnson, the New York Islanders backup. With starter Jaroslav Halak‘s tendency to get injured, and Johnson’s previous experience, I thought he was a shoo-in for at least 30 games. Well, he ended up playing 19 games, most of it not very well, before being dealt to Buffalo. But the main takeaway from this story is regarding Halak. He played 59 games, his most ever and only the second time the 30-year-old has played more than 46. I don’t think we can count on another 55-plus starts from Halak. Usually his backups are good for at least 25 games. This year, that backup is Thomas Greiss, who signed a two-year deal at $1.5 million per to patiently wait for Halak’s groin to give out. If you were to ever handcuff a goalie in the league, it would be Halak’s backup.

4. Cody Hodgson

One of the former darlings of the fantasy world, Hodgson has fallen from grace pretty quickly. So much so, the best deal he could get this offseason was a one-year deal at $1.15 million, just a step up from a tryout contract. There is plenty of good news for Hodgson owners though. One is that Nashville has a bit of history of signing centres for cheap (see Mike Ribeiro and Derek Roy last year). The second is that Hodgson is only 25 years old, and only two years ago was a 44-point player, and three years ago he had 34 points in 48 games in the lockout-shortened season. The talent is there, but last year was tough on a lot of Sabres. Any type of half-decent bounce-back season (especially in plus-minus, he’s been a minus -54 combined the last two seasons) makes Hodgson very valuable in cap leagues.

3. Justin Williams

While there’s no guarantee that Williams will be playing alongside Alexander Ovechkin and Nicklas Backstrom, the fact he’s no longer on low-scoring L.A. means a boost to his stats. If he can get a top-six role, even if it means playing with Marcus Johansson and Evgeny Kuznetsov, then Williams owners will be delighted. After all, he is making just $3.25 million a year for the next two seasons, and as a multiple Cup winner, will be leaned on heavily to show the Caps what it takes to win.

2. Yannick Weber

Fun fact #1: Weber was the only Canucks defenceman to hit double digits in goals last season, and his 11 goals was just as much as Alexander Edler, Dan Hamhuis and Christopher Tanev combined.  Fun fact #2: His five power play goals was tied for second on the Canucks, despite averaging just 1:27 per game on the power play. Weber isn’t really a contender as a top defenceman, but since the fall of Alexander Edler, he’s the Canucks best option. Extra bonus: He signed a one-year deal that will pay him just $1.5 million. There’s only eight defencemen in the league that had at least 10 goals, five power play goals, 30 pims and a positive plus-minus, and the rest make a lot more money.

1. Patrick Eaves

Despite getting a 77 per cent pay raise, Eaves will still only be making $1.15 million for the next season after re-signing with the Dallas Stars. Because of injuries last year that limited him to 47 games, he’s a little underrated, but let’s pro-rate his stats: 24 goals, 47 points, plus-21, 10 power play goals, and 159 shots. Sure there’s no guarantee that he will play with Tyler Seguin and Jamie Benn regularly like he did last season, and he is due for a regression as last season was his best in eight years and his shooting percentage was 15.4 (five points higher than his career average). But at that salary, he’s well worth it even with a regression coming.