Cody Franson receives an offer, Mark Stone is healthy and a look at some late-summer draft results … 

Earlier this week, I took a look through the Pittsburgh Penguins forward corps, after general manager Jim Rutherford and head coach Mike Johnston talked about the lines. Rutherford mentioned Sergei Plotnikov's acclimation to North America.

There was a brief article at NHL.com about Plotnikov Friday. One quote from the 25-year-old Russian should hammer home his value entering the fantasy season.

"I have to learn everything," Plotnikov said. "I have to adjust my entire style. You have to think quicker. You have to make decisions quicker. Everything is different. That's why I'm here early, to have that feel and make adjustments."

These on-ice adjustments are going to require seasoning in the American Hockey League, and if he actually breaks camp in a top-six role, there is no guarantee he'll stick there. It is fine to take a speculative flier in your draft, if it looks like Plotnikov cracks camp on a scoring line, but you better be ready to cut bait when things go south.

Perhaps everything clicks. It just doesn't seem likely, especially because there isn't a glaring need or open spot. Chalk Plotnikov as one of the most intriguing training camp watches, though.

***

There was a comment in my last ramblings from Woodrow about Giordano's contract looking suspect in the final years. This should be a concern for Calgary. I discussed the short-term issues because they were right in my face.

The biggest concern in the long term is the third contracts for those restricted free agents, namely Sean Monahan, Johnny Gaudreau, and potentially both the second and third contracts for Sam Bennett. It also means Dennis Wideman is highly unlikely to re-sign with the Flames.

You can't look too far ahead with these deals because who knows what will happen between now and the end of Girodano's contract. However, we've seen these contracts look bad in their final years a lot of late.

***

Mark Stone has declared himself healthy, and he has been skating with Claude Giroux, Erik Karlsson and Erik Gudbranson.

When I laid out my initial fantasy rankings and sent them to Cliffy to check for outrageous misses, he zapped that I likely had Stone too high. Currently, I've got Stone as my 16th right winger, for comparison sake, Yahoo has Stone as the 38th right winger.

Initially, I believe Stone was ninth.

It isn't to say I'm bullish on him, just that I expect him to repeat his statistics from last season. Banking on the torrid stretch he finished on last year is asking too much, but another 25-goal, 65-point season is in reach. And, there is upside for 70 points.

***

Cody Franson received a two-year contract offer from the Buffalo Sabres, according to sources. Franson is going to sign soon, and he is going to be a fine fantasy player in deep leagues.

In the right city, he may even be a low-end rearguard in 12-team leagues.

Replacement level is so high at defense that Franson is worth a look in the majority of leagues late, because if he does land in a ripe spot, you've got a solid option at an endgame cost.

***

I selected fifth in a monster 10-team league Friday. The rosters consisted of four players at each of the three forward positions with six defensemen, three utility slots and three goaltenders.

It was a cavernous 30-round draft at Yahoo.

Re-draft head-to-head league.

Categories are G – A – P – +/- PPP – SHP – GWG – SOG – HIT – BLK – W – GAA – SV% – SO.

I won't run through pick by pick, but there were some excellent talking points.

I was a little surprised to see John Tavares fall to me at No. 5.

The first round went as follows:

Alex Ovechkin

Sidney Crosby

Tyler Seguin

Steven Stamkos

John Tavares

Ryan Getzlaf

Jamie Benn

Claude Giroux

Evgeni Malkin

Carey Price

Through the first four rounds, there were five defensemen selected (Erik Karlsson, P.K. Subban, Brent Burns, Dustin Byfuglien and Mark Giordano. There were eight goaltenders selected (Price, Jonathan Quick, Braden Holtby, Henrik Lundqvist, Marc-Andre Fleury, Ben Bishop, Pekka Rinne and Tuukka Rask).

There were another seven goalies selected in the next two rounds (Round 5 and Round 6) and only two defensemen.

Five defensemen were selected in Round 7, where I selected Victor Hedman (65th), as my second defenseman to pair with Byfuglien (36).

Here are selections which stood out:

23rd Anze Kopitar – A great player who consistently plays tough minutes in a tough division and doesn't score goals. No profit in that reach.

26th Nikita Kucherov – I understand why it is happening, but I don't understand how it could work.

33rd – Tyler Johnson – There is no room for error drafting Johnson here. He likely even has to improve.

43rd – Taylor Hall – Had him queued up, and I potentially should have taken him instead of Byfuglien, in hind sight. I hoped he would fall.

47th – Nathan MacKinnon – Are we buying or selling this value, folks?

54th – Conor McDavid – This should be an excellent value. I was looking forward to making the decision had he been available two picks later.

59th – Frederik Andersen – It is interesting because he is currently ranked at 114.

86th – T.J. Oshie – It'll be very difficult for Oshie to land on my teams if his stock carries this much helium. Pump the breaks. He has hit 20 goals and 60 points once, and he is 29.

100th – Pavel Datsyuk – This league has IR slots, so this isn't a bench stash. While I'm not bullish on Datsyuk, I can see the potential here.

112th – Evander Kane – A likely polarizing player, unless Kane is banished to the third line again, it can't be argued his settings are worse than last year.

118th – Jack Eichel – Why not?

123rd – Jeff Carter – A safe bet for 25 goals and 200 shots could become a staple for winning teams at this draft slot.

129th – Chris Kunitz – Wasn't he a Round 2 pick last year? Have to think he presents some value anytime into the 100s.

135th – Evgeny Kuznetsov – I'm not sure we'll see him last this long in a lot of leagues, but he did go in the same round as Joe Thornton, Derek Stepan and Tomas Plekanec.

140th – Brendan Gallagher – Clearly, I was asleep at the wheel. Steal.

158th – John Klingberg – I had planned to select him but took Anders Lee the round before. I was a little worried about my goal scoring at the time. Klingberg shouldn't have lasted this long.

164th Nail Yakupov – He was on my radar at this point, and it seems like a reasonable spot for the winger to go. You should look to him around Round 15, if he is a target.

172nd Paul Stastny – Given where he could fit into the lineup, there isn't a lot to lose grabbing Stastny here.

173rd Ryan Strome – I took Kevin Hayes the round before solely because of winger eligibility. Strome seems like a great option to round out your centers late.

181st Cam Talbot – He'll look a lot better as your No. 3, and he could turn out to be a mid-range No. 2. There aren't likely to be many believers outside Oilers Nation.

190th Jonathan Drouin – When you're approaching Round 20, there isn't a lot of reason to layup. I selected Olli Maatta five picks earlier with a similar swing-for-the-fences mentality.

201st Andrei Vasilevskiy – Don't be surprised to see the youngster worked in roughly 25 times this season. If he is also handed the majority of soft starts there is sneaky value.

206th Jakob Silfverberg – Perhaps this draft room wasn't drinking the Kool-Aid. Or maybe Silfverberg isn't going to be overvalued.

210th Matt Niskanen – I've mentioned Niskanen a few times over the summer. He should have a nice season.

222th Sam Bennett – Expect him to be sitting on the waiver wire of a lot of leagues until he gains winger eligibility, if he even does. A fine gamble in deep formats.

Here is my final roster.