Mika Zibanejad is not expected to be on the ice when Rangers training camp opens, according to GM Jeff Gorton. Zibanejad is coming off a career season where he scored 75 points in just 57 games, but he has experienced injury issues in the past, including last season. This is obviously concerning for his fantasy owners, so you may want to wait on him a bit in your draft until more information and a possible return date is known. With the added issue of “COVID” injuries, details might be scarce. For what it's worth, the Rangers are hoping Z will be ready for the start of the season.

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It's only the second day of camp, and the Sabres are already dealing with injuries to two top-6 forwards. Victor Olofsson left Saturday's practice with a possible arm or wrist injury after crashing into a goalpost. Jack Eichel is already day-to-day with an upper-body injury. Riley Sheahan, who is on a PTO, was moved up to Olofsson's spot on Taylor Hall's line.

Also at Sabres camp: Former Hurricanes Eric Staal and Jeff Skinner have been reunited on a line. Although Staal is now 36 and has seen his best days, I wonder if his presence could help Skinner rebound from what was a disastrous 2019-20. It certainly should have factored into why the Sabres traded for Staal, considering that they have invested seven more seasons at $9 million per season in Skinner. Don't be afraid to take a late-round flier on Skinner for that reason.

Not-so-fun fact about Skinner: It seems like he has been around forever (a decade, actually), but he has never played in an NHL playoff game.

Transitioning from the Sabres to the World Juniors, doesn't the future suddenly look bright in Buffalo with Dylan Cozens on the horizon? It looks like a two-horse race between Cozens and Trevor Zegras for player of the tournament, at least at the moment.

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Now that Germany has been eliminated from the World Juniors, Tim Stuetzle will in fact be joining the Senators for training camp. According to Chris Johnston of Sportsnet, he will need to quarantine for seven days and pass four COVID tests before he can hit the ice, which should happen before the end of camp. Stuetzle looked like a star in the making at the WJC, scoring ten points (5g-5a) in five games, so you can bet he will receive serious consideration to make the Senators roster.

Finland/Sweden – what a game! The most entertaining game of the day. Poor Sweden though.

Devon Levi picked up his second shutout of the World Juniors in Canada's win over the Czech Republic. Is Levi the next Carey Price, or the next Justin Pogge? Among the people I texted about this game, the one description I saw multiple times was "great focus."

🇨🇦 goalies with multiple shutouts at a single #WorldJuniors tournament since 2000

Devon Levi (2021)
Zach Fucale (2015)
Jake Allen (2010)
Carey Price (2007)
Justin Pogge (2006)
Pascal Leclaire (2002)

— Sportsnet Stats (@SNstats) January 3, 2021

Before you rush out to add Levi to your keeper team, you may want to read Dobber's Ramblings from November, when he discussed how to draft goalie prospects. This isn't meant as a slight against Levi in particular, but he's a long, long way from the NHL. And you want goalies that are much, much closer to the show. But at least in the meantime, you can check out Levi's Dobber Prospects page.

Semi-final matchups on Monday: Canada vs. Russia, USA vs. Finland. Enjoy. In the meantime, the future has officially arrived.

Technology, bruh. pic.twitter.com/XOcjyWlhhN

— Here's Your Replay ⬇️ (@HeresYourReplay) January 2, 2021

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With many fantasy drafts coming up in the next week and a half, I've published the Top 100 Roto Rankings to appear earlier than normal (they usually appear on the 15^th of each month). Feel free to use them in your draft, and leave feedback as well.

Usually rankings are in a state of flux for the first month of the season, so the next update will likely be in mid-February. That is because like every season, you'll see some unexpected players flying out of the gate with a few top-level players struggling. This is normal, although it's also worth mentioning that players who are already on your bubble should have an even shorter leash than usual because of the shortened season.

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Leading up to the many fantasy drafts that will be taking place over the next couple weeks, I'm going to try to help you with your roto league draft. Many of you will be participating in Yahoo leagues, which provide their own rankings as well as average draft position (ADP).

As I participate in mock drafts and prepare for my own with the help of Fantasy Hockey Geek, I've noticed a few players that I believe are being drafted too low on Yahoo. If you're looking for players who have been drafted too high, I had this covered yesterday.

Keep in mind that my analysis is for multicategory leagues that will include the default Yahoo categories.  These categories are goals, assists, plus/minus, shots, power-play points, and hits. I've included three forwards, two defensemen, and a goalie today, so this could be an all-star team of undervalued players.

Roman Josi (Yahoo ADP 32.9)

Josi probably shouldn't be the first defenseman you draft. According to Yahoo, it should be Victor Hedman, but I think it should be John Carlson. After Carlson and Hedman, you could make a case that it should be the reigning Norris Trophy winner.

Josi was the second-leading scorer among defensemen in 2019-20, and he could easily do the same in 2020-21. Then there's that shot total, which led the league in 2019-20 (260 SOG). In fact, only Brent Burns has taken more total shots over the past three seasons than Josi (787). In addition, Josi has been at least a plus-20 in two of the past three seasons. With all of that, I'm surprised that you might be able to land him after pick 30.

Brady Tkachuk (Yahoo ADP 53.1)

If you're in a pure points league, this ranking seems appropriate. In fact, it may even be a little high. There is potential for season-for-season growth in the points, but you're not just drafting him for the points here.

Tkachuk finished second in the entire league to Ryan Reaves with 303 hits, and there's no reason to think that the 21-year-old won't continue to try to pound everything in sight. In addition, there's the 259 shots, which placed him in the top 10. Basically what you have here is an Alex Ovechkin-light, and I'm quite all right with drafting Ovechkin in the top 5 in a multicategory league. With Tkachuk, you can put up with a few less goals and assists for that kind of dominance in the hits and shots categories.

Kyle Connor (Yahoo ADP 69.0)

You're telling me I can pick a player who finished sixth in goals (38) and 15^th in points (73) at around pick 70? Where do I sign up? If there's a player you should reach for given the ADP, this is the one right here. There's easy top-50 value to be had here.

Sure, I understand that peripherals like hits might be light. Yet it makes absolutely no sense to me that Connor could be picked in the same round as Claude Giroux, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, and Filip Forsberg. Especially when you consider that only nine players have scored more goals over the past three seasons than Connor (103). The Dobber projections have him finishing with around the same number of points as Brayden Point and Evgeni Malkin, who will probably both be gone in the first three rounds.

Darcy Kuemper (Yahoo ADP 70.8)

Arizona isn't a team that seems to have a lot going for it at the moment. In order to win games, it's going to have to be lockdown defensive structure first. Needless to say, wins aren't going to be easy to come by for Kuemper.

Still, Kuemper deserves more credit for the kind of season he had in 2019-20. I described it when I broke down quality start percentage, which Kuemper led the league in (75.9%) among goalies who had at least 15 starts. I won't disagree with many of the goalies being picked ahead of Kuemper, although Marc-Andre Fleury (ADP 75.9) was ahead of him until recently and shouldn't be. This is more about picking a goalie who should help your ratios tremendously.

Kris Letang (Yahoo ADP 71.2)

Of course, this one could come back and bite me if Letang is injured again. Some of you may even be at the point where you've sworn that you'll never draft him again. I've won four championships with Letang on my dynasty league team (and in spite of a season-ending injury in at least one of those seasons), so I'll take the good with the bad.

If everything unravels according to Yahoo ADP, Erik Karlsson (ADP 80.7) should also still be on the board at that point. Even though Letang is three years older, one reason I prefer him is that he has missed 25 fewer games than Karlsson over the past three seasons. There is an argument that if Letang is undervalued here, then so is Karlsson. That is true, although I like Letang a little better here because of what will likely be a better plus/minus and a higher hits total. If you want to swing for the fences but understand you could also strike out, feel free to pick either defenseman if they are still on the board about a round before their ADP.

Jamie Benn (Yahoo ADP 123.4)

There seems to be a growing trend that Benn is useless for fantasy purposes. Maybe it's because he was once at the top of the mountain as the NHL's leading scorer in 2015 and that he finished at just above a half point per game (0.57 PTS/GP in 2019-20).

There's a reason that I still have him in the Top 100 Roto Rankings. At the top of the list of reasons is his hit total (167), which was surpassed by only four other players that outscored him in 2019-20. As well, with a 6.7 5-on-5 SH% and 987 PDO, there is a chance for at least a slight rebound for Benn. Not to Art Ross Trophy levels, but in a way where he isn't being valued highly enough. If you need a left wing and/or help in the hits category, feel free to draft Benn at around pick 100 if he is still there, and he may not be as bad as you think.

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Finally, some late-breaking news…

Certainly will be more detail in morning, but there are rumblings Travis Hamonic will go to VAN on a PTO. GM Jim Benning and coach Travis Green are scheduled to speak on Sunday.

— Elliotte Friedman (@FriedgeHNIC) January 3, 2021

This seems similar to Mike Hoffman's situation in St. Louis, where the Canucks need to clear cap space in order to sign Travis Hamonic. That should happen once Micheal Ferland is moved to LTIR, as he isn't expected to be at Canucks camp due to lingering concussion issues. Hamonic has expressed an interest in playing in western Canada in the past, so Vancouver seems like a good fit since they could use another veteran on defense. Former first-round pick Olli Juolevi would get bumped down the pecking order with a potential Hamonic signing.

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For more fantasy hockey discussion, or to reach out to me, you can follow me on Twitter @Ian_Gooding