Bad news for those hoping for a breakout season from Jakub Vrana. The Wings winger is expected to miss at least four months, as he will undergo shoulder surgery. After being acquired from Washington at the trade deadline, Vrana impressed with his new club, scoring eight goals and 11 points in 11 games. Vrana had been dealing with a shoulder issue that flared up within 10 minutes of his first training camp practice last Saturday.

Vrana was expected to play on the top line, so his injury immediately hurts the value of Dylan Larkin. In addition, the absence of Tyler Bertuzzi for road games in Canada should result in a further downgrade for Larkin. Prospects Lucas Raymond and Joe Veleno should now have slightly better odds of cracking the Wings' opening-night lineup, as should veteran Bobby Ryan (who is on a PTO). If I had to guess, I'd pick Ryan here because he's more of a known NHL quantity, while Raymond may need time to adjust to North America. Having said that, I'd also have to think Raymond is playing for the Wings at some point this season. Or he makes the team out of camp, but also spends time in the AHL.

Filip Zadina will (should?) make the Red Wings because he did so last season. He could also benefit from the Vrana injury in terms of power-play time. For what it's worth, Zadina and Veleno were both used on the first-unit power play (along with Pius Suter and Robby Fabbri) in Thursday's preseason game against Buffalo.

However the even-strength and power-play line combinations shake out, the Wings had the league's second-worst offense last season (2.23 GF/GP). That offense doesn't look like it will improve much with Vrana now on the shelf. This is shaping up to be another rebuilding year for the Wings.

The #FantasyHockey Guide is updated with the Vrana news.
And all the red font has been changed to black, and we'll start tracking changes again moving forward.
Also put in preseason scoring leaders.

GEEK update is coming later today

— Dobber (@DobberHockey) September 30, 2021

Yes, you still have time to pick up your Fantasy Guide if you haven't already. One recommendation that I would make right after your purchase: Download and save both the PDF file (guide) and the sortable spreadsheet (Excel) locally to yourself, and remember where you have it saved. That way, you'll have it ready in time for your draft. You can always download updates later, but you don't want to be dealing with something like a password issue 30 minutes before you draft.

With that in mind, try not to purchase the Fantasy Guide right before your draft in case you face any technical issues. That way, you'll be able to give yourself enough time to soak in the content and familiarize yourself with the content and layout. You'll be a happier customer if you're less panicked, and you'll feel more confident at your draft.

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The official numbers won't be announced until Friday at the earliest (or right after I post this), but it at least looks like Elias Pettersson and Quinn Hughes have both finally come to terms with the Canucks.

Believe Pettersson's will be a three-year deal. https://t.co/eKV4OVBbgT

— Irfaan Gaffar (@irfgaffar) October 1, 2021

The Hughes contract might seem high for a player who had an overall down year (not necessarily points-wise), but consider that a year ago $10 million didn't seem out of the question. With a cap hit of under $8 million, this isn't a terrible deal. Rasmus Dahlin's signing at $6 million per season likely pushed this up as well. Pettersson's deal is also expected to be under $8 million, but it looks like we'll have to wait for the official announcement.

The Canucks might not be done, as Friday is the deadline for players to opt out of the season, and that's what Travis Hamonic might be doing. Hamonic opting out might be what ultimately made these deals possible, so I'll discuss the Canucks' situation more in tomorrow's Ramblings. The main takeaway here is that Hughes and Pettersson should be able to start the season on time, even if they'll need a bit more time to shake off the offseason rust.  

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A few days ago, I appeared on the Five Hole Fantasy Hockey Podcast, where I had a good time discussing breakouts and ADPs. Give it a listen!

https://t.co/wlDMot2Zwh

— Five Hole Fantasy Hockey Podcast (@FHFHockey) September 27, 2021

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I recently completed a mock draft using the Zero G strategy. If you haven't heard if it, the Zero G strategy doesn't mean you don't draft any goalies. Instead, it involves not picking goalies early in a draft, based on how much goalie values can vary relative to forwards and defensemen. The fantasy hockey blogger Apples and Ginos came up with the idea, which you can read about here.

In my case, I decided not to draft any goalies until at least the 10^th round. My team results were as follows:

1. Nikita Kucherov (TB – RW) (4^th overall)

2. Brady Tkachuk (Ott – LW)

3. Aleksander Barkov (Fla – C)

4. J.T. Miller (Van – C,LW)

5. Tyson Barrie (Edm – D)

6. Kris Letang (Pit – D)

7. Elias Lindholm (Cgy – C,RW)

8. Jeff Petry (Mon – D)

9. Thomas Chabot (Ott – D)

10. Jordan Binnington (StL – G)

11. Tristan Jarry (Pit – G)

12. Linus Ullmark (Bos – G)

13. Vincent Trocheck (Car – C)

14. Anthony Mantha (Was – LW,RW)

15. Viktor Arvidsson (LA – LW,RW)

16. Trevor Zegras (Anh – C,LW)

Teaser for the next Ramblings: I'm going to be discussing this mock draft that I completed earlier this week. pic.twitter.com/SUSyNc4fTp

— Ian Gooding (@Ian_Gooding) September 30, 2021

League settings were default Yahoo (Goals, Assists, Plus/Minus, Powerplay Points, Shots on Goal, Hits, Wins, Goals Against Average, Save Percentage, Shutouts).

Since this was a standard-size Yahoo draft (12 teams), I was finally able to make my goalie pick at 117.   The goalies available at my pick included Jordan Binnington, Tristan Jarry, Sergei Bobrovsky, Spencer Knight, Jacob Markstrom, Linus Ullmark, Thatcher Demko, and Carter Hart. Tons of reasonable options here, even if all the goalies you consider top 5 (or even top 10 options) are long gone. Check out the mock draft results for more rosterable goalies that were drafted after pick 100.  

I decided to draft Binnington first based on his Yahoo ADP of 86. Then Jarry at 124, based on his Yahoo ADP of 113. Then I discovered that Ullmark, with an ADP of 91, was still undrafted at 141. So with three picks after the first 100 picks from Rounds 10-12, I had three solid starting goalies.

Testing this strategy out on a mock draft is one thing. However, using it during a live draft will take courage. Many of us like to fall on the security blanket that is drafting a goalie or two early. But in order to sleep better the night after your draft, you may be putting off a bigger problem of inconsistent week-to-week goaltending (just like everyone else) while your scoring isn't quite as strong as it could be. Put another way: Scoring is a more known commodity on draft day.

A few other non-goaltending notes from this draft:

Yes, that is Brady Tkachuk drafted in the second round (21^st overall). Tkachuk has an ADP of 25 on Yahoo, and I've seen him go much higher than that in draft. I know his scoring doesn't keep up when compared to other similarly-drafted options, but he's being drafted this high because of his dominance in two other categories (SOG, Hits). If you draft him, you'll want to make sure you have enough scoring from your other high picks. Putting off goalies until later helps with that, as does choosing forwards with my first four picks. As well, blueliners Tyson Barrie and Kris Letang (picked in the fifth and sixth rounds) outscored Tkachuk last season, so they should bring the points.

I felt like the best time to pick defensemen was just before I picked the goalies. I may have reached for Barrie in Round 5 because I was thinking about picking Roman Josi there. However, Josi was picked one pick before mine. I had also considered Josi in Round 4, but J.T. Miller had a higher ADP and I also wanted to pick him. The real run on defensemen started at around my Letang pick (#69). This is something to keep in mind in terms of when to pick your d-men.

My last three picks were autopicks. I had taken care of the goalies as I had set out to do, so I wasn't overly concerned about these picks (and my family wanted me to get away from the computer). I'm okay with the autopicks anyway, particularly since there's a wide variety of options available at this point and they would be my most droppable players of the draft based on where they were drafted.

Unlike my previous mock drafts (which you can check out here), this draft appeared to be all real people and not Yahoo autopickers. That might have had to do with the time of day I was drafting, which was during the day and not so close to midnight ET.

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Don't tell Captain Landeskog it's preseason. pic.twitter.com/ogZU0P3DDU

— World Hockey Report (@worldhockeyrpt) October 1, 2021

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