James Neal has made good on his professional tryout. The veteran winger has signed in St. Louis for one year at $750,000. Neal helped his cause by scoring a hat trick in one of his games and scoring a team-leading four goals in five games. Out of the expensive contract he signed with Calgary and eventually moved to Edmonton, Neal could deliver decent value for the Blues. He's probably not a player you should target in fantasy drafts, but you might see him at the top of your waiver wire if he goes on another goal-scoring streak. Most recently, he was on a line with Vladimir Tarasenko and Robert Thomas, so there’s a good chance he’s used in a scoring role where he can potentially thrive.

Also with the Blues and perhaps related to the Neal signing, recently acquired Logan Brown was put on waivers. We discussed Brown in a recent Fantasy Take article that also had Zach Sanford heading to Ottawa. The thought at the time was that Brown would likely make the team because he'd have to clear waivers if sent down. So either Brown did not have a strong camp, or the Blues' thinking was that clearing Sanford's $2 million cap hit was the main priority. I wouldn't be surprised if Brown is claimed by another team.

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Unfortunate news for those looking to draft Matt Boldy as a potential rookie sleeper: the Wild forward is expected to miss four to six weeks because of a fractured left ankle from Thursday's preseason game. Boldy had been used with a variety of Wild scorers during the preseason, including Kevin Fiala, Marco Rossi, and Jordan Greenway. He could be used in a top-9 role once he returns, but the Wild may give him extended time in the AHL once he is ready to skate.

In other Wild news, they have sent Rossi, Adam Beckman, and Calen Addison to Iowa of the AHL. Rossi in particular may seem like a surprise demotion, as he seemed like an early Calder Trophy favorite. However, this might be the best move long-term, given that Rossi played very little last season because of a COVID-related heart condition. Iowa looks like it will be a strong AHL squad as long as these players are there. I'd have to assume that these prospects all get a chance with the Wild at some point this season – especially Rossi.

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Yesterday I discussed where to draft injured players. Included on that list was Sidney Crosby, who returned to practice on Saturday. It doesn't sound like he'll be ready for opening night on Tuesday, but I don't imagine he'll miss much more time beyond that.

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Ilya Mikheyev suffered a hand injury on Saturday. According to coach Sheldon Keefe, the Leafs winger is expected to miss some time with the injury. Mikheyev had been used on a scoring line during preseason, but the silver lining is that the Leafs will be able to dip into their large pool of forwards to fill a spot there. Maybe Michael Bunting or Ondrej Kase, for instance.

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Since this is my last Ramblings before the season starts, and since many of you likely have drafts this weekend, I offered up my services to answer your questions. Here are the ones I received.

Best round 16 nab in a standard yahoo league —- Arvidsson, Tyler Johnson, Johansen, Duchene, Puljujarvi…..

— Existential Fans Only (@ExiFanz) October 9, 2021

Even though they may be the top two centers on the Predators, I'm not overly interested in Matt Duchene or Ryan Johansen. Maybe one of them proves me wrong, but I'd want to pick a player I'm a little more excited about here.

If Tyler Johnson's time on the first-unit power play is something that will happen in the regular season and not just the preseason, then there could be something there. I wrote about Johnson last weekend, where I mentioned he's a watch list guy. So I don't think I'd use the pick on him.

If you're looking for a guy that you can lock in all season, then I think you go with Viktor Arvidsson. There's a chance you'll be moving him to IR at some point, but seeing him play alongside Anze Kopitar seems interesting. Frozen Tools shows that over 80 percent of his preseason minutes have been with Kopitar, so it looks like that will happen. Arvidsson seems like the safest option of the group.

Your final-round pick is the one that you're most likely to drop at some point, however. Why not take a chance on Jesse Puljujarvi? Reports out of Edmonton suggest that he's looked as strong as he ever has (4 GP, 4 G, 2 A) and that he may be on the verge of a breakout. I wrote about Puljujarvi in an earlier Ramblings as well, when he was only 14 percent rostered in Yahoo leagues. Now he's up to 42 percent, which has a lot to do with him playing alongside some player named Connor McDavid during the preseason both on even strength and the power play. For that reason, I think I'd join the pool party for the final round of the draft.  

Who are the rookies expected to be on opening day rosters and stick for 9+ games?

— Jake Blumes 💉💉 (@JakeBlumes) October 9, 2021

I don't have a complete list as teams are still making final cuts, but I'll give you a couple of names.

Cole Perfetti has had a strong camp with the Jets. For more on him, check out this week's The Journey by Hadi Kalakeche. Even though Perfetti is not eligible for the AHL this season, he was last season because of the OHL's shutdown. For the Manitoba Moose, Perfetti scored 26 points in 32 games, which is very strong for a 19-year-old in that league.

Although there's no rush given the Wings' current state, Lucas Raymond might be a good bet for a nine-game trial. Jeff Blashill has at times tried Raymond on the top line with Dylan Larkin. Raymond has also demonstrated why he was the fourth overall pick last season, scoring six points (2 G, 4 A) in six preseason games. For more of a scouting report perspective, Hadi included him in last week's The Journey.

Now that I mention The Journey, you will find more preseason standouts in both this week's and last week's articles.

Which two would you drop? Tough pic.twitter.com/3mIJOGMY1o

— mark rzezniacki (@mrzezniacki) October 9, 2021

I'm not sure why Luke Glendening is on your roster other than for maybe non-scoring categories, so he'd be my first drop.

The second is a little more difficult, and it could include any of a group of fringe fantasy options or prospects. I'm assuming this league has a keeper element to it. Regardless, the other player I'd suggest dropping is Sebastian Cossa. I know there's going to be some disagreement on this one, because I've heard some prospects experts tell me he is an amazing goalie. So to defend my position, I'm going to reference Dobber himself from his August 2 Ramblings on the wait time for goalies.

The point is – be patient and understand your timelines. Rule of thumb: goalies need to be 25. So in my dynasty league I look at drafting them when they are 21-23, and pick based on organizational needs two or three years into the future.

Cossa is 18 years of age (but turning 19 later this year). Even if he's an early bloomer on that timeline, you'll still want to wait until Detroit is a half-decent team. Maybe Alex Nedeljkovic is one of the league's top goalies by then, who knows. I'm not denying Cossa's ability, but my belief is that you need to think more near term than that.

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To that last question, I'll end with a story of something that happened to me earlier this week. One takeaway of this story for me is why the season in front of you should always matter the most, even if you run a keeper league team with considerable allowance for prospects.

Imagine waking up one morning, turning on your phone, and the first message you read is from your fantasy hockey league commissioner saying that he's going to pull the plug on the league. Not a great way to start your day, is it?

Even though the draft is in a few days, the commissioner said that three league members didn't submit their keepers by the deadline, while it's becoming more and more difficult to follow up with everyone every season. He finished the message with something to the effect of, "Thanks everyone, it's been a fun 14 years. Hope you enjoy the hockey season." (Green Day's Time of Your Life is now playing in my head. Those of you from Vancouver should understand the inside joke.)

Not long after, one of the other league members messaged me. I told him what I was thinking, which was that I could probably find some other people to fill the spots if that's at least part of the issue. Not long after, one of the three MIA league members replied to the commish, saying that he'd been dealing with the recent death of a close family member and that he'd still like to return. So that left two more spots. I was able to search into my network and found one within a few hours. Later that day, I found someone else. Once the commish agreed to let them join, the league was back in business.

That league, by the way, is a fantasy hockey writers/experts league. The league member who messaged me was Eric Daoust, who manages Frozen Tools. The first spot was filled by Mike Amato of Goalie Post and on-call Ramblings writer. And the second spot was filled by Dave Hall, the managing editor of Dobber Prospects and former The Journey writer. So now in the experts league, there are four representatives from the Dobber family! At the same time, I was able to help bring one of my leagues back from the dead while I get to (or at least try to) defend my championship!

As we have in past seasons, we'll all be competing against various writers from websites such as NHL.com, Yahoo, Rotowire, The Athletic and more. I believe the league is viewable to the public, so you should be able to follow along here.

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Good luck in your draft, if you have one this weekend. And Happy Thanksgiving for all our Canadian friends. For more fantasy hockey discussion, or to reach out to me, you can follow me on Twitter @Ian_Gooding