Since Andrew Copp is expected to miss at least the first week of the regular season due to abdominal surgery, Michael Rasmussen has been centering the scoring line of Jakub Vrana and David Perron. This may not be a long-term placement for Rasmussen, but it is an opportunity nonetheless as he enters his fourth NHL season. The 6-6 Rasmussen fits the profile of a bigger forward and has played only 182 games, so he may need another season or two before he starts to reach his peak. Rasmussen has also shown value in deeper peripheral leagues in hits (nearly two per game last season) and faceoffs (410 FOW, 50.1 FOW% last season).

Dobber passed this along on his Twitter already, but it's worth repeating that Rudolfs Balcers has been used on a line with Aleksander Barkov and Carter Verhaeghe. Balcers was not a highly-pedigreed player (5^th-round pick) in spite of some strong WHL and AHL numbers, but he didn't post huge numbers playing alongside Tomas Hertl in San Jose last season either. Yet as Dobber mentioned in the Fantasy Guide, Florida has been great at bringing in unheralded talent and making them fantasy-relevant – Verhaeghe is one example, and Mason Marchment last season was another. If Balcers maintains his spot on that line, he could be an early-season waiver-wire pickup. Or do it now if you're in a deep league and want to be proactive.

We've forecasted all through the summer that whoever is deployed on the third spot on the Johnny Gaudreau/Patrik Laine line would be in for a significant boost in value. On Saturday, that player was the Blue Jackets' top prospect Kent Johnson. There's a caveat, though, in that Boone Jenner has been held out of high-contact drills early in camp. My guess is that Jenner is probably the near-term player on that line, although I'd expect Jack Roslovic to also be there sometime during the season and possibly Johnson or Cole Sillinger in the future. Whoever is left over from that group could form a half-decent second line. Stay tuned, because this will be a constant story all season, especially if Gaudreau and Laine are stacked on the same line.

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Every year I see questions about which X number of players to keep out of a larger group. Usually this group includes a few solid NHL contributors along with some prospects that might possess slightly higher upside. To the surprise of some, my answer very often tends to lean more toward the current NHL player(s). Why? Because to me, a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. Remember that the possibility of greater upside is exactly that – a possibility.

An example is in this thread I ran into in the Forum. I'll let you read it to compare all the players involved, but the answer from Fantasy Hockey Geek was spot on.

"Passing on (Rasmus Dahlin) here is insane, regardless of where you are in a team’s lifecycle. FFS he’s 22, so in 2-3 years he’ll be 24-25, which is not old by any means. Don’t get caught in a perpetual rebuild."

I know there are keeper teams out there that are rebuilding, and that's fine. But a five-year rebuild is not the way to go. Will your league still be around in five years? Will you still be playing fantasy hockey or even in that league specifically in five years? Aim for 2-3 years max. I know I might get some pushback from someone somewhere on this because that simply won't be enough time for them, but you can't be forever farming prospects either. I've been around long enough to see a league or two of mine disband. This might sound more like life advice than fantasy hockey advice, but you're reading this because fantasy hockey is a part of your life.

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One great place to look for potential breakout players is the Next Year Breakout report on Frozen Tools. Don't confuse this with the Fourth Year Breakout report, which at this stage shows players that have already completed their fourth season. Next Year Breakout is geared toward players about to enter that fourth season.

If you've already viewed the report, you can see a few players that have already broken out, so to speak. Cale Makar, Adam Fox, and Jason Robertson are examples. Yet there are a few others of interest that might be on the verge of something a little bigger.

Jack Hughes

This one should be obvious if you're paying attention, but Hughes might also slip down the rankings if you're simply looking at points instead of points per game. In fact, Hughes was a top-25 scorer in points-per-game (1.14 PTS/GP) from scoring 56 points in just 49 games. Over a full 82 games, that's a 94-point pace.

One caveat: Before penciling in Hughes for 100 points, his advanced stats suggest some regression from that point pace. Hughes shot 15.8% while his first two seasons were closer to 5-8%, and he had a slightly inflated 9.7 5-on-5 SH%. Moreover, his 3.5 PTS/60 in 2021-22 was double that of the previous season and even more than that of his rookie season. Regardless, a point-per-game pace over a full season should be in the cards.   

Josh Norris

Here's another example of the difference between points and points per game because of injuries. Norris finished what was really his second season with 55 points, but that was just in 66 games. In addition, 35 of those 55 points were goals. That was just over half a goal per game, which was a similar range to the aforementioned Hughes, Patrik Laine, Evgeni Malkin, and even Brock Nelson (remember that he scored 37 goals last season?) Only Chris Kreider and Leon Draisaitl scored more power-play goals than Norris, who finished tied for third with six other players in that category.

The offseason upgrades in Ottawa seem to suggest that Norris could build on that total, especially if playing a full season. Staying on a line with Brady Tkachuk might be ideal for him anyway, but the increased scoring depth on the Sens could help that unit avoid all of the tougher matchups they faced last season.

I didn’t realize it until the games had started, but there were preseason games being played on Saturday night. Here’s a goal from Norris in one of those games.

Jake Bean

Adam Boqvist might be the preferred option over Bean as a second-unit power-play option, but it might be closer than you think. Since Columbus' offense has received an upgrade this summer with you-know-who, players all around could benefit. Bean is also two years older (24) than Boqvist (22), which could also mean he is closer to his prime. Bean is on the next-year breakout report as a fourth-year player, although he is really only a third-year player because he played just two games in his first NHL season.

Elan on Keeping Karlsson thought Boqvist's Fantasy Guide point projection was a bit high, so have a listen as he and I talk through the possible reasons (go to about the 37:00 mark). I didn't really mention Bean at the time, but I'm starting to like him the more I investigate this situation. The fact that I also have Bean ($2.3 million cap hit) on the salary cap team that I took over this summer is also driving my curiosity. Keep him in mind if you need a defenseman in the very late rounds.

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Follow me on Twitter @Ian_Gooding for more fantasy hockey.