Alex Killorn is expected to miss the next 4 to 6 weeks because of a fractured finger from Wednesday's preseason game. Killorn was Anaheim's major free agent signing this offseason, earning a four-year contract worth $6.25 million per season. Since the season starts in about a week and a half, you can probably adjust that to 3-4 weeks of regular-season time. Killorn is being drafted in just over half of Yahoo leagues with an ADP of 171, so he's probably a late-round pick at best that you can hopefully stash on IR sooner rather than later.

Between Killorn's injury and Trevor Zegras's absence for contract-related reasons, I wonder if 2023 second overall pick Leo Carlsson receives a nine-game audition, if that isn't already the plan. As well, Frank Vatrano could receive a bump in icetime, as he was expected to lose value with the Killorn signing.

Fantasy Take: Killorn Signs With Anaheim

As a result of the injury, Killorn's streak of 265 consecutive regular-season games is expected to be broken. Killorn has not missed a game over the past three seasons and has played at least 80 regular-season games seven times in his career, so he is hardly a Band-Aid Boy.

The Ducks received better news regarding the health of John Gibson, who left Friday's preseason game with an upper-body injury. Gibson is fine and is expected to be ready for the start of the regular season.

Conor Timmins can't seem to catch a break injury-wise. Timmins underwent an MRI on Saturday after suffering a lower-body injury in Friday's preseason game. Timmins was having an impressive camp with six points in three games, so hopefully this is nothing serious.

For more up-to-date player news, head over to the Frozen Tools Player News page.  

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A year after the experts' league that I had participated in for several years folded, I was recently invited to a brand-new one called the FP Content Creators League. Thank you to FantasyPuck, who set up this league and invited me. Some notable names in this league include Nate and Josh from Apples & Ginos, Victor Nuno from Dobber Prospects and the Fantasy Hockey Life podcast, and OG fantasy expert Chris Wassel.

A little about the league:

12 teams

Head-to-head points

C, C, LW, LW, RW, RW, D, D, D, D, Util, G, G, BN, BN, BN, BN, IR+, IR+, IR+

G=6, A=4, PPP=2, SOG=0.9, HIT=0.5, BLK=1, W=5, GA=-3, SV=0.6, SHO=3

I'll take you through the draft from my perspective. The analysis will strictly be on my own picks and not anyone else's. By the way, this was my first actual (non-mock) draft on Yahoo this season.

Before the Draft

I got to the draft room shortly after it opened to find out if the random generator gave me the first overall pick. Sadly, my luck in not obtaining high picks hasn't changed, as I pick 10^th out of 12 teams. My attention now turns to who I like as my first pick? Not a goalie, since the top tier seem to be picked around the end of the second round in mock drafts. Not a defenseman, since none appear in the top 10 in Yahoo ADP either. So, I'll filter both goaltenders and defensemen out of my rankings that I generated from Fantasy Hockey Geek.

Brady Tkachuk would be the perfect early second-round pick for me. I'd like to go for a pure scorer for my first pick, since this isn't a total bangers league (HIT but not PIM). But if the nine scorers I have ranked above Tkachuk are all picked, then I'll go with him in Round 1 and target someone like Tage Thompson or Elias Pettersson in Round 2. Or Jack Hughes or Kirill Kaprizov if they fall out of the first round. Tim Stutzle and Timo Meier would also be fallback options in Round 2.

The rest of the draft is fluid in my opinion, but like chess it's still beneficial to think at least 2-3 moves ahead. Drafting a defenseman or two before pick 100 is important. If the right goalie lands in my lap before pick 100, then I'll draft him as well. But given where my first two picks are (10, 15) and how my next pick isn't until pick 34, I might miss out on the first wave of goalies. Then again, there are a couple of Apples and Ginos guys at this draft, so goalies could very well fall. Let's see if Nate at A&G is a man of his word.

Connor McDavid was picked first overall as expected. In a mild surprise, Auston Matthews was picked second. I actually had Matthews ahead of Leon Draisaitl last season because I thought Matthews is the better goal scorer, so let's see how this plays out. Draisaitl went third.

During the Draft

1-10 – Jason Robertson – Only one of the scorers that I had ranked above Brady was still available, and that was Robertson. Brady was then picked 12^th. If Robertson pushes for 50 goals and reaches 100 points like he did last year, then this pick pays off.

2-15 – Elias Pettersson – His ADP of 28 suggests this might be a reach, but my rankings have him fairly high – even higher than Thompson, who was picked right before at 14. Believe it or not, ESPN has him ranked at #3! As I said, my next pick is #34, and I doubt he'll still be there. And yes, I'm a Canucks fan… still.

By the way, this is what EP40 was up to on Saturday night:

What a shot by Elias Pettersson🎯

4-1 Canucks!

📷: Sportsnet pic.twitter.com/jxXW9b53Xf

— CanucksArmy (@CanucksArmy) October 1, 2023

3-34 – Connor Hellebuyck – I abandoned Zero G and went with Hellebuyck, since this is a league that rewards saves and wins. I'll Zero G the second goalie – just watch. Because I can't out-Zero G the Zero G guys. If everyone zigs, I zag.

4-39 – Adam Fox – I'll admit, I was listening to the Apples & Ginos livestream of this, and one of their listeners was surprised that Fox wasn't picked. I think I was too. He's not a huge defensive peripherals guy, but I can work on that later in the draft.  

5-58 – Connor Bedard – I thought he'd go in the top 50, but I couldn't pass him up after pick 50. There's a risk to this, but you've got to take a home run cut or two if you're playing against experts. And he's really trying hard to help you win your fantasy league this season.

Connor Bedard was still on the ice by himself an hour after practice ended.

Gotta love the commitment!👏

🎥: @ByScottPowers

pic.twitter.com/SEyWCAe3sA

— BarDown (@BarDown) September 30, 2023

6-63 – Clayton Keller – I'll continue to target scoring here. I didn't forget that Keller was the fourth-leading scorer after the All-Star break last season (45 PTS in 32 GP). I'll start to think about peripherals with my next pick, and I have a few names in mind. But if those players are all taken, it's a head-to-head points league, not a head-to-head categories league. You know what? It doesn't matter how the points come, just that they come.

7-82 – Brad Marchand – He's really falling in fantasy drafts, which means he might turn out to be a great value pick. Yes, he suffers without Patrice Bergeron, but his numbers haven't fallen off a cliff either.

8-87 – Darnell Nurse – He was there when I thought he would be, but I couldn't wait any longer. If he was grabbed just before me, then Jacob Trouba would have been my fallback option. I was going to make either of those SOG+HIT+BKS leaders my pick. Nurse provides just a bit more offense than Trouba, while Trouba is stronger in HIT+BKS.

9-106 – Martin Necas – I needed another right wing, since that becomes a sore spot for me later in drafts. Necas seemed like the best available option at that position.

10-111 – Rasmus Andersson – I need at least two more defensemen, and Andersson is an underrated source of power-play points. I was targeting him in another league for that reason, but couldn't quite land him.

11-130 – Linus Ullmark – Here's another Bruins player that really fell. He was my Zero G guy from last season. Why not make him my Zero G guy this season? It seems like quite a few people still don't think he's for real. But he has been dating back to Buffalo. Over the past four years he has never posted a GAA above 2.70 or a SV% below .915. That seems to work in this economy.

12-135 – Mark Scheifele – There were a few good centers available here, including Nazem Kadri and Nick Suzuki. I have a utility slot that I can still use here for busy nights, so one of these centers seemed ideal.

13-154 – Tony DeAngelo –I don't think Carolina brought him in so he could watch the power play from the bench. Because what else would he do? There's always risk, but you can take some chances later in your draft.

14-159 – Trevor Zegras – He's still a contract holdout, but I still like the upside and the fact that Anaheim plays on a lot of light days.

15-178 – Dawson Mercer – New Jersey also plays on a lot of light days, and Mercer is a popular sleeper/breakout candidate.

16-183 – Radko Gudas – Obviously light on offense, but he'll rack up the hits. Plus Anaheim players are ideal to have on your bench if they're productive.

17-202 – Andrei Kuzmenko – He's a very popular regression candidate because of a 26.8 SH%. His hits and blocked shots totals also resemble those of Phil Kessel. Still, I can't pass up a guy who pushed for 40 goals last season.

After the Draft

You can view this league and the full results of the draft at Yahoo, as I believe it's viewable for the public. Spoiler: Nate at Apples & Ginos stuck to his Zero G guns and drafted Philipp Grubauer at 167 and Joonas Korpisalo at 170. His colleague Josh drafted Sergei Bobrovsky at 153 and Ville Husso at 177.

Want FantasyPuck's perspective of the draft? You can watch it below. As I type this, I haven't watched it yet because, hey, I have a deadline. I think it's pretty cool that they livestreamed this draft, since I've never watched a video of myself drafting. And I haven’t spent a lot of time on YouTube for fantasy purposes. But it you simply read your fantasy hockey content, it could be worth a try to consume it in a different way. So I think I’ll go watch this.

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Finally, Flames assistant GM Chris Snow has passed away. Condolences to his family, friends, the Calgary Flames organization, and those who knew him in the hockey community. May we continue the fight against ALS in his honor.

We, along with the entire hockey community, are mourning the passing of Chris Snow. Even while battling ALS, Chris dedicated his life to helping others and he changed the lives of so many.

Our thoughts and prayers go out to his wife Kelsie and children Cohen and Willa ❤️ pic.twitter.com/QkbQjMrlT7

— Calgary Flames (@NHLFlames) October 1, 2023

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