Welcome back to another edition of Lining Up and Happy-Start-Of-Hockey Day! With the NHL kicking the season off tonight, today will focus on teams updating the notes from last two Lining Up articles for teams with good schedules this first week. There are eight teams in this shortened week who play three times between today and Sunday and who also play two of their three games on lighter days (not Thursday or Saturday). We will either follow up and confirm early indications of line combinations or drop new insights on last-minute decisions.

Let's dive in.

Carolina

Confirming early line combinations from Carolina, Tony DeAngelo in three preseason games saw 62.6% of the available power-play time and averaged over 3:00. As noted, this bodes well for his fantasy value given that he set a career high in points when he last played with Carolina. If he is still available late in your drafts or on the waiver wire, at least stream him in for the favourable schedule this week.

Chicago

Building off the notes from Chicago last week, through four preseason games Connor Bedard played primarily on a line with Taylor Hall and Ryan Donato. Ben Pope on X/Twitter also confirmed yesterday that the same line combination was used at the final practice for the team, indicating that this will hold true through to opening night. This could easily be a rotating position early on or even throughout the season, but Donato should now be on a lot of radars for streaming this week as holding a coveted slot alongside Bedard's debut could payoff quickly.

Nashville

Continuing after last week, Tommy Novak scored three points in four preseason games, once again playing primarily with Luke Evangelista. This is a good sign for continued progress and the potential to receive a larger role than the 14:39 of time on ice that he averaged last season. Additionally, Filip Forsberg and Ryan O'Reilly have formed a line together with Juuso Parssinen. He saw some time last year with Forsberg as well but also spent significant time in the bottom-six of Nashville. Maintaining a top-six role with the team would certainly allow Parssinen to build off his 46 point-pace from last year.

Ottawa

Through the preseason, Thomas Chabot maintained his role on the top power-play over other potential quarterbacks in Jake Sanderson or Jakub Chychrun. Additionally, Claire Hanna reported on X/Twitter Tuesday morning that Claude Giroux was playing on that same unit with Drake Batherson, Brady Tkachuk and Tim Stutzle. Last season, Giroux played primarily on the second unit, but it seems as though he has replaced the departed Alex DeBrincat in this position instead of the incoming Vladimir Tarasenko. Giroux scored 79 points in 82 games last season playing on the second unit and still has retained his spot on the top line with Tkachuk and Stutzle. This increased deployment could push Giroux over the point-per-game mark this season which would greatly increase his value.

On the other hand, Tarasenko being relegated to the second unit, in a contract year no less, will cap his potential.

Pittsburgh

Early preseason games indicated that Kris Letang and Erik Karlsson were both participants on the top power-play unit through three games played. However, in the final practice the team was working on 5-on-3 scenarios and Rickard Rakell had replaced Letang on the top unit. This will be a situation to monitor closely tonight, should Pittsburgh receive a power-play how will the unit look? Letang holding a spot on a loaded top unit will be crucial to fantasy success, especially in points only leagues where his solid peripheral contributions won't count.

Seattle

Answering last week's question on Seattle, Shane Wright was unfortunately sent to the NHL and will not be joining the team on opening night. Obviously, this is a big disappointment as many fantasy owners were hoping he would stick with the team this year but the expectation is that he will still see some time in the NHL later this season.

Tampa Bay

Preseason games indicated that Victor Hedman had the edge on Mikhail Sergachev for running the top power-play, however Lightning Insider Erik Erlendsson on Twitter stated that both defensemen continue to rotate between that position on the top unit. At this point it seems the position will be fluid until one player cements himself as the number one. Worth noting as well, Nicholas Paul was the forward who appears to have replaced Alex Killorn early on. This would be huge for his value as Paul has never reached more than 32 points in a season or averaged more than 1:12 of power-play time. Suddenly being elevated to a lethal Tampa Bay unit will make him worth rostering and he should be widely available to stream for the favourable schedule this week.

Vegas

As noted last week, after four preseason games, Brett Howden played about a quarter of the time with Mark Stone and Chandler Stephenson while also playing over a third of the time with Michael Amadio and Pavel Dorofeyev. Howden did play in one more game than Mark Stone so perhaps if the games played were equal, Howden would have spent more time there. However, that is not certain, and it is a situation that will need to be monitored going into tonight against Seattle. This deployment will be the difference between rostering him in deeper leagues or being waiver fodder.

It is also worth noting that in three preseason games, Shea Theodore saw a 66.8% power-play share to Alex Pietrangelo's 46.8% where last season Pietrangelo had the edge by 4% and saw his power-play time on ice decrease from the first half to the second half of the season. This could be an early indication of a changing of the guard for which defensemen is running the top power-play unit and may allow Theodore to exceed the 0.80 point-per-game mark for the first time in his career if it holds.