My favourite bit of news to kick off yesterday was the record that Sidney Crosby, Kris Letang, and Evgeni Malkin were breaking:

"We were just three young kids that wanted to get into the league."

Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang are on the verge of history as the only trio in North American pro sports to play together for 18 seasons.

(Free) story⬇️https://t.co/TtvRYuG8cM

— Taylor Haase (@TaylorHaasePGH) October 10, 2023

Bryan Rust opened the scoring for the Penguins for the third season in a row, and looks primed for a bounce-back campaign after dipping to only a 47-point-pace last season. He was lining up with Sidney Crosby and a suddenly healthy Jake Guentzel. Hopefully you didn't let either of them slip in drafts, as they also combined for a nice passing play on a Crosby goal in the second period.

Rickard Rakell has the fifth spot on the top power play unit, kicking Kris Letang and Bryan Rust to the second unit. That one might take a bit of time to get going, building the familiarity with Erik Karlsson and the incumbents.

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It sounds as though Kevin Korchinski could stick around longer than a typical nine-game trial. He's not on the top power play unit as of yet, but in getting a full sense of his capabilities at the NHL level, he could see a few spins there. Maybe not too valuable until that happens, his long-term outlook is still incredibly valuable. He played some heavy minutes and saw second-unit power play time in his debut.

Back to the players that actually played, Connor Bedard showed flashes in his debut of being a special player. He racked up 11 shot attempts, and most of them looked patently dangerous coming off his stick. He lined up alongside Ryan Donato and Taylor Hall, with Donato's second-period goal marking Bedard's first NHL point.

Connor Bedard gets his first NHL point on an assist to Ryan Donato pic.twitter.com/vLsw8RTfjm

— Austin Kelly (@AustinReporting) October 11, 2023

Alex Vlasic picked up the other assist on the first goal, and as the other defenceman on the top-pairing with Seth Jones, he might have some fringe fantasy value this year (especially in cap leagues).

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There is a bit of a black cloud hanging over, that makes it difficult to be fully present in what should be an awesome time with the season starting. The NHL just can't get out of their own way, and continues to make baffling, non-inclusive decisions.

Statement from the makers of Pride Tape on the NHL banning players from using it this season, as part of the league's overall ban on "specialty" jerseys. pic.twitter.com/DpOni21oYn

— Greg Wyshynski (@wyshynski) October 10, 2023

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The Senators had some mixed fantasy news, with Josh Norris back at practice, skating on the 4^th line, but later head coach DJ Smith noted that with Zach McEwan day-to-day, they might not be able to ice more than 11 forwards. Not sure what to make of that for Norris, but it seems like it's not really positive news until he's back in an actual game lineup.

Speaking of lineups, it was Tomas Chabot up on the top power play unit. That may not hold all year, or even for the first month, but in the short term it is a prime spot! Tim Stutzle, Claude Giroux, Drake Batherson, and Brady Tkachuk make up the other 80% of that unit.

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The opening game of the NHL season was a back-and-forth affair in which the veteran team got off to the stronger start, but the younger Nashville team did have stretches where they got it together, and made it an entertaining affair.

The big guns did most of the damage for the Lightning, especially with that top power play unit doing some real damage. Victor Hedman saw more than three-times the power play minutes than Mikhail Sergachev. However, of the two, it was Sergachev who picked up a power play assist. Both should be fantasy relevant all-season, but the 30-odd power play points to split between the two of them will make a difference on who is the more valuable one overall.

Nick Paul was the other main forward on the top unit with the usual big guns, and made the most of it with two power play points and three overall. Paul along with Brandon Hagel and Anthony Cirelli make up the second line, and should all be fairly fantasy relevant on the year.

Aside from Tanner Jeannot in multi-category leagues, the bottom-six shouldn't have much fantasy relevance.

Tyler Motte didn't play a shift in the third period. Cooper said they'll know more on that tomorrow. "Hopefully we'll get some good news there" #GoBolts

— Diandra Loux (@Diandra_loux) October 11, 2023

Over on the Nashville side, it's likely going to take a little while to sort out the fantasy relevance of the forwards outside of Filip Forsberg and Ryan O'Reilly. Tommy Novak picked up where he left off with a goal, and a couple of the other young guys got in on the action to.

The top unit unsurprisingly was manned by Roman Josi, and he was joined by ROR and Forsberg. Tyson Barrie and Cody Glass were actually the other two on the main unit, interestingly running the two defencemen. It wasn't all that effective though, and it was Novak actually recording the only power play goal for the team with the second unit.

At even strength, the third man on the top line with ROR and Forsberg was Juuso Parssinen. This is a great landing spot for Parssinen, though with the amount of movement the Preds have had in their lines from day-one of the pre-season, we could see it shuffled very quickly. The kid-line with Philip Tomasino, Luke Evangelista, and Novak is going to get all the offensive minutes they can handle, and under Andrew Brunette's offensive system, that could be a great situation for all three of them to ascend to fantasy relevance.

Samuel Fagemo should see games soon too, and could start somewhere in the top-six, but they don't need to rush him into the lineup right away. Giving him a few extra days (or weeks) to adjust to the team's systems will serve well.

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One other main injury update, is Andrei Svechnikov likely missing at least his team's first seven games by vitue of it being "unlikely" that he travels with the team for their road trip from games two-through-seven. Michael Bunting is up on the top line in the meantime, and we really don't have an estimate for Svech's return date at the moment.

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We had a signing and a trade yesterday as well. Noah Gregor signed a league-minimum deal with the Leafs, while Caleb Jones was traded to the Avalanche for Callahan Burke. Jones is the most likely of the three to have some fantasy relevance, with a bunch of injury-prone defencemen above him on the depth chart. He had stretches of fantasy relevance last season playing with Chicago, and it's a big upgrade to the Avalanche forward group.

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Vince Dunn led all skaters last night (not just in his game but overall of everyone that played) in individual shots created. He may not have scored a point last night, but the points will come. The team overall may come down off of the percentage bender from last season, so it may. be in the 50s instead of the 60s this year, but there will still be solid fantasy value.

I really do believe that Eeli Tolvanen will be a big breakout player this year, and should be on your radar in any kind of league format.

Regardless of the game-one win, I am a little wary of the Golden Knights performing this year with the Stanley cup hangover being a real thing, as we are now a long way from the "misfits" fuel that brought on the team's initial success. Adin Hill‘s performance last night did look reminiscent of the playoff run this spring, so if he keeps that up there won’t be many issues that can’t be patched over.

Chandler Stephenson and Mark Stone each notched two points, which could be a theme this year if Stone remains healthy and if opposing defences are keying in on Jack Eichel‘s top line. Shea Theodore was notably running the top power play unit for Vegas.

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See you next Wednesday! You can find me on Twitter/X here, or BlueSky here if you have any fantasy hockey questions or comments.