On Tuesday night, the Seattle Kraken extended forward Matty Beniers for seven years with a cap hit just over $7.1M per season. Beniers was the Rookie of the Year in 2023 thanks to posting 57 points in 80 games, but took a huge step back, production-wise, with 37 points in 77 games in 2023-24. He turns 22 years old in November.

This fits in with what we've seen other teams do with younger RFAs that weren't necessarily proven commodities. They all had upward trajectories, but Cole Caufield, Juraj Slafkovsky, Matt Boldy, Josh Norris, Jake Sanderson, and Owen Power have all signed something similar in the last couple of years. If Seattle thinks Beniers is a top-line player moving forward, then this makes sense.

I don't think Beniers is anywhere near as bad as his 2023-24 boxcar stats showed, and it's worth noting that he skated 18:34 per game over his final 25 games of the season. The production didn't really rebound, but that is nearly a full-minute improvement from his season to that point. With Alex Wennberg elsewhere, Beniers should be a 19-minute player now, though we'll see what new coach Dan Bylsma wants to do. The freshly-extended centre also has just 234 combined hits and blocks in 167 career games so there isn't much multi-cat value, so if he's not a 70-point forward, there's not much fantasy value here outside of deep formats.

There shouldn't be much concern about Beniers in dynasty formats, but in one-year leagues, there is still a lot of uncertainty with him, his new coach, and the team around Beniers.

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An interesting note on Vancouver goalie Thatcher Demko:

– No timetable on when Demko is going to be 100% healthy

– Canucks have been worried about Demko's rehab since the NHL draft

– Rehab not progressing as fast as some would like

– Radio silence when Dhaliwal asks if Demko has had surgery

– Canucks poking around goalie market https://t.co/8P8eAi7A8c

— Taj (@taj1944) August 20, 2024

From a strict fantasy hockey angle, this isn’t great news. Managers better be prepared as if he is either not going to be ready for the start of the season, or may not be 100% even if he does start the season on time.

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The 2024-25 Dobber Hockey Fantasy Guide is available in the Dobber Shop! The nice thing is that because it is digital-only, updates can be made as news changes, and there's certainly been a lot of that this week.

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In Tuesday's Ramblings, I wrote about some stacks that are worth targeting in fantasy drafts. It got me thinking of some of my favourite draft values so far. Today will be about specific players, rather than teams, to see where some value can be had in early fantasy drafts. A lot is sure to change over the next seven-ish weeks, but for now, here are some players that I'm targeting in multi-cat formats. I will leave off players I've discussed a couple times already in recent weeks like Shea Theodore and Jacob Markstrom.

Tim Stützle

At the top has to be one of my favourite young players in the league. It was a down 2023-24 season for Stützle as he managed just 70 points in 75 games, but he's still just 22 years old (he turns 23 in January). He also shot 9.4% against a career average, to that point, of 14.2%. Had he shot just 13%, he would have had 25 goals and been over a point per game. Assuming he's fully healthy and ready to go, he is Ottawa's top centre and should be used as such. There is concern about whether they split the PP units again, but I'm betting new coach Travis Green relies on his top guys to be top guys, and that means Stützle has 30 goals and 90 points back on the menu. Considering the good amount of hits and shots he can bring, he's a top target for me outside of the first four rounds.

Tomas Hertl

The concern of Hertl is how he's used. If he's given second-fiddle status behind Jack Eichel, he may be more of an 18-minute player than 19- or 20-minute player. That matters a bit, but what also matters is that he's healthy and on a playoff team. It has been a while since that happened and we've seen him score 30 goals multiple times and we've seen him put up a 65-point/82-game pace a few times, including as recently as 2022-23. This Vegas roster will be the most talented roster around Hertl in a few years and though he's on the wrong side of 30 years old, there are times where he's falling well outside the top-100 picks (like on Underdog Fantasy). For a guy that can put up 2.5 shots and one hit per game, and will be used on the top power play unit, there is good value here.

Andrei Svechnikov

We meet again, old friend.

Everyone has 'their guys' and Svechnikov is one of my guys; has been since he was drafted. Over the last five season, his points/60 minutes rate is the same as Kyle Connor and higher than Jesper Bratt, Jordan Kyrou, and Clayton Keller. In a format where shots and hits can really boost value, Svechnikov brings two multi-cat dimensions that none of those names can bring. The only problem – aside from that knee issue from 2023 – is ice time. He was a shade under 17 minutes a game in 2023-24, and that's not good enough to be a top-25 fantasy skater. The emergence of Seth Jarvis gives them options, too, but Svechnikov is now in the meat of his prime and should be completely healthy. I suspect he'll be over 18 minutes again and if he finally hits his potential, could even push towards 19 minutes. That is a risk worth taking after the first few rounds.

Quinton Byfield

Concerns around Byfield's fantasy value are valid but, to me, it's more about the team around him than Byfield himself. If he were the top-line centre in Utah or Philadelphia, he'd have genuine high-end wingers to play with. If Los Angeles moves him to centre for this season, he may be on the second line with guys like Warren Foegele or Alex Laferriere. That is a problem.

With that out of the way, I do think there's an outside chance he ends up Los Angeles's top centre this season while Anze Kopitar and Phillip Danault are a 2A/2B for middle-6 centres. All Byfield needs is 18-19 minutes a night (he's added roughly two minutes per game in TOI each of the last two seasons) and one of Kevin Fiala or Adrian Kempe as regular line mates. He will be on the top power play, and is starting to scratch his upside. I would rather be a year too early on him, when considering his very modest ADP, than a year too late.

Adam Fantilli

Here are Fantilli's 82-game paces from his injury-shortened rookie season:

• 20 goals
• 25 assists
• 193 shots
• 105 hits
• 42 blocks

Fantilli is now healthy after that leg laceration that limited his season and Columbus's young forwards around him are now a year older. I think he's still a couple years away from really taking flight, but a 30-goal, 60-point, 210-shot, 100-hit, 50-block season is not out of the question here. He is a guy that should be looked at outside the top-150 picks because there is multi-cat value here, not just production value.

Jake Walman

Walman is now on a San Jose roster that is incredibly thin on the blue line and while they have guys that can try to run a power play (Henry Thrun comes to mind), there is nothing set in stone on that blue line. Walman is one of the few proven NHLers the Sharks have, so despite never having a 20-minute season in his career, it wouldn't be surprising to see him surpass 22 minutes a game in 2024-25. Considering his high block rates, and the fact he was just a shade under two shots per game in Detroit with less ice time, there is multi-cat value here. He can create his own shots, and he'll have to do a lot of that in San Jose, so he's a late-round defence target that makes sense to me; at least in leagues without plus/minus.

Pyotr Kochetkov

The concern with Kochectkov is there has been some inconsistency at the NHL level and he still has to contend with Frederik Andersen. However, injuries (blood clots) have limited Andersen to just 50 appearances in the last two seasons and he turns 35 years old before the season starts. While Andersen, if healthy, could still make 30-ish starts, the lion's share should go to Kochetkov, and the 2024-25 Dobber Hockey Fantasy Guide (for sale here) has Kochetkov with 49 appearances. The Hurricanes should still be a top defensive team in the league, and that's good enough to rely on for a goalie that is going around (or later than) the 20^th netminder off the draft board.

Connor Ingram

There absolutely is risk in drafting Ingram, given that Karel Vejmelka is still around, and new ownership may just want to push for a playoff spot regardless of the goalie (hence all the additions on the blue line). Utah could be a team that threatens for a playoff spot, though, and neither Ingram nor Vejmelka are very expensive at the draft table.

Both Ingram and Vejmelka have been the franchise's goalies over the last two seasons and Ingram has been the better goalie in both. Goalies are voodoo, sure, but Ingram has the inside track on an improved roster that I think can push itself to the middle of the Western Conference. Considering he's also going off the board after the top-20 goalies as well, he's a guy worth taking a chance on for all the late-round goalie drafters out there.