Hello and welcome back to Geek of the Week! I hope your offseason has been filled with some fun mock drafts, best ball drafts, projections, and hockey hype. In this week’s article, we’re diving into some preseason standouts and discussing their potential value in fantasy hockey multicat leagues for the upcoming season. While I don't like to jump to conclusions based solely on preseason play, the players listed below have shown enough promise to earn our attention. These are all players worth adding in deeper leagues, or keeping on our radar for shallower formats.

Cutter Gauthier

Gauthier looks to have secured himself a top six role to start the season, including a spot on Anaheim's first power play unit. In his first preseason game, he had a whopping 11 shots on goal with 18 shot attempts. He followed that up with just one shot in his next game, but had a healthy five shots on 11 attempts in his preseason finale. He picked up two goals in these three games and has potential to be a great asset for shots and goals. If he can mesh well in the top six, he could average over three shots on goal per game with a few nice outliers. There are some expectations for him to be a banger stud in the future, but he has been credited with zero hits in the preseason so far. He may only provide some offense for fantasy managers this season.

Alex Laferriere

Laferriere is another young player to have secured himself a spot in the top six. He also surprisingly had a considerable look on the first power play unit alongside his even strength linemates Anze Kopitar and Adrian Kempe, where he has already scored a power play goal this preseason. He also has fired five shots on goal in his first two preseason games. Laferriere showed great shot rates last year with 8.18 SOG/60. If he can receive good deployment all season, this can result in three shots on goal per game. He also has great hit rates, picking up 113 last year with limited ice time. Laferriere can be a great value add if he can keep his current spot in the lineup.

Martin Fehervary

Fehervary should not be on your radar for any offensive production, but it's his peripheral category coverage that has my attention. He has always been a good streaming option for hits, but he may be showing signs of also providing some great block coverage as well. He may have some more ice time this year, especially in a more defensive role alongside Matt Roy. In his first two preseason games, he's picked up a whopping 14 blocked shots. He's consistently seen a rise in his blocks/60 rates each season and we could see a career high for him this season. He can be a good option in deeper banger leagues as he can put up 200+ hits and 150+ blocks this season.

Arturs Silovs

With no timetable for Thatcher Demko's return, Silovs will open the season as the Canucks number 1(A) goalie. He's been great in the preseason, with another strong showing against McDavid and company on Friday night. He's gone 2-1 with a .917 SV% and a 2.26 GAA. Silovs is a great ZeroG option that can provide some great value to start the season. Kevin Lankinen has never been anything more than a backup, so Silovs could run away with the starting job.

Honourable Mention: Jeremy Lauzon

Lauzon has shown no signs of peeling back from his dominance in the hits category with 10 hits in his two preseason games. Lauzon should be the king of this category once again this year.

Hope you enjoyed this week’s breakdown!

Follow me on Twitter/X @fantasycheddar for more fantasy hockey advice and updates throughout the season.