There has been a lot of chatter over the last several months when it comes to goaltenders and contracts. There was Jeremy Swayman in Boston who didn't get his extension until the weekend and thus didn't start the season opener. There was also Ilya Sorokin and Connor Hellebuyck starting their new $8M+ AAV deals this season, the Juuse Saros extension, and more. It appears teams have reversed the trend of not paying goalies and hoping to go middle-of-the-road and get by.

There was another big extension on Wednesday morning, this time in Ottawa with Linus Ullmark:

Four years. $8.25 mil per for Ullmark and the @Senators

— Darren Dreger (@DarrenDreger) October 9, 2024

This is only four years, and not eight, but it's a hefty chunk of change for a goalie that has yet to play a game with the team. Ottawa may have had to overpay because they've been a losing franchise for several years now, but they have locked up their crease for the time being.

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The goaltender extensions didn't stop there as Joey Daccord got a new contract from Seattle:  

Joey D'Accord extends in Seattle…hearing 5x$5M

— Elliotte Friedman (@FriedgeHNIC) October 9, 2024

These kinds of things are weeks, if not months, in the works, but it is funny that it comes the morning after Philipp Grubauer had a shaky season opener. Daccord is in the last year of his current deal, and Grubauer has two more after this, so barring a buyout/trade of Grubauer, the Kraken will be paying nearly $11M per season for their goaltending tandem starting in 2025-26. If Daccord can keep up his momentum from last season, this is a steal, but we know how these things can go with netminders.

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Buffalo's season-opening trip to Europe did not go well, not only because they lost both games, but they also lost Zach Benson and JJ Peterka to injury. On Wednesday, the Sabres, their fans, and fantasy owners got good news on both fronts. First with Benson:

Zach Benson has joined the Sabres on the ice for practice this morning.

The first time that he's skated since Prague.

— Lance Lysowski (@LLysowski) October 9, 2024

And then with Peterka:

JJ Peterka is also on the ice for practice.

— Bill Hoppe (@BillHoppeNHL) October 9, 2024

It is notable that both skated in their regular lineup spot during practice, so it seems as if both may return for their home opener on Thursday night at home to Los Angeles.

Also, Peterka and Jack Quinn were both moved to the second PP unit in favour of Jason Zucker and Dylan Cozens. This seems to be a fluid situation, but not a good start to the season for those of us hoping for big things from Peterka and Quinn. 

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Both Luke Hughes and Brett Pesce were not at New Jersey's practice on Wednesday:

I don't see #NJDevils defensemen Luke Hughes or Brett Pesce on the ice.

— Kristy Flannery (@InStilettos_NHL) October 9, 2024

It was all but confirmed earlier in the week (especially in Hughes's case), so this just makes it a near-certainty that neither plays in the team's home opener on Thursday night against Toronto. Whenever they do return – Pesce seems to be a lot closer – that will be a big boost to a blue line that needs to stay healthy.

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Something of an update on Adam Boqvist:

Maurice says A. Boqvist is having testing done this AM.

If there's "nothing sinister," he'll travel with the team today.

— Jameson Olive (@JamesonCoop) October 9, 2024

That they're even talking about him traveling with the team, after taking that puck to the face on Tuesday night, is a good sign. We'll see how this goes, but certainly better news than some alternatives.

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One hope that I (and I assume other fantasy managers) had going into the 2024-25 season was that Alex DeBrincat would line up both on the top line and top power play unit in Detroit for most of the season. We know how high his offensive ceiling is when he has good deployment, and he got that through most of training camp.

I hate to rain on the parade, but it seems DeBrincat has been taken off PP1 for now:  

#RedWings power play units same as yesterday:
1. Compher (net front), Larkin (bumper), Kane-Raymond (flanks), Gustafsson (point).
2. Rasmussen (net front), DeBrincat (bumper), Tarasenko-Berggren (flanks), Seider (point). pic.twitter.com/j1CrDLqJkQ

— Ansar Khan (@AnsarKhanMLive) October 9, 2024

Like Buffalo, this seems to be a fluid situation that can change quickly, but Detroit does not have the offensive depth to support high-end fantasy seasons if DeBrincat is stuck on the second power play unit. Something to monitor.

Detroit also announced that Ville Husso is starting their season opener, and that collective scream everyone just heard was the Cam Talbot enthusiasts shouting into the air at no one in particular.

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A quick update on goaltender Juuse Saros as he missed practice on Tuesday:  

#Preds Juuse Saros is day to day with a lower-body injury

— Emma Lingan (@emma_lingan) October 9, 2024

Nashville starts their season at home on Thursday with a big divisional matchup against Dallas. It sure seems as if Saros won't be ready, and given his expectations from fantasy owners this season, it is absolutely a situation to keep an eye on. Hopefully it's just a small, nagging issue that can be cleared up with a few days off, but we know how nagging injuries can really hamper the season of any player, goalie or not.

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There was still no Mavrik Bourque at practice for Dallas:

Stars lines at practice in Nashville Wednesday:

Robertson-Hintz-Stankoven
Marchment-Duchene-Seguin
Benn-Johnston-Dadanov
Steel-Back-Blackwell

Heiskanen-Dumba
Lindell-Lundkvist
Harley-Lyubushkin

Mavrik Bourque is out with an injury.

— Mike Heika (@MikeHeika) October 9, 2024

This is a really good opportunity for Logan Stankoven to cement himself on the top line. There is a clear opportunity for him to hold onto that role; Dallas is a team that likes to stay with consistent lines as long as they're performing well, and Stankoven could be top line/second power play all season with a good few weeks here. Let's hope he can do the thing, because it would be a big deal for the team and dynasty owners.

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For Vegas's season opener on Wednesday night, the coaches decided to move Victor Olofsson to the top line in place of Ivan Barbashev, moving Barbashev down to the third line with Nicolas Roy. If it were to hold, that would give Olofsson top line/top power play status for the Golden Knights.

It has been a while since Olofsson has been a meaningful fantasy contributor, but the list of players who became meaningful fantasy contributors once they left Buffalo is starting to get lengthy.

The fun part is that they switched up the top line again for warmups, putting Barbashev back on the top line and Olofsson back on the third line. Again, this feels like it's going to be a fluid situation because there's no real need to be so cautious about where you're lining up Ivan Barbashev and Victor Olofsson unless you're really not sure how any of it is going to work.

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Mumblings abound on social media that Toronto goalie Joseph Woll had some sort of injury issue, and that does seem to be the case as he was not dressed for the team's opener on Wednesday night against Montreal. This is not a good start to the season for a player who has had injury problems over the last couple of seasons.

Montreal ended up winning that game by a very slim 1-0 margin. Sam Montembeault was the difference in the game as he made 46 saves for the shutout (updated to 48 saves after the game), facing at least 13 shots in each period. According to Natural Stat Trick, the Canadiens had seven high-danger shot attempts in the entire game while the Leafs had nine in the third period alone. Sometimes, the goalie has to win the game, and he did exactly that.

Cole Caufield, sporting his new number 13 in honour of Johnny Gaudreau, scored the lone goal, tallying on the power play after a nice cross-crease pass from Juraj Slafkovsky. Kirby Dach had the secondary assist in his first game in nearly one calendar year, and he was another positive on the night for the Habs. He and his second line generally looked very good for the team, and that's something that has been very infrequent for this franchise for a few years now.

Anthony Stolarz stopped 26 of 27 in the loss in a solid game from him. Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner each had six shots for the Leafs while Matthew Knies had four to give the top line 16 shots in the game by themselves.

Chris Tanev had five blocks in his Leafs debut while Kaiden Guhle had a shot, three blocks, and a hit in a solid multi-cat effort.

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The New York Rangers laid waste to Pittsburgh in the Penguins' home/season opener by a 6-0 margin. Vincent Trocheck had a goal while Alexis Lafreniere, Chris Kreider (x2), Filip Chytil, and Sam Carrick had the others. Kreider finished the game with five shots and a hit.

Igor Shesterkin stopped all 29 shots faced for the shutout.

Jacob Trouba had an excellent fantasy night with two assists, four shots, five blocks, two PIMs, and a hit. The same could be said of Vincent Trocheck with three shots, two blocks, and a hit to go with his goal.

Anthony Beauvillier and Michael Bunting led the way on the shot chart for Pittsburgh with six and five shots, respectively. Every single Penguins skater was on the ice for at least one goal against.

Tristan Jarry stopped 35 of 41 shots against.

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The third shutout of the night came courtesy of Connor Hellebuyck as the Winnipeg Jets pasted the Edmonton Oilers 6-0. Hellebuyck stopped all 30 shots in the win, marking a nice bounce back from him after a rough first round playoff exit six months ago (that wasn't all on him by any means).

Winnipeg's 'third' line did a lot of the damage as Mason Appleton had a goal and two assists, Adam Lowry had a goal and an assist, and Nino Niederreiter had a pair of helpers. Mark Scheifele also had a goal (PP) and an assist with four shots and a block. Appleton finished with three shots, a block, and two hits for a well-rounded fantasy night.

Kyle Connor, Rasmus Kupari, and Dylan Samberg all scored for the Jets. Samberg had two shots and a block, but he also skated a whopping 23:21 in this game, and led Jets blue liners in even strength ice time. It was Samberg's 157 career NHL game and the first time he cracked 23 minutes, so this might be someone to keep an eye on in fantasy.

Josh Morrissey had a pair of helpers, one shot, and three blocks.

Stuart Skinner gave up five goals on 13 shots and was pulled halfway through the second period.

Jeff Skinner led the shot totals for Edmonton with four in his Oilers debut. Darnell Nurse had one shot, two blocks, and two hits. All told, not much going on for Edmonton in this one.

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It was a wild home opener for the Vancouver Canucks as they took a 4-1 lead into the second period, but then Calgary stormed back to score four straight goals before a late tally from JT Miller forced overtime. Connor Zary potted the overtime winner to give Calgary an incredible 6-5 overtime win and land both Zary and the Flames with a two-point night.

Anthony Mantha had a goal and an assist with seven PIMs in his Flames debut, while both Martin Pospisil and Rasmus Andersson had a goal and an assist as well. Jonathan Huberdeau scored once on four shots while MacKenzie Weegar also got on the board.

Weegar finished the game with five shots, five blocks and two hits to go with his goal while Andersson had three shots and six blocks.

On the Vancouver side, Brock Boeser scored twice while JT Miller, Daniel Sprong, and Conor Garland also tallied. Miller finished with three shots, added an assist, a block, five PIMs, and three hits in a great multi-cat night.

Quinn Hughes had two assists with two blocks in the loss.

Dan Vladar stopped 20 of 25 shots to hold on for the win while Arturs Silovs allowed six goals on 26 shots for the loss.

Kevin Rooney took a very hard hit from Miller early in the game and was down on the ice for a while. The good news is he was eventually able to skate off on his own but he did not return to the game.

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Vegas managed a 3-1 lead at home over Colorado in their opener, and scored three goals in the third period to register an 8-4 win. The top line did a lot of the scoring as Ivan Barbashev had two goals, two assists, two shots, a block, and two hits, Jack Eichel had four assists, three shots, three blocks, and a hit, and Mark Stone had two goals, one assist, two shots, four blocks, and two hits. Victor Olofsson also scored twice as he and Stone both tallied on the power play.

Brett Howden and Zach Whitecloud managed the other goals with Whitecloud adding a pair of hits.

Shea Theodore had three helpers (two on the power play), a shot, and two blocks in the win.

Mikko Rantanen managed a hat trick for the Avalanche, landing six shots and three hits in total. Casey Mittelstadt had the other goal while Nathan MacKinnon, Sam Girard, and Cale Makar all had a pair of assists (one each on the PP for Makar and MacKinnon).

Alexandar Georgiev allowed five goals on 16 shots and was pulled after the second period. In all, Colorado goaltending gave up seven goals on 20 shots.

Adin Hill stopped 28 of 32 shots in the win.