This week is our final article before the start of NHL action. Last week we touched on some notable storyline from the preseason camps, and today will be something of a follow up to that. There was some news available at the time, but in some cases it seems to have snowballed to the point where we have to touch on some of the injuries piling up for teams and what it might mean for the rosters at the start of the season. We also know that teams are often extra cautious during the preseason, so some of the documented injuries might just be players getting a few extra days of rest before the start of the regular season.

In order to conduct this review, we will be looking at Player Profile pages, digging into line combinations, and looking at Dobber Reports for preseason games. All news and line combinations are up to date as of October 2nd, 2025.

First up we are going to go out west to the Seattle Kraken. We have to start here because the list of potentially fantasy relevant names on the list is quite large. On the official injured list for the Kraken are Jared McCann, Vince Dunn, Brandon Montour, Chandler Stephenson, Ryker Evans, and Kaapo Kakko. Now depending on your league format and depth some of these names might be fringe holds at best, but the sheer volume is staggering. The good news is that Jared McCann and Brandon Montour are skating and it seems likely they will be back for opening night. The timeline beyond 'day-to-day' for Stephenson and Dunn is murky, while Evans and Kakko are potentially going to miss at least six weeks. Some things to note here. In 2024-25 when Dunn missed time Brandon Montour and Ryker Evans were both worth looks in some formats. In this case Montour seems like the most likely to start the season and with Evans and potentially Dunn out, he might be the only true puck-moving D on the roster. With all of the absences on defense Cale Fleury and Josh Mahura got to run the power-plays in the last preseason game, but it isn't clear that will be the plan on opening night. For the forwards the absence of so many forwards has meant that Berkly Catton, Ryan Winterton, and Jani Nyman have been able to stay with the team thus far. All three have gotten shifts in the top six and on the power play during the preseason. It isn't clear exactly what the lines might be as they have shifted each game, and within each game, but all of them might be worth a stream to start the season if that opening night deployment looks promising. Likely once the Kraken are healthy again the opportunities will drop though.

We have fewer, but bigger names on the injured list in New York, with JT Miller and Artemi Panarin technically on the shelf. Panarin has been back at practice and as recently as October 2nd was on the top power-play so he is likely fine. Miller on the other hand is day to day and as of October 2nd has not been skating with the team, though has spent time on the ice. In his absence both Vincent Trocheck and Alexis Lafreniere have been playing on the Rangers top power play. At the end of 2024-25 that was not the case with Lafrenière spending time on the second unit. The coaching staff seem to want to give Lafrenière more of a run on that top power-play unit this year, which does mean that one of Mika Zibanejad or Trocheck may be bumped when Miller returns.

Florida has one new injury but it is a big one. Aleksander Barkov is out for seven to nine months after knee surgery. With Matthew Tkachuk also out the top six is starting to thin out a bit. This might not be terrible news for Sam Bennett who takes over the top line gig with Sam Reinhart and Carter Verhaeghe, but beyond that, essentially Florida's third line from last season's playoff has become their second line. It isn't entirely clear how much growth we can expect at five on five there. According to Jordan McPherson, on Thursday night, the Panthers played a preseason game with a mostly full lineup, and had Bennett, Reinhart, Brad Marchand, Seth Jones, and Aaron Ekblad all on the top power-play unit. For now, it looks like Verhaeghe and Anton Lundell are getting the short end of the power-play stick.   

Over in Tampa the list technically contains Andrei Vasilevskiy and Victor Hedman. Vasilevskiy has been back skating with the team, is supposed to play on Saturday and be ready for the home opener. The listing seems then just to be a short-term technicality. Hedman is somewhat similar though he hasn't been on the ice in a while. He is reportedly going to be ready for the season opener and his time off is purely precautionary.

In Buffalo we have Zach Benson, Owen Power, and Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen currently listed as out. Power is reportedly expected to play on Friday (October 3rd), and Benson was sitting out with an 'ailment' – though without further detail. It seems likely then that those two are shorter term issues. UPL though is dealing with a lower body injury and left the Sabres game on October 2nd. The team says it was precautionary, but he is still being evaluated. It is slightly concerning though because UPL has been dealing with something all camp which led the team not to keep Devon Levi around, but to sign Alexandar Georgiev to a one-year deal. He and Alex Lyon could potentially split the duties if UPL is to miss time, particularly since the team has not ruled out keeping all three on the roster regardless.

Finally, we have a trio of goalie injuries to mention. In Anaheim, Lukas Dostal is out day to day, and "short, short term". That likely means he will be back for the start of the season, but we don't have confirmation of that yet. In Toronto, Joseph Woll is on personal leave with no indication of a timeline. The Leafs also brought in James Reimer so that implies maybe not a short-term situation. Given that we can probably project Anthony Stolarz to get a bit of a run to start the season, not unlike in 2024-25. And like last season, it certainly increases his value in the short term. Finally, in Vancouver Thatcher Demko has been away from the team for personal reasons. There is no indication of a timeline. We haven't seen any corresponding roster moves like we did in Toronto, but like with 2024-25 if Demko were to miss time Kevin Lankinen would be expected to shoulder the load.

That is all for this week.

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