Happy Monday y'all!

Not only did we have Week 1 of the NFL this past week, but rookie camps opened for the NHL and a lot of organizations played in mini tournaments so we had some NHL action as well! These games are always fun because they are kids trying to make an impression and you can see the heart that some of these players put out there. In some cases, these skaters will have a cup of coffee with their team before being sent back to their respective junior league, and occasionally some will stick around for the entire season. This may be true for a couple of forwards playing for the Anaheim Ducks as their forward group saw a tremendous amount of change during the summer. 

We all know about the contract situations and free agents that left, but last week Chris Kreider and the Ducks mutually agreed to terminate his contract. Anaheim needs the salary cap space and Kredier did not want to be traded to someplace he did not want to go, so after he got his signing bonus in July, they agreed to terminate the contract so he could choose his next destination (which ended up being the Montreal Canadiens). We knew Pat Verbeek was going to have to move a contract out and now that the domino has fallen, we have some clarity as to what to look for in terms of fantasy lineups. With Kreider gone, Troy Terry out until at least November, and Cutter Gauthier still looking for a contract, that opens up a lot of ice time in the top-six and on the powerplay.

You can bet the Ducks will look to see if Roger McQueen (10th overall in 2025) and Nikita Klepov (15th overall in 2026) can keep up at the NHL level. Anaheim took this approach with Beckett Sennecke last season and it worked out beautifully. If those guys can't fill the void for this year, Frank Vatrano might get an opportunity as he is being paid like a middle-six winger, but was in the doghouse for most of 2025-26. Alex Killorn is also a winger who can fill in and have some value in deeper leagues, but he is a better NHL player than fantasy.

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Another player to keep an eye on during these early days of camp is Roman Kantserov of the Chicago Blackhawks. The opportunity is there for the young forward as Connor Bedard will start the season on IR. The Russian winger scored 36 goals and 64 points as a 21-year-old in the KHL last year and is coming over to North America because he has a goal to play in the NHL. Kantserov is a forward you can get late in your redraft leagues with a ton of offensive potential.

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The Vegas Golden Knights did some housekeeping before training camp by locking up their captain, Mark Stone, and young winger, Braeden Bowman. Stone was in the last year of his contract and re-upped for two years at $9 million. Believe it or not, Stone set a career high in points (73) in 2025-26 and tied his career best in goals (28) in only 60 games. The Canadian winger is a certified band-aid boy so it is safe to say he will miss 15-20 games a season, but seeing Vegas give him this contract still makes me believe he will be playing meaningful minutes for the next few seasons. When on the ice, he is a producer and a great value; you just have to be able to stomach him on the IR for a month.

Because management gave Stone $9 million, they have to make it up elsewhere and that is why the organization signed Bowman to a six year, $20.4 million dollar contract. We pounded the drum for Bowman last season when he was receiving top-six duties with Jack Eichel and producing at almost a point-per-game pace. While he wasn't filling in for injuries, the winger put up 26 points in 20 games for the AHL Henderson Silver Knights. His coach in the AHL, Ryan Craig, is now the bench boss in Las Vegas and with Pavel Dorofeyev in New York, I believe Craig will put Bowman in a great position to succeed for the next few years.

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The Los Angeles Kings gave an update on Kevin Fiala last week, stating the winger will miss the start of training camp because of a follow-up procedure on his injured leg. The message was very vague and did not give us any details, but because there was no specific timeline and it was a "follow-up" on the leg he injured in February, one can assume it hasn't healed properly. Hopefully it was a procedure to clear up some scar tissue, but he was already going pretty late in drafts so he is still a late round dart throw for right now.

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With leagues drafting every day, reach out on Twitter if you have any questions or just want to talk puck, @LAM1926. Have a great week!