Tampa Bay freed up a forward spot by sending Nick Tarnasky to Nashville for a conditional draft pick.  He is currently out with a broken thumb, his presence likely means that Antti Pihlstrom will be cut, and probably Ryan Jones as well. 

Sergei Gonchar has decided to go under the knife and have surgery on his shoulder. He will be out of action until the end of March. Now Goligoski and Letang will have the entire season to prove themselves. Next year is Gonchar's final year of his contract. 

This site cracked the Top 50,000 websites in the world in terms of traffic yesterday for the first time. 

The latest cuts are out (including Grabner, Salcido, Bernier, Locke, etc), time to update you – things really get interesting now…

Anaheim: Michal Birner, Eric Boguniecki, John DeGray, JP Levasseur, Ross Lupaschuk, Brendan Mikkelson, Brian Salcido, Petteri Wirtanen, Maxime Macenauer, Logan MacMillan.
Chicago: Bryan Bickell, Michael Blunden, Jacob Dowell, Tim Hambly
Edmonton: Alex Plante
Los Angeles: Jonathan Bernier, Trevor Lewis, Drew Bagnall
Minnesota: Corey Locke, Bryan Lundbohm, Peter Olvecky, Morten Madsen, Marco Rosa, Matt Kassian, Jason Ryznar, Jesse Schultz, Paul Albers, Maxim Noreau, Brandon Rogers, Clayton Stoner, Anton Khudobin, Nolan Schaefer and Marco Scandella.
Montreal: Cedrick Desjardins, Loic Lacasse, Pavel Valentenko, Shawn Belle, Chad Anderson, Brock Trotter, Ryan White, James Wyman, Mike Glumac, Olivier Latendresse, Yanick Lehoux, Ryan Flinn, Mathieu Aubin, Ryan Russel, David Desharnais, Thomas Beauregard
Nashville: Ryan Maki, Ian McKenzie, Robert Dietrich, Mark Dekanich, Stephen Werner, Scott Ford and Mark Matheson.
Phoenix: Josh Tordjman, Logan Stephenson, Jeff Hoggan, Adam Keefe, Derek Nesbitt
Vancouver: Michael Grabner, Dan Gendur, Daniel Rahimi and PC Labrie

I'll try and have all of today's cuts updated in the Fantasy Guide by tonight.

Phoenix pivot Martin Hanzal is hoping to get into his first preseason action later this week.

The Isles have claimed Thomas Pock off of waivers, which could put Jack Hillen's roster spot in jeopardy. 

Chicago has waived Nikolai Khabibulin. I don't see a team taking him, but perhaps on re-entry waivers it will happen. Stay tuned… 

Charles Linglet, ranked 167 on my fantasy prospects list, is in camp in much better shape and is really making an impression. I have projected him to have a couple of cups of coffee in the NHL this year in my Guide . Without the pedigree, he has to work that much harder to become NHLer, but is on the right track.

Eric Staal played with Sergei Samsonov and Patrick Eaves last night. I can see that being the line all season, with Williams shelved.

Jeff Carter played with Andreas Nodl and Claude Giroux. Giroux, 6th on my prospects list, should make the team. Nodl, ranked 59th, probably won't – but watch for him in 2009-10. He is a Calder candidate for that year.

Filpulla is centering Detroit's third line with Samuelsson and Cleary.

Surprise first liner in Atlanta: Grant Stevenson is playing with Kovalchuk and Williams. Seeing as the line was on the ice for two goals against and zero goals for… I can see this combo changing pretty quick.

Igor Makarov, 40th on my prospects list, has been playing with Patrick Kane lately. Last night, he, Kane and Sharp played together. Unfortunately, he didn't PP time with them and so was held pointless.
Brian Campbell had four assists for the Hawks last night – three on the power play. You're going to see a lot of that this year.

Chris Conner is again making a case to make the Stars with two more points last night. A two-way contract kept him off the team to start last year and it will probably keep him off the team to start this year too. He has slipped to 106 on my prospects list.

Buffalo line combo last night: Hecht with Pominville and MacArthur.

Not the biggest line in the NHL: Gerbe with Kennedy and Afinogenov. Tons of skill, but average height can't be above 5-8 I'd think… 

Isles winger Jon Sim is healthy and having a good camp – he is being played, as expected, on the team's top six.

Dan Hamhuis suffered a knee sprain Saturday and will be out for 1-2 weeks.

Pavel Datsyuk is the newest member of the Groin Injury Club.

Ville Leino is having a solid camp and could sneak a roster spot on the third line. Unless he sees time on the top six, I don't see him getting more than 40 points this year, but if he does that than I would expect improvement in his numbers in the years ahead.

Georges Laraque has a groin injury that is apparently quite serious – be wary of this at the draft.

CUTS

Lots of cuts were posted here last night after 8pm, so be sure to click "next" below and check out yesterday's ramblings – some big ones!
Nashville: Nick Spaling
Florida: Keaton Ellerby, David Shantz, Tyler Plante, Stefan Meyer, Drew Larman, Rory Fitzpatrick, Brady Calla, Luke Beaverson, Peter Ashton, Jordan Henry, Jason Garrison, Steve MacIntyre, Andrew Sweetland, Dan Collins, Michael Caruso and James Delory.