Alffie tweaks his back, Boudreau extended, Niederreiter spurns the KHL and more…

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Fantasy Guide (buy here) has been updated. Draft List now has sleepers. Second-year players in the Draft List have their cap hits corrected. UFA/Tryout notes, Malone added to the NYR depth chart/ projections, etc.

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I'd like to start off this week by bidding adieu to Mike Amato. It was a pleasure working with you the past couple of years, Mike. I really enjoyed what you brought to the site. You definitely pushed me to elevate my ramblings as direct in-house competition. You will be missed.

With Mike gone, you'll be seeing more of me – up to four times a week now – I hope that's a good thing. I know I'm excited, though I'm mildly concerned what four nights a week of 3,000+ word ramblings might do to me.

"Make me a better writer," he thought wishfully.

So that's the plan going forward. This should be a great season of fantasy hockey. Let's win some pools together.

Excited? Good. Now let’s do some ramblings.

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It's probably nothing but Daniel Alfredsson tweaked his back yesterday and was forced to stop skating. What I mean by nothing is that this probably won't affect Alfredsson's decision with regard to starting the season. He is still debating whether to return to the Red Wings for another season or to retire. I don't think a tweak is going to change things at this stage of the game. He still has a few weeks to test it out and see if he wants to go another round. However, this should be a friendly reminder of how worn down Alfredsson is at this stage.