Rambling Zidlicky, Kane (again), Savard, McDavid, Sportsnet, Ritchie, Hanifin and more…

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September 9th, just eight days from training camp and nine days until the return of Laidlaw. That's right, be kind to Parker and Cliffy over the next week, as they'll be running down their final couple of Ramblings for the summer. Hopefully they're back next summer…

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Now the big news. In case you missed it, I made my debut at Sportsnet.ca yesterday. You can find my piece on the Top 30 LW in fantasy hockey keeper leagues right here. For the entire season you can look for regular content there from myself, Laidlaw and others. We'll be sure to link to each one of those articles right here so you won't miss them.

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The Isles made a contract offer to Marek Zidlicky. Why that news wasn't immediately followed by a "Zidlicky Signs Offer" headline can only be explained by his being unreachable while vacationing on an exotic island. Because he's not going to get any other ones. Even if this offer was for the league minimum, he should jump on it. Yes, 34 points ain't bad, but every team out there knows that 30 points for him isn't in the cards again unless you overplay him in situations that other defensemen would perform better in.

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Ray Ferraro thinks that Connor McDavid will finish with between 58 and 61 points this season. While I do respect Ferraro as a TV analyst (a lot, actually), I'm not buying for a single second that this will be the result. Unless McDavid is held to 70 games, that's not happening. No way he gets held to fewer points than Forsberg, Stone and Gaudreau tallied as rookies.

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Well here we go. Finally some action on the Patrick Kane front. While his fantasy owners are getting anxious, wondering what to do with him (will he get zero points this year, or 80!?!?). Meanwhile, EA Sports takes him off their game cover and the NHL takes him out of their promo materials. He has not yet been charged, but his grand jury hearing has been postponed. Speculation is that a settlement is being negotiated (as I figured, in a recent Ramblings, would happen). So if they settle and Kane settles on a lesser charge, the NHL may punish him with a lengthy suspension.

If Patrick Kane settles on lesser charge, NHL may investigate and punish. If exonerated, NHL will risk defamation suit if punish Kane.

— Eric Macramalla (@EricOnSportsLaw) September 8, 2015

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NHL players prefer the Olympics over the World Cup, as they should. But I can't help but feel that they can make the World Cup the bigger event. While there are aspects of the Olympics that I like – amateur athletes playing niche sports – there are many aspects that I hate. I hate that the IOC is so crooked. I hate that Toronto is going to make a bid and probably win (I live in the 'burbs and traffic will be hell and the province will be cash-strapped for years afterward). I hate the NHL season stopping. If there's a World Cup happening regularly and reliably and it was the only world event of its kind, I think in time it can be great.

I love watching the Olympic hockey games. But as a fantasy owner, if I can get that at the World Cup and never shut the NHL season down, then that's what I would prefer. Selfish, yes. Oh well. How many points did my guy get last night? My favorite question.

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David Savard cashed in with a five-year deal worth $4.25 million per season. He's 24 so the Blue Jackets essentially bought two years of his UFA time, thus the high amount. What they did here was take a risk. A risk on a player who scored 11 goals and 36 points last year. Prior to that, his career high was 15 points. So the Jackets took a risk on a one-year wonder who we can be reasonably confident will continue to get better. So what looks high today will look reasonable in 2016 and will be a downright steal in 2017 if he continues on his trajectory. But how do you soften risk? By bending the situation to your will as far as possible. And how can Columbus do this? By playing the hell out of him, playing him with a skilled partner, and giving him power-play time. That's why big contracts matter in fantasy hockey. Because, while nothing is guaranteed, it sure does help to play the odds. And the odds are always tilted in favor the guy fresh off of a giant contract signing.

In the Guide I have Savard projected for (78-10-28-38, 66 PIM).

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Noah Hanifin has an undisclosed injury that will cause him to miss the Traverse City Tournament. He is expected to be healthy for the main camp, but definitely worth keeping an eye on.

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Okay, this sucks. I hate seeing injury setbacks for young potential stars who are on the cusp of making the jump. Brett Ritchie underwent wrist surgery and is out for 3-4 months. That takes him close to Christmas and pretty much ensures that Ales Hemsky will get far too many chances to stay on that second line.

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Ray Emery has been invited to training camp by Tamp Bay. This is on the heels of the news that Andrey Vasilevskiy had surgery to remove a blood clot and is likely out for several months. Considering the fact that Ben Bishop will be shouldering a huge workload anyway, Emery will be fine as a backup.

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Hey, remember David Vyborny? He's 40 years old now and he's officially retired from hockey. He played 543 NHL games and tallied 317 points. That includes two great seasons from 2005-2007 in which he tallied 65 and 64 points.

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In case you missed it Monday, I'll re-paste the announcements here:

If you haven't bought my 10th annual Guide yet, you can still take advantage of the Draft Kings offer. Basically you click this link. Then you sign up at Draft Kings and deposit $10 (takes 2-3 minutes). The end. Then Draft Kings sends me a report twice per day. Your email will be on your report. So I copy your email to my clipboard, call up your account in the DobberHockey back end, and then I give you a free Ultimate Fantasy Pack. You can then go to your downloads and download the Guide, the Prospects Report, the Draft List and – later on – the Midseason Guide and Playoff List. Real simple.

One note about the above – make sure you have a DobberHockey account! The forum is NOT DobberHockey, make sure you are registered at DobberHockey. Otherwise I have nowhere to drop your downloads in.

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Remember last year when Rob Vollman released a $4.99 Historical Points Projection piece? It takes each player and based on age and recent stats, he lists comparable players in history, adjusted for the era, and spits out a projection. Well he has this out again, this time teaming up with fellow stats guy Matt Cane – and I'm offering this to you FREE with the Fantasy Guide purchase. If you bought the Fantasy Guide, turn to page 151 to get the coupon code. Then come back to the shop and add to your cart, using the coupon code to get it for free.

If you do the Draft Kings deal and you use these coupon codes that are in the Guide, you get – Fantasy Guide, Draft List, Prospects Report, Midseason Guide, Playoff Draft List, Football Cheat Sheets and Historical Player Projections – all for just $10!?!?! And there is another coupon code in there for the Geek Draft Kit that gives you that awesome tool for just $8.