The Fantasy Guide was updated Saturday (Nikita Gusev – more on him below – and Zdeno Chara). Not a lot has been happening, but that will change this week. Training camps open around September 22 (depending on the team), with rookie camps already in full swing. When the main camp is several days in, the updates will be fast and frequent – often to the tune of three times per day. So when your draft day arrives, be sure to re-download the Guide at that point. Updates are free, simply re-download the document when you want it.

For my francophone readers who prefer to read their gold in their native tongue, we have a translated version of the Guide and the updates are not even a day behind – often within a couple of hours. You can order your French version here (and please share with any of your francophone pals).

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Just last week I was ranting about the downside of signing too many players and used Toronto as the prime example. And not six days later Nikita Gusev (and/or his agent) decided that Toronto was the team with which to sign a tryout agreement.

Don't get me wrong. If this was Toronto's only signing of the offseason then I'd love this move for both parties. He's a great fit – creative offensively and extremely gifted. Signed as a player who just needs to create offense while playing either Auston Matthews or John Tavares would be absolute gold. And I'm confident it would work, too.

However.

He is not Toronto's only signing. No, Toronto signed Nick Ritchie, Michael Bunting and Ondrej Kase. They also (supposedly) promised Ilya Mikheyev more opportunities on a scoring line. And all this is assuming Nicholas Robertson is sent to the minors (which is likely, since he is waivers-exempt). These are five players with contracts, each with an eye on a top-six winger spot, and only two are available. We just saw Denis Malgin take a look at this situation and decide that staying in the Swiss League was a better option. Why did Gusev decide he could succeed where Malgin saw only failure? Gusev must have a lot of confidence in himself. I guess that's a good thing. And also with a strong camp he doesn't necessarily have to sign with Toronto – he can still sign anywhere. But teams don't give their PTO players a bigger chance than their contract players. Which means that Gusev starts camp behind the eight ball.

For what it's worth, my two favorites for the two jobs are Mikheyev and Gusev. But those are also the two I see as 'least likely'. Ritchie is another late-blooming power forward who has improved bit by bit with each year in the NHL. At 25 years of age, he's hitting that window where the bigger forwards figure it out. He started strong last season with 14 points in 17 games before hitting a wall. Matched up with the players the Leafs have to offer could coax the best out of him. Do you see Gusev usurping that? And Bunting, who took a hometown discount to play for Toronto (where he grew up), had 10 goals in 21 games for Arizona last year. He just turned 26. If Gusev beats him out, then that would mean that Bunting's NHL career is over before it even started. Which would mean that Bunting made a huge mistake signing with a team that was already stacked and offered only fierce competition. Can you see Bunting being cut in favor of a contract to Gusev? I mean, I suppose either scenario is possible, but realistically, Gusev faces an uphill battle.

Gusev is not draftable in fantasy leagues, unless you have a final-round pick in your deep league and you don't care about wasting it. And keep your finger on the waiver-wire trigger and grab him early if he does indeed earn a contract.

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Former DobberHockey managing editor Steve Laidlaw had a nice suggestion when I was on Twitter looking for a topic. It seems like most teams have a clear No.1 defenseman. Who is my favorite for Calgary, Seattle, NY Islanders and Philadelphia? This will be a fun investigation.

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Calgary

Contenders – Noah Hanifin, Rasmus Andersson, Juuso Valimaki.

Long Shots – Oliver Kylington, Johannes Kinnvall.

I rule out Kylington because he is still not proving himself as a legit NHLer and is getting scratched more than he's actually playing. Kinnvall would have made a nice dark horse because he's a late-blooming, undrafted player who really shone in the SHL the last two seasons. But when the Flames signed Erik Gudbranson and Michael Stone, that pretty much spelled the end of Kinnvall's chances of making the team on a full-time basis.

So that leaves out contenders. Now that Mark Giordano's gone, a lot of PPTOI has been freed up. Last season Andersson averaged 2:44 per game, and that actually beat Giordano. But if you look closely, Andersson's PPTOI started off huge at 3:47 per game. By the second half, that number had dipped to two minutes. Meanwhile, Hanifin's PPTOI trended the opposite way – he saw very little time early on, but finished the second half with over 1:30. Giordano is a left shot and so is Hanifin. But Andersson shoots right. I think you'll see Andersson getting similar PPTOI in the year ahead, and I suspect it will follow a similar trend in that it will decline over time. Hanifin, meanwhile, absorbs Giordano's PPTOI.

Because I think Hanifin will produce better results early on, I can see his PPTOI increasing with each quarter. It's why I have him setting career highs in 2021-22. As for Valimaki, he is the future of that power play. He has higher upside than any of them, but he turns just 23 in a couple of weeks and is coming off a season in which he hardly saw any PP time at all. For this season, it will be enough just to see him get a few sniffs. They'll ease him in, so I can see 1:00 PPTOI per game, give or take. An introduction to the role, but with more to come down the road.

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Seattle

Contenders – Mark Giordano, Vince Dunn, Dennis Cholowski

I think you can rule out Cholowski right away. Yes, he'll see some PP time, but it will be secondary until he proves that he's a legit NHL player. But that's only for the early part of the season. What if he does earn it? With Detroit he was given tons of PP time in his first two partial-seasons and was actually fairly effective. It was just the rest of his game that was the problem. If he's effective on the power play and both Giordano and Dunn stumble, I could see Cholowski becoming a pretty effective QB in the second half. Not draftable, but the situation is worth keeping an eye on for a future waiver claim.

The first opportunity to run the power play will go to Giordano. The 37-year-old veteran has averaged three minutes of PP time per game over his last 13 seasons and he's one of the faces of the new franchise. The power play is his to run, until he plays his way off it. Which I suspect he will, as he has become less effective in running the man advantage these past two seasons. Meanwhile, Dunn has been buried in the St. Louis depth chart these past couple of years. But his PPIPP has been phenomenal, at 77.8% last season and 71.4% in 2019-20. He can make things happen and I suspect will usurp Giordano by December. Dunn is your best bet overall, though he may have a slower first month of season.

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NY Islanders

Contenders – Ryan Pulock, Noah Dobson

Long shots – Robin Salo, Sebastian Aho, Samuel Bolduc

Generally speaking, expecting a rookie to run an NHL team's power play is unheard of. And for that reason I will rule out the three listed above. That leaves Pulock and Dobson.

Pulock is the Golden Boy. He led the team in ice time for the third consecutive year. Last season in the first quarter he averaged 2:54 PPTOI before his lack of production saw that drop (and mostly go to Nick Leddy, now with Detroit). He will again see the most PP time to start. If he cashes in – great, it will continue. If he struggles again, then he'll lose it.

Dobson also started with a high average PPTOI (3:14 in the first quarter). As with Pulock, he lost the PP time to Leddy. Now that Leddy is gone, the two will share the PP ice time (with the edge to the veteran Pulock). Whichever player makes their mark early will be the one to see more PP time as the season wears on. The 21-year-old Dobson has just 80 career games under his belt, so my money is again on Pulock.

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Philadelphia

Contenders – Ryan Ellis, Ivan Provorov, Keith Yandle, Rasmus Ristolainen

Long shots – Travis Sanheim, Cam York

Sanheim has turned into the team's top shutdown defenseman and York is an unproven rookie. And given the other options, you can safely count those two players out.

Ristolainen once had 69 PPPts in three seasons (2015-2018) and at 26 he's only now entering his prime. But given the talent of the other three contenders, he's probably looking at secondary PP time. His PPTOI has declined in each of his last three seasons.

Provorov is a very effectively player at both ends of the ice and on both special teams. It's because he's so good in all areas that it works against him. Yandle is only good for one thing – the power play. Whereas Provorov is good for many things. He averaged 2:23 PPTOI last season and I don't see that budging unless Ryan Ellis gets injured (again) or they give up on the Yandle experiment. The latter wouldn't happen until late in the season, if it happens at all.

Over the last two campaigns, Ellis has boasted a PPIPP of over 80%. That's pretty fantastic. Because he's a left shot and Yandle shoots right, I think the Flyers will go with a three-forward/two-defenseman first unit. The second unit will likely have four forwards and then either Provorov or Ristolainen.

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Vegas has finally signed Nolan Patrick. It's a two-year deal worth $1.2M each season. I think the new team will get him back on track, but with Patrick it always comes down to his health. Another full, healthy season will make him fantasy relevant a year from now. But think of this season as a stepping stone.

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In the Traverse City prospects tournament, one of Detroit's top prospects, defenseman Jared McIsaac, was checked hard in the corner and was carried off on a stretcher and taken to hospital. Best wishes for a quick recovery for McIsaac.

In that same tournament, Columbus prospect Yegor Chinakhov has six goals in three games to lead all prospects in that department. I don't have him making the Blue Jackets, but he'll get cups of coffee there. His progress to NHL-readiness is moving quickly. When he was drafted I figured he was four to five years away. It will likely wind up being two. I think he's a year away at this point.

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See you next Monday.