According to Tom Gulitti of NHL.com, Avalanche coach Jared Bednar has said that Gabriel Landeskog could return near the start of the season, although he appears to be unlikely to be ready for opening night. That does kind of seem like good news, although Landeskog’s absence may now extend to a third season. He has already missed the past two seasons with quadriceps surgery and knee cartilage replacement surgery. At this point, the best time to draft Landeskog would be near the end of your draft while stashing him on IR. There’s also no guarantee that the 31-year-old will be the same player he was before the injuries.

The article also mentioned that Artturi Lehkonen may not be ready for the start of the season because of offseason shoulder surgery, according to Bednar. That would potentially leave the Avs without three top-6 level forwards in Landeskog, Lekhonen, and Valeri Nichushkin. This might be the most Band-Aid Boy team in the entire NHL. As I alluded to in the Offseason Fantasy Grades for Colorado, Nikolai Kovalenko should be able to crack the Colorado lineup. As a rookie, Kovalenko could make a very early impact.

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In an interview with TSN 1050 in Toronto, Blue Jackets GM Don Waddell said that Patrik Laine "does not want to play for the Blue Jackets. There was a lot of things that went on in the locker room and he just doesn’t want it… This is different because it’s harder to bring him back knowing the situation. But saying that, that might be the option."

As I've said before, I have my doubts about whether a trade can get done this offseason. Laine has an $8.7 million cap hit for two more seasons, which is obviously difficult to move. Waddell's admission might also make teams wonder whether Laine can fit in with the rest of their group. A fresh start somewhere else could recharge Laine's career, but it doesn't look like he'll ever reach the lofty heights that seemed to be in his future after his first two seasons of 36 and 44 goals in Winnipeg.

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With Yahoo Fantasy Hockey recently open for business, I recently participated in my first mock draft of the season. I picked a 12-team league with basic Yahoo settings of 2 C, 2 LW, 2 RW, 4 D, 2 G, and 4 BN. Categories are Goals, Assists, Plus/Minus, Powerplay Points, Shots on Goal, Hits, Wins, Goals Against Average, Save Percentage, and Shutouts.

To decide where I would pick, I found a random number generator online to pick a number between 1 and 12. It selected #3 for me, so that's where I chose to draft from. Lucky for me, as I saw a potential Big 3 of Connor McDavid, Nathan MacKinnon, and Nikita Kucherov. I could pick whichever guy the first two drafters didn't want. Sure enough, the Yahoo experts had them ranked as the first three just as I do in the Roto Rankings. After all, these were your three members of the 130-point club in 2023-24.

I'll run through the thought process for each one of my picks. For full draft results, you can go to my personal blog Goods Fantasy Hockey. The two numbers below indicate round, then overall pick.

1-3 – Kucherov. McDavid and MacKinnon were the first two picks, so it made sense for me to draft Kuch at third overall. He led the league with 144 points and was one of two players to reach 100 assists. No need to galaxy brain this pick any further.

2-22 – Quinn Hughes. Yahoo's Draft Scout Suggestion suggested Igor Shesterkin, but I am practicing Zero G. It suggested defensemen as the next two choices, so I went with Hughes over Evan Bouchard. I'm predicting a tight scoring race between these two defensemen who were drafted in the same year and are now divisional rivals and playoff rivals. Just for fun, here's a Frozen Tools comparison of these two.

3-27 – Jason Robertson. Yahoo still wanted me to draft a goalie, but Robo was available and high on the rankings. I remember drafting him late in the first round last season, although he didn't quite live up to the billing. He seems okay in the early third round. Bouchard is still available here, but I didn't want two of my first three picks to be defensemen.  

4-46 – Steven Stamkos. He might need some time to get used to Nashville's system after playing for Tampa all of his career. But as a 40-goal scorer, I felt like he fell a little bit.

5-51 – Adam Fox. I also thought like he was a pretty good deal in the fifth round. Andrei Vasilevskiy was still available and I ALMOST picked him here. Vasilevskiy wouldn't be a bad pick here, but after last season I wonder if wear and tear catching up with him. Plus Zero G.

6-70 – Kevin Fiala. I recently read that the Kings plan to move Quinton Byfield back to center after trading Pierre-Luc Dubois. That could mean Fiala has an even better center than Dubois or Phillip Danault, further increasing his value. In fact, I'm confident enough in Fiala that I just traded for him in one of my keeper leagues.

7-75 – Noah Dobson. I'm very surprised that Dobson is still available. If I ignore goalies, the Yahoo Draft Scout Suggestion is throwing d-men in my face. Using hindsight again, maybe I grab Vasilevskiy in the fifth round instead of Fox and then Dobson here. I don't go full Zero G, but it's all about finding the best value. I'll add that you don't get a lot of time in these mock drafts to pick and choose (30 seconds I believe). So now I have three defensemen already.

8-94 – Robert Thomas. The Blues forward quietly piled up 86 points last season, so he seems like a great pick in this spot. He doesn't have super high peripherals like hits, so I will have to address that later in the draft.

9-99 – Pyotr Kochetkov. My rule here was pick 100 or higher to draft a goalie, but I cheated a bit by picking Kochetkov at 99. Dobber has him at 75 percent that he's the starter in Carolina this season.  

10-118 – Drew Doughty. I was looking for a blueliner who would be good for hits and still provide scoring, and Doughty seems like he still fits the bill.

11-123 – Seth Jarvis. He was on the Draft Scout Suggestions and I need a RW. I have Jarvis within my top 100 in the Roto Rankings, so he'll definitely work here.

12-142 – Anthony Stolarz. It's time for a second goalie. Stolarz has been on the Draft Scout Suggestions all the way back to the fifth round, maybe based on last season's numbers. The other goalies in this spot also look like timeshare options and potential backups, so let's do this.

13-147 – Mark Scheifele. I'll admit that drafting Scheifele after Stolarz is weird, but the same goes for some of the centers left on the table this late in the draft. For example, I could have also picked Anze Kopitar or Bo Horvat here. I did this in one draft with Scheifele last season where he provided great value for me after pick 100 last season.  

14-166 – Tom Wilson. I'm drafting Wilson for hits knowing that his scoring dropped off last season. I was also considering Jamie Benn for hits here, although he was drafted right before Wilson.

15-171 – Jeremy Lauzon. Lauzon is being drafted strictly for hits, as he was the runaway league leader in that category last season. I was running out of time and needed another d-man. At this point Bowen Byram, Pavel Mintyukov, and Owen Power seemed like the best options. I would have no problem pulling the plug on a pick this late in the draft if Lauzon suddenly forgot how to hit and didn't score either.

16-190 – Cam Talbot. Talbot seems the most likely to start in Detroit this season among a mess of goalies. He could turn out to be a prime Zero G option if he can start more games than any other goalie for the Wings and play reasonably well.

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