Some professional tryouts were added to the list on Thursday. Calen Addison and Nikolay Kulemin have both agreed to PTOs with Ottawa, while Michael Hutchinson and Jakub Zboril will be headed to New Jersey's camp on PTOs.

Addison is an interesting one that a few fantasy leaguers will be watching. Just two short seasons ago, Minnesota handed Addison a spot on the top power play, making him a sought-after fantasy commodity. A total of 18 of his 29 points that season were on the power play. Then the Wild lost faith in him and he was traded to San Jose, where his value sunk along with the Sharks as a team. Even though he may have glaring defensive deficiencies, Addison is only 24 years old. With Jakob Chychrun now out of the picture, there might be room on the Sens' roster for Addison as a power-play contributor.01

As for Kulemin, my initial reaction was "didn't he play for Toronto years ago?" Sure enough, he did. Kulemin is now 38 years old, he last played for the Leafs in 2013-14, and he last played in the NHL in 2017-18. He has spent the last six seasons playing in the KHL. He seems like a longshot to return to the NHL, but maybe I'm missing something here.

Hutchinson is a possible third goalie for the Devils. If he is signed to play in the AHL, he could prevent Nico Daws from playing any NHL games this season.

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Two long-time NHL defensemen have officially announced their retirements.

Alex Goligoski has announced his retirement after 17 NHL seasons spread out between several teams, most recently Minnesota. Now 39 years old, Goose had some productive offensive seasons during his career, including a career-high 46 points (including 25 power-play points) split between Pittsburgh and Dallas in 2010-11. He also registered at least 35 points per season for five consecutive seasons between 2013-14 and 2017-18 with Dallas and Arizona.

Marc Staal has also announced his retirement after 17 NHL seasons, most of that spent with the Rangers. Although Staal's game never translated well to the fantasy realm due to lack of scoring, the now-37-year-old was a reliable defender, particularly early in his NHL career. With his brother Eric Staal officially retiring earlier this summer, Jordan Staal is the only Staal brother left playing in the NHL.

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For keeper league reasons, I've been particularly interested in where Tyson Barrie would end up. With the regular season about a month away, Barrie has settled for a PTO with the Flames. Although Barrie is not guaranteed anything, Calgary seems like the kind of team that could make room for him. The Flames' power play was in the bottom third of the league in 2023-24, and the power play is where Barrie excels. A one-year, low-salary contract where the Flames could flip him at the deadline could make sense for both parties.

In addition to that, Mackenzie Weegar and Rasmus Andersson could be on the trade block, which would improve Barrie's odds of making the team. If Barrie cracks the lineup without anyone being moved, Daniil Miromanov could be the odd man out. Miromanov was acquired from Vegas in the Noah Hanifin deal and was used on the power play late in the season, but he is hardly a proven NHL option and has also battled his share of injuries.

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To make the most of your fantasy draft, it's a good idea to review the default Yahoo rankings beforehand. ADP (average draft position) numbers are useful on draft day, but they might be misleading today due to the very small sample size of lack of fantasy hockey drafts at this point. Most fantasy leagues would rather draft later in September or in early October to potentially avoid the risk of drafting a player that is suddenly hit with an unexpected and serious injury.

In the meantime, here are some players to target due to unnecessarily low default rankings in Yahoo. These are players that you could wait a little longer on that could provide similar value as some players being drafted earlier.

Tim Stutzle (Yahoo rank: 54)

I saw drafts in which Stutzle was going in the top 20 last season, which resulted in me deciding to let someone else draft Stutzle in my various leagues given his limited track record in that stratosphere. After a significant 20-point drop, Stutzle is now being ranked outside of the top 50 by Yahoo. At just 22 years old and a one-time 90-point scorer, Stutzle hardly fits the profile of a one-hit wonder.

Back in July, I broke down Stutzle's decline in points, which was all in the form of goals. His shooting percentage had fallen from 17.1% in 2022-23 to 9.4% in 2023-24, with last season's number the lowest of his four-season career. An improvement in shooting percentage to his career average could add 10 more goals, which would work out to 80 points. Based on that, you could probably reach on Stutzle about a round earlier than he is ranked. I'd still probably bet the under on him returning to 90 points, but he seems like a strong bet to rebound.

Noah Dobson (Yahoo rank: 92)

In my opinion, Dobson is the most glaring example of a player ranked too low. Maybe it's the effect of playing for the Islanders, who aren't the most appealing team fantasy-wise. Or it could be the fact that Dobson averaged 50 points in his two seasons prior to 2022-23. Yet Dobson is still only 24 years old, so his first 70-point season may not be his last.

Only six defensemen registered more points than Dobson last season, and all are ranked above Dobson. Fair enough. Yet so are five other defensemen ranked between 58 and 78. Nothing on Dobson's advanced stats suggests that a regression is on the way. You could argue that each of those defensemen could outscore Dobson or has some better peripherals, but I'd at least include Dobson within that range. Out of power-play points, shots, hits, and blocks, the only stat where Dobson seems below average in is hits.

Timo Meier (Yahoo rank: 105)

Meier was another player that I wrote about recently when I compared him to Roope Hintz in the Top 100 Roto Rankings. I concluded that Meier would be ranked higher than 95 when the rankings are updated in mid-September. Meier's scoring hasn't been consistent over the last few seasons, but he offers strong category coverage in shots and hits.

Meier is not even projected to be a top-100 scorer in Dobber's Fantasy Guide projections. However, that could change if New Jersey can improve on a highly disappointing 2023-24 and get the most out of its key players. The reason Meier is a top-100 player in roto leagues is that he averages at least three shots per game and averaged over four shots per game in 2021-22 and 2022-23. He also consistently registers at least 100 hits over a full season, which is not something all forwards can offer. Drafting a player like Meier means that you do not necessarily have to target low-scoring bangers later in your draft.  

Zach Werenski (Yahoo rank: 152)

At a preseason rank of 152, Werenski is ranked behind defensemen like Filip Hronek, Mattias Ekholm, and the aging Brent Burns, even though he should be able to outscore them by a wide margin. Of defensemen that played in at least 40 games in 2023-24, only 11 had a higher point-per-game average that Werenski (0.81 PTS/GP).

Sure, Werenski is fairly light on hits, but he should be able to make up for it in other categories. Werenski has averaged close to three shots per game over his past five seasons, and he should continue to be on Columbus' top power play. The Blue Jackets don't really have a whole lot of proven scoring options at the moment, but that didn't seem to stop Werenski from achieving a career-high 57 points in 2023-24. In fact, there might be room to grow, as only 12 of those points were on the power play.

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