I had a little too much time to look at the BUF/NJ games. I made an effort not to get caught up in small sample sizes, but it’s inevitable to some degree at this point in the season. 

Regardless, there are a few points that I thought were with making. 

Dylan Cozens had eight shots for the Sabres, with seven in one game. As much as they need Thompson to retain his star form, it may be even more important for the Sabres to have Cozens living up to his $7M AAV as the second line centre. He placed for 69 and then 49 points the last two seasons, and being a 50-point centre just won’t cut it on a team looking to snap a streak of missing the playoffs that spans longer than a decade. Cozens may have left Europe without banking any points, but at least the underlying numbers look positive for him to rebound in production. 

Alex Tuch led the Sabres forwards in ice time in Prague, though that is likely in part due to winger J.J. Peterka getting injured in game #2 after less than two minutes of ice time. Hopefully it’s not a long term injury for Peterka, because he looks like a great bet for a big production jump. 

Looking back at Tuch though, he’s viewed as the top winger on the roster, though we should probably be counted on for 60-65 points rather than the 88-point-pace from two seasons ago where most of his underlying numbers were inflated. If he plays the full season alongside Thompson though then Tuch’s production will follow teammate Tage’s.

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Injuries for the Devils to Luke Hughes, Brett Pesce, and Santeri Hatakka meant that there was room for Seamus Casey to push his way onto the team. He looked excellent early on, and is going to make for some tough lineup decisions as players return to full health. He scored a goal through the two games, adding two Shots, Hits, and Blocks apiece. 

Early returns from the top players suggest that there are enough puck touches in Keefe’s system (or maybe just against the Sabres) to allow for some heavy shot volume from all of Jack Hughes, Timo Meier, Jesper Bratt, and Dougie Hamilton. The for of them each put up at least seven shots total across the two games. 

Those four plus Nico Hischier make up the top power play unit, which saw a much higher share of the available minutes than Buffalo's top unit. 

Jack Hughes took 14 faceoff across the two games and only won two. How long until Erik Haula is back on his line to take faceoffs? Or just give Hughes' faceoffs to Timo Meier who went 48% at the faceoff dot last year compared to Hughes who doesn’t have a season over 40% yet. It does seem like there has been a concentrated effort to get Hischier on the ice for draws, while Hughes' line is starting more on the fly.

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Games also kicked off in North America with St Louis vs Seattle, Florida vs Boston, and Utah’s inaugural game against Chicago. 

St. Louis scratched both Scott Perunovich and PO Joseph for their first game, opting instead for the “safe” veterans. Faulk will likely have a longer leash on the power play as a result, as Perunovich was his biggest threat. 

It also only took one period for the Blues to shake up the lines in St Louis to get mixed but up and Buchnevich to be put right back to top line winger. 

Bannister has flipped Buchnevich and Holloway.

Buchnevich-Thomas-Kyrou
Texier-Holloway-Neighbours

— Jeremy Rutherford (@jprutherford) October 8, 2024

It seemed to work though, as Jordan Kyrou scored two power play points in the second period. After two seasons of declining scoring rates, it would be great to see him back to a point per game. 

In Seattle, they really spread out their ice time evenly, and only Jaden Schwartz failed to register a shot among the forwards. I thought it might be better in Seattle with a new coaching staff, but it seems like now is the same with the deployment looking like three second lines and two even power play units. 

Phillipp Grubauer started the game despite Joey Daccord putting up much better numbers last year. The politics of the bigger contract strike again. Grubauer should have some rope to start the year, but like last year the expectation might be that Daccord could/should be the starter by February.  

Jordan Eberle was also named Seattle’s captain. No fantasy relevance, but a good hat tip to him, and a great stop gap until Beniers is ready. 

An additional big stick tap for Jessica Campbell, the first female coach in NHL history:

Making history!

Congratulations, Jessica Campbell! 👏👏👏 pic.twitter.com/YHtixJSl5T

— NHL Network (@NHLNetwork) October 8, 2024

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The Bruins sure must be glad that Jeremy Swayman signed and that they don’t have to run with Joonas Korpisalo much…

Chris Driedger was backing up for Florida, and it looks like he’s back in the NHL. He should have some sneaky fantasy relevance this year as Spencer Knight was sent to the AHL again. Driedger was excellent in the AHL last year and could surprise a few people as he takes some volume from a 35-year-old Sergei Bobrovsky. 

There were more shorthanded goals scored in this game than power play ones with Pavel Zacha and Sam Reinhart each notching one. That doesn’t bode that well for either side’s power play outlook, but it’s just a small sample size aberration. Adam Boqvist was supposed to run the power play in Florida, but he left the game hurt and Aaron Ekblad took over. That's worth monitoring as the other four forwards that the PPQB in Florida gets to play with make for a juicy setup.

Pavel Zacha looks to be in a prime spot for the Bruins, second on the team after David Pastrnak in shots and playing in the top-line LW spot alongside Pastrnak and Elias Lindholm.

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Chicago looks to be running Ilya Mikheyev with Connor Bedard, which seems absurd and like it won’t last, but there’s a bit of short term hope for Mikheyev.

Utah has a solid young core in place, and completely rebuilt their defence in the offseason. This should all provide some positive support to their young goalies in Connor Ingram and Karel Vejmelka. Overall this squad looks primed for a step forward, and to me they look like a playoff team above the likes of LA, VAN, VGK, and/or MIN.

Early goals from Dylan Guenther (first in team history) and Captain Clayton Keller, led the way to an easy win over the Blankhawks despite Connor Bedard scoring two points.

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With all the drafts out of the way I figured I would take a quick look at my five fantasy teams to see where they overlapped the most. I have one dynasty league, two partial keepers (six keepers in one and 11 in the other) and two full re-draft leagues. It’s a good mix and sets up a good set of players with a variety of ways I have to acquire them if I want them on my team. 

Across the five teams, there are no players that I own in all five, or even I’m four of the five. However, there are a few where players that I own in three separate leagues. 

They are:

Jack Eichel – Kept in two leagues and drafted in one more, Eichel is someone I may be a bit higher on than most going into this year. He doesn’t have as much support this season as he has had in previous years, but that hasn’t stopped him yet, and he seems almost guaranteed a top-50 fantasy finish despite being drafted outside the top 50. 

Roman Josi – As my favourite player he was someone I had acquired and kept in both of my partial keeper leagues. His shot volume has kept him as an elite option into his mid-30s but I do wonder if he tails off a little the year with the Preds having more mouths to feed. The upside is still so high though that I’m willing to risk a bit of a decline that likely won’t be too bad even if it does show up this year. 

Roope Hintz – With Dallas having one of the best H2H schedules this year and Hintz falling in drafts because of the depth of the centre position, he’s someone I saw value in drafting for two leagues when I had the chance (68th in one league and 88th in another). His scoring dipped last season, but he was an 80-point player in two of the three seasons before that. The upside is there as well as a very safe floor lining up as the top centre for one of the strongest teams in the West.

Here are the other players just for fun that I own in two of my five leagues. Gives you a taste of my favourites this year. In no particular order: 

Aleksander Barkov

Ryan Hartman

Morgan Rielly

Timo Meier

Jonathan Marchessault 

Pavel Mintyukov 

Jordan Spence

Darcy Kuemper

Anthony Stolarz

Tommy Novak

Vince Dunn

Linus Ullmark

Seth Jones

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See you next Wednesday! If you have any fantasy hockey questions or comments in the meantime, you can find me on Twitter/X here, or BlueSky here.