Welcome back everyone! Let's take a spin around the league this week, shall we? We'll of course tie in some fantasy ramifications for each club as well, but I wanted give some shine on a few situations around the NHL.

Nashville Predators:
Current cap space – $7,462,366
LTIR Pool – $0

I have to start with Nashville here. I wrote in a DFS article a couple weeks back that I wasn't sure if the Preds were just unluckier than they were good and compared it to Pittsburgh. Having now watched this club for a handful of more games, highlighted by getting blanked by the Kraken in Seattle, I'm out on this Predators team. But just how did we get here and is there a way out? I wrote coming into the season that I stood by the Steven Stamkos and Jonathan Marchessault signings as I thought this gave them what they were lacking in last season's round one exit to Vancouver and that was a power play that could produce. So far this season there's been glimpses of that, but nothing sustainable and at even strength this club is getting ran out of the rink.

I dove into their cap here and while I can see where sure, the Stamkos and Marchessault contracts won't age great come 2027-28, I thought that for the time being this was viable. The one really worried about though was Brady Skjei signing for four years with a $7M AAV. It reminded me of paying a sticker tax on a new car – who were the Predators bidding against here to sign a defenseman coming into his age-30 season for that price tag? The issue here as well is there's no more Kiefer Sherwood or Phillip Tomasino on this club. Those two might not be big names but they would do two things well for this club and that's contribute on the ice as well as carry a lower AAV along with them.

So, is the roadmap here hope that aging forwards can play big minutes? Well yes, but there's also a little wrinkle here with this Predators club that I don't think is really out there in the open. This club has three first round picks this season that they could do one of two things with – either try and double down on this current roster or stay the course and hope that Nashville's own pick is low enough to get value in the first round. The other two picks that Nashville currently has would be Tampa Bay's first rounder along with Vegas, and I have a hard time seeing that either of those picks are going to come before pick 20, maybe even 25. Still, this might be a club that can supplement new assets onto their roster along with what money they are going to be tied to for the next few seasons.

For fantasy, the good news with Nashville is that Fillip Forsberg can carry a line on his own, even if Steven Stamkos at this point in his career may not be able to do so. If you're rostering Forsberg he is still excellent to have and honestly wish I was able to roster him in my league this season. In net, Juuse Saros signed a three-year extension worth $7.74M that kicks in next season, which might seem high right now, but I'd rather have a proven starter in net than worry about that position moving forward. 

Carolina Hurricanes:
Current cap space – $170,122
LTIR pool – $2,399,997

Let's talk about a smart team! One of the poster children for smart organizations in the NHL is Carolina and if I'm a Canes fan I love where this group could be moneywise as we move forward. First for forwards, I don't care what anyone out there says, I love Sebastian Aho contract at eight years, $78M, and $9.75M per season, and have loved it since they signed him early. To have a top line center signed long term at an AAV that I think will age fine is a great asset to have. Where I really think though this club is going to be ahead of things though isn't by their forward contracts, it's going to be on the blue line.

There's nothing that I can't stand more with teams navigating the cap then when clubs try to get too creative on the blueline, that 10 times out of 10 never works. Vancouver was saddled with this issue for years and it led to them not being able to have the spending flexibility elsewhere. For Carolina they're going to have Brent Burns come off this season at $5.28 and Dmitry Orlov at $7.75. They got production from both players and while I think we're probably watching the last season for Burns, I wouldn't be shocked if Carolina was able to keep Orlov at a lower AAV. Keep in mind, this was the club that traded for him in an early deadline deal with the Caps. This is also the same club that just let Nashville take Brady Skjei without having to open the checkbook. Carolina next season could very well have Jalen Chatfield ($3M AAV) along with potentially Alexander Nikishin, who may be available to the club later this season. While Nikishin is unsigned as of now, at the right price, the Canes could have one of the top blue liners outside of the NHL joining their roster with Chatfield at a lower AAV. If anyone's looking for Martin Necas money in two seasons, there you have it.  

For fantasy, I'm luck enough to roster Seth Jarvis right now, who hasn't slowed down since coming back from a shoulder injury. I typically don't like to double up on skaters for fantasy unless it's with a goaltender, but there were three Hurricanes I would have wanted to roster. I've had Andrei Svechnikov the past two or three seasons and enjoyed his production, and if you're lucky enough to roster Necas, he seems like he's good for a multi-point game every other time out.

Dallas Stars
Current cap space – $2,030,747
LTIR pool – $0

So, I did not really think of the Stars cap situation much at all so far this season but now that's changed up a bit. Yesterday, the news broke from the club that Tyler Seguin will miss four months, at the very least, with a lower body injury. This is a bummer because it's a player that's looked alright for the past couple of weeks, but the also the case of one that may now have too many severe injuries on the resume to get back to full go come next season. One thing I've noticed with these lower-body injuries recently is sometimes I feel like it almost takes more than a calendar year to mend and work whatever the injury was, back to full strength. For Seguin this is a player with another injury on his dance card going into his age 33 season on a $9.85 AAV.

That contract is a hefty price tag, but with him out to what will soon be LTIR, this changes what Dallas may be able to do come deadline. Now, this could be the case of the Hawks in 2015 when Patrick Kane got hurt, where all the club really did was sign Antoine Vermette…or this could be a club that can really go out and make a splash. My gut instinct here though is this may be more mid-level if anything, because any club is going to see what Dallas has on their full roster and look to deal. You can't give up something for nothing. Dallas is going to be front, and center here come February on what they may be able to do with the cap relief that they will soon have.

For fantasy, I'd hope that Matt Duchene and Mason Marchment can continue to produce in Seguin's absence but we're going to have to see what Dallas does with the pair moving forward. This could be the case in the near future for more minutes for the top line, we'll know more as we go forward with a larger sample size from the Stars.

*Salary Cap data from PuckPedia.com  

For continued fantasy news and notes, follow me on Twitter @ndySanz.