Hello and welcome back in everyone to the world leader in NHL salary cap musings and rumination. We got some signings to discuss and of course, we'll break down what it means for your fantasy team. Recently hired Caleb in your work league doesn't care about your salary league the way that I do! Or maybe he does…he is after all recently hired and already ripping trades that have the group chat stirring.

Christian Dvorak signs a five-year, $25.75M ($5.1M AAV) deal with the Flyers

It seems like just yesterday I was sitting on Twitter looking at a trade that sent Christian Dvorak to the Montreal Canadiens. I was there, 3,000 years ago. There was something with that trade too, to where Carolina and Arizona got a first rounder, but it was dependent on how the Habs finished the season…am I remembering that right? Either way, I played five lineups in DFS last night, with one of them including a Philadelphia top-line stack yet somehow missed this deal while constructing. Even my league chat that is active 24/7 didn't say anything and I'm pretty sure we have a Philly fan in there. There's one in every crew!

Important to note on this deal and quick reminder, players that sign a one-year deal can extend starting January 1^st, players on multi-year contracts can extend on July 1^st. I'm sure that's going to be a question and if so, there's your answer. I was surprised to see that Dvorak is only rostered in 21% of Fantrax leagues – I would have imagined that number to be slightly higher? While Dvorak has spent time along each of the Flyers' top three lines, right now he's skating in between Trevor Zegras and Travis Konecny for a fully correlated Flyers top line, and it shows as his 5on5 shooting and points per 60 minutes has increased over his career averages. Dvorak is also on pace for the highest point total of his career as right now we project out around 53 points for a full 82. I don't know about your league, but ours scores things a little differently (lower totals), but for Dvorak he's around a 0.94 fantasy points per game center that I believe in some leagues also has LW eligibility. Even at his current cap-hit, he's going to stay right around that $5M cap number, so creating room for him on a club that's right up against the cap ceiling this year (and next), shouldn't be much of an issue.

Alex Wennberg signs a three-year, $18.00M ($6M AAV) deal with the Sharks

This was a surprising payday for Alexander Wennberg, now, wasn't it? I went back through his career and to show just how little Seattle Kraken I typically play in DFS, I plum forgot he played in 2023. I can see where this might feel like a bit of an overpay for a player in their age-31 season centering a revolving door of wingers on the San Jose second line, but remember we have a rising salary cap along with the Sharks currently with the third most cap space going into next season.

The Sharks are getting better as a club, there's no denying that, but with this in mind we can look at Wennberg as a player who could be up near the 60-point mark this season and potentially the foreseeable future as well. The AAV might be a but steep but remember he's sitting at $5M right now, so a slight bump should be manageable for fantasy mangers out there. I understand that this is a player that could be outside looking in if you really have to make difficult cuts as we go into next season, but one tip I can give is that centre scoring and blue line scoring in salary leagues are optimal. Your waivers probably aren't flooded with many cheap wingers in larger leagues, but finding scoring from the wing is relatively easier when piecing a club together. This might not be a bad player to roster and as far as starts, it may be line dependent as he's so far this season skated with seven different line combinations.

Justus Annunen signs a two-year, $2.50M ($1.25M AAV) deal with the Predators

This contract is what the backup goaltending market may look like for the next couple of seasons, but I like this contract for the Predators and if you roster Justus Annunen in fantasy then you know how valuable a backup goaltender that gets regular starts on this low AAV is.

There was a time in late March last season where Annunen was allowing around two goals a game, yet losing those contests, but he finished that good stretch with a game where he allowed six goals…and got the win. Hockey can be strange, sometimes. I can't stress enough how valuable this contract is to have on your roster, and more so for those leagues out there that starts two goaltenders. Nashville doesn't have anything in the way of a younger goaltender in the pipeline that will be at the NHL level anytime soon, so you should still see a start a week or so for Annunen. If there's one knock on him it's something that's not his fault – more the organization – and it's something that fantasy and DFS players can agree on: Nashville. Buddy. Pal. Just announce who's starting early in the day like everyone else does.

*Salary Cap data from PuckPedia.com  

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