The Flyers have signed Jamie Drysdale to a four-year extension with a cap hit of $6.5 million. Drysdale tied his career high with 32 points in 78 games in 2025-26. His nine power-play points was tied for fourth on the Flyers, a team that finished dead last in the NHL with a 15.7 PP%. Drysdale has reportedly been working on his shot this offseason, so it seems like he is being given the chance to improve his power-play output.

You may recall that Drysdale was acquired by Philadelphia from Anaheim for Cutter Gauthier. The Ducks still have to sign Gauthier and currently have only about $9 million in cap space. Meanwhile, the Flyers have over $13 million in cap space and only Nikita Grebenkin to sign as an RFA. The Flyers took care of Trevor Zegras's contract earlier in the week, signing him to a four-year deal with a cap hit of just over $9 million. It will be interesting to see what the Flyers do next.

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With the NHL draft now completed, many keeper leagues are starting to think about their entry drafts. By the term "entry draft", I mean drafts involving 2026 draft-eligible players. My deepest keeper league recently completed one of these drafts, so I'll share the results so that you can get an idea of how keeper leaguers view this year's draft crop.

This league has 20 teams, so this is a three-round draft.

You'll notice a few current NHL names sprinkled in. This draft is not restricted to players in their draft year. But this is a 20-team league that allows for up to 35 current players (not including IR) and 33 minor league players. That means pickings are slim on the waiver wire.

I won't analyze other teams' picks, other than to say that the early first round went about as planned. Scoring system and team needs can factor into who is picked. This is a head-to-head salary cap league with many different categories.

I drafted picks #9 and #28, which I'll get into shortly. I finished 13^th out of 20 teams (yay, mushy middle, but that's a discussion for another day) so normally I would receive the 8^th pick. However, this league's version of anti-tanking measures has a system where each fantasy team is attached to an NHL team that finishes in the same place in the standings. Based on where I finished, my team was matched with the real-life Florida Panthers, which meant I fell one spot in the first round as they did at the draft lottery.

I had traded away my third-round pick a few years ago for Jackson LaCombe. I understand it's beneficial to have as many prospects as you can in the system, which gives you more options when it comes to team building and asset management. However, the likelihood of a third-round pick in this draft becoming a needle-moving fantasy asset one day isn't extremely strong, so I didn't make it a priority to reacquire one. Plus, I made the trade in 2023, so 2026 was off into the distant future.

By the way, the LaCombe trade turned out really well for me, considering how I acquired LaCombe before he became a household name. A year ago, I then traded LaCombe for Bowen Byram. You can debate that trade because this is a salary cap league, but at least I don't have to deal with Byram's massive contract until next season. But the net effect of turning a pick between 40-60 in this draft into Byram is still a positive for me.

My thinking behind my two picks:

Tynan Lawrence (#9): I was targeting Rudolph in this spot for his offensive upside, but he was selected one pick before me. This happens to me a lot for some reason. I have one player at the top of my list about 5-6 picks before mine, but that player is selected in the pick right before mine and I'm left to make a harder choice between my other options. Funny how that works!

I had a few players considered in this spot, as well as a trade offer to move down in the draft and add another player for doing that. I couldn't make the trade work, but I then decided that Lawrence was my guy. Smits was still available, but I decided to consider what Victor Nuno wrote in his latest Journey about Smits being a better real-life player than fantasy option. I also had Wyatt Cullen in mind, who happened to be picked next.

I like Lawrence here because earlier this season, he seemed like a sure top-5 pick and the top center to be picked. Even though he fell from there in both the real-life and fantasy draft, Lawrence still profiles as the third-best center after Viggo Bjorck and Caleb Malhotra, both of whom were selected earlier. His game should also work in multicategory leagues, which is what this league is. Lawrence struggled a bit once he reached the NCAA, but he will have some more time to work on his game at that level. Plain and simple, I need scoring for my team, and Lawrence seemed like the best player available for that.

Adam Novotny (#28): I thought I would spend more time thinking about who to pick here than I would my first-round pick, but the opposite turned out to be true. When I saw Novotny's name there and the names below, it didn't take me long to make up my mind. Novotny profiles to be a power forward (6-1, 205 lbs.), which works out well with this league's bangers categories. He also has goal-scoring upside. It doesn't hurt that my favorite team drafted him too!

Drafting 18-year-old prospects is more difficult than drafting players for a typical fantasy league. Players can take many different paths following the draft. There won't be as much excitement about many of these players five years from now. I don't mind differences of opinion when it comes to prospects, but I put very little stock into absolute statements (ie. I will guarantee Player X will be a star, or I know Player Y will be a bust). Unless we're talking about a generational talent or something not far from it, the future is largely unknowable when it comes to NHL prospects. Not every player you pick or I pick will pan out. Part of the fun is waiting and seeing how these players turn out.  

Prospects writers like Journey author Nuno or other Dobber Prospects contributors will spend more time observing prospects than I will. They will also provide more detailed analysis on these players than I will. You don't necessarily have to become a prospects expert to participate in one of these leagues, though. Instead, focus on making the best decision with the information that is available to you.

Want to learn more about these players? Pick up the 20^th annual Fantasy Prospects Report, which includes profiles for draft eligible players as well as rankings for different formats. Don't forget about player profiles for each team's prospects drafted before 2026 as well. Buy it on its own or as part of a package including the Fantasy Guide!

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Follow me on X @Ian_Gooding and Bluesky @goodsfantasyhockey.bsky.social