There are still several days left in September, yet this is already the last weekend that we won't see regular-season NHL games. Hope you are ready! Let's start with some news and notes for the day.

Dylan Larkin has been ruled out for Saturday's preseason game, according to coach Todd McLellan. Yet according to Elliotte Friedman on the 32 Thoughts podcast, Larkin has expanded his trade list to Colorado, Dallas, Tampa Bay, and Washington. It seems like Larkin wants to move to a contending US-based team. The concern there is that he might not be the top center on one of those teams.

The Carolina Hurricanes have signed Pyotr Kochetkov to a two-year extension with a cap hit of $3.95 million. Kochetkov is on the final year of his current contract, which has a cap hit of $2 million this season. After the successful first NHL season of Brandon Bussi, Kochetkov has kind of been forgotten about. Yet I think this is a situation that could be a timeshare. Kochetkov seems like a solid goaltending option in the later rounds of your draft.

Goalie Leevi Merilainen has been claimed off waivers by the Vancouver Canucks from the Ottawa Senators. Thatcher Demko seems unlikely to be able to start the season, so Merilainen could help ease Kevin Lankinen's workload. Merilainen's addition to the Canucks is not good news for Chris Driedger, who is on a PTO; as well as Nikita Tolopilo, who could be placed on waivers as a result. That's probably enough information for a team whose goaltending you should probably avoid in fantasy leagues.

Within a few hours of losing Merilainen, the Senators acquired Jonas Johansson from the Tampa Bay Lightning for good ol' future considerations. Johansson should serve as the Sens' third goaltending option behind Linus Ullmark and Samuel Ersson and could be in the AHL.

Back to the Canucks, who have placed Filip Chytil on IR with a shoulder injury after colliding with an official during Thursday's game. Chytil appeared in just 12 games last season and has had concussion issues throughout his career, so perhaps the silver lining is that it's not another concussion? Chytil has had zero luck when it comes to injuries.

Many names hit the waiver wire on Friday. Perhaps the most prominent is Brandon Tanev, who the Utah Mammoth have decided to waive in order to send him to the AHL. Tanev did not score a goal and registered just three assists in 56 games last season. His crash-and-bang style makes him a perpetual source of hits, as he consistently averages over two hits per game. His glaring lack of scoring means that he should not have been on any fantasy teams last season, however.

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When I posted the result of my recent "actual" draft, I didn't think I'd receive as many compliments and likes as I did. Maybe it will turn out to be a great team, but maybe it won't. Time will tell.

I assume at least a few of you may be wondering how I put this team together, so I'll share my strategy. Maybe it will help you if you have a draft this weekend.

First, I have this league's settings saved in Fantasy Hockey Geek, where I downloaded Dobber's projections and created custom rankings. Value in multicategory leagues extends beyond goals and assists, and Yahoo's rankings may not account for your league's specific settings. My league's settings are a little different from Yahoo's default settings, but they're not way off either.

Next, I created something I hadn't done before, which is a spreadsheet that I would update during the draft to determine how much coverage I still needed for each category after picking each player. I believe this is also part of a Fantasy Hockey Geek purchase, but I decided to create my own just so I could take ownership of the situation (and because I have a few spreadsheet skills). Once I drafted a player, I copied and pasted their projection into this sheet, and it gave me a running total for each category. Before the draft, I set a benchmark of the number that the top team in each category reached last season to determine how much of each category would need.

I'll use the category of hits as an example. The first six players I drafted (Cale Makar, Matt Boldy, Cutter Gauthier, Artemi Panarin, Jake Sanderson, Jackson LaCombe) are all projected to finish with fewer than 100 hits, combining for a projected 300 hits. The benchmark for hits was 1500, so I knew I had a long way to go with one-third of my roster already drafted. Also needing a scoring forward at that point, my seventh-round pick was Dylan Holloway, who was projected for 157 hits. Later on, I added Dylan Cozens, Vincent Trocheck, Will Cuylle, and Vasily Podkolzin, who all may be able to hold a roster spot based on scoring alone while each potentially adding 200+ hits. By then end of my draft, I had "hit" my hits benchmark!

Addressing all categories can be difficult during a draft, so one category can end up being neglected or even intentionally "punted." That category turned out to be plus-minus. From Rounds 1-8, I had accumulated a plus-64, perhaps well on my way to reaching the plus-100 benchmark. After that, I picked Cozens, Rasmus Andersson, and Mason McTavish, all of who are projected to finish with double-digit minus numbers. It would be safe to assume Elias Pettersson will as well. My plus-minus turned out to be plus-20. Don't get me started on why plus-minus is counted in my league – it's a popular category among league members, and I don't have a problem leaving it in.

Another consideration was the schedule. Jumping to the conclusion that I will make my league's playoffs, I looked up my league's playoff schedule. The Fantasy Guide has several playoff periods listed out in the article H2H League Schedule Planner. If I was undecided on a player to pick, I considered the team's playoff schedule. I used this rationale to pick Boldy over Wyatt Johnston and Mikko Rantanen, as Minnesota has a more favorable fantasy playoff schedule in my league than Dallas does.

Another Fantasy Guide article named A Look Inside the 2026-27 Schedule lists each team's back-to-back games, strength of schedule, and light days. Anaheim historically has a lot of light days every season, so that means that Gauthier and LaCombe won't have as many scheduling conflicts with other players on my team. Although the Ducks do not lead the league in that category this season, they are still tied for fifth. I also have at least one player from each of Washington, NY Rangers, Colorado, and Utah, who are the top four teams in light days. Fewer players having to be benched equals more efficiency for my lineup.  

About drafting goalies: Over the past few seasons, my personal guideline has been to wait until after pick 100, which I would consider a modified form of Zero G. I won't draft goalies in the early rounds anymore due to their volatility. Nate of Apples & Ginos, who should be credited for making the term Zero G popular and wrote a great blog piece about it (Zero-G is THE Draft Strategy Until Further Notice), has told me to wait until near the end of a draft. It seemed to work for him in the experts league that I participated in, as he was consistently finishing at or near the top. 

Of course, not everything will go according to plan. Some of these players will get injured. A few of these players will get dropped at some point. On the bright side, I'll likely add a player or two from the waiver wire that could help this team a ton. That's expected. You don't bat 1.000 in fantasy sports.

One other thing: It's hard to do all of this in real time, but the silver lining of having a 14-team draft is that it does grant me a little extra time in making my decisions.

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Data was taken from Frozen Tools unless otherwise noted.

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