With the season opening on October 7 and preseason wrapping up Saturday, most rosters are basically locked in. A few rookies will get the usual nine-game look before teams decide whether to keep them and burn a year of their ELC or send them to the AHL for more seasoning. Nothing is finalized, once the real games start, coaches shuffle lines, adjust special teams, and tweak goalie usage pretty quickly but there are already trends worth paying attention to. All of this to say that these are just early signals of how things might open up before injuries, performance, and results start shifting everything in real time.
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Matt Grzelcyk parlayed a PTO into a one-year deal with Chicago after posting 40 points in a full 82-game slate with Pittsburgh last season. One goal and 39 assists does not scream “must draft,” but the production shows he can move the puck and log steady minutes. With the Blackhawks rostering a relatively young blueline, Grzelyck offers some experience on the back end and could see some occasional power play time.
Chicago will be signing D Matt Grzelcyk, who was in camp on a PTO
— Elliotte Friedman (@FriedgeHNIC) October 5, 2025
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Tom Willander and Victor Mancini are heading to the AHL to start the year, and that looks like the right move for both. Getting regular minutes in the minors should help their development. It would not be surprising to see either of them get a call-up during this season when Vancouver needs bodies on the blue line.
General Manager Patrik Allvin announced today that D Victor Mancini and D Tom Willander have been assigned to Abbotsford (AHL).
— Vancouver Canucks (@Canucks) October 5, 2025
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Jake Walman hit a snag in his recovery from an undisclosed injury, and now his availability for opening night is up in the air. If you have him on your fantasy roster, keep tabs on this one. In other Oilers news, Stuart Skinner was back on the ice Sunday after dealing with the flu and skated as the team’s No. 1 goalie.
EDM Notes:
• Jake Walman suffered a setback and is now questionable for Wednesday v. CGY.
• Mattias Janmark is about “one or two weeks” away.#Oilers
— Tony Brar 🚀 (@TonyBrarOTV) October 5, 2025
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One steady note is that Brock Nelson has maintained his spot on the Avalanche top power play, while Gabriel Landeskog, has not seen any time with the first unit. That separation feels justified given how long Landeskog was out. Again, this could change at any point in time with a couple of players if Colorado’s production slips and Jarded Bednar needs to kick start the offense.
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I watched some of the LA Kings game on Saturday night, the Kings deployed an all-forward top power-play unit pushing Brandt Clarke and Drew Doughty to PP2 duties, its been seen a few times during the preseason. It will be interesting to see if that carries into the regular season. Clarke put up four assists in six preseason games, so if he keeps producing, he may force their hand for more meaningful minutes. With Doughty’s deal up after 2026-27, you can see the long game here, a gradual shift toward Clarke taking on a bigger role as the season goes on and into next year.
In Saturday’s loss to the Kings, Jackson Lacome put up three assists while Leo Carlson finished with two goals and an assist. Of course, it is still preseason, but both Anaheim and LA iced lineups that looked close to regular-season ready. That makes those performances a little more meaningful and gives some of the Anaheim players a nice confidence bump heading into opening night.
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I am very interested with how the Flyers are going to deploy Trevor Zegras. Last game he saw some time on the top line alongside Matvei Michkov and Owen Tippett, while Sean Couturier and Travis Konecny anchor the second. Over the course of the preseason the coaching staff as kept him in a top-six role and in most cases and he has been paired with Matvei Michkov which should bode well for this fantasy value. That arrangement may not hold all season but it is a bold start that could pay off for Zegras if they click. On the back end, Jamie Drysdale posted three assists in four preseason games and is worth keeping an eye on as he pushes for a larger role. His skillset fits the mold of a top power-play quarterback, he could become one of the more important swing players on this roster.
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I just finished my final NHL fantasy draft before the season begins, and here is a quick breakdown of the league setup before getting into my picks. It is a Yahoo! 14-team keeper league with 16 roster spots. Managers can keep up to eight players, although most do not use all their keeper slots. Only players drafted in Round 6 or later, or picked up off waivers, are eligible to be kept, since the top five rounds always go back into the draft the following season, and keepers are on three year contracts. Going in, I kept six players from last year: Marco Rossi, Adam Fantilli, Aliaksei Protas, Jackson Lacombe, Kirill Marchenko, and Darcy Kuemper. With that locked in, here is how the rest of my draft played out with some of my notes on the draft.
Round 1, Pick 13: Jack Eichel
Round 2, Pick 27: J.T. Miller
Round 3, Pick 41: Jesper Bratt
Round 4, Pick 55: Jake Sanderson
Round 5, Pick 69: Mikhail Sergachev
Round 6, Pick 83: Roope Hintz
Round 8, Pick 111: Zeev Buium
Round 7: This pick was traded away last year.
Round 9, Pick 125: Alex Tuch
Round 10, Pick 139: Cutter Gauthier
Round 11, Pick 153: Karel Vejmelka
I took Eichel at 13, right after watching Makar fall to 12. If he had slipped one more spot, that was my pick, no hesitation. I was more than fine landing Eichel there and was expecting to. He is coming off a career year and now walks into a season with the same upside if not more. Marner joining Vegas adds another dynamic playmaker to his line, and with it being a contract year, there is every reason to expect another big push.
I was okay with landing Miller at this spot. The Rangers look primed for a bounce-back year, and he checks too many fantasy boxes to pass up. I was actually eyeing a defenseman here, Dahlin specifically, but he was snatched right before my pick, so Miller became the easy pivot. He is locked into the top-line center role, sees premium power-play minutes, and contributes in hits, shots, and faceoff wins. As long as he stays upright, he is the kind of steady producer that keeps your roster balanced.
Bratt feels like one of those guys that people still do not give enough credit to despite producing every year. He’s glued to Jack Hughes at even strength, gets prime power-play deployment, and just quietly racks up points.
By the time I needed circle back for defense, the elite-tier guys were wiped out, so I shifted to high-opportunity picks. Sanderson was the one that made the most sense. Ottawa looks like a team ready to take a real step, and he is their powerplay quarterback. Sergachev was the follow-up to Sanderson. Much like Ottawa, Utah is on an upward trajectory and he is the kind of guy who eats minutes and gives you blocks, hits, and shot, evens if the offense at times is not firing.
Hintz was not a pick I made with enthusiasm, mostly because he is been banged up more often than not. However, when he is actually in the lineup, he produces and at that point in the draft, the upside outweighed the frustration risk.
Buium was the fun pick. Keeper appeal, late value, and the fact that he slid surprised me. His trajectory suggests he will stick sooner rather than later, even if it takes a bit of time, the payoff is huge.
Tuch gives me safe production with a physical edge. He plays in all situations, chips in across categories, and does not disappear for long stretches. Guys like him do not win you a league, but they keep you competitive every week.
Gauthier was more of a long-view play. Anaheim has room for him to climb, and while he is not locked into top power-play usage yet, the opportunity is there.
To wrap it up, I went with Karel Vejmelka with my final pick. He is now the clear starter in Utah and a volume guy. With Ingram out of the equation, the crease is his. Even if the win total is not massive, the workload gives him value.
Make sure you set you lineups and get ready for the season start! Thanks for reading! See you next week! For more fantasy hockey content and analysis, follow me on X @Punters_hockey. If you have any questions about your team or a trade? My DMs are always open, happy to help!