Morning Preseason Notes (Sep 28)

It sounds like the start of Marian Gaborik's season is on-hold still, after back surgery in April to repair a herniated disc still hasn't fully recovered and he's still not ready to go.  There hasn't been much for updates since his surgery in April, a small update in August suggested that Gaborik could start the year on the LTIR, which is a really bad sign for the continuation of the 36-year old's career.  You will be best to avoid Gaborik this year and heavily take down, if not remove, his overall projections for the season.

Of course, the Senators don't need to use the LTIR, since their budget lineup, even with Clarke MacArthur and Jean-Gabriel Pageau counting against, still has over $10 million in cap space.  The youth movement in Ottawa is a real thing and it's starting right away.

The Philadelphia Flyers are erring on the side of caution in regards to a police investigation in Finland, which involves one of their forwards, Jori Lehtera.  Lehtera's name has been involved with an investigation with a major cocaine ring back in his home country and the 30-year old has removed himself from the team while this investigation takes place.  Lehtera maintains his innocence, but the distraction needed to be taken away from the team and that is what has been done.  He is, at best, a fringe player for the hockey pool, but we could be going deep this year and his name pop up.

24-year old forward Boo Nieves was certainly penciled in to take a roster spot for the New York Rangers, completing 28 games last season and picking up 9 points, but a preseason concussion has sidelined him and his availability for opening night does seem to be in question.  The sophomore has been projected for a 20-point season on this blog, but now that does seem a little murky going forward, since he'll probably need to get some conditioning done down in the minors before coming back up for a full-time role.

We're collecting all kinds of good tidbits here this morning, the day before the hockey pool draft... Derek Forbort of the Kings is back at practice with the team, but a back injury suffered near the end of last season has really taken a long time to heal up, but it looks like he's getting close.  The 26-year old came very close to being relevant in the hockey pool last season, ranking 111th among all defensemen in scoring with 18 points in 78 games, so his return could make for another body worth looking at in a really deep pool draft.

The Dallas Stars still have two preseason games left to play, but it doesn't seem likely that defenseman Stephen Johns will be made available for them, as he is dealing with an undisclosed injury.  He's currently listed as day-to-day and it sounds like it is a very precautionary measure to keep him out of the lineup, ensuring that he will be ready for opening night, so he should be okay to pick up as your last defenseman, if you're still in need of one late.  If you're looking for him and he's not on a lineup sheet, this is why.