Kirill Kaprizov is resetting the contract landscape in the NHL. Leon Draisaitl‘s $14 million price tag already looks like a bargain, Nathan MacKinnon again is on a bargain deal for years to come, and Sidney Crosby is still being paid $8.7 million. Now, next year’s free agent pool with Connor McDavid, Jack Eichel, and so many more, are all going to be using Kaprizov as the bar. I hope you cap league owners already started planning for the future, because the future of cap leagues is already upon us.
Think about it once more. An NHL-record $17 million cap hit, for a player who might not even be a top-five player in the league…
Unfortunately for Kaprizov owners in cap league pools with a H2H setup, your last year with him at his $9 million cap hit comes with Minnesota having one of the worst schedules during the H2H playoff weeks.
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As a Barkov owner in two very different leagues, I feel like it might be helpful for me to outline how I’m approaching the injury, specifically for the Barkov owners wondering what to do, but also for those others who will be dealing with long-term injuries.
In the first league, it’s a 24-team salary cap dynasty league. I finished 2nd last year, and had eyes on a repeat finish on the podium this year. However, the Barkov injury certain causes some questions with that plan. The good thing is that I would say my centre depth is unrivaled around that league, with Dylan Larkin, Tage Thompson, Sean Monahan, Mikhail Granlund, Roope Hintz, and a few minors-eligible depth forwards as well. That means that my team can pick up the slack at centre, and I now have $10 million in cap space to address my team’s biggest weakness, which is at LW. My depth chart there currently consists of Jonathan Drouin, Elmer Soderblom, Danton Heinen, and Landon Slaggert. Yes, quite the discrepancy between the two positions.
The plan at this point is to see whether I can find a LW or two that I can acquire for picks and/or prospects without taking pieces off of my main roster, so that I can make up for Barkov on aggregate (side note: go watch the movie Moneyball – fantastic picture, whether you’re watching it for the first time or the 10th).
I’ve checked in with teams that have bigger names on the block, such as Pavel Buchnevich, Alex DeBrincat, and Kirill Kaprizov, and I’m also looking at slightly cheaper options both for cap and the trade cost, along the lines of Rickard Rakell, and Mason Marchment. Moving Barkov as part of the return for one of those higher end players has crossed my mind, but it’s hard to rationalize selling him while his value is at rock bottom.
I did buy Chris Kreider in the meantime from another team who needed to shed cap. I didn’t pay too steep of a price as a result, and I should be able to upgrade on him if I need to as the season wears on.
If I did have a need at centre, then the first player I would have reached out about would be Anze Kopitar, as his announcement that he’s retiring at the end of the season should mean that his owner would be more willing to recoup some value on him now, as a fading though still productive asset.
Overall for this league, my team is good enough that I don’t have to rush into a move, and should still be able to keep my team in the top-eight to make the playoffs this year.
For league #2, it’s a partial keeper, where six forwards, four defense, and one goalie are kept. I came third last year, though I’m not certain that my team is a top-three team on paper entering the season, even if Barkov was healthy.
One thing that Barkov’s injury does do for me here is solve a positional issue where five of my six keeper forwards were single-position eligibility centers. However, the injury, coupled with a lack of high-end picks in the draft resultant from being a buyer at the deadline last summer means that it will be tough to compete this year.
In the same vein as league #1, I’m going to see what I can do about filling in around a deep C-core, but in this league it’s going to be more of a wait-and-see approach before determining the best direction for the team.
Having only three IR slots is also going to be very tough to balance through the year, because holding Barkov is really going to reduce my ability to deal with injuries in-season.
All of that to say, this could be a year where I look to move someone like Filip Forsberg for Kirill Marchenko and a pick, just as an example. A small downgrade, but also a handful of years younger, and in two or three years, the two of them will likely be relatively even. If I can forego the reset though, then I will look to build up my depth, noting that I don’t want to pay through the nose just to have an issue of too many keeper-level players on my roster at the end of the season either.
In other leagues without keepers, I’m really bumping up Anton Lundell on my draft lists, as he was fantastic last year in games where Barkov was out of the lineup. While I’m sure others are going to be onto that, I still don’t think he’ll often be going as a top-125 or even a top-150 skater, and I think I can get him just above that range for eventual top-100 value by the end of the year.
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J.T. Miller also left practice with a leg injury yesterday. While updates are limited at this point, the injury looked more like a strain or a sprain than something that would cause him to miss a longer stretch, and the initial reports have downplayed any severity. I’m still going to draft him as a top-20 player, but I may bump him down behind someone like Mitch Marner or Rasmus Dahlin for the moment (depending on your league setup of course).
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A few quick-hit camp storylines:
One of the big surprises from training camp around the league is the ascension of Emmitt Finnie in Detroit, who was on my radar in the offseason, but more as a player who might be the 15th forward on the depth chart and could produce if injuries hit the main club. Well, instead he has been skating with the top line for most of the last few days and could be worth a swing as a final pick in some drafts, though Elmer Soderblom was back with Dylan Larkin and Lucas Raymond yesterday.
Oliver Bjorkstrand was up on the top power play in Tampa. He’s largely fallen off the fantasy radar the last few years, but the top power play in Tampa could be especially fruitful for someone with his shooting ability, perhaps filling in Steven Stamkos‘ former role.
Otto Stenberg is getting a great opportunity to show he belongs with the Blues. It’s a crowded roster though, so he likely won’t be able to make an impact or even make the roster) right away, but he’s not far off at this point either.
Before Miller left the Rangers skate with his injury, he was part of the top power play runs, along with Artemi Panarin, Adam Fox, Mika Zibanejad, and Vincent Trocheck. Alexis Lafreniere had been getting some rotations earlier in camp, but today he hadn’t seen a sniff of it before Miller left. Just as a word of caution before putting too much stock into a Lafreniere breakout due to the possible power play exposure.
Berkly Catton is quietly looking like an NHLer, having played on the top line with Seattle throughout camp. He hasn’t looked out of place, and has a top-tier scoring pedigree through the junior ranks. He should be on the radar as a late round pick in most pools this year.
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Anthony Stolarz‘s new AAV really surprised me, as it’s cheaper than at least 15 other goalies who have signed contracts recently but won’t put up numbers as good as Stolarz will for the next two or three seasons. In cap leagues it’s a huge value deal for his owners.
We won’t see Max Pacioretty back with the Leafs on a cheap cap deal though, as he is moving on to help coach the University of Michigan:
University of Michigan has announced Max Pacioretty has been hired as special assistant to head coach Brandon Naurato.Pacioretty: “After 17 seasons in the NHL, I’m excited to begin this next chapter with Michigan Hockey.” mgoblue.com/news/2025/9/…
— NHLAdamK (@nhladamk.bsky.social) 2025-09-30T17:36:34.893Z
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At this point in the year the waiver wire has some interesting names, and while there’s very rarely a claim before the last day when everyone puts the large list of players on waivers who won’t make the team, that last day does often provide a few players being claimed.
It’s never the most exciting names, but for deeper leagues it can be worth noting who is claimed, as they will usually be given some opportunities with the main club in order to make an impact with a consistent lineup spot.
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If it means as much to you as it does to me to already be excited for hockey next year:
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See you next Wednesday, and if you have any fantasy hockey questions or comments you can find me on BlueSky @alexdmaclean.