Morning Flurries: Homboldt Broncos defenseman Ryan Straschnitzki returns to hockey

The Avalanche

Have you done your Fantasy Hockey draft yet? No? Good. You’ll want to read this breakdown of the best Colorado Avalanche players to pick for your roster. I hope I’m not giving away any state secrets, but it would be a good idea to take Nathan MacKinnon pretty early. [Mile High Hockey]

The eye test tells us that MacKinnon can do anything he wants on the ice. The numbers say his shooting percentage is higher than his usual range (but not outrageous for an elite player), and he also upped his shot volume which is a sustainable stat. His powerplay point numbers went way way up last year as well, and his linemates saw unsustainable shooting percentages. It was a perfect storm of improvement - he has definitely reached a new level personally, but there may not be room for more as a line.

Ian Cole is a two-time Stanley Cup Champion. He sits down for a hockey-focused interview. He sounds very focused. [NHL dot com]

“I think as a player, you try and go out on the ice and put a product out there that you can be successful at and help the team win games. For me, it’s not necessarily scoring goals. I’m not going to try and be Tyson Barrie out there. But I can sure help the team by being tough to play against and preventing goals and trying to get pucks back and get it to our fast, skilled forwards as quickly as possible.”

Moving onto Training Camp. Preseason games start as early as Tuesday and it sure seems like everyone is just gnawing at the bit to get going.

The Avalanche posted a nice recap of Saturday’s action, including interviews, in-depth looks at how camp battles are progressing, and Coach Bednar provided some injury updates as well. [NHL dot com]

“We are going to experiment a little in exhibition. It’s hard sometimes because we are pulling half our D-core out of the lineup every night and we have a number that we want most of our guys to play three exhibition games, so we will experiment a little bit,” said head coach Jared Bednar. “But, right now we are playing Girard with E.J. because we are hoping that [Girard] has grown enough in the first year that he can handle that job. It would be nice to be able to have those guys on the ice for 25 minutes a night the way they can play.”

ICYMI: Lauren Gardner and Marc Moser (THE MOSE!) have a podcast! Episode Two is all about training camp and the start of a new year.

Oh, to be a fly on the wall of the alumni locker room. Speechless. There are so many stars there! John-Michael Liles! Chris Stewert! And some other guys...

The Game

Full disclosure, I wrote the morning links for Raw Charge for today as well as this one, so this section of the links will be very similar to that one. Can you blame me? *shrug*

Erik Karlsson could be on the verge of signing eight-year contract with the San Jose Sharks in the very near future. [NHL dot com]

The Sharks have a track record of signing players acquired from elsewhere to long-term contracts, including defenseman Brent Burns, forward Joe Thornton and goalie Martin Jones. Forward Evander Kane, who was acquired in a trade last season, signed a seven-year contract to stay before he could have become a free agent.

Paralyzed from the waist down, Humboldt Broncos defenseman Ryan Straschnitzki is playing hockey again! [Squamish Chief]

“It brought back a lot of memories of when I was five years old and laced up the skates. It was one of the happiest times of my life and I was back out there again and just enjoying the moment.”

On Friday, the Tampa Bay Lightning placed defenseman Jake Dotchin on unconditional waivers. On Saturday, Dotchin cleared waivers and it is believed the Lightning are going to begin the process of terminating his contract. It is expected that Dotchin’s camp will fight this. [Raw Charge]

The sixth-round pick from 2012 for the Tampa Bay Lightning has been in the team’s doghouse for a while now. Dotchin was taken off all of the preseason rosters last year when he broke an “unspecified team rule” when he showed up to camp. The 24-year-old showed promise in some stretches last year, but ultimately fell out of favor with the team, playing in only nine of the last 32 games of the season and zero games after mid-March.

Youtuber Michael Wax gives his impressions on Dotchin-Gate.

So... Do you hate the new Winnipeg Jets jersey as most of the hockey world does? Or do you love it like I do? Pick a side!

The Dallas Stars suck, but this was still pretty funny.

#IsItOctoberYet, Seldo?

Oh and for the record, Tom’s Oshawa Generals beat Hardev’s Mississauga Steelheads last night. It’s only preseason, but the fact the the Gens were missing their best two forwards, three of their top-6 defenders and both of their regular goalies, makes this an embarrassing loss for the Fishies.