New York Rangers

This is a bad year for Mr. Avery. Fantasy's favorite (and the NHL's most hated) scoring PIM machine is going to miss a couple weeks with wrist surgery. To me, this would be a great time to trade FOR Avery. With all the games missed this year, Avery owners may be getting fed up. However, Sean has stayed relatively healthy so far in his young career. PIM producers are usually pretty undervalued anyway, so it may not be as hard as you think to get a player with top 50 value in PIM leagues.

Straka, who broke a finger on his right hand blocking a Zdeno Chara shot from the point in Boston on Saturday, will be out an estimated four to five weeks, according to coach Tom Renney, reports the New York Newsday. Straka saw the doctor yesterday and it was decided that surgery won't be necessary.

Lundqvist, who started 67 games last year, is expected to see an even heavier workload this season, reports the New York Post. Coach Tom Renney really wants to ride his #1 goalie and to show this, the team demoted their goalie of the future Al Montoya to the AHL and installed journeyman Stephen Valiquette as the backup. What this means is that Lundqvist will probably start around 75 games barring injury making him a top-five fantasy goalie in almost every league.

Drury will center Jaromir Jagr and Martin Straka on the team's first line to begin the season, reports the New York Post. This comes as a mild surprise as many observers figured it would be ex-Devil and crafty playmaker Scott Gomez who would get the nod as Jagr's center. Gomez, meanwhile, will center Brendan Shanahan and Sean Avery which isn't a bad situation by any means as a Gomez and Shanahan would serve as nice complements to one another. As far as fantasy values are concerned, bump up Drury on your lists as this arrangement should see him in the 80 point range with Gomez rated slightly higher in our books.