from Eric Duhatschek of The Athletic,

- One player who didn’t ultimately need to go the PTO route was Tomas Tatar, who signed a one-year deal with Colorado ahead of training camps. How different will the Avalanche look this year? With Tatar aboard, five of the players projected to play in their top nine are new additions. Also: Jonathan Drouin, Ryan Johansen, Miles Wood and Ross Colton. The idea of Drouin and Nathan MacKinnon renewing their junior hockey mastery is one of the most fascinating storylines going into the season. Boom or bust? Beyond their impact on Colorado’s Stanley Cup chances, a rekindling of their chemistry could have a major impact on who wins or loses their fantasy hockey leagues.

- Currently, there are six teams without a captain – mostly teams in the early stages of a rebuild, where they need to give their future captains additional time to mature.

More than anything, players see it as an important badge of honor if they get chosen as captain, part of their legacy. That’s the message you heard from the Boston Bruins’ Brad Marchand this past week when he was named to replace Patrice Bergeron as captain.

For anyone who watched Marchand’s antics over the years, the idea that he would mature enough to be considered for the captaincy is stunning. But that’s what he said when he was chosen – that partly because of a conversation with former Bruins’ coach Bruce Cassidy, he began to consider what his legacy might be.

Following in Bergeron’s footsteps will be a challenge, especially since the Bruins didn’t do much to replace either Bergeron or David Krejci’s on-ice contributions, so it will be interesting to see how this plays out.

more ($) on topic two plus other hockey notes....