Zeev Buium was the most promising young player in the Vancouver Canucks lineup last season.

Despite his being dealt midway through his first full NHL season and logging major minutes in a sewered environment for a dysfunctional team as a rookie, Buium’s hockey IQ and skill level stood out. No matter how miserable the team’s results, Buium kept trying things and kept challenging defenders one-on-one from the blue line. Off the ice, he maintained his competitive edge. It’s commendable he never seemed to accept the results.

For all of the character and skill Buium demonstrated, and for all of the pedigree he possesses as a recent first-round pick who put together one of the most impressive resumes in recent NCAA hockey history with Denver University, Buium’s profile contains some measure of fragility the Canucks will need to be thoughtful about managing.

As promising as Buium is, he remains a somewhat undersized left-handed defenceman. The 20-year-old will need to put on some weight and add some physical heft to his 6-foot, 183-pound frame to hold up in tough minutes. Given his work ethic, however, there’s little question he’ll manage precisely that as he ages and approaches his prime.

The fragility of Buium’s profile, however, is less about the heaviness in his game and more about the player archetype he could come to represent if the Canucks aren’t thoughtful about his development path.

There are, of course, left-handed defencemen under 6-1 who represent significant value at the NHL level: Quinn Hughes, Lane Hutson, Josh Morrissey and Vince Dunn come to mind as prominent examples. Those players, however, share a key common trait — they’re top-end point producers with hard-won reputations as high-end power-play quarterbacks.

On the other side of the ledger, there’s a long list of NHL lefties under 6-1 who have been consistently undervalued around the league. The Pittsburgh Penguins’ Sam Girard, for example, is a legitimate top-four-calibre defenceman. Still, he required his former team, the Colorado Avalanche, to attach a second-round pick to offload his entirely reasonable contract with 1 1/2 seasons remaining. Matt Grzelcyk was a 40-point player in Pittsburgh during the 2024-25 season and still had to wait until fall to sign a one-year contract with the Chicago Blackhawks last offseason.

Even some high-end power-play options, such as recent Stanley Cup winner Shayne Gostisbehere, have had journeyman career paths, their professional resumes littered with Girard-like trades and one-year contracts despite consistent production and performance.

This variance in Buium’s profile must be accounted for in Vancouver’s thinking ahead of this upcoming season. It’s tricky, however, because Buium will require power-play reps if he’s ever going to hit his ceiling as an NHL player. And yet Buium struggled on the power play last season — especially relative to veteran teammate Filip Hronek, who was absolutely sensational.

Hronek played just over 150 power-play minutes during the 2025-26 season and was remarkably efficient in those minutes. In fact, he led all NHL defencemen who logged at least 150 power-play minutes last season in points per 60 with 7.94. More than just Hronek’s individual success, the calibration of Vancouver’s power play and the space he opened up as a shooting threat at the top of the Canucks’ 1-3-1 formation just clicked when he was promoted full time to the top unit.

There is no sound hockey argument to remove Hronek from the top power-play unit, and yet the path to Buium’s becoming a star-level contributor requires his development into a first-unit mainstay, which he’ll never do if he isn’t given significant run in that spot. With Hronek intent on remaining in Vancouver, there is no easy solution to this logjam, but the team is going to need a sharp, considered plan.

For Manny Malhotra and the coaching staff, how to navigate Buium’s power-play usage and carve out an opportunity to feature him offensively is easily the deployment decision with the most significant long-term ramifications of this Canucks season.

2. Will Manny Malhotra have the discipline, and options, to manage Filip Hronek’s minutes?

Hronek will turn 29 in November and has a no-move clause through the conclusion of 2027-28. For now, the top-pair Czech defenceman wants to remain in Vancouver with the rebuilding Canucks. That’s admirable on some level, and it’s also his contractually negotiated right.

There is a massive gap in quality between Hronek and the other options Malhotra will have on the back end. Especially in the wake of Marcus Pettersson’s departure, Hronek is really Vancouver’s only established top-of-the-lineup option on the blue line. You can hope the likes of Buium or Tom Willander take a significant step forward this season, but hope is not a plan, and it’s rare for 22- and 21-year-old defencemen to be capable matchup options at the NHL level.

Given Hronek’s age and Vancouver’s rebuilding future, the Canucks will need to be disciplined about managing his ice time. Last season, for example, Hronek played more than 25 minutes in 19 out of 25 games after the Olympic break. In aggregate, he logged 30 more minutes than any other defenseman after the Olympics. On a per-game basis, only Zach Werenski (whose team was in a playoff race) and Quinn Hughes (whose team was scrapping for home-ice advantage) got heavier usage than Hronek.

Hronek is a tough, efficient defenceman and can handle logging significant minutes, but he’s also missed large chunks of time as a result of shoulder injuries in two of the past four seasons. In any event, the Canucks will need to find some other options to share the load. Vancouver simply has too much asset value tied up in Hronek and too little meaningful ambition this upcoming season to risk deploying him in some of the heaviest usage in the league.

It’s incumbent on Malhotra not to give in to the temptation to overextend Hronek during a rebuilding season.

3. Can Jamie Oleksiak and Luke Schenn play well enough to flip at the trade deadline?

Luke Schenn has a full no-move clause in his one-year, $2.25 million contract. Jamie Oleksiak has a relatively team-friendly 12-team no-trade clause included in his two-year, $10 million contract.

Schenn and Oleksiak are high-character players and battle-tested in the playoffs. They have the sort of profile teams generally want to add to their lineup at the NHL trade deadline when they’re planning for a long playoff run.

Defence-minded defencemen, however, are often the players whose stock falls most precipitously when they’re logging significant minutes for overmatched teams during a rebuild. You wouldn’t have known it to watch Marcus Pettersson play last season, for example, that his five-on-five defensive impact — in terms of limiting the rate at which Vancouver surrendered goals and expected goals against — was borderline elite. You just noticed how frequently Vancouver was fishing pucks out from the back of its net when he was on the ice.

As unrestricted free agents, Oleksiak and Schenn will bring solidity to the organization. There’s no questioning the level of professionalism and defensive experience they’ll be able to contribute. Can they hold up well enough, however, to maintain or enhance their trade value ahead of the trade deadline? That’s a very different question.

4. How will young defencemen fare with the coaching change?

Buium had some sensational offensive moments. Willander was productive and, on occasion, even looked like a strong second-pair transitional defenceman. It was a different story for Elias Pettersson, who struggled mightily to replicate the defensive authority he flashed down the stretch of the 2024-25 season, but his potential as a heavy, throwback defensive blueliner is obvious.

Across the board, however, all of Vancouver’s young defencemen looked overmatched night to night last season. The defensive habits were nonexistent, and elementary mistakes — allowing a free stick in the slot, missing an assignment, keeping too loose a gap through the neutral zone — were constant.

That level of performance, however, wasn’t especially alarming. In truth, the mistakes weren’t isolated solely to the younger players. The 2025-26 Canucks were nothing short of the most disorganized, confused structural team I’ve ever covered. There was simply no sense of defensive solidity, no predictability in how they executed. It was sometimes difficult to even parcel out blame when a mistake had been made, given several players seemed unsure of their role or assignment on any given breakdown.

The context of Vancouver’s structural failings makes it difficult to evaluate exactly how their younger defencemen are tracking. Truthfully, none of them performed to the level of a good NHL blueliner last season, but that’s a data point that might reveal more about the team’s environment than it does about the individual quality, form or NHL readiness of Buium, Willander and Pettersson.

We’ll wait to see what systems Malhotra implements and how it might affect Vancouver’s young defencemen. The baseline, however, is relatively low. Structurally speaking, it simply can’t get any worse than it was last season.

5. Setting reasonable expectations for Thatcher Demko

Thatcher Demko is now a 30-year-old coming off a second hip surgery, which is virtually unprecedented for an NHL goaltender, and hasn’t been able to stay healthy since a knee tear in Vancouver’s first game of the 2024 playoffs.

At this point in his career, Demko has never put together an NHL season in which he checked off all of the following criteria: A. Start 60 games or more. B. Manage an above-NHL-average save percentage. C. Be healthy at the end of the year.

Looking even beyond a lengthy injury history, he hasn’t been the same positionally perfect, athletically dominant goaltender of yore in a few years. Demko’s save percentage across 43 appearances over the past two years checks in well below the NHL average.

For the Canucks and their fans, it’s important to sit with that. It’s unreasonable to expect Demko to perform like a conventional starter, and it’s incumbent on the organization to manage his pitch count rigidly this season. For fans, meanwhile, it’s unfair to apply “Demko could ruin the tank” expectations to a goaltender who really shouldn’t start frequently enough next season for that to be a relevant part of the dialogue.

The image of Julian Alvarez walking alone off the Atletico Madrid pitch, his head bowed as his own team’s fans loudly jeered him, was the most striking yet of this summer’s biggest transfer saga.

Following Atletico’s 2-2 draw with Villarreal on Sunday, their first home game of the new La Liga season, Diego Simeone’s players went together to salute supporters behind the stadium’s south goal.

All went except Alvarez, who accepted advice from the club not to take part, after waves of anger had been sent in his direction from those upset by his publicly stated desire to join Barcelona.

The indignation from Atletico’s fans fits with a firm stance that the club’s hierarchy has taken since the end of May. That was when Barcelona said they made a €100million (£85.7m; $116.4m) offer for Alvarez. Atletico have denied receiving any such bid.

If you think that’s unusual, Atletico’s response to reports of Barca’s proposal was even more so. They posted a series of fantastical transfer news updates on their social media pages, including a swap deal for Lamine Yamal that involved Bad Bunny concert tickets and “a bag of sunflower seeds”.

Así reaccionó el Metropolitano al regreso de Julián Álvarez. 🔊🔥#LALIGAenDAZN⚽️ pic.twitter.com/KvQctofaSk

— DAZN España (@DAZN_ES) August 23, 2026

Alvarez joined Atletico from Manchester City in a deal worth up to €95million in August 2024 and is under contract at the Spanish club until 2030.

Atletico’s position all summer has been that they will not sell him to Barcelona. That did not change after Alvarez told ESPN during the World Cup that he wanted to leave.

Instead, Atletico chief executive Miguel Angel Gil Marin made the first of three telling interventions over recent months, each time insisting the 26-year-old is not going anywhere, while also criticising Barca — whom Atletico reported to the Spanish FA at the end of July.

Before the World Cup in early June, Real Madrid also claimed to have made a €150million bid for Alvarez. It came a few days after Florentino Perez promised to make a bid of that sum for a top player during his (successful) presidential election campaign. Atletico did not believe it was a serious attempt to sign the player and reacted with angrier and more scornful social media posts.

It served as another reminder of Atletico’s place in Spanish football’s hierarchy. Internally, it will have added fuel to the already communicated idea that they are the “victims” in this case — and that they have to hit back.

Alvarez came off the bench in the 66th minute of Atletico’s 2-2 draw with Villarreal on Sunday (Angel Martinez/Getty Images)

Under the 15 years of Diego Simeone’s management, Atletico have won eight trophies — including two La Liga titles and two Europa Leagues — while also twice reaching the Champions League final.

That sets Atletico well ahead of the country’s other historically important clubs such as Valencia, Athletic Club or Sevilla. Yet the Metropolitano outfit are still much smaller than La Liga’s heavyweight Clasico duo. Barca and Real Madrid both have revenues at least twice as big as Atletico’s, as well as much larger fanbases and much stronger institutional clout.

Within this situation, Atletico would like to be taken more seriously as a respected challenger, while both Madrid and Barca enjoy ramming home their superiority whenever they can.

Gil Marin and Atletico’s comments in the Alvarez case have been instructive on this point. He sees himself as defending the interests of his club against predatory behaviour.

“Barcelona have disrespected us, they believe they can brush us aside, that we’re weak or stupid,” he told news agency EFE in late June. “They try to make everyone believe they want to do an operation which in reality they cannot do. Last year they did something very similar to Nico Williams and Athletic Club.”

On Wednesday, Barcelona president Joan Laporta spoke to the club’s in-house media, insisting they had treated Atletico with “respect” and that their interest in Alvarez “followed the standards required”.

The 64-year-old said Barca had not dropped their pursuit of the striker because it appeared Atletico “want to sell the player to other clubs”. This was a reference to Arsenal.

As The Athletic has previously reported, the Premier League club were in contact with Atletico and Alvarez’s camp last week over a potential deal, but are not certain how much the player wants to move to England.

Atletico issued a statement in response to Laporta’s interview, saying there was a “zero per cent chance” Alvarez would be sold to Barca.

“This situation isn’t about money, it’s about dignity,” the statement added. “A campaign full of lies and half-truths has been created. The only ones paying the price for all this are Atletico.

“The player is being portrayed as the victim, but the only victims are us. We have been harmed both financially and socially.”

On Thursday, another Atletico statement said the club’s board of directors had “unanimously expressed” its “absolute support” for the decision to not negotiate with Barca.

It added: “Atletico Madrid trusts that our player will understand the decision and will remain focused on helping the club achieve its goals.”

Perhaps feeding into that is the fact the club is much financially stronger now than they were a few years back, with American asset management company Apollo Global Management having taken a share in their ownership in November 2025.

Alvarez, meanwhile, was absent from training on Wednesday and Thursday this week. Atletico sources — speaking anonymously, like all those cited here, as they did not have permission to comment — said this was because he was feeling unwell.

Alvarez has also attracted interest from Premier League champions Arsenal (Angel Martinez/Getty Images)

With less than a week left in the transfer window, there are no easy options for any of those involved.

For Atletico, holding on to a player who wants to leave carries obvious risk. Will Alvarez successfully be brought back into the fold? Will supporter sentiment turn around? Is the player himself fully committed?

For Barcelona, all indications are that they do not have a plan B in the transfer market for the No 9 position they identified as an absolute priority. Following the departures of Robert Lewandowski and Ferran Torres, missing out on Alvarez could leave them worryingly short up front.

Alvarez, meanwhile, can look back on previous cases of Atletico players pushing for an exit, if he is in search of solace or solidarity.

Multiple sources say his relationships with many at the club, including coach and fellow Argentine Simeone, have been damaged by what happened. However, some believe that time can heal everything, pointing to the case of Antoine Griezmann’s rollercoaster spells in the Spanish capital.

Griezmann was an Atletico hero who angered many by first publicly flirting with Barcelona in summer 2018, then joining them 12 months later when the Catalan club activated his €120million release clause.

The Frenchman never fully settled at the Camp Nou and returned to the Metropolitano, initially on loan, in 2021. He then worked extra hard to win over the team-mates and fans he upset, which included appearing in a club-produced documentary. Griezmann eventually became Atletico’s record goalscorer, and was acclaimed before leaving for MLS club Orlando City at the end of last season, aged 35.

It remains to be seen whether Alvarez, a serious and introverted character, would be able to manage such a return to favour. The anger sent in his direction last weekend is unlikely to have immediately changed his thinking about wanting to leave. Atletico’s resolve also appears to be unwavering.

With just a matter of days left until the transfer window closes on Tuesday, time is running out for Barca. For Atletico, hanging on to Alvarez will be seen as a victory, but at the moment it’s difficult to see any winners in this situation.

When someone tells you they have good news and bad news, which do you prefer to hear first?

I always prefer to get the bad news out of the way. That’s why, earlier this week, I provided my top five dynasty sells — including one for each type of dynasty team. That means it’s time to move onto the good news: my favorite dynasty sleepers.

Each of the five players featured below has an ADP outside the top-100 overall in Superflex dynasty startups, and is someone I have ranked significantly higher.

Note: The ADP cited throughout this piece is courtesy of the FantasyPoints Front Office, and all statistics are sourced from the FantasyPoints Data Suite unless otherwise stated.

Josh Downs, IND (WR49)

It’s hard to find a combination of floor, ceiling, youth and cost efficiency in dynasty. But Downs provides each of these elements.

The fourth-year Colts receiver out of North Carolina was an under-drafted prospect with immense upside, posting 3.7 receiving yards per team pass attempt (YPTPA) as a 20-year-old true sophomore. To put that in context, that’s a higher peak-season YPTPA than any of the receivers selected in the 2026 NFL Draft. College production, especially early college production, is a major signal of upside in the professional ranks — even multiple years into a player’s career.

Downs has yet to reach his true ceiling in the NFL thus far, due to a mix of poor quarterback play, inconsistent route participation and nagging injuries. However, he’s flashed high-end upside, especially in his second season when he posted 30% TPRR and 2.28 YPRR, fifth and 20th, respectively, among all receivers with at least 200 routes.

Now Downs is being discounted in the market following a less productive third year as the Colts emphasized more heavy-personnel packages. This took Downs off the field in favor of veterans Alec Pierce and Michael Pittman — primarily for blocking reasons. Downs has always posted elite success rates on routes versus man coverage, per Matt Harmon’s reception perception, which indicates an ability to succeed on the outside as a receiver.

Pittman has now been traded to Pittsburgh and replaced with Keenan Allen, who projects as a part-time player at his age (34). Head coach Shane Steichen has consistently expressed a desire to play Downs in two-receiver sets in 2026. I wrote earlier this offseason in my newsletter about the overlap in Downs and Pittman’s roles as a feature players in pure drop-back situations. This makes Downs the prime candidate to benefit more from Pittman’s departure than Pierce or Tyler Warren.

At the very least, Downs is a quality Flex option who is quite affordable. At best, he’s a breakout WR2 or better who just turned 25 years old two weeks ago. This makes him a strong bet to exceed his cost this year and beyond for any team build.

Tre’ Harris, LAC (WR68)

If Josh Downs is a sleeper, Harris is in active hibernation. The latter posted one of the most ridiculously productive college seasons in recent memory at Ole Miss in 2024, earning 5.12 YPRR (per Pro Football Focus).

While very productive, Harris’ college profile requires some important context. He was an older prospect, beginning his career at a lower-tier program (Louisiana Tech) before peaking with Ole Miss as a redshirt senior. He also racked up a lot of his production against weaker opponents, and in a fairly small sample of games before suffering a season-ending injury. Also, the Ole Miss offense is markedly different from what we see in the NFL, and players can struggle to translate production or skills from college air raid systems into the pros.

Despite those caveats, Harris was drafted in Round 2 by the Los Angeles Chargers. Perhaps unsurprisingly given his reputation as a raw prospect, Harris struggled to see consistent playing time or production in Year 1. I’m just not certain how much we could have reasonably expected from him as the WR4 on a veteran, contending team. Harris also saw the majority of his playing time late in the year when the Chargers’ offensive line had devolved into a completely non-viable unit, and the team failed to generate efficient production from any of its pass catchers.

Fantasy drafters are assuming the Chargers’ pass-catcher group has a clear hierarchy this season under new offensive coordinator Mike McDaniel — 1.) Ladd McConkey, 2.) Quentin Johnston, 3.) Tre Harris. I’m not quite that certain about how things will play out.

McDaniel has historically rotated receivers from a routes perspective, and Harris is the best blocking receiver on the team, which could give him a chance to run as many or more routes than his more highly-valued teammates. Johnston has always been a heavily-flawed player who I think Harris has a legitimate chance of beating out for the WR2 role over the course of the season. Harris is the most natural fit to play an “X-WR” role of anyone on the roster, and provides a better deep threat complement to Ladd McConkey due to his superior ball skills.

McConkey is the only player on the roster with a legitimately elite season on record, and I think he’s easily the best bet for consistent production. But he’s coming off a year in which his catch rate and yards per reception both plummeted while running more routes than he ever had as a rookie or in college. There are outstanding questions with his profile.

Finally, I wrote up TE Oronde Gadsden as a sell in my last column based on his lack of expected playing time. If the Chargers truly plan to start Charlie Kolar at tight end, we should expect a higher share for the receiver position as a whole in relation to the team’s tight ends.

Is it likely Harris is a fantasy starter this year? No. But there’s upside for value growth or production in a very exciting offense at a very low cost.

Juwan Johnson, NO (TE21)

I’ve talked throughout my recent articles here about the imperative to compete whenever you have the roster value to do so. Johnson is the type of player who can provide cost-efficient production and improve the near-term outlook of a dynasty team around the margins — especially in TE-premium scoring formats.

Last season, Johnson elevated from a part-time receiving specialist at the position to an every-down player, and he took a major step forward as a fantasy asset. He posted the third-most receiving yards among all tight ends, and finished as the TE12 in fantasy points per game (FPPG). In TE-premium scoring, he posted 12.9 FPPG, which was equal to Jameson Williams, the WR21 overall.

One of the easiest ways to punch above your weight in TE-premium dynasty leagues is to fill your Flex with tight ends who carry very little trade value but score comparably to vastly more expensive wide receivers or running backs.

Johnson was especially productive last season after Rashid Shaheed was traded away midseason. When rookie Jordyn Tyson was added to the team, I was concerned about Johnson’s upside as the clear third option. I was also concerned by the addition of third-round rookie Oscar Delp, who may develop into a superior blocker than Johnson — a converted receiver.

However, with Tyson now missing a large chunk of the season, the Saints will need receiving production from the tight end spot, and Johnson is their best bet for it. I expect him to score as a top-10 option for at least the first half of the year. He’s an excellent target as a cheap TE1 in any dynasty league, or as a cost-effective Flex in TE-premium.

Eli Raridon, NE (TE32)

If you’re looking more for value growth than immediate points at the tight end position, I recommend moving even further down the ADP landscape until you find Patriots third-round rookie Eli Raridon.

Raridon was the prospect I was most ahead of the market on in the 2026 draft class. He had muted total production, but the closer you look under the hood the more intriguing he gets. First of all, Raridon tore his ACL twice in college which limited his playing time before his senior season. In that season, Raridon posted 2.23 YPRR, a surprisingly impressive mark given he tallied just 32 catches. That disconnect exists because Raridon was held in to pass block on 91 of 295 passing snaps, a bizarre wrinkle of the Notre Dame system that’s unlikely to translate to the NFL. In fact, I actually view it as a positive.

Raridon offers a rare combination of a downfield-receiving profile (15.1 YPR) with commendable blocking skills. The latter can get you playing time early in your career and keep you on the field in all situations. The former indicates some potential fantasy upside if Raridon is eventually able to wrest the TE1 job away from Hunter Henry.

Raridon has had an excellent training camp, to the point that he was rested with the starters in the Patriots’ second preseason game. He should see the field plenty as the team’s No. 2 tight end and will have a chance to show the coaching staff and dynasty managers that he can be the long-term answer as Drake Maye’s TE1.

Mac Jones, SF (QB37) (Superflex only)

This one doesn’t require a deep statistical analysis. In Superflex dynasty, starting quarterbacks are constantly sought after, but managers can lose patience when it comes to non-starters who are likely to be starters in the future.

Jones was remarkably impressive while filling in for Brock Purdy last season, and he’d be a plug-and-play QB2 option in the event Purdy misses any time this season. More importantly, Jones is likely to be offered a job when he hits free agency next season, joining a long line of rehabilitation projects (see: Darnold, Sam or Willis, Malik).

Whether you believe in Jones to sustain his recent success at his next stop is a decision you can make in the summer of 2027. For now, add Jones as an extra piece in a trade and let him sit on your roster until you can collect a very likely value spike next March.