August 21, 2013
Dobber Sports
2013-08-21
The Fantasy Guide can be picked up online in pdf form for the small price of $9.99 – and it comes with an updated spreadsheet, free. Updates are all free, download as often as you’d like. Last update was Monday the 18th.
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Stick tap to ‘tomastop’ in the forum for this – Florida Panthers injury updates: Sean Bergenheim is expected to be ready for the start of the season, however Ed Jovanovski (hip) and Kris Versteeg (knee) will not be. No timetable given on Versteeg, but we already knew that his recovery time would cut into the early part of the season and I don’t think it will extend into November.
Dmitri Kulikov (shoulder) and Drew Shore (wrist) could also miss the start of camp, but should be okay before training camp ends.
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Sheldon Souray is so excited for the new NHL season that he sustained his annual injury early this year. He damaged his wrist in workouts and will be sidelined for four to six months. That takes him to Christmas at minimum, but possibly late February. With Souray gone, Sami Vatanen and Kyle Cumiskey stand to benefit. The Ducks signed Mark Fistric to a deal, but he won’t eat all of Souray’s ice time. So Vatanen should be upgraded.
The thing with Cumiskey is, he played last year in Sweden and put up strong numbers (32 points in 46 games). So will he come back a better player, or a player who is worse off because he adapted to the wrong style of play? He could come back the way Mark Giordanocame back from the KHL and be a better player for it. If he does, then Vatanen will play most of this coming season in the AHL. Cumiskey is the wildcard here, even though he doesn’t have near Vatanen’s upside.
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Goaltender Leland Irving has reportedly agreed to try out for Jokerit of the SM-liiga. Irving was a top prospect in Calgary and a Golden Boy – but even a Golden Boy only gets so much rope. Eventually, a Golden Boy will fall if he doesn’t do anything. Irving is 25 and if he had a great year at the age of 24, all of those weak seasons would have been forgotten. Only a Golden Boy has that kind of staying power. But he didn’t, so time ran out.
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Speaking of former Golden Boys who blew their chance…
The Hurricanes have re-signed Zach Boychuk to a one-year, two-way contract. The AHL side of the deal is just over $100,000, which is pretty hefty, while the NHL side is at or near the minimum. What that means is that the team doesn’t really have a monetary incentive to send him down, but a pretty good monetary incentive to keep him up. Almost like a one-way deal in that sense. But if you blow a chance with Malkin, you’ve already blown your best chance.
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Pierre-Luc Letourneau-Leblond not only boasts the longest name in hockey, but he has joined the Pittsburgh Penguins organization as their minor league affiliate Wilkes-Barre/Scranton has signed him. The deal sets a new record for most hyphens on one contract. The tough guy has only played five NHL games in the last three years.
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The Toronto Sun is reporting that Jaromir Jagr hinted that this would be his last NHL season. I say he plays two years in the KHL after this one. He’s a brilliant businessman who will squeeze every drop of money out of his hockey career that he can. Nobody has made more than he has.
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 ‘LIKE’ Dobber Sports on Facebook as I will be making several announcements this week about some exciting things coming up. So far this week I gave details on a new website I’m launching called Dobbernomics (details on Facebook), and the new FREE app that is coming out. Still on tap – some information on upcoming upgrades, a football announcement and a new Frozen Pool tool. Oh, and a contest to win a free jersey.
The Dobbernomics logo I leaked over a month ago on Facebook, but only my faithful ‘likes’ would have seen that early hint.
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The Red Wings have finally convinced Gustav Nyquist to put pen to paper and man did they get a deal. I mean, sure, they now have 16 forwards signed to NHL contracts and were probably hoping to get a two-way deal from him so that they could have some flexibility until the situation is resolved…but in the end Ken Holland knew that this guy is an NHLer and a budding star. Two years, at $950,000 per year cap hit is a great deal.
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Those in the US will enjoy these guys. Jay and Dan read some Tweets about their Fox Sports debut:
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