The Fantasy Guide can be picked up online in pdf form for $9.99 – it comes with an updated spreadsheet – free. Updates are all free, download as often as you’d like. Last update was Wednesday night, Sept.4.

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Ah September, a time when agents start to panic and accept training camp tryout invites on behalf of their client. When, in most cases, the writing was on the wall. The brilliant agents are the ones like Scott Gomez‘s. How did he get a contract, while Damien Brunner, Simon Gagne, etc. did not? Easy – he knew that in today’s market he would have to come in low, so he did. Tell me Gagne couldn’t have signed a month ago for $900,000? Or at the very least, $700,000 plus games played bonuses? Instead, it’s looking more and more as if he will be “on a tryout” for the Flyers. Like the Flyers don’t know the kind of player that he is already so they need him to “try out” and show them. “Tryout” is just political speak for “maybe we’ll sign you if you’re cheap and we have the cap room…but we want to keep our options open until the absolute last minute”.

In fantasy hockey, can you name a single tryout who became fantasy-worthy that season? A case could be made for Alexandre Daigle back in 2003 with the Wild – he got 51 points. Dan Cleary was an invite for the Red Wings, but he didn’t have a decent fantasy season until the following year.

So don’t expect much from Gagne, or Gilbert Brule(who was invited to Phoenix on a

tryout).

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And speaking of tryouts and Phoenix – Guillaume Latendressereceived a camp invite. I’d say that the agent dropped the ball…but Latendresse’s NHL career was already on thin ice given the fact that he had already come in low with a contract last year.

Radek Dvorak has received a camp invite from the Hurricanes. A good depth signing that would keep Boychuk in the AHL (prove me wrong Zach…prove me wrong).

Tom Kostopoulos has signed a minor-league deal with the Baby Penguins. Great guy to have in the system even he never gets back to the NHL.

Mathieu Garon was invited to the Kings’ training camp. LA is his former team, so there is some loyalty here. Poor Ben Scrivens. But not to worry – Scrivens is the better goaltender. Garon makes a great No.3.

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One player who won’t have to tryout is Brenden Morrow. Apparently he has teams he would prefer to play on and is waiting to see if they clear up cap room for him. Carolina is reportedly making a push for him, so I’m guessing that they would be his backup plan.

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I’m going to send out a newsletter within the next couple of days outlining some of the big things going on, so if you signed up for “announcements” newsletters you can expect one coming. You can sign up here – the other option available is for when (if?) we put out a weekly fantasy hockey newsletter. But the “announcements” newsletter will be something I sent out a few times each year as a reminder for when things are released, more or less. This one will be about the fantasy guide (long overdue, since the guide went out a month ago), but I also took the opportunity to talk about Dobbernomics, the new low prices for Frozen Pool (and expanded free section), and how Goalie Post is now FREE.

And I also give a $7 off coupon for the DobberFootball Guide. Use code: crunch time. And get the Guide for $2.99. I really want to show everyone how awesome it is. Buy it here.

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Apparently Nikolay Zherdev is suffering from alcoholism and some suspect depression. He was released from his KHL club after getting a DUI, and insiders are speculating on the root cause. I wish Nik lots of luck for the tough road ahead, hopefully with help.

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My Hockey News article yesterday was the offseason outlook for St. Louis and Tampa Bay.

My Puck Daddy article Monday was on sleepers and potential busts.

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So do you like the new DobberHockey banner up top?

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Joni Pitkanen’s heel isn’t “heel-ing” well. He will probably miss the beginning of the season. What does this mean? Two things. One, if you read my Fantasy Guide you would know that Justin Faulk produces better with him than without him. So it hurts Faulk. And two, Ryan Murphy suddenly makes this team.

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Zherdev highlights. No questioning his skills: