August 30, 2014

Michael Amato

2014-08-30

Thoughts on Penner, Yakupov, and Schultz

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DobberHockey writer Tom Collins breaks down the key sleeper picks in his Puck Daddy debut here.

Watch for Dobber’s piece on Puck Daddy later today (rookies).

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Dustin Penner is still out there and it doesn't look like he'll be heading to the Philadelphia Flyers according to Ron Hextall. It's not crazy to think Penner could be a 20-25 goal man again in the right situation, so it's a little curious no one has offered him a low risk, high reward deal. That right situation at this point in his career is obviously playing with high end players. He saw some time with Ryan Getzlaf and Corey Perry last season and managed 13 goals in just 49 games for the Anaheim Ducks. It looks like he may have to earn his way on a team via a training camp tryout at this point, though.

Just wanted to weigh in on the expansion talk from earlier in the week. I agree with Dobber's take and believe it is coming sooner rather than later, especially where Canada is concerned. As much as the league wants to expand into bigger US markets, they still make a large portion of their revenue from the seven Canadian teams. With Quebec getting an arena ready it wouldn't surprise me to see them add a team there and another one in Toronto. Vegas and Seattle are certainly options, too, but I don't see them pulling an early 90s move and adding non-traditional hockey markets without balancing those out with some Canadian franchises as well.

Being an NHL captain used to be a pretty stable job. Once you were handed a "C," you could expect to hold on to it for a while, maybe even a couple of decades if you were lucky and/or Steve Yzerman. Even the league's most dysfunctional teams made a change only every few years, so when the time came to pass the torch, it was a big deal.

These days, some teams change captains roughly as often as Apple updates iTunes. At this time last year, there were an unprecedented eight teams without a captain. Heading into this season, we're looking at seven openings, including three repeat appearances from last year's list.

Minnesota Wild head coach Mike Yeo said three goalies have a chance to start this season. Like I mentioned the other day, Darcy Kuemper could have a real chance to play a lot this year. Stash him on your bench if you can.

A few other notes:

Sheldon Brookbank will reportedly be heading to Calgary Flames training camp for a tryout and he likely would only be a sixth or seventh defenseman if he makes the team. Not much fantasy value. You're going to see a few veterans get tryout offers as we get closer to camp.

Craig MacTavish thinks Leon Draisaitl has a shot to make the Oilers this year. So keep that in the back of your mind when drafting.

Former Bruins first-round pick Zach Hamill has reportedly signed in Finland. He played just 20 games with Boston after being drafted in 2007.

Ever wonder how to build your own backyard rink? Well wonder no more.

Michael Amato is an Associate Editor for DobberHockey and a News Editor for theScore. You can follow him on Twitter at @amato_mike

UPCOMING GAMES

Nov 21 - 19:11	WSH	vs	COL
Nov 21 - 19:11	CBJ	vs	T.B
Nov 21 - 19:11	OTT	vs	VGK
Nov 21 - 19:11	DET	vs	NYI
Nov 21 - 19:11	BOS	vs	UTA
Nov 21 - 19:11	N.J	vs	CAR
Nov 21 - 20:11	STL	vs	S.J
Nov 21 - 20:11	CHI	vs	FLA
Nov 21 - 21:11	CGY	vs	NYR
Nov 21 - 21:11	EDM	vs	MIN