August 30, 2014
Michael Amato
2014-08-30
Thoughts on Penner, Yakupov, and Schultz
***
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).
***
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
Related Posts
UPCOMING GAMES
N.JStarting Goalies
Top Skater Views
| Players | Team | |
|---|---|---|
| TRAVIS KONECNY |
 PHI | |
| MARCO ROSSI |
 MIN | |
| NILS HOGLANDER |
 VAN | |
| JJ PETERKA |
 BUF | |
| AARON EKBLAD |
 FLA
| |
Top Goalie Profile Views
TOR
CGY
LINE COMBOS
| Frequency |
 ARI Players
| |
|---|---|---|
| 25.8 | NICK SCHMALTZ ALEX KERFOOT CLAYTON KELLER | |
| 17.5 | DYLAN GUENTHER LAWSON CROUSE LOGAN COOLEY | |
| 17.2 | AKU RATY JACK MCBAIN MATIAS MACCELLI | |
DobberHockey Podcasts
Fantasy Hockey Life: Florida Panthers with Colby Guy
Colby Guy joins the show to talk about the Cup champs. We discuss Sam Reinhart, Matthew Tkachuk, Aleksander Barkov, Sam Bennett, Evan Rodrigues, Anton Lundell, Mackie Samoskevich, Aaron Ekblad, Gustav Forsling, Nate Schmidt, Adam Boqvist, Sergei Bobrovsky and Spencer Knight. In-Goal Magazine’s Cat Silverman joins in our Cat’s Instincts segment to discuss Spencer Knight and […]
Fantasy Hockey Life: Boston Bruins with Fluto Shinzawa
Fluto Shinzawa of The Athletic joins Victor and Jesse to talk Boston Bruins. They discuss David Pastrnak, Elias Lindholm, Brad Marchand, Charlie Coyle, Pavel Zacha, Morgan Geekie, Matthew Poitras, Charlie McAvoy, Hampus Lindholm, Jeremy Swayman, and Joonas Korpisalo. In-Goal Magazine’s Cat Silverman joins in our Cat’s Instincts segment to discuss Brandon Bussi and Michael DiPietro. […]
Fantasy Hockey Life: Brian Hedger on the Columbus Blue Jackets
Brian Hedger of the Columbus Dispatch joins the show to look forward to next year’s Blue Jackets.
Fantasy Hockey Life: Nashville Predators with Bryan Bastin
Bryan Bastin of On the Forecheck joins Victor and Jesse to talk Nashville Predators. They discuss pros Filip Forsberg, Gustav Nyquist, Ryan O’Reilly, Tommy Novak, Luke Evangelista, Philip Tomasino, Cody Glass, Roman Josi, Alexandre Carrier, Juuse Saros, Kevin Lankinen, Yaroslav Askarov, Steven Stamkos, Jonathan Marchessault and Brady Skjei. In-Goal Magazine’s Cat Silverman joins in our […]
Fantasy Hockey Life: Toronto Maple Leafs with Cindy Caron
The Toronto Maple Leafs made it to a Game 7 overtime but were frustrated again in the playoffs. Recorded pre-free agency, Cindy Caron of I-Express.ca joins Victor and Jesse to go over the pro roster: Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, William Nylander, John Tavares, Max Domi, Tyler Bertuzzi, Matthew Knies, Bobby McMann, Morgan Rielly, Timothy Liljegren, […]