If you read one ramblings this fall, read these, Steve dishes on a ton of players as he reviews the Dobber Hockey Experts Draft…

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First let's take a look at some news items as it seems like the training camp cuts are coming hard and fast now.

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The Dallas Stars cut Brett Ritchie and Jyrki Jokipakka. Both will head down to the AHL level. The latter really impressed but the Stars have a glut of okay NHL defensemen. Enough that it was going to take a miracle (or an injury) for someone to break through.

Brenden Dillon remains unsigned, which only adds to the log jam of defensemen. (Though Dillon is getting frustrated with how negotiations are progressing.)

One more thought on the Stars defense. There was quite the debate on the forum about who the defenseman on the top power play unit would be. (On a side note, there will be only one defenseman as they will surely skate four forwards: Jamie Benn, Tyler Seguin, Jason Spezza and Ales Hemsky, on what should be a lethal unit.)

The other night the Stars had Trevor Daley on the top unit and it clicked twice with Daley earning one assist. This led to speculation that Daley might usurp Alex Goligoski for the job on the top power play unit. Let's pump the breaks a little bit.

This was a pre-season game, which we all know we shouldn't read too much into. Goligoski wasn't even playing in this game so there are even less conclusions to be drawn. Goligoski is still the top dog, for now.

But that's no reason not to like Daley as a sleeper. At the end of last season he scored 12 points in the final 22 games, skating 23 minutes a night including almost two on the second power play unit. Part of that increase in minutes was the sheer volume of power play chances the Stars got down the stretch. And we've seen aberrations in small sample sizes before. You shouldn't draft Daley expecting him to reach 40 points. You can however draft him for 25 and hope he can do much more.

Not all of you play in leagues where you can take that chance. That's cool but don't sleep on Daley if he gets off to a hot start. That 40 points could become realistic in a hurry.

I liken Daley's situation to that of Matt Niskanen before last season. They are both smooth skaters (Daley even more so) with some potential as puck movers but up to this point they'd failed to live up to their potential. We all know what happened to Niskanen.

Everyone in front of him got hurt and he was thrust into a larger role on an explosive team. Presto, you've got a new 40-point defenseman.

I'm not even sure we'd need to see injuries for Daley to emerge. Goligoski is infuriating as a #1 defenseman. He's just so vanilla. You know you aren't getting more than 45 points from him, regardless of how good his situation is. Goligoski is famous for starting the season slow, leading to a healthy scratch, before finally churning out his modest production.

The stakes are higher for Dallas this season. Goligoski won't have the time to find his game early on. The Stars will move on to someone who can produce if he's not. Daley could be that guy.

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Four more cuts for the Bruins yesterday including Alexander Khokhlachev and Ryan Spooner. Still with the team are Jordan Caron, Matt Fraser and 2014 1^st round pick David Pastrnak.

Pastrnak probably doesn't make it and likely goes back to Sweden if he doesn't but he has impressed. Excellent two-way player. He'll make Loui Eriksson expendable when his contract is up after next season.

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The Flames cut seven yesterday. No surprises in the bunch. Johnny Gaudreau is still around, which should surprise no one.

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The Avalanche made several cuts as well including Joey Hishon and Duncan Siemens. No surprises though, really.

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The Flyers cut two of my favourite prospects yesterday as Scott Laughton and Shayne Gostisbehere are headed to the AHL. I'm not surprised, really, just disappointed. Especially after I pumped up Gostisbehere so much on Tuesday.

Oh well. Why keep a promising defenseman around when you can pay Andrew MacDonald $5 million a year to help terrorize your shaky goaltender?

Gostisbehere should be the Flyers' first call up unless he struggles at the AHL level for some reason.