Every Sunday this off-season, we'll share 20 Fantasy Thoughts from our writers at Dobber Hockey. These thoughts are curated from the past week's "Daily Ramblings".

Contributors: Ian Gooding, Michael Clifford and Neil Parker

1. Signing a defenceman (Andrei Markov) whose knees are held together with spit and duct tape, and going into his Age 39 season, is usually not a very wise move. Funny thing about this is, when the Habs signed Markov to his three-year deal in 2014, I thought the same thing. Alas, the sentiment was wrong.

It’s not as if Markov has fallen off a cliff and is looking for a pity one-year deal, either. This is a blue liner with 80 points in his last 144 games, which gives him a higher point per game mark in that span than names like Alex Pietrangelo, Justin Faulk, and Rasmus Ristolainen. He has still been incredibly productive into his late 30s.

The biggest question will be a matter of usage. At this point, even with as good as he still is, he’s probably better suited for second-pairing minutes and top power-play time, rather than playing heavy minutes every night. That’s fine – almost every team can use a second-pairing guy who can run a power play.

2. Justin Schultz appeared to be damaged goods after his Edmonton experience but he’s the perfect example of how a player’s fantasy value can improve big time with a move to another team. His production was aided by the absence of Kris Letang yet he was still producing even with Letang in the lineup. The only downside is that salary cap leaguers will now have to budget for a $5.5 million cap hit instead of the $1.4 million 'prove it' contract he signed with the Penguins in the summer of 2016 now that he has proven it.

3. Jonathan Bernier might be the biggest fantasy hockey loser of July 1 free agent frenzy. Signing to be a backup on the league’s worst team will do that. Avalanche management is committed to Semyon Varlamov as the starter but it’s only a matter of time before injuries and poor play force Bernier off the bench. Calvin Pickard is a solid goalie with a bright future but you didn’t want him anywhere near your fantasy team last season.

4. The Jets needed a left-shot defenseman and were willing to pay a hefty price for one (three years, $4.33 million cap hit). Although Dmitri Kulikov showed some fantasy upside earlier in his career, he was held to just five points and a dreadful minus-26 in 47 games last season with Buffalo. In other words, fantasy owners should hope Josh Morrissey and not Kulikov is in the top 4.

5. Ondrej Pavelec is a downgrade from the departed Antti Raanta as the backup to Henrik Lundqvist. As such, don’t expect him to push King Henrik for the starting job. Expect Lundqvist to earn at least 30 wins for the 12th consecutive full season in spite of declining ratios. 

6. Despite being very productive early in his career, we need to discuss the injuries Aleksander Barkov has suffered to date. In 2013-14, it was a knee injury; 2014-15 was a broken hand; 2015-16 was a wrist injury; 2016-17 was an upper-body injury (did we ever find out what that was?). All told, out of 328 games, Barkov has missed 76, or an average of 19 per campaign. That is a lot of time missed over a four-year span. Even working with the assumption of poor luck, it’s hard to project him for more than 72 games for next year. That is important to keep in mind.

As mentioned, he has been very productive, especially over the last three years. Since the start of the 2014 campaign, he’s tied for 32nd in points per 60 minutes at five-on-five (2.04) out of 261 forwards with at least 2000 minutes played. He was higher than that in 2016-17 at 2.19.

It is fair to wonder what the effect of Jaromir Jagr has here, and we may find out next season should he not be brought back. That is for another time, however.  Unless Barkov’s shooting percentage takes a huge deviation upwards, though, getting to 30 goals will be a stretch. He would have to shoot at least 15 percent (which is above his career average) and manage 200 shots on goal (which he’d need a full season to get to) to get to that coveted goal-scoring mark.

7. Kris Versteeg re-signed a one-year, $1.75 million contract with Calgary on Thursday. The veteran was particularly effective up a man with eight goals and 16 points on the power play while averaging 2:33 of ice time per game with the man advantage.

Interestingly, his Corsi For percentage was just 47.8, but he has posted a 53.1 career mark, so last season might have been an outlier. Additionally, Versteeg's ability to jump up and down the lineup is a real positive for the Flames.

He's probably not a post-to-post fantasy asset in most settings, but he'll move the needle for a handful of stretches. It's definitely worth noting that he finished off the season strong, including the playoffs.

8. The Blues are going to be without Patrik Berglund until December because of an off-season shoulder surgery. Brayden Schenn has already been penciled in as a center on the depth chart, but head coach Mike Yeo also noted Robby Fabbri as an option,

Centering Vladimir Tarasenko is the coveted fantasy gig, but the Blues have a sneaky top-six mix already with Paul Stastny, Alexander Steen, Jaden Schwartz, Fabbri and Schenn in place. There is currently enough offensive jam to support two scoring lines, so where the pieces fit isn't as important as it was last season when Jori Lehtera, David Perron or Berglund were weighing down a trio.

With the above being said, at this point in his career, Steen is probably best utilized in a third-line role while matching up against the opponent's best players. Once healthy, a Berglund-Steen-Vladimir Sobotka shut-down line would be a force and potentially give the Blues three lines of offense.

9. Marc Methot plays tough minutes and is considered difficult to play against while being an excellent defender in his own zone. He doesn't drive possession or move the offensive needle, though.

When the Kings were at their best, they typically paired a stay-at-home defenseman with a more mobile rearguard that was capable of moving the puck up ice himself or with a pass. It seems like a lock that Methot will help John Klingberg, and it should also help Ben Bishop.

With all that said, Methot has gone from underrated to overrated, in my opinion. He's on the wrong side of his prime and is neither mobile nor smooth with the puck. Sometimes things look good on paper but they don't jibe on the ice. I'm not sold that this particular add is going to make a huge difference. Bringing Trevor Daley (now with Detroit) back might have been a better move, for example. Methot is definitely not going to hurt, though, and the price wasn't steep.

10. Perhaps new Panther Radim Vrbata isn’t the most efficient shooter – he’s shooting just 8.7 percent since the most recent lockout – but finding players who can average 20 goals a season isn’t easy, either. This is a guy who can slot in on most third lines to provide some depth scoring and play the power play. He is always undervalued in fantasy hockey thanks to where he’s usually playing.

11. Unless Evgeny Kuznetsov gets those coveted top power-play minutes, he might not reach the fantasy heights that Nicklas Backstrom consistently has. Also, even if Justin Williams (Hurricanes) left via free agency, he’s a right-shooting winger who often plays the net-front on the PP.

Kuznetsov is a left-shooting centre who is more, at least in what he’s shown to this point of his career, to be more of a distributor. He could take Marcus Johansson’s spot – and probably should – but until he does, it will be hard for him to reach his fantasy potential year after year. He might be the next Nicklas Backstrom, it’s just unfortunate for his fantasy owners that he plays on a team that has the actual Nicklas Backstrom.

12. US college free agent and Edmonton native Spencer Foo has made his decision. Naturally, it’s Calgary. If you’re not familiar with Foo, he scored 62 points (26g-36a) in just 38 games with Union College this past season. The Flames have a need on the right side, so Foo seems to be a great fit on the Flames. There’s some fantasy upside here.

13. Brian Elliott, now with Flyers, is capable of stringing together amazing stretches but always seems to fall apart or get injured. Additionally, the veteran appears best suited to being a 40-game starter, or at least that's the role he's played himself into.

14. Pierre-Luc Dubois has an interesting summer ahead. The Blue Jackets are in win-now mode and Dubois isn't eligible to play in the AHL. He'll need to make the roster and stick or return to the QMJHL. After posting 22 points through 19 playoff games this spring, there probably isn't a lot left to prove at that level, and he owns the size to play a bottom-six role and hold his own.

Of course, the Blue Jackets have a deep offensive attack and Dubois could earn the third-line center gig and face soft even-strength matchups. Brandon Dubinsky projects to continue lining up opposite the opponent's best players, while Alexander Wennberg should receive plenty of attention from opposing defenses.

There is a decent chance that Dubois has a solid rookie campaign, albeit likely not a relevant fantasy showing for most settings.

15. At this stage of his career, Patrick Sharp offers little fantasy upside and he's probably not even a top-six option for most teams.

The 35-year-old veteran posted an underwhelming 1.59 points per 60 minutes at five-on-five through the past three seasons with just 44 goals over 192 games. Perhaps, getting the band back together in Chicago will help Sharp and he would likely be extended tenure in a top-six gig because of past production. But it's a tough sell for me. Allowing someone else to buy into the potential of a rebound showing in an age-36 season is advised.

16. It’s difficult to imagine Patrick Kane not being an elite fantasy option under almost any pretext. He has 195 points in his last 163 regular season games, after all. He did, however, lose his running mate in Artemi Panarin. I won’t argue that Kane made Panarin better but I also think it’s fair to say Panarin helped Kane a lot as well; the American’s two best point-per-game seasons (outside of the lockout year) were the two years he played mostly with Panarin as his left winger.

Chicago’s final roster is far from set but it seems likely that Brandon Saad goes back to join Jonathan Toews. Without another significant scoring threat added – which they can’t do thanks to their cap situation – Kane will be asked to single-handedly carry a line offensively. He can do that but I think it’s more reasonable to expect somewhere in the 80-point range than the 90-point range.

17. It has been years – several of them – since Mike Smith had any real fantasy relevance. Sure, he’s been used as a spot starter or used in deeper formats. For five straight years, however, he never had a save percentage above .916, a goals against average under 2.50, or cracked the 30-win mark. Playing on a perennial non-playoff team will do that to a goalie.

I am no fan of Smith and his talent but his individual situation has improved drastically. Arizona has improved in the offseason so far, but Calgary was one of the top defensive teams in the NHL at five-on-five last year and the addition of Travis Hamonic should only help them even more in this regard.

Again, asking Smith to be even league average may be asking too much. This will be all on him, however; the team in front of him is very good, and considerably better than the team he came from.

18. Since the trade of Keith Yandle, it’s been the OEL show in the desert. Normally, that’d be a good thing for fantasy purposes but Oliver Ekman-Larsson was asked to do everything, all the time, on a team that has been among the worst in the NHL.

Niklas Hjalmarsson coming in means one of two things: he gets a partner he can rely on defensively, or he gets a guy playing on another pair that can take away some of the tougher minutes. Not all of the tough minutes; I imagine Arizona still wants OEL up against some of the top competition. At least, now, they have someone else who is actually capable of doing it.

There were some personal issues likely playing into his lackluster fantasy performance last year, along with a broken hand. With reinforcements in town, and last year behind him, this should be a rebound season for Ekman-Larsson in fantasy leagues.

19. With the Entry Draft and the trades taking up most of the headlines, the Anaheim Ducks re-signing Patrick Eaves went by without much fanfare. He was re-upped by the team that traded for him for three more years with an average annual value of $3.15 million per season. Eaves turned 33 years old in May.

By now, teams should probably be smarter than this. How many more times can a career role player have an out-of-nowhere monster season that he is then overpaid for? David Clarkson, Dave Bolland, Justin Abdelkader, and Matt Beleskey, to name a few, fit this ideal. Add Eaves to the list.

This isn’t to say that Eaves is a bad player. But cap space is an asset (just ask Chicago or Los Angeles) and overpaying guys that should be playing in your bottom-six restricts a team’s flexibility. Overpaying and giving them term, even more so.

This also isn’t to say that he can’t be a worthwhile fantasy asset on this team, either. After the trade away from Dallas, he spent most of his time playing with Ryan Getzlaf, one of the premier pivots in the NHL. If Eaves keeps up his shot rate from last year – which was way out of line from recent years but more in line with what he did earlier in his career in a smaller role – then there is no reason he can’t be a 20-goal player next year.

20. Jason Botterill continues to re-tool the Buffalo blue line, as the Sabres GM traded away Marcus Foligno, Tyler Ennis, and a third-round pick in 2018 to Minnesota for Marco Scandella, Jason Pominville, and a fourth-round pick in 2018.

I want to focus on Scandella. Though probably not a top-pairing guy, he is a capable second-pairing player and has shown in previous seasons the ability to produce at a level commensurate with other productive blue liners when given the opportunity. Though he won’t be taking over the top power-play unit I don’t think, this is another addition that may eat into the total minutes of Rasmus Ristolainen.

Have a good week, folks!!