The Fantasy Guide is out August 14, which is a very fast turnaround (fastest ever). Since I can't project anything until tomorrow after the free agent craziness starts dying down and rosters begin to take shape. All I could do in advance was study and analyze last season. Pounding at this to make sure it gets done by that August 14 date, we're talking 65-plus hours per week and frankly I'm pumped to successfully complete that accomplishment!

By the way, I just re-uploaded an update for the Fantasy Prospects Report. In it, I put in all the teams for the draftees and when they were taken – with links for easy navigation. Simply re-upload the FPR to get the updated version.

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I am pinch-hitting for Alex MacLean today because on the weekend he and his wife had their first child, a healthy baby girl! Congrats to the MacLean family. Alex got a great deal here – a long-term contract at a perfect AAV that is sure to bring him years of glory 😉

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With all the activity of the past two weeks, plus free agency starting today, chances are many of you have questions about your fantasy team or players in general.  If so, you can submit them for Rick Roos’ monthly mailbag, which is set to run a week from today, and where he has room for a couple more questions.  To submit your question to him either private message “rizzeedizzee” in the Forums or send an email to [email protected] with “Roos Mailbag” in the subject line.

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FREE AGENT FRENZY!

It feels like normalcy started to creep back in on Friday with the NHL Draft. Only "started" because it was still being done remotely. Today, however… today it feels right! FA Frenzy – the buildup, the action, the day itself feels like any other FAF. We're back baby! Cliffy and I will be breaking down all the signings today so keep DobberHockey open on one of your tabs. Follow me on Twitter for links to my breakdowns as they are posted.

I'll also update the below with the minor signings that have little fantasy impact, and if I get time I'll also leave a quick thought about each one.

We’ll kick things off with the top one, so not a minor signing, but he is staying put – Gabriel Landeskog has re-signed with Colorado. Eight years at $7M per year.

Sam Gagner has re-signed with Detroit for one year.

It looks like Eric Comrie will be Winnipeg’s backup – a one-year, one-way deal.

Brandon Montour stays with Florida for three years ($10.5M)

Max Mamin signs a one-year contract with Florida. After two years in the KHL the 26-year-old is ready to return to the NHL. He’s 6-2, 209 and he had 63 points in 106 KHL games the last two seasons. Our scouting page on Mamin here.

Alec Martinez is staying in Vegas on a three-year deal. He’ll be 37 when this deal is up.

Jordan Martinook stays in Carolina for three years.

Nick Bonino to SJS for two years. Andrew Cogliano there for one year. For some reason this team is adding role players to gear up for the playoffs that they’ll never see.

Montreal sign Cedric Paquette (one year), David Savard (four years) and Louis Belpedio (one year, two-way).

Zach Bogosian returns to Tampa Bay on a three-year (!) deal.

Derek Forbort signs a one-year deal with Boston

Boone Jenner re-signs with Columbus for four years and $15M

Laurent Brossoit has signed a two-year deal – he will be Vegas Golden Knights backup goalie!

Edmonton adds Cody Ceci on a four-year deal

Dallas has signed Luke Glendening to a two-year contract.

Travis Hamonic re-signs for two years in Vancouver.

Evan Rodrigues a one-year deal to stay in Pittsburgh.

Andreas Athanasiou has re-signed with the Kings for a whopping $2.7M

Nate Thompson joins the Flyers for one year.

Chris Wideman comes back to the NHL, joining Montreal for one year.

Patrik Nemeth to the Rangers on a three-year deal at $2.5M AAV

Tucker Poolman signs a four-year (!) contract with Vancouver at a $2.5M AAV

Luke Schenn to Vancouver for two years.

Charles Hudon has signed with Tampa Bay to a two-way deal for one year.

Josh Leivo has signed with Carolina for one year.

Ottawa has signed Michael Del Zotto to a two-year deal.

Ian Cole signs with Carolina for one year.

Adam Clendening a two-way deal with the Flyers.

Greg McKegg (a leg for an arm and an arm for a leg) has re-signed with the Rangers. The Rangers also signed Dryden Hunt to a two-year contract.

Calgary signs Trevor Lewis to a one-year contract

Jujhar Khaira signs with Chicago for two years at just under $1M AAV

Whoa – the Lightning did it again. Brayden Point signs an eight-year extension worth $9.5M AAV!

Liam O’Brien signs a one-year deal with Arizona (two-way)

Toronto has given Josh Ho-Sang a tryout contract. He’ll come to camp for a shot at an NHL job. He apparently hasn’t seen the luck of other fringe players “trying out” with Toronto. The team is deep, and unproven players do not get a chance. At all. He should give Nic Petan a call. Or Barabanov. Or Travis Boyd. Or Denis Malgin. Etc.

Garrett Sparks has signed on with the Kings to be their No.3 goalie

Ottawa signs career minor leaguer Andrew Agozzino

Toronto adds more depth on defense by signing Carl Dahlstrom and Alex Biega

Detroit signs Jordan Oesterle

Vancouver has signed Brad Hunt to a one-year deal

Mattias Janmark has elected to stay in Vegas for another year at $2M

More to come here…

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Restricted Free Agents of Note, not qualified and thus are now Unrestricted Free Agents

Danton Heinen – I expected his breakout last year ("breakout" being a relative term of, say, high 50s for production pace). Instead, he was terrible. He was also used defensively, which comes with the territory when Jakob Silfverberg is on your line. As a complementary player he could surprise on a new team.

Ondrej Kase – Kase had potential, but the guy can't stay healthy. At all. I wouldn't have re-signed him either. Any contract he signs should have games-played bonuses, with the base at close to the minimum.

Nick Ritchie – As a big power forward who just turned 25, his hot start of 14 points in his first 16 games to felt like it was right on time. When you draft a forward of that size at the age of 18 in your fantasy league, you have to expect a seven-year wait for most of them. Or close to it. I can't stress this enough. You see it with Jesse Puljujarvi (this year we may finally see it after five years) and frankly I think you'll end up seeing it with Kirby Dach. But I digress. Ritchie hit a wall and managed just 12 points in 40 games the rest of the way and made himself less valuable. I still won't write him off as he still has not played that 400-game BT (Breakout Threshold) that we need power forwards to reach (he's at 350).

Pius Suter – Just $1.8M needed to qualify him, but he would have had arbitration rights and would have been content to wait for the lawyers to decide. He put up good numbers, and the arbitrator would look at salary comparables to determine his award. But… those comparables were pre-pandemic! So the Hawks would have been hit with a big number. Suter had 27 points in 55 games in his first year, plus pretty good advanced possession stats. I think he was looking at an award that approached $3M or a little more. But then they turn around and replace his spot with the higher-paid, albeit more experienced Tyler Johnson. Unless Johnson turns back the clock four years to when he was a top player, this is at best a sideways move for more dollars.

Adam Gaudette (later signed for less) – I wanted to comment here. Basically this Tweet says it all:

I figured we'd see this. I found it odd when he wasn't qualified, but often you will find the player not qualified – and then get signed at a lesser number.
Bottom players get nickel-and-dimed while the stars continue to cash in. https://t.co/djTvNy6DWm

— Dobber (@DobberHockey) July 27, 2021

So Gaudette makes $1M instead of $1.6M. So that his "teammate" Seth Jones can make $9.5M instead of $8.9M. And yes, I know Jones' contract doesn't begin until the following year so this isn't technically true, but the point remains the same. It may not be Gaudette's contract doing this, but it's someone else given similar treatment last year. These are the players getting screwed so that the stars can make their money. And the agents enable this. /rant

Adam Werner – A solid prospect goalie with great size. Unbelievable that the Avs let him go like that.

Evgeny Svechnikov – could never really reach his potential as a pro, and as soon as he seemed to get going he would get hurt again. Given this year's trend towards uniting brothers, it would be nice to see him go to Carolina.

Lucas Wallmark – Here we go again with this guy.

Michael Dal Colle

Mark Jankowski – Such high hopes, but never panned out. These big forwards take longer to come into their own, but some of them take TOO long.

Ryan Donato – Not sure what he's doing behind the scenes that makes him so unwanted. Sure, Donato is inconsistent, but so are most young players. Now 25, he's not so young. His next team will show even less patience.

Ryan Merkley – They just traded for him and then didn't qualify him. Meanwhile, he's a solid prospect who showed very well during his brief NHL tenure. Not sure what they are thinking here. To qualify him would have been just $1.2M.

Nic Petan – Buried in the system until his NHL opportunity was completely dead. And then, just to make sure, the Leafs gave him a few boot stomps. This one is a real shame. If you're 5-9, you have to be elite because merely "good" isn't enough to get a fair shot in the NHL.

Veini Vehvilainen – The Leafs made a savvy acquisition to get him during the season, but I guess they didn't like what they saw. He showed promise early on as a prospect but has fallen off or stagnated.

Jayce Hawryluk – I've always liked him as a multi-category fantasy prospect. To me he hasn't done anything wrong, he's just gotten some injuries at some bad times. Still deserves another chance.

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Tuesday's Buyouts

Braden Holtby – I said well in advance that whichever team signed Holtby would be disappointed and probably buy him out. Later, when he actually signed a contract, I was surprised at how low it was for. Much lower than I expected. And yet he was still so bad that he was bought out.

James Neal – We all knew this one wasn't going to work out the moment a team put pen to paper with him.

Martin Jones – We've been waiting a couple of years for this one.

All three of these veterans are now unrestricted free agents. I suspect all three will sign somewhere for very cheap. And I suspect all three will still disappoint. If I had to pick one to do "okay" for his team it would be Jones, as maybe a decent backup.

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See you Monday.