The Fantasy Guide was released LAST WEEK!

As you know, this Guide gets updated throughout the offseason. More frequently as training camp opens. But rest assured, you will get up to the minute info. Just re-download it as needed! An update was done on Sunday, albeit a minor one.

Those of you who live in the Toronto area, the Vancouver area or the Calgary area and listen to the FAN sports radio, be on the lookout for the DobberHockey advertisement! This will be a first for me. The promo will run for the next six weeks. I’ve heard the ads and they sound great. The secret is out!

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Quebecers, and in fact most Canadians, perked up last week with the news that Arizona has to be out of their arena after this season. The hope is that Quebec City gets their team back. As much as I'd love to see that, I think the odds are slim. Slimmer than slim. Like 1% slim. Historically, Gary Bettman has clung to keeping teams in place. If he thinks they have any chance at all, they're staying. Stability is top priority for him. He also loves the dynamic of the divisions. The distribution of the team geography. Everything fits perfectly. He'll fight tooth and nail to make it work. If he thinks there is no chance it will work, then he'll pull the plug early – like he did with Atlanta. But we know his feelings on Arizona. The team was dead in the water a couple of times over the years and each time that happened he performed mouth-to-mouth and brought out the defibrillator. Bettman has been loyal to his NHL cities, be it Nashville, Arizona or Florida. There was once, back in 2007, pre-sold season tickets for Hamilton that outsold Nashville's season ticket base and yet he still kept the team in place (and subsequently blackballed Jim Balsillie from all things NHL). So no, this team is not going to Quebec.

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Stop being impatient when it comes to trading Jack Eichel. Buffalo fans, of all people, should be praying – praying! – for the trade stalemate to drag on well into December. Even if it means him sitting. The longer this goes, the better the return.

Dynasty owners of Jack Eichel and Vladimir Tarasenko need to hold tight. No panic trades. Hang in there. A time will arrive when their trade value will be high. That time is not now. I own Tarasenko in one league – and it's the waiting game. I went through this before with Sidney Crosby and his massive concussion problems. Obviously waiting it out paid off. Talent is talent. At the very worst, the player becomes plagued by injuries similar to Peter Forsberg. But as you know, Forsberg certainly had his high-value seasons.

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Absolutely nothing on the Nikita Gusev front. My favorite fits for him, in order:

1. Arizona Coyotes – No depth, little scoring, terrible team. He'd be the best forward.
2. Buffalo Sabres – Similar to Arizona, but assuming Eichel is moved, Mittelstadt would be the best forward. Gusev would still get into the top six.
3. San Jose Sharks – Would knock Alexander Barabanov out of the top six. Would also act as a buffer in the event Evander Kane no longer plays for them.
4. Pittsburgh Penguins – He'd have to knock Jason Zucker or Kasperi Kapanen out of the top six, but if he can produce 20 points in 35 games to start, he would then finish the season alongside Evgeni Malkin.
5. Edmonton Oilers – I don't like this destination as much, as he'd likely play on the third line. But the thought of getting in a few shifts with Connor McDavid is pretty exciting.
6. Detroit Red Wings – Another third-line job here, but with injury-prone Robby Fabbri, Gusev would see top six ice at times.
7. Ottawa Senators – Again the third line – and this time there is no McDavid to tempt. But at least there is room and he'd get some ice time.
8. Columbus Blue Jackets – On one hand there is room for him. On the other hand, the players he would have to beat out are Gregory Hofmann or Emil Bemstrom. Quite doable, especially with Hofmann.

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I have this hunch, with absolutely no statistical backing for this whatsoever, that Oliver Ekman-Larsson regains his mojo in Vancouver. I don't think he was giving one hundred percent those last couple of seasons with Arizona. Or rather, he was, as all top athletes do. But not with any 'heart'. I don't think he was into it. And now I think he is. I can see the new-team adrenalin kicking in early on and even after that wears off 15 or 20 games in, he will still have a good year.

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I picked the Panthers to win the Cup this year. I am sure that raised a lot of eyebrows. But I don't want to be one of the millions who pick Tampa Bay again. I don't often re-pick defending champs because that's too obvious. And I don't want to pick the Leafs again, because I don't think I can stand the ridicule. So I went with this good, deep team that has all the elements to thrive.

If Florida does win, I also predict that Joe Thornton plays just five or six playoff games with lots of scratches. But he gets his Cup.

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Those who have been reading my work for a long time know that I am not one to bow to players demands. I'm pretty tough and rigid with regards to the business side of hockey. But with a player like Kirill Kaprizov, you gotta just give him a blank piece of paper and have him fill in what he thinks is fair. I think GM Bill Guerin will drag this on until training camp is three or four days away and then he gets it done.

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Travis Sanheim signed a two-year deal over the weekend worth $4.675 AAV. Here are two excerpts in my Fantasy Guide regarding my thoughts on Sanheim:

•             Sanheim and Provorov faced the toughest Quality of Competition. Along with Braun, they were the only defenseman to have more defensive zone starts than offensive, which obviously impacts ES production. Ellis got more offensive zone starts for Nashville and if York makes the team, he'll probably be sheltered. Ristolainen saw tough minutes and higher defensive zone starts, so he could provide relief, but it seems likely that Provorov/Sanheim/Braun see similar utilization.

•             Sanheim was an elite offensive defenseman in junior and quickly showed that he can be the same at the pro level. However, with one-dimensional defensemen on the roster, he was forced to play a shutdown role because those one-dimensional guys can't. Somewhere along the way, it became clear that he is fantastic defensively. So, now he's stuck. In much the same way Jacob Trouba is stuck in his role in New York, Sanheim is forced to shoulder the defensive workload and is mostly out of the power-play picture. His numbers will be stunted until some of these offensive options are out of his way.

And by "these offensive options" I refer to Keith Yandle. If the Flyers keep adding a Yandle or a Gostisbehere or a Gustafsson every season, Sanheim's offense will be forever dragged downward.

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I think the New York Islanders are waiting to trade Josh Bailey before announcing a flood of signings. At $11M in cap space plus another $6M in LTIR, I don't think they can fit in Anthony Beauvillier, Ilya Sorokin, Kiefer Bellows, Casey Cizikas, Zach Parise and Kyle Palmieri. They are probably about $3M shy and Bailey would free up $5M. I have a feeling that at least five of those contracts are already signed and we'll hear about them shortly after a trade is done.

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See you next Monday.