The 18^th annual Fantasy Guide will be released on Friday, July 28. That's right – less than three weeks. I've already analyzed, written and projected five teams.

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So Twitter did a thing last week. More specifically, Elon Musk. A lot of people are leaving Twitter, but for now it seems as if most people are just looking into other options – just in case everything implodes there. Count me as one of them – you can find my on Instagram Threads as @DobberHockey. I will run both accounts until things calm down and everybody settles on one.

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The Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci decisions are again causing havoc on my Guide analysis. Obviously adding those two players pretty much changes everything. Right now, Zacha is looking very good as a first-line center who recently hit is BT mark (at the midpoint of last year, after which he got 32 points in 40 games).

One thing I discovered (of many) during my analysis – when Krejci was out of the lineup for 12 games, both Pastrnak and Zacha actually produced at a better rate than when he was in the lineup.

Under the lineup as is, AJ Greer plays a bigger role and becomes a decent multi-category option. With the two veterans in the lineup, he gets pushed back by the wayside.

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Buffalo signing Erik Johnson is an underrated. Yes, EJ is a Band-aid Boy and his best days are behind him, but I have production increasing as he pairs with Rasmus Dahlin. This pushes Mattias Samuelsson to his proper side and allows the Sabres to role out three very good defense pairings. It will make the goaltending a little better.

I know everyone loves Devon Levi, and I do too, but he's going to play most of this year in the AHL. The Sabres have Eric Comrie signed for another year and U-P Luukkonen is also signed. Both of their contracts are low enough to be buried in the minors, but both goalies will play well enough to stick with the Sabres. This allows Levi some time, free from pressure, to dominate the AHL. Because Luukkonen is very injury prone, and Comrie also somewhat injury prone, there is little doubt we will see Levi getting called up a couple of times. There is less pressure to perform when you're called up in that situation, as opposed to be thrust straight into the role of "the guy". This will be good for Levi and depending on how he does this year in the AHL and NHL, he should be up with the Sabres in 2024-25. The better of Luukkonen versus Comrie will share the net with Levi at that time.

The Sabres experimented with their modern-day Legion of Doom line when they acquired 6-6 Jordan Greenway and put him on a line with 6-7 Tage Thompson and 6-3 Dylan Cozens. I wonder if they try that again, but with Alex Tuch (6-4) instead of Cozens. Can you imagine if that worked? Greenway's numbers would surge, and Jeff Skinner's numbers would drop off.

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I like Yegor Sharangovich's odds of playing with either Elias Lindholm or Jonathan Huberdeau or both. But I still don't believe that will push his production to the next level. If Jack Hughes couldn't get him there, then neither would Huberdeau.

With Darryl Sutter out of the way, I like Jakob Pelletier's potential this season. A lot.

As long as Daniel Vladar remains with Calgary, I see an end result where his workload and Dustin Wolf's end very similar. But if they can move Vladar before the season begins, then Wolf begins the season as the backup, and gradually seizes the top job by the second half of the season.

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A lot of rumors about Vladimir Tarasenko going to Ottawa. Not one rumor of him going to Chicago, which is where I would want to go if I was him. A one-year deal to play with Connor Bedard and add 20 points to my stats? Yes please. Potential numbers like that, entering a summer that sees the salary cap go up by $5 million, he could easily parlay that into a multi-year deal at a much bigger AAV than anything he signs right now. Ottawa has a good team with real promising offense, but Tarasenko would just be another fish in the pond, and he would up similar numbers to last season.

Chicago obviously showing no interest because they feel they have what they need to surround Bedard. But if I'm them, I secure a Plan B in case Taylor Hall gets injured (happens a lot), or doesn't do as well as they think (as was the case with the Sabres when they got him to play with Jack Eichel).

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I really like how Carolina's lines fit if they move Martin Necas back to center as opposed to keeping him on the wing. With Andrei Svechnikov back healthy and with Michael Bunting in the fold, there are enough top six wingers. Here is how I have the lines:

Teuvo Teravainen – Sebastian Aho – Seth Jarvis

Bunting – Necas – Svechnikov

Jack Drury – Jesperi Kotkaniemi – Stefan Noesen

Jordan Martinook – Jordan Staal – Jesper Fast

If Rod Brind'Amour feels that Kotkaniemi is ready to be a second-line center (he had a strong second half), then perhaps Necas remains a winger and bumps Teravainen to the third line. Drury is a decent center who can then center Teravainen and Noesen. But those are two likeliest ways that this will go.

I wasn't surprised when the Hurricanes re-signed one of their goalies from last year. I was very surprised when they re-signed both of their goalies from last year. But Pyotr Kochetkov did not have a strong finish to his season and his one playoff appearance for Carolina was a train wreck. At one point last season, they were talking "Calder Trophy" for this guy. Now he won't even be in the NHL to start 2023-24. He is still exempt from waivers.

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Would you be interested in the NHL doing this? https://t.co/2qXBKdNMSe

— Dobber (@DobberHockey) July 9, 2023

Lots of feedback on this, with probably just over half of it negative. But a lot of open-minded people gave it fair thought. Here's the gist of it:

The NBA is using a portion of their regular season schedule to have an in-season tournament. From November 3 to December 3, all teams play within their group, regular season games that count towards this tournament. The quarter finals are on December 3 and 4, where the winners of each group plus a wild card, will play. The winners of those, play in the semis. And the winners of those will play in the Final. All of these games count towards the regular season, except the Championship Final. The winner of the Final gets the "NBA Cup", and prizes are awarded to the winning team and the tournament all-stars.

My first thought was that this was just making things too complicated, it's an annoying money grab, and no way I would want this. My first question was – how are they going to include four quarter-final games and two semi-final games as regular season games? That would give four teams two extra games over the 22 teams that didn't make the quarters.

The above question is explained in their tournament rules page. The 22 teams will play on days when the In-Season Tournament games are not on, and get their games in that way via a formulaic approach.

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I gave this new initiative a full day to digest. A lot of the vitriol from hockey fans on this idea was 100% knee-jerk, and I think something huge like this deserves a day to relax, open your mind, and let it sink in. And I've come around. If they're playing regular season games anyway, why not have it mean something in December? It adds quite a jolt to the regular season, just when the start of the season excitement has worn off and the playoff fever hasn't hit yet.

For Fantasy Basketball purposes, that Championship Final doesn't count towards your season totals, but the other games do. Fantasy Hockey would be the same.

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I'm looking at the Player Usage Chart for the #Penguins last year and they had no (effective) assigned checking line or shutdown D. They seemed to be just throwing anything at the wall.

Dubas has added Acciari, Nieto, Eller.. and then Graves for D. Addressing that very issue pic.twitter.com/HGxSX9Qs5V

— Dobber (@DobberHockey) July 6, 2023

Dubas has since added Vinnie Hinostroza, a former Dobber Darling and still an analytics darling (right up Dubas's alley) and Andreas Johnsson, whom Dubas knows well from his Leafs' days. But I think in both cases, these are depth signings – great injury replacements if needed.

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Also, we are now set up to give you text notifications whenever we release a new player rankings (about eight of them each month), as well as a notification about the Fantasy Guide when it is released and/or updated. Sign up here and you will also be entered into a draw to win an Ultimate Fantasy Pack (or your UFP refunded).

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See you next Monday.