For the last 20 years (12 with The Hockey News) Dobber has reviewed each team from a fantasy-hockey standpoint and graded them.

The 21^st annual review will appear here on Dobber Hockey throughout the summer. This is not a review of the likely performance on the ice or in the standings, but in the realm of fantasy hockey both for the season ahead as well as the foreseeable future. Offensively, will the team perform? Are there plenty of depth options worthy of owning in keeper leagues? What about over the next two or three years? These questions are what I take into consideration when looking at the depth chart and the player potential on that depth chart.

Enjoy!

Be sure to pick up your copy of the 2023-24 Dobber Hockey Fantasy Guide.

Gone – Shayne Gostisbehere, Jakob Chychrun, Zack Kassian, Brett Ritchie, Patrik Nemeth, Christian Fischer, Laurent Dauphin, Connor Mackey

Incoming – Sean Durzi, Jason Zucker, Alex Kerfoot, John Leonard, Travis Dermott, Matt Dumba

Impact of Changes – The trades of Gostisbehere and Chychrun last season are the big subtractions from the lineup. Those two defencemen led the team in shot attempt rate with the man advantage over the first five months of the 2022-23 season. For reference, Chychrun's PP shot attempt rate was 84% higher than Clayton Keller's and 56% higher than Barrett Hayton's. Over the final several weeks of the campaign, without those two blue liners on the roster, Keller's PP shot rate rose while Juuso Välimäki took the lion's share of PP ice time among defencemen. Bringing in Durzi muddles Välimäki's PP role, though they'll run different looks based around the trio of Clayton Keller, Nick Schmaltz, and Barrett Hayton.

Durzi will push the other rearguards for PPTOI but like many others on the blue line, it's a one-year tryout to see who will be part of the future. He has very good puck skills, and that could help him maintain a primary PP role, but the rest of his game needs improvement and he's not assured more minutes with the Coyotes than the Kings. Dumba isn’t the power play guy he was 4-5 years ago and unless he changes his style, he’s unlikely to be in the running for top PP minutes. He will, however, eat into even strength ice time for younger guys like Durzi, Söderström, and their prospects.

Adding both Zucker and Kerfoot gives the team good, veteran second-line options, and that's not good news for guys like Lawson Crouse, Travis Boyd, and Matias Maccelli. One of Zucker or Maccelli will likely be on the third line when everyone’s healthy, and that's awful news for one of them. Depending on the power play formation, one (or both) of them could be off the top PP unit at all times, too.

Ready For Full Time – Logan Cooley, Dylan Guenther, Jan Jenik, Victor Söderström, Ivan Prosvetov

The muddled centre situation is because of Logan Cooley signing his entry-level deal at the end of July. He was expected to return to college for another season, but that changed over the summer. Cooley has the appearance of a high-end prospect and his inclusion on the roster would give them five centres they can reliably use (four if Boyd is moved to the wing).  Cooley might not get top billing out of the gate, but he has the skill to work himself to the top-6 in short order.

Söderström has played parts of three seasons now but has just 50 total NHL games to his credit. Arizona's blue line has been emptied and the keys turned over to the next generation. He should get a full season in the NHL for the first time but is unlikely to earn more than second-pair minutes unless he has a big breakout season, or injuries hit his teammates. He was third for PPTOI on Arizona's blue line after the Chychrun/Ghost trades, and they added Durzi.

Guenther's ELC started last year, and the team is thin right wing. Schmaltz is assured a top-line role but Guenther's upside could see him earn second-line minutes for most of the campaign. He is unlikely to get top PP billing, though, and playing away from the Keller/Schmaltz duo leaves him with less-than-ideal line mates.

Both Jan Jenik and Vladislav Kolyachonok are in the mix for a roster spot, but relying on either of them for a consistent fantasy-relevant role is a longshot. Keep them in mind for the second half, though.

Prosvetov might be the third goalie for Arizona but he's not exempt from waivers. He is either in the NHL or the team risks losing him elsewhere. He may get more starts than it appears at first blush.

Fantasy Outlook – Arizona's three goaltenders from 2022-23 return as Karel Vejmelka, Connor Ingram, and Ivan Prosvetov are all signed for at least one more year. Considering the quality of the team in front of them, Vejmelka and Ingram had good seasons a year ago, but not good fantasy seasons. Better team discipline would help: Arizona gave up 319 power plays, leading the NHL, and 23 more than the next-closest team. Arizona's PP goals against per minute was not among the league's worst like Vancouver or Anaheim, but the sheer volume of penalties meant the most PP goals against. More discipline could lower the goalies' goals against averages by a quarter goal, or more. How the defence fares over 82 games without their top stars remains to be seen.

Keller and Schmaltz remain the top offensive stars. Over the last two seasons, Keller has as many primary points at 5-on-5 (78) as Kirill Kaprizov while Schmaltz's primary points per 60 minutes (1.99) is higher than Jesper Bratt, Nikita Kucherov, Sebastian Aho, and William Nylander. Power-play production remains the final hurdle as Keller has averaged 17 PPPs/82 games in that span with Schmaltz at 13 PPPs/82 games. In a league where good producers are now regularly over 25 PPPs, they need to improve here to really hit their fantasy upsides. It seems unlikely that happens in 2023-24 but the NHL is full of surprises.

Crouse has back-to-back 20-goal seasons with at least 180 hits, hovering around two shots per game. His multi-cat reliability depends on ice time and if younger wingers eventually eat into that TOI, Crouse may not repeat his last couple campaigns. His hit rates should keep him viable in banger leagues.

Maccelli broke out in 2022-23 with a tremendous playmaking season, and not just for a rookie. Like Crouse, the offseason additions may eat into his role so expecting much more than what he paced for a year ago – roughly 15 goals and 50 points – is expecting too much. He has a bright future, as do a lot of the players on this roster, it's just not right now. Zucker is another winger that should eat into Maccelli's TOI, just beware of Zucker's hit total (197) from 2022-23. Pittsburgh had the highest home ice hit totals and was neck-and-neck with Tampa Bay for the by-far biggest home/away hit total differential. That kind of rink bias should make fantasy players wary of Zucker getting anywhere close to 2.5 hits per game again.

Hayton remains one of the most interesting players in fantasy. He played a lot on the top line a season ago and had a stretch with 36 points in 42 games which included 111 shots and 36 hits. The question is what his value becomes if he's not playing 19-20 minutes a night with Keller and Schmaltz.

Välimäki should get run on the top PP unit but it's a question of whether it's a 3F/2D setup alongside Durzi, or by himself. Durzi may even just take some top minutes of his own. The incumbent put up 22 points in his final 32 games last season with Chychrun/Ghost largely out of the picture, skating 22:35 a night. The team will employ a few different power play looks and that will make Välimäki inconsistent in the fantasy realm, even if he's consistently earning 22 minutes a night. The same could be said for Durzi, too, at lower ice-time levels.

Even with the two blue liners departing, there is more fantasy goodness here than this time a year ago. There's an entire top line worth drafting in most formats, some depth multi-cat forward options, and at least two defencemen worth grabbing. The desert is starting to develop into an offensive oasis, though it'll take a couple more years for the young core to really take the leap to persistent fantasy relevance. The goaltenders will struggle to provide consistent fantasy value until that happens, too.

Fantasy Grade – C+ (last year C-)

Check out the rest of the Dobber team previews here.