Rambling about Kane, Kessel, Ottawa goaltending, Philly's blue line, another freebie given away in my Guide , and more…

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It was reported a couple of months ago that Arizona prospect goalie Louis Domingue would play the upcoming season in Europe because he looked pretty good in seven games for the 'Yotes late last season. Also, Anders Lindback sucks. Really, really sucks. So there was a fairly decent chance that he would be backup by January. Well, apparently Domingue changed his mind. He signed a one-year deal with the big club.

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Columbus have extended a couple of training camp invites. Antti Pihlstrom, a 30-year-old who once played a season for the Preds, got an invite after finishing fifth in team scoring for Salavat of the KHL last year with 28 points in 60 games. Teammates finishing ahead of him include former NHL prospects Kirill Koltsov, Teemu Hartikainen and Alexei Kaigorodov, while current Edmonton prospect Anton Slepyshev finished three points behind him. Anyway, Pihlstrom is a long shot and even if he makes the team he holds little fantasy upside. Not even worth rambling about here, but on September 7 what else is there?

Camps open around September 17. So 10 days away from the big news.

Columbus also invited James Sheppard to training camp. You know all about him, but he could certainly snag a spot. And if he does, it would obviously reduce the chances of forward prospects making the squad. Such as Kerby Rychel and Sonny Milano, for example.

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If you believe that having a substance abuse problem will bring down the level of player for a player and if you also believe that the player can come back from that and return to form after receiving treatment, then you may find this interesting. Devin Setoguchi is interviewed and he admits that partway into last season he entered rehab. He's now five months sober and in good shape.

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Speaking of good shape, did you catch this a couple of days ago? Phil Kessel is down 13 points after working with Gary Roberts this summer. Leaf fans are wondering why he didn't do that in the first place. But what I wonder is – if he's a star who never gets hurt and plays 82 games, should he mess with things? After watching him score 35 goals per year for the Leafs, if I'm the Pittsburgh GM not only do I not want him to work out that hard – but I'd offer to have his hot dogs delivered. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Now watch Kessel get hurt this season. The theory is ass-backwards, I admit. But I get a little anxious shaking things up when they're working.

Phil Kessel last year: "I skated maybe 10 times all summer"…

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Those of you who saw this Dan Cleary signing you have nothing to worry about. He'll be sent to the AHL – for sure clear waivers – and get paid his $950,000 salary as an AHLer. He gets to play the game he loves for great money, and still hope to get called up for a game or two at some point.  He's 62 games shy of 1000 in the NHL. Loyalty to a player – and young players in the organization see the gesture and remember it.

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Chris Phillips suffered a setback in his rehab from surgery on his back that he had in April. He cracked a disc in his back and is likely out until January or beyond. I didn't have him playing more than 40 games anyway, but the news certainly improves the odds that Chris Wideman gets on.

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Flyers fans are trying to buy the Penguins using the gofundme website. Proceeds, if they fall short, will go to the Flyers Wives charity. They're at $1249 so far, and are targeting $750 million – almost there! Here is what they do once they owned the team:

– Painting the entire inside of the arena Orange and Black

– Putting a giant photo of Claude Giroux on the outside of the building, facing the highway

– Repainting the parking lots stripes orange, with a Flyers logo in each spot

– Using colored thread to impose a beach ball in the net behind Fleury

– Make a wall of fame in the concourse with photos of our top donators

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The Blackhawks have like $200 grand in cap space and still have Marcus Kruger to sign. And the Patrick Kane situation isn't helping. That's $10 million in cap space that could be freed up in a trade or suspension. The Kane case will be headed to a grand jury, according to reports, and I just went from 99% certain Kane would still play this full season with Chicago…down to about 80%.

The Kane situation has always been serious. But I had assumed that it would be (unjustly or no) buried thanks to the ol' "payola".

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The Ottawa centers "most set position"? Goaltending, according to Garrioch. And also according to Dobber. Because I agree with him. The quote:

If the club is going to make the playoffs this spring they'll do so with a healthy Anderson. He was strong when he took over in the playoffs and has shown in the past he has all the tools to help the club win. The Senators had a decision to make with Hammond. The Hamburgler had a brilliant 23-4-4 record in the run to the post-season and the Senators didn't just want to walk away from him. They feel he'll be able to push Anderson and can certainly play as much as 20 games if not more if necessary.

In the Fantasy Guide I have Hammond playing 38 games – but that's due to Anderson's fragility and certainly not because he will steal any starts.

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If you haven't bought my 10th annual Guide yet, you can still take advantage of the Draft Kings offer. Basically you click this link. Then you sign up at Draft Kings and deposit $10 (takes 2-3 minutes). The end. Then Draft Kings sends me a report twice per day. Your email will be on your report. So I copy your email to my clipboard, call up your account in the DobberHockey back end, and then I give you a free Ultimate Fantasy Pack. You can then go to your downloads and download the Guide, the Prospects Report, the Draft List and – later on – the Midseason Guide and Playoff List. Real simple.

One note about the above – make sure you have a DobberHockey account! The forum is NOT DobberHockey, make sure you are registered at DobberHockey. Otherwise I have nowhere to drop your downloads in.

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While I'm talking about my Guide, here is some BIG news for you. Remember last year when Rob Vollman released a $4.99 Historical Points Projection piece? It takes each player and based on age and recent stats, he lists comparable players in history, adjusted for the era, and spits out a projection. Well he has this out again, this time teaming up with fellow stats guy Matt Cane – and I'm offering this to you FREE with the Fantasy Guide purchase. If you bought the Fantasy Guide, turn to page 151 to get the coupon code. Then come back to the shop and add to your cart, using the coupon code to get it for free.

Man, if you do the Draft Kings deal and you use these coupon codes that are in the Guide, you basically get – Fantasy Guide, Draft List, Prospects Report, Midseason Guide, Playoff Draft List, Football Cheat Sheets and Historical Player Projections – all for just $10! And there is another coupon code in there for the Geek Draft Kit that gives you that awesome tool for just $8.

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If I can provide one final shameless plug – I am 100% sold on that Geek Draft Kit. Seriously. I've used it four times now and I won three of them and finished second by a mere six points the other time. If my league has multiple categories, then you're damn right I'm using the Geek Draft Kit.

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Lots of questions about the Flyers defensemen from fantasy owners. After all, this team boasts the best crop of prospect blueliners in the league. They have Sam Morin, Shayne Gostisbehere, Ivan Provorov, Robert Hagg and Travis Sanheim – all future studs. But because Radko Gudas is back from injury and the team added KHL free agent Evgeni Medvedev, there's just no room. And minor leaguer Brandon Manning has probably earned a few call-ups too. I think you'll see Gostisbehere play a dozen games or so this season, and next year Morin and Gost will be regulars. At some point, you may see one of the five traded, because Provorov is only a year or two away and Hagg/Sanheim aren't going to take too long either.

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This was a nice gesture by the Leafs, who basically got nothing back from a prospect – but helped him out because he was in a bit of a jam in terms of where he could play this season.

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Interesting stat – the Hurricanes were 20-19-7 with Jordan Staal in the lineup last year, but 10-22-4 without him.

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A very important announcement from Henrik Lundqvist…