Not sure where to put this so figured I\'d stick it here.

Entering any NHL season there always some players that really have me wondering. Guys who I might not care about under normal circumstances but for some reason have caught my attention and will garner a bit of a closer watch from me as the season goes along.

1) Brent Burns - Very few people are giving this guy the credit he deserves. Having watched him play at the end of the season I can\'t help but think that he\'s going to really really breakout this year. The problem is I can\'t figure out why I think that. Yeah he\'ll get the top powerplay time and big minutes and he should benefit from a healthy Gaborik but really I have no overriding reason to think he\'s going to be as good as I feel he will be. I think he\'ll at least be this year\'s Kevin Bieksa in terms of surprise - though with less PIMs and more points.

2) Antoine Vermette - I\'ve never quite figured out why this guy doesn\'t get the respect he deserves on the Ottawa Senators. He has speed, he has some moderate dangling abilities and the name Antoine is sort of cool to boot. The guy just NEEDS to be stuck on the first line for a while and I think he\'ll really shine. Chances are though he\'ll just look good while scoring 25 goals on whatever random line he ends up on.

3) Dustin Penner - I admit that I am going to be watching this guy quite closely to see if he\'s just suffering from the post Cup hangover or if he is experiencing the \"chaching\" contract blues. He\'s looked mediocre at best in the preseason, and two giant egos are riding on the back of this guy\'s jersey (Lowe\'s and Burke\'s) Did Penner experience his career high for goals last year and will Edmonton fans run him out of town like they did Lupul (and MA Bergeron, and Cory Cross and Tom Poti...) My guess is Penner has a decent year but doesn\'t pot 30+ and Edmontonians shred him to pieces.

I feel ya on those. I think Penner will be fine but I don\'t know what to make of the other two.

for me I\'ll throw out a few.

1. Hlinka- Superstar European bringing it here???
2. V. Kozlov- Maximize his ability this year?
3. Hiller- Top European tender who is still very young. Backstrom 2007?
4. Nilsson- Another Enigma or just a guy who needs a solid shot?
5. Carcillo- Biggest PIM/Scoring youngster in fantasy? Or bust?

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08-09 (Before Ownership): DHL Stars
Fisher, Fehr, Hagman, Stoll, Dubinsky, Zubrus, Brule, Boyd, Stempniak, Bergeron, HIggins, Nylander, Langkow, Bourque, Burrows, Pyatt, Crombeen, Hunwick Ohlund, Salo, Bergeron, Thomas, Quick, Ersberg, LaBarbera, Raycroft

12-13 (Present): DHL Capitals
Heatley, Semin, Vanek, Roy, Ribeiro, Kessel, Couture, Turris, Kopitar, Marleau, Hossa, Pominville, Conacher, Nyquist, Silfverberg, Rajala, Arcobello, Karlsson, Green, Enstrom, Wisniewski, Ellis, Elliott, Murphy, Brennan, Benoit, Fleury, Bryzgalov, Elliott, Nabakov, Lehner

Hour by hour I am intrigued by a different guy for different reasons\"

Bertuzzi has had me wondering for a while though.

Few others are Kovalev, Oulett, Denis, Berard.

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Yahoo weekly starts 12 team league, keep 17 plus farm

GS, W, L, SV, GAA, SV%, SO G, A, P, +/-, PIM, SOG, GWG, PPP, SHP, HITS, FOW

3C: H. Sedin,Stepan, Stastny, R. Johansen, Hanzal, Anisimov,
3LW: Burrows, Vanek, Ott, Lupul, Dubinsky
3RW: Doan, Pavelski, Brown, Okposo,
6D: Franson, Doughty, Voynov, Subban, Markov, Gonchar, Karlsson
1Util:
2G: Price, Emery


Farm: (< 100 games): S. Elliott, J. Bernier, Galchenyuk, Etem, Eakin, Atkinson

on my HFboards.com thread, I have Vermette and Burns as my top two sleepers.

My thread there has over 190,000 views, and I hope as directed a lot of fans to this site!

Burns is going to be a BEAST at both ends of the ice. The Wild were reluctant to keep him at defense, but he has been outstanding all pre-season.

Vermette too. The hands are catching up to the skating speed.

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Hmmm I finally joined HF Boards today in celebration of the Edmonton Oilers season opener. I only skim by the Oiler boards though for some completely unbiased Oiler reporting....hah.

Glad to hear someone else shares my thoughts on Burns, I am expecting big things from him.