Old work-horses:

Wow a total of one overwhelming single game in national TV next season for the Panthers! Its party time for us Panthers fans! We are speaking of an increase of 100%!

Talking about going unnoticed most of the time, while i was checking the previews about the Panthers on different reports on how the lineup will look next season, Im confused how professional writers from serious hockey magazines be that far off from reality or flat out uninformed.
Seeing Jack (No)Skill(e) ranked as the first RW in one preseason guide, Shawn Matthias listed as the second line center in the next and Evgeni Dadonov not even listed in another one made me throw up a little.

But oh well, while i cant hand you the set in stone new lineup yet (i don´t even think Dineen has solved that puzzle yet), i think i can at least help you to avoid common mistakes about the prediction on the brand new Panthers and analyze the rest of the team step by step.

You guys asked about what to expect from two of the old faces that are now need to get used to play with a complete set of new teammates in David Booth and Stephen Weiss.


Stephen Weiss:

The designated new team captain was pretty excited about all the new arrivals, you could imagine. Last season was a down year for him with 49 points and only 3 of them on the powerplay, but you need to take a look at the circumstances, when analyzing the Weiss season.
His linemates were shuffled the whole season and no one besides Sergei Samsonov clicked with him at all.
Michael Frolik was his lazy whiney self and got rightfully booted from Tallon. David Booth still was suffering from the post-concussion symptoms and found chemistry with Santorelli faster. Jack Skille is a grinder and not a goal scorer, Chris Higgins refused to score at all....

Now is a totally different side of the coin, he now has two legitimate Top 6 players by his side in Tomas Fleischmann and Kris Versteeg ,that can put the puck in the net and could benefit a lot from Weiss great playmaking skills.
He can now stop focusing on the goal scoring part and excel to his strengths and what he can do best, simply dish the puck.

Fantasy outlook:

I fully expect Stephen Weiss to have a career year next season. Leaning out of the window Im forecasting 65-70 points for him and at least 15 of those points will be on the powerplay, which should see a boost in general from being the worst in the whole NHL with Campbell as a QB. His shot totals might go down a bit to around 160 but on the other his +/- should rise again from the depressing minus -nine from last season. He now feeds pure goalscorers instead of third line players, so it should be a given that he will succeed, he always had the talent to do and he finally has the opportunity.
Grab him grab him while his price is still down!


David Booth:

The other guy that now is the old horse in the stable is David Booth. He still didnt look like his former self the last season after the horrible concussion he had a season ago.
He found some nice chemistry with Santorelli, like mentioned above but had nearly the same problems with multiple linemates shuffled all the time. The Booth-Santorelli-Dadonov line seemed to have it, when lil Geno suffered an injury that put him out of the lineup for several months. The main thing with Booth that makes me anxious is that he still looking scared out there occasionally, he seems to be afraid of taking hits and plays a lot softer than he did before the concussion.

Fantasy outlook:

Booooooth should be able to offset that issue with more games played and the concussion further away, but overall there is no sign that he will return to 60 points territory. A slight rise to around 45 should be in the ballpark, but he is still drafted too early in most leagues, cause of his pre-concussion play. The positive factor is you should expect a better +/- stat next season than his brutal minus 31 the last season, it really cant go down any further.
Dont get fooled he might be a 50 points winger again but dont be shocked if he never reaches 60 again.
Get him cheap but don´t overpay for him! If he falls take a chance but not too early on.

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Member of the UHL,SCFHL2,Kings of Hockey and Commish of UNFFHL
Florida Panthers Team Coverage

Underwhelming TV schedule is not unexpected. Media gurus always trend toward the "hot" teams and the media darlings. Florida won't get a decent representation until they've "Proven Themselves" to those decision makers. Equivelent of closing the door after the horse has left the stall.

Quite a few of the professional writers are as bad the media gurus. Those who have multiple focuses don't always dig deep enough to see what's under the surface. Perfect example that recently came up in the ramblings is ESPN. Top quality hockey source, I think not. Another case of jack of all trades and master of none.

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N Backstrom - P Marleau - P Sharp
A Tanguay - T Purcell - M Hossa
D Perron - BJ Crombeen - K Clifford
R Clune - T Kennedy - T Jackman

D Keith - J Schultz
B Dillon - S Salo
V Voynov - R Ellis

C Price

Z Dalpe, T Wandell, J Leopold , T Vokoun, R Bachman


Farm: M Hrivlik, J Audy-Marchessault, P Cehlin, S Wilson, T Blugers, B Hart, K, Agostino, C Blackwell, P McNally, B Lamb, A Sergeev, J Janus, M Mahalak, K Ramo, S Aittkallio...

30 team salary cap with 30 NHL roster & 30 prospects plus unsigned prospects = ZFHL also (DTDL and Scfhl2)

The right-wing-dilemma.

The skilled wingers depth on paper looked as dry as the Sahara for the Panthers, besides the likes of David Booth and Nathan Horton for the last couple of years. While it is still missing real first line talent especially the Right Wing spot is now crowded like the stores on Black Friday.

You got the newly acquired Kris Versteeg, Matt Bradley and Scottie Upshall in addition to the mid season acquisition Jack Skille on top of one of the bright spots last season in "Lil Geno" Dadonov.

Lets take a look what all of those guys bring to the table and how this will translate into the new Panthers lineup.

Kris Versteeg:

As usual Dale Tallon brought in some of his old buds from former teams. This time besides Kopecky and Brian Campbell it is Kris Versteeg. Versteeg spent the last season split on the Maple Leafs and the Flyers and played a subpar season finishing with 46 points and only six of those came on the PP. Sunrise is the 3rd destination in only one year for him. Its always tough to be passed around like a five-buck hooker for a hockey player. It takes time to settle in with your new city and new teammates to get to 100% typical productivity.
The Panthers spent a second round pick that once again should be a quite good one, to acquire Steeger. This fact alone gives him the edge at the moment to start the season on the first line and on the first PP.

Fantasy Outlook:

Expect him to stay there all season, he will take some time to acclimate in Sunrise but the fact that he knows a lot of players from the time on the Blackhawks will help to get through this a little faster then usual. Weiss as a natural playmaker should help create lots of opportunities for Steeg, who while not the most talented guy on the planet definantly has a nose for net and should profit a lot. The increased playing time and powerplay time will result in a career year for Versteeg. 55 points should be a possible outlook and at least 10 of those should be on the powerplay.

Evgeni Dadonov:

The next Right Wing in the line is Evgeni Dadonov who scored 17 points in 40 games last season before he got injured. After he impressed in the camp, he had great chemistry with Mike Santorelli and looked like he was on the verge on getting on a really good level.
Based on pure talent he is the best right wing on the roster and if he could continue his path he has the chance to be a real threat in the league. He has the work ethic paired with the talent and is loved by the fans. Not a bad combination.

Fantasy Outlook:

Despite the fact that there are a lot of other options, his talent and the fact he had such great chemistry with Santorelli he should win the uphill battle and suite in at the second line that clicked last season again. He will continue his progression and up the pace he had last year and finish with a little under 45 points. He is a great sleeper pick. You wont get him as cheap next season, promised!

Scottie Upshall:

Third name on the list is Scottie Upshall. Upshall wanted to play for the Panthers, he had several offers to chose from but decided to go with the Panthers to finally get the chance to play top 6 minutes constantly. But that happend before the Versteeg trade and the Flash signing.
Scottie Upshall the odd man out, once again? The second five buck hooker that cant stick on one team and is passed arround through the whole NHL, now is on his fourth team since 2009.
Last season he finished with 34 points, but if you watch him close he has a lot more to present to the league. All he misses so far is playing time and opportunity for a longer period. A lot of guys are expecting him to be the best signing of the one zillion the Panthers had this offseason. And still the others two are as solid and got strong factors that are helping their cases

Fantasy outlook:

You drafted him thinking he is due for a breakout and now hate my prediction so far? Dont panic! Fleischmann and Booth are as injury prone as it gets and there are still some rumors surrounding a potential Booth trade (in a package deal combined with Shawn Matthias). Upshall will get his opportunities and suspect he can overcome the bad starting position. He will find a spot and I think it will be on the left wing cause of a injury plus he will play right wing on a third scoring line with Goc and Bergenheim that could easily surprise. He still will manage 40 points; even more are in reach - depending on what happens.

Jack Skille:

Skille was the guy Michael Frolik was traded for and Dale Tallon was ripped about this trade over and over again. The reason? He drafted Skille who is not a top six talent and Frolik has a ton of that. While this fact is true its still lazy-lazier-Frolik. He will be Zherdev 2.0.
Skille doesnt have the same skillset but he has two things that Frolik completely lacks: work ethic and grit-- a skill that should find him a role on a now deep Panthers team. It will not be in a top six role but oh well he simply isnt a top six guy. He can be a very helpful bottom line guy and should see a lot of minutes there.

Fantasy outlook:

Stop thinking he will be an offensive gem. He will bring you hits and PIMS and score a point now and then. However, dont count on a lot of those. Still an interesting pickup if your league counts the peripherals.

Matt Bradley:

Matt Bradley last week got a lot of more attention than usual after ripping on always hard working Alex Semin and his mental stability. He was a locker room leader on the Caps the last few seasons and thats what he will be asked for on the Panthers as well. He should lead the overall young team and be out there and protect his teammates.

Fantasy outlook:

Bradley will bounce in and out of the lineup, whenever his presence is needed, he will make it felt. While being a lethal part of the team next season, he isnt much fantasywise. At best he will bring some hits and PIMS. Stay away.

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Member of the UHL,SCFHL2,Kings of Hockey and Commish of UNFFHL
Florida Panthers Team Coverage

Thomas Fleischmann:

The Panthers are no longer a nursing home for old washed up NHL-has-beens. Dale Tallon went on a serious spending spree this summer and brought in some true talent.
Dale Tallons favorite free-agent-signing of the summer? Tomas Fleischmann was his answer, without even thinking for a second.

Flash signed a four-year contract at $4.5-Million dollars contract with the Panthers after a strange season, where he played for two different teams. At the start of last season he struggled hard to find any ice time on a stacked Caps team before he was traded to the Avalanche. In the Mile High City where with the help of the fresh mountain air and Matt Duchene, he went nuts with 21 points in 22 contests at nearly PPG pace.
In early January bad news arrived for Flash as blood clots were found in his lungs, and I was highly uncertain if he could ever play again. After consulting hundreds of doctors over the last months, he now is on blood thinners and was cleared to play again.

After already two dead NHLers over the course of the last season all NHL are hoping those diagnoses are the right ones.

Fantasy outlook:

A year ago Fleischmann posted a 51-point-campaign for the Caps so he already proved that he is capable of carrying a team offensively. He will get the best opportunity he ever has had on the Panthers first line and powerplay, while playing with a true playmaker in Stephen Weiss.
As much as I hope he stays healthy Im not 100% sure that he will, but if he does he can really make an impact and score 60 in the upcoming season. It would be better to calculate conservatively with low-40s and some missed games as the general expectation. Flash is absolutely not a multi-cat stud so focus on him mainly in point only leagues.

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Member of the UHL,SCFHL2,Kings of Hockey and Commish of UNFFHL
Florida Panthers Team Coverage

hey great stuff! havent been keeping up but as a flash owner i perked up. also bc there was an article written on the first page that mentioned flash as a center so i searched you out and here i find a post today about none other than flash!

alot of reports i saw early on were talking about a booth/weiss/flash line putting flash at RW. ofcourse he used to play LW and yahoo now has him at LW. but i know in washington he played every postions so its confusing.

here you are suggesting lines to look like this (from what i gather):

flash/weiss/versteeg
booth/san/Dadonov

always thought booth was topline guy but isee what your saying with concussions.

just wondering is this the lineup you forsee and then who gets top PP unit? is flash on that unit?

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12 team H2H Keeper League
g/a/+-/PIM/PPP/SHP/SOG/W/GAA/SV%/SHO
play 4c/4lw/4rw/6d/2g (2min start)
Center: Getzlaf, Marleau, Ribiero, Pavelski
RW: Hossa, Horton, Downie, Franzen, vrbata
LW: Kovalchuk, D.Sedin, Semin, Fleischmann,
Defense : Enstrom, Myers, Goligoski, Wisniewski, Hamilton, Cowen
Goalies: Lundqvist, Brodeur, Pavelec S.Mason,

Farm noteables: Niederreiter, Greiss, Frazee, Kinkaid, Grigorenko

Hey my lonely follower☺

To give you a quick answer on your question, the Panthers lineup is not set in stone yet but it would be strange if they switch arround a whole lot and move centers to wings and wings to centers.

Stating that, its nearly a given that they will stay with Weiss and Santorelli centering the lines one and two. Booth had way more chemistry with Santorelli so the LW spot on the first line should be Flashs. I expect the same first powerplay-unit right now with Flash as a part of it, especially after reading the praising comments from Tallon about Thomas.

If anything changes in training camp i´ll let you know.

Best wishes
ktl

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Member of the UHL,SCFHL2,Kings of Hockey and Commish of UNFFHL
Florida Panthers Team Coverage

Hey KTL,

Love your coverage so far of the Panthers. You haven't had too much on Kulikov. Unfortunately, I don't see many Florida games. I know he is supposed to be a rising star, but at what level? Would he be comparable to say Pietrangelo or does not having a great team around him really affect his point production?

Love to hear what you think on him!!

Cheers

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2012-13 Champs

14 Team Keeper League
Start 9F, 6D, 1G, 10 Bench - Keep 16
G-1, A-1, PIM-0.2, GWG-1 W-2, SO-3, OTL-1

Starters
F: H Sedin, Backstrom, Kovalchuk, Perry, Callahan, Parise, M Koivu, M Richards, St. Louis

D: Byfuglien, Subban, Shattenkirk, OEL, Robidas, J. Johnson

G: Lundqvist

IR: Ward, Pitkanen

Bench:
F: Dupuis, Zajac, Brassard, Zuccarello, Shore, Backlund, Killorn
D: Hillen
G: Fasth, Emery, Bryzgalov, Nabokov

My favorite player

Dmitry Kulikov. Thank you for asking. Kulikov is the Florida Panthers answer to Alex Semin´s work ethic.

Not!

Despite the fact that in general I´m not a huge fan of Russian players, Kulikov is the greatest exception. He might my my favorite topic to talk about and is definitely my favorite player on the Panthers squad at the moment.

Kulikov is the first guy on the ice and the last off each and every day, season or offseason. He has a tremendous work ethic and that alone makes him a clear cut fan favorite in Sunrise.
He was the sole bright spot over the last season the guy you were looking forward to see develop.

But what development route can be expected for the guy and what value does he present to the Fantasy Hockey World?

So far it was slow but steady progress for Kulikov. He had showed a lot of offensive potential in the Q with 62 points in 57 games.
In his NHL rookie season, he only had 16 points and 32 PIMs. Last season he took a small jump to 26 points and 45 PIMs, while he was playing on the Panthers lifeless powerplay unit, which was the second worst in the whole NHL. His partners there were Dennis Wideman or Bryan McCabe, who both got rightfully shipped at the deadline.
His new partner on the first line and on the powerplay will be Brian Campbell who should be a great mentor especially for powerplay play.

Fantasy outlook:

With new more skilled forwards to feed the puck to and with a much better partner on the blueline, his stats should rise once again this season. Even the typically toughest stat to predict, +/- should be a better one for sure cause the whole team got better in general. Kulikov seems to have a slow but steady development curve so there will no breakout season. He should be able to climb to 35 points next season and around 50 PIMs for now and continue from there the season after.

So the true value lies in the keeper leagues for Kulikov. He will climb even higher the season after this upcoming one and in three seasons he should reach the 45 points mark and stay there for years to come with no bad seasons. The work ethic he has alone should keep him from having a slump season. There might be a season where he hits 50 but that´s not a given, he focuses a lot on playing a reliable defensive game, which hurts a little in the offensive department. Kulikov is a much better real life player than fantasy option and in comparison to Pietrangelo you should take Piet every day of the week if you need to decide.

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Member of the UHL,SCFHL2,Kings of Hockey and Commish of UNFFHL
Florida Panthers Team Coverage

Thanks Key, Just what I was looking for. Rep to you. I have heard great things but was afraid his growth would be stunted on the Panther PP. As he is about a year away from what other GM's are looking for there wouldn't be an offer for Piet. I am quite happy to keep Kulikov on my bench for a long time.

Cheers

__________________
2012-13 Champs

14 Team Keeper League
Start 9F, 6D, 1G, 10 Bench - Keep 16
G-1, A-1, PIM-0.2, GWG-1 W-2, SO-3, OTL-1

Starters
F: H Sedin, Backstrom, Kovalchuk, Perry, Callahan, Parise, M Koivu, M Richards, St. Louis

D: Byfuglien, Subban, Shattenkirk, OEL, Robidas, J. Johnson

G: Lundqvist

IR: Ward, Pitkanen

Bench:
F: Dupuis, Zajac, Brassard, Zuccarello, Shore, Backlund, Killorn
D: Hillen
G: Fasth, Emery, Bryzgalov, Nabokov

“I’m not sold on him.�

An often-used statement to decline deals in our small world of fantasy hockey. I´m pretty sure each and every one of you has received that kind of statement as an answer to a proposed deal before.

Most of the time it was a trade talk about a young player that has only one or two good seasons under their belt before and isn´t proven or is injury prone lately.

The guy this statement used the most often on so far this season is another Panther.

Yesterday, I had the talk with a well-respected member of our community in a league where i´m in total rebuild mode and he is trying to compete for a playoff spot. I offered up the guy for one good (not elite) defensive prospect and a decent goalie prospect, positions my team needs badly and the answer i received was: "The offer is a really good one and I probably bite my ass later, but i´m just not sold on him."

The name of that guy? Mike Santorelli.

Mike Who? He might not even be on your map so far, but he had 41 points in his rookie season. Yes he was 25 doing that, but it was still his rookie season.

But here are the possible reasons for not being sold on Santorelli:
- He has heavy competition in the top six cause of the new FA signings
- He is still young and has only one season as a reference
- He is playing on a bad team and couldn´t make it in Nashville.
- He doesn’t have the pure natural talent to be a top six threat.


Lets start with the reasons you should be sold on that guy!

Mike has a tremendous work ethic he has always worked hard even in Nashville he nearly made the team and a lot of observers were surprised that he didn´t. If you take back a look into the Nashville boards to the time the trade to the Panthers happened the consensus of the fans was: “We just trade Rich Peverly 2.0, the Panthers got a steal“.

Santorelli is a hard worker and a very likeable person and fan favorite. But that alone wasn´t the reason he pushed out the lazy Michael Grabner out of the lineup last season even though Grabner (rightfully I must admit) was talked about as being one of the best young talents at that time.
You can´t do that solely based on work ethic, Santorelli can do one thing well and that is put he puck in the net (especially in the shootout where he is a machine).

Yes the Panthers brought in a lot of new faces but no true centers. Why is that? They trust Mike. He has awesome chemistry with David Booth and will work hard enough to maintain that spot and get even better next season.

Shawn Matthias? Sorry, but I need to stop myself from laughing my ass off. I know Dobber loves him. Nobody in Florida understands why, nobody is caring a lot if he is even resigned.

The bad team bias is a fact you need to judge on your own. When looking at the new lineup it isn´t the same anymore, especially not on offense.


Fantasy outlook:

No Santorelli will not regress. I´m sold on him. He will maybe see a little less ice time and less powerplay time but will get better every season scoring-wise. A look in the clouds read like another 40 point plus season again with a better +/- stat for Santorelli. I´d expect a little more shots on goal as well. But with the injury history of Flash its not completely out of the world that Santorelli ends up on the PP again. If that happens a 50-point season is a real possibility. He will never be a 60 points guy but he is a cheap target at the moment for a safe 40-point plus player.

Don´t sell low on him, buy low! You will not regret it!

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Member of the UHL,SCFHL2,Kings of Hockey and Commish of UNFFHL
Florida Panthers Team Coverage