A very warm welcome to the newest addition of the Primepucks guest writing team as Kelly Bowler joins us with his wonderful insight into NHL fantasy draft preparation. His debut article focuses on many of the off-season personnel changes around the league and how have their respective fantasy values been affected. We know you will enjoy reading this as much as we did!   Switching Sweaters Will They Flourish or Flounder? During the NHL offseason huge personnel moves were made throughout the NHL as teams shuffled to get under the camp or to improve their on ice product. While those moves may have shifted the competitive balance in the league, they had major fantasy impacts. When assessing these moves to determine fantasy value you must take several factors into account to determine if the move will make a player more intriguing or if it will present false hope and a fantasy draft bust. Brandon Saad- Flourish Brandon Saad’s potential is immense and he had just begun to realize that potential in Chicago when the Toews and Kane contracts kicked in and caused a salary cap nightmare for the Blackhawks. Saad found himself packing his bags for Columbus and fantasy owners should be licking their chops. The Blue Jackets are a quality team that had major injury issues last season. Now that they are healthy again, they should be a solid playoff team. Saad figures to be a big part of that picture, as he moved to the top of the depth chart at LW. If he lines up with Foligno and Johansen, look out. He has consistently increased his point production over the last three years with 27, 47, & 52 respectively. Last season he also shot the puck over 200 times. Saad will be a force even strength and should be a part of a very good power play unit in Columbus. Cam Talbot-Flounder First, let me justify this by telling you that Talbot is a very good goaltender. However, be forewarned not to fall in love with the Oilers…yet. Conor McDavid will be an outstanding addition and only the Buffalo Sabres improved themselves more this offseason of all of the teams in the NHL. McDavid doesn’t play on the blueline though and the Oilers find themselves severely lacking in that department. Talbot was outstanding for the Rangers last season filling in long term for Lundqvist, but you must remember that Talbot was playing behind the best back six in the NHL, who were excellent at holding opponents to just one shot while taking care of the rebounds and forcing teams to take low percentage shots. In Edmonton their backline is still a couple of years away, as they have prospects like Darnell Nurse that will probably get their feet wet in the NHL this season, but until those kids get experience, Talbot will be allowing more goals against and will find his workload much heavier than in New York. Additionally, most predictions don’t have the Oilers in the playoffs, so his win total likely won’t bring you much fantasy happiness.   Ryan O’Reilly-Flourish Last year you would have been hard pressed to find any Buffalo Sabre on a fantasy roster. This year though you will at least find two or three scattered amongst the rosters. One will definitely be Ryan O’Reilly if his off-ice trouble doesn’t have a negative effect. O’Reilly was one of several Avalanche players that got off to very slow starts last year and found himself being shipped off to the rebuilding Sabres this offseason. And rebuild they did! These Sabres will look considerably different than the worst team in the NHL that they were last year, as they stockpiled talent over the summer to make a dramatic improvement. Will this make them a playoff team, no, but they won’t be getting outshot 40-10 every other night, or get shutout nearly as many times. O’Reilly will be the man in Buffalo that will find himself on the top line, the top power play unit, and on the overtime 3 man unit. He is highly skilled and Buffalo will surround him with two of the following: Eichel, Kane, Moulson, Ennis, or potentially Reinhart if he shows well in camp. O’Reilly will be a focal point of the rebuild in Buffalo and is definitely worth a look. Antti Niemi-Flounder No, I am not just picking on netminders. This move has red flags all over the place. First and foremost is that there is no clear number one in Dallas and reports out of the Big D are that they are going to split time throughout the season. That immediately should eliminate your desire to have either Lehtonen or Niemi on your roster unless it is a waiver wire emergency during the season. On top of that unclear situation, the Stars don’t put the D in Dallas. Their blueline is severely lacking and some argue got worse in the offseason instead of better and it was already one of the worst in the NHL. They will score a lot in Dallas, but until you see them address the blueline and declare a first choice goalie, I would stay clear of this situation altogether. T.J. Oshie-Flourish This trade has flourish written all over it! T.J. Oshie answers one of the biggest questions that Capitals have had over the past several seasons: Who do you put on the opposite wing of Ovechkin’s line? Answer: T.J. Oshie!!! They have tried all types, rookies, Ward, Brower, etc., etc. etc. Now finally they have an answer. Oshie had a down year on an incredibly balanced St. Louis Blues team where production comes from all over, but on the Capitals you can more than pencil in Oshie to play alongside Ovechkin and Backstrom and that should equal huge production. They could run out a power play that includes Carlson and Ovechkin at the point with Backstrom, Oshie, and Kuznetsov up front. That should be an incredible power play with tons of puck movement. Kyle Palmieri-Flounder After another disappointing exit for the Ducks in the playoffs this past year, Anaheim moved a few pieces to change things up. One player that went through the exit door was the emerging Kyle Palmieri, who has experienced growth every year in Anaheim before being shipped to the New Jersey Devils. He was on pace to soundly surpass his career high in points last year, but injuries forced him to play in only 57 games. He is yet to make it through a whole season in the NHL, but the Devils are hoping he continues to grow and becomes a first line player for a franchise in search of an identity. Besides the obvious health issues for Palmieri, I would warn you off of any Devil not named Schneider. The Devils look to be one of the worst teams in the league this year and they will rely even more heavily on Schneider than they did last season. Dougie Hamilton-Flounder (maybe) The Hamilton deal took the Calgary Flames from a surprise playoff team last season to and expected playoff team in 2015-2016. This gives the Flames arguably the best blueline in the West and contends with the Rangers for the best group of defenders in the NHL. With Giordano, Wideman, Russell, Brodie, and now Hamilton you can hardly go wrong. The only question is how will that effect all of their ice time. Balance is great for the Flames but could be bad for fantasy value. Take Keith Yandle for instance who was a fantasy superstar, minus the plus-minus category, for the Arizona Coyotes before his move to New York. While still a quality defender option he wasn’t logging ice time in the upper 20s anymore and saw his shots on goal go from nearly three shots per game to just over two and his points per game average dropped from .65 to .52. Could the same be true for the Flames and their vaunted back six? Possibly. Keep a close eye on the combinations that are decided upon in the early going before pulling the trigger on Hamilton.   Carl Hagelin- Flourish Hagelin won’t be a single digit round pick, but he could be a steal late in the draft for your fantasy team. In New York he was on a deep team but yet managed to improve every year. He had over 40 more shots last year than the previous year and I would expect his role to be expanded in Anaheim. If he ends up on a line with Kesler and Silfverberg you would get some quality production out of him, but he could feasibly win a spot on that top line with Getzlaf and Perry if he can beat out Cogliano, which I think is very possible. If that happens you could see a Beleskey-like breakout from a player who has more upside than Beleskey who departed for Boston. Phil Kessel-Flourish Saved the most obvious for last. This should be a no brainer for the “Coach Killer” to succeed in. Kessel will likely find himself on a line with Sidney Crosby and who cares who is on the other side. That alone will give Crosby a legitimate winger to play alongside which was a priority of the Penguins this offseason. The possibilities are endless here and Kessel will be a first or beginning of the second round pick in almost every draft. Imagine the power play unit that could be deployed: Crosby, Malkin, Kessel, Letang, and any of Maata, Hornqvist, Perron, or Kunitz. Doesn’t matter really who the fifth is really because the other four would be unstoppable with the man advantage.