NHL: One player to watch heading into the 2016-17 season: Part III

Ottawa Senators: Derick Brassard

The Ottawa Senators have been searching for a top line centre since trading captain Jason Spezza in 2014, and this off-season, they finally managed to net one, landing Derick Brassard from the New York Rangers. But despite filling a vital need, Ottawa still could not escape the ire of supporters nor NHL fans, with the move being labeled as “overly conservative”. But why? Brassard is a fantastic two way forward who is in his prime and is a great play maker and puck controller. He fills all the needs of a first line centre for the Senators. But it was nothing to do with Brassard – the Sens gave up immensely promising young centre Mika Zibanejad, coming off a career year, to bring the Quebec native to The Palladium. Ottawa are one of the many teams in the league working on a budget, and thought of paying Zibanejad what he's worth when he becomes an unrestricted free agent at the end of the season was keeping gm Pierre Dorion up at night, and that fear ended up eating through him. Derick Brassard has had an impressive couple of seasons, recording 60 and 58 points respectively, but it will take an even bigger effort to erase Z Bad from the minds of Senators fans.

Philadelphia Flyers: Dale Weise

The Philadelphia Flyers are another club that didn't go overboard in free agency, preferring to make modest additions rather than outbid another franchise for one of the big fish and feel the financial hurt down the track. Perhaps their “savviest” addition was Dale Weise, 28-year-old forward who split last season with the Montreal Canadiens and Chicago Blackhawks. Quizzed on his role with Philadelphia in the 2016-17 season, Weise noted that he thought he “could do a little bit of everything” for the Flyers, and that his versatility allows him to find a role wherever his new head coach wants him. Weise was also bullish on his ability to potentially be a 20 goal scorer in Philadelphia next year, noting that he had 14 playing largely on the third line last year, to go along with 13 assists. The Flyers had an encouraging season last year, battling hard in the playoffs to force the Washington Capitals to six games. With their modest offseason additions, they will be hoping to return to the playoffs next year and hopefully win their first round series, on the way towards returning to the Stanley Cup Finals for the first time since 2011.

Pittsburgh Penguins: Eric Fehr

Breaking the tradition of the article, Eric Fehr was actually one of the more notable buys for the Pittsburgh Penguins last offseason, not this one – if you can remember back that far. Fehr was brought to Pittsburgh from Washington to reinforce the Penguins forward corps and improve the team's physicality. He did manage either of those things. What he did do though was record his worst points total since 2007-08, when he only played limited time for the Capitals. Fortunately for the Pens, this didn't matter much, and the team rallied late in the season to win the Stanley Cup, but that journey may have been just that bit easier with the 20-25 or so more points Fehr was expected to contribute. This year, Pittsburgh have made no further additions to their squad, and have lost a handful of key contributors from the last year's season, including Ben Lovejoy, which means the current crop of talent will need to up their production in order to stay ahead of the curve. Eric Fehr will be one of those looked to, to bounce back from an unspectacular year and be this team's key addition.

San Jose Sharks: Mikkel Boedker

In the Cup Finals of 2016, the San Jose Sharks toiled hard in search of their first triumph, but were ultimately torn apart by the Penguins' speed game. Unable to beat them, San Jose saw it fit that, as the old mantra goes, they may as well just join them, signing one of the fastest skaters in the league, Mikkel Boedker. Since making his NHL debut in 2008, Boedker has proved to be a consistent scorer and devastatingly pacey right winger for the Arizona Coyotes and Colorado Avalanche. But with Boedker, the Sharks get a whole lot more than just speed. They get a creative puck handler, a playmaker, and a devastating transition presence. Boedker also fits into the Sharkies' mould of versatility in their forward lines. We saw Patrick Marleau move from centre to wing in the Finals, and during the season, we had also seen wingers Tomas Hertl, Joe Pavelski, Joonas Donskoi and Melker Karlsson switch wings and lines. This creates a mountain of work for head coach Peter DeBoer in training camp, but at the same time, it also doesn't. Boedker will have no problems fitting into what DeBoer likes to do, which is create mismatches – again, something that the Pens built their triumph off the back of. Not just the NHL, but pro sports these days has become all about “monkey see, monkey do”. Teams will copy each other to keep up with trend to no end, which is what San Jose have done here – and they are a better team for it.

St. Louis Blues: David Perron

David Perron is back for his second stint with the St. Louis Blues, and he already has his work cut out for him, as he is the biggest name in St. Louis' “in” pile to replace the production of Troy Brouwer and departing captain David Backes. After initially being traded from the Blues to the Edmonton Oilers, Perron has since bounced around the league as a hired gun, still managing 41 and 36 points in his last two seasons, both in which he has been traded. It is a great effort (as is two 50 point season before age 27) for a man who has missed over 150 NHL games due to concussion, and will likely be forced into early retirement sooner rather than later. That said, St. Louis have certainly put him in a position to succeed – the reason for his failure in Pittsburgh last season lied around his far too low shooting percentage of 4.2%, massively down from his career average of 11.9. There's no doubt he'll see far more puck with the Blues, coming into a young and formidable lineup where more will be asked of him. St. Louis will not be replacing the impact of David Backes or Troy Brouwer any time soon, but David Perron is a step in the right direction.

Tampa Bay Lightning: Cory Conacher

5'8 forward Cory Conacher will go down in Tampa Bay Lighting lore for a long time, but not because of his playing exploits, as good as they were. Conacher will forever be remembered as the man whom Tampa Bay traded to bring in goaltender Ben Bishop from the Sens, which inextricably helped the Lightning reach their second Stanley Cup Final in 2015. Despite that strong rookie season produced by Conacher, in which he produced 9 goals and 15 assists, he never really saw the same success outside Tampa, bouncing around the league until last year producing the best season of his professional career thus far, a 52 point, championship winning effort with Bern in Switzerland. Finally back in the NHL with the Bolts, Conacher is rejoicing about the opportunity to play hockey in his comfort zone again, alongside his former teammates and under long time head coach Jon Cooper. As one of the only “new” players to Tampa Bay this season, the Bolts will be hoping he rediscovers that lightning in a bottle he uncorked in his first season in the pros.

Toronto Maple Leafs: Auston Matthews

The struggling Toronto Maple Leafs made a slew of additions this offseason, but none more (hopefully) franchise alerting than that of 18-year-old number one pick, Auston Matthews. Toronto fans finally have a player in which to rejoice, as a fan base should in a number one overall selection. But what could we possibly expect from the Scottsdale, Arizona native this year? Constantly boasted as one of the most complete offensive forwards for his age seen in some time, his quickness with both hands, feet and mind should see Matthews rack up his fair share of points this year on a fairly thin Maple Leafs squad. He has been described as a “generational talent” by many including esteemed hockey talent evaluator Joe Curtis, but has also been known to “make his own luck”, as Curtis puts it, “gaining leverage” against his opponents with both body and stick. At 6'2 and 216 pounds, he has good size for a young centre, but may still find it slightly harder to physically impose himself on the contest in the NHL than he did last year with Lions in Switzerland. As good as Matthews is in his rookie year, we may very well be witnessing the birth of the next great NHL centre for this famous franchise.

Vancouver Canucks: Loui Eriksson     

With most of their 2011 Stanley Cup Finals team gone, the Vancouver Canucks were desperately short of difference makers last year outside the Sedin brothers, Daniel and Henrik; with Loui Eriksson, they get one. With their new top line, Vancouver bring together the Swedish national first line from the 2013 IIHF World Championships, with which the country saw wild success, which will be what the Canucks are hoping for also. Through his 10 seasons in the league, Eriksson has scored 60+ points 5 times, and 70+ points 3 times, including 63 points last season, making him the noted sniper Vancouver are badly in need of. His points total last campaign would place him first amongst all Canucks. For the team that scored the second least goals in the league last year, it's an idyllic boost.

Washington Capitals: Lars Eller

Since drafting Alexander Ovechkin back in 2004 and Nicklas Bastrom two years later, the Washington Capitals have always boasted one of the more star studded lineups in the NHL, but have still failed to take home Lord Stanley. In last year's playoffs, it was evident that the production was not there in Washington's bottom six, particularly in regards to scoring. Capitals gm Brian MacLellan addressed that on draft night, but not through the selecting of a young prospect – by trading for Montreal Canadiens centre Lars Eller. In Montreal, Eller's talent and promise never seemed to match up with his statistics. With the circus act that the Canadiens have proved to be over the past few years, Eller has enjoyed no stability in regards to line mates, and has even at times been moved to the unfamiliar position of wing. With the Caps, Eller will be put in a position to succeed – he comes into a good team to likely play third line centre, and will be allowed the freedom to produce and build chemistry with the other wingers at the Verizon Centre. This is certainly not the only move that's been made in Washington this offseason, but is arguably the biggest, but will it be big enough to put Alex Ovechkin and his Capitals over that hump they are so desperate to overcome?

Winnipeg Jets: Patrik Laine

In yet another season of misery for the Winnipeg Jets, they traded captain Andrew Ladd back to the Chicago Blackhawks and finished close to the bottom of the conference again. But not all was doom and gloom – consensus number two pick Patrik Laine fell to Winnipeg with the second overall pick in the draft, and with Laine, the Jets will address an immediate issue of scoring, in which they finished in the bottom five in the league for. The power in the 18 year old Fin's shot is the main basis of his game – off the back of this, Laine looks to create from the wing, and when not throwing in a devastating slapper, his elite wrist shot comes off as quick as any in the league. Last year with Finnish team Tappara, he also proved effective on the man advantage, with an expectedly powerful one timer considering the physical gifts Laine possesses. Given Winnipeg ranked last in the league in this category, it should be a helpful boost to their woeful special teams.