Dropping down my prospect list....

Steve Downie absolutely annihilates Dean McAmmond. Not for the faint of heart.

Lots of things wrong with this;

1. It's a retaliation for an earlier hit on Downie - by someone else (Chris Neil?)

2. Downie crosses half the defensive zone as he tracks McAmmond down for the abuse. Textbook charging.

3. McAmmond has already played the puck before he goes behind the net. Textbook late hit.

4. Downie leaves his feet on the hit. An obvious no-no.

5. If that all weren't bad enough, he leads with his elbow.

6. McAmmond's head not only snaps back, but subsequently smashes into the boards as he cartwheels out of control.

7. The brawl that takes place immediately afterwards takes place directly on top of the now completely comatose McAmmond.

8. Bonus points. At 34 McAmmond already has a history of concussions.

I'll be shocked if Downie is available to the Flyers before X-mas is over. But a gutless, reckless, and thoughtless act of violence like that will no doubt endear him to the Flyers brass and to Bob Clarke in particular. I had Downie penciled in as a decent mid to late rounder based on his offense and likely PIM (and the fact he reminds me of Rick Tocchet).

Update: If you click HERE you can hear Ray Ferraro make much the same case as I just did on Hockey Central.

Also, you can visit James Myrtle's excellent blog and check his post on the incident (and you may also otice that I am one of the commenters)