FUNHL News and Notes

Sakic is re-signing with the AVs.

I suspect that, if injury free, he will return for one more year after that (and perhaps more), so he can make the 2010 Olympic team and play in front of a Vancouver home crowd. A crowd which will promptly go totally and irrevocably insane.

The Fan 590 soul destroying monster and slobbering Leaf-a-holic Doug Faraway is leaving! Thank the freaking hockey gods. He was way beyond terrible. The Glenn Beck of hockey is so bad he actually makes the act of listening to hockey talk vomit inducing. In any case, it's over, and we will never have to listen to him soar off into unrestrained two-handed, two tissue Leaf wankery on how the Buds once made the quarterfinals and would have won it all if not for Kerry Fraser, or his feverish rim probing analysis of the near divinity that is Doug Gilmour, or his personal boycott on calling Mats Sundin 'Mats Sundin' - choosing instead to call him 'Johan' (Sundin's middle-name), until Sundin makes up his mind about where he is going this summer. As if Sundin, or anyone else not drunk on the sewage smelling excresence that is Leaf fandom, could care less.

In any case, all of that turgid noise he makes is now gone from my favourite hockey podcast! Gone I say! Party!

There are a number of trends that I am noting as I put together my prospect list this year (a top 12 version of which you will get FOR FREE! Offer is void in Quebec).

It seems that three is the magic number; I noted a trio of this years 1st forward rounders (Hodgson, Wilson, Filatov), another trio of first year defensemen (Doughty, Pieterangelo, Bagosian), a trio of older Scandanavian forwards (Fabian, Ville, Janne) who can't be picked until the prospect rounds, a trio of Danes - which you don't see everyday, and a trio of 'Rafalski' type D-men who could all step in and run some teams powerplay (or toil anonymously in the AHL). I have a trio of Detroit prospect D-men AND a trio of Penguin prospect D-men. There is also a trio of prospects I really like in LA. I have a trio of Cliff Ronning clones, I have a trio of prototype butterfly netminders, and a trio of prospects listed as centers that I think will be wingers in the pros. I have a trio of goons. I have a trio who have a year of college, and a trio with famous last names. I have a trio of prospects from 09, and to nobodies surprise I even have a trio of prospects of interest for 2010.

Ok, actually, I lied. It is only two Danes.

IMO Hejduk could be jettisoned and Mike could easily find someone better at pick 11. That said, Mike is probably better off trading Hejduk for an older FP, Ultimately, Kopitar and Kane could be the FP guys for the Templar at C and RW (and an interesting pair they are, Kopitar is the one with the poster-child size, Kane looks like a child the size of a poster) with FP Tanguay at L, but he needs to compliment them with someone elite in the second FP slot and strike while the iron is hottest and the core of his team is still under rookie contract.

With Bouwmeester half way out, and Jokinen and Luongo long gone, injury prone power sniper Nathan Horton could be on the block as well. The team looks to be clearing the decks in its latest rebuilding mode and Horton could fetch a nice price at the deadline if the Panthers aren't showing playoff possibilities. My guess is Toronto will bend over the longest and deepest to get the Ontario born gunner. And will someone just sell the Panthers to Balsillie and let him move the team to Hamilton already?

When all is said and done, I think the prognosticators will be wrong and Sundin (Johan!) will be a Leaf. He will lead them in scoring by a wide margin, and they will just barely miss the playoffs.

If he doesn't return, I look for Thomas Steen to actually lead the team in points with around 60 or so, and for a more or less healthy Nik Antropov to lead the team in goals. Jason Blake is now radioactive as far as I'm concerned. Ditto for anyone and everyone on the Islanders and every Thrasher except for Kovalchuk. That said, it is now mathematically possible that I could draft Coyotes.