The Ottawa Sun is reporting that Andrej Meszaros turned down a pretty big offer to play next season in the RSL – over $3.5 million per season. He is an RFA this summer.

The Kings traded offensive blueliner TJ Fast to St. Louis for a fifth round pick. Fast is not considered for my Fantasy Prospect List. They would have lost him in the draft and I believe compensation for a second-round pick is (obviously) below a fifth-round pick. I'm not sure when the Blues have to sign him by, because he played some college hockey… which messes with the usual CBA rules.

Mike Milbury is now rumored to be the next coach of Tampa Bay. Why anyone would want to hire him as a coach is beyond me – or hire ANY former GM as a coach for that matter. As GM, you have to be pretty dumb not to realize that he will be taking your job. Think about it. Name one former GM who did not take over the GM job after becoming coach. Pat Quinn (Leafs), Bryan Murray (Sens) are recent examples. Sure, Keenan is still coach in Calgary… but that's not over yet. Dumb.

675 people beat me in the DobberHockey Ultimate Playoff Pool 2009, but it's the Top 4 who get the prizes. Congrats to Jean for taking the top prize of a Nicklas Backstrom autographed Caps jersey, courtesy of hockeyknight.com.

David Nunes, Patrick Gilbert, Jeremy Wall, "Miscreants", Doug Yool, Paul Siopiolosz and Colin McPhee all tied for second, however the tie-breaker is "Least Games Played" followed by a randon draw. That means that Siopiolosz and McPhee are tied for second and third. The other five are all tied for fourth place.

Random draw: Jeremy Wall wins Dobber's Ultimate Fantasy Pack 2008C – it's the fourth prize…but really it's first prize in everyone's hearts! It includes my just released Fantasy Prospects Report, my Fantasy Guide 2008-09 (out Aug. 1 and updated all summer), my Midseason Fantasy Guide 2009 and my Interactive Playoff Draft List 2009.

Random draw: Paul Siopiolosz wins a Rbk EDGE Authentic jersey brought to you by coolhockey.com, fully customized to your needs by team/player. Fully licensed by the NHL – you won't find better, faster or cheaper service anywhere for authentic hockey jerseys. These guys supply retail stores, so skip the middleman and just buy direct from them! Visit coolhockey.com by clicking on their logo.

Which means Colin McPhee takes the blocker ($225 value) from Sever Goaltending as third prize. They will customize the colors to McPhee's specifications. Click here for an example , and visit Sever’s website by clicking the linke below:

Thanks to all the above sponsors, as well as www.poolexpert.com for their support. Pool Expert, by the way, does baseball as well so keep that in mind even though we're 60 games into the MLB season…

Jean, Siopiolosz, McPhee and Wall all need to email me at [email protected] to give me contact information, etc. Thanks to all 2250 teams who participated in this year's pool.