Burke Weighs In – June 18, 2009

The Q&A thread is now up. You can find it here in the Prospect or Suspect section!

This afternoon at 3pm ET, 1pm MT, our Draft Guru Matthew Bugg will answer YOUR questions. Be sure to come back this afternoon for the link to where in the forum he will be fielding all questions about the 2009 Draftees!

Further to yesterday's Heatley rant, I must admit I was wrong. Last night wasn't Jason Spezza's take on Heatley's demands, it was actually Brian Burke's turn. Until hockey happenings start rolling in (probably in about a week), we'll probably have one or two headlines a day on a different person commenting on Heatley's demands.

Incidentally, if you didn't already know, Burke rightfully said he would refuse to have a player on his team who demanded a trade publicly like that.

The Miami Herald is reporting on a gap in money between the Panthers and David Booth, a potential RFA. I'm sure it will be closed by camp.

Michael Frolik hardly needed to show up at development camp, but he did. And not only did he work hard – but by many accounts he was the hardest working kid out there. Unneccessary, since he's already on the roster – but man what great news for his fantasy owners.

Jacob Markstrom was unable to attend the camp because of knee surgery. He should be on the team as a backup (at least) in 2010-11. He is profiled extensively in the Prospects Report.

Jonas Gustravsson, highly-touted, late-blooming, undrafted goalie, will be in Dallas today. That's his final stop. He is reportedly down to three teams: Toronto, Colorado and Dallas. I think it's between the Avs and Leafs, frankly.

It turns out I won the HBWA's Glenn Anderson Leadership in Hockey Writing Award . I was surprised to see Bugg already having an article up when I jumped on to do these ramblings – very nice! Another congrats to the other nominees – Justin Goldman at thegoalieguild.com and Jon Press at japersrink.com . Other winners included Greg "Puck Daddy " Wyshynski for Hockey Writer of the Year and Chris Botta for Unsung Hero Award.