June 12, 2010

Bobby Ryan for Tomas Kaberle? The OC Register weighs in. I agree with the last sentence. “On the surface, trading Ryan for Kaberle doesn't seem to make any sense. Now if the Leafs were to include Luke Schenn or Nazem Kadri in the conversations …”

Hershey defeated Texas 2-1 in overtime last night to take a 3-2 series lead in the Calder Cup. The Bears are one win away from their second consecutive championship.

Both Karl Alzner and John Carlson factored in on the overtime winner, scored by Alexandre Giroux.

One again, Michal Neuvirth and Matt Climie were both extremely solid. Neuvirth allowed only one goal on 36 shots, and Clime stopped 41 of 43. Both will be in the NHL next season – Neuvirth battling Semyon Varlamov for the starting position with the Capitals, and Climie backing up Lehtonen.

We’re delaying the “final” Prospects Report release until Monday. The Mock Draft is in there, but we omitted a name in the middle of the first round and caught it late. The entire Mock from that point on will be completely re-done. Our apologies.

Chris Pronger responds in kind to Adam Burish's comments. "Next time he sees you he's going to punch you." Chris: "where's that, the minors?" Good stuff from both sides.

The Flyers re-signed goalie Johan Backlund to a two-year extension. He will probably battle for the starting position with the Phantoms in the AHL. I don't see both of Boucher/Leighton returning (my money is on Boucher), but who knows. Paul Holmgren is not shy to make a big splash or two (last year with Pronger, and a few years back with Timonen/Hartnell from Nashville).

I was browsing some prospect stuff yesterday, and came across a bizarre/interesting fact – defenseman Dylan McIlrath, a hulking defensive defenseman from the WHL, possesses a wingspan of 83 inches (or 6'11"). He is "only' 6'4". Apparently there is at least one team out there that has him in their top 10. I know this isn't fantasy relevant, but it's slim pickin's out there right now – aside from the Calder Cup, the biggest hockey story yesterday involved Kris Versteeg attempting to rap!

I haven't done a mailbag in a few weeks. Aiming for Sunday… but no promises.

For all of the hoopla made over Chicago's cap situation, Calgary is right with them. According to Cap Geek, the Flames have almost $54 million committed to 17 players. They have several bad contracts (Ales Kotalik, Daymond Langkow, Cory Sarich) and still need to re-sign some key players. Look for them to be very active at the draft and in the days leading up to July 1^st – Darryl Sutter loves trading and he needs to find a way to open up some space under the cap.

Anaheim will find a way to sign Bobby Ryan. Too bad Brian Burke didn't wait a year and use his off