Bugg here- Pat Quinn was addressing the Edmonton media with regards to being named Senior Hockey Advisor. He sounded none too happy about essentially being booted upstairs, but that’s not all. He may have leaked Edmonton’s pick. When commenting on the incoming crew of 19-year-olds, he specifically said there were three, and he’d worked with all of them- although one is not yet drafted. Quinn coached Taylor Hall at the U18s two years ago, but has no history with Seguin.

Now the question is: intentional due to his anger at the team, or honest mistake?

Scott Niedermayer has indeed retired. Will he be a Hall of Famer? Maybe he should be, but who knows with this shameless voting committee. A nine-time 40-point player.

The Hurricanes have signed Jerome Sampson to a two-year, two-way deal. It’s too bad it was two-way for both years, he may never get onto the roster full time.

I shouldn’t have to clarify, but i will – Granato should be in the HOF, as another pick. Over and above the four players I mentioned, not instead of them. I am not “anti-girl” for feeling that she had less impact on the game of hockey than Nieuwendyk. Women make up half of the population. Actually, I think it’s more like 52%. But they only make up 10% of hockey fans, if that. And many decided to play hockey in the Calgary and Dallas area because of Nieuwendyk. Granato was further inspiration, but it’s not like young women could watch her week-to-week. She was televised once per year – and probably not at all in the USA. It was about time the HHOF put in a woman, but it needed to be over and above Nieuwendyk, Lindros and Mogilny – not instead of them.

The big story here is the disgusting, shameful omission of Pat Burns. I feel like I no longer care about the HHOF because of this terrible oversight. I know who the greats were, and I feel like I no longer should go by who is in the HOF and who is not, but I go by my heart.

The Habs have indeed signed Tomas Plekanec, as I hinted at below. Cap hit will be around $5 million. And he’s worth every penny. (every penny up until about $3.5 million, and then he’s not worth it).

Too many votes get split – Dino Ciccarelli gets into the Hall of Fame. None of my picks got in. The rest were women. Women? Did Cammi Granato mean more to the sport than Nieuwendyk, Lindros or Mogilny? If I didn’t pay attention to Hall of Fame decisions before… I won’t be now. I’m done. Horrible. That’s not my Hall of Fame. I’d rather they said “nobody gets in this year” than what they just said.

Great news – the NHLPA voted to extend the CBA through the 2011-12 season. So at least two more seasons of stoppage-free hockey. The salary cap will also go up to just over $59 million – the exact number will be made official on Friday, I believe.

The Oilers have made Tom Renney their head coach after Pat Quinn steps down to take on another role.

The deal is Nathan Horton and Gregory Campbell for Dennis Wideman and the 15th overall pick. I’ll have analysis up on this one later this afternoon.

Bob McKenzie is Tweeting that Nathan Horton has been shipped to the Bruins – done deal. I will have analysis up within the hour.

It sounds like the Rangers have not qualified Enver Lisin, per Larry Brooks.

It sounds like the Habs are close to a long-term deal with Tomas Plekanec – per Nick Kypreos.

Scott Niedermayer is expected to announce his retirement today. Press Conference this afternoon. Just like that, James Wisniewski becomes a better player to own. Too bad he’s a Band-Aid Boy or I would recommend him.

The Habs signed Mathieu Darche to a one-year contract. Darche had an impressive second half with the team.

Just $1.8 million for Cooke. Wow – no wonder the Pens signed him. And he’s cool to sign for less than market value to stay in Cup contention.

The Cooke signing is a done deal. Unless the cap hit is under $2.5 million, it doesn’t make a lot of sense to me. It may force them to trade one of their key pieces, otherwise suffer more seasons of Fedotenko-type wingers on the first line.

Pierre Lebrun is saying that the Pens are close to re-signing Matt Cooke. I wouldn’t understand that one. Yes, they need a Cooke, but they can’t afford to allocate that kind of money with that kind of player. They walked from Jarkko Ruutu when it came time for a raise and he was replaced just fine. If they walk from Matt Cooke he will be replaced just fine, too.

Joe Nieuwendyk is the only shoe in for the Hall-of-Fame. Other candidates: Doug Gilmour, Pavel Bure, Eric Lindros, Pierre Turgeon, John Leclair, Peter Bondra, Tony Amonte, Dave Andreychuk, Dino Ciccarelli, Tom Barrasso, Alexander Mogilny, Adam Oates – if you could only choose four, who would they be?

Forget the stats and just think with your  mind – keep Hockey’s Hall of Fame for the Elite players who truly impacted the game. If the above group were in their prime – all 26 years old and injury free, who would be your first overall pick? You and I both know the answer is Lindros. For that reason alone, and screw the stats and forget his final few years, he’s one of my four.

Alex Mogilny should be an absolute lock – not just for his 76 goal season, but for opening the floodgates from Russia. It was a brave thing he did.

So that leaves one more. Using my head and not the stats, I am torn between Gilmour and Barrasso. I know that Gimour was never a first or second team all star, but back in 92-93 I thought he was the best player in the league besides Mario Lemieux. One year where he truly dominated.

Nashville does not plan to make Denis Grebeshkov a qualifying offer. I think he can work out for a team in the same way that Marc-Andre Bergeron worked out for a team… for a little while.

San Jose traded Brad Staubitz to Minnesota. He is a restricted free agent – and he has the same agent as Jaroslav Halak. I’m just getting a feeling that GM’s are either scared to… or can’t be bothered with, dealing with Alan Walsh. But he has lots of clients of varying importance to their team, so we’ll see if a bunch more are traded rather than signed.

I really think that Taylor Hall was always the clear No.1. And I think different major media outlets played with Hall-Seguin angle because drama=web traffic and TV ratings. Last year they tried to convince us that John Tavares didn’t have it wrapped up. Or Stamkos the year before that. In this case, the gap between 1 and 2 actually is quite small, unlike prior years, so they were able to play the drama out a little longer. But when it’s time to put your money where you mouth is, every mock draft – including TSN’s – has Hall at No.1. We’ve never waivered in backing Hall, for the record. Speaking of Hall, our friends over at Easton announced yesterday that they have signed him to represent their line of products.

The Rangers have re-signed Kris Newbury to a two-year deal. Minors, no doubt.

Dwight Helminen has signed to play in Finland next campaign.

We’ll be doing a live chat during the draft on Friday night. Starts at 6:30pm ET. You can chat it up with myself, Angus, Van Horne, Goldman…pretty much most of the gang here. And Matt Bugg will be live in LA and he’ll try to be on for the chat as well. Don’t miss it! Talk about on the spot fantasy analysis…

Don’t forget – most of the updates in the Daily Ramblings happen in the afternoon, as the news trickles in. Those of you who are morning visitors, you can always click “next” down below beneath the comments…