Just some minor notes this afternoon – the Stanley Cup Final (no ‘s’) will begin on June 4 and at the latest will end June 18.

Edmonton prospect defenseman Philip Larsen has signed to play next season in the KHL. No big shocker there…

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That was one hell of a game Tuesday – from 100 goals being scored in the second period and chasing Henrik Lundqvist, to 100 penalties in the third period, to the Rangers having nobody in net for the final four or five minutes (Mr. Invisible allowed one goal on one shot)

Derek Stepan was back in the lineup with a contraption around his jaw, after missing one game. The guy scores twice and actually looked to be the difference maker before the Habs started pulling away again.

With his four-point game last night, Chris Kreider has 10 of them in nine playoff games. There’s your difference maker. The way he looks now, you’d think he’s ready to break out next season.

With the hat trick, give Rene Bourque eight goals, 11 points in 16 contests. He had nine goals and 16 points all season (and seven goals and 13 points all of last season).

Part of the third-period penalty onslaught was this late hit by John Moore. He got five and a game – will there be more?

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Columbus has signed their coach, Todd Richards, to a two-year extension. Richards turned them into a playoff team, and turned an average goaltender into an above-average one.

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Per the St. Louis Blues twitter account, the team has hired former Buffalo goaltending coach Jim Corsi to be their goalie coach. Corsi – he of the first of the fancy stats: shots attempted, for versus against, when a player is on the ice. I can’t wait until that stat replaces the plus/minus stat and the plus/minus stat just goes the way of the dodo bird. He coached Ryan Miller for Miller’s entire NHL career…and then he joins the team that is letting Miller go. Irony!

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The Kings have signed one of their more exciting prospects in Valentin Zykov, to an ELC. The deadline to sign the 2012 draft picks is fast approaching (this weekend), so you’ll see a slew of these go down over the next few days. To read more on Zykov, check out his scouting report here.

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My Hockey News article yesterday continues with the offseason outlook series – Vancouver and the Islanders.

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Rich Peverley news – per Andy Strickland’s source, at least one doctor has already told Peverley that he can play next season. The streaky Peverley would provide fantasy value in spurts (usually when he’s on the top line with Seguin and Benn).

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I’m not sure how much longer he’s doing this, but yesterday Brendan Ross opened a thread in our forum taking any and all questions on the upcoming draft. Get yours in here – we’ll see if he’s still answering them today.

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Erik Karlsson has signed with Carolina!

Okay, different Erik Karlsson. But I’ve been sitting on that joke for two years. Here is what I had to say about ‘this’ Karlsson in the upcoming Fantasy Prospects Report:

This long-term project seems to be getting longer. Unlike his namesake in Ottawa, this particular Karlsson is unable to take that next step offensively. In 2013-14 he graduated to the men’s SEL full time, but his minutes were on the fourth line and he just hasn’t been able to put together any kind of body of work that we can observe. His performance at the WJC was modest at best (three points, seven games) and it’s clear that unless he crosses the pond to play hockey in North America, his development will completely stall. The entry-level contract that he signed in late May paves the way for that. We can’t wait to see what he can do in the AHL with real ice time.

Upside – Viktor Stalberg – (25-35-60+, 80 PIM)

3YP – (8-14-22, 58 PIM)

Certainty (NHL, Upside) – 65%, 30%

Expected arrival – Probably 2016-17

DobberHockey Draft Advice – Don't draft him this year or next. A long-term project.

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How is your team doing at drafting, since 2000? Forum member ‘dyzfunctioned’ shared a pretty fantastic graph in the forum here. It’s a graph of the NHL teams and the average games played per draft pick vs. the NHL average. Didn’t expect to see Buffalo as the best, nor Tampa as the worst…

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The Sabres signed prospect goalie Linus Ullmark to a three-year ELC. Ullmark is miles away from the NHL. At this point, the Sabres have a career backup (Enroth), a career Band-Aid Boy (Neuvirth), an underachiever with upside (Hackett), an overachiever with little upside (Leuwen), a stud prospect who is still a couple of years out but may force the matter (Makarov), and now Ullmark. That’s how I break it down, and I wanted to own a prospect in this system, it would be Makarov.

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Mark Olver, a Colorado prospect who was never quite able to crack the lineup – and when he did, he was never given a fair shot on a scoring line – has signed to play next season in the KHL.

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Ziggy Palffy is apparently “50/50” about coming out of retirement and playing in the Slovakian league.

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Brooks Laich has declared himself ‘pain free‘. He strikes me as a Barry Trotz kind of guy and I can see him rebounding to a 50-point season next year.

Still with the Capitals, here is an interesting interview with new GM Brian MacLellan. He discusses the young players/prospects in the organization and how he would like to develop them. And he hints at what should have been done with the likes of Kuznetsov, Wilson and Carrick.

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Look at this pass from Gallagher – spinning around on the ice: