I released the Fantasy Prospects Report Sunday. My eighth one. My best one. There will be a pretty big update 48 hours after the Stanley Cup is won, including about 10 more profiles that I’ll do by request. I’ll choose from your requests in this thread here. Thank you – for supporting the site, and I’m also thankful for the great feedback on this year’s product.

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If you’re looking for a good read, I love how Lambert goes off on the 1994 Rangers here. He also has some good (sarcastic) things to say about Sam Bennett being unable to do a pull-up (how will he carry his heavy hockey bag up the stairs?).

I was remiss last night in neglecting to mention that the Texas Stars put down the Toronto Marlies in seven. So Sunday it will be Texas vs. St. John’s (Winnipeg’s affiliate) in the Final.

And this year, the winner of the AHL playoff scoring title will be a no-name with zero fantasy value. Of the teams left standing, Andrew Gordon, Travis Morin, Mike Hedden, Will O’Neill (the latter two undrafted/unsigned) are the top scorers. You have to go all the way down to Eric O’Dell to find a name worthy of watching and he has just 11 points. Last year Ondrej Palat won the playoff scoring title. 

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I noticed that Bodog is paying 50-1 odds on Rick Nash winning the Conn Smythe. I don’t gamble often, but when I do it’s either on a sure thing, or just a little bit of money on giant odds that are “possible”. And Nash, as much as I’m hard on him, is certainly capable of scoring six goals, 10 points in six games and leading the Rangers to the Cup in the Final. And that would win him the Smythe. Tempting…

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Speaking of Bodog, I don’t think I shared with you in my ramblings how I did. Last summer, I took the 25 or so biggest discrepancies between my Guide predictions and Bodog’s over/under on players. I spent $1000 – money that I had in there thanks to winning $3000 when Malkin won the Art Ross Trophy (and that was on a $100 bet using money that was just sitting there online from an advertiser who paid me via a unique method that made it difficult to get the money out). Anyway, I turned that $1000 into $1500. So looks like I’ll be doing that again. Full details of these results can be found here. 

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Detroit prospect Adam Almqvist is apparently considering signing to play in the SEL. He will not be going to the AHL in the fall and he is negotiating a new contract with Detroit. This is a negotiating ploy, but it’s a very real one – the team will need to give him a one-way contract. He is certainly capable of sticking in the NHL in the fall, but one thing that Ken Holland may try is to offer him a two-year deal with the second year being one-way. That’s a trick that many GM’s use.

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Gary Bettman has reduced Daniel Carcillo‘s suspension to six games and as a result he will be eligible to return in Game 4 of the Final.

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That Carter Hutton deal that was signed the other day with Nashville – what the hell? A one-way deal? He’s a terrible goalie who was bumped up to “just below average” thanks to the coaching system. Fortunately, his deal is cheap ($725,000) and paying him that much while he’s in the minors is not a huge problem. Given Pekka Rinne‘s shaky healthy, you’d think the Preds would bring in an established and very quality backup. Especially with Trotz out of the mix. Someone like Chad Johnson.

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Zero fantasy relevance, but Montreal prospect Joonas Nattinen has elected to play in Sweden next campaign.

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Marek Zidlicky has signed a one-year deal worth $3 million. That’s a fair number for a defenseman who, in my mind, overachieved. I used to a huge Zidlicky fan, but his game has eroded (as far as fantasy hockey is concerned). He’s still a solid bet for 40 points, but his 50-plus days are long gone. Zidlicky is 37.

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Rogers announced their hockey broadcasters for next season. The four play-by-play guys are:

Jim Hughson, Dave Randorf, Paul Romanuk and Bob Cole.

They took the two best CBC guys and left the other two. Then they grabbed the only available TSN guy in Randorf, who is not terrible. And I’m pretty excited about Romanuk. I remember in the 90s believing him to be my favorite play-by-play guy, for his work at the WJC.

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Fans traveled all the NHL arenas and put together some arena rankings. Criteria – food/beverage, parking, traffic, atmosphere, neighborhood, fans, restrooms and ‘extras’. Minnesota’s Xcel Energy Center was first. Anaheim’s Honda Center was last.

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Jonathan Quick left practice yesterday after taking a shot up high that looked to be off the collarbone. I’m guessing he’s still good to go. But if we find out different tonight, you can get details (and footage) here.

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This could be looked upon as a good thing (keeps in shape) or a bad thing (gets injured). But Mikhail Grabovski has signed a deal to play soccer this offseason in Belarus’ second league.

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It looks as though Pierre McGuire is closing in on the Penguins’ general manager job. Yikes! Is this really the best available businessman in the world? Because that’s what you need to run your half a billion dollar company – a person with full and extensive education and a lot of real world experience. Not calling games. Not coaching. Running a company.

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I opened up my fantasy hockey mailbag. You can ask me a question by following this link.

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My Hockey News offseason team-by-team fantasy hockey look continued yesterday – with the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Carolina Hurricanes.

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I need a handful of writers to help out with DobberProspects. We currently have Dallas, Edmonton, New Jersey, Vancouver and Washington without coverage, plus a writer on a leave of absence and he covers two teams. If you or someone you know want a fun gig that’s pretty easy to keep up – each of these teams may need two or three new prospect profiles added and maybe updates to 10 current profiles…and then after that it’s just maintenance. Maintenance entails about…maybe one new profile a month and four or five updates per month. Very easy, very fun, we just need a different set of eyes on each team’s prospects. More details on this gig here.

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Monday I posted the top plays in the MTL/NYR series. Here are the top plays in the CHI/LA series: