July 14, 2014

Dobber

2014-07-14

First of all, excuse the mess. The upgrade for the hockey site went live Sunday, and had about 25 issues that were whittled down to 17 as I post these ramblings. Among them – the mobile version is a little ruined. The only way to access ramblings via mobile right now is by clicking ‘features’ and ‘archived ramblings’ and then the date you want to read. Rankings are another thing that, as I write this, are a little wonky – to access the rankings you actually have to be logged out of the site right now. Go figure. If you’re logged in, you can’t see them. Fun stuff. But at least I get to do this three more times with the other sites – hooray!

All this is still stemming from the massive sites crash that I had in early October. Upgrades are way, way overdue. But when they are complete, I will be able to add a lot of cool things to the site. Similar to the forum (I’m sure you’ve noticed a lot of the cool features added there, such as the stats and awards).

To access DobberProspects for now – type it in your browser. The menu link is pointing to the test site, which is a mess. For now. Apologies.

The Islanders signed winger Anders Lee on the weekend to a one-year deal. Interesting to note that it is a two-way contract, putting him behind the eight ball. Cory Conacher‘s deal is one-way.

While I was looking at Lee’s situation on Cap Geek, I noticed that this coming season is the last in terms of having Alexei Yashin on the payroll. He gets $2.2 million. Crazy! He last played in the NHL in 2007 and had 50 points in 58 games. He’s been collecting checks all this time. In 2007 his teammates included Jason Blake, Miro Satan, Mike Sillinger, Viktor Kozlov, Andy Hilberg and Randy Robitaille. Remember those guys?

The knock on Chicago blue-chipper Teuvo Teravainen has always been his weight (or lack thereof). You want to see him gain some muscle, but at the same time you don’t want him to pile on 15 pounds in four months. It seems like every time a prospect gains so much so quickly, he lumbers around the ice and is always a step behind, tripping over his own skates doing moves that came easily for him mere months earlier (ahem Luke Schenn). Well, he’s in development camp and it looks like he’s gained seven pounds. To me, that’s about right. I like to see my prospects gain five or six pounds over three months but leave it at that for a few months and let him adjust. So seven is close enough.

And yes, Jonathan Drouin will make the Lightning this season. Everyone who covers TB that I’ve spoken to have said it’s all but certain. And in development camp, the scuttlebutt is about how much quicker he is this time around, and he’s much better conditioned.

Reading this interview with Rich Peverley tells us a couple of things. One, that he is on the road to recovery and it sounds pretty promising that he will play. And two, that road is a long one and it sounds as though at best we’re talking midseason – not training camp.

Do you remember which team Hemsky did this to? I watch this over and over again. You can’t watch it once. (and the goal call is part of my Dobber Nation intro)