More injuries revealed: Travis Hamonic has a torn MCL that would have kept him out of the second round. Calvin de Haan has a sprained shoulder and was probably going to miss the second and likely third rounds. They’ll have all summer to recover now.

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I believe that Ken Hitchcock is a sitting duck. You believe that Ken Hitchcock is a sitting duck. Everybody believes that Ken Hitchcock is a sitting duck. But apparently, it’s Hitchcock who will decide if he ‘wants’ to come back as coach. So there.

Also in the above link is a note about how Vladimir Tarasenko‘s pending RFA status is the priority for the Blues: “We are not going to be active in some other players until we get him taken care of,” Armstrong said. “We’re going to take care of our restricted free agents. We’re going to keep  the primary guys. He knows it. The hockey world knows it. … He’s the priority for us.”

The discussion will be Armstrong trying to get him to sign for under $7 million and Tarasenko’s agent going for the home run swing. I’m betting Armstrong signs him to a long, long term deal. Seven years. Then maybe he could get him below that threshold annually.

Also in that link – Vladimir Sobotka. Armstrong would welcome him back to the fold, but per arbitration Sobotka still owes the team a year at $2.7 million.

And still more! What a great link. The Blues plan to have Jake Allen and Brian Elliott as a goalie tandem next season (no surprise). And prospect Robby Fabbri is “50-50” to make the team next season after an expected hardworking summer in the gym. Fabbri is a potential first-line player, with a pretty strong likelihood of seeing that high potential.

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Seattle. Getting closer and closer to landing an expansion franchise. But first they need a proper NHL/NBA arena and that seems to be on it’s way…

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Shown yesterday in the Ramblings, but I’m showing it again. Here is the monster hit by Niklas Kronwall on Nikita Kucherov. Kucherov gets hammered big time:

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Frozen Pool note: still some glitches in the playoff portion of Frozen Pool, and due to Jay’s busy schedule they haven’t been tackled yet. But we’ll get there. Sorry for the delay. Wish I could offer a timeline.

On a positive note – DobberBaseball has now gone two years with regular, steady content rolling in, as well as a full year of regular, reliable ramblings. I can finally say that the site has come into its own as a serious player in the fantasy baseball market. Give it another look baseball fans!