Rambling about LeBrun’s Rumbling; Why the Oilers would be smart to offer sheet Hamilton; and more…

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So one of the hockey feeds that I subscribe to is Pierre LeBrun’s ‘Rumblings’ on ESPN. (And yes – the ‘Ramblings’ were a thing looooong before the ‘Rumblings’ were even a twinkle in his eye). I haven’t subscribed to it long, it’s one of my newer adds. So I open up my Feedly to get some material for the ‘Ramblings’ and I see like 50 Rumblings posts. I go through them and each one is a thought. I know that clicks rule the Internet, but now things are getting silly. Click-bait is one trick . The Bleacher Report slideshow is another trick to get clicks. But now we’re separating single thoughts into complete articles?

Though, to be fair, when you go to his Rumblings blog, the columns are so short (200 words or so) that you don’t have to click a ‘read more’. You can just scroll down and see his last 10 entries. Since it’s June and there was no hockey Tuesday, I’ll Ramble about LeBrun’s Rumbles. Here goes…

Item 1 – Kings looking to trade Mike Richards.

Well duh. This has been going on for months. There are no takers. But LeBrun suggests that another team could buy him out – and the Kings would give up another asset (pick or prospect) to compensate that team for the favor. No, Richards doesn’t have the magic. It won’t come back. He’s down the same trail of decline that strikes some players at an earlier age, be it due to injury or whatever. Off the top of my head, that list also includes Scott Gomez, Martin Erat, Tomas Fleischmann, Brad Richards, etc. I have a Band-Aid Boys list and a Windex Wonders list – what list should I call this one?

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Item 2 – Offer sheet for Dougie Hamilton?

Because the Bruins are up against the cap and Hamilton can easily command well over $6 million per year, the thinking is that teams will consider making him an offer sheet. And the main candidate is the Oilers because a) Peter Chiarelli is their GM and his last job was GM of the Bruins b) The Oilers desperately need the skill set that Hamilton has c) The Oilers have cap space d) If Edmonton drafts McDavid and they get Hamilton, then they can afford to lose the five first round picks (or whatever the compensation is) because their days of picking in the Top 5 are over for the next decade.