Rumors around the NHL, Leafs sign Hyman, my ideas for improved offense; and more…

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Let me start off with an apology. I’m launching a new shop, possibly in July, and the programmer began migrating orders Wednesday night. It came to my attention Thursday that as orders were being migrated from the old shop to the new shop, receipts for those orders were being sent out. Of course, Thursday was the day I started my vacation (Darien Lake in New York) so my reaction time was slow due to Internet access and of course my lap top was insisting on a new email password which I didn’t have on me. It was Friday afternoon by the time the email receipts were turned off. So when the dust settled, about 2900 receipts were sent out to 700 people. I’m sorry if you were one of them. I hate spam. I hate pop-ups and pop-unders and anything that interferes with my online experience, and so to be party to what I consider a pretty serious spamming effort makes me feel horrible. Some very loyal readers were getting five, 10, even 20 receipts emailed to them – confusing and upsetting them. But I don’t keep any credit info on file and have zero way of charging anyone without authorization, I assure you.

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Morning update – the Penguins have signed KHL free agent Sergei Plotnikov, per Igor Eronko. Plotnikov, an alternate captain for Lokomotiv Yaroslav last season, was one of the better KHL free agents available. He posted 36 points in 56 games, second on the team. To give you a base of comparison, his teammate Andrei Loktionov produced at a slightly slower pace. Plotnikov is 25 and entering his prime, and he boasts NHL size (6-2, 205). He works hard (reportedly, as I’ve not seen him) and plays an aggressive, hard-hitting game. As a winger, we all know where he could be playing and who he could be playing with. But his weakness is his foot speed. If he can’t keep up with countryman Evgeni Malkin, then he’ll be an AHLer. But if he can – he’s obviously a very good dark horse.

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Tonight is the NHL Awards. The first of which I actually had a vote. And I will be posting my ballot on Thursday along with my reasoning. I can’t reveal my ballot at this time though. If you want to wager on the winners, Bodog has odds up – but to me, most awards have likely winners and they don’t pay much.

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TONS of rumors floating around right now.

– Carl Soderberg‘s negotiating rights could be on the move, per Craig Custance. At least two teams are considering making an offer. He’s not a number one center, but in my estimation he is the closest thing to it when it comes to the UFA market. Potentially.  But ‘potentially’ Ville Leino was too, right?