Buy my eighth annual Prospects Report here. The Draft is just two days away, you absolutely want this handy guidebook in front of you as you watch the first round.

***

More updates: Wow, um – the Kings have signed Marian Gaborik for seven years. They’ll regret that by January. He’ll give them two very good years. Which two? Write the seven years on your wall and throw two darts. You’ll have your answer. At least the cap hit is fairly reasonable – Lebrun is reporting that it’s around $5 million per year.

Reports floating around Twitter is that Paul Stastny will explore free agency, but will give the Avs a chance to match.

Darren Dreger reports that Tony Granato will probably be hired as an assistant coach by the Toronto Maple Leafs.

***

What all these early signings mean is that the pickings will be slim on Tuesday – but I’ll still be here to personally break it all down.

***

Some updates for you:

Ryan Callahan has signed a six-year deal with Tampa Bay worth $34.8 million. This is almost as big a mistake as David Clarkson’s deal last year, except Callahan is smarter and has more leadership. And he may have more upside (he definitely used to), but I fear that his talent has eroded a little with all the injuries and I wonder if he can ever get even 55 points. To make room, TB bought out Ryan Malone (compliance).

Also, the Oilers came to terms with Nikita Nikitin. I will have an analysis of that one shortly. 

And the Penguins have themselves a new coach. Mike Johnston. I’ll have an analysis of that one as well.

***

You know, I really gotta stop following Rick Roos for the ramblings, the bar gets set too high for me. I should put him on a different day, so my day isn’t right after him. Yesterday’s was the most positive feedback I’ve ever seen, between the comments and the emails and Twitter. And I’ve had a lot of great feedback over the years, what with Angus, Laidlaw, etc…

*

It’s amazing how fantasy hockey trade evaluations have evolved over the years. In the early 90s, I’d look over the team stats every Tuesday in the newspaper and fill out by hand each person’s team. Then approach someone based on the player’s points that, just from seeing them every week, are either hot or not. Years later, I could get that information online. Daily. Soon after that, around when I first started writing for The Hockey News, I paid attention to (and wrote about) ice time. Changes in ice time, good or bad. I had some very respected long-time fantasy enthusiasts tell me how I opened their eyes to such a strategy. But then we got line combinations, thanks to Grease Monkey and then – rounded up beautifully and reviewable by any set of dates – Frozen Pool. Line combos and the depth chart.

And now I find myself looking at PDO and Zone Starts. And contract status. Look at the evolution!

When I’m reviewing or putting together a trade, this is what I do for the players involved:

1 – Usually, just because I do this for a living, I can put together the pieces just from my own instincts. Just eyeballing the players I can come up with a pretty good base of a deal and very quickly. From there it’s just due diligence. See below.

2 – Look at the player’s career stats. Declining, improving or steady? If it’s a player with under five or six years of NHL experience, I look at the junior and AHL numbers. Is there promise? Just getting a broad overview of the player.

3 – Look at the player’s recent stats. Usually it’s the early part of a hot or cold streak that is prompting this action. Just get a better feel of the current climate.

4 – Look at the game-by-game ice time. Better or worse as the season goes on?

5 – Line combos. Now I look at Frozen Pool and get a feel for how well he’s done playing with this player and that player.

6 – I go to our friends at behindthenet.ca and take a look at the player’s PDO. I do not do this five games into the season. I need to see a body of work before that particular stat is relevant, so I skip this step unless we’re at least 20 games in. Not just PDO, but specifically the on-ice shot percentage. I need to get a feel for how much of his production is luck (good or bad).

7 – Same site, but now I look at how the coach is using him. Where is he starting his shifts?

I don’t make projections based on this stuff, but I’m fully educated on the players I’m looking at. And feel more comfortable with the offer I’m making or the response I’m giving. I’m in three keeper leagues, so that really keeps me researching players constantly.

*

A post in the forum got me thinking about PK Subban and the possibility of an offer sheet from another team. After the Weber/Philly thing, I think anything is possible. Likely, even. Especially for teams close the cap. Montreal is pretty safe, as they sit 14th in total committed salary for next season (Subban will change that). They’ll match any offer sheet, no question. But wouldn't it be interesting if a team with the most cap space – Buffalo has $37 million in cap room right now – offered Subban the max. The max money, every year for seven years. No front loading or back loading, just the max. Period. It would be interesting, but Montreal would still match.

*

In case you missed the announcement last week on Twitter or Facebook – Frozen Pool is now 100% free. We’re trying an ad-based model, so all we ask is that you check it out often. And turn off your ad-blocker for this domain. So all the premium tools that cost the big five bucks last year, will cost the big zilch this year. Team Scout, Team Manager, Reporting Tools, etc. We’re also looking into adding more things to that area, including AHL data and perhaps some advanced stats.

*

Onto the Awards. I won’t get into it too much, since you probably know all the winners.

Crosby won the Hart. Easy call. Who should have been higher in the voting? Seguin. But I was happy to see him sixth because I didn’t think he would even get that many votes.

Rask got the Vezina. Varlamov got my vote followed by Bishop then Rask. Who should have been higher? Nobody. Was surprised to see Lundqvist get votes. And a first-place vote at that (ahem, Rangers writer).

Keith wins the Norris. Keith gets my vote, followed by Hedman, then Weber then Chara. Who should have been higher? Why – Hedman! Ninth? McDonagh also too far down at eighth. People were just voting for Ryan Suter (fourth?) out of habit, come on.

Calder – easy call in MacKinnon. The surprise? That Trouba was behind both Maatta and Krug. I had expected fourth.

Byng – who cares. O’Reilly won, for what it’s worth.

Selke – Bergeron wins, but Kopitar…come on. Kopitar! He served notice though, and he’ll win next year. Mark it!

Patrick Roy – well deserved walk-away win of the Jack Adams. Surprised that Julien beat Boudreau. Even more surprised that Ruff wasn’t Top 5. I would have had him fifth, with Julien sixth.

*

Jonathan Quick underwent surgery (wrist). Again. And I didn’t know it was in the works (again), did you? So he’s out long term (again), but should be back (10-12 weeks) for training camp. Unless it takes longer than planned. Again. I’m worried about his durability. I suddenly like Martin Jones a little more…

*

Carolina re-signed Nathan Gerbe to two years at $3.5 million total. Seems like, but looks like they’re treating it like a bridge deal.

Meanwhile, Ron Hainsey also re-signed with the Hurricanes for three years at just under $3 million per year. So now we know that Hainsey is valued twice as much as Gerbe.

And the Kings signed Matt Greene to a four-year deal…and the rumor is that the Rangers will re-sign Anton Stralman for big money and big term. So the valuable defensemen who don’t put up big offensive numbers seem to finally be getting recognized financially now. If this trend continues, who will be left to sign the cheap, NHL-minimum deals? The rookies and sophomores…and guys on “bridge” deals. There, I answered my own question.

Here’s a great breakdown on Stralman – and why he’s better than you think.

*

Chris Terry signed with the Canes for one year (Ron Francis was busy!). It was a two-way deal and he would have become an unrestricted free agent so I’m not sure why he didn’t wait. He could have signed a two-way deal at any time this summer, so why not roll the dice and see if a team would give you a one-way? You can read our fantasy outlook on Terry here.

*

It was a big day for Dobber Sports yesterday. In the background, that is. Yesterday, for the first time, I got to go into the test environment and start setting up the sites and work on their appearance, while getting to know the back end. I’ve been trying to upgrade all the sites since November and it’s been quite the nightmare at times. Well, if this full-scale project was the construction of a skyscraper, then right now I’m having the walls painted and the floors swept. Hopefully switching to live soon. You won’t notice a huge difference – maybe a crisper look. But with an upgraded site I can start adding cool features the way I did in the forum.

*

Is Cuba Gooding Jr. still a celebrity? Puck Daddy captured his …rather uncomfortable moments from last night. It starts slow…but as he gets (drunker?) going, business picks up just after the five-minute mark with Messier up there (awkward):