Hockey Rambling

 The Flyers acquired Janne Niskala from the Preds for a seventh round pick. Niskala will beef up the Phantoms, but with Eminger already joining the team I don't see him cracking the roster.  The Lightning have waived Marc Denis for the purpose of a buyout.  The Hurricanes have signed Tuomo Ruutu to a one-year deal. I [...]

 Ben Clymer, Jeff Hamilton and David Tanabe have all been placed on waivers for the purpose of a buyout. None of them have any fantasy value.  Shea Weber is expected to be extended today by the Preds. The arrival of Boynton and Ballard in Florida makes it unlikely that Cory Murphy will ever get in the [...]

 Wayne Gretzky envisions Jokinen, Doan and Mueller as linemates. This is bad news for Turris owners, who anticipated that he would be in that middle spot. As such, Turris may fall short of 55-60 points as a rookie. The Coyotes gave up their No.90 pick to the Rangers for Alex Bourret. Bourret is coming off another [...]

 The Sens gave Chris Kelly a four-year contract extension. I think he could have actually had decent 55-point pop on a new team... but not in Ottawa. The Leafs and Islanders each blew their chance to pick up Nikita Filatov, who could be the steal of the draft. Remember - Jagr was chosen fourth in his [...]

 Dobber: Just want to extend my congratulations to Bugg. He had Viktor Tikhonov going 35th in Dobber's Fantasy Prospects Report. The Hockey News did not have him in their Top 100, and TSN did not have him in their Top 75. If that's not a great job of projecting, I don't know what is! Good [...]

 Angus here... more stuff from Ottawa. RDS is reporting that Tampa Bay and Vincent Lecavalier will agree on an extension at some point in July, keeping him in Tampa for the remainder of his career. Expect something huge. Canucks GM Mike Gillis is not shopping the Sedin twins around and is going to look to re-sign them [...]

 Angus here again... some more draft stuff. Lombardi is shopping the second overall pick with the LA Kings. Pierre LeBrun thinks the Ducks are going to make a major trade, regardless of whether Scott Niedermayer returns or not. Dobber: Interesting rule changes by the NHL for next season. These should not be underestimated. If a team takes a [...]

 Angus here... some updates from later on in the day.  According to TSN, Olli Jokinen has requested a trade out of Florida. Apparently the Panthers want a first round pick and two young roster players. There will be no shortage of suitors for Jokinen, who is a legitimate top center signed to a cap-friendly deal. Both [...]

 Blake Wheeler will be a Boston Bruin come July 1st. Since he is unrestricted, nothing can be finalized until that date, but for all intents and purposes he is a Bruin. Look for him to be wearing the spoked B come next season. Johan Hedberg has signed a MULTI-year deal. A one year deal would not [...]

 From today until June 30, NHL teams are allowed to buy their way out of contracts for two-thirds of the remainder, spread out over twice the term. Check in here for the fantasy reaction to all the buyouts! SPECTOR is giving his take on a few interesting rumors, as always. Such as: Alexei Yashin in negotiations [...]