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Rakell at least has a pretty cheap contract, so even though he hasn't blossomed into the first line winger we were hoping he might be, he pretty much performs up to his contract as a second line winger. Heck, he was on 50+ point pace last season if they had played the rest of the games. That's pretty good for a guy we're only paying $3.8MM. That could actually make him more valuable this season considering the flat cap situation.

How the hell is Laine only 22? It feels like he has been around a lot longer than 4 years. I'm with you that I think Laine would be a good add to this team. While he doesn't play much defense, he is still young. Heck, Ovi learned to play better defense in his 30s. You aren't adding guys like Laine for their defensive prowess anyway. Yep, it's going to take some assets, but you have to give to get. My big concern is more what it is going to take to re-sign the guy. He signed a short 2 year deal looking to boost his value. If Laine scores 40/40 in 82 games next year it's going to be an expensive next contract.

I think this is likely. Maybe 62-68 games max. They simply won't have enough time to play an 82 game season and playoffs before July 23rd when the Olympics start.

He played 9 games for us, I don't really care about him to be honest.

Why? Josi is great. Some of the votes for the awards are a joke though. Somebody actually gave a vote to Chara for the Norris.

Because Ottawa has #3 and #5 I feel like they will take the forward of their choice at #3 and then take Drysdale at #5 (or they take Drysdale at #3 and then take whoever Detroit does out of Rossi and Stutzle). It makes sense to get a top player at both positions. I agree it will likely be between Raymond, Perfetti or Holtz for Anaheim.

I'm cheering for Dallas as I want to see Perry and Cogs win. But my head says Tampa in 5.

I have no idea why the Canucks are trying to re-sign Markstrom. Demko is supposedly their goalie of the future and proved in the playoffs he is ready to be the starter. The Canucks are in cap trouble but they are going to spend $6M to keep Markstrom when you already have a cheaper option ready to go? Makes no sense to me.

Covid is probably going to screw Ovi out of a chance at breaking Gretzky's record.

Fleury is done in Vegas. There's no way he doesn't ask for a trade

I'm so happy that Vegas won't win it. I just can't get over the feeling that they need to go through some tough times before winning it all. I don't care about what happened in the expansion draft, whether it was fair or not or whatever. I just don't want their franchise to experience winning a Cup before they experience missing the playoffs.

Horray for the Dallas Corey Perrys! I have been cheering them on but Perry is largely useless these days. He has drawn a few penalties and plants himself in front of the net on their second PP but that's about it. He's only playing about 10 minutes per game. I don't know if Dallas would even want to bring him back.

I'm pretty sure the NHL and NHLPA have already agreed to a flat cap of $81.5M for the next 2 seasons. However this is likely based on a full season so I wonder if this changes if they can't play a full 82 games. They might just call it $81.5M but lower the cap and player contracts by the same percentage as the percentage of games lost.

The decision to give Theodore to Vegas looks worse with each game.

They should go back to only blowing the whistle if the team with the injured player gets hold of the puck. That is why guys used to get up and try to get back into the play immediately, or get to the bench. Now they just stay down and the whistle goes even if their team doesn't have the puck. Remember this? I'm not saying we should go back to this as Kapanen was clearly concussed. But old school players just didn't want to stay down.

Try watching the NBA. I watched game 6 between Toronto and Boston last night. Holy cow, the amount of flopping in basketball is just insane. It falls on the league in the end I think. I ref hockey and it can be very difficult to call a dive. You can call an obvious penalty, but then see the same play on video from a different angle and it's a clear dive. Hockey is just so quick, it's a tough enough sport to ref without also having to worry about diving. That's why I think the league has dropped the ball on this. They should be taking a hard stance on diving. I'm talking 1 game suspension for first offense, 2 games for second offense, etc. It would be out of the game pretty quick. At the moment they fine players for diving but it seems very inconsistent (as with most things in the DOPS).

Good for Bobby!!!

I've been watching hockey for 20 years and I feel like all the focus on balance between LHD and RHD has only exploded in the last few years. I don't remember this being a discussion a decade ago. I could be wrong. But I've never thought it was all that important.

Lol. I'll admit, this triggered me too.

Neighbors is great, I've watched him play a lot here in Edmonton. I would love to see Anaheim take him just because I'm a fan of the kid....but my head says he's a second rounder. If he's still there at #36 overall I would take him.

Honestly not sure about why they didn't take Kaliyev, he had 19 more points in just 1 more game than Tracey had in his draft season. That the Kings got him makes it more painful. Well....I guess I do know. The knock on Kaliyev is that he is too laid back and coasts through shifts sometimes. That's likely the reason Murray wasn't interested. But I mean, there are plenty of goal scorers like that who have had successful NHL careers. Phil Kessel eats hot dogs between shifts but still has 2 Stanley Cups. I do like Tracey though. I watched him play in person a few times and he absolutely reminds me of Corey Perry. Not the greatest skater but knows where to be on the ice, plays with an edge and goes hard to the front of the net. He was injured a bit last year which affected his numbers but I can see him being a good NHL player.

You know that children aren't the only ones in schools, right? Something like 1/3 of teachers are over the age of 50. There's also a teacher shortage nationally, though I'm not sure if that is the case in California. But I know there are schools that are worried because if one of their teachers gets sick and can't come to school, they can't find a sub. So what's the solution? Years of budget cuts at schools have made this situation a lot more complex than just saying 'they should reopen'.

I honestly don't get how the NHL allowed them to pick Kraken because of this. How is it a good look when inevitably the fans are called Krack-heads and the arena the Krak-house (and season ticket holders Krack-addicts). I don't see how that is good for hockey, or getting kids/families into the sport.

He was Director of Pro Scouting with the Ducks. Martin Madden has been our Director of Amateur Scouting since 2008. He was just promoted to Assistant GM, I am guessing because Seattle was sniffing around. Madden is the guy we didn't want to lose.

I know the Bruins are in Toronto but let me tell you, if any of the players were going outside the bubble in Edmonton you would have heard about it by now. Edmonton gossip travels faster than the speed of light.