Interesting that Jim Rutherford and the Commentators on XM Radio had great things to say about Boychuk and Skinner. Also, the Commentators listed Tlusty, Dalpe, Nash, Bowman, and Samson as players who could make the team. Great interview and commentatory and will worth listening to.

JR always makes encouraging sounds about prospects being able to make the team, so his reaffirmation of good chances for everyone is not really news.

However, I did take away two pieces of information from this interview that I consider to be new.

The first piece of information is obvious, but it’s the first time we’ve had it confirmed, in what sounded like a no-bullshit statement that Jeff Skinner was their first-round target from the git-go. So, it’s now much easier in retrospect to see why JR was sitting pretty happy pre-draft at #7, saying that a “very good player will be available to us there”.

Although that first round didn’t play out the way anyone thought it would, I’m betting they thought that the Hall/Seguin and top three D would occupy the first five slots, with the competition for forwards beginning at pick #6.

Instead, three forwards (Johansen, Niederreiter, and Connolly) went at #4-#6, but that left two of the D-men on the table if Skinner had gone as one of those forwards, so they were indeed sitting pretty.

Again, we hear the character aspect stressed as a selection criteria, along with the considerable talent, and it is that aspect upon which JR hung Skinner’s chances of making the team this season, moreso than the skill package (“knowing his determination, it wouldn’t surprise me…”).

But, elsewhere in the interview he also mentioned in passing that he “wasn’t sure if he will make the team this season or not”, so it’s not a given for sure. He’s going to have to make a statement that he is so ready that he just cannot be denied a spot, I think, and that’s tough with a crowded roster.

Cole played his way onto the team when the org just had him in for a shakedown look-see by making such a statement at training camp, but let’s face it, those were more desperate times in the depth of the prospect field than today. We needed some help then, so anyone looking flashy in camp was going to get some attention.

However, this season we have much fewer slots than we have deserving bodies, we have a lot of prospects that are perhaps borderline NHL ready and need to be stress-tested, Skinner has a good environment and a star role in juniors waiting should we return him, and there’s a year of RFA contract status to be preserved.

It’s a much tougher audition test he’ll face than Cole passed when he came out of Clarkson.

The second bit of “news” for me is perhaps better described as a revelation. But, it has opened my eyes to an aspect of our roster, and JR’s GM’ing, that I had not previously appreciated.

And this revelation for me is just how huge of a factor in JR’s contract negotiations has been the expiration of the current CBA in 2012. When the interviewer pointed out that a large number of UFA contracts were pending this coming summer, JR spun that into a plus, indicating that the org was well-poised to make any adjustments needed that season by re-signing those players or filling the roster spots from within.

But, he also mentioned that they deliberately did not have contracts extending past the CBA expiration date, in anticipation of an unknown environment beyond (my words, I think he said “we don’t know what we’re facing there” or something like that).

So, take a look at our salary chart with new eyes. Only Staal and Ward go past 2012.

Very interesting.

For my own greedy purposes of wanting to see Skinner live this year I want him on the roster. However, I can’t help but think what an extra year in the minors or juniors can do for a player before bringing him up. Staal didn’t set the world on fire his rookie year and was a beast after spending a year in the AHL. Seeing Sutter after time and conditioning in the minors was eye-opening. He was like a new man when he came back up from Albany.

I trust JR and the coaching staff will make the right decision. I’m confident we won’t need to rush him with the other young guys we have in the system and a healthy Cole and LaRose could make a world of difference.

And since I was bored, I threw together what I would like to see as the lines on opening night.

Cole – Staal – Jokinen
Ruutu – Sutter – Tlusty
Boychuk – Nash – LaRose
Samsonov- Dalpe – Kostopoulus

Corvo – Gleason
McBain – Pitkanen
Carson – Babchuk