It's time to party Caniacs! June 19th is a very special day and will always be special in the hearts of most Caniacs. Tomorrow is the one year anniversary of the night the Canes won the Cup! The date isn't lost on the Hurricane's franchise either as they are sponsoring a big party tomorrow night. In their famous "Cool Bars" tradition, the Canes will be showing the replay of game 7 of last year's finals at the Carolina Ale House, in Cary. It's going to be a madhouse so if you're going to go, you better go early. The game starts at 7! Some of the "CanesCountry Forum" crew are planning on getting together, so if you would like to join us please shoot me an email at "canescountry@gmail.com" and we'll figure out where to meet. It would be nice to meet you other bloggers, so David, AQ, Chris, Mer, Beth, and others, please feel welcome to join us. WufPirate of Carolina on Ice has offered to buy the first round! (he he). Of course if anyone else would like to join in, just send an email. The more the merrier! If nothing else we can share our "expert" opinions concerning who the Canes should pick during the draft on Friday.
I haven't said much about the up-coming draft yet because quite frankly, I don't have a clue as to who the Canes should pick. I can read the prospect reports and reviews as well as anyone else but since I have never actually seen any of those kids play, I can't make any intelligent suggestions. The Hurricanes have a nice article out today about the draft and their supposed position. The article is quite detailed and gives the entire process the team goes through before making a selection. The Canes say that they are going to draft the best player available, they are not looking to fill a specific position. (although they have plenty of goalie prospects and will not use their first pick on a goalie). I agree wholeheartedly with that position! They also give some player's names that they might be interested in. Don't believe it! I fully expect them to pick someone they are not even mentioning on that list. Telling the world the players that you are interested in choosing a week before the draft is like showing your cards to everyone right before the betting takes place in a poker game. You just don't do it! The players that they mention are as follows: Angelo Esposito, David Perron, Kevin Shattenkirk, Thomas Hickey, Max Pacioretty, Brett MacLean, and Alexei Cheraponov. A couple of these guys I have never heard of before and I have been keeping up with the charts! Obviously, Esposito is one of the primo picks as would be MacLean and the unpredictable Russian, Cheraponov. I agree that if the Russian is still on the board at 11, you have to pick him even if you have to smuggle him out of the country like the Pens did with Malkin last year. For more information about the draft, there is a ton of information at "NHL.com" including videos of the top prospects.
Anyway you look at it though, the draft is definitely a crap shoot. You just don't know what will happen with these kids in the future. Some of the best players in the NHL right now were drafted in the later rounds, while some of the highly rated players in past drafts never worked out. We'll just keep our fingers crossed and see what happens. More about the draft later!
George Thorogood
>>>>>>UPDATE>>>>> Huge trade! The Flyers sign both Scott Hartnell and Kimmo Timonen of Nashville to long term, 6 year deals! Hartnell gets an average of 4.2 million while Timonen gets an average of 6.3! WOW. Timonen was one defenseman that I said I would love to have on the Canes, but not for that kind of money and somewhere out there Scott Walker is smiling bigtime about that Hartnell deal. The money is flying and July 1st is still two weeks away! Nashville received a first round draft choice in exchange. More about the deal here on TSN.