Hoss

Detroit Red Wings team photo from 1970-71 (Gordie Howe's last year in the NHL) featuring Howe, Mike Robitaille and Don Luce. Great photo of Gordie at the Aud (also featuring Gilbert Perrault) during the team's first year in the NHL:

Based entirely on the lines posted over at dailyfaceoff.com (29 teams excluding Buffalo): Anaheim, Chicago, Detroit, Nashville (bottom pairing), Philadelphia, Tampa Bay (bottom pairing), Washington (bottom pairing), Carolina (bottom pairing), Colorado, Edmonton, New Jersey, Toronto, Vancouver 13 of 29 NHL teams do not have "correct handedness" in their starting defense 7 of those 13 are playoff teams (Anaheim, Chicago, Detroit, Nashville, Philadelphia, Tampa Bay and Washington) 5 of those 13 represent teams in the bottom 10 of goals against (Anaheim, Chicago, Tampa Bay, Washington, New Jersey) 3 of those 13 represent teams in the top 10 of goals against (Colorado, Toronto, Vancouver) 6 of those 13 represent the ten teams giving up the least shots on goal per game (Anaheim, Nashville, Carolina, Washington, New Jersey, Tampa Bay) 6 of those 13 represent the ten teams giving up the most shots on goal per game (Chicago, Philadelphia, Colorado, Edmonton, Toronto, Vancouver) The full list is: Anaheim, Chicago, Detroit, Nashville, Philadelphia, Tampa Bay, Washington, Carolina, Colorado, Edmonton, New Jersey, Toronto, Vancouver.

From Kris Baker of Sabrespospects this morning: Having three lefts and three rights is an ideal luxury on D but let's not overthink it. Not mandatory. He also shared the organizational depth chart for prospects which showed that we only have two RHD prospects (Borgen and Florentino) while having five LHD (Guhle, Martin, Stephens, Austin, Chukarov).

Columbus Dispatch reporter Aaron Portzline: Told #CBJ have received at least 2 offers for No. 3 pick. Both very legit offers worth considering, but not enough to sway Kekalainen & Co.

So what's the feel around here? I know just about everybody still thinks the Pens close that out. But it seems like there's a feeling here and elsewhere that many now want the Pens to close it out (even those who were rooting for the Sharks to start the series). Is that he case? Would you like if the Sharks made a comeback? What about if the games continued to be mostly dominated by the Pens but the Sharks still end up taking the series?

Agreed, and I think Killorn, Bishop and Filppula would be the ones they try to move first (I don't think there'd be a ton of action of Valteri, though).

I think you're overestimating the handedness a bit. I would imagine most prefer to have three lefties and three righties, but I don't think there a literal lack of defenseman. We have the people to fill the spots if need be but they're certainly not all the preferred options.The need at center was more than our current need on defense. I am a big believer in Jake McCabe. I have no doubt he can be a very good top-four defender. I believe that there's a bigger hole at the top of the defense than there is anywhere else on the team immediately, but I don't know that it's as easy as just saying "it should be the top priority." I say this mainly because Stamkos is available and, if you're convinced he still has elite offensive ability and will for several more years, he's the top priority simply because you won't match his level of addition (probably) ever without having a top draft pick. The hope is likely that you can add both Stamkos (or Okposo, Eriksson, etc) AND a defender capable of playing big minutes with Risto who will keep you from forcing the Guhles and 2016 Draftees of the world into the lineup. Let's get to late June already, I can't wait.

I don't get the impression that Stamkos is that. I get the impression that they wish they could move other guys and ensure Stamkos' return.

Jimmy Murphy @MurphysLaw74 According to same source, Coyotes would trade their 2 1st rd picks + either Max Domi or Christian Dvorak for right to draft Auston Matthews I'm only mildly familiar with Murphy, but I don't believe much of what he says... I'm sure Arizona has made a serious offer, but I don't think they're willing to go where they'd have to in order to get a deal done and I don't think Toronto would take anything short of a massacre.

That was the most pointlessly long way of saying PK Subban isn't available.

Except one facilitates offense while the other kills it.

What gives you that impression? As far as I can remember he's pretty well loved. He's right up there with Milan Lucic and myself as unabashed idols around these parts.

The man who most of Sabrespace considers the go to on all things NHL draft prospects released his final list. I'm looking forward to the conversation following this list and I expect many opinions to change purely based on this list solely because of how much respect there is around here for this man. I look forward to those questioning this list getting torn apart and scared away from the site. I present to you: Craig Button's final draft rankings... http://www.tsn.ca/craig-s-list-matthews-no-1-because-position-matters-1.503562 Notables: Dubois over Tkachuk at 4 Keller at 6 Sergachev as the first D at 8, Juolevi behind him at 9 Chychrun comes in as the sixth dman at 17 (Bean 12, Fabbro 15, McAvoy 16) Cam Dineen, a hopeful 2nd-rounder for Buffalo, comes in at 22 Goalie at 24 in Carter Hart Max Jones, Julien Gauthier, Tyler Benson and Riley Tufte at 42/43/44/45 respectively Ty Ronning at 83

James Mirtle @mirtle Sharks players that haven't scored in the final: Pavelski, Couture, Thornton, Burns. Those four had 42% of San Jose's goals during season.

After this coming season the arena lease can be bought out for $20 million which is chump change for Quebec City compared to the $500 million expansion fee they were prepared to pay.

If Murray thinks Juolevi is the best defender and wants him on this team then I would hope he's willing to give a little extra to ensure he gets him. If we get to pick six an he's still there I would easily offer up a 2nd or 3rd to jump two spots to land him over Arizona.

Craig Custance believes Buffalo is one of the most intriguing teams in the first round of the draft. Insider: http://espn.go.com/blog/craig-custance/insider/post?id=7893 Adding just the section about Buffalo, if this is too much let me know and I'll edit:

It's a self-contained system basically. As pi said you can have stars without role players but those stars probably can't win cups without at least effective role players. I'm not arguing against role players as much as I'm just saying I think this finals shows why you need star players to perform moreso than role players.

Hockey's Future, the website not HFBoards, will be shutting down on July 1st. As has been discussed it's a useful site for a go-to on comprehensive lists but beyond that a lot of the info was wrong or useless. Will be sad to see it go, though. Luckily we have sabresprospects.com but most other teams don't have that style of site.

Having guys like Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Phil Kessel allows a guy like Nick Bonino to be a role player. Crosby has been out of his mind this series and I don't think they'd be riding on the backs of their role players if that wasn't the case. Then look at San Jose. Joe Pavelski was having a historic postseason and they were winning - now there's an APB out for him and they're getting spanked. A guy like Brent Burns suddenly doesn't know how to avoid shot blockers, Joe Thornton still has no idea how to put the puck in the net on his own and Logan Couture isn't finishing. I almost feel like this finals is the exact opposite of showing that role players are what drives teams.

I believe the actual story is that the Hurricanes owner borrowed money from a trust set in his sons' names to pay the league and his sons are suing for the money (story link was shared here somewhere). The Hurricanes situation is too far away from a conclusion with a decision on expansion already set by the end of this month (recommendation was made yesterday, decision expected June 22nd). The Hurricanes won't impact Vegas, they'll impact Quebec and/or Seattle.

Larry Brooks went back on his report that teams will have to protect players with NMC that end after this season... http://nyp.st/2163v5D

I have a few theories about what's going on with Arya. The one above about "Arya" in the last episode actually being H'ghar is definitely an option. He said somebody's face would be added to the wall one way or the other. I wonder if he's going to give her a "you or me" scenario. I also think he may have plans of getting his own revenge against the Lannisters (he was captured by them at one point so there's a chance he is building her into a weapon of sorts in his pursuit of vengeance which would explain sending her to a play that reminded her of her hate for the family).

Columbus wants a center. Not just in this draft but immediately. Girgensons may appeal to them for that reason (and others). I wonder if Girgensons, 8 and a 2nd gets it done.

http://www.csnne.com/boston-bruins/can-don-sweeney-boston-bruins-do-what-needs-to-be-done-offseason Some juicy defensive-trade talk here... - Talk is that Colorado may be dangling Duchene to land Jacob Trouba - Hall and Nugent-Hopkins are the two that Edmonton is mainly dangling to land their dman - Boston is hoping either Ryan Spooner, a first and a prospect or a package around David Krejci can get a top defenseman. Duchene for Trouba would be another pretty crazy hockey forward-for-dman trade a la Johansen for Jones. I hope Boston moves Krejci because he's one of the few I like in Boston.