RodrigueGabriel

Haven't seen much of Fox either.

Very sorry. True friends are tough to find and harder to lose. Sent from my [device_name] using http://Blueshirts Brotherhood mobile app powered by Tapatalk

Exactly right. Got it upside down. Sent from my [device_name] using http://Blueshirts Brotherhood mobile app powered by Tapatalk

Very eloquent description of where we're at. Poignant even. Sent from my [device_name] using http://Blueshirts Brotherhood mobile app powered by Tapatalk

That's very possible. Just learned that Kakko is 3 months younger. It's also possible that he could get bigger (spoken as someone who grew 2 inches after high school). Scary. Sent from my [device_name] using http://Blueshirts Brotherhood mobile app powered by Tapatalk

Not me. We can't lose, be it Kakko or Hughes. But my last post came at the moment that his 3rd goal went in yesterday. While an empty-netter, his evasive move on the defender was a thing of beauty and it seemed in that instant incomprehensible that any GM with full faculties that wants to keep his job would not take Kakko withthe 1st pick. Hughes could come back today and score 5 goals and it's a new ballgame. But man, 24 has been impressive. Sent from my [device_name] using http://Blueshirts Brotherhood mobile app powered by Tapatalk

Total beast.

See you later Kaapo. We hardly knew ya'.

Showdown on Monday. US vs Finland. Before Kakko decides to burn the place down to prove that he deserves #1, somebody needs to show him a photo album of Newark, NJ.

Amazing goal by Kakko to open the World Championships. #realdeal

He's clearly smart. Just defies stereotypes.

Gotta scratch my head and ask how one of the gooniest goons of all time ends up as a master tactician and shaper of young men.

You may be right on. Even some of the most positive write-ups for Podkolzin depict him as an innately - even insanely - talented lone wolf that isn't particularly concerned with being liked or getting along. I definitely get the sense that he's a mixed bag.

Wheeler is nearly the only one who has him out of the top 5. (One other I can find has him at 11.) But I agree that you never know. Sent from my [device_name] using http://Blueshirts Brotherhood mobile app powered by Tapatalk

On the leverage issue, both in the Canes development camp last spring and again in December Fox said that his goal was to get to the NHL as soon as possible. In Dec, he put it in context of not just wanting to play for the Rangers. (I know the common wisdom was that he only had eyes for MSG, but that's at least not what he said.) https://www.msn.com/en-ca/sports/nhl/carolina-hurricanes-very-confident-they-can-sign-adam-fox/ar-BBQOw8k He didn't want to go back to Harvard and he apparently didn't want to get in Carolina's long and robust D queue. It is not inconceivable that someone else might have made a better offer that would guaranteed that Fox was on an NHL rink come October. I think it would have seriously tempted fate to have turned up our nose at acquiring his rights now, evenfor 2 2nds. I wouldn't say the Canes had no leverage. It wasn't much, but there was some and if we wanted to lock him up, now was the time. Sent from my [device_name] using http://Blueshirts Brotherhood mobile app powered by Tapatalk

I'm cautiously optimistic. Through good luck and some good moves, the rebuild is getting far enough along that we need to start moving from quantity to quality. Despite the fact that Fox himself went #66 in the 3rd in 2016, the willingness to use 2nd rounders represents a shift in that direction. Seems like a very good player, but how much quality we got is to be determined. "Hobey Baker Finalist" is now the equivalent of a good citizenship award or some other warmed over pablum for me based on the fact that they gave the whole freaking award to Vesey in 2016. Sent from my [device_name] using http://Blueshirts Brotherhood mobile app powered by Tapatalk

I saw something a couple weeks ago which struck me and I'll try to run it down. But Sean McIndoe made fun of it this week in the Athletic in his article "Finding Positive Thoughts For Non-Playoff Teams." Positive note #3 for the Hawks was, "Let's face it, they're signing Artemi Panarin this summer," which I read as a sarcastic take on the optimism that has been out there in CHI. Sent from my [device_name] using http://Blueshirts Brotherhood mobile app powered by Tapatalk

What I've read in the Chicago media talks about Panarin going there, too, as pretty much a certainty. So lots of fantasies in play. Sent from my [device_name] using http://Blueshirts Brotherhood mobile app powered by Tapatalk

And, unfortunately, the Blues are going to need to wait until a year after that. Sent from my [device_name] using http://Blueshirts Brotherhood mobile app powered by Tapatalk

Salma Hayek's husband just pledged $113m to a rebuild, with more likely to come from other places. At least they'll be arguing over how to spend the money instead of how to get it.

Me, too. Especially since the fact that Kakko is playing at a higher level kind of disses Hughes from the get-go. But that could be a double-edged sword.

Can't speak for GM's, who are really the only ones that matter, but I have a spreadsheet of 12 different prospect raters. 11 of them have Hughes at #1, but several were done in January. We'll see if that changes as they are revised and finalized pre-draft, but there is certainly a current of opinion to swim against to pick Kakko first. (NHL Central Scouting gets to punt on this one because they separate N America and everybody else.)

Is Panarin and his people are strategic, raising his profile in hockey terms could result in endorsements that play in Russia. Ovechkin is on millions of pizza boxes in Putinland. NYC is certainly a better place to do that than is Columbus, and probably better than FL. Sent from my [device_name] using http://Blueshirts Brotherhood mobile app powered by Tapatalk

I can't find aggregate endorsement figures for Ovechkin post-June, 2018, but he's everywhere in DC. He was at $4.5m in 2017-18, and I gotta think that he got a significant bump from leading a major metro area team to its first Stanley Cup after 44 years of futility. His "we didn't fucking suck" line at the victory rally may or may not have helped.

I haven't seen anybody raise the issue of why in hell the team itself played much better for Georgiev than it did for Hank down the stretch. Hank wasn't great, but even faced with Quinn trying to get him 20 wins they came out flat and uninspired against Ottawa. Then they went and got 3 points in the last two playing fiercely against tough teams in front of Georgiev. What was that about?