Number 30, end of the first round: The Coyotes select:
Good. No trade. Great pick. Party on Wayne. Nicholas Merkley. My man Adam French called him a "top ten pick in most years" and said it wasn't impossible he would be this year. For him to fall to the Coyotes at 30th is fantastic. More tomorrow.
Also, EK is reporting Oshie to the Yotes is a possibility. I'd LOVE that. (Depending on cost).
Update the Fourth
Wow Bettman booed and O'Reilly to the Sabres? They'll be a Playoff team next year. But who boos Gary Bettman, that's crazy.
The Coyotes per Eklund are talking to the Leafs about Kessel.......exciting.
And the new Jerseys are horrendous. Good times.
Update the Third:
My pre-draft burger was terrible, and I feel kind gross now, but the draft is almost upon us. I didn't miss anything while I was out, but the Coyotes will shortly reveal their new jersey. So that is sort of interesting.
Also, James Mirtle tweeted out that it's unlikely the Coyotes will move the third pick now. Let's wait and see...
Update the second:
I forgot to mention earlier that a team - supposedly the Jets - offered the Coyotes two mid-firsts (17 and 25) and a prospect for the #3 pick and the Coyotes - one assumes - turned it down.
Depending on the player, I would say good.
Another rumour is that the Bruins are about to trade Lucic to the Kings and would then package three picks in a row -LA's, their own, and Calgarys - for the #3 pick. Now, that does seem sort of unrealistic, but if you're the Coyotes, that's gotta be tempting.
2.5: Lebrun saying its Martin Jones, #13 and a prospect for Lucic. Now we wait to see if the other rumour is true. I really hope they just stay at 3.
Update:
So we get our first big trade and its insane in both the membrane and the regular brain. Why did the Bruins fire Peter Chiarelli again? This is the kind of trade that if I posted as an idea would get me attacked for days and days!!!
Appearantly we're talking a first (15th) and two seconds? Insane. If I was Don Maloney, I would have happily straight up paid the #3 pick, but I am sure Boston tried that and were turned down. Seems like a horrible trade for the Bruins. Calgary though? Yikes.
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It's finally here. After waiting for months - for the season to end, for the Playoffs to end, for the boring interim period to end, for the horrible, insane, amateur Awards Show to end - the 2015 NHL Entry Draft is finally here.
I will update this as the day goes along and hopefully it will be an exciting day. I have a jug of wine for later, so if things start getting weird, I'll stop, but hopefully we'll be on the air until at least 11 or whenever the draft ends.
Let's kick things off with one of the greatest songs ever recorded, just to celebrate.
As everyone knows, the Coyotes currently hold the number three pick. And while they can't exactly go wrong here - Hanifin and OEL? Marner and Domi? Strome ? - the rumours are hot and heavy that they are going to move it.
Now, considering that you could move down just slightly and end up with Crouse, Provorov, Werenski, Zacha, or Barzal, it isn't the craziest idea in the world.
The fact is, this draft is stocked with great players and thus the Coyotes have lots of options.
If you can get a similarly good player and add more assets, why not? I think that they will ultimately end up keeping it and drafting Strome - a big centre with comparisons to Joe Thornton is just too good to pass up.
Rumours
There's lots of rumours so let's get them down:
Coyotes have two firm offers for the No. 3 pick outright plus several more offers that are a combination of pick(s) and player(s)
— Pierre LeBrun (@Real_ESPNLeBrun) June 25, 2015Well everyone keeps saying Columbus, and how can then not be drooling at the idea of a Murray/Hanifin combo?
Others are saying the Flyers are very interested. If I'm Maloney, Sean Couturier for the third is something I'd really have to consider - especially if they'd also include their first for a lesser piece coming back from the Coyotes.
What about Boston? It's hard to believe they'd be wiling to part with Dougie Hamilton, but if they would, I'd be all over that in a half-second. Like I said earlier, I won't be able to contain myself with an OEL/Hamilton combo - if this long-shot where to come to fruition, this place will be a party and that jug of wine (it's really just a bottle) won't have a chance.
Here's another of my all-time favs:
Say it isn't so!
Even though he's only at the age where many players just start to figure it out, the Coyotes are rumored to be considering a buy-out for Sam Gagner, who I continue to take a ton of heat for suggesting that he would one day score 70 points in the NHL.
However, despite only scoring 41 points last year, 27 of them came at even-strength and he had some of the best possession numbers on the team. If you account for the fact that he had just six points in his first 17 games as he adjusted to the Coyotes, his stats really weren't that bad.
He scored 35 points in his final 65 games, and despite scoring the fourth most points on the team on the power-play, he was sixth in PP ice time.
His most common line-mates? Martin Erat, Tobias Rieder and Lori Korpikoski. To score 41 points while wasting the first 15 games, playing with bad players and getting no power-play time on the top unit, Sam Gagner's 41 points are decent if not excellent.
I continue to see no reason why he couldn't score a 70 point season if given the chance to play top PP minutes and with good players. His 27 5v5 points put him in comparison to Spezza who scored 30 in the same amount of games, playing with better players, no doubt.
Kessel had 30 ES points, Neal had 29 - so it's not exactly like he bombed.
But here's the thing: Buying Out Sam Gagner makes no sense. He makes $3.2 million dollars and is signed for one more year. The Coyotes are $18 million from the cap-floor, so it's not like they need to cut costs. Also, the Lightning are paying a third of his salary, so they have a player capable of putting up points, playing multiple positions, up and down the lineup, a veteran, a guy who is just 26 and capable of so much more than he's done, and they want to buy him out?
Something doesn't add up here. But, he'd be a great addition to any team, I don't know how anyone can watch Gagner and not be a fan - he's a gamer, he's got heart, he aggressive and he has talent - sure, he always leaves you wanting more, but this rumour isn't making much sense to me.
If there's more, I'll post it here as we go.
Thanks for reading.