The Draft!

Got to watch the draft while at work, and glad I did. Very entertaining, lots of trades with perhaps more to come. Calgary did what was necessary and moved Tanguay's salary while picking up Mike Cammalleri. There had been rumors earlier about Jarret Stoll possibly going to L.A. for Cammalleri, which would have been an amazing pickup for Edmonton. Calgary downgrades slightly I'd say, but saves some cap space to presumably go towards Daymond Langkow. The Leafs give permission to the Canadiens to talk to Mats Sundin, though after Sundin made it clear he wanted to be a Leaf and didn't believe in being a rental and abandoning his team, it would be hard to see him actually going there, or anywhere else. I think he'll either retire or re-sign in Toronto. Either would be fine, it would pretty hard for Leaf fans to see him refuse a trade at the deadline, one that would have brought the Leafs a huge package of picks and prospects, only to see him bolt at the end of the year. Olli Jokinen to Phoenix was a surprise, kind of looked like they were going to stick with their rebuilding plans as they appeared to be going well, but looks like they're going for a playoff spot right now, and certainly more if that Southwest division fades. More trades are rumored and Edmonton has some names in play so maybe today there'll be more news.

The draft itself went as planned as far as player order, but teams were trading up and down like crazy. You have to wonder about the mindset of the New York Islanders though, here they are at 5 with a chance to pick either Luke Schenn or Nikita Filitov and they trade down not once, but TWICE down to the 9th spot. Sure, accumulating depth picks in later rounds is nice but there's something to be said for drafting top-end, possibly NHL-ready talent. Especially for the Islanders, at team with few blue-chippers besides Kyle Okposo. The Leafs did well in moving up to get Schenn, who I thought was Canada's best defenseman at the World Juniors, the Oilers did the expected and grabbed Jordan Eberle, and the rest of the teams made picks that made Pierre McGuire happy, which is the most important thing. Because this is THE DEEPEST DRAFT IN YEARS presumably most teams will be labelled "winners," but I have to think the Islanders blew it by not picking the best player. Drafting is about asset accumulation, and those assets are never rated more highly than they are at draft time. Grab Filitov or Schenn and trade them later, you might be able to get more for them than just trading the draft position. I still remember when Edmonton had a chance to draft Zack Parise, they instead traded down to get a few extra picks that became Marc Pouliot and JF Jacques. Jacques has fallen behind, Pouliot played well at the end of last season but Parise has 63 goals the last two seasons. Yeah, mistakes get made, but everybody thought Parise was a much better player than Pouliot, so why not grab Parise and flip him for somebody else, and still draft Pouliot later? Then at least you've made a trade where you sold high, rather than selling just a draft slot. It's just odd to see teams tank at the end of the year to get a higher draft slot, then trade it away for depth picks.

Cito Gaston is the new manager of the Toronto Blue Jays! The most successful coach in team history, also described as a terrific batting coach, also brings back Gene Tenace as hitting coach, who's probably the best hitting coach the team has ever had. So things are looking up!...except that their first game, against Godawful Pittsburgh Terribles, sees them go 12 innings without scoring a run for their best pitcher. I don't know about you, but I LIKE steriods in baseball.