shrader

I wonder what Crosby thought after he didn’t win the award. This is no big deal and it means very little moving forward.

So much of it is mind-numbingly stupid. The split bullet thing this week? And why is it that they needed the plane (and the next plane) so badly to get over there, yet Dwight got there all on his own?

I can't see why they wouldn't qualify Larsson. The offer is dirt cheap and you may as well maintain control of an at least somewhat useful player. I'd be watching the lower end guys if I'm looking for someone who isn't retained, the Brycen Martins of the world.

I'm starting to get the impression that the big return you're talking about will get thrown around in trade offers. This will be very interesting to watch. They don't exactly have the depth at the position to play around too much, but it's going to be something to think over quite a bit.

I'm wondering so far if the Sopranos follows that Breaking Bad model a bit. I'm maybe 5 episodes in so far. I'm fine with it, but I don't yet see a show that gets so much love.

Since it says favorite, I'm going with Al Bundy and Homer Simpson.

I have this sneaking suspicion that not too many people want to be a part of the Carolina organization, so it's always interesting to see guys take off like this. Every time I hear the owner speak (and he does that A LOT), he really sounds like someone who is way too involved. He wants to be the focal point of the organization and I'm not so sure I've seen that from many owners beyond the Jerry Jones types.

One of these things is not like the other...

I thought it was ok. It needed more Magneto though. He was by far the best part of their series of 4 movies. Ultimately though, I think the main thing that hurt this movie is that we're not all that invested into this incarnation of Jean Grey. If they had introduced her prior to the last crap show of a movie, it might mean a bit more.

I finally got around to starting the Sopranos on prime. What am I, about 20 years behind on this one?

Fortunately he was only in Carolina for the last two years. I wouldn't want anything to do with the coach responsible for the state of the goalies in that franchise prior to this year. I'll give him a free pass for being stuck with the corpses of Ward/Darling for his first season.

Two years ago a new restaurant opened in town. Before checking it out, I looked at their website to look at the menu. Then I googled a bit and wound up checking some yelp reviews. The user who posted the first review had a picture with his profile. He looked very familiar but I couldn't place it. I then went back to the restaurant's webpage... it was the owner.

I saw one of those seahawk highlighter jerseys at the gym yesterday. I immediately lost sight and walked into a locker. They're even worse in person.

One bottle neck vs. 18 different bottle necks. Give me the former, please.

I'm in a fairly quiet suburb, so there's only a few cars street parked at any point. So for them, it's not really an issue of stealing space. The thing that drives me crazy though is that with the entire street open, they'll always wind up parking directly across from my driveway. Maybe I'm the only one who things this way, but when I park on a street, I'm avoiding being near anyone's driveway unless absolutely necessary. You limit their space if they decide to pull out and it's just asking for the car to get dinged. It's even worse at my house because my wife is completely unaware of her surroundings while she backs out. Move the car about 10 feet in either direction and you're completely clear of the driveway. It's not rocket science. The worst part is that it has mostly been contractors parking there with their massive trailers. They wind up parking over a foot away from the curb, making it impossible to get out of the driveway without either hitting my curb or switching between drive and reverse a couple times.

Why do smoke detector batteries only die in the middle of the night? Thanks a lot, smoke detector. I don't have a spare 9 volt in the house and all stores are closed. I know your battery is dead and I can't fix that. There's really no need to chirp at me all night. And since you're hard-wired into an electrical source anyway, how the hell are you draining that batter so fast anyway?

You missed an obvious Tim Horton's joke here. You're officially slipping.

It's always July 1st for the start of free agency. They have a day or two window before that now where the player is allowed to talk with other teams, but I'm too lazy to look up the specifics on that.

And their website is complete garbage. You'd think that the contract length would be fairly easy to find, but I can't find mine listed anywhere on there or in a bill.

It's interesting too because there really isn't any other comparable among the other sports (granted, I don't know how soccer handles things). MLB is the only other one with a big international mix to their player base, but they non-US guys aren't included in the draft. It's a shame that they probably will never truly get a meaningful world championship format established because it's one sport where there could really be an international market for it.

I wonder how much scrambling Hockey Canada is doing with these recent drafts where they don't completely dominate the early portion of the NHL draft. Last year they had 2 of the top 10. The Auston Matthews draft was the same. This year they'll get 3 or 4. So it's not like it's happening every year, but they have to cringe a bit when they see it. Other parts of the world are catching up to them quickly when it comes to talent development.

Those aren't loopholes, they are specifically spelled out rules. And they won't be changing them, there's no reason to do that. We're talking about such a small number of players. These college players already have their rights restricted more than they are for the non-CHL player. The PA would never agree to restricted those guys' rights even further. Every single player can be eligible for unrestricted free agency 4 years after becoming eligible for the draft. You can't suddenly change that so that the college players have to wait even longer. Also, the CHL guys can re-enter the draft after two years if unsigned, something not available to the college guys. Yes there is a window each year where a bunch of college guys become UFAs at the same time, but that happens with the CHL guys as well. The only difference there is that those players can sign earlier in the year without fear of becoming inelligble to play with their current team. So you won't get that "all at once" feel, but there is definitely CHL undrafted free agency as well.

We really only have one player to look at right now for this question. Anyone beyond the first round picks was more than like a >2 year project anyway. So it's just Mittelstadt who may have been taken instead of a worthy CHL pick. With those later picks, they may indeed have a preference of one league vs. the other, but I don't think it has anything to do with those CHL transfer agreement rules. This year's draft results may very well fuel that theory though. It seems so USNTDP heavy this time around and the numbers alone make it pretty likely that they go that route with the first pick.

I can't think of the last early drafted CHL player to hold out and return into the draft 2 years later. It's too easy to just sign them right away and then let them stay there for their next two years if needed. I don't really see how they would have less control over player development with this option. I'd also have to imagine that they had some say in Pekar and UPL (yeah, until he makes it, I'm not learning that spelling) switching into that league. That's certainly a developmental move for those guys.

I just don't want to give that blind squirrel any credit if this by some chance does happen. Those constant references remind me too much of the hit and run "my neighbor's cousin works on the grounds crew" guys we get over on the football side of the board.