SBNation Mock Draft: Results

Goodbye Fake Michael Ryder. Goodbye Fake Andrew Ference. We knew you well, and in the end you provided us with a good way to drop some serious cap space dough. This also means we get to see McQuaid play the "punch faces and be mediocre at hockey" role that Hnidy did when he was here. It solves the depth and salary problems up front. And we've still got a fantastic goalie tandem in Thomas and Rask.

In memoriam:

GO BRUINS!

SBNation Mock Draft: Protected Players

So SBNation is doing a mock expansion draft because hockey isn't here yet and we're all a little bored, no matter how many times we watch Brady2Moss make magic in the preseason. The first part of the exercise went as expected and a couple of Canadians still crying over the Jets and Nordiques get to feel a little better about themselves as a result.

Now comes the interesting part: They'll be having a mock expansion draft. Each team gets a chance to protect some but not all of the players. Here's the criteria, stolen from the post over at Hockey Wilderness, where they're having trouble picking enough players to protect, and I don't blame them:

- Teams can protect either "1 goalie, 5 defensemen and 9 forwards" OR "2 goalies, 3 defensemen and 7 forwards."
- If you go the two goalie route, at least one goalie left unprotected must have played in at least 10 games last season OR 25 games in the last two seasons combined. One game = at least 31 minutes.
- Each team must leave unprotected at least one defenseman who appeared in 40 games last season OR 70 games in the last two seasons combined.
- Each team must leave unprotected at least two forwards who appeared in 40 games last season OR 70 games in the last two seasons combined.
- Players who have played in 49 or fewer games are automatically exempt and do not need to be protected.

So Seguin is exempt, but Johnny "51 games" Boychuk is not.

Originally I decided to go the 2 goalies, 3 defensemen, 7 forwards path because, well, I thought Thomas was a good enough goalie to be worth more than protecting a 4th and 5th defenseman and an 8th and 9th forward. After laughing at Toskala all last year while watching Colombus go down in flames in front of Steve Mason I think Thomas is worth it. Yes, his contract is pretty ridiculous but I just don't know if Rask is ready for 60 games+ playoffs. He looked tired in the Philly series, you know?

But then again maybe I want to play the will-he-won't-he sweepstakes with Thomas. The upside is he's good, the upside of leaving him dangling is that his contract is giant. Plus, only 2 guys can get taken and only 1 of those can be a defenseman or goalie. So maybe someone's more likely to take Ference than Thomas? Uh oh, that was a spoiler.

So far, 1 Keeper Goalie: Tuukka Rask.

I'm worried about him getting too many starts but there are un-signed goalies out there, right?

Which brings me to the next step of the exercise, the defensemen. Here are the defensemen eligible for this exercise:

Chara

Seidenberg

Boychuk

Hunwick

Stuart

Ference

So of course Chara and Seidenberg are locks, and Boychuk and Hunwick have too much upside to let go. That brings it down to a game of which defenseman do you expose? As mentioned before, I'm gonna go with Ference. He's a hell of a guy and I'm a big fan but when I don't protect Thornton in the forwards someone else who is popular should probably get on there. Also Stuart's cap hit is a hell of a lot more friendly. This gives the GMs a choice between Ference and Thomas. Should be interesting.

Moving right along we need to keep a couple forwards around. Because we're dangling Thomas we get to pick up to 9 forwards to keep around. We also need to expose up to 2 forwards that have played a bunch of games the last season or two. So here's the list:

Savard

Horton

Krejci

Bergeron

Recchi

Lucic

Wheeler

----------------

Sturm

Paille

Campbell

Thornton

Ryder

Above the line are the 7 who I think are pretty much no-brainers. Obviously Ryder is going to go unprotected, and maybe you leave Sturm out there too. Paille can end up in the protected list - I like his style. And I'd probably put Sturm on there too, yeah. Let's keep sturm around for now. He's hurt anyways. So that means our dangling forwards are Michael Ryder (sorry Chemmy) Greg Campbell (sorry Colin, thanks for suspending Matt Cooke for intent to injure) and Shawn Thornton (sorry katie).

So here's the final protected list:

Rask

Chara

Seidenberg

Boychuk

Hunwick

Stuart

Savard

Horton

Krejci

Bergeron

Recchi

Lucic

Wheeler

Sturm

Paille

Where'd I screw it all up? Let me know.

GO BRUINS!

2010 Bruins Draft Review: Tyler Seguin, Jared Knight, and a bunch of teenagers

Oh this? Just OHL MVP. No big deal.

Tyler Seguin's been talked to death but I'm still Psyched for Seguin. Puck Prospectus said he wasn't as good as Hall but that's why he went second overall instead of first. Whatever, he's going to be good. But now it's time to get excited for our next pick.

It's time to Jump for Jared Knight

Face of a killer, I tell you what.

Let's take a look at the next draft pick, though: Jared Knight. Jared plays for the London Knights of the OHL, and is interesting to say the least. Here's a quick highlight clip:

Pretty exciting, right? I know! I know!

Look at that, he's at the net in a bunch of the clips. A kid who goes to the net. And a RW to boot, which granted we don't need as much as LWs but it's still exciting that we've got a good winger in the pipe. Lets take a look at his OHL production, where he was 5th in points on his team with 36-21-57. However, he had the most goals of the team all year. In the playoffs, he went 10-7-17 (3rd) in 12 games, though he again lead his team in goals with that 10. The kid has a nose for the net and likes scoring goals, which can only be music to Bruins fans' ears.

Basically when Recchi retires in 2 7 years Knight will take his spot. Get ready (in like 1-2 years) to Jump for Jared Knight! Go Nuts for Knight!

GO BRUINS!

p.s. if there are any London Knights fans out there, please get in touch.

Oilers media doesn't understand how drafts work; still attempting to tamper

Like the rest of you, I've been trying to read up on prospect news and interesting facts about Tyler Seguin and whoever the Bruins end up with with their other pick. So like any good hockey fan, I went to TSN's draftcentre and was immediately smacked in the face with a story about the Oilers next jersey and ticket seller, Taylor Hall. Hall had a press conference with the Oilers recently and the media there tried to convince him to play for Edmonton instead of Boston.

Now before you get all worked up about the Oilers taking Hall - they will, and with the first overall pick - know that Hall was in Boston the week prior, basically doing the same thing. Hall and Seguin are both being scouted by only Boston and Edmonton. Now that that's over with, here's the meat of the story and evidence of the vile Edmonton media's laughable attempt at tampering:

He laughed when asked if he knew the difference between the Alberta drinking age -- 18 -- and the drinking age in Massachusetts --21.

"Doesn't matter to me. I am a hockey player."

Well obviously it doesn't matter. Cowboys is in Calgary. But you can see the insidious plot to convince Taylor Hall to....well, huh. The funny thing about this question is that whether Taylor Hall can walk into any bar in Alberta (because he's of age) or any bar in Boston (because he's a superstar) probably doesn't play into whether the Oilers pick him first or not. This is not the end of the Oilers' media treachery, however...the plot thickens:

Is he a steak man or a seafood man?

"I like steak."

Though there are plenty of wonderful places to get a steak in or near Boston, and I'd probably say "steak" as well, this is an obvious dig at Boston's coastal nature and seafood industry, and an opportunity to mention that Alberta produces half of Canada's beef.

This obvious attempt at tampering will not stand!

GO BRUINS!

This post was originally a fanpost on SCoC.

DRAFT LOTTERY TONIGHT! WOOOOOO

Well, ladies and gents, this is it. This is the part of the season you've been waiting for that isn't the playoffs. It's time for a

DRAFT LOTTERY PARTY!!!!

So the Bruins have an 18.8% chance of getting first overall and having to pick between Taylor Hall:

And Tyler Seguin:

Lordy lordy, what would we DO????

But if we don't get that 18.8% there's a 42% chance that we get the second overall pick. The Bruins would pick one of those gents but we wouldn't need to hear about how they should have picked the other one. Yeah, you know that would be coming.

Of course there's a third option, for third overall, and that's a 39.2% chance. That would be rough. We want that top-2 pick and that top-2 talent.

Good luck to us.

Versus, 8pm
NESN analysis, 8:30 pm
NHL.com streaming, 8pm.
GO BRUINS!

Game 80 Preview: Bruins vs. Hurrican'ts I KNOW WHAT I WANT FOR FAN APPRECIATION DAY (HINT IT'S EYEBLEAF'S FAVORITE)

It's kind of fun that the last home game of the Bruins regular season is also the first home game of the Revolution season. Revs play TorontoFC at like 7pm tonight so unless you're watching Habs/Leafs on NHLNetwork (which you totally should be and rooting for Toronto) maybe flip that o-hahahahahaha oh my who watches MLS on TV anyways?

Regardless, the Bruins have a chance to clinch at home with a win today. 3 points today and tomorrow clinches 6th which isn't so bad. But check this out: Montreal might still miss. Here's how:

• Bruins get at least a point today (though they need a win to clinch).
• Toronto beats Montreal in regulation.
• Rangers beat Philly in overtime tomorrow.

Bonus: The Maple Leafs are locked in to 29th place for the season so you don't have to feel bad about them winning and maybe us not getting as good a draft pick. The draft lottery is on Tuesday, but you can check in with the Oilers website for all your lottery simulation fun. Hit reload to re-run the simulation.

Here's the probabilities for Boston's pick from Toronto:

• 1st overall chance: 18.8%
• 2nd overall chance: 42.0%
• 3rd overall chance: 39.2%
• 4th or higher chance: 0.000% ()
  

So things are looking up in Bruins-land. The crazies are giving up and moving on to the Red Sox. Bruins have a 60.8% chance of picking Hall or Seguin, both of whom will likely help a starved Bruins offense next year. And the playoffs are looking like a reality. Brilliant!

As for the season so far, it's been a disappointing one so far. A bunch of players aren't having career years again and we aren't even dominating the habs. However, hope springs eternal for the Bruins as they aren't eliminated from the playoffs. Minnesota is but who didn't expect that. The important part about the Minnesota season this year is Guillaime Latendresse who got traded from the Montreal media asking him why he didn't score a hat trick every night to the hokiest team in hockey and the hard-hitting reporting of the Minnesota media (actually I like Mike Russo a lot but they seem to be friendlier in Minnesota. Minnesota Nice. Nice. The folks over at Hockey Wilderness have taken to calling him BTE (Best Trade Ever). Of course when you're a ten-year-old team that's less difficult.

I know I don't shut up about how awesome Steve Stamkos is but I'm signing up for Stammer's Sweethearts, especially after how hilarious this chart of where he's scored his goals from:

If you want to see the same kind of chart for Crosby (king of the tip-in) and Ovechkin (shoots from everywhere, scores from everywhere, Russian machine never break) Check it out on NHL.com. The MLS website could take some queues from them. Stamkos owns and I hope he scores 8 goals this weekend and takes the Rocket Richard.

Wisconsin is playing BC tonight in the NCAA Frozen Four Final.

GO WISCONSIN
GO REVOLUTION
GO LEAFS, GO RANGERS IN OT TOMORROW
GO BRUINS!