2009 NHL off-season trades, rumours, draft thread

Huska, Tucker and Tyson Nash.

 

The fourth and final Memorial Cup-bound team is the..........*drum roll*...........Drummondville Voltigeurs.

They beat the Shawinigan Cataractes 3-2 tonight in Game 7 of the QMJHL final to capture their first playoff championship - although it'll be their third Cup appearance, having taken part twice before as the league runners-up when the Q hosted the event and had two berths.

 

Hockeybeat said the word was the Islanders were looking seriously at taking Hedman No.1, and obviously if that's the case I think the Leafs are looking for an either/or with Tavares or Duchene.

One thing's for certain. The Lightning management will be inconsolable if they don't get Hedman.

Oh, and for those of us south for the border, NHL Network is again doing to be showing the Memorial Cup in its entirity.

 

That's good news. Hopefully the trophy will stay together this year.

 

That poor guy will probably never, ever live that down......and the truly shitty thing is, it wasn't his fault. No one expects to be presented with a trophy and then have it fall apart in your hands.

 

I've worked in junior hockey a long time and know what it takes to put together a team that is a legit Mem Cup contender (which we were this season). You have a very short window to get a team like that together through savvy drafting and trades. And you need plenty of luck avoiding injuries etc.

To win it three out of four years like the Blazers did is astonishing. The Rockets have been on a pretty good roll since they went to Quebec City in 2003.

 

It's not much fun being about 40 minutes short of one my brotha....but getting past the biggest hurdle (winning the league) is pretty special.

 

I assume all the games are sold out. That would make one helluva road trip, albeit a long one.

 

Remember, though ... teams back then were built without the bantam draft. There was an awful lot of negotiating and haggling going oin.

 

Kelowna is going to be tough, but I wonder how much is left in the tank after knocking of both the Giants and the Hitmen -- who some were trying to label as the greatest Major Junior team ever put together, can we say premature???

Anyways they've been on a hell of a run, although it does help when you can add Calgary's first round pick of a year ago -- Mikael Backlund -- following the world juniors at no cost.

 

If the Hitmen were so shit hot, how come Windsor was in first place in CHL rankings for almost the entire year

The scary part (at least from what I read) was that this Spitfire team was put together with NEXT year in mind.

 

do people really take the CHL ranking seriously? Not meant with snark, I am actually curious?