Thursday Highlights as We Wait for the Draft

We are a day away from the NHL Entry Draft in Montreal. Another reminder of the Predator's Draft Tweetup at O'Charleys in Franklin, which is an official Predators function. To respond to the TwtVite go here.

I have not written a draft preview in this space because I wrote one for "View from My Seats" a couple of weeks back that is scheduled to be on their site on Friday.

In the Preds World...

John Glennon at the Tennessean has an article and a stats page on players that the Preds may pick in the eleventh slot if indeed they do draft there. Kevin Allen at USA Today has an article about US players that may go in the first round.

Glennon had another piece last night that says tonight may be critical in his dealings with the agents of several free agents including Steve Sullivan. John has a roundup article here that covers several topics.

Kevin Allen has another article with an interesting quote from David Poile, "Under the salary cap system, draft picks and younger players are now worth a lot. They are good currency for making trades, and I anticipate things are going to happen here." I do indeed believe that the Preds will try to add needed scoring by trading down in the first round and/or grouping a package of some of their 12 picks to acquire low cost scoring help.

Forechecher has a variety of topics in his Thursday post. He has really had some good articles lately (as always) including this one yesterday on the Preds contending for the cup..

I'm looking forward today to listening to a couple of podcasts from last night that I missed. The Program featured Chris Wassel, Russ Cohen and others talking about the draft and Brandon Felder and Paul McCann had a lively exchange on this week's edition of Hockey Buzz Radio.

Around the NHL...

Puck Daddy did a round up of the Top Ten things that happened in the hockey blog world that is really interesting. This is a must read.

Mirtle had his draft day primer which will help you prepare to prepare for the draft.

From the Sporting News, here is a good listing of the draft order complete with notes of how the picks were traded to the current holder.

Three reports out of Russia (via the Washington Post) say that Sergei Federov has signed a two year deal to play in the KHL for Metallurg Magnitogorsk. After listening to him at the Award show talking about his brother, Fedor signing a 2-year deal, I had a good idea that we had seen the last of him in the NHL.

Sports Business Journal has an article about Jim Balsillie that is a complete history of his dealings with the NHL.

Gary Bettman covered a range of topics in a Globe and Mail story about the Board of Governors meetings.

Kukla's has a story that says the NHLPA will probably approve a second Winter Classic game. This is looking more likely every day. E J Hradek has an analysis of why the union is up for it.

Dee Karl has a story about the Islander's number one pick and how the fans should prepare.

Stay Classey has a couple of interesting scenarios involving Dany Heatley and draft picks among the early drafting teams. The Globe has another story saying that Brian Burke and the Thrashers may deal to put Toronto in position to get the Schenn brother.

More Later...

Buddy Oakes for PredsOnTheGlass

Additions...

Funny story about the Velcro nameplates on the jerseys that the draftees model on stage from Chris Botta. We had a talk with Colin Wilson about the Velcro models several weeks ago when he modeled his first "real" Preds jersey.

Duh!... Gretzky will accept a salary cut for the team to stay in Phoenix. My bet is that he will settle past debt from the Moyes ownership with an even bigger % of the new ownership.

Rumor via Forchecker "RT @kelceybrade NHL Speculation: Edmonton Oilers are apparently interested in Nashville's Jordan Tootoo. Price Robert Nilsson & draft pick." Nilsson's biggest claim to fame was being a part of the Ryan Smith trade in 2007 and has never scored more than 12 goals in a pro season. It had better be a good draft pick.

Michelle Kenneth reports that Brendan Shanahan will return for another year. The Devils are considered the "backup" plan. Michelle offers Shanny a bit of advice too.

Greg Zanon's younger brother, Brad, has resigned with the Florida Everblades. He plans to attend an AHL camp after training with Greg this summer.

David Boclair looks at why few Russians will be drafted this year and ones the Preds have drafted in the past.

Forechecker gives us the heads up on the NHLPA voting to invoke the inflator clause this year which will leave the salary cap virtually unchanged.

From the Bruins Blog, possible Predator draftee has a couple of Bruins that he looks to for direction.

RLD published their final two round draft preview.

Here is a primer on cliches and what they mean during the draft telecast.

Forechecker has been eating his Wheaties again with his analysis of the Preds situation under the new revised salary cap that was released today.