Around the NHL...

Well it's been nice to get back into hockey from my little mini hockey vacation. I'm excited to get some hockey news from now till the free agent frenzy is over in early July, because after that it'll be pretty slow in the hockey world until training camp...what is that, only 78 days away? (I'm so making that number up by the way). For those of you who haven't hear about the moves that were made before/during the draft, here's what you missed:

• Pronger (with forward Ryan Dingle) was traded to the Flyers for D Luca Sbisa and Joffrey Lupul and two 1st round picks, and conditional 3rd round pick (if they win the cup). The Flyers overpaid. This is the second time that Lupul has been traded for Pronger. Pronger is in the last year of his contract, and this doesn't guarantee a contract extension with the Flyers, which makes the Flyers have a lot of pressure for this to be THE year. But Carter and Richards are still young, why is there so much pressure on this year being the year for the cup? Won't there be a few chances at it with this core? Whatever, that means Pronger is out of the western conference and now Lupul can party with Getzlaf instead of going to frat parties in Philly with Richards
• Niedermayer tell the Ducks he'll be back for another season yesterday. Today, Selanne does the same.
• J-Bouws rights have been traded to Calgary. Doesn't mean he'll sign there, but if he does, have fun with that salary cap there Calgary.
• Luongo was at the Canucks draft table, he also made selection for Schroeder (and mispronounced it). Cue Luongo's agent denying whatever there is to deny.
• TSN keeps writing stories about nothing. Gillis met with the Sedins' (and half of the league's) agent on Friday night. No news, this reminds me of the amound of 'news' they kept writing about Sundin for months last year.

I was hoping for more trades before the draft...only the Pronger one happened, but hey thats fun to write about, and now we can all hate the Flyers even more.

If you did watch the draft, was is not too freakin long? 4 hours? C'mon...enough with the speaches, just make the pick. I did have great girls to girl out over the selections with, but if I hadn't, I would have lost interest around #12. First 3 went as expected: Tavares, Hedman and Duchene.

If you didn't check it out, James at Cycle Like the Sedins had a Draft Preview from tons of homer bloggers (yes, even me), you can click on the link here. I'll be participating in his Free Agency Frenzy stuff with a Canucks take, so I'll throw up the link once it's up.