NHL Draft Projections

After the NHL Central Scouting released it's final rankings, we've decided to show our top 10 rankings as well.

The picks are listed as Name/Position/Team/League.

1. Nail Yakupov/RW/Sarnia/OHL

2. Alex Galchenyuk/C/Quebec/QMJHL

3. Mikhail Grigorenko/C/Sarnia/OHL

4. Ryan Murray/D/Everett/WHL

5. Filip Foresberg/C/Leksand/Sweden-2

6. Morgan Rielly/D/Moose Jaw/WHL

7. Jacob Trouba/D/USA U-18/USHL

8. Radek Faksa/C/Kitchener/OHL

9. Brendan Gaunce/C/Belleville/OHL

10. Mathew Dumba/D/Red Deer/WHL

Players to watch for:

Cody Ceci/D/Ottawa/OHL

Colton Sissons/C/Kelowna/WHL

Malcom Subban/G/Belleville/OHL

Sebastian Collberg/RW/Frolunda Jr/Swe-Jr.

Olli Matta/D/London/OHL

WHAT DOES YOUR RANKING LOOK LIKE? COMMENT BELOW!

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Draft Lottery Where and Who

The NHL Entry Draft Lottery will be held on Tuesday at 8 PM ET. You can watch it on TSN in Canada. At the draft lottery will be; Columbus Blue Jackets Executive VP of Hockey Operations and GM Scott Howson, Edmonton Oilers GM Steve Tambellini, Montreal Canadiens Assistant GM Laryy Carriere, New York Islanders Director of Pro Scouting Ken Morrow, Toronto Maple Leafs President and GM Brian Burke will all be in attendance.

Draft Lottery Odds

According to Bob McKenzie of TSN, these are the chances of the following teams to win the draft lottery:

If these teams win, they will get the first overall pick in this year's entry draft:
Columbus Blue Jackets: 48.2%
Edmonton Oilers 18.2%
Montreal Canadiens 14.2%
New York Islanders 10.7%
Toronto Maple Leafs 8.1%

If these teams win, they can move up a maximum of  four spots up the ranking:
Anaheim Ducks 6.2%
Minnesota Wild 4.7%
Carolina Hurricanes 3.6%
Winnipeg Jets 2.7%
Tampa Bay Lighting 2.1%
Colorado Avalanche* 1.5%
Buffalo Sabres 1.1%
Dallas Stars 0.8%
Calgary Flames 0.5%

* The Colorado Avalanche's first round pick will go to the Washington Capitols due to the trade that sent G Semyon Varlamov for this pick and a 2nd round pick in either 2012 or 2013.

Playoff Teams decided

After yesterday's matchup, 16 teams have clinched playoff spots. It's been a long time since all the playoffs spots have been taken before the last day of the regular season. Here are the playoff teams in order of rankings.

Eastern Conference                                      Western Conference

New York Rangers                                        Vancouver Canucks
Boston Bruins                                               St. Louis Blues
Florida Panthers                                            Los Angeles Kings
Pittsburgh Penguins                                       Nashville Predators
Philadelphia Flyers                                        Detroit Red Wings
New Jersey Devils                                         Chicago Blackhawks
Ottawa Senators                                           San Jose Sharks
Washington Capitols                                      Phoenix Coyotes

The East standings are pretty much secured with only a Ottawa lost and Caps win on Saturday that could change the playoff matchups. The West however is more difficult because of the home-ice advantage situtation.
The Pacific Division is a mess with any of the three teams having the possibilities of taking the third seed. All in all, all 30 teams will see action Saturday. The game to watch will definitley be the Pens-Flyers game as it will be a preview of their playoff matchup and especially after the huge fiasco in their last meeting.

Just a few quick notes and news from the afternoon

• Carey Price has been diagnosed with a "mild" concussion. This may be something to be worried about as this may lead to a James Reimer like performance, with him coming back and being unable to maintain his production before his injury. Not to scare Habs fans but don't forget, Nathan Horton has been out with a "mild" concussion since Feburary.
• Tyler Myers will be out for at least the rest of the regular season with a foot injury. We don't know about the playoffs.
• Carl Gunnarson has a seperated shoulder and will be out for the year.
• P.A. Parentau's agent hassaid that he has recieved zero offers to keep his client in Long Island.
• The most sought after college player right now D Justin Schultz has not decided and will probably try the UFA market this year.
• Calgary is not interested in a "Edmonton-like" rebuild.

Julien Brisebois and Vincent Damphousse Isn't Interested In Habs GM Position

Talks out of Montreal's RDS are saying that once preferred Habs GM candidate Julien Brisebois is no longer interested in the GM job. The assistant GM of the Tampa Bay Lightning would have passed on the offer if he was offered the job of being the next General Manager of the Montreal Canadiens. With Brisebois out of the picture, the next top candidate is apparently Vincent Damphousse. No word on the coach right now except for maybe Patrick Roy.

However, I feel that this situation will be cleared up before the Draft and latest June 27th. I feel that whoever the new GM is, he would prefer to draft his own players instead of spending a year. The June 27th deadline is the latest I think any GM would want to go because on July 1st free agency starts and before free agent frenzy starts, most GMs would want a few days to settle down. However, with the chance of a lockout looming, this can change in an instant.

Update:
3:33 What I'm hearing right now from around the league is that Geoff Molson has contacted the following:
Claude Loiselle: Toronto Maple Leafs Assistant GM (Apparently the Leafs have granted the Habs permission to talk to him about the job.)
Pat Brisson: NHL Agent. His clients include Sidney Crosby, Daniel Alfredsson, and Claude Giroux. (Considered by many as the best agent available out there by many of the hockey insiders we spoke to.)
Julien Brisebois: Assistant GM of the Tampa Bay Lightning (Apparently not intersted though)
Marc Bergevin: Assistant GM of the Chicago Blackhawks. (Not too sure if the Blackhawks have granted permission to talk to him yet.)
Francois Giguere: Former GM of the Colorado Avalanche. (Is the apparent long shot because he has not been in the front office of any team for a few years now.)
Paul Fenton: Fenton is the Assistant GM of the Nashville Predators. (Not sure if the Predators have granted permission to talk to him yet.

3:43
Notables not on the list:
Patrick Roy: Even though he has been rumored for the job, it seems that the coaching job is his to lose and infact he does not seem to intersted to step in to the front office of the Habs, preffering a job behind the bench.
Vincent Damphousse: He has pulled out of the running for the job because family reasons are preventin him. Not too much known right now. But we will try to get you information as we get it, but we really can't give you a specific date or time when we will get new info.

4:02
@NHLWiki is saying that the reason why Damphousse has pulled out of the running is that he has an assualt trial that will start in Dec. 2012. I haven't gotten the same story from anyone else though, so i'm not too sure at this time.

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Andrei Markov Injury Status.

We've seen a lot of searches recently about whether Habs D-Man Andrei Markov is injured or not.
Habs fans rejoice! He is not injured. He has been playing on the Habs patrolling the back end. He has been slowly being added back into the line up with 17 minutes on the ice on the 24th, to almost 22 minutes on the ice yesterday. So Habs fans don't worry, Markov is back!

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