Things related to hockey I care about now, ranked:

  1. The upcoming draft, since I dove headfirst into prospects this year I’m excited to see what happens and write about who the Leafs get.
  2. Free agency day, for obvious reasons.
  3. William Nylander workout videos.
  4. I guess the Stanley Cup Finals.

About the draft, it was fun this weekend following scouting twitter people. There has been various leagues who are already into “next season” in various stages. Sweden, Finland and Russia have their regular seasons under way, and it’s interesting to see how 2020 draft eligible prospects have improved compared to what we saw from them last year. Anton Lundell, Lucas Raymond, and Yaroslav Askarov are filling the stat sheet and the highlight reel.

In fact, the more I watch clips of Askarov, who is playing among men in the KHL and he only just turned 18 in June. In three games, he has a 0.74 GAA and .974 sv% which is obviously something he will keep up until the draft to make people go silly about him. That’s fun! But it also means that he, and the others I mentioned above, may be more likely to rise in people’s rankings ahead of the draft while North American prospects not playing fall. That means the Leafs are less likely to have someone like Lundell or Askarov fall to them, which makes me sad.

I’m also excited for the Cup Finals to be over, but only as an extension of the draft and free agency coming soon after. In fact, I think we’ll start seeing the flood gates open at least a bit after the finals when it’s now fair for the Leafs to make more deals. If the Leafs really do think they have a real shot at signing Pietrangelo, they’ll need to make some deals to free up the cap space required.

Does that mean the Leafs will get more draft picks? New and cheaper players to replace guys like Johnsson or Andersen? A mix of both? I WANT TO KNOW LET US HAVE IT NOW!

Oh, also go Lightning I guess. Beat those Stars, preferably in as few games as possible.

Top 25 Draft Prospects of 2020: Good teams, tough choices | by Katya

Filip Hållander’s team has a moneyball CEO with a development mindset | by Katya

Breaking down Alex Pietrangelo’s interview with The Athletic | by TLN

Trade talk, luxury taxes, sad Sabres fans, relocations and more | by James Mirtle at The Athletic.

Bettman says 2020-21 NHL season could start in December or January | by Sportsnet

Cooper on Stamkos’ possible return in Game 2: ‘Always a chance... tune in to find out’ | by TSN.ca

Did y’all know that the Dallas Stars have been having 25% capacity of their arena in Dallas to watch the Stars games since the conference finals started? I didn’t until Sunday evening.

Everyone give Fulemin a shout out for this work of art:

Everyone go yell at Alan for telling the truth at us!

Have a great Monday everyone!

Which hockey thing are you most excited about?

The Cup Finals8
The Draft64
Free Agency49
The Traaaaaadesssss123
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