NHL Draft is in three days – make sure you have the goods… from a fantasy hockey standpoint … with the DobberHockey Fantasy Prospects Report. You may fall out of your chair from the awesomeness, but when you pick yourself up again, hop onto Twitter and join the #FPR hashtag contest to win all the Frozen Pool tools free for a year. Details here. I’ll pick a winner next Monday.

The Wild have re-signed Josh Harding, this time to a three-year deal worth $5.7 million. This takes him off the FA market, which may be a blessing in disguise, given his injury history. This signing will keep Matt Hackett in the minors for another year, and his future depends on Harding's health and Backstrom's next contract. I won't be drafting Hackett this summer after all.

Darren Helm has signed a four-year deal worth $8.5 million, per TSN. Who would you rather have? Helm at $2.1 million per year or David Jones at $4 million per? I don't care about UFA vs RFA, I'm just asking about "real value".

We are having a live chat during the draft – this will take place Friday night at DobberProspects. Brendan Ross will be there, as will myself and several other DP writers/scouts. You can head over there now and check out some of the profiles of the draftees.

If you were putting together odds, on behalf of the bookies in Vegas – where will Alexander Semin go? Let me take a stab at it – here are my 10 favorites, in order:

KHL

CBJ

CGY

CAR

FLA

NYR

MTL

BUF

OTT

DET

With Zach Parise and Ryan Suter in play, the teams who remain may not have enough money to allocate to Semin, as opposed to what the KHL can offer.

In case you didn’t hear – the NHL may have to take over running the New Jersey Devils. Actually, you know the best way to run a league? Own all the teams. That solves revenue sharing right there… as well as CBA negotiations (you only need a vote of “one” from the owners to ratify).

I got my hands on Central Scouting’s final rankings, if you’re interested. I know that by this point all rankings pretty much have the same players in the first five and they just juggle around a bit. The top five, in order.

Nail Yakupov

Fillip Forsberg

Ryan Murray

Mathew Dumba

Morgan Reilly

The Preds have signed Magnus Hellberg to an ELC. He could be their backup – but I wouldn’t bet on it. Something will happen at some point this summer. Likely a short-term deal from a veteran, since my Salak theory from yesterday fell through.

The Blackhawks have released Salak… and re-signed Carter Hutton.

Alexander Radulov has decided to play in the KHL next season. The Preds needed to deal him faster, but there’s still time. Flip him to the Rangers quickly, get what you can… and then the Rangers can work on swaying him to stay. Florida prospect Roman Derlyuk is going back to the KHL as well.

Some Blues talk here, including how Tarasenko “will have to earn his ice time”. The team also re-signed Barrett Jackman to a three-year deal.

Brad Stuart has signed a three-year deal with the Sharks, so the Red Wings get their conditional draft pick (seventh rounder – perfect for a future superstar from Sweden, yet to be discovered).

Dallas did not extend qualifying offers to Angelo Esposito, Mikhail Stefanovich, Michael Neal and Jake Hauswirth, meaning they are all UFA’s.

Carolina is apparently very much in the Rick Nash mix.

Here is my offseason look at the Flyers and Coyotes for The Hockey News.

Top 10 plays of the Stanley Cup Final (no ‘s’ – I’ll put this clip here anyway, even though they call it Finals ha):

And, since I’m running out of highlights, time to salute some bands that I’m not only a fan of, but are fans of DobberHockey – here is a band that does great covers, Walk off the Earth. Beard Guy (Taylor) tells me he’s a fantasy hockey nut and long-time DobberHockey reader so I’m sure he’ll see this. These guys will be at Hillside in Guelph (my old stomping grounds) in July:

Comments (8)

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germant said:

	Walk & Gotye Saw that video of Walk's cover of Gotye's Somebody That I Used to Know and I dare say I like Walk's version much better. And the blonde is smokin' hot!
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June 19, 2012
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AldoWeldon said:

NHL buying out Devils This is probably not true. I suppose you are not aware since you don't live in the area-- But the NY Post is NOT a reputable news source. “The NHL is denying a report in the New York Post that the league is on the verge of taking over the financially challenged New Jersey Devils." “I don’t anticipate either the league having to take over the team, or the team having to file for bankruptcy,” NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly told USA TODAY Sports in an email.

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June 19, 2012
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Dobber said:

	... John - it may make sense, it's debatable but I don't completely disagree. But the length of his term does not make sense. If it's just to meet the cap floor, heading into a new CBA, then the term makes zero sense at that price
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June 19, 2012
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john.kawula said:

... I know the Jones contract is steep, but it's a business decision, and not a hockey one. a) they have a whole slew of RFAs and need to spend 40 million next season to meet minimum cap, and b) they want to keep roster opportunities open for youth in the system. If you were a small market team developing new talent, why not sign a guy that can fit into your top 6 when healthy, and give others opportunity when he's injured? They are not going to max out the cap any time soon, so signing Jones for a few million extra to meet cap makes sense.

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June 19, 2012
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Isle B. said:

	... Considering all that Columbus has gone through with Zherdev and Filatov, I would think that the Blue Jackets would be just about the least likeliest team to sign Semin.
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June 19, 2012
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praba said:

	... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9NF2edxy-M you should post that video, it was awesome!
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June 19, 2012
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Rollie1967 said:

walk of the earth! GREAT BAND! So according the NYPost, the Devils lost $20mil this year in the regular season, then made $30mil in the playoffs, yikes. Shows you how important making the playoffs are financially (unless your Brian Burke), and how messed up the NHL's finances are. Both Dallas and Tampa just got new owners that saved the franchise, Atlanta had to move,a few years before that it was Buffalo,Nashville and SanJose, even Ottawa and Edmonton had issues- and now its NJ and Phoenix (still). ugly. whose next- Columbus?

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June 19, 2012
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letnry said:

	... Brendan and yourself will be at the draft, or on the chat? Or both?
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June 19, 2012
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