Bob McKenzie's final draft list drops this morning on TSN and on their website. This is a lot of fun, mostly because it is the only draft list that isn't personal opinion, but an aggregate of various official scouts' ideas about the top 80 or so of the draft.

What I love about this is that McKenzie, who used to do the whole thing on paper and may still, has created a prediction model without knowing really what that is. I find this delightful and deeply fascinating that the ideas so often derided by hockey traditionalists are actually exactly the same as their own ways of thinking, they just use different nouns and adjectives to describe them.

Also it's usually the first time I ever learn the names of the top draft selections. Brian will definitely have more interesting things to say about it than I will.

And now the news!

Um.

How about some stale-dated news?

If you missed it, Chicago is buying out TJ Brodie, but no one else has been waived for purposes of buyout yet.

32 Thoughts: Connor McDavid contract NHL’s top summer storyline
The NHL begins a very busy period over the next two weeks, as the off-season starts with the draft and free agency. Elliotte Friedman writes about Connor McDavid, Mitch Marner, John Tavares, the Florida Panthers and many other stories to follow this summer.
Sportsnet.caElliotte Friedman

Oh, dear. Elliotte, no it isn't. It should be, and he should get the fun of having every word or raised eyebrow analyzed to death, but he's not the big story. Anything with M.M. in the headline is:

Quick Shifts: Marner’s end reveals Maple Leafs’ awful asset management
In this edition of Quick Shifts, Luke Fox digs into the Maple Leafs’ awful asset management centred around the Mitch Marner conundrum, the Panthers’ victory lap and much more.
Sportsnet.caLuke Fox

(What is going on here? Luke Fox has been doing great stuff, and am I thinking that just because I agree with him, or has he gone "fuck it" and started writing more truth even if it's unpalatable. He's talking sense here about McDavid too. None of the manufactured emotionalism that's going around. )

He comes right out and says that given who is likely to be available this summer, John Tavares is the best centre you can get. Which is true. And I do wonder more than a little bit if Brad Marchand's Insta-troll commentary may be making teams think. Is getting a different guy to do what you already have a guy to do really the answer? Or is it just deck chairs on that boat.

At some point, Leafs fans, "because he'll he better in the playoffs," becomes the excuse not the reason.

Checkers fight back to send Finals back to Charlotte
The American Hockey League>> Patrick Williams archive

Game 6 of the AHL finals goes tonight in Charlotte. Ben Steeves, brother of Alex, plays for the Checkers and opened the scoring in Game 5. Much will be said about the weather in Charlotte tonight – a high of 34 is forecast – but it will be hotter in London today. I just have sympathy for the icemaker. I picture him running around all day shouting, "Shut the damn door!"

And that's it. Every team is still poised on the cusp of some changes for the sake of change. Some post hoc ergo GM keeps his job trades. Some homage to the change of scenery cliché (without ever wondering why their own scenery is bad). Some change of DNA. Some new blood. Some youth, some speed, something. Something new. Someone who will be better in the playoffs.

From The Branches