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Interesting draft day for the Canadiens - At first glance, I like the Tanguay deal. There is only one year left on his current contract at $5.25M (making him the highest-paid forward on the team). Check out these posts from BoA . The price may be steep but the guy is a star EV player - just what the doctor ordered. Now Gainey has a year to get him signed to a value contract after 2009.

Sundin is looking like a real possibility, if he's interested. You'd think he would cost at least $7M. Counting in Tanguay's $5.25M, and $12.25M is a lot to add without removing any salary. I wonder what this means for Andrei Kostitsyn. It took $5M per over 3 years for the Flyers to sign Carter, so is $4M an unreasonable number for AKost's cap hit? Adding Sundin at $7M and AKost at a generous $3M, they're sitting at $52.6M with two or three depth defensemen and a backup goalie yet to sign. That's tight.

Incidentally, check out the Canadiens contracts at nhlnumbers. Only four players are signed for 2009-10. Sundin or no, Gainey is swinging for the fences in 2009.

In the draft, the player I was watching was Jordan Eberle - a top goal scorer in the tight checking WHL at 17. I'm glad he was snatched before the #25 spot, and I think the Oilers got a great pick.

With the Jokinen move the Panthers now have too many defensemen - expect another trade there.

Crosby. CrosbyCrosbyCrosby.

Call this a backlash against a backlash.

After the first two playoff rounds, a lot of very reasonable people were suggesting that Malkin might actually be a better player than Sid. Crazy talk, that was. Crosby was the best player in the final - quite a feat for a 20-year-old whose team went 2-4.

When both Crosby and Zetterberg were on the ice at EV, the Pens outscored the Wings 3-1 over the six games. When both Crosby and Lidstrom were on it was also 3-1 Pens. Crosby and Datsyuk: 2-0 Pens. Whenever Crosby was on the three next best players on the ice were usually Red Wings, making his performance all the more impressive. I mean, how many chances did Dupuis botch?

When it was all said and done, the top Wings did a pretty good job containing the best player in hockey. Detroit's next tier of players beat the lesser lights of the Penguins, and beat them badly. Especially on defense, where the Wings' top four were miles better than the Pens'.