Friday, September 11, 2009

My remaining offseason predictions

1. Phil Kessel will be a Maple Leaf. Burke wants him and Kessel wants to wear the blue and white. Burke is trying his hardest to acquire the skilled winger via trade, but if the Bruins decide to deal him elsewhere, the Leafs will immediately put an offer sheet in. This is too good of a fit for the Leafs to miss out on.

2. Heatley will be traded before the season starts. He's too big of a distration to be kept around the team, and he simply doesnt want to be there. I still think he'll end up with the Sharks, but at this point a team like the Rangers or Blues could always jump in.

3. Balsillie will win the Coyotoes. I don't know if the team will go to Hamilton, but I just can't see Balsillie losing this battle. His offer is way better than the NHLs, and at this point I see big Jim willing to let the team play one last year in Phoenix to sort things out.

So ESPN was totally wrong about the Heatley deal, as I had a feeling they were. Usually when information comes out, I post it as my own information because I have confirmed it with several sources. Last night, ESPN was the only source spewing this info, which is why I called the deal a report, and cited ESPN as the source. It was funny to see on twitter all the "insiders" and their posts such as "five of my sources confirm the ESPN stories" and "Heatley deal done as per my best source". I'll be removing a lot of these from my twitter list today, as they're credibility is gone. Twitter is a great tool for Hockey Bloggers, but to those who fit in that category, beware: it's easy to get caught making stuff up.

For all the latest check out Hockeyleaks.com as well as our twitter account and our forums.