LEAFS' NUMBERS...

According to Howard Berger, these are the Leaf player numbers fo the upcoming season...

31. Curtis Joseph, G.
35. Vesa Toskala, G.
4. Jeff Finger, D.
7. Ian White, D.
8. Carlo Colaiacovo, D.
9. Mark Bell, F.
10. Alex Steen, F.
11. Jiri Tlusty, F.
14. Matt Stajan, F.
15. Tomas Kaberle, D.
16. Niklas Hagman, F.
19. Dominic Moore, F.
21. Jamal Mayers, F.
22. Boyd Devereaux, F.
23. Alexei Ponikarovsky, F.
24. Jonas Frogren, D.
26. Mike Van Ryn, D.
36. Anton Stralman, D.
41. Nikolai Kulemin, F.
44. Ryan Hollweg, F.
48. Jeremy Williams, F.
55. Jason Blake, F.
77. Pavel Kubina, D.
80. Nik Antropov, F.
84. Mikhail Grabovski, F.

Joseph gets his old number back, and Kubina and Grabovski chose their birthyears as their number. Hollweg and Van Ryn keep their numbers from their previous teams but should Kronwall or Ondrus make the team, they will have to select new numbers. Hagman and Frogren have taken the numbers that Tucker and McCabe used to wear and Finger will wear #4.

BACK FROM VEGAS!!!

Sorry for the lack of updates the past few weeks as I've been on vacation. I just came back from fabulous Las Vegas and the site will be updated regularily once again.

Fantasy and Season Outlook...

Hey everyone,
I figured since there are quite a few people visiting the site before I can get it completed, I would give you guys a list of what to expect in the coming weeks...I am going to start off with articles, rumors and reviews while giving you very useful information you will need to get the edge in your fantasy pools. During this whole process, I would greatly appreciate you leaving comments in the posts to tell me what you liked and what can be improved on. Also, if there is a report or information that you need/require for your pools, I'd be glad to use my notes and resources to do the research for you. So please leave me comments as it will help me decide what aspect to focus on to make it a GREAT SITE FOR EVERYONE!...

OK, the articles I will be working on in the next couple of weeks are...
- Finishing up all the "Off-Season Reviews"
- Once those are done, I will begin with the weekly "Feature" article. (This will either be an article on a story that surfaced during the week, or a certain trend in hockey, or a readers' topic that I will let you guys choose)
- During training camp, I will have some news and notes on each teams' progress. Info on who is impressing their teams and who are the players to stay away from in your pools.
- Sometime during training camp and before the regular season starts, I will reveal my lists of "Sleeper Picks", "Teams and players to look out for and stay away from" and Any articles you guys may request or I think of.
- During the season I will have Hot/Cold reports for players and teams along with continuing the weekly "Feature" article.
- Rumours, Trade/Signing reviews and Injury impact will be done as they happen.
- And if you guys can think of any fun or interesting contests we could have...please feel free to leave a comment.

I hope this helps clarify what will be going on here in the upcoming weeks and I look forward to helping everyone of you dominate your pools and have all the inside information that you won't find on just any hockey site.

*Also, please don't forget to check out my free picks when the season starts! If you don't bet on hockey...check out FREE SPORTS PICKS for every other sports' picks, on the right column under "Other Good Sites"

NHL Round-Up...

Here are a few stories for your morning that have surfaced the past little while...

- The St.Louis Blues have expressed interest in Brendan Shanahan
Adding another veteran to a young, up-and-coming team sounds good to me. Shanny played four years in St. Louis in the 90's.

- The Philadelphia Flyers have extended the contract of head coach John Stevens.
Coach Stevens has done well since coming to Philly and took the team to an unexpected Eastern final. This was a good re-signing for this team.

- Danny Markov was thinking of returning to the NHL after the Los Angeles Kings had shown interest in his services this off-season. All that speculation has been put to bed as he has signed a 3-year deal with Dynamo Moscow.
I was hoping Markov would return to the NHL as I'm a fan of his, but the comfort of playing at home and the tax free paychecks must have been too much to give up.

- Aaron Downey has re-signed with Detroit and the Coyotes have re-signed Joel Perrault.
Two minor signings...but I thought I'd add them here anyway.

- Richard Matvichuk has been invited to training camp by the Columbus Blue Jackets.
Not much of a story...I know

Off-Season Review - Colorado Avalanche

Tonight I will continue my off-season review in Colorado were the Avalanche may have taken a step back this season. With the uncertain futures of Peter Forsberg and Joe Sakic, the Avalanche may have lost two very big pieces...not to mention also losing their starting goalie Jose Theodore and 2nd leading scorer Andrew Brunette to free agency. After scoring 71 points in on 66 games, I think it's safe to say Paul Stastny will be the star player for this team for years to come but after him there isn't much else. Milan Hejduk, Ryan Smyth and newly acquired Darcy Tucker are all 32 years or older and haven't played a full 82 games since the lockout. Darcy hasn't played 82 games since the 2000-01 season. They are not getting any younger and their bodies can't handle the abuse of an 82 game season anymore. Svatos (26) and Wolski (22) are both younger then those three players but they too are "band-aid boys" because they have never played a full 82 games in an NHL season. Seeing as none of this teams' top six forwards played a full 82 games last season, they better hope that their team's depth will keep their season alive. Colorado's defense is solid, led by the re-signed Adam Foote who will anchor the back end. The teams only question comes in goal where Peter Budaj hasn't been able to steal the starting job from anyone the past few seasons (and they were expecting him too) and Andrew Raycroft, who was signed as a UFA this off-season was bought out by the Maple Leafs. That duo could challenge as the worst goaltending tandem in the NHL. Overall, If the top six forwards can stay healthy for a good chunk of the season and the goaltending can play decent, they should finish between 6th and 9th.

Breaking Down The Rumors...

Are GM's back from their holidays already?!?!?

August is usually the slowest time of the year for rumors, but there have been a few flying around the last few days that I think we should talk about. First, I'd like to explain my set-up here at Hockey Universe...In the left column there is a "Latest Rumors" spot where you will find posted the hottest rumors of the hour. I am not going to tell you that my site will "be the first" with any rumor, or "my sources" tell me player X is going to be traded today because I'm not here to make up stories. However, I am always online and as soon as I hear about any rumor, I will save you the time to scour the net and you can find them in that box. Plus, once a day I will discuss my take on any rumor that has been posted there. So lets start with the biggest one...

Bryan McCabe waives his NMC to go to Florida.
I don't doubt for a second that he has waived it, however there is a clause in his contract that says at the begining of September he will receive a bonus of $2 million from the Toronto Maple Leafs. So unless something can be worked out where the team trading for him agrees or is allowed to pay him that bonus, don't expect a trade to be made official until September. Also, don't expect Jay Bouwmeester to be coming to the Leafs in return. This guy is going to be a Norris trophy candidate one year and the Leafs just don't have enough assets to trade for him. In fact, expect this trade to be more of a incentive for Bouwmeester to stay in Florida because the only reason he wants to leave is he feels that they aren't playoff contenders. They have a good starting goalie with a solid defense core, all they will need to work on is putting the puck in the net. The addition of Stillman should help, I can see him doing well as the go to guy and with an expanded roll, expect Horton to thrive.

Mark Parrish is Vancouvers' "Plan B"
There is no surprise here as he would never have been their Plan A. Vancouver needs a player to be "THE GUY" on that team. They have some guys that can be secondary scorers but lack the consistency and presence to be a #1. The twins are probably the closest to fit that mould but seeing as they haven't been able to take "the next step" since taking over from the famous Naslund-Bertuzzi era..has the Canucks organization concerned.

Mathieu Schneider to Ottawa.
The Sens only have five defensemen under contract and one of them is the rookie Brian Lee. Mezsaros is asking for a ton of money and Ottawa won't budge. That's not a situation that the Sens are comfortable with. I can see them dangling Chris Neil as bait and I think he would be a good fit with Anaheim's aggresive style of play. If this rumor comes to fruition, it would be a good trade for both teams.

Hemsky/Higgins deal and Nylander on the move.
I can see the Edmonton Oilers being interested in Chris Higgins as he is an Oiler type of player, but I don't know why the Habs would be interested in Hemsky. If this is true, it has to be a plan B incase the habs don't land Mats Sundin, in which case I totally understand. As for the Nylander rumor, maybe he likes to invest and flip homes in his spare time...Not likely! After the Capitals played extremely well without Nylander during the second half of the season, and the re-signing of Sergei Fedorov, I think the writing is on the wall for Nylander's departure. Will the Oilers have any hard feelings after they thought they had signed him during the off-season before he bolted to Washington for more money?

hmmmm....Things could get interesting in the coming weeks.

Off-Season Review - Chicago Blackhawks

Aside from signing two of the most sought after UFAs in their respective positions, the Chicago Blackhawks made some personnel moves which lead us to believe the team is heading in the right direction. They brought in Scotty Bowman from the Detroit Red Wings to be their senior advisor of hockey operations and named star center Jonathan Toews the youngest player ever to wear the "C" in the NHL. Last season was sort of a coming out party for this team as they only missed the playoffs by 3 points. The UFA additions of Brian Campbell on defense and Cristobal Huet in net I feel has all but guaranteed them a playoff spot. And if the rumors are true that Khabibulin will be tradedbefore or early in the season, then expect a decent return for him which will add depth to an already good team. This team should easily make the playoffs as they filled to big holes in their line-up from last season.