All-new NHL thread

[rva]

So the draft was yesterday, and as expected the Chicago Blackhawks picked Patrick Kane. 

He has good instincts, he's fast and fluid on skates, he stick handles well, he's a competitor..... and he'd better be all that, because he's only 5' 9" 160.   I feel like he's either going to be awesome, or he won't be strong enough and he'll suck.  No in between.  Right now I think with the new rules and all I'm leaning towards "awesome."

But anyway, my favorite thing about this dude is he is 18, the number one pick in the NHL, and he doesn't have an agent:

"When I was younger, these agents would be coming up to the bigger and stronger kids and talking to them and I thought I was kind of left out," the 5-foot-10 Ontario Hockey League scoring champion said Thursday.

"The last couple of years they've started to come around and really hound me. I think I owe it to myself and I don't need an agent to represent me now."

So dumb, and yet so cool.  I love this kid's moxie.

[Dan]

That's pretty sweet of him. Of course, if in five years he's totally getting screwed then we'll all say how dumb it was of him.

Either way...something tells me that that "NHL Thread" will be a discussion between Jonathan, you, and The Hegemo. Does anyone else even follow hockey around here?

[rva]

I don't even follow the NHL any more, really.  They kind of lost me after the strike.

[Ella Minnow Pea]

There's me - although my focus is primarily on one team and a few specific players. Especially any who are on one of my 3 fantasy hockey teams or attended my alma mater.

[Jonathan]

And with regards to that team...I was very happy with their first-round pick, Brandon Sutter of the famous hockey-playing Sutter family. His dad, five uncles and two cousins (thus far) have all played in the NHL.

You can't go wrong picking a Sutter.

[rva]

Fun Sutter facts:

There are actually seven Sutter brothers.  The eldest brother Gary was a defenseman and supposedly the best out of all of them is the only one who never played in the NHL.  He turned down a minor league hockey contract when he was 17 and that was the end of his hockey career.  Gary Sutter went on to win $10 million in the Canadian lottery.

Rich and Ron Sutter are twins.  During their playing days they had a reputation for supposedly being able to feel each other's pain.  Like if Ron Sutter got hurt, Rich would psychically sense it. It gotten written up in the papers.  Supposedly some thug-- I can't remember who-- had some beef with Ron Sutter so he cheap-shotted RICH Sutter.  Then he called Ron up and asked him if he felt it.

Bruce Sutter attended college at Old Dominion University in Virginia.  He later went on to save 300 games and was elected to the MLB Hall of Fame in 2006.  He has nothing to do with the famous Sutter family of hockey.

[Nate]

5'10", huh?  That's a stretch.  I'm taller than that guy and I'm not 5'10".

[Jonathan]

Athletes always get a couple of inches added on top.

[Dan]

So in that case, let's just say that my athletic profile would read: 5'11" 155 lbs.


AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH! I can only wish.

[Jonathan]

Did you add some weight, too? Because you're supposed to do that also.

[Dan]

Yeah, I added 10 lbs.
Maybe I should have added more.

[Jonathan]

You added 10 pounds to get to 155?

I hate you.

[Dan]

And you can hit a softball farther than me. To each their own.

[Ella Minnow Pea]

Ron Francis was elected to the Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility. Yay!

[Jonathan]

By my count, he's the third Hurricane to make the HoF.