One To Watch: Florida Panthers

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Another club with a lot of prospect depth is Florida who has chosen to add veterans to the roster meaning much of their youth will continue to develop in the minors. Recent additions of Tim Thomas, Scott Gomez, Brad Boyes, Ryan Whitney and Tom Gilbert mean the likes of Jacob Markstrom, Nick Bjugstad, Quinton Howden and Alex Petrovic won't be as much of a factor this year as expected just a month ago.

Tough break for those young players but down the road they may be the biggest beneficiaries of those signings.

2012 Choice: Rocco Grimaldi - Injured seriously and early in his freshman season, Grimaldi was given a do over and made good on it last year with North Dakota. His 36 points in 40 games was bested only by a pair of seniors so Grimaldi's year has to be considered a major one offensively. He was part of USA's gold medal at the 2013 WJC in Russia going from scape goat to hero over the course of the 10-day event. Grimaldi is poised to have a massive year as a sophomore at North Dakota.  

My 2013-14 selection as One To Watch for Florida comes after the jump. 

Saturday Morning Special - June 18th

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There's just one week left before the 2011 NHL Entry draft will be in the books so you know that our already stacked draft coverage is going to be taken to another level. We turned it up to 10 (saving the Spinal Tap 11 for Tuesday) by bringing in the probable #1 overall pick, a terrific analyst of goaltenders, a Hall of Fame writer from Edmonton, our regular NHL Insider and we debated a number of other topics as well.

Saturday Morning Special - June 11th

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Another fully loaded two hours of radio this morning as I packed a guest into all 6 segments of the show. With no Dean to bounce things back and forth with, I knew more guests and less me is probably the way to go.

I talked to a prospect of the Vancouver Canucks who plans on being with the big club next year. I chatted with a coach from Hockey Canada who is helping run the goalie camp in Calgary this week - and he updated listeners on the injuries to both Kent Simpson (CHI) and Sam Brittain (FLA). Daren Millard checked in for his weekly conversation and we set up Game 6, picked our playoff MVP and learned more about the new brass in Winnipeg. And of course the NHL Draft was a major focus so I spoke with 3 players eligible for the big event a couple of weeks from now.

Tuesday Recap: June 7th

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No Dean Millard in studio this week as he's back in Brandon visiting his dad and helping him bail water out of his sunken basement. But the NHL draft waits for no man and so I was forced to trudge on alone (sympathy?) with a full slate of guests. We covered the NHL, NCAA, CHL, the draft, the QMJHL, Hockey Canada's summer goalie camp, the Oil Kings, the NHL combine and there was probably some other stuff in there as well.

Saturday Morning Special - Feb 5th

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It was a very busy Saturday edition of The Pipeline Show as we covered the CHL, NCAA, the NHL Draft, some NHL topics, a charity game and one of the hosts returned for just his third appearance in 2011. All in all we had 6 guests crammed into the two hour program including the return of some familiar names and the debut of two new guests.

This n' That - Jan 2011

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I'm overdue for one of these "random thoughts, observations and tidbits" pieces so I'll make good on that now. The following is just a collection of things that I've noticed over the last while from various levels of hockey as well as some opinions on topics of the day.

A Hattrick of Draft Prospects

Tuesday night Guy and I started really ramping up our 2010 draft coverage. Each show we feature a different prospect for the upcoming draft, but from now till June 25th we'll be doubling and tripling our coverage.

Last night we scored a hattrick with 3 players who play 3 different positions, in 3 different leagues.