Somewhat of a Weekend Recap

Well, not since Wednesday has there been a post on here, let alone some good quality, hockey pool-related, news. It's been rather on the dead side, leading up to the Entry Draft, which goes this coming weekend in Ottawa. Everyone is waiting intently to see what deals are going to go down before Draft Day, which will shake up their team going into the new season.

There were a couple minor signings over the weekend, which could be outlined here.

The Oilers signed forward Ryan Potulny to a one-year deal on Friday. Potulny was acquired in a deal a week prior to this signing from Philadelphia. The diminutive forward will hopefully give the third or fourth line a little more jump with his speed. He should be expected to start the year in the minors and be a good call-up, if one of the team's similar-type forwards goes down with an injury.

The Carolina Hurricanes announced that they re-signed Trevor Gillies to a new one-year deal on Saturday. Gillies played in the Hurricanes farm system last season, but earned another chance at another training camp, thanks to his rough & tumble style of play. Gillies has 1 game of NHL experience, where he registered 21 PIM for the Ducks in 2005/'06. His AHL career has given him a total of 1,177 PIM in only 300 games. If he can crack the Hurricanes line-up, he would be a top contender for your pool, if it includes penalty minutes for points.

The other news making headlines over the past week has been the head coach hirings, which spots were being outlined a week ago. The Toronto Maple Leafs opened up the floor, as expected, to Ron Wilson as head coach, as it is now widely speculated and understood that Cliff Fletcher's role as interim General Manager will continue, likely through the rest of the 2008/'09 season. The San Jose Sharks made a wise decision and went for a coach that has had some recent experience in the NHL with winning everything. They signed former Detroit Red Wings assistant coach Todd McLellan to a deal, who brings a brand new Cup ring to the San Jose organization. In Ottawa, they added some winning experience to the fold with the inclusion of Craig Hartsburg, who has won gold in World Junior competition with Canada on two separate occasions. Florida also went with some junior success with the hiring of former Kitchener Rangers head coach, Peter DeBoer. DeBoer had great success with a good Kitchener team and was being interviewed in several places to make the jump into the NHL.

In the opposite direction, the Kings fired their head coach of two seasons, Marc Crawford, last week, thanks to a sub-par season last year, which saw them finish second from the bottom in the league standings. The Kings did have their share of injury trouble and some jet-lag, thanks to opening the season in London, England, but that wasn't enough of a reason to keep Crawford around.