Wednesday Wrap Up: Scotty Bowman Turns Down Toronto

Toronto; you will never get this, you will never get it, la la la la la la. AP

• Scotty Bowman does not want to be a part of your Cup drought: Today, the Toronto Sun is reporting that Bowman has turned down an offer to join Toronto in an executive role. The Sun names former Sens GM John Muckler as the leading candidate for the job... and I'm sure hiring Muckler would go over really well with the fans.
• Here's a list of all the available free agents, thanks to SI.
• The turnover continues in Boston: TSN is reporting that the Bruins have fired assistant GM Jeff Gorton and scout Daniel Dore. (Edit: And by the way, I'm calling it right now. Mike Milbury will be back in Boston before opening night.)
• Keith Tkachuk is back in St. Louis: The Blues received Tkachuk from Atlanta along with a conditional fourth round pick next year for a conditional first round pick yesterday. If you remember, he was traded to Atlanta for Glen Metropolit, first and third round picks in 2007 and a second round pick in 2008 back on February 25th. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution thinks the trade was a good move for the Thrashers, who would have had to give up a first rounder if they re-signed Tkachuk before July 1st. The article goes on to say that the Thrashers are the leading candidate to re-sign Tkachuk and increased their chances with the move. While that may be true, I highly doubt St. Louis would have made this deal if they thought that they would not be able to ink the 35-year old.
  
• Maybe it's time to quit your day job: Pittsburgh's Maxime Talbot has won a seat in the World Series of Poker, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette is reporting. For those of you not familiar with poker, that's pretty damn impressive. Anyone can buy a seat for $10,000, but to actually win a seat, is quite a feat. I would say that a comparable accomplishment would be getting drafted by an NHL team in the first or second round... Something Talbot has not accomplished.
  
• SI FanNation still doesn't care: It sure seems to me that the NHL folks at SI FanNation don't give a rats ass about hockey. A while back, I told you that FanNation seems to have a problem with getting things right in regards to their hockey coverage. Apparently, that is still the case. Could someone please tell them what Ryan Smyth looks like!?
  
• Where are they now? The Hanson brothers.
• Bill Simmons and hockey is a deadly combination: You've probably seen it by now, the Sports Guy did a blog of the draft last Friday. If you haven't seen it, you should. It's pretty entertaining. There was one point that got me thinking;

  "6:03: Hmmmm ... the Rangers already had a sweater ready with Cherepanov's name on the back. That's a little fishy. How did they know a top-five guy would slip to No. 17? If Esposito "drops" to the Penguins at No. 20 [BMR: which he did], we'll have moved right into the Fishy Zone -- two marquee teams "fortunately" getting two marquee prospects? Even David Stern wouldn't have been this blatant. Then again, this would mean Bettman is working to make the league better and more interesting. Scratch that thought."

  It's a funny point, but it really got me thinking. Could Bettman have purposely put Cherepanov in the NHL's biggest American market, and Esposito along side the league's best young players in Pittsburgh? It makes all too much sense, but it's completely improbable. There is no way you can get so many teams to pass on these guys, unless they simply have no interest in drafting them. It would cost too much to pay off that many teams, and if Bettman really wanted this scenario to play out, he would have just rigged the lottery. Oh wait, didn't the NBA already do that?