Mike

Not sure if there are enough enthusiasts on this board to participate, but I thought with the interest level in the World Juniors and the chance of the Jets having an amazing level of representation, it would be fun to do a pool. Saw it up on another board. Pretty simple stuff. 8 participants, we'll draft a team of 6 forwards, 3 defensemen and 1 goaltender each. Scoring system also very simple. Goals = 1 point, assists = 1 point, game winning goals = 1 (extra) point, wins = 2 points, shutouts = 2 (extra) points Snake draft style, responsibility on you to PM the next person to draft once you've made your selection. 10 rounds. We'll have a clock running for picks, probably run it with a stoppage from 11 PM - 7 AM or something like that. Let me know if you guys have thoughts on that. Will allow the ability to replace players *AFTER* the draft if one of your selections is cut. You're not allowed to make changes beyond replacing cut players though. All rosters will be considered final once the tournament begins. Credit for this idea goes to Holden Caulfield at HFBoards. Wanted to thank him for this cool idea and I'll be sure to let him put a beer on my tab (except if he reads this and brings it up) at our next hockey game.

What an absolute force this kid is.

I'll be very surprised if Montreal is any better than 6-12 next year.

He had already beat the guy Reed blocked in the back so he would've scored regardless, but the one they DIDN'T call on the downfield holding easily assisted him.

Might be tough to put together but it would be a lot of fun. The idea I had was to find out what the cost of renting the soccer complex right next to IGF would be. That's where the PIT league runs out of and it's a beautiful facility.

Had nothing to do with Tillman. Reinbold coached him in college.

Watching Taylor Reed play in the middle last night for Hamilton. Penalty aside, he's one hell of a linebacker. 62 tackles ... 8 sacks ... a couple forced turnovers ... as a rookie in the middle of the Hamilton defense. Really wish we had a guy like that manning the middle of the field for us. Especially because we did have him last year. And then let him go.

Interesting. What did Bob say? I do know Penton is tight with Walters and Irving with Wade. I'm not going to try and repeat the exact wording because I don't remember but basically that when Saskatchewan makes their staff changes official, it could cause Winnipeg to explore the idea of bringing Cortez and/or Hall aboard.

Bob Irving's comments not consistent with Penton's suggestion that the Bombers would not go after Cortez.

Stewart is quite honestly the worst DB in the CFL

If so, it would be another brain-dead decision in a series of brain-dead decisions in Toronto over decades, Like we're SO MUCH BETTER.. Our entire organization has been brain dead for 15 years. Didn't you say you were going to stop doing that? This has nothing to do with Winnipeg.

Michael Sam seems like he would be a very good fit for a CFL team.

to this: at all. How are you connecting these dots? Why are you connecting these dots? Hutchinson is getting the start in Boston for the same reason Montoya got a start in Chicago last year - it's a place that has special meaning for him and the hope is that he will elevate his game because of it. It's a pretty common theory NHL coaches subscribe to when picking a starting goalie, although it doesn't come up very often. If Martin Brodeur signs with someone and New Jersey is on the schedule, you bet your pretty hiney he's getting the start that game. Except Maurice said it had nothing to do with him being a former Boston draft pick. Try again. Mbrg is right though, you sure take giant leaps to connect dots with a lot of your theories. I don't really buy into what Maurice is saying and I don't think the expectation should be that he's going to be honest when the question is essentially "did Hutch earn this start or is it the sentimental stuff" ... of course Maurice isn't going to say anything other than he earned it.

He played 14 games and compiled 813 yards, which is a pace that puts him at 1045. You're right on that. Too bad we're talking about a guy who only played 14 games because he was benched for a month due to a lack of production. A guy who got 42% of his entire production in a span of 8 quarters of football. Not worth 200k in any sense. Moore's 2013 season was far more impressive as far as the entire body of work goes.

I haven't seen Hutch in a position where he's had to be really strong. He faced 30+ last night but I wouldn't say Columbus had a lot of high quality opportunities. Hutch has great numbers, but they're a bit skewed in my opinion. I just don't see him as a guy who has had to come up huge yet. Won't knock him for it either because it's not fair to insinuate he WON'T come up with the huge saves when he needs to, I just haven't seen a lot of opportunity for him to prove that yet. Then again, you could easily argue Pavelec makes those "big saves" because he's not as sound with his positioning and finds himself in recovery mode more often. I don't know. It's a tricky topic of discussion. I think Hutch is right where he needs to be. For now. We can gradually look to increase his workload as the year goes on, but I'm not interested in creating a controversy. Let's save that for Hellebucyk.

I highly doubt there's a CFL landscape where Ernest Jackson is worth 200k

It's tough to do anything resembling a rough mock at this point because so much is uncertain but if I'm looking at tiers of players, Campbell definitely doesn't fall into the first tier. Maybe not even the second tier.

So Tevaughn Campbell is your horse in this year's race, eh? Campbell is an intriguing prospect but there's absolutely no reason to take him second overall. It'd be a more Kris Robertsony pick than Kris Robertson.

Thanks Jacquie! I asked Arash Madani this same question on twitter, but all he had to say was "BOOM goes the dynamite!". If he went undrafted in the CFL draft, doesn't that mean he's a free agent (similar to how we got Hajrullahu)? I posed the same question to Arash on Twitter and got no response. Hajrullahu was on our negotiation list. A CFL free agent who has never played here before can be on a neg list, Canadian or American.

Love this part of the season. The "people forget athletes use Twitter to talk about their daily life situations" part, that is. Can't wait until the first time Drew Willy tweets about eating a Montreal smoked meat sandwich. DREW WILLY RELEASED? SIGNING WITH MONTREAL?

I'm definitely considering a Zach Anderson jersey.

Until they give teams a benefit for using a guy like Yantz, teams never will

I think Buck is a class act. Great guy. I was fortunate enough to attend his wedding social last year and what really stood out to me was how Buck, at the end of the night, went out of his way to thank each and every guest for coming on their way out. And I don't mean shout "hey thanks a lot!" at groups of people as they walked by. He was stopping every single person possible to shake their hand and thank them for their support. Always wanted him to do well here. Do I think his competitive nature overruled the part of him that should've told him it was time to give it up? Yes. At the time, did I fault him for it a bit and call him selfish? Yes. Looking back now, I don't think I'd make those same comments again. I think it was more frustration with the situation that there wasn't a better option. I hope Buck goes on to have a great coaching career and I hope he does it with us.

How is buck supposed to teach a guy to not trip on defenders finger tips or pick the right gap at full speed? Trick question, he can't. Both of those key failures are on the RB.. He either has the power to run thru pinky fingers or he has the vision to see the holes made by oline.. Not sure if serious ... what do you think a running back coach does if he doesn't go over game film with them and point out snaps where the runner missed going through the right gap, etc? There are literally dozens of things Buck could do with a guy to teach him to not get tripped up by a defender. Evaluate his running style ... everything from his hip stance to his pad level or body lean to make sure he's driving at defenders with force to break through a tackle as opposed to just running at them. Get him to work on keeping his eyes up to spot those arm tackle defenders. A lot of what they'll teach running backs at lower levels in the fundamental stages is the basic principle of see it - prepare for it. Locate the first potential tackler, prepare for him. That's where Grigsby sucked. The fundamental stuff. Pierce could have worked with him to improve that in so many ways - and I'm not suggesting he didn't - I'm just suggesting that you're incorrect when you say you can't teach that stuff. A lot of it is instinct, but a lot of it isn't. To Pierce's credit ... I thought he did a lot to improve Grigsby's game. Pass pro and commitment to a north-south style with no hesitation especially. Grigsby's issue was he just wasn't born to be a running back.

Randy Turner is an idiot. Always going for the cheap laugh. As for Benevides, his desire to work will really be tested. He's got two years to sit at home collecting a paycheque if he wants to.