John Shannon

John Shannon is an analyst on Hockeycentral.

Some thoughts on the latest news around the NHL (in no particular order):

- Less than a full month to the Olympics and the hype has died down a bit, probably because the conference races are just too close, and maybe we don't have time to pay any attention to the games just yet.

- Mike Danton is going to play hockey for St. Mary's University in Halifax. Good for him, but only if David Frost doesn't show up and watch a game.

- It appears our good friend Paul Kelly has a great new job with College Hockey Inc. Congrats Paul. Hopefully he doesn't criticize junior hockey too much, a great many of his former constituents came from the Canadian Hockey League.

- The mid-season Central Scouting rankings came out a few days ago. Hall or Seguin, Seguin or Hall. At this point it's a coin toss. As a general manager, you will have to decide whether you need a speedy winger or a righthanded centre

- I think by June we might be hearing more about American Cam Fowler who was great at the WJHC in Saskatoon, and is Hall's teammate in Windsor. A mature defenceman like Fowler might have better value than any forward. Other up-and-comers on the radar include Nick Bjugstad, Jarred Tinordi, Brody Sutter, Tyler Pitlick and Brock Beukeboom. Some pretty good NHL blood lines I would say.

- I like the way Alex Burrows plays and every team missed the boat on him, but I don't like the way Alex whines. I would suspect that if he wasn't in the penalty box when the winning goal was scored, we wouldn't have this little controversy. However, that's not to say that Stephane Auger was right in talking to Alex. Rumour has it that Steph has been told a few times not to engage the players in conversation, just do his job. I suspect that we will never hear that Auger has been fined a grand or two.

- I watched the Curtis Joseph retirement announcement with some interest, no tears from the 42-year old. Ron Caron, the former Blues GM deserves a great deal of credit for finding and treating Joseph very well on early trips to St. Louis. That convinced Curtis to sign there, rather than one of the 10 teams that were after him. Let's also remember that Joseph didn't play goal until he was 13, and was playing Tier Two hockey at the age of 20, before getting a real chance to shine. Joseph also gave David McNab credit for encouraging him to continue. So when does David McNab get a chance to be a general manager in this league? All he does is find talent everywhere.

- Interesting to see the final ratings for the Winter Classic in Boston. Both Chicago and Buffalo had more viewers than Boston. The challenge now will be to create interest in future games outside the two cities playing. The next outdoor game? February 20th in Syracuse, New York

- It's curious to note that we haven't heard much about Paul Kelly's replacement at the NHLPA. Hopefully someone will be in place before the CBA expires, and that they understand what escrow means.

Happy hockey everyone!