Anna's Thoughts (June 2024)
Much like General Managers in the NHL, I’m tired of waiting for the Stanley Cup Final to end. I was planning to release this article after the Final was over. That’s when we were all expecting the series to be a sweep. Then it was wasn’t and so you know what? I’m writing this now. Anyway, expect to see way more of these over the summer. Since there’s not as much news during this time of the year, there will be fewer articles in general. By the time we get to August, you should probably only expect one a week, and a chunk of the articles this summer will likely be “Anna’s Thoughts”.
Before we get to the rest of this article, the queer population living in Kakuma refugee Camp in Kenya need help. There are over 1,000 queer asylum seekers and refugees there, fleeing from discrimination. Unfortunately, their basic needs are not met and they cannot seek employment as it is illegal for queers there to have jobs. There is a fundraiser on Go Get Funding and if you are able, please financially support them, and whether you can give money or not, please share the fundraiser and get out the word. You can follow the organizers of this fundraiser on Twitter.
Stanley Cup Final
Let’s get it out of the way since this section of the article is why I wanted to wait—the Stanley Cup Final. I was originally planning to do nothing but whine about it. I mean, championship season has mostly sucked this year. CHL Championships were all sweeps (from what I hear, I’m too lazy to look it up to make sure that’s true because I don’t follow junior hockey at all), the Florida Everblades three-peated in the ECHL, the Calder Cup Finals are a repeat of last year, and the NBA Finals was a five-game series were most of the game were blowouts. Then add to that all that the Stanley Cup Final was looking to be a sweep, one where Florida was completely dominant and frankly, it didn’t even look like the Oilers belonged anywhere near the Final. But, that’s not what happened. Game four was still a blowout, therefore uninteresting, but in the Oilers favor. I figured that the Oilers used up everything they had in that game, and expected the series to continue to follow the NBA Finals script and Panthers would win in game five. Instead, we got what was easily the most compelling game (the bar is in hell, but still) where the Oilers held on to win and force a game six. This leaves us at a crossroads. So, either for the second straight year I correctly pick the number of games it takes the champion to win the Cup (remember: I chose the Panthers in six), or the momentum is too far in the Oilers favor and they win in seven. Honestly, I’m not sure which I want. Do I want bragging rights (and believe me, I’ll brag if it’s Panthers in six), or do I want peak drama and excitement with a game seven? It’s too hard to choose. That choice will be made for me tonight, though, and I will be there watching with the rest of you.
Britta Curl
So, Britta Curl is a controversial female hockey player, formerly the captain of the University of Wisconsin Badgers, now the second-round draft pick for PWHL Minnesota. I've shared the controversy surrounding her in past articles (here and here) so I'm not going to go over it all again. A week ago, she released a Twitter video apology, it's actually two videos (that you can watch here), and as a queer person who is a fan of PWHL Minnesota, I have thoughts. The first thing is that I am choosing to believe she is sincere in her apology and regret. There are definitely parts of the apology that do not come across as sincere to me, in all honesty, but I am choosing to believe the best. My philosophy regarding people is "hope for the best, expect the worst", and I'm going with that here. I hope she is learning and growing and that the people in her life are helping her become a better person. Do I expect that to be happening? Not really, but I'm going to hope that it is until it's proven otherwise. Unfortunately, Twitter is making it harder to prove otherwise by hiding likes now, but that's a different story. I'm still not happy she was drafted, but honestly, even doing this apology was more than I expected, and there are parts of it I do think are sincere. So, I will take this as growth until we have proof otherwise. Not saying others have to, these are just my thoughts as a queer PWHL Minnesota fan who happens to write about stuff like this.
That said, I do want to join in on something Angelica Rodriguez, writer at The Ice Garden, had to say on Twitter regarding the apology:
For me, that's the real question. What actionable steps have been and will continue to be taken? If there are any, I highly doubt we'll ever find out publicly, but it would go a long way with queer fans to find out that there are some being taken.
Columbus Blue Jackets
A Blue Jackets fan has thoughts on the Blue Jackets while they're cleaning house? Shocker, I know. Don Waddell, the new General Manager and President of Hockey Operations has fired head coach Pascal Vincent. It needed to happen, and the assistant coaches, especially Mark Recchi, need to go too. But I expect they won't be let go (assuming they are, and they should) until the next head coach does. If you remember, I was an advocate last summer for Vincent to be named Head Coach. I'm eating my humble pie and accepting I was wrong for that. Look, I get that he had a terrible roster, genuinely. I was one of the few Blue Jackets fans openly saying that I expected the team to be a lottery team. That said, he committed this crime that makes me glad he's gone: the team never meaningfully progressed during the season. All the problems they had at the start of the season were the same problems they had at the end. They never got better in any way that I can think of.
So now we wait and see who the next coach will be. Elliotte Friedman provided these names as potential candidates: Todd McLellan, Claude Julien, Jay Woodcroft, Bob Hartley, and Todd Nelson. Personally, I'm rooting for Woodcroft but I'm not against any of these being named the next coach. All of them are experienced, know how to win, and should bring the culture change needed for this locker room. No more first-time head coaches. We've had two first-timers in a row and it failed miserably. It's time for experience to take over and change things. I like what I'm seeing so from Waddell.
Draft Stuff
Folks, the NHL draft is almost here. My second and final mock draft will be released on June 25. Before that day comes, though, here is my first and final ranking of who I consider to be the top 32 prospects in this year's draft. I recognize I am not an expert by any means, I’m no Corey Pronman, but I have watched hours of tape and read many reports from actual scouts, so I do believe myself to be more educated than the average fan on prospects. That said, like any prospect ranking from anyone, including Pronman, take it with a grain of salt. NHL scouts know more and NHL boards will undoubtedly look different from any public board, especially mine. This is more of an intellectual exercise for me and to provide you who may not pay much attention to prospects some names to keep an eye on. Remember: this is a prospect ranking, not a mock draft. This is not a prediction of where they will be drafted. I will not provide commentary on any of them to keep this article from being overly long. I am open to being questioned about my rankings if you want explanations, though. So, if you’re a paid subscriber, you can do that in the comments section of this article, or do so on social media. Anyway, here we go:
Ivan Demidov (RW)
Macklin Celebrini (C)
Artyom Levshunov (D)
Anton Silayev (D)
Berkly Catton (C)
Zayne Parekh (D)
Cayden Lindstrom (C)
Adam Jiříček (D)
Zeev Buium (D)
Sam Dickinson (D)
Tij Iginla (C/LW)
Trevor Connelly (LW)
Beckett Sennecke (RW)
Cole Eiserman (LW)
Carter Yakemchuk (D)
Konsta Helenius (C/RW)
Michael Hage (C)
Igor Chernyshov (LW)
Michael Brandsegg-Nygård (RW)
Stian Solberg (D)
Jett Luchanko (C)
Cole Beaudoin (C)
Liam Greentree (RW)
Leo Sahlin Wallenius (D)
Yegor Surin (C/RW)
Emil Hemming (RW)
Terik Parascak (RW)
EJ Emery (D)
Charlie Elick (D)
Dean Letourneau (C)
Aron Kiviharju (D)
Julius Miettinen (Forward)
Anyway, that’s what my personal board looks like for the top 32. Remember: I am not a professional scout, so please take it with a grain of salt.
Before we leave, I have one last thing I’d like to do: give my lists of players I’d most like to see drafted by my teams. This is the last thing I’ll be going over in this article since it’s getting a bit long already. I’ll only be going over the first round. So, here are the players I’d like to see the Blue Jackets (who draft at pick four) realistically draft the most, in order:
Ivan Demidov
Anton Silayev
Berkly Catton
Cayden Lindstrom
Now, moving on to my other team, the Detroit Red Wings, who pick at #15, here’s who I’d realistically most like to see them draft:
Konsta Helenius
Igor Chernyshov
Michael Brandsegg-Nygård
Cole Beaudoin
Anyway, that is all for this article. If you found value in it, please consider paying for a subscription here at Prism Hockey, as subscription money goes to other subscriptions such as ESPN+ or Google One to ensure I can continue to cover hockey. If you aren’t able to buy a paid subscription, please consider at least getting a free subscription as all articles are free, and sharing this article. I’d also love to hear your thoughts on this article in the comments below (only paid subscribers can comment) or on social media. I can be found on Bluesky, Instagram (Personal | Prism Hockey), Mastodon, Threads, Tumblr, and Twitter.