Free Agents: Brandon Prust or Mason Raymond?

Veteran players in the NHL are hitting the waiver wire.

There is a report hot off the press from Bleacher Report that both Mason Raymond of the Calgary Flames and Brandon Prust of the Vancouver Canucks have been waived by their respective teams. Both players have combined for more than 1,000 regular-season games and have 116 playoff games between them. Last season, Prust played all 82 games for the Canadiens, while Raymond in 2014 had 45 points. Sportsbet's Elliotte Friedman first broke the news about their releases.

The question now becomes: Who would be more likely to end up with a team? Prust or Raymond? To me, if you depend on who can help you get goals and help a team contribute, it would probably be Raymond. It would be Prust because of a contract issue, since his contract is expiring. The only season not to pick Prust is because he is a terrible five-on-five player for the Canucks, so I don't think you should expect him to help when it comes to scoring. But since he is a good fighter and could make for someone trying to look for an enforcer, it could make sense. For Raymond, although he is a good scorer, he has been a bit rusty at late, which is why the Flames sit near the bottom of the Pacific.

Right now, Prust is more likely to get signed because of his contract and the fact that it's expiring. Raymond is still in the middle of a three-year contract that the Flames gave him, and he still will get another $3.15 million, so I would expect that no one picks him up. Still, I think in terms of offense and helping a team, Raymond seems like the better choice. He has had some success this season playing alongside Mikael Backlund and had outscored opponents at a rate of close to 2-to-1.

Right now, in terms of contracts, Prust is the better choice. But if a team is out there looking for some offense and some help in scoring goals, then that falls to Mason Raymond. I like Mason Raymond and I wish he had some more success with the Flames, but they have been out of the playoff picture for some time, so maybe this is the wake-up call for the Flames. Either way, it's Raymond paying the price and I hope he finds some success elsewhere, maybe with a team in the middle of the pact, like Anaheim who definitely needs some help scoring or New Jersey, who's close to being in the playoff picture.

I don't know who will end up being signed, but the NHL teams interested need to look at this. If they are interested in picking a player just by their contract, then Prust would be the ideal choice. However, if a team really needs some offensive skill and a chance to help themselves get into the playoff picture, then I would say to take a chance on Raymond, despite his contract. We'll see who gets picked to be on another team but either way, these guys are on the market looking for work.

Another Stanley Cup For the Blackhawks?

The second half of the season is about to get underway, and already I talked about the LA Kings potentially going far and winning the Stanley Cup again. I also said that they will have to go through one team in order to get to the Stanley Cup: The Chicago Blackhawks.

The Blackhawks are currently atop the Central Division with a 33-16-4 record and 70 points. Not far behind are the Dallas Stars with 67 points and the St. Louis Blues with 64 points. So, with that in mind, can we expect the Blackhawks to shake off these teams and win the Stanley Cup again?

Perhaps. But let's take a look at where they have come from and where they are going. The Blackhawks came into this season with a new look after offloading some of their best players, like Brandon Saad and Patrick Sharp. But right now, they are capable of winning their fourth title in seven seasons. This season, Patrick Kane has become the best player in the NHL and the rookie Artemi Panarin has done an awesome job of helping to pick up this offense right where it left off. So I guess GM Stan Bowman and head coach Joel Quenneville is doing a fantastic job of helping to keep this championship hunger alive. Also, goaltender Corey Crawford has seven shutouts and is posting a .931 save percentage in the games he's played, probably his best season in the NHL. I wouldn't overlook him for a Vezina Trophy candidate because he's certainly in the mix.

Nobody should overlook the Chicago Blackhawks. NOBODY! Right now, they are the favorites to win it all because their pieces are clicking and helping them score early and often. So a word for all other NHL teams out there, the Blackhawks can beat you and can beat you in many ways, so don't underestimate what this team is capable of. Now, this all doesn't mean that they'll win the Cup when the time comes, but for right now, this team looks poised to have it come June.

Second Half Run for the LA Kings?

The LA Kings went into the All-Star break sitting atop the Pacific Division with 63 points. The Sharks are a close 56 points and the Kings would love nothing better than to extend that margin again. So, with the second half of the season starting tonight, can the LA Kings make a run in the second half to get back to the playoffs and win the Stanley Cup again?

Here are a couple of things to keep an eye on. They've won two Stanley Cups in the past four years and people say they now have as many championships as the Blackhawks. Well, no. The Blackhawks won three but if the Kings win another one, they could potentially be a more important team than the Blackhawks. Now, another thing that goes for on is that they can play offense on a daily basis. They are a scary team to play against because once they have the puck on their sticks, it seems almost as if nobody can stop them. At the beginning of the season, the Kings didn't have any offense and lost their first three games. Now, head coach Darryl Sutter has seemed to righted the ship and it's paying off with a place atop the Pacific Division.

Two players they have are goalie Jonathan Quick and defenseman Drew Doughty. Drew Doughty, in my mind, has proven himself to be an MVP this season because of the way he skates and plays defense to help Quick. Quick has already proven he can be a wall when it is most needed. The Kings will certainly need that when they go into the stretch come April. What Doughty has proven other than being an MVP candidate is that he's a leader and a winner. He has risen above all players on this team to say, "Hey look, I think we can win." (my words, not his) He is constantly the inspiration for why this team is a scary team to play against. You don't want to go up against this guy when it's a one-on-one situation because most of the time, he will probably beat you. Doughty can play at any position. He can score, he can play defense, and at times when Quick is out of the play, Doughty can be the goalie. Is there something this kid can't do already?

I think the Kings will keep their pace atop the Pacific Division and win it and they'll be back in the playoffs. Now, I won't say if they'll win the Stanley Cup again, because they will most likely have to face the Blackhawks down the road. But if they can keep up with the way they have played in the first half, I think no doubt they are a team to be reckoned with in the West. There is a saying that fear can be power and the fear that other teams have for them can be a motivator for this Kings team to potentially win it all.

John Scott: Top of the Pyramid

Ok, it was only an NHL All-Star Game and therefore an exhibition game, but how can you not be excited to see how John Scott did?

John Scott himself said he expected his all-star game to be "in the background, enjoying behind the scenes."

Well, good sir, you certainly didn't spend long behind them. He earned the MVP honors after he played a significant role in the All-Star Game, scoring 2 goals and helped the Pacific Division in winning the first 3-on-3 All-Star Game tournament. The MVP chants were loud as they can be inside Bridgestone Arena, and maybe that's why Scott ended up walking away with the trophy.

In my last blog post, I talked about fan voting and now it has led to some unusual results. But John Scott himself has made the NHL pay for what its done in trying to get him out of the All-Star Game. John Scott today is at the top of the pyramid. It doesn't mean he'll stay there for long.

Apparently, John Scott was not even on the MVP candidate list, so fans had to write him in and why not? Scoring 2 goals in the All-Star Game and you're an enforcer? Yeah, that spells MVP to me.

Enforcers don't get enough credit for what they do because everything is centered on those who score goals, but for me, it's nice to see someone like John Scott earn a little bit of glory for what he did. Not only did he beat the NHL in coming back for the All-Star Game, but he made them pay for it. He went from enforcer to goal scorer to MVP. That's saying something.

Sharks player Joe Pavelski said of Scott, "I think (fans) saw his character, what a fun guy he is." John Scott doesn't appear to me to be a goon outside of hockey. He seems like this guy who is willing to get in a few pictures with fans and to be a good samaritan towards others. On the ice, quite the opposite. When he was with San Jose, I saw him a few times and all I saw of him was beating up on other players and trying to prevent them from going after the big stars. But now, this is something I'm sure he's grateful for.

NHL commissioner Gary Bettman had met with him before the All-Star Game and decided to welcome him back with open arms and I hope John Scott is welcomed back for the second half of the season.

John Scott currently plays with the Montreal Canadiens, since he was traded by the Coyotes when he found out he was an All-Star. So now I'm hoping that on this team, he somehow manages to help them get into the playoffs and ultimately get to that goal of a Stanley Cup. I think Scott has the potential and after what he did in the All-Star Game, I'm sure he's ready to get back to it!

For the USA Today article about John Scott's transformation, go to http://usat.ly/1WW6goz.

Have a good night, puck heads! Hope you enjoyed the All-Star Game!

Is Fan Voting Worth It?

The NHL All-Star Game has come and gone. The NBA All-Star Game is on deck. Want to know what both of them have in common this season? Fan voting.

That's right. This year, both all-star games had fan voting so that the fans (you puck heads) could vote in your favorite player. Some of the choices were pretty clear, like Patrick Kane for the NHL and Stephen Curry for the NBA. However, it is the unlikely picks that got in. John Scott, an enforcer and a goon in the NHL, not only got to the All-Star Game but was picked to be a Captain. Because of that, it is believed that the league tried to get him demoted to the AHL to get him out of the All-Star Game.

For the NBA, the fans voted for Kobe Bryant to be a starter. Now, although I don't argue against that pick because this is Kobe's last season, Draymond Green, another superstar on the Golden State Warriors with Curry, was snubbed as a starter for the All-Star Game because Kobe has it. And Draymond has been playing a lot better than Kobe and on a team that are the favorites to win the championship.

All this comes to one critical question: Is fan voting really the answer for the All-Star Game? The leagues want their fans to be involved in the All-Star Game and with the players. The MLB has also tried this but somehow ended up having Royals players start that All-Star Game before the other votes came in and those numbers were dwindled. So maybe my answer should be no. I love fans and they want to be involved in sending players to the All-Star Game, but the fact of the matter is that there is always gonna be someone that ends up on the All-Star Game that probably shouldn't be there.

If I were in the league, I would probably go back to the old format, which was to pick the players that made the most sense, like the stars and the other players that are having good seasons. John Scott, for example, had only 5 goals and 6 assists so far this season, and that to me doesn't say All-Star capable. For Kobe Bryant, he hasn't played well at all. He can't shoot as well as he used to and the other players are not helping him by improving their game. So, even though Kobe should be in the All-Star Game, it shouldn't be as a starter. I want to be able to send the right players to the All-Star Game and I want them to be in the right positions for when they play the game. So Kobe would start on the bench and Draymond would be the starter. John Scott would probably not be in the NHL All-Star Game and it would probably go to someone more deserving of it.

Fan voting might've an experience the leagues were trying to use, but the results have been close to disastrous. I think the leagues need to rethink how they send players to All-Star Games, or even if the All-Star Game makes sense. Some players, like Alex Ovechkin, don't even like going to the All-Star Game. They would rather take the three days to rest their bodies after the injuries they've had in the first half of the season. Even the NBA had to extend their All-Star break to allow players more rest. So maybe the All-Star Game is not a good thing to have. If they want one, they should probably put it at the end of the season and not in the middle of it. Either way, the All-Star Game and its fan voting might not be the best thing for the leagues, after what has happened this season concerning them.

The NHL should be embarrassed by what they have done, doing this fan voting, because I think it sends the wrong messages to players. Players now have to hope the fans vote them into the games and some of them don't get it, even though they said. So I think it's time for a change. We already had the experience and it didn't work out. It's time to go in a different direction and to figure out exactly how to get players to the All-Star Game or even if we need one at all. After all, for the NHL and the NBA, they are exhibition games.