shrader

Those aren't loopholes, they are specifically spelled out rules. And they won't be changing them, there's no reason to do that. We're talking about such a small number of players. These college players already have their rights restricted more than they are for the non-CHL player. The PA would never agree to restricted those guys' rights even further. Every single player can be eligible for unrestricted free agency 4 years after becoming eligible for the draft. You can't suddenly change that so that the college players have to wait even longer. Also, the CHL guys can re-enter the draft after two years if unsigned, something not available to the college guys. Yes there is a window each year where a bunch of college guys become UFAs at the same time, but that happens with the CHL guys as well. The only difference there is that those players can sign earlier in the year without fear of becoming inelligble to play with their current team. So you won't get that "all at once" feel, but there is definitely CHL undrafted free agency as well.

We really only have one player to look at right now for this question. Anyone beyond the first round picks was more than like a >2 year project anyway. So it's just Mittelstadt who may have been taken instead of a worthy CHL pick. With those later picks, they may indeed have a preference of one league vs. the other, but I don't think it has anything to do with those CHL transfer agreement rules. This year's draft results may very well fuel that theory though. It seems so USNTDP heavy this time around and the numbers alone make it pretty likely that they go that route with the first pick.

I can't think of the last early drafted CHL player to hold out and return into the draft 2 years later. It's too easy to just sign them right away and then let them stay there for their next two years if needed. I don't really see how they would have less control over player development with this option. I'd also have to imagine that they had some say in Pekar and UPL (yeah, until he makes it, I'm not learning that spelling) switching into that league. That's certainly a developmental move for those guys.

I just don't want to give that blind squirrel any credit if this by some chance does happen. Those constant references remind me too much of the hit and run "my neighbor's cousin works on the grounds crew" guys we get over on the football side of the board.

I've been here in the Raleigh area for 5 years now and this year was by far the worst one we had for pollen. I remember one day in particular where a specific section of my morning drive, it looked like I was driving through cartoon nuclear fallout. I'm fortunate that I don't have any allergy issues, but it's so bad here that it has introduced a new problem: getting pollen under my contact lenses. That right there is brutal. We're past that season now though, thank god.

I wouldn't call it being a cynic though. The constant use of the phrase "super secret source" doesn't exactly instill much in the way of confidence, at least for me.

Mine actually turned out ok. I'm already in that period without any promotions, so there was no price increase coming. They offered me a credit of $64 per month for 12 months, without a new contract. So that means I can just go through this whole process again in a year when the price jumps back up to their normal rate.

Ha, they have apparently switched to the car dealership method of negotiation now. The woman I talked to said she has to talk to her manager and will call me back with what they can offer. Apparently I've got a bit more time left on the contract than I thought, so I can sit back and watch this play out a bit. It should be fun to see just how close they stick to that car dealer method where the first offer is pure garbage. I've heard from a few people going that route recently. I'm not sure how it has worked out for them so far.

The same super secret source that said the coaching job was Tippet's if he wanted it, after the job had already been offered to Krueger?

I'm at the end of my latest two year deal with Directv. I hear that they don't bend quite as much as they used to with that routine negotiation game. Has anyone had that experience recently? I did just recently switch my internet provider, so I can definitely use the threat of switching to them for cable as well.

I'd imagine it's far more about money than it is about whether or not Krueger can makes a sales pitch.

How many trucks broke down over the course of that countdown?

And the casual listener is by far the majority of the audience. Of course any of these lists are going to cater to those people. There was one music list years ago that at least always nailed the #1 ranking. Back in the stone age when MTV actually aired videos, they would randomly pull out "the greatest videos of all time". No one could ever compete with Thriller.

I fully expect to see the royal blue this season. They have nothing to gain from releasing that info right now, so they might as well string along the fans for a while. It will get that much better of a reaction right around September.

And apparently they originally planned on killing Conor at the end and then have the human/terminator hybrid guy take on his face. That would have been... different. I need to go back and watch that one sometime. I haven't seen it since theaters but I remember having a positive reaction to it. But then again, I'm a fan of Bale.

And where's John Connor? He should be well over 40 at this point. I wonder if they've got something planned with him in the movie and they want to keep him out of trailers for now.

Is this a mad libs post about Kid Rock songs? The possibilities are endless.

The random place that asks you if you want to round up to the next dollar for a charity, those ones do it right. Sure it's a small donation each time, but I bet they consistently get that donation from most customers.

I hate that so many people's minds immediately jump to Vanilla Ice when they hear that music.

A classic rock station down here was running a top 500 this weekend too. I wonder if it winds up being the same exact list. After a quick google search, they're not owned by the same company, so it's interesting to see the same exact countdown format running on two unaffiliated stations and having the same number of songs.

Maybe I'm getting my bands mixed up, but I thought it was Candlebox. They bailed on a show in Buffalo and for years after WEDG refused to play any of their music. It must have been the show you're talking about.

It's pretty rare for me to have to make up on my mind on a tip prior to receiving the food. I can only think of one place where I ran into this. Still, I stick to the simple rule that if my meal does not involve a waiter, I'm not tipping. I supposed I might bend that one a bit if I was a big fan of the place or knew the workers well, but that's it.

I watched Into the Spiderverse on a flight recently. That one was incredibly well done. I can see how it was winning awards. And the scene at the end of the credits was hilarious.

I'm surprised they haven't tried to go that route again with this franchise, showing the future storyline instead of rehashing the lead up to judgement day over and over. Things at least get a bit more unpredictable in the future, where you no longer know John Connor has to survive the movie so he can lead the future resistance.

Kozlov was 29 at the time of the trade, so that one really wasn't a "looking towards the future" deal. But anyway, it's kind of funny to look back on that deal and see that the other piece wound up being a big part of a Stanley Cup champion. Speaking of Paille, apparently his draft pick bounced around between a bunch of teams and the first trade was for Joe Nieuwendyk. There's an odd coincidence for this whole discussion.