My draft will look very similar to this one.

	Seriously Social Services needs to step in.

I absolutely love draft day. There are two approaches people take for the draft: those who prepare and those that don't. Often you'll also have the guy who pulls the draft day bluff and acts like he hasn't gotten any season preview magazines or read up on the off-season transactions; meanwhile behind the scenes this guy has been hitting the papers harder than a PhD student writing a thesis. I always find the methods of preparation for a hockey pool enjoyable. I mean 80% of the guys buy the same preview magazine, which leaves them all valuing players the same way. Of course then it becomes hilarious when everyone starts to squabble over a particular player that the magazine had forecasted for a big season. "Oh, man I can't believe you drafted Anson Carter ahead of me. I thought he would have a big year." The worst type of person to have at the draft is the guy who does absolutely no preparation. This guy strolls in, has no idea which players switched teams in the off-season and takes forever to draft. This guy has no business even showing up and running a team, which reminds me of something I saw at the video store. I was in BlockBuster and noticed that Home Alone 4 just got released straight to video. Seriously, when are Social Services going to step in and take this kid away from the parents? How negligent do they have to be before someone decides these people are unfit parents? The guy who doesn't come prepared to the draft is like a negligent parent.

Each year there's always a crop of good players taken by people who have no clue who the players they just drafted are. Last year a guy in my pool drafted Henrik Zetterberg as his rookie just because his magazine had him ranked that way. "I need to draft a rookie and since the magazine says that this Zetterberg guy will have a good year, I'll take him." I'm pretty sure he didn't even know what team the guy played for. Meanwhile I followed the preseason scores, paid attention to Zetterberg's linemate, all for not. Even worse then that is when a guy drafts a player and butchers his name. There's no clearer sign to people that you don't know what or who you're drafting when you mispronounce the player's name. Nothing is more obvious than this other than maybe predicting that a punter and kicker are best friends on a football team. Speaking of kickers how the hell did Calgary Stampeders kicker Mark McLaughlin go from kicking field goals one day to becoming the President and CEO of the team the next? I mean somehow I don't think this type of thing would happen anywhere else other than the CFL. All I'm saying is don't hold your breath waiting for Martin Gramatica to become Jon Gruden's boss anytime soon.

Another thing you can expect to see at each draft is the guy who makes the "I'm going out on a limb with this pick" statement and then when they make the pick it turns out to be a mainstream franchise player…."I'll take Markus Naslund. I personally believe he'll have a good year". You personally believe that? Funny that your personal opinion is the same one shared across the entire NHL. The riskiest part of draft day has to be making a trade. The draft day trade is risky because you have everyone there to in the pool to ridicule and analyze your deal. Be sure that the deal you're making is a good one because all I'm saying is it's hard to look or speak to a guy who just made a bad deal. It's like the guy who gets carried away with the jokes and goes too far…the room goes completely silent and no one knows what to really say.

	Making a quick deal can feel like an appearance on the Jenny Jones Show.

I'm excited about this year's draft because we're taking advantage of technology, specifically MSN Messnger to take our pool national. We're covered coast-to-coast. We have one guy drafting in Halifax and another drafting in Calgary. Not enough that it's hard to get more than 10 guys organized for anything like this now we have to deal with different time zones. Because of the need for Messenger this year we treated the draft site of the pool like an Olympic bid: What kind of food can you offer? What's the seating like? How's the location of the computer? "If you guarantee that you'll improve the sightlines to the TV then we'll award your place as the host." Of course after the draft the trading aspect of the pool begins. There will be a couple of guys anxious to deal. You'll find some people's strategy of trading is to pester someone until they crack. There's an especially unfair advantage with co-workers. At most workplaces, government offices exempted people are less likely to stretch out long-winded trade discussions. They'll make hastier decisions and regret it later. Like ignoring that dorky girl from high school and then getting an invite to the Jenny Jones Show one day to find out that girl took the motivation from your rejection to turn herself into a bombshell.

This year's draft and pool will need to be enjoyed because with the impending end of the NHL CBA agreement who knows the next time a hockey pool can be conducted. The next installment of the pool may have a different look as we may have to face the reality that faces the NHL and institute a salary cap. So I guess this will be last year of New York Rangers type spending. Wish me luck.