I am back from Las Vegas, tanned but not relaxed. I am tired and jet lagged and glad to be home with my family safe and sound.

 

This week is being spent in preparation for the amateur draft. Our scouts work all year long for this one weekend and they are all in and getting ready for the festivities in Montreal. I won’t be attending the event this year but will have a good handle on what George and Ross hope to get done.

 

I would expect this draft will see its fair share of trades as well. Maybe we will be a player - maybe not – but the consensus is that young players matter in the NHL now. The best way to build a team is via the draft and many older teams are looking to shed payroll and players for prospects and picks. Sound familiar? And everyone is tightly managing their salary cap and number of contracts available under the new CBA.

 

Remember last season? We made a trade of Steve Eminger for Philly’s first round pick. We then drafted John Carlson who has a shot of making our team this next season and could be a star player. I think George McPhee and the scouts deserve a lot of credit for making that trade. As you know, Steve Eminger then got traded by Philly to Tampa and then on to Florida.

 

Wish us well in Montreal. Even though we pick late in the draft let us NOT forget that Mike Green was picked very late in the draft as well. He was just named a First Team All-Star. Kudos to our scouts on that pick, too, huh?

 

This past weekend, we went to see Year One. It was a poor man’s version of a Mel Brooks and a Monty Python film. It wasn’t very good although there were a few laugh out loud scenes. Dumb summer fun - I give it two stars out of four.

 

For Fathers Day, my family gave me an Eric Clapton autographed guitar, a guitar he used on tour. They supported one of his charities and got the guitar in exchange. It is really beautiful. I am beaming with pride and will cherish it and display it in my home office. I now have Bono’s guitar and Clapton’s guitar. Quite the pair!

 

On Sunday night, we went to a very nice dinner at a wonderful restaurant called Bourbon Steak in the Four Seasons hotel. As we entered the lobby, we all did a double take as both Jake Gyllenhaal and Reese Witherspoon were there just hanging out with family and friends, talking away and dressed in shorts and workout clothes.

 

On Monday night, we all went to a film premiere about coming home to Cuba and Luis Tiant’s personal journey in conjunction with the Red Sox being in town to play the Washington Nationals.