As per LA Kings Insider Rich Hammond's blog:

"It won’t be announced by the league until early December, but Kings officials have been told that Los Angeles will host the NHL Entry Draft next June. It’s still to be determined whether the event will be held at Staples Center or Nokia Center, but the dates will be June 25-26. By all accounts, it will be the same format, with the first round on Friday night and the rest on Saturday."

And yes, provided I can scrape up the cash, I hope to be there. It's been nearly ten years since I was last in Los Angeles so I'm overdue for another visit, even if it'll be business-related. 

Minnesota Wild general manager Chuck Fletcher finally made a move to bolster his injury ravaged forward lines, acquiring right winger Chuck Kobasew from the Boston Bruins. 

Heading to the Bruins is checking forward Craig Weller, a second round pick in 2011 and the rights to prospect Alexander Fallstrom.

Kobasew comes with a $2.33 million salary for this season and the Wild were roughly 0K from the salary cap ceiling, but according to Michael Russo of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune the club placed forward Pierre-Marc Bouchard (concussion) on long term injury status thus allowing them to take on Kobasew's salary.

With Bouchard, Cal Clutterbuck (sprained ankle), Martin Havlat and Petr Sykora (groin) sidelined the Wild were struggling offensively, and with nothing really worthwhile in the free agent market or the waiver wire Fletcher was forced to make a trade. 

Kobasew is a former three-time twenty-plus goalscorer who had a career-season in 2008-09 with 42 points in 68 games, although this season he's off to a slow start with no goals and one assist in seven games. 

Fletcher is obviously hoping a change of scenery might help Kobasew regain his scoring touch.

For the Bruins moving Kobasew dumps his salary from their books for both this season and next, freeing up valuable cap space not only for later use this season but also in re-signing several key players by next summer. 

Weller adds affordable checking line depth which can be used either on the Bruins roster or farm club, they pick up another valuable draft pick and add another prospect to their system. 

After taking a few days off to visit family and friends here's a look at some recent player news which occurred over that time.

Brendan Shanahan's NHL career might be coming to a close after the New Jersey Devils recently released him. 

Management approached him over a week ago indicating their desire to part ways with Shanahan, whom they signed in August to a one-year, million contract, to make way for younger talent to move up into the second and third line winger roles. 

The club recently waived Shanahan and have released him from his contract, which will no longer count against the Devils salary cap. In turn this will allow Shanahan to become an unrestricted free agent. 

The market for Shanahan is quite limited as he only wants to play in the New York area. Neither the Rangers, Islanders or Buffalo Sabres are interested and he could be facing retirement.  The Detroit Red Wings, with whom Shanahan starred for nine seasons winning three Stanley Cups, have also passed. 

- Speaking of the Red Wings, they recently signed tough guy forward Brad May to a one-year contract worth 0K. 

While the move elicited scorn from many observers GM Ken Holland defended the move, pointing out his club was pushed around by the St. Louis Blues in their back-to-back season opening series, adding May will bring back swagger to the roster. 

- The Nashville Predators signed veteran forward Dave Scatchard to a one-year contract. Scatchard had been released from the Vancouver Canucks after attempting to make that club on a tryout. 

Scatchard's deal is for one-year and is a two-way contract worth over 0K at the NHL level. He's obviously a depth signing who can be called up when required throughout the season should injuries strike the Predators lineup. 

- The Calgary Flames recently acquired another defenseman, trading away forward Kyle Greentree to the Chicago Blackhawks in exchange for blueliner Aaron Johnson. 

This move comes as veteran Flames d-man Cory Sarich remains sidelined with a foot injury suffered during pre-season, which would suggest Sarich may be out for longer than anticipated thus Johnson would be worthwhile insurance. 

The move also cleared a little bit of cap space for the Blackhawks, dumping Johnson's 0K salary as Greentree was sent to the minors. This could be the first in what could be several salary dumping deals for the cash-strapped Blackhawks between now and July 1st as the club has to re-sign key stars Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane and Duncan Keith. 

A former NHL defenseman has announced his retirement while a former winger is heading to Russia's KHL. 

Philippe Boucher, who split last season between the Dallas Stars and Pittsburgh Penguins, has decided to retire after 17 NHL seasons, having won the Stanley Cup with the Penguins last spring. 

Winger Eric Perrin, who played last season with the Atlanta Thrashers and was an unrestricted free agent, has signed a one-year deal with Avangard Omsk. 

Boucher, 36, also played for the Buffalo Sabres and LA Kings during his career. His best season was in 2006-07, with a career-best 19 goals and 51 points in 76 games with the Stars, earning a berth in the NHL All-Star game. 

He was a good puck-moving defenseman for much of his career but injuries were also his nearly constant companion as he never played a full 82-game season in his career. 

Perrin, 33, had a much shorter NHL career, playing only four seasons with the Tampa Bay Lightning and Atlanta  Thrashers. He won a Stanley Cup with the Lightning in 2004, but his best NHL season was 2007-08 with the Thrashers, netting 12 goals and 45 points in 81 games. 

Having spent much of his professional career in Europe playing in Russia shouldn't be too difficult of an adjustment, having previously played in Finland and Switzerland. 

Since Ottawa Senators winger Dany Heatley surprised the NHL world with his mid-June request for a trade he'd been the main topic of discussion throughout this summer's hockey rumor mill.

With only weeks to go until the start of the Senators training camp the speculation suggests the Senators will have to move Heatley before then or risk his trade request becoming an unwelcome distraction for management, head coach Cory Clouston (who is believed the reason behind Heatley's request) and the players. 

But can Heatley be moved before mid-September?

In the "good old days", before the salary cap and "no-movement" clauses, the answer would've been a definite 'yes'. Players of Heatley talent (former two-time 50-goal scorer) are highly prized and despite being branded as selfish by the media and some NHL folks there would've been several team lining up for his services. 

But today's NHL world is ruled by the salary cap and Heatley has a "no-movement" clause giving him the final say over where he'll be dealt. 

The best time for Heatley to be moved was late-June/early-July, as that's when interested teams had the cap space to absorb his hefty $7.5 million per season contract. 

That's when the anticipation of a Heatley trade was at its height. During the June 2009  entry draft in Montreal Heatley's name was among several bandied possibly ready to be moved at any moment. 

But Senators general manager Bryan Murray was apparently seeking too much (a top six forward, a puck-moving defenseman and a first round pick) and that killed most of the interest in him. 

The Edmonton Oilers jumped into the fray just prior to the start of this summer's unrestricted free agent period with an offer of two forwards (Dustin Penner and Andrew Cogliano) and a defenseman (Ladislav Smid) which Murray was willing to accept. 

Unfortunately for Murray and the Oilers, Heatley nixed the deal, not once but twice, and resisted all entreaties from the Oilers until they finally gave up. 

Almost all the teams believed on Heatley's "wish list" of desired destinations, including the New York Rangers, Chicago Blackhawks, and Los Angeles Kings, aren't interest any more.

Forget the silly internet-based rumors claiming otherwise; those clubs either already addressed their needs (Rangers signing Gaborik), lack the cap space (Blackhawks) or just didn't like the way the Heatley camp handled this situation (Kings). 

Only one team, the San Jose Sharks,  is believed to have any significant interest in Heatley but unfortunately for the Sharks and Senators it appears a deal cannot be reached. 

Sharks GM Doug Wilson apparently would love to move out players like Jonathan Cheechoo and perhaps Christian Ehrhoff for Heatley, but Murray aren't interested. 

That's led of course to wild talk of a potential three-way deal but nothing has materialized and likely won't at this time of year. 

The best window of opportunity to move Heatley has long passed. As general managers prepare for the start of their upcoming training camps they're more interested in assessing their current rosters over the next month before making any decisions on changes via trades. 

Even then, it's doubtful the Senators could find willing trade partners since most clubs have committed their available cap dollars and would only be interested in affordable deals rather than blockbuster moves. 

Recent history is also against a Heatley trade taking place prior to the start of training camp, during pre-season or in the first half of this season. 

Since the lockout ended few major off-season trades have occurred in August. Heatley was involved in the last significant one when he was dealt from Atlanta to Ottawa on August 23, 2005.

Some rumormongers will point to that as proof such deals can still occur but that's not taking into account the summer of 2005 was a different NHL off-season. The league had only emerged from a season-killing lockout in mid-July and teams weren't allowed to make roster changes until August 1st. 

Since then we've seen no significant deals involving players of Heatley's caliber in August...or September...or October. 

In fact the last time a significant early season trade occurred was nearly four years ago, when the Boston Bruins shipped Joe Thornton to San Jose on November 30th, 2005. 

The salary cap and to a lesser degree no-trade/no-movement clauses are the reasons and both are applicable in Heatley's case. 

It's possible Heatley could be moved before the start of training camp, the start of the upcoming 2009-10 season or even in the first half of the season, but the odds are against it. 

The longer this situation drags on the greater the possibility that the earliest he might be dealt is the March 3rd, 2010 trade deadline. 

That's a long time for the Senators and their fans to deal with the distraction of Heatley's trade request. 

It's also a long time for Heatley to have to deal with a distraction of his own making and which he has no one but himself to blame.  

That raises the distinct possibility this situation could start all over again next summer.