For most of this decade Montreal Canadiens fans have believed the salvation of their faded franchise rested upon rebuilding with the young players drafted and developed by the team. 

Habs fans for the past several years have trotted out the high rankings their organization received from websites and publications tracking prospect development for the club's supposed depth in promising talent. 

A quick look however at the fate of most of the players considered top prospects within the Canadiens system from 2000 to 2007 suggests those rankings may have been inflated. 

2000: The top three picks were Ron Hainsey, Marcel Hossa and Jozef Balej. Of the three only Hainsey is still playing in the NHL but in Atlanta, not Montreal, where he faces being relegated to second line defense pairing as young Zach Bogosian continues to improve. 

2001: Mike Komisarek, Tomas Plekanec and Alexander Perezhogin were the best of this bunch. Komisarek is considered among the league's best physical defensemen but now plays for Toronto. Plekanec is a strong second line center with first line potential but could be lost to the UFA market next July. Perezhogin now plays in Russia.

2002: Christopher Higgins was projected as a future Canadiens captain but after three 20-plus goal seasons he was shipped to the NY Rangers where he's played so poorly he's rumored to once again be on the trade block. 

2003: Andrei Kostitsyn, Jaroslav Halak, Maxim Lapierre and Ryan O'Byrne have made the club but none have yet to emerge as a true star. Kostitsyn's stock has fallen dramatically since his 26-goal, 53-point "breakout" performance two seasons ago. Halak is a capable goalie but he's yet to prove himself a full-time starter. Lapierre is a good checking line forward and O'Byrne has been hampered by injuries and consistency issues. 

2004: Kyle Chipchura was the Habs top pick that year but he's not even good enough to stick around as a fourth line center because of his skating. Mark Streit and Mikhail Grabovski have had better performances but with other teams as the Canadiens let Streit walk via free agency and traded Grabovski to the Maple Leafs for little in return.

2005: Goaltender Carey Price was the star pick in this draft but he's struggling to adjust to the heightened expectations of being the Canadiens "savior". It appears the Habs are guilty of rushing him before he was truly ready and mature for the role of starting goaltender. Guillaume Latendresse has yet to prove he's capable of being a power forward, Matt D'Agostini appears destined to become a checking line forward while Sergei Kostitsyn has played his way out of Montreal. 

2006: Only Ben Maxwell has played any games for the Canadiens, appearing in a grand total of seven last season.

2007: Max Pacioretty was touted as a power forward but he's shown that  ability only in spurts last season and even less this season. Yannick Weber played only six NHL games, and couldn't stick with an injury-ravaged Canadiens blueline early this season. PK Subban has been played up as the future of the Habs defense corps but that remains to be seen as he's yet to play an NHL regular season or playoff game. 

Of the Canadiens supposed depth of young talent who went on the play in the NHL, most of the better players - Hainsey, Komisarek, Grabovski and Streit - now play elsewhere.

Of those remaining, only Plekanec has emerged as a good, consistent player, but he's no superstar.

Price and Halak have yet to prove themselves capable starting goaltenders. The Kostitsyns have been major disappointments. Lapierre is an energetic checking line forward while D'Agostini could become one. Latendresse is a bust thus far as a power forward while Pacioretty is struggling to adjust to NHL play. Chipchura's slim hopes for an NHL career are dying and the jury remains out on O'Byrne.

For one bright shining season (2007-08) it seemed the Canadiens were at long last about to become a great team again, but it now seems that season was an anomaly. 

No one in this current group of young players have established themselves as superstars and it's doubtful any of them will.

Canadiens fans will likely protest that it's still too early to judge those youngsters currently playing for their team too harshly, that there's still plenty of time for those players to develop into the stars they were projected to be, and the Habs shouldn't give up on them. 

Maybe some of those players will become stars one day but if recent history is anything to go by, they'll likely be playing for other NHL teams when they finally reach that potential. 

The Canadiens future, it appears, has been built upon a weak foundation. Unless that changes soon, Habs fans should expect their team to be as mediocre in the next decade as it was in this one. 

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.