P.K.? O.K.!

I had some eBay items to ship out yesterday, but we took the kids to the 11 a.m. matinee of Toy Story 4. By the time the movie ended, all of the local post offices were closed. Also, the second round of the NHL Draft started and the Devils had the third pick. I had just missed that, too. Then I saw that the Flyers made the pick. The Flyers?!? WTH?

Seconds later I felt much better when I read the crawl at the bottom of the screen. The Devils traded the pick to Nashville - for P.K. Subban!

Nashville flipped the #34 pick to Philly.

This doesn't make the Devils Cup contenders or anything - Taylor Hall is still a free agent at the end of the year, the Devils are supermodel-thin on the wings, and after two decades of Martin Brodeur, it sounds odd to say that the Devils' biggest weakness is goaltending. But #1 overall pick Jack Hughes is expected to be a star, and even after the Subban trade the Devils have over $25 million in cap space to throw at a few free agents.

P.K. did have a down year in '18-19, and the Preds understandably wanted to shed his superstar salary after a year of pedestrian production. That's why he was available. Nearly every decent NHL player has a no-trade or no-movement clause, so unless you're Toronto or Pittsburgh it's nearly impossible to acquire a superstar player in their prime. 

Jersey now has two - and a third could be developing under their watch. (Not to mention 2017 #1 pick Nico Hischier) On a personal note, P.K. is already one of my four favorite NHL players - and now all of them except Alex Ovechkin are on the Devils!

There may have been a little foreshadowing to this, when Subban appeared on ESPN's First take to discuss the NBA Finals. Listen to P.K. compare the Raptors to a certain Stanley Cup winner at about 1:35:

I didn't see this at the time (I only watch ESPN for Around the Horn/PTI) I actually caught it on a Devils blog in which the writer stops himself from reading too much into P.K.'s comment. 

In other news...I used the $3 off eBay coupon to pick up another single for my Exquisite set build. The PWE had a hole in it and the top loader was cracked, but the card is okay:

This Claude Giroux cost me $1.75 after tax & shipping. He's been a Flyers star for over a decade, but as was mentioned during this year's NHL Draft, he'll always be remembered for this draft day blunder by Bobby Clarke:

 

I did get one trade in the mail, but I'm expecting a couple more so I'll save them for a card trade recap post. I'm headed out to the Walgreens this morning - which was a Rite Aid until recently - to grab some shipping supplies and investigate these Walgreens Yellow parallels I've heard very little about...


Thanks for reading!


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