We've played this game before here on Defending Big D, but yesterday's fun with Brenden Morrow and the St. Louis Blues is another wonderful case of how informed speculation can turn into "the Dallas Stars are shopping their captain."
So, as Brandon recapped in his article on this yesterday, Blues beat writer Jeremy Rutherford of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch wrote a column speculating that the Blues had interest in trading for Morrow. A tuned-in beat writer like Rutherford isn't writing this out of the blue (no pun intended). He likely had some speculative conversations with the higher-ups in the St. Louis organization about the team's interest.
Given that a.) this would be a very notable move for the Stars and the Blues and b.) hockey scribes are now short of things to write about save jokes at Shane Doan's expense, the story gained legs very quickly. We picked it up, as did Puck Daddy, NHL.com, ProHockeyTalk and HockeyBuzz, among others.
Some of those played it pretty straight. Others (and I'm looking at you here, PHT and HockeyBuzz) played that wonderful game of internet telephone and turned some pretty straightforward speculation into "the Stars are shopping Morrow." Here, see for yourselves from the PHT article:
Jeremy Rutherford of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports Stars captain Brenden Morrow is available for trade and some of the usual suspects are already trying to land him.
See, that's not at all what the Post-Dispatch article says. Remember kids, when you see a wacky internet rumor about a trade, always read the original story. Because of people letting their fingers run away with them, we're sure to be subject to a slew of articles about teams trading for Morrow over the next several days. Yay technology.
After the jump, Austin Smith is trying for an epic homecoming, the Shane Doan sweepstakes continues and those of you scarred by ESPN's annual Body Issue are probably not going to like this development.
- I'm not sure where Austin Smith fits in this season in terms of the call-up list. But whenever the Metroplex native does make his NHL debut, wouldn't it be perfect for it to be at the AAC? Mike Heika explores the possibility in this paywalled story. [DallasNews.com]
- You can agree or disagree with this writer's analysis of the Stars recent drafts. For the record, I pretty much disagree. [The Hockey Writers]
- Dear Detroit Free Press. While I understand better than most the hyper-local focused shoved on you by your corporate overlords, the first words associated with Mike Modano should not be "former Detroit Red Wings forward." Given that he's basically a native son, his election to the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame would be a big story in your paper anyway, his 40-something games in red had so, so little to do with that and are pretty irrelevant here. [Detroit Free Press]
- Whether or not you think the Stars should be in on the Shane Doan sweepstakes, it's dominating most of the free agent conversation at the moment. [NESN.com]
- It was a busy day for former Stars. The Blues might not have traded for Morrow, but they did re-sign Jamie Langenbrunner to a one-year contract. [NHL.com]
- The Blues were very busy and also traded B.J. Crombeen and a draft pick to the Tampa Bay Lightning for, you guessed it, more draft picks. [Bolts By The Bay]
- And Jeff Halpern joined former teammate Brad Richards as he signed with the New York Rangers. [CSN Philly]
- In our upcoming CBA Armageddon, the owners are going to cry poverty. One of the loudest voices in that group is likely to be Minnesota Wild owner Craig Leipold. Who just spent almost $200 million on two players. Who three months earlier said his team was in poor financial straits. Does. Not. Compute. [Puck Daddy]
- Justin Bourne, as always, brings his insight from his days as a player to this story about what makes a good "room" guy. [Backhand Shelf]
- Brad Brad Brad. We leave you alone for a year and you go and pose nude for ESPN? Not that there's anything wrong with that... [Eye on Hockey]
- I can't promise you any naked athletes in this video, but it does feature baby prospect hockey players teaching ball hockey to even younger kids from the Boys and Girls Club. Also, what better way to introduce players from Northern Europe to Texas than by making them run around outside in the dead of summer?