Patience, please

In checking this blog's visitor stats recently, I could only chuckle when I discovered that someone found Hound Central 3.0 by searching for "Hound Central 4.0 best young defensemen" on Google. A few days later, another person went so far as to see whether Ottawa blueline prospect Brian Lee was on the defensemen list.

Now, faithful readers of the Hound Central hockey-hounding franchise know that these features, based solely on my perceptions of the NHL's young talent at forward, defense and goalie, have become an annual installment. The only problem, though, is that they aren't produced until early September.

Mainly, I wait until The Hockey News produces its annual preseason magazine, most often devoted to hockey pool junkies. It's there that I begin my research, culling the top players at these basic positions before settling on the best five at each position.

Until then, folks, we'll all have to be patient. As much as I'd like to have the season starting, it's still a number of weeks away. Let's enjoy the summer, shall we?