Actually he had Nashville in the lead for Forsberg for days and had the trade before any other media outlet. Lets get our facts straight.
Philly seems to be the one team he actually does seem to have an inside source who gives him reliable info, but even then, it's usually only an hour or so before the mainstream media. I noticed he tends to be the first out of the box when Philly makes a signing or trade, but other than that, he seems to more or less be a subscriber to each team's website, and finds out as soon as the press release goes out.
I don't get the hatred either. He reports what he hears. He doesn't filter stuff out that makes no sense, and I also don't believe he makes them up. I'm not saying that his sources don't make them up but he'll report what he hears.
Eklund was the first to report Forsberg to Nashville.
no he wasn't actually... both TFP and TSN had it before him (as per the time he posted)... i was going nuts checking out all 3 sites and sportsnet... actually TFP had it first at around 6:15 (they didn't mention upshall til about 6:45 though).. TSN has everything up around 6:35...then ek had it (in fact he put diff pieces first).. then sportsnet had it like an hour after everyone else, lol
but ya... ek's done decently around from time to time, some friends have told me they herad stuff from him first... personally i haven't, but some buddies of mine have
not all that interested in Bouchard... he'd be coming into a pressure cooker (being french, and being traded here to replace Koivu), and he is awful in the face-off circle.
Minnesota's organzation has very strong ties with the Habs brass. Its believable that something is in the works considering all the rumbling's we've heard today. I don't think people give Eklund enough credit. He's by no means a clairevoient but he does get some deals right.
One thing Eklund got right that I didn't see anywhere else was that Belanger was going to be traded again after Nashville picked him up for Vasicek. He didn't call the deal itself, where he went for Vishnevski, but he did at least correctly say that Belanger would be on the move again shortly.
A better question than how often Eklund gets things right, is if he gets things right more often than anyone else. Sadly, if you compare his record to the other guys who do simillar things regularly like Garrioch, I think you'll find he's about the best out there.
I think the problem people have is that they take all of his e1's too seriously. The e1's I'm pretty sure he makes up just to have something to post, so if you ignore those, he actually doesn't have that bad a record.
I really don't understand people's hatred of Eklund. He explicitely says that these are rumours he has heard. Just that - rumours.
If you don't like it, don't read it.
He pollutes and lie... that's why.
At times, he was deleting/editing in own posts on his website to make it look like he had talked about it beforehand.
Some of his rumors are so out of whack... that they can only be completely made up... just to create traffic towards his website... then we have to see 200 threads here polluting the rest of the good threads... by people who believe in him reporting all that stuff... or I wouldn't be surprised if they were various nicknames of his.
Ultimately, maybe his wife/husband work as a secretary in the NHL office, so he/she gets to report a trade an hour before everybody as they must go through some approval process... Even if so, why bother ... for an hour ahead of time.
I don't follow old picklehead's website at all. Has he nailed one of these trades, as even a rumour? Has he even mentioned Forsberg to Nashville, Stuart to Calgary etc?
He had Forsberg to Nashville four hours before it went down.
He had Kariya signing with Nashville the day before, and everyone said he was nuts.
The guy clearly is an "insider," but like all insiders, he gets a majority wrong.
At times, he was deleting/editing in own posts on his website to make it look like he had talked about it beforehand.
Some of his rumors are so out of whack... that they can only be completely made up... just to create traffic towards his website... then we have to see 200 threads here polluting the rest of the good threads... by people who believe in him reporting all that stuff... or I wouldn't be surprised if they were various nicknames of his.
Ultimately, maybe his wife/husband work as a secretary in the NHL office, so he/she gets to report a trade an hour before everybody as they must go through some approval process... Even if so, why bother ... for an hour ahead of time.
lol, I'm not an insider and have no sources/contacts/w/e and I could've put Nashville at the top of the list for Forsberg bidding. For the last month all I've heard about the Preds is that Poile is desperate to get more fans in the building and to do that the team needs some major success like a President's trophy and maybe even the Stanley Cup. what better way to do that than trade for the biggest player available out there. Do I even have to mention that the Flyers needs defensive prospects and Nashville has so many that they've become expendable?
BTW, anouncing a trade before anyone else is not impressive. There was an hour when the whole hockey world thought Gretzky had been traded to Toronto. Why? It was actually close to happening and in an attempt to be the first guy to tell the world about it an insider confirmed it before it'd actually happened so every other news station starts to confirm it but it never actually happened.
lol, I'm not an insider and have no sources/contacts/w/e and I could've put Nashville at the top of the list for Forsberg bidding. For the last month all I've heard about the Preds is that Poile is desperate to get more fans in the building and to do that the team needs some major success like a President's trophy and maybe even the Stanley Cup. what better way to do that than trade for the biggest player available out there. Do I even have to mention that the Flyers needs defensive prospects and Nashville has so many that they've become expendable?
Then start a website, make your predictions, and see if you make some $. Until then, just give the guy some credit.
If you look at most of the trades that are happening, Eklund breaks it sometimes a day or hours before. That's not saying much but it proves that he's not a phony. Also the guy does not make stuff up, he reports what his source are saying to him.
I'm not really a fan of Eklund but he reports what he hears. Although many of the rumors he mentions never pan out that doesn't mean that those trades weren't possibilities at one time. I'm sure there are plenty of talk about trades between GMs that never pan out. If nothing else Eklund gets people talking and is somewhat entertaining.
Shhhhhhhhhh, you might make people think that GMs actually do work. People think the GMs talk on the phone till a deal is done and they don't do any work for month at a time, only when a trade happened has a GM called someone else. It is preposterous to even believe that a GM ask for things that are unreasonable and for Eklund to report it. OMG HE IS DA LIAR!!!!
