It’s Monday morning and I’m bagged from an awesome weekend. The draft was a blast and was a great experience to take it in live from Montreal. Then Sunday my family had a party for my mother, who got her Doctorate in May. What an awesome achievement for her to fulfill a lifelong goal at the young age of 64. Good job, Mom!

I read Ray Ferraro’s article about how proud he was to see his son pull on a Red Wings jersey, and it was a similar feeling for me when I saw my Mom get her Doctorate on May 21st. The difference is I will never relate to that because there won’t be a Doctorate in my future… ha ha (?)

In the meantime, some thoughts on the Brodziak trade: The Oilers lost the trade, because they gave up a player who is already playing in the league for two who might never play in the NHL.

This trade was more about creating a spot for Gilbert Brule or Marc Pouliot to play centre on a regular basis next year. Brule has more grit and probably more offensive upside. Pouliot – of whom I am not a huge fan – is a better scorer but he is just as soft, if not softer than Brodziak.

After the draft I had a brief conversation with Steve Tambellini about the trade and what was his thinking when he pulled it off.

That’s where Brule and Pouliot come in.  He also hinted that he’d like to move another player before July 1st, so he would have a bit more room to sign a free agent. I don’t think that move will be a blockbuster type deal; rather it will be a deal similar to Brodziak.

I was told that Cogliano is not someone they are interested in dealing right now. Of course no player is untouchable, but they strongly believe he has a big upside.

I wrote a few weeks ago that the TEAM 1260 was going to make more changes, and they’ll unveil another change tomorrow night. After a nine month hiatus, a live local show will return weeknights from 9-12, starting Monday. Corey Graham will host Game Night, and he’ll have drop in co-hosts from time-to-time and is planning on making late night sports radio fun in Edmonton.

“The show will be pretty loose. I’m going to put a younger spin on it. We’re going to talk lots of hockey, but we’ll focus on other sports as well. I’m going to work on making the show fun and entertaining. Night time radio needs to be less about strict format, and more about fun, insightful sports talk. I hope to bring that starting Monday.”

Game night will be great for the station and the sports fan in Edmonton. The show will try a few different angles between now and the hockey season, so expect some interesting topics and ideas starting this Monday.

A big thank you goes out again to the readers of the Nation. It was a wild weekend – I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did and I gave you your money’s worth. In talking to other media types at the draft, few could believe how I got to Montreal and the passion of the Oilers fans has been put on display yet again. If these three sites weren’t already on the radar of national media personalities before, they are now.

Somewhere Wanye is smiling as he cracks open his first beer of the day.