from Steve Simmons of the Toronto Sun,

- I’m a list guy. I devour them. But didn’t have a lot of disagreement with TSN’s annual list of the Top 50 NHL players. For me, I thought Sasha Barkov of the Florida Panthers was a touch high at No. 9 and I thought Adam Fox and Charlie McAvoy, two of those rare No. 1 defencemen, were too low at 18 and 30.

- No one wants to say this because of the politically correct police and all, but those who coached Akim Aliu must cringe every time they see him in a news report or a commercial talking about what’s wrong with hockey. Like he would know. By my count, Aliu played for 23 teams in nine different leagues in 12 professional seasons and rarely finished any season with the same team he started with. If that was colour-related, how is it that Wayne Simmonds spent just about the same 12 seasons playing in the NHL?

- Matthews is already being talked about as the best American hockey player ever, with good reason. But it’s still early and still too soon to place him ahead of Brian Leetch or Chris Chelios at this time in history. Leetch won a Conn Smythe Trophy, which is really the ultimate individual award. Chelios is a three-time Norris Trophy winner. Matthews might get there, just not yet. My list of top Americans would start with Leetch, then Chelios, then go to Patrick Kane, then maybe Matthews, ahead of Mike Modano and Pat LaFontaine. And I don’t count Brett Hull as an American, no matter what his passport says. He learned to play in Winnipeg and Vancouver while growing up. He only played for Team USA because when he was a slow-developing teenager, Team Canada didn’t want him."

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