To Believe Insiders or Not To Believe Insiders, That Is the Question!

The draft is complete, and the newly drafted prospects have been welcomed to their new organizations via prospect camps. All the big Free Agents have found and signed with new teams.

Any free agents left at this point are either nearing the end of their careers or not quite talented enough to be considered full-time NHLers, but still hoping to find a team willing to take them on for a full-time NHL job. The trade market is fairly quiet.

Any deals discussed at this time of year are usually not "big deals"; those are made before the draft, looking to acquire draft capital.

So what do "Insiders" do when all the "newsworthy" things are at a standstill? They say things like "Player "X" SHOULD request a trade from team "Y" because the team won't be cup contenders while player "X" is in their prime".

This one small sentence that's truly a "nothing" gets picked up on by fans and multiple non-insider media markets. Except it doesn't get recited as originally stated. It gets twisted into "Player "X" has requested a trade from team "Y" because they're in a rebuild and won't be ready for cup contention until player "X" is past their prime."

The changed sentence sparks rumors and fake trade proposals because it's the dead of the off-season, and what better way to pass the time than creating fake trades and trying to trick the public into thinking this or that is happening when it's really not?

This time of the off-season is tricky. You have to be careful even with the "Insiders" because it's a slow time in the hockey world and these writers are still required to produce content to get paid, so sometimes they'll say anything even if they're fully aware what they say can be (and probably will be) twisted into something that's not factual.

Unless a player specifically says they want a trade on camera(which is extremely rare, and usually reserved for the tensest and bitter of situations), or is quoted saying it by multiple sources, on multiple outlets' websites, chances are it should be taken with a grain of salt because "Insiders" are still required to get content out in order to get paid, even in the dead of the off-season.

I'm not at all saying "Insiders" should absolutely never be believed. These writers are good at what they do, and they have specific sources because they're trustworthy. "Insiders" aren't the true problem. Their track records speak for themselves. It's just best to remember that sometimes non-insiders take what an "Insider" said in an article and twist it. It's always best to check the source(s) and see if the information is reported in multiple places and by multiple "Insiders" before taking whatever the information is as confirmed fact or facts.