The NHL off-season officially began on Saturday morning.  The off-season officially began on Saturday but the Sabres off-season began well over two months ago.  Many teams have made the off-season memorable by firing coaches or signing bad boy goalies.  The Sabres big news was that they were retaining their GM and Coach.

We will still be without hockey for a couple more months but it's finally the fun part of the summer.  The NHL Awards are later this week, the NHL Draft is next Friday and free agency begins in just over two weeks.

With all of the events the NHL has scheduled the next two weeks, we should have plenty to talk about.  We have free agent profiles, draft pick profiles and our second annual Die by the Blade Awards.  We have no trophy to give away but the honor of winning a Die by the Blade Award should be enough.  It's time to tell you the big news...

Die by the Blade and SB Nation are headed to the Draft

That's right folks!  The NHL has granted myself and seven other SB Nation bloggers media access to the NHL Draft.  It speaks volumes to how great the SB Nation team is and how big the organization is becoming.  SB Nation hockey bloggers were featured on NHL.com during the playoffs and this is the logical next step in the process.  I am proud to a member of SB Nationa and will be proud to represent the organization at the NHL Draft.

The goal is to offer you as much information as we possibly can over the course of the two days the draft is held.  With full media access we should be able to get access to draft picks, coaches, and management.  If you have any ideas on how you would like us to cover the event, feel free to comment or send me an e-mail.

SB Nation Mock Draft

In other draft related news, SB Nation will begin a mock draft tomorrow morning.  There will be three selections made everyday with our selection coming on Saturday morning.  I will put up some player profiles over the next couple of days and get a poll together with the potential picks.  Together we will decide the Sabres pick which is scheduled for #13 in the first round.