FanHouse RobSchremp

Every week there are minor moves and stories around the National Hockey League that tend to fall through the cracks. Consider this our weekly roundup of those stories from the previous week, all wrapped up in one neat little package.

During the 2006-07 season, Nashville forward Steve Sullivan suffered a back injury that knocked him out of the lineup for the remainder of the season. As a result of the injury, he missed the entire 2007-08 season and the first three months (and counting) of this season.

Jim Matheson of the Edmonton Journal points out that the 34-year old Sullivan is "skating hard" by himself in Nashville and may in fact make it back to the Predators lineup this season, Assuming he makes it back to the lineup -- and, let's be honest, that's quite an assumption at this point -- how much of an impact can we expect? Prior to his injury during the '06 season, he had played a full 82-game season one time (2002-03, which Chicago) and was a solid bet for 60-70 games per year.

Having said that, when he's on the ice, the 5-foot-8 forward is as steady as they come, good for 25 goals and 60 points. Can he step in and contribute anything close to that after not playing for nearly two seasons, at the age of 34, and with a bad back? Who knows, but it might be interesting to see what he could provide to the Predators.

Edit: The Nashville Tennessean reports Sullivan skated with the Predators in a full practice on Tuesday.

Every week there are minor moves and stories around the National Hockey League that tend to fall through the cracks. Consider this our weekly roundup of those stories from the previous week, all wrapped up in one neat little package.

If there's a silver lining to rooting for a bad team in a given season, it's that you always have a solid shot of winning the draft lottery and getting the No. 1 overall pick to find that franchise-changing superstar. Penguins and Blackhawks fans, for example, were rewarded for watching quite a few years of really bad hockey (Dick Tarnstrom was the leading scorer for the Penguins at one point - enough said), by ending up with Evgeni Malkin, Sidney Crosby, Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews, among others.

The holy grails for bottom-dwellers this season are Canadian prodigy John Tavares, and Swedish defenseman Victor Hedman. If you're a Thrashers fan, for example, and they manage to hold their current spot as the worst team in the league, you're guaranteed one of those guys in the offseason. So, you've got that going for you.

But what if you're a team that's so bad, so hopeless, and so out of it that they're going to finish near the bottom of the league next season, as well? Well, in that case, you would probably looking ahead to Windsor Spitfires forward Taylor Hall.

Chris Pope over at The Good Point introduces us to Hall, and also calls attention to the fact Tavares, currently playing for the Oshawa Generals, could be joining Hall in Windsor via trade.