I wasn't in Shea Weber's arbitration hearing on Tuesday, so I don't know what was said.

But I can tell you what other teams/agents are saying: For the first time, they think the Predators are really in trouble with Weber. There was always a recognition that dealing with all three of Weber, Ryan Suter and Pekka Rinne was going to be impossible, but, assumed the captain was priority number one.

This is the final 30 Thoughts for the season, with the blog set to return in September. Sorry it's so late, but sometimes life gets in the way (moving is the worst).

Wanted to end things by saying "thank-you" to you, the reader.

So, here we are, days before July 1, and Tampa fans are apoplectic about Steven Stamkos, worrying some other team will swoop in and steal their franchise player with an offer sheet.

Around this time of year, I try to look around and figure out who's going to be the biggest newsmaker. It's an exciting point on the calendar - the draft, free agency - and someone usually steps up and grabs the headlines.

This year, many hockey people are watching an agency.

It is a common complaint from sports fans: "The players don't care about this team as much as I do." What's that Jerry Seinfeld line, again? "When it comes down to it, we're just cheering for laundry." Not this year.

Six days after NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman stood at a podium and said he wanted to see harsher suspensions for "certain conduct we want out of the game," Mike Murphy unloaded on Vancouver defenceman Aaron Rome.

"If you can't make great players work hard on defence, they will kill you on offence."

It's an ample strategy the Vancouver Canucks are using against Boston Bruins all-star defenceman Zdeno Chara through the first two games of the Stanley Cup Final.

This is an enormous off-season for the Florida Panthers. Almost 1,000 kilometres to the North, an NHL franchise is gone. Atlanta's move to Winnipeg erased one trouble spot, but there are others. Phoenix remains uncertain, and there are big questions about this situation, too.

It's been a near-perfect week for the city of Winnipeg and the province of Manitoba.

The NHL is returning and now that (some) of the hype has subsided, one issue Mark Chipman and the True North ownership group must figure out quickly is the state of the team's front office.

It was 1992, and the ground was unsteady below baseball commissioner Fay Vincent. He wasn't exactly popular with MLB's owners.