Sources say: you just got scammed. #CONFIRMED

Chances are that if you have a Twitter and follow hockey, you've probably heard a rumor started by @HockeyyInsiderr, you just may or may not know.  For some reason, many people continue to follow him and believe his idiotic rumors.  In fact, the mysterious character that "HockeyyInsiderr" is has amassed over 21,000 Twitter followers.

Anyway, I usually ignore people like him.  I've never followed him, and I never will.  While I disagree with what he does, which is essentially trying to create rumors (like Brodeur for Semin two years ago and Parise for Malkin last summer) and inflate reports to boost his follower count, he doesn't force anyone to follow him.  If people follow him, that's their problem.

There was a little extra buzz surrounding him recently.  Why?  Well, usually when he's wrong about something, he's able to cover up and pretend that never happened.  He was unable to do that this past week.  On July 3rd, the night before Zach Parise and Ryan Suter signed with the Minnesota Wild, "HockeyyInsiderr" boldly tweeted that there was a 95% chance that Parise was heading to the Penguins and Suter had pretty much agreed to go to Detroit.  He was the laughing stock of Twitter the following day.  His sources must have misguided him.  Eventually, he got into some kind of Twitter dispute with some members of the media, including TSN analyst Darren Dreger.

Devils' 2012 off-season spotlight: Alexander Semin

Well, the dust has cleared.  Zach Parise is in the past, as far as Devils fans are concerned, and it's time to move on.  Unfortunately, timing was awful for the Devils this summer.  Their star captain hit the free agent market, and the free agent market itself was extremely thin, thus inflating the demand for those players and driving their prices up.  Add to that the Devils' financial problems and the potential for a lockout in the fall and this was a disaster waiting to happen.  There really aren't any high-end players who can make a difference in the NHL next season left on the free agent market...except for one: Alexander Semin.

The more I think about it, the more I like the idea of bringing Alexander Semin to New Jersey (not that it's my call, but you get the point).  First of all, there are two alternatives if the Devils don't sign him: do nothing and hope for the best next season before hoping to cash in on the 2013 free agent group or make a trade for Bobby Ryan or Rick Nash, which would cost the Devils trade assets that they really don't have, such as young forwards (which is already a scarcity) and first round draft picks (the Devils will have to give theirs up in 2013 or 2014).

So that leaves the Devils with two realistic choices: Semin or nobody.  Now, Semin is always associated with two things: awful jokes regarding his last name and lackadaisical on-ice play.  There's not much anyone can do about the first one, but hopefully a few facts will change your mind about the second part.