How to spot a fake trade rumor 101
This has been a crazy offseason as Elliotte Friedman suggested for the Rangers back in May, but only in trade rumors. Thus far nothing has materialized by way of trade, unless you consider moving Keith Yandle‘s rights to Florida and acquiring Nick Holden for a pick SEISMIC!
I’ve been covering the Rangers rumor mill for months, and I’ve gotten pretty good at it. Mostly, I follow the right sources on Twitter and reading notable hockey publications and local papers from around the NHL.
Thanks to Social Media, which has its pros and cons, rumors are started in the deepest darkest corners of the internet. Sadly, once a person flashes a light on it via a retweet or just saying I saw a rumor where (fill in the blanks)…it can spread like a nasty virus.
Here’s what you need to know:
Don’t Get Duped By A Fake Twitter Account
So many times people are taken by a fake (copy) of a real Hockey Insider. Yes, Bob McKenzie, Darren Dreger and others all have losers who like to use their avatars and change their twitter handle by a character or two. But be careful because they also do this with lesser known accounts as well.
How to spot a real account? Well, the big ones are usually Twitter verified and have that blue checkmark. They also have at least a few thousand followers if not a million like good old Bob.
Here is what a tweet from the fake account looks like:
Notice the spelling in the handle? Two letters reversed in McKenzie (znie). The blue check mark is also missing from his name. Plus if you click on the account, it only has like 10 followers.
Beware the Wannabes
This one is tougher, because they claim to be with a media outlet and in some cases have several hundred followers. The hard work comes when you need to evaluate a rumor. For someone like myself who is reading everything of value regarding the NY Rangers it’s easy. Here’s one I had to say something on.
Here’s the rumor I exposed as false. Ignores report that Nash has NO CANADIAN TEAMS on NT List. Plus Staal NMC. pic.twitter.com/EXONbI9LQV
— FullTilt Rangers (@NYR_FullTilt) July 2, 2016
The person tweeting claims they are in some form of media, and they very well might be but this rumor is totally off the wall. It ignores this report that I highlighted from Larry Brooks a few weeks ago that indicated Rick Nash has NO Canadian team on his trade list. It also fails to mention that Marc Staal had a No Move Clause and has yet been asked to waive it. Plus just how many 1st round picks do the Rangers want to trade away?
From the Oilers side, would they realy just gut their offense by trading Jordan Eberle and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins after dealing Taylor Hall? And how does this improve the Rangers defense? It’s just ridiculous.
By the way, after I questioned him, I was blocked.
Dear #NYR and #NHL fans. Please ignore rumors from this account. He’s a fake insider who was just exposed. pic.twitter.com/iw0fG6hp1F
— FullTilt Rangers (@NYR_FullTilt) July 2, 2016
Watch Out For the National Enquirers of Hockey Rumors
The Hockey Press is a rumor blog with over 20,000 followers. They are basically Hockey Buzz lite with a lower success rate than Eklund (that’s pretty bad). Listen, I follow both because even I sometimes will pick up The National Enquirer at the supermarket check out to see if a woman really did give birth to a half alien and half Bigfoot baby. It’s fun, but it’s not real.
I’m not going to get into highlighting everything they get wrong because it’s the 4th of July weekend and we’ve got celebrating to do, but they put out a post that NYR fans are unnecessarily perpetuating. Here’s what they wrote:
Rick Nash is in high demand now. The New York Rangers are receiving several calls on him. One team that called are the Anaheim Ducks. It’s believed the discussed Cam Fowler AGAIN. One team everyone is sleeping on though are the Buffalo Sabres. They lost out on Steven Stamkos and have turned their attention to Nash/Shattenkirk. The cost to acquire Shattenkirk will be high so they are concentrated on Nash. One source went as far to say Buffalo will make a trade and sign a key player by Monday night. We can confirm the trade he was talking about was a Nash deal. As for a return to the New York Rangers, it sounds like Evander Kane [retained], and Cody Franson. More to come.
Ok…this is nuts. First off, are we sure that the Buffalo Sabres are even on Nash’s list? Evander Kane is in trouble with the law…again. Do the Rangers really want him? Both Kane and Franson make over 8.5M in cap hit, which means the Rangers will be taking on about 1M in cap space with all their RFA’s yet unsigned? It just doesn’t add up.
Now if they are going to retain a larger portion of Kane’s 5.25M cap hit over the next two years, it may make sense. I still think this is stretch and a lot for the Sabres to give up for a player who is 32 with only 2 years remaining on his current contract.
Hey if it happens…I will give Hockey Press all the props in the world. Because even the National Enquirer spots Elvis once in awhile too.
Enjoy your 4th of July Weekend Folks…and watch the skies for Aliens.
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