Meet The Real Eklund

The rumors are flying fast and furious with just hours to go until the NHL free agency season opens up. I guess you could say there is quite the hockey buzz going around right now.

It's amazing how many people still buy into all of these rumors. I admit it can be fun to get caught up in it all, but surely we've all realized by now that 90% of these rumors never materialize.

Some are down right laughable, and Greg Wyshynski at Yahoo! points out the best of the worst. The usual suspects are at the forefront again - Larry Brooks, Bruce Garrioch, Dwayne Klessel - all making up stuff off the top of their heads to increase newspaper sales/page views.

Klessel is better known as Eklund, the wildly popular blogger phenomenon at Hockey Buzz. He tries to be hockey's anonymous insider, but apparently he's been outed as Mr. Klessel and has been relatively quiet in recent weeks. That plus his many tangled webs of lies and miserably failed stunts like his appearance on SportsNet in 2007.

I wouldn't believe anything he has to say folks. Instead, listen to Lyle Richardson and TSN for all your rumor breakdowns. They're not going to be 100% accurate either, but at least they're reporting on the rumors as opposed to making them up.

Regardless, I think it is time you meet the real Eklund.

For the record, I have had discussions with Eklund and I have no personal problems with him at all. I just think he gives hockey bloggers a bad name, and that there are better bloggers out there that deserve some of his spotlight.