Canada, that is.

Good day from ugly Ottawa. I’m referring to the weather, certainly not the city, which is one of the most underrated NHL cities out there. Back in my Eastern Conference beat writing days, I fell in love with this city quickly.

You see, the Panthers had training camp/rookie camp just over the river in Hull, Quebec, four or five years in a row, and I learned, this place has a lot of cool stuff to do.

Speaking of that team from South Fla., it wouldn’t be a draft if the Panthers weren’t going to make a blockbuster, and it certainly appears Olli Jokinen’s a goner. I just ran into one person in the know in the lobby, and he guesses “90 percent.”

As for Panthers’ draft day deals, in 1999, Bryan Murray acquired Trevor Kidd. In 2000, Bryan Murray acquired Jokinen and Roberto Luongo for Mark Parrish and Oleg Kvasha. In 2001, Bill Torrey traded Rob Niedermayer to Calgary for Val Bure (Mr. Candace Cameron) and Jason Wiemer. In 2002, Rick Dudley traded the first overall pick to Columbus in a flip of picks because he knew he could get the guy he wanted, Jay Bouwmeester, at No. 3. Columbus took Rick Nash at No. 1. In 2003, Dudley traded the first overall pick to Pittsburgh in a flip of picks because he knew he could get the guy he wanted, Nathan Horton, at No. 3. Pittsburgh took Marc-Andre Fleury at No. 1. In 2006, Mike Keenan traded Luongo and Lukas Krajicek to Vancouver for Todd Bertuzzi, Bryan Allen and Alex Auld. In 2007, Jacques Martin acquired Tomas Vokoun from Nashville. This is off the top of my head. There is more.

I listed this for two reasons: 1) to show you the trades. 2) to show you how many different GM’s they’ve had.

As for Jokinen, the person in the know says Minnesota’s one of several teams that has inquired, but winning the division didn’t help in this case. Florida wants a higher first-round pick than the Wild’s No. 24, so this is a longshot.

Some other news from here: Bruce Garrioch of the Ottawa Sun is reporting Columbus is hot after Patrick Marleau. Pierre LeBrun of Canadian Press will be reporting the Los Angeles Kings is getting a lot of interest in the No. 2 pick.

As for the Wild and Ryan Malone, I’ve gotten a ton of emails from you all, and I can tell you, there’s no chance the Wild would give up a pick or player just for the prayer of signing a player. Remember, in the old CBA, if the Wild acquired his rights and didn’t sign him, it would get a compensatory pick in return from the NHL. That’s not the case anymore. If you lose an unrestricted free agent, well, sorry.

So the Wild will wait until July 1 and join the fray with everybody else. I wouldn’t get your hopes up for bigtime moves. There’s such little quality in this draft, the top-end guys — who aren’t top-end guys in most years — are going to get a lot of money.

I don’t see the Wild getting into heated negotiations against other teams driving up the prices to exorbitant measures.

Things are quiet on the Brian Rolston front. I exchanged texts with him yesterday, and he said there were no updates, which leads me to believe he didn’t accept the Wild’s Friday offer. Still, I wouldn’t freak out, if I were you. This is part of the process — offers, counteroffers, this is how it goes.

For your amusement if you’re paying attention to this New York Mets circus, here’s the front and back pages of today’s New York Post.

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