Rumors: DEBUNKED

There was a ton of crap circulating on the rumor mill over the past few days, including Mats Sundin possibly coming to the Flyers, the chance of Randy Jones heading to Columbus for RJ Umberger or goalie Pascal Leclaire or Gordie Howe or whatever. These rumors were all perpetuated by folks in the hockey world who are, in my opinion, less than reputable, including Spector and Bruce Garrioch of the Ottawa Sun.

But thankfully, the Philadelphia Daily News, more specifically Ed Moran, comes to the rescue in this mornings paper. Quoting Ken Hitchcock on the Jones to CBJ rumor, Moran wrote:

Well, Hitchcock's reaction was, "Where did you hear that?" And his answer was, "No. It's not true. But I hear that teams are calling."

To which Flyers general manager Paul Holmgren said simply, "No."

We'll see. The season is still just getting started and the rumors and second-guessing have been going full tilt. But that is the nature of professional sports, isn't it? There are entire Web sites made for reporting rumors based on "sources."

Some of it makes sense, much of it doesn't, some of it gets denied for business reasons, and some of it is owned up to.

Just yesterday I got a call from a reporter in Vancouver who asked if it were true that the Flyers were interested in Mats Sundin, to which I had to answer that I find it impossible to think that Holmgren hasn't at least looked into it, and I find it equally impossible to think that he would follow through on it.