In case you missed it yesterday, here is my first chat of “the season” with Mick Kern of NHL Network Radio’s The War Room (which airs on XM Radio channel 92 on weekdays, from 11-12 in the morning). I’m pleased to be a regular guest on the show again.

As I mentioned to Mick, we’re looking to have Hockey Prospectus 2012-13 ready for you by Halloween, regardless of the current labor situation. I’ll update you all in a couple weeks once we’ve got a better idea of the exact timing.

What’s in store for you this year?

A great new feature in this year’s annual is Rob Vollman’s Player Usage Charts, included in each chapter, for each team. They give you an immediate snapshot of who was driving positive shot differentials and under what circumstances (competition and zone starts), augmenting our projected player values in Goals Versus Threshold (GVT).

For you big fans of Corey Pronman’s work, Top 100 NHL Prospects is back. You’ve seen the list here on the website, but you’ll get a breakdown of the strengths and weaknesses of each player that led to their ranking.

And we’ve got a surprise or two up our sleeve. Stay tuned for that.

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Thanks to Peter Berce for the audio file.