The eternal question: ‘Who was the source?’ I totally get the curiosity. When I ran the account, I worked hard to cultivate relationships with people who were in the know—scouts, front office staff, even a couple of players and agents who liked to chat off the record. Information came from a variety of places, and, honestly, that was part of the thrill: piecing together details from different perspectives to try to give followers something they wouldn’t find anywhere else.
The source for that specific tweet was someone whose position would have put them in the room—or at least near the room—when those conversations were happening. They weren’t just some random tipster. This was someone I trusted at the time, who had been accurate about several other things before. They had a habit of dropping breadcrumbs that, while not always complete, were often insightful enough to connect to something real. But, as you can imagine, not everything works out perfectly. Deals fall apart, people misinterpret what they hear, or sometimes plans change after the information is shared. It happens, even with the most reliable sources. I will say this: the source had a significant role in the hockey world at the time, one that would’ve made most people’s eyebrows raise if I ever revealed it.
That said, I’m not in the business of throwing anyone under the bus—then or now. Part of the agreement with sources, especially when you’re working in this kind of informal, social media-based reporting, is to respect their anonymity. It’s what allowed them to trust me enough to share in the first place. Even years later, I feel a responsibility to honor that. So, while I totally understand the temptation to dig into who it was, I’ll just leave it at this: it was someone who had direct insight into what was happening at the time. Someone who, if I were to name them, you’d probably recognize as being in a position to know. But, for better or worse, I can’t cross that line—not for this tweet, not for any of them.
I hope that at least gives you some clarity, even if it leaves a bit of mystery intact. Sometimes, the ‘who’ isn’t as important as the process, and, trust me, back then, I was just as interested in the ‘how’ as you all are now.
