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There are many different ways to celebrate the 4th of July holiday: You can cross state lines and purchase hundreds of dollars worth of illegal fireworks. You can stuff your face with food, whether it be for fun or in the name of "competition." You can spend quality time with family and friends. You can combine all of the above and stuff your face with food, in the presence of family and friends, while you dodge the local police and set off hundreds of dollars worth of illegal fireworks.

You can also spend a few minutes and watch a bunch of random videos that feature American-born hockey players.

Enjoy.

The Minnesota Wild had quite the busy day in free agency on Wednesday, signing shot-blocker Greg Zanon from the Nashville Predators, and swapping one oft-injured, yet supremely talented forward (Marian Gaborik) for another oft-injured, yet supremely talented forward (Martin Havlat). There was also a report from Michael Russo of the Star Tribune that the team was working on a deal with Saku Koivu.

Havlat, 28, signed a six-year, $30 million deal in Minnesota late Wednesday night, and followed it up by voicing his displeasure with the negotiating process in Chicago ... via Twitter.

Dany Heatley put the Senators in a rather difficult position earlier this offseason when he surprisingly requested a trade out of Ottawa. General manager Bryan Murray, naturally, worked to make that request a reality, and after several weeks of rumors and speculation, it appeared as if the two-time 50-goal scorer was finally traded to the Edmonton Oilers late Tuesday night for the somewhat underwhelming return of Andrew Cogliano, Dustin Penner and Ladislav Smid.

Apparently, Edmonton wasn't good enough of a destination for Heatley, as he ultimately rejected the deal by refusing to waive his no-trade clause after hours of waiting (which led to fans losing their collective minds on the Hockey's Future message boads).

To recap: Heatley requests trade, Senators trade him, Heatley rejects trade. Yeah. That seems about right.

The Florida Panthers are no strangers to unique marketing campaigns in an effort to put butts in the seats. Earlier this season, with the team fighting for its first playoff berth since 1999-00, the team introduced The Panthers Promise Plan, offering free tickets during the 2009-10 season if they failed to make the playoffs, which they eventually did. According to the team, all free tickets that were promised will be honored next season.

Now, it appears as if the Panthers are bringing NFL super-agent Drew Rosenhaus into the marketing mix.

John Tavares has yet to step on the ice for the New York Islanders, but he's already making an impact for the once-proud franchise that has been aimlessly stumbling along a path of mediocrity for the past decade-and-a-half. This is, after all, a franchise that hasn't won a playoff series since David Volek beat Tom Barrasso in double-overtime way back in 1993.

Can Tavares, an 18-year-old phenom, change all of that? Well, he certainly can't hurt. Heading into Friday's NHL Entry Draft, there were rumors that the Islanders might be leaning toward either Swedish defenseman Victor Hedman or Brampton center Matt Duchene with the top pick. In the end, the team selected Tavares, and already Islanders fans are roaring their approval in the form of cold hard cash.

The Montreal Canadiens, host team for this year's NHL draft, made the final pick on Saturday afternoon, selecting Finnish goalie Petteri Simila 211th overall, bringing the first part of the offseason to a close. The second day may not have the appeal or star-power of the first round, but there's always the possibility of finding the next Henrik Zetterberg, Henrik Lundqvist or Luc Robitaille at the bottom of the pile.

While Chris Pronger and Jay Bouwmeester have new homes, Dany Heatley, Vincent Lecavalier, Tomas Kaberle and Ryane Clowe are in the same cities they were during the season (for now). After the jump, a recap of the trades that did happen, as well as some of the noteworthy picks in rounds two through seven.

The first round of the NHL Draft saw the league's general managers clean out the Swedish cupboard, as seven players from Sweden were selected on Friday night. Massive defenseman Victor Hedman led the way, going to the Tampa Bay Lightning with the No. 2 pick, while Leksand's Oliver Ekman-Larsson went to Phoenix at No. 6.

Magnus Paajarvi-Svensson, projected by many as a top-six pick going in, slipped down to Edmonton with the tenth overall pick, while David Rundbald, Jacob Josefson, Tim Erixon and Marcus Johannson rounded out the Swedish invasion.

After the jump, more thoughts and observations on what happened (and what didn't happen) during the opening round.

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Here's a bucket of cold water right to the face. ESPN has a poll up right now asking the question: Who is John Tavares? The choices: Emergency starter for the Mets, U.S. Soccer midfielder, Ricky Rubio's agent, or NHL draft prospect.

The answer, of course, is NHL draft prospect (and he's likely to go No. 1 to the New York Islanders in about four hours). Unfortunately, based on the 6,062 responses as of 3:15 PM ET, only 22 percent of ESPN's readers know that, while an incredible 38 percent(!) are living under the assumption that he is a midfielder for the U.S. Soccer team. The only individual state that knows Tavares' true identity is, of all places, Rhode Island. My goodness is that embarrassing.

Frankly, I don't know if that says more about the popularity of hockey in the U.S., or Soccer.

It's officially the offseason, meaning the time is right to look into the future. We continue our division-by-division preview of the potential wheeling and dealing with the Pacific Division.

San Jose saw its Presidents' Trophy campaign come to a surprising end in the first round of the NHL playoffs, Los Angeles is still the perfect spot for Dany Heatley, and is there any hope for success on the ice in Phoenix?

On Tuesday, the NHL Hall of Fame will announce its class of 2009 and it's pretty much assumed -- and for good reason -- that Steve Yzerman, Brett Hull and Brian Leetch will be getting their calls for enshrinement in Toronto. Easy choices, all of them.

As Brian Costello of The Hockey News points out, the fourth spot is going to create plenty of debate with such players as Luc Robitaille, Alexander Mogilny, Dave Andreychuk, and Doug Gilmour, among others, also eligible. And let's not forget about The Russian Rocket, Pavel Bure.