A Toronto Maple Leafs blog caused a stir today when they posted a story, a big scoop, on what would be a pretty huge Leafs move. Around midnight last night, TheLeafsNation.com contributor Jeff Veillette a.k.a Jeffler posted an article stating that the Toronto Maple Leafs planned to sign former NHL player and current KHL superstar Alex Radulov to a multi-year deal at the end of the month.
According to TLN, the Leafs’ original KHL plan was to loan David Clarkson to KHL team Dynamo Moscow to create a partnership with the KHL. With the Clarkson trade to Columbus however, the Leafs decided to go another route, paying CSKA a large sum of money for Radulov’s services instead.
It didn’t take long for the story to catch on in Russia. Major Russian sports publications Sovetsky Sport, Sport Express, Sports RU, and AllHockey were among the sites to run with the Radulov to Toronto report.
Here’s the problem: The story was fake. Monumentally, hilariously fake.
Jeffler has made April Fools’ prank posts a staple hobby of his. Last year, Jeffler’s story about David Clarkson’s contract being in violation of the CBA went viral and a fairly large chunk of the hockey world decided to promptly lose their mind. I know this because at the time, I happened to be the site’s Managing Editor. The Clarkson prank would go on to become the most-viewed post in the site’s history. I wasn’t sure whether to be happy or sad about that.
While this year’s prank did not generate as many page views as last year’s, the blogger deems this year’s prank a success.
“Overall it got less traffic than Clarkson but did a better job of actually fooling people,” Veillette said. “It’s a huge success in my book.”
Apparently you can’t believe everything you read on April Fools’ Day.
