Recently the Toronto Maple Leafs became the 30th and final NHL franchise to join Twitter. By our count, the NHL is now the first of the four major leagues with all of its member franchises on the social networking site. As NHL teams warm to Twitter just in time for the ’09-’10 NHL season, it seems that NHL players are also growing more active on the site.

This week we confirmed that Nashville Predators goalie Dan Ellis and the recently retired defenseman Bret Hedican are the two newest NHL players on Twitter. Ellis joins his teammate Steve Sullivan on the site while Hedican is said to be interested in using social media to help publicize wife Kristi Yamaguchi’s Always Dream Foundation.

While the NHL has by far the fewest number of active players using Twitter of any of the four major sports, the fact that the league now has all of its teams on Twitter makes league-wide, cohesive social media marketing plans even easier to implement. As a hockey fan, what are some of the ways you would like to see the NHL and its teams and players use Twitter this season? Which players would you like to hear from the most?

As President and Chief Operating Officer of the NHL’s Florida Panthers, Michael Yormark is always thinking of ways to build the Panthers brand and increase its standing with hockey fans in South Florida and across the country.

Mr. Yormark recently sat down with Sportsin140.com to discuss his team’s social networking presence, the team’s new Social Networking Coordinator position and his own Twitter account.

You are one of the first team Presidents to join Twitter. As President of the Panthers, what made you want to join Twitter? How do you think using Twitter enhances your brand?

I have always enjoyed communicating directly with our fans. I have probably 200 or so fans that I talk to on a regular basis – I return all of their e-mails, I give them my cell phone number, they call me in the office and I’ll even have lunch or meetings with them from time to time. Not only is the interaction something that I enjoy but it’s also extremely useful in terms of shaping the way we run our business on a daily basis. In that respect, Twitter is yet another means to an end. It’s a way to give up to the minute updates to our fans on what we, as an organization, are working on, and to get almost instantaneous feedback.

The Florida Panthers recently advertised a new position with the team, that of the Social Networking Coordinator. What does this position entail and why did the organization feel it necessary to add the position now? How does this new position differ from the more traditional PR roles in an NHL front office?

Well, we’ve had this position in house for about a month now and I have to tell you, it has really opened our eyes to how much diligence and time we have to lend to the implementation of these social media outlets, in order to have the type of success we want. Our goal with the SSE Media Network is not only to generate thousands of new fans for SSE, the BankAtlantic Center and the Florida Panthers, but also to develop a multi-million dollar revenue stream that can subsidize our unique marketing and public relations initiatives.

We’ve seen many teams take unique “Twitter specific” promotions in the past. Is this something the Panthers will do in the future? If so, how do you see the organization utilizing these types of promotions next season?

We have already developed a list of 10-20 unique social media promotions that we will use throughout the season and will undoubtedly include Twitter. Some of these promotions center on our marketing and community initiatives, while others are part of sponsorship programs tied in to the SSE Media Network.

Do you think that organizations should govern players’ usage of Twitter? Why or why not? Does an organization need to take a proactive approach in educating players on the use of Twitter in light of past incidents involving players and the media?

In the end, it is an individual player’s right to choose how they communicate with their fans and the public. If they choose to maintain a Twitter or Facebook account outside the realm of our organization, that is their prerogative. Our players, though, have been extremely receptive in terms of being a part of our social media outreach. As many of them tend to be savvy from a business and PR standpoint, they understand the value of controlling the message while expanding our overall media footprint. They also understand that their voice and their likeness can be exponentially more valuable as part of an overall promotional strategy then it can when it exists individually.

What do you think the “sports on Twitter movement” means for professional sports franchises?

I think it is consistent with the trend of interacting directly with fans, and finding new ways to get our message across, unfiltered, to our constituents. We’ve seen it in recent years with the rise of content-driven team and league web sites, other social media sites like YouTube and Facebook, and I think Twitter is just the next natural step in that evolution.

We are featured in today’s Boston Globe in an article about athletes on Twitter. Check it out!

The Los Angeles Kings have announced that they tweet live updates during next week’s 2009 NHL Draft in Montreal. Select members of the Kings front office, including General Manager Dean Lombardi, Assistant General Manager Ron Hextall and Kings legend and President of Business Operations Luc Robitaille will be among the five people tweeting draft coverage from Thursday, June 25 to Sunday, June 28.

The full list of Kings personnel tweeting during the draft include Lombardi, Hextall and Robitaille as well as Co-Directors of Amateur Scouting Michael Futa and Mark Yannetti. Each tweet will be signed by the author using his initials. The Kings’ use of Twitter during the draft marks the first time an NHL franchise has live-tweeted during the league’s annual draft.

The Kings will also host a Tweetup and Draft Party on June 26, the first day of the draft, at the ESPN Zone in Los Angeles. Heidi Androl, host of Kings Vision, will be tweeting during the event.

Update- The Vancouver Canucks will also be live-tweeting during the NHL Draft. Canucks assistant coach Ryan Walter will tweet updates on the team’s official Twitter account during this weekend’s draft. Fans can also enter to win prizes including a team signed stick.

For those that don’t know, I also list confirmed fake Twitter accounts as part of my Sports on Twitter directory and this website.

What constitutes a confirmed fake account? If I’ve already identified a legitimate account for the athlete in question, I know all others are fake. If I contact the team or organization and they inform me that the athlete is not on Twitter, I know the account is a fake. If the account is clearly labeled as a parody, I know it is a fake.

Some notables from the confirmed fakes list include:

• Eli Manning
• Terry Francona
• Manny Ramirez
• Martin Brodeur
• Evan Longoria
• Kobe Bryant

None of these people have official Twitter accounts at this time!

How to access the complete list of fake athlete Twitter accounts:

1. Click the “Complete List” tab at the top of the screen
2. Scroll down until you see the different pages for each sport at the bottom of the embedded spreadsheet
3. Hold (do not click) your mouse over the little arrows in the bottom right hand corner
4. Scroll all the way to the right and you will see the fakes page

Please note that I will be moving the fakes page to its own page on this website as I transition all the pages from the current embedded spreadsheet over to their own individual pages.

You’ll notice that my current list of fakes isn’t very large. That’s because I try to identify the longstanding fakes, the accounts with the most followers, and the ones that “seem” legitimate. Admittedly I prefer to work identifying legitimate accounts and adding those to my directory rather than adding confirmed fakes but I know people benefit from both types of listings.