It seems that the players are more open and candid with The Mayor, and I'm not sure if that has anything to do with him not being affiliated with the team. As others have said, I would also be concerned that the organization might curb some of the content on his site.
As you guys may recall, Hammond used to frequently cover Kings' trade rumors. Once he let it be known that the Kings were trading for Justin Williams (which Lombardi says cost the Kings a 2nd round pick because Edmonton threw a hissy fit in the three-team deal), it seemed like Hammond stopped being the first to report any rumors.
Since then, it seems that our main source for finding out about any Kings transactions prior to their announcement has been Helene Elliot. Some bloggers have also scooped certain items (like the Mitchell extension), but it seemed to me that over the past couple seasons, Hammond would report on trades after we had already read the story from other sources. That to me isn't much of an "insider."