Had a friend of mine who’s been around hockey a long time send me a great line a couple of days before deadline – “It used to be that you had to be healthy at the right time to win. Now, with the salary cap, you have to be injured at the right time to win”.
Zing!
Take LTIR issue up with the CBA
Now, I have zero problem with how the Vegas Golden Knights construct their team around deadline and into the playoffs. Use LTIR to your advantage? Fine by me. Summon the ghost of Terry Sawchuk to play net? Whatever. The controlling document in the NHL is CBA and nothing here runs afoul of it.
Even though it’s distasteful for some fans there really doesn’t seem to be much momentum at the league or team level to change anything. Do some teams grumble about Vegas? Absolutely. As they did with Tampa with Nikita Kucherov and Chicago with Patrick Kane previously.
It reminds me of that great line by Charles Dudley Warner, “Everybody complains about the weather, but nobody does anything about it.”
I know, as Friedman mentioned on Saturday Headlines, there are some who aren’t exactly thrilled at the idea of players not being able to play in game 82 yet find themselves fit to suit up for Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Playoffs but again that’s a CBA issue and does either side have any appetite to reopen the agreement over this issue or do they see if anything can be done about it in the next round of negotiations?
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If you want to be upset about the Golden Knights, fine but really you should direct your anger at your team for not bending the CBA to their benefit.
As an aside I never thought I’d see a day when a team would be more hated than the Leafs or Rangers but, here we are. Vegas has become the lead villain in the league and I say embrace it. Make t-shirts like Tampa did or come out with a ‘The House Always Wins” Golden Knights clothing line. Whatever, just make it yours.
I hope Mark Stone comes back for Game 1 of the playoffs and wears a black cape in warm up as did the most hated man in the history of the game, Eddie Shore.
Lean into it, Vegas.
A final thought on the issue – I can only imagine if Twitter/X was around when Wayne Gretzky entered the NHL and was never subjected to the draft.
The players who didn’t move
A few players we wonder about in the offseason who were not dealt at the deadline…
Linus Ullmark: As Elliotte mentioned on Headlines this trade story is not over. Last week we mentioned here the Bruins have a goalie dilemma facing them with Brandon Bussi requiring waivers.
Trevor Zegras: A difficult deal to make at the deadline but when things open up at the draft and into the summer we wonder if a trade comes into focus here.
Jacob Markstrom: Can the relationship with Calgary be repaired or is this situation marching towards an inevitability?
Martin Necas: Was he part of the package going to Vancouver in the Elias Pettersson stalking horse trade?
With Seattle moving Alexander Wennberg to the New York Rangers I’m wondering at what point they call up Shane Wright from the Coachella Valley Firebirds of the AHL. Playing the remainder of the season with the Kraken and then returning to the Firebirds for the playoff run makes a lot of sense for his development, doesn’t it?
The Buffalo Sabres will be one of the most interesting teams to follow at the draft and into the offseason.
Changes coming
They’ll certainly look to redo their veteran mix and I wonder with all the prospects they boast do they consider turning some of them into established players? I know that is against GM Kevyn Adams’ plan to develop from within but it’s time to move this program along and probably speed it up like Detroit has.
Question: How much better would the Sabers have fared if they had simply decided on Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen as the starter in Buffalo, while Devon Levi developed with the Rochester Americans (where he’s playing fantastic) instead of trying to force-feed their future star netminder NHL games?
Just me or can anyone else see Kyle Okposo returning to the Sabres to work in the front office? That is if this is indeed his last season on the ice.
Toronto’s PWHL team hitting their stride
Very impressed at how PWHL Toronto has turned their season around after losing five of their first seven games to kick off the campaign. The Natalie Spooner/Sarah Nurse-led squad is on a nine-game winning streak and sits tied with Montreal for top spot in the league.
Outside of Spooner + Nurse (who sit 3rd and 6th in league scoring respectively), Kristen Campbell has been stellar in net, Allie Munroe has been physical and Renata Fast is over 30 minutes of ice every night. They’re a wagon in a crucial market for the league.
One Toronto player I spoke with is convinced their best game came in a 3-2 loss to Boston in mid-January. The game was a ‘backbreaker’ but showed the team they could compete at the highest level.
She added “one of the Boston goals was clearly offside but we don’t have video review”.
Count yourself lucky there.
I wonder if playoff games at Scotiabank Arena or Coca-Cola Coliseum are a possibility for Toronto. No doubt the team will need a larger facility than the Mattamy Athletic Centre. I believe it’s on the table.
Congrats to PWHL Boston forward Jamie Lee Rattray who launched her own clothing brand last week, the first player in the league to do so.
I’d look for more players to follow suit here.
