This has been a very bizarre week. From the highest of patriotic highs as Team USA shocked Team Canada for gold in the World Junior Championship to… well… everything else, 2021 is off to a roaring start. But one thing is certain: NHL hockey is so totally legitimately officially BACK, and that is AWESOME!
Training camps are in full swing across the league—except for the Dallas Stars and Pittsburgh Penguins for COVID-19-related reasons—and play is scheduled to start on Wednesday. So begins four consecutive months of at least one hockey game to watch every single day.
Hydrate and limber up, folks. It’s going to be a roller coaster ride.
The league’s plan has always included flexibility built into schedules in case of positive tests, and we are already seeing that come into play. In Dallas’s case, the league announced that six players and two staff members had tested positive. The team now will not start its season until at least January 19th.
This was a good representation of how these issues will be handled during this 56-game season. It became clear that the Stars were dealing with positive tests, but they did not officially announce anything, instead allowing the league to handle the official communications.
League Intrigue
Two budding superstars signed extensions with their respective teams this week, with former Seattle Thunderbird Mathew Barzal re-upping with the New York Islanders and Pierre-Luc Dubois returning to the Columbus Blue Jackets… for now (INTRIGUE!).
Barzal wasn’t in camp for the first few days, as negotiations on his new deal went on. Per Darren Dreger, the plan was to sign Barzal to a six-year contract, but they couldn’t sort it out quickly enough, and the Isles wanted to get their star back into camp. So, the two sides agreed on a shorter bridge deal that pays Barzal at an average annual cap hit of $7 million. The contract is worth $21 million in total.
Trouble In Paradise
On the Dubois front, things are a bit more tenuous. The 22-year-old former No. 3 overall draft pick of the the Blue Jackets agreed to a two-year deal at $5 million AAV. However, there’s trouble in paradise (and by “paradise,” we mean Columbus).
According to Pierre Lebrun, Dubois has requested a trade out of Columbus.
A center with elite skill and still oodles of upside, Dubois would help every team in the NHL both now and in the future. Making him an even more attractive asset, when his new deal ends, he will still be a restricted free agent, meaning that a team that trades for him now will have exclusive negotiating rights for another extension.
Columbus has essentially bought itself time to get the best possible return for Dubois with this extension.
In that Lebrun article, there’s also discussion of Patrik Laine, who has long been rumored to want out of Winnipeg. Again, there’s trouble in paradise, and by “paradise,” we mean Winnipeg this time.
Laine, 22, is a very different player than Dubois, more of a one-dimensional guy. But that one dimension is to score goals practically at will, and there’s definitely value in a player of Laine’s age and offensive ilk.
Laine has scored 138 goals in just four NHL seasons and has plenty of upside.
NHL Notes
Corey Crawford
On Friday, the New Jersey Devils announced that Corey Crawford would be given an indefinite leave of absence.
“I have been fortunate to have had a long career playing professional hockey for a living. I wanted to continue my career, but believe I’ve given all I can to the game of hockey, and I have decided that it is time to retire. I would like to thank the New Jersey Devils organization for understanding and supporting my decision. I would like to thank the Chicago Blackhawks organization for giving me the chance to live my childhood dream. I am proud to have been part of winning two Stanley Cups in Chicago. Thank you to all of my teammates and coaches throughout the years. Also, thank you to the fans who make this great game what it is. I am happy and excited to move on to the next chapter of my life with my family.”
Crawford, 36, has had a brilliant ten-year career despite battling some serious off-ice challenges, including multiple concussions. Sound Of Hockey wishes Crawford nothing but the best in retirement.
Sami Vatanen
Sami Vatanen was the highest-profile unrestricted free agent left on the market. The Devils brought him back on a one-year, $2 million deal.
Sonic Boom
A few weeks after the official announcement that Seattle would be granted the 32nd NHL franchise, I recall eavesdropping on a neighboring table at a restaurant in Capitol Hill discussing the decision. The group was oddly furious about it.
“How could hockey be coming to Seattle before basketball?” one of the diners asked. “Yeah, seriously, f*** off with that s***,” said another with unnecessary vulgarity.
What these basketball-loving-and-apparently-hockey-hating diners clearly didn’t understand is that the hockey team and its ownership group represented (at least in my mind) the absolute fastest ticket to seeing the SuperSonics reborn.
Oak View Group is building a $1 billion+ arena with NBA basketball in mind. Why would they do that if they didn’t also intend for that arena to house an NBA team? The NHL was the first to show legitimate interest in expanding to Seattle, and that interest gave the ownership group an opportunity to get an arena deal through the city council.
This is somewhat conjecture, but we believe that the NBA was always a key part of the plan. If you build it, they will come, and it suddenly sounds more likely that the SuperSonics will come.
Whether you’re a basketball fan or not, there are lots of interesting nuggets in this story from King 5. Among those nuggets, Kraken ownership is unsurprisingly the key player in the plan for NBA expansion, and the groundbreaking for the AHL Palm Springs arena—which will be the home for the Kraken’s top minor league affiliate—is now expected to happen in April.
WHL Update
The WHL announced this week that it will play a season, but it will be dramatically abbreviated. The league has committed to its teams playing a minimum of 24 games, but has given no start date or playoff format.
There’s still plenty of uncertainty here, but at this stage, the fact that playing any games whatsoever is still on the table feels like a positive.
Sound Of Hockey’s own Andy Eide wrote a full breakdown of the announcement and what it means on ESPN 710’s website.
Things You Hate Love to See
Tony DeAngelo deactivated his Twitter in response to its permanent suspense of the @realDonaldTrump account.
Darren Brown is the Chief Content Officer at Sound Of Hockey and the host, producer, and editor of the Sound Of Hockey Podcast. He is an inconsistent beer league goalie who believes that five players have to make a mistake before the puck gets to him. Follow him on Twitter @DarrenFunBrown or email darren@soundofhockey.com.
NHL Hockey is unofficially… officially… returning! The decision early in the week by the NHL to suddenly begin negotiating in public about a portion of its return-to-play plan for this season felt a bit ominous. We’ve seen from the lockouts of yesteryear that public negotiating by either side usually means bad things are coming. The league had started indicating that the COVID-related restrictions imposed by provincial governments could make it impossible for Canadian teams to play their games in their home arenas.
This would, of course, derail the widely publicized plan of having an all-Canadian division.
Thankfully, that all-Canadian division was not the lynchpin to getting a deal done after all, because the NHL and NHLPA announced in an obnoxiously late Friday night news dump that they have a tentative plan in place to begin the season on January 13th. All indications are that regardless of if Canadian teams are allowed to play in their own cities – or if they have to play in American cities – there will be a 56-game season.
Tentative agreement between #NHL and #NHLPA (which requires approval) calls for training camps to open on Jan. 3 and regular season on Jan. 13.
The 7 teams who did not make 24-team playoff can open camp on Dec. 30.
All dates subject to change. Scheduling not finalized.
Friend of the Sound Of Hockey Podcast, Scott Burnside, has the full breakdown of the plan in The Athletic, but here are the highlights:
56-game regular season with no exhibition games
Playoffs will be top four teams in each division with each division producing a Conference Finals participant
Rosters will be expanded to 23 players
Each team will also have a “taxi squad” of 4-6 players
There will be schedule flexibility like in the NFL, in case games need to be postponed due to positive tests
Here is the latest divisional alignment plan, which still assumes that the NHL will be able to work out the all-Canadian division.
BOSTON
CAROLINA
ANAHEIM
CALGARY
BUFFALO
COLUMBUS
ARIZONA
EDMONTON
NEW JERSEY
DALLAS
COLORADO
OTTAWA
ISLANDERS
DETROIT
LOS ANGELES
MONTREAL
RANGERS
CHICAGO
MINNESOTA
TORONTO
PHILADELPHIA
FLORIDA
SAN JOSE
VANCOUVER
PITTSBURGH
NASHVILLE
ST. LOUIS
WINNIPEG
WASHINGTON
TAMPA BAY
VEGAS
Obviously, if the all-Canadian division doesn’t come to fruition, then the above will be fully re-worked, and the Canadian teams will have to find American cities to temporarily call home.
Steen Hangs ‘Em Up
Alex Steen is hanging up the skates after a successful 15-year NHL career. The big winger played 1,018 games in his career, and notched 622 career points. Steen started his career with the Toronto Maple Leafs in 2005 and was traded to the St. Louis Blues in 2008, where he played out the next 12 seasons, lifting the Stanley Cup in 2019.
Steen cited a back injury as his reason to retire, and more specifically, he apparently has some degenerative herniated discs that sound absolutely miserable.
As part of his announcement, Steen told stlouisblues.com, “This has been an emotional process. But as I look back on my years in hockey, I would like to thank our organization, our city, our fans, and my teammates as I am so proud of all the teams I was a part of.”
Steen has one year left on his contract, and apparently the Blues will still be charged against the cap.
If Steen's contract was insured St. Louis could claim up to 80% of his salary back after the 30th game.
To our knowledge, Steen did not finish the season on IR as a result of this same injury. Therefore even if insured, the club is responsible to pay him for the first 30 games. https://t.co/bqEK3ZpboB
Oh, and he just had a baby! What a week for Steen!
Congratulations client Alexander Steen on retiring after awesome career. He’s finally giving his body a well deserved break after 15yrs #NHL 1,109 games paying the price hoisting the #StanleyCup…oh yeah and a baby boy last night. Now go change a diaper! pic.twitter.com/Bl7DLGgUrj
Speaking of health issues forcing players out of the NHL, Henrik Lundqvist announced that he will not be playing for Washington this season, as we were expecting.
Lundqvist apparently is dealing with a heart condition that would make it unsafe for him to participate.
While there is no indication in the statement that Lundqvist is planning to retire, he is now 38 years old, will not have a contract next season, and is dealing with a serious issue here. If this is the last we see of the dreamy Swede as an NHL player, it will be very sad to see it end this way.
King Henrik has had an incredible run. In his 15-year career, Lundqvist, who holds a career regular season record of 459-310-96, became synonymous with the New York Rangers and has been the perfect ambassador for the sport. He won the Vezina Trophy in 2012 and led the Blueshirts to the Stanley Cup Final in 2014, but has never lifted hockey’s greatest prize.
There was hope that in a back-up or secondary role with Washington, he may get one last kick at the can.
While it certainly isn’t the main takeaway here, one has to wonder who will platoon in Washington’s goal crease this season with 23-year-old Ilya Samsonov. Veteran free agents left out there include Jimmy Howard (36), Cory Schneider (34), Ryan Miller (40), and Craig Anderson (39).
Speaking of Free Agents
The Minnesota Wild signed Andrew Hammond, AKA The Hamburglar, to a one-year, two-way deal. The signing comes after a revelation that Wild back-up, Alex Stalock, is out indefinitely with an upper-body injury.
Never forget Hammond’s time with the Senators.
Oh, and speaking of the Senators, former Senator Anthony Duclair finally signed a one-year steal of a deal for the Florida Panthers, worth just $1.7 million. That seems like a pretty great rate and a no-risk deal for a speedy winger that broke out for 23 goals and 17 assists in 66 games for Ottawa last season.
It is curious why Duclair, skilled and still just 25 years old, continues to get bounced around the league. Florida will be his sixth NHL team.
Advanced stats do offer some explanation…
Anthony Duclair (1×1.7m with Florida) brings a little offence although his finishing has returned to earth a little. The defensive weaknesses are …. severe. pic.twitter.com/HQSAlCzTkh
Mike Hoffman, Mikael Granlund, Sami Vatanen, Carl Soderberg, and many others remain unsigned.
WJC – The “C” Stands for “Concerns”
Teams have arrived in Edmonton for the World Junior Championship, though they haven’t gotten there without some challenges.
Two planes were sent to Europe to bring six teams and their luggage. The planes were simply not large enough to carry everyone and their things, and still allow for social distancing. After a long delay to the teams’ journeys, cargo planes were eventually chartered to bring their belongings separately.
Now in the so-called bubble, positive COVID tests have been returned for eight of Germany’s players and two of Sweden’s staff members. Remember, Sweden lost several players from its roster at the last minute before traveling, as well as its head coach, due to positive tests.
Sweden also shared a too-small plane with Russia and Finland on the way to Canada, which adds to the concern around the positive tests.
Hopefully these are the last positive tests we see, and that everyone recovers quickly.
Here is the full statement from the IIHF's Event Executive Committee, which suggests Germany's COVID-positive players could potentially return after completing a mandatory quarantine period due to everyone already being isolated. pic.twitter.com/PmAMGAM2Oz
It’s also unclear at this time if the IIHF plans to resurrect the penalty music from last year’s WJC in Czech Republic. We remain optimistic that every time a player commits an infraction at this year’s tournament, he will again be subjected to the embarrassment of hearing this tune as he enters the box.
Around the Boards
There’s also been a lot of uncertainty around college hockey this season, including when Big Ten teams would even play in the second half. Well, those schedules have finally been released. Play resumes January 3rd and concludes with the Big Ten Tournament March 18-20.
We don’t yet know what the format will be for the NCAA Tournament, or even how the NCAA will choose its participants, especially considering that many Division I teams have still only played a handful of games. Nonetheless, here are the latest rankings, per USCHO.com.
Finally, the WHL announced that it is further delaying the start of its season, though a date has not been confirmed. The league said in its statement that “The Board of Governors will meet in January to consider potential start dates.”
Darren Brown is the Chief Content Officer at Sound Of Hockey and the host, producer, and editor of the Sound Of Hockey Podcast. He is an inconsistent beer league goalie who believes that five players have to make a mistake before the puck gets to him. Follow him on Twitter @DarrenFunBrown or email darren@soundofhockey.com.
It appears that the NHL season will start on January 13th with 56 games, or at least that’s the latest plan. It still needs to be voted on by the NHL Board of Governors, but it appears very close to being fully baked.
Realignment
Due to the ongoing border restrictions between the US and Canada, the NHL will need to realign for the 2020-21 season. How the divisions might end up looking has not been settled with the exception of the all-Canadian division. Here is a look at the latest reported alignment for this shortened campaign:
This can and has changed multiple times over the last week, and until we see it come from the NHL, we would recommend taking this alignment plan with a grain of salt.
Apparently, there was a proposal to kick the Flyers out of the league this year.
The stated objective of the NHL is to play all the games in teams’ home rinks. That is all well and good until you realize that some locations would not be allowed to even practice in their hometown due to local restrictions, let alone play games. It is a stark reminder of who is really driving the bus here.
The NHL and the impacted NHL teams will need to figure out a solution on a case-by-case basis. It remains highly possible that teams might have training camps and home games in other teams’ facilities to start the season until case counts decrease and restrictions ease.
Additionally, the league is talking about scheduling options to limit travel and exposure. One proposal is to have a potential series format. This would work like baseball where a team plays the same opponent for 3 games over 5 days in the same facility.
There are still a lot of questions around playoff format, fans, and schedule. We should anticipate hearing a lot more on the plans over the next seven days.
World Junior Championship
Team Canada has announced its roster for the upcoming World Junior Championship.
Sadly, friends of the Sound Of Hockey Podcast, Gage Goncalves (Everett Silvertips) and Seth Jarvis (Portland Winterhawks) were among the final cuts from the squad.
Remember, Team Canada had to pause its selection camp and have everyone quarantine for 14 days in a Red Deer, Alberta hotel due to positive Covid-19 tests in November. So, after going through all that, the last-second exclusions from the team have to be extra painful for everyone that didn’t make the final roster.
Former NHLers Ray Ferraro and Martin Biron had some words of encouragement for those that didn’t make it.
To add to this Marty-I had 50 goals at Christmas and never got invited to camp. Keep plowing ahead guys-respect the struggle to keep following your dreams, and climb over this bump in the road https://t.co/q15wENt8GK
Team Sweden had a rash of positive tests amongst players and staff, and actually had to replace its head coach, Tomas Monten. Sweden has now named Joel Ronnmark as its last-second head coach.
Team Russia did release its final roster on its website.
Ducks Fly Together!
Disney announced a Mighty Ducks reboot featuring Emilio Estevez himself as Gordon Bombay. And you know something? It… doesn’t… look… bad… ?
Stand Down, Internet
The internet responded in a predictably rational manner when John Shannon announced to the world via Twitter that the NHL was planning to privately purchase Covid vaccines as part of its season plan.
Source confirms that the NHL is planning the private purchase of a COVID vaccine for all constituents involved in the potential upcoming season.
He then waited 90 MINUTES (!!) to send a follow-up tweet, which surely was seen by a small fraction of the people who freaked out over the initial tweet.
For clarification…
The NHL is interested in securing vaccine when and if it’s available for private purchase.
Is it at this point? — no.
The league also is adamant they would not jump the line to do so.
The University of Alaska Fairbanks announced that it would opt out of hockey and basketball this season, following the University of Alaska Anchorage in making the difficult call. Alaska Anchorage’s decision effectively ended that program, as the school planned to fold hockey due to economic issues after this season. There are fundraising efforts underway to save Seawolves hockey, but as of now, it appears we’ve seen the last of that team. Meanwhile, there doesn’t appear to be any plan to fold the Alaska Fairbanks program permanently, though there is a lot of uncertainty as to what will happen moving forward.
It would appear that UAF head coach Erik Largen does not agree with the decision to opt out.
This means that the Western Collegiate Hockey Association (WCHA) will be down to eight teams when it starts play in January.
This will be the last season for the WCHA as well. You may recall, UAA and UAF, along with the University of Alabama Huntsville, have been essentially voted off the WCHA island. The seven other schools will form a re-booted version of the Central Collegiate Hockey Association (CCHA) in 2021-22, adding St. Thomas University to the mix for that school’s first Division I season.
It feels like a lifetime – because time has become a flat circle – but in reality, it was just two December 4th’s ago when hundreds of hockey fans packed into Henry’s Tavern in South Lake Union neighborhood of Seattle. It was early in the morning and it was cold, but the excitement and free “Return to Hockey” beanies kept everyone warm.
December 4th, 2018 was the date that NHL commissioner Gary Bettman made it official. Seattle was getting an NHL franchise.
It was a while before the team would be named the Kraken, but on that day, the NHL Seattle organization announced itself to the broader sporting world, and Seattle indicated that it was ready to become a hockey city.
The Seattle Kraken organization celebrated its second birthday Friday by officially changing its Twitter handle from the awkward @NHLSeattle_ to the more natural @SeattleKraken. Oh, and they got one of those cakes that doesn’t look like a cake until somebody cuts into it.
🎉 HBD to us! 🎉
this year we gave ourselves the best gift we could think of – a new twitter handle. so go ahead and @ us with those bday messages. 🥳 pic.twitter.com/PvqfSvaQi6
The change in Twitter handle wasn’t the only new moniker visible in Krakenworld this week.
On Saturday, two guys apparently named Scott and Doug were busy airlifting new Climate Pledge Arena signage to the apex of the historic roof of the Seattle Center venue.
After the hockey world collectively freaked out over the NHL and NHLPA allegedly not talking to each other during [checks notes] Thanksgiving week, it appears things are looking up on a return to play plan. Earlier this week, Elliotte Friedman broke down what he was hearing on the latest movement on the NHL’s plan.
.@FriedgeHNIC with the latest on talks between the #NHL and its players, including how he's hearing January 15th is a possible season start date.
Players could report to NHL Training Camps in late December or early January
Estimated return to play ~January 15th
Season should be somewhere in the range of 52 to 56 games
Playoffs would begin early May and roll through early July
As the saying goes, Keep Calm and Carry On.
The less we hear about this the better because it would indicate that both sides are talking with each other instead of trying to negotiate in public. Signs are indicating that there could be a deal in the next week.
World Junior Championship Updates
Prior to the abbreviated NHL season, we are expecting to see the World Junior Championship played in an Edmonton bubble beginning on Christmas Day and running through January 5th.
With the delay to the season, many in the hockey world were hoping to see some of the NHL players that are still young enough for the WJC take part in the tournament. Chicago’s Kirby Dach, for example, participated in Canada’s selection camp, and is expected to play a huge role for his country. Dach looked like a man amongst boys in Red/White scrimmages.
Check out Kirby Dach with a spectacular kick pass at Hockey Canada World Junior Camp! pic.twitter.com/orbhQNyQYY
On the flip side, 2019’s No. 1 overall Draft pick, Jack Hughes, will not be released by the New Jersey Devils to play for Team USA, and the New York Rangers also announced this week that they will not allow Alexis Lafreniere to take part. Nick Robertson will be allowed by the Toronto Maple Leafs to participate if NHL Training Camps have not yet started.
Here’s an interesting item to keep an eye on over the next few days, as per Best Friend of the Pod, Chris Peters:
Hoping for the best for William Eklund after positive test. He would have been a key offensive threat for Sweden. Meanwhile, this is a reminder that this week is the most critical for teams preparing for WJC as they open their camps. Positive tests now prevent entry to Canada.
Greg Wyshynski from ESPN+ (paywall) had a great column on the Angry Beaver’s roller coaster ride and the dire straits the bar is in now.
Seattle Women’s Hockey Club (a wonderful organization that has been growing and fostering hockey for a long time in the region) launched their annual fundraiser auction with plenty of items for hockey fans (pssst…there are deals to be had here).
Beyond the Sound
NCHC started back up this week in an Omaha-based bubble, and Friday’s game featuring #1-ranked North Dakota vs #4 Denver was a real barnburner. The back-and-forth battle ended with this banger of a game winner by UND’s Jordan Kawaguchi.
Finally, a strange tale played out very quickly on #HockeyTwitter Friday.
The Vancouver Sun published a story that long-time Canucks anthem singer, Mark Donnelly, was planning to sing O Canada at a rally against Covid-19 restrictions.
Canucks owner, Francesco Aquilini, quickly made it clear that he did not agree with Donnelly’s decision to support such an event. Aquilini apparently canned the tenor via social media with a single re-tweet of the Vancouver Sun’s story.
While we certainly don’t agree with Donnelly’s stance on wearing masks (or… apparently… not wearing masks), we will forever be grateful to him for giving us one of the funniest hockey videos of all time.
Fare thee well, Mark Donnelly. Please watch where you’re skating.
Darren Brown is the Chief Content Officer at Sound Of Hockey and the host, producer, and editor of the Sound Of Hockey Podcast. He is an inconsistent beer league goalie who believes that five players have to make a mistake before the puck gets to him. Follow him on Twitter @DarrenFunBrown or email darren@soundofhockey.com.
The NHL return to play date is still up in the air, and now the league has a conflict with the NHLPA over salaries.
Due to the pandemic limiting income for the league owners, the NHL approached the players’ union looking to change the agreement struck in the CBA this past summer. That agreement contained an even 50-50 split in hockey-generated revenue. Now, the owners are asking the players for help to allow the NHL to get more cash in the coffers before it can return to play.
Two ideas were presented but neither option was received with open arms. One was to defer salaries this year and increase escrow. The second was to defer salary and institute a rising escrow over the last three years of the CBA.
So far, these offers have not been received well and will add one more layer in planning for the NHL return to play plans, which the league still hopes will come on January 1st. Needless to say, stay tuned.
Bottom line, more discussion ahead for both the NHLPA internally (whether or not they're ultimately willing to tweak salary deferral and if so, what do they get in return?); and more NHL/NHLPA discussion. The clock is ticking.
The Florida Panthers made history this week by hiring Brett Peterson as their new assistant general manager. He’s believed to be the first Black AGM in the NHL and represents another small but important step for a league that has historically struggled to provide an inclusive environment.
Peterson was a defenseman at Boston College and later became a player agent, representing the likes of Bruins goalie Tuukka Rask.
There are also rumblings out there that Joel Ward is expected to be hired as an assistant coach for the Henderson Silver Knights, the new AHL affiliate for Vegas. Ward just officially retired from his playing career in April, so it’s a quick jump behind the bench for the well-respected player.
Report: Joel Ward expected to be named assistant coach of the Henderson Silver Knights https://t.co/pf1hGdvZL5
News of the hirings of Peterson and Ward came a few days after the Miami Marlins also broke a barrier by hiring Kim Ng as their general manager, making her the first woman to hold that role in Major League Baseball history. That led to speculation about who the first woman to lead a team in the NHL might be, and the Seattle Kraken have two women on staff who could be in the running in Alexandra Mandryky and Cammi Granato.
No Passport, No Pass for Braden Holtby
Braden Holtby signed a two-year deal with Vancouver at the opening of NHL Free Agency, a deal that the Canucks clearly structured in a way that will allow them to expose him to Seattle in next year’s Expansion Draft.
So, the potential Kraken goalie now needs to get across the U.S./Canada border to get to his new home in British Columbia. This shouldn’t have been an issue, except a slight hiccup was unshelled (get it?) when it was time for Holtby to make the trip.
Apparently, the Holtby family includes two tortoises named Honey and Maple. Those tortoises require export papers filed with the U.S. and import papers filed with Canada. The Holtbys completed one of those steps, but not the other, leaving Braden and the tortoises stranded at the border.
Braden’s wife, Brandi, sent out a call for help on Twitter.
No, we didn’t know we needed an export permit (we did do the import permit for the Canadian side) so now Braden is stuck at the border with two tortoises 🙈
After several days of worry and speculation, the Holtby tortoise drama is over as Brandi Holtby announced that the family has been reunited.
Welcome to Canada, Honey and Maple! 🇨🇦 Huge shout out to @USFWS for working so hard for us! Thank you for everyone’s concern.. NOW you may laugh at the image of Braden being stuck at the border with a tortoise under each arm. 🐢👨🏽🌾🐢
There continue to be COVID-related cancellations in the hockey world. This week the minor-pro ECHL announced that its entire North Division has decided to not play until the 2021-2022 season. The decision will displace over 150 players from the Adirondack Thunder, Brampton Beast, Maine Mariners, Newfoundland Growlers, Reading Royals, and Worcester Railers.
All these players are now free agents and will have to scramble to try to find a team to play for this coming season.
The remaining 13 ECHL clubs are set to start a preseason schedule on December 4th, and the regular season is targeted for a December 11th start date. The North Division expects to be back in action next season.
Sharks Officially in the Water
Starting a new NCAA Division I hockey program is no easy task. It’s even tougher to do during a global pandemic with little time to find players. But that’s exactly what the Long Island University Sharks set out to do this year.
Becoming a reality in April, the team began looking for players and managed to recruit nine transfers to help fill their roster. LIU hired a 29-year-old coach in Brett Riley and quickly prepared for its first NCAA campaign.
At Holy Cross on Thursday, the Sharks opened their season and program in their stunning new uniforms.
LIU squeaked out a 3-2 overtime win on a breakaway goal from Christian Rajic, giving the fledgling team a perfect all-time win percentage of 1.000, at least until it plays its second game on Sunday.
Go Sharks, Go!
Also, in case you feel like re-watching the best parts of last night (and trust us, we know that feel), highlights are 👇https://t.co/ewDIekvmVX
Bubbles? Realignment? Everything is on the table as the NHL ponders the best way to proceed towards a plan to start the 2020-2021 season (don’t worry yet, Seattle Kraken fans). That may have to be amended to simply be called the 2021 season as the league has targeted a January 1 start date. Reading the tea leaves, it seems less likely there will be bubbles and more likely there will be a temporary realignment allowing for a Canadian Division as well as three divisions in the United States.
Here’s the part that should be of great interest to Seattle Kraken fans. The date of the Expansion Draft and the 2021 NHL Entry Draft will both depend on when the NHL finishes this season. The NHL finish date could also affect a little thing like the Kraken inaugural season opener.
Here are the rest of your Weekly One-Timers:
Seattle Kraken Northgate Practice Facility On Schedule
The Kraken invited the local hockey media into the Northgate construction site and the reviews were glowing. The future Kraken players will have all the amenities you can imagine, including a spacious lounge to relax in, a state-of-the-art training area, and a dressing room with the logo on the ceiling to avoid anyone stepping on it.
A look at the inside of the Seattle Kraken’s new practice facility. Photo taken by Brian Liesse.
But it’s not just a place for the players. The team continues to look at Northgate as a community asset. Local adult and youth hockey will be able to take advantage of the three rinks as the Kraken estimate there will be 20,000 hours of ice time available.
There’s also a bar. Not just any bar either. Up above the NHL rink and one of the community rinks sits a pub that the club is hoping will become the top place to come and watch sports in the area. They’re already planning watch parties for home and away games.
The bar should open in September of 2021, a month after the NHL offices and facilities are on line.
Local Tidbits
Former Seattle Thunderbirds defenseman Shea Theodore has established a fund to help fight cancer in Nevada. Theodore, 25, has spent the last three seasons with the Vegas Golden Knights. This week he launched Kay’s Power Play honoring his grandmother, who passed away due to breast cancer.
Kay’s Power Play hopes to raise funds to help with early detection in Nevada and Theodore has donated $40,000 to the cause. Theodore was diagnosed with testicular cancer himself, prior to the 2019-2020 season and was able to fight through it thanks to early detection.
How about this for a deep cut? Former Seattle Junior Hockey Player and friend of the Sound Of Hockey Podcast, Devan McConnell, gets hired by the Arizona Coyotes.
Quebec Bubble Hockey! So… Hockey dans une bulle? Did we do that right? The Quebec Major Junior Hockey League’s return to play has been rocky to say the least. Time to pivot. It would appear that the league is headed to a quasi bubble strategy for the 2020-21 season. As of now, this will feature 7 teams headed to Quebec City from November 17th to the 27th to play 6 games each. Meanwhile the QMJHL Maritimes Division appears to be going relatively well.
NCAA Hockey has returned to play, kind of. All conferences operate independently and will have different return to play strategies and formats. The BIG 10 has indeed returned to play this weekend. Atlantic Hockey and Hockey East will begin conference play next week, and there will also be a whole host of other non-conference games. Wisconsin defeated Notre Dame 2-0 in the first college hockey game in nine months on Friday night.
The Seattle Kraken were trending on social media on Friday, but not for a reason you might expect. The official team Twitter account put out this gem late Friday night, indicating that they weren’t initially sure what was up either.
