News Roundup 7/1/24
To keep this from being too long to read, I’ll keep this edition solely to North American hockey news. I do hope to get around to a worldwide news roundup this week. A lot has happened in the last few weeks, so let’s get into it.
Before we get to the rest of this article, the queer population living in Kakuma refugee Camp in Kenya need help. There are over 1,000 queer asylum seekers and refugees there, fleeing from discrimination. Unfortunately, their basic needs are not met and they cannot seek employment as it is illegal for queers there to have jobs. There is a fundraiser on Go Get Funding and if you are able, please financially support them, and whether you can give money or not, please share the fundraiser and get out the word. You can follow the organizers of this fundraiser on Twitter.
NHL News
A lot has happened in the last few weeks, so I will keep it short as possible. I promise. This isn’t a “I’ll keep this short” and you’re there for an extra hour or two type of thing. So, let’s get going:
First off, congratulations to the Florida Panthers on winning their first Stanley Cup in franchise history. It’s a great moment not only for the market, but the sport in general to have continued success in non-traditional hockey markets. The way the state of Florida has been dominating in hockey (both at the ECHL and NHL levels), it may become one of the biggest hockey markets in America. The level of dominance it’s had in men’s professional hockey in the 2020s is truly incredible.
Speaking of the Stanley Cup Final: something you don’t normally see happens when a player from the losing team in the Cup Final wins the Conn Smythe Trophy. Connor McDavid, coming off a historic post-season won the award and it was well deserved. As great as Barkov was, especially at keeping McDavid at bay in the Final, breaking Gretzky’s assist record for the playoffs was too great of an accomplishment. It needed to be rewarded, and thankfully, the voters agreed. Congrats to McDavid.
Rutger McGroarty, the top prospect for the Winnipeg Jets, has demanded out. According to reports, disagreements between him and the Jets on his future emerged, resulting in him wanting out. They don’t view him as NHL-ready, McGroarty disagrees.
Alex Meruelo, the owner of the Arizona Coyotes, is quitting. He is leaving the ownership and the organization will no longer pursue arena options. This happened after an auction that he was hoping to win was canceled by the Arizona State Land Department.
Quite a few moves have been made, and honestly: I didn’t even think of keeping a record of them all. My bad, but it may have been too much anyway. So, here are a few of the bigger moves made:
Mikhail Sergachev was traded to the Utah Hockey Club in a shock move on Saturday. The Lightning received defender J.J. Moser, forward Connor Geekie, a seventh-round pick in the 2024 draft, and a second-round pick in the 2025 draft.
Steven Stamkos will not be returning to Tampa Bay. He will go to market and as of the time of publishing, we don’t know where he’ll end up.
The rights to Jake Guentzel were traded to Tampa Bay by Carolina for a third-round pick in the 2025 draft. Since then it has been reported that he’s signed a seven-year contract for nine million a year.
Moving away from Tampa Bay, Detroit has been busy too. First, they traded away one of their more promising defensive prospects, Andrew Gibson, for Jesse Kiiskinen and a second-round pick in the 2024 draft from Nashville. Detroit would immediately turn around and send the pick along with defender Jake Walman to San Jose in exchange for future considerations. Since then, Steve Yzerman has confirmed it was to clear cap space (I’ll save my thoughts on that for a future article).
That wasn’t the only big news out of Detroit: Patrick Kane is back on a one-year deal worth $4 million but has $2.5 million in potential bonuses.
Now, let’s circle back a bit to Nashville. We’re not done with them quite yet. Juuse Saros was reportedly extended on an eight-year contract worth $7.74 million a year. Top goaltending prospect, Yaroslav Askarov, is reportedly on the trade block.
That’s far from the last bit of news pertaining to goaltenders, though, as Jacob Markstrom was traded from Calgary to New Jersey for a (top-10 protected) 2025 first-round pick and defender Kevin Bahl. The Flames are retaining 31.25% of Markstrom’s contract.
Finally, former Vezina winner, Linus Ullmark, was traded from Boston to Ottawa. The Bruins received goaltender Joonas Korpisalo, forward Mark Kastelic, and a first-round pick in the 2024 draft in return. (Swayman contract not getting done)
The CHL and USA Hockey announced a new prospects challenge. For at least three years, there will be a special event titled the “CHL-USA Prospects Challenge”. The USA NTDP and top first-year eligible prospects from the OHL, WHL, and QMJHL, will face off against each other in a two-game series. It will start sometime this November. That cheering you hear is NHL scouts everywhere celebrating this.
The first six players from each of the four nations in the “Four Nations Face-Off” have been announced. Here are the names:
Canada:
Brad Marchand
Brayden Point
Cale Makar
Connor McDavid
Nathan McKinnon
Sidney Crosby
Finland:
Aleksander Barkov
Esa Lindell
Juuse Saros
Mikko Rantanen
Miro Heiskanen
Sebastian Aho
Sweden:
Erik Karlsson
Filip Forsberg
Gustav Forsling
Mika Zibanejad
Victor Hedman
William Nylander
United States:
Adam Fox
Auston Matthews
Charlie McAvoy
Jack Eichel
Matthew Tkachuk
Quinn Hughes
Meanwhile, the NHL Awards for 2023-24 have been announced. Here are the winners:
Hart Trophy: Nathan MacKinnon (Colorado)
Calder Trophy: Connor Bedard (Chicago)
Norris Trophy: Quinn Hughes (Vancouver)
Vezina Trophy: Connor Hellebuyck (Winnipeg)
Finally, seven new inductees to the Hockey Hall of Fame have been announced. The five players are:
Krissy Wendell-Pohl
Natalie Darwitz
Jeremy Roenick
Pavel Datsyuk
Shea Weber
Colin Campbell and David Poile were added as builders. Personally, I’m wondering why Mogilny continues not to be inducted along with Zetterberg, but congrats to all those inducted.
PWHL
On June 17, PWHL Minnesota forward Sophia Kunin announced her retirement in a Twitter post. Before winning the inaugural Walter Cup with PWHL Minnesota this past season, she spent four seasons in the PWHPA and four seasons at the University of Wisconsin, serving as captain in her senior year. At Wisconsin, she won a national championship. She has also represented the USA internationally once, in the U18 World Junior Championships in 2015, where she won gold.
Now, onto the signings that have been made. We’ll break this down, team by team.
Boston:
Forward Hannah Brandt (2-year contract extension)
Defender Emily Brown (2-year contract extension)
Defender Sidney Morin (1-year contract extension)
Forward Sophie Shirley (2-year contract extension)
Forward Lexie Adzija (1-year contract extension)
Minnesota:
Second-round draftee forward Britta Curl (2-year contract extension)
Third-round draftee forward Klára Hymlárová (2-year contract extension)
Forward Michela Cava (1-year contract extension)
Forward Denisa Křížová (1-year contract extension)
Forward Liz Schepers (1-year contract extension)
Montreal:
Defender Amanda Boulier (2-year contract extension)
Defender Mariah Keopple (1-year contract extension)
Goaltender Elaine Chuli (1-year contract extension)
First-round draftee defender Cayla Barnes (3-year contract)
Forward Mikyla Grant-Mentis (1-year contract extension)
New York:
Goaltender Corinne Schroeder (2-year contract extension)
Goaltender Abbey Levy (1-year contract extension)
Ottawa:
Forward Rebecca Leslie (1-year contract)
Goaltender Logan Angers (1-year contract)
Forward Alexa Vasko (1-year contract)
Forward Shiann Darkangelo (1-year contract extension)
Sixth-round draftee forward Anna Meixner (1-year contract)
Toronto:
Defender Allie Munroe (2-year contract extension)
Forward Hannah Miller (1-year contract extension)
Forward Emma Woods (2-year contract)
Forward Daryl Watts (2-year contract)
First-round draftee forward Julia Gosling (2-year contract)
Seventh-round draftee goaltender Raygan Kirk (2-year contract)
Second-round draftee defender Megan Carter (2-year contract)
Third-round draftee forward Izzy Daniel (2-year contract)
In addition to all this, New York hired Josh Sciba as an assistant coach. Previously, he was the head coach of the women’s hockey team at Union College for the last eight years. Before that, he was an assistant to the current New York head coach, Greg Fargo, at Colgate University.
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