BLH provides you with the latest NHL news, rumors, and speculation featuring Zdeno Chara, Owen Power, Vitali Kravtsov, Mike Hoffman, and more!
Watch 16yr Old Wayne Gretzky Destroy the Czechs at the ’78 World Juniors!
Watch Connor McDavid help Team Canada end a five-year WJHC gold medal drought right here!
Evan Bouchard has been recalled from his loan in Sweden, now he’s got to make the Oilers or his future could be cloudy. Read about that here.
Read what TSN’s Craig Button had to say about Carter Savoie, Dylan Holloway, and the 2020 World Juniors right here!
At the 2010 World Juniors, Jordan Eberle was a hero but it was all for naught in the Gold Medal Final… Watch the epic 6-5 battle with Team USA in its entirety right here.
Before we get to the links, I’d like to direct you to the tweet below. My hometown’s university hockey team needs help due to cutbacks and obviously financial pressures thanks to the pandemic, so they’ve set up a Go Fund Me to try and raise enough money to keep their program alive.
I can’t even begin to imagine how many hours I spent as a boy running around the Max McLean Arena in Camrose at Vikings games. It has to be in the hundreds as my dad took me to as many as we could get to and add in all the Viking Cup games. Without this hockey program, many people wouldn’t have been able to be introduced to the likes of Henrik Lundqvist, Dominik Hasek, Mike Comrie, Olli Jokinen, Mikko Koivu, PJ Axelsson, Dave Tippett, Fernando Pisani, Petr Klima, Sergei Zubov, Ziggy Palffy, Milan Hejduk, Andrei Markov, Henrik Zetterberg, Tuuka Rask, etc. before they became NHL superstars and that’s thanks to the Vikings and the fine people over the years that have worked tirelessly to keep things afloat.
If you have time, visit the Go Fund Me, and if you have an extra buck or two, help out. I know it’s not easy these days, but Camrose without the Vikings would leave a massive hole in the fabric of that town.
Yes, this is something near and dear to my heart…https://t.co/zpPI0i4rVn
The @UofA_AugVikings hockey teams need some help to make future seasons possible after provincial and university budget cutbacks. #GoVikingsGo #gofundme— Jess Jackson (@thewrongjess) December 17, 2020
NHL Rumors and Speculation
- Pierre LeBrun (The Athletic): Who are the top-ten candidates to coach Team Canada at the 2022 Winter Olympics in China? LeBrun and former NHL head coach Bruce Boudreau team up to give you the list!
BLH’s Thoughts: I’m going to say that if Jon Cooper isn’t coaching Team Canada in 2022, there should be a re-evaluation of the gentlemen putting together that team in 2026. Cooper is by far the best coach in the NHL right now, it’s that simple. Surround him with Barry Trotz, Dave Tippett, Travis Green (maybe?) and that’s a helluva coaching team.
- Scott Powers (The Athletic): Owen Power in the consensus top-prospect for the 2021 NHL entry draft (at the moment). Powers tells us why he’s the man to beat for 1st overall and, in an interview with the 6’6″ defenceman, gives us some insight as to what it’s been like playing at the University of Michigan so far.
BLH’s Thoughts: I’d be shocked if Power wasn’t chosen first in the next draft. He’s like a stay-at-home version of Victor Hedman. He uses is size so well but not in a physical manner per se. He doesn’t go out there looking to blow guys up is what I mean. He’s more cerebral, he is really good at making the opposing player go where he wants them to and his skating, for a guy that size, is very smooth and graceful. The Red Wings will be lucky to have him and Mortiz Seider running the show there for the next two decades. :p
- Adam Herman (Blueshirt Banter): Earmarks two of the New York Rangers’ top-prospects for trade due to redundancy within the organization, Vitali Kravtsov and 2020 1st-rounder Braden Schneider.
BLH’s Thoughts: I get that the Rangers have some good young defencemen in their system right now but there’s no way I’d be taking offers on Schneider right now. He’s probably four or five years from breaking into the NHL and by then Nils Lundqvist or Adam Fox or even K’Andre Miller could be gone. I mean, ideally, with the way the salary cap is going to work for the next three or four years, you’d promote your younger, cheaper players and trade your more expensive ones, right? So keep Schneider, because he’s going to be a beast, and move on from a Fox, Trouba, or Lundqvist.
- John Vogl (The Athletic): Figures the Buffalo Sabres could dangle struggling prospect Casey Middlestadt and land a reputable goaltender.
BLH’s Thoughts: Noooooop. Unless Middlestadt shows a helluva lot more than he has, the Sabres would be lucky to get an AHL netminder for him.
- Matt Larkin (The Hockey News): With Alexander Steen now “LTIR” retired, Larkin wonders if Mike Hoffman would go to St. Louis for $4M on a short-term deal to try and replace the goals not being scored by Vladdy Tarasenko since he’s on IR recovering from surgery.
BLH’s Thoughts: Makes sense to me. Between Boston, St. Louis, Nashville, and Columbus; Hoffman has the pick of the litter. If I were him, Nashville is a really fun place… Why not there if you’re looking to cash in?
- Joe Haggerty (Boston Hockey Now): Believes there’s a better chance that UFA Mike Hoffman is on the Bruins roster next season than 43yr old former Captain Zdeno Chara.
BLH’s Thoughts: I reckon there’s an even better chance neither of them are playing for the Bruins in 2020-21.
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