The IIHF Women’s World Championship will be canceled for the second year in a row, according to Sportsnet’s Jeff Marek. The event was scheduled to take place in Halifax next month, but is now being shelved because of the ongoing COVID-19 situation in Canada. It’s difficult to keep seeing international events go down, but this one was especially important as teams from around the world prepared for the 2022 Olympics. They now will have to go another year without facing each other in the top annual tournament.
Update: The tournament in Halifax has been officially canceled, but the IIHF notes that “this does not mean that we will not have a Women’s World Championship in 2021.” Hockey Canada and the international organization will attempt to find another host city in the coming months.
More from around the hockey world:
- The Seattle Kraken don’t have official standing in the league just yet so can’t make any signings or complete trades, but that doesn’t mean they haven’t been in touch with teams around the league. Pierre LeBrun and Ryan S. Clark of The Athletic examine six situations that could be ripe for an expansion draft deal, including one in Tampa Bay where the Lightning already have more salary committed to next season than they’re allowed to under the cap. Bolts’ GM Julien BriseBois will need to move out some contracts this summer and who better than the expansion Kraken to take a performing-but-overpaid forward off their hands.
- The Vancouver Canucks are a great story to watch down the stretch as they try to make a postseason run following their huge COVID outbreak, but the front office will have to be a little more forward-looking in the days to come. One of those future moves could be bringing back Nikita Tryamkin, as Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet writes that the club will engage with the hulking defenseman in the next few days. Tryamkin has spent the last four seasons in the KHL where he has continued to develop into a legitimate two-way force, using his 6’7″ frame effectively all over the ice. The Russian defenseman’s agent Todd Diamond was on Donnie and Dhali just this week, saying he believes his client is ready for an NHL return.