When defenseman Jake Muzzin landed on long-term injured reserve earlier in the week, speculation ramped up that the Toronto Maple Leafs could make an unexpected big splash at the Trade Deadline with some added salary cap flexibility. However, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reported on yesterday’s edition of 32 Thoughts that Leafs general manager Kyle Dubas is telling teams around the league that if Muzzin “is healthy enough to return before the end of the regular season, they’re not going to hold him out until the playoffs.” That’s to say that the team isn’t operating under the assumption that they’ll have the full $4.47MM in deadline cap space that CapFriendly suggests. While the team is still in a position to add a solid depth piece, or even a higher-end middle-six forward with some salary retention, any chance of Toronto being among the deadline’s biggest buyers is likely gone at this point.
Some more hockey notes on this Sunday:
- The Edmonton Oilers will be without both forwards Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Kailer Yamamoto for today’s game against the Carolina Hurricanes. Defenseman Philip Broberg continues to draw into the lineup as they’ll again ice 11 forwards and seven defensemen. Nugent-Hopkins and Yamamoto are both likely out with short-term injuries, both suffered during yesterday’s game in Sunrise against the Florida Panthers. Colton Sceviour and Brendan Perlini, who both have just five points on the year, will get opportunities to draw into the lineup as Edmonton’s two extra forwards.
- TSN’s Darren Dreger reports that the IIHF is likely to make “significant decisions” surrounding the participation of Russia in future international hockey events during a council meeting tomorrow, beginning first and foremost with the upcoming Men’s World Championships in Finland, scheduled to take place in the middle of May. The report comes just as news broke that the Switzerland hockey governing body has requested additional sanctions placed on both the Russian and Belarussian hockey programs. Those additional sanctions include removing Russia as the host of the upcoming 2023 IIHF Men’s World Junior Championship and 2023 IIHF Men’s World Championship, as well as the immediate exclusion of Russia and Belarus as member federations of the IIHF as the country’s invasion of Ukraine continues.
Russian players here in the NHL have been put in quite a predicament. In particular, I wonder how this will effect Russian prospects in this years draft? If nations place travel bans on Russians, you may not see those top prospects you drafted for a long, long time.
No leave the Russians here! Putin won’t nuke us as long as we have his favorite hockey players here! (Exception : Panarin)
Why punish the players? Did they choose to invade the Ukraine? Pull any and all tournaments from Russia, but don’t punish the players.
Hasek’s Czech-centric comments (on sportsnet.ca) suggesting that all Russian NHL players have their contracts suspended was a bit out there. NHL players shouldn’t have a political spotlight on them, demanding they comment on every news story that involves their home country, especially big ones. Some are certainly more informed than others, but they are not political news correspondents, and shouldn’t be treated as such. It’s just a no-win situation for them.
I wouldn’t punish the Russian NHL’ers.
I WOULD, however, offer each and every one of them (and any other prominent…and trustworthy…Russian currently here) full US citizenship if they give up their Russian citizenship. They’d have to quietly remove their families first. Easier said than done, no doubt.
But, losing some of his premier athletes would be another punishment he never expected when he began this debacle.
Ovechkin Matthews Kane would look good at the next Olympics.
Speaking of things he didn’t expect when he started….
Getting his *** kicked by the Ukrainian Red Dawn version of Old McDonald…
link to twitter.com
you might be on to something here
Actually, more likely is Russia might revoke the passports of all of their athletes and call them home.
If I had a Russian goalie, in particular, I’d be nervous and trying to add some depth.