Cowan: Will Canadiens follow Panthers' roster-building blueprint?
Article content
Now that the Florida Panthers have been crowned Stanley Cup champs for the second straight season, the focus will switch to the June 27-28 NHL Entry Draft in Los Angeles.
There will be no shortage of mock drafts and prospect analysis until then, and Montreal fans will be wondering whether the Canadiens will keep their two first-round picks (Nos. 16 and 17) or look to trade them to fill the second-line centre hole and/or add some experience on defence. The Canadiens hold 10 other picks at the draft — two in the second, three in the third, two in the fourth and one in the fifth, sixth and seventh rounds.
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Calgary Herald
an hour ago
- Calgary Herald
SIMMONS SAYS: The Florida Panthers are one of hockey's greatest teams
Article content HEAR AND THERE Article content The 2025 Hockey Hall of Fame Class will be introduced on Tuesday. So here's my Hall of Fame class a few days early: I'll start with the long-overdue Alexander Mogilny and then add the three first-time eligible Carey Price, Zdeno Chara and Joe Thornton. And apologies to Duncan Keith, who deserves first-ballot Hall of Fame entry but there's only room for four players … My Builder, who has been passed over for far too long, is women's hockey executive Fran Rider. And my choice from the women's side as a player, Jennifer Botterill, who also should have been added by now …. So how exactly did lower taxes in Florida help GM Zito trade for Sam Reinhart, Matthew Tkachuk, Bennett, Seth Jones, Brad Marchand and Brandon Montour? Anybody anywhere do better trading than that? And how did lower tax rates in Florida help the Lightning draft Steven Stamkos, Victor Hedman, Andrei Vasilevskiy, Nikita Kucherov and Brayden Point over a short period of time? Do they have an accountant as their chief scout? By the way, the Dallas Stars have been in a state without taxes long before the NHL went to a salary cap. They have won the Stanley Cup only once — and that came on an illegal goal in 1999. One more thing: Nashville has won no Stanley Cups in 26 years in business and might be the best place to live in America. How have the tax laws helped the Predators, who had a Hall of Fame general manager in David Poile? … The last three teams to win back-to-back Stanley Cups had terrific third lines: Florida had Anton Lundell centring Eetu Luostarinen and Marchand; Tampa had Yanni Gourde centring Blake Coleman and Barclay Goodrow; And before that, Pittsburgh had Nick Bonino centring Phil Kessel and Carl Hagelin. The Lundell-Luostarinen-Marchand line finished these playoffs with 57 points. The HBK line had 56 in 2016 … The best defensive defencemen in hockey: 1. Jaccob Slavin of Carolina; 2. Gustav Forsling of Florida; 3. Chris Tanev of Toronto … How great is the combination of Barkov and Forsling on the Panthers? Well, add this up: McDavid had just four even-strength points in the Stanley Cup final and was a minus-7. Last year, he had eight even-strength points and was plus-5 … Washington's Brian MacLellan did not get nominated for the Jim Gregory Award as general manager of the year for one simple reason. He wasn't the general manager of the Capitals this season. Chris Patrick was. But MacLellan was GM last June and early July when the Capitals made eight roster changes to vault them into a first-place season. If there was a GM of the year award for someone no longer a GM, it would go to MacLellan. Article content Article content SCENE AND HEARD Article content Sunday night is Game 7 of the NBA Finals that will not end. And possibly it willl be history in the making. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander could become the first Canadian basketball player to win the MVP, the championship with the Oklahoma City Thunder, and win the Finals MVP all in the same year. Steve Nash has won MVPs but never won a title. Other Canadians, most notably Jamal Murray and Andrew Wiggins, have been significant parts of championship teams. But to win all three, if that happens Sunday night against the Indiana Pacers, is something that may only happen once. And you can pencil Gilgeous-Alexander in as Canadian athlete of the year if all this goes his way … Mark Walter, soon to own controlling interest in the Los Angeles Lakers, is already the majority owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers and the owner of the Professional Women's Hockey League. The league championship trophy is actually called the Walter Cup … As big as Shohei Ohtani may be to American sports and as a large a figure as Patrick Mahomes may be, Caitlin Clark may well be the most significant sporting figure, not necessarily the richest, in North American sports . When she plays, WNBA television audiences are huge. When she doesn't play, and she was injured recently, audiences are tiny. No single athlete moves the needle at this time the way Clark does, and watching her play, she brings a Gretzky-element to her sport. She finds players open that no one knows are there … One year, Mike Krushelnyski scored 88 points playing alongside Gretzky in Edmonton. The rest of his career, he averaged 48 points a game … The WNBA is damn foolish if it doesn't start protecting Clark better than it has through a season and a half … Just when you think you've seen everything in the CFL,. along comes Friday's Argo game. Trailing the entire night, the Argos tie the game in the final seconds against Saskatchewan with a touchdown and a two-point conversion. And they kick off and you expect overtime, not a 99-yard touchdown return to win the game for the Roughriders. Honestly, there is nothing in sports like the last three minutes of a CFL game. Even if you don't care who wins … This is the strangest Blue Jays season I can remember. The Jays spent $15 million on Max Scherzer, $92 million on Anthony Santander and inherited the oversized contract of Andres Gimenez — all of them the kinds of deals that could get a GM fired — and here are the Jays are in position to challenge for the American League East. Go figure. Article content Article content AND ANOTHER THING Article content The next time you hear Mitch Marner talk about his close friends Auston Matthews and William Nylander, understand this. One of the apparent reasons Marner wants out in Toronto is he truly believes he gets more heat for Leafs troubles than either Matthews or Nylander get. Can you say Mitchell Petty? … The NHL free agent class, Marner aside, is rather limited. The Maple Leafs' needs are many. It's easy to have doubt about where the Leafs are headed. But I'll go to a year ago on this: Leafs needed a goaltender and signed Anthony Stolarz for $2.5 million a year. They needed a lead defenceman and signed Tanev for $4.5 million a year. GM Brad Treliving spent $7 million for near all-stars in goal and on defence. That's value buying. Can he do it again? … If the Leafs have Matthews and Matthew Knies on one line, John Tavares and Nylander on another, what they still don't have is anything resembling the third line of the Panthers, assuming that Florida re-signs playoff star Bennett, which I'm assuming. I had been hearing since mid-winter in Florida that the Panthers would be re-signing Bennett but not likely defenceman Aaron Ekblad. I still believe that to be the economic case … Does the possibility of a Matthews-Knies-Marchand line excite you? I still wonder about Marchand. He looked rather lost at the 4 Nations tournament playing for Team Canada, then finished second in Conn Smythe voting in the playoffs. So which player will he be next year or in the future? If the Leafs commit to Marchand in free agency, it remains something of a gamble … What a nice pickup Jonathan Toews is for the Winnipeg Jets, no matter how much he has left. The Jets are a team that has to learn how to win when it matters. Toews is a professor on the subject … Who would have ever believed this would happen: The Edmonton football team, now foolishly known as the Elks, are the saddest in-stadium, ticket-selling team in Canadian football. We expect all that in Toronto. We should never expect that in Edmonton … The greatest teams in Canadian sports history (modern version): The five-time Grey Cup champion Edmonton Eskimos with Tom Wilkinson, Warren Moon and Dan Kepley; The Scotty Bowman-Guy Lafleur-Ken Dryden Montreal Canadians; The Pat Gillick-Cito Gaston-Roberto Alomar Toronto Blue Jays. The Glen Sather-Gretzky-Mark Messier Edmonton Oilers; The Masai Ujiri-Kawhi Leonard-Kyle Lowry Toronto Raptors. The Mike O'Shea-Zach Collaros Winnipeg Blue Bombers … Best way to win a Stanley Cup. Fire Dale Tallon. All Tallon left behind when he was let go by the Panthers as general manager: Barkov, Bobrovsky, Ekblad, Lundell, Jonathan Huberdeau and MacKenzie Weegar (traded for Tkachuk) and Spencer Knight (traded for Seth Jones Jr.). When he was fired by the Blackhawks, all he left behind was Keith, Toews, Patrick Kane — three Hall of Famers — Patrick Sharp, Dustin Byfuglien, Brent Seabrook, Nic Hjalmarsson and several other quality players … Happy birthday to Paul Beeston (80), Scottie Scheffler (29), Josh Naylor (28), Tyler O'Neill (30), Danny Green (38), Dustin Johnson (41), Clyde Drexler (63), Richard Jefferson (45), Kurt Warner (54), Ron Low (75) and Bob Bourne (71) … And hey, whatever became of Ilya Bryzgalov?
Vancouver Sun
2 hours ago
- Vancouver Sun
SIMMONS SAYS: The Florida Panthers are one of hockey's greatest teams
The real lesson from the Stanley Cup final: Teams win championships, individuals do not. In the end, the Florida Panthers crushed the two best players in the world, Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl. Just as they crushed the Carolina Hurricanes and the Maple Leafs and before that the Tampa Bay Lightning. They had 11 blowout wins on their way to the championship. No team in hockey history has steamrolled its opposition the way in which the Panthers did it in this post-season. The total score of the 11 one-sided wins: 61-16. Start your day with a roundup of B.C.-focused news and opinion. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. A welcome email is on its way. If you don't see it, please check your junk folder. The next issue of Sunrise will soon be in your inbox. Please try again Interested in more newsletters? Browse here. The great Montreal Canadiens teams didn't do that. The back-to-back dynasties that followed, the New York Islanders and Edmonton Oilers , didn't do that. Neither did the three-time champion Chicago Blackhawks. Three of the four victories in the Cup Final were terribly one-sided. That came after three one-sided wins in the Conference Final. And five one-sided wins in the opening two rounds, including Games 5 and 7 in Toronto, four of those Panthers wins coming on the road. Florida won because of style and determination, because of depth and coaching, because of physical balance and conviction, because of superior special teams, an 86.4% penalty kill in the playoffs and a 30.4% power play in the final. What do we have here with this Panthers team? Sometimes you don't always recognize history when you're watching it happen. Here, we have one of the great champions in hockey, maybe the greatest and most obstinate team of the salary cap era. The Panthers have everything: A brilliant general manager in Bill Zito, a game-changing coach in Paul Maurice, a Hall of Fame goaltender in Sergei Bobrovsky, a roster built of so many differing parts that it's challenging to compartmentalize them all. This is the closest team in size and style to the four-time champion Islanders, who had Bill Torrey and Al Arbour, had Denis Potvin, Bryan Trottier and Mike Bossy skating and Billy Smith in goal. A different time, a different era, but a champion for the ages nonetheless. One thing the old Islanders or Oilers never would have done: They wouldn't have celebrated with the lack of class shown by the Panthers. The chants of bleep Oilers or bleep McDavid are fine if they come from the fanbase. When they come from drunken players celebrating, that's a bad look. Hard to believe that a team captained by Sasha Barkov would act this despicably … It should have been easy for McDavid to answer the question. All he had to say was the Stanley Cup just ended and it's too emotional a time to bring clarity to his own personal situation. By leaving his future open-ended — and I don't believe for a second he's planning to leave Edmonton — he made his own fanbase uncomfortable and created an unnecessary stir in the hockey world. That's not usually how the historically cautious McDavid usually operates … Department of Small: Evander Kane failing to show up for the handshake line after leaving Game 6 with a misconduct penalty. It's not hard to put on a pair of skates on and join your team for one of hockey's true traditions … From my living room, I scream a lot at Hockey Night In Canada . I can't help it. And there was Sam Bennett on Hockey Night , after winning the Conn Smythe Trophy, and there was only one question to ask: Is this where you want to play next season? But Sportsnet, which has so much trouble with big events, didn't ask the question. Shouldn't the producer be yelling that in someone's ear? … Stan Bowman won Stanley Cups in Chicago with Antti Niemi, Scott Darling and Corey Crawford in goal. Is that why he thought he could win a Cup with Stuart Skinner and Calvin Pickard in goal in Edmonton? Now to go out and find a goalie. The 2025 Hockey Hall of Fame Class will be introduced on Tuesday. So here's my Hall of Fame class a few days early: I'll start with the long-overdue Alexander Mogilny and then add the three first-time eligible Carey Price, Zdeno Chara and Joe Thornton. And apologies to Duncan Keith, who deserves first-ballot Hall of Fame entry but there's only room for four players … My Builder, who has been passed over for far too long, is women's hockey executive Fran Rider. And my choice from the women's side as a player, Jennifer Botterill, who also should have been added by now …. So how exactly did lower taxes in Florida help GM Zito trade for Sam Reinhart, Matthew Tkachuk, Bennett, Seth Jones, Brad Marchand and Brandon Montour? Anybody anywhere do better trading than that? And how did lower tax rates in Florida help the Lightning draft Steven Stamkos, Victor Hedman, Andrei Vasilevskiy, Nikita Kucherov and Brayden Point over a short period of time? Do they have an accountant as their chief scout? By the way, the Dallas Stars have been in a state without taxes long before the NHL went to a salary cap. They have won the Stanley Cup only once — and that came on an illegal goal in 1999. One more thing: Nashville has won no Stanley Cups in 26 years in business and might be the best place to live in America. How have the tax laws helped the Predators, who had a Hall of Fame general manager in David Poile? … The last three teams to win back-to-back Stanley Cups had terrific third lines: Florida had Anton Lundell centring Eetu Luostarinen and Marchand; Tampa had Yanni Gourde centring Blake Coleman and Barclay Goodrow; And before that, Pittsburgh had Nick Bonino centring Phil Kessel and Carl Hagelin. The Lundell-Luostarinen-Marchand line finished these playoffs with 57 points. The HBK line had 56 in 2016 … The best defensive defencemen in hockey: 1. Jaccob Slavin of Carolina; 2. Gustav Forsling of Florida; 3. Chris Tanev of Toronto … How great is the combination of Barkov and Forsling on the Panthers? Well, add this up: McDavid had just four even-strength points in the Stanley Cup final and was a minus-7. Last year, he had eight even-strength points and was plus-5 … Washington's Brian MacLellan did not get nominated for the Jim Gregory Award as general manager of the year for one simple reason. He wasn't the general manager of the Capitals this season. Chris Patrick was. But MacLellan was GM last June and early July when the Capitals made eight roster changes to vault them into a first-place season. If there was a GM of the year award for someone no longer a GM, it would go to MacLellan. Sunday night is Game 7 of the NBA Finals that will not end. And possibly it willl be history in the making. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander could become the first Canadian basketball player to win the MVP, the championship with the Oklahoma City Thunder, and win the Finals MVP all in the same year. Steve Nash has won MVPs but never won a title. Other Canadians, most notably Jamal Murray and Andrew Wiggins, have been significant parts of championship teams. But to win all three, if that happens Sunday night against the Indiana Pacers, is something that may only happen once. And you can pencil Gilgeous-Alexander in as Canadian athlete of the year if all this goes his way … Mark Walter, soon to own controlling interest in the Los Angeles Lakers, is already the majority owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers and the owner of the Professional Women's Hockey League. The league championship trophy is actually called the Walter Cup … As big as Shohei Ohtani may be to American sports and as a large a figure as Patrick Mahomes may be, Caitlin Clark may well be the most significant sporting figure, not necessarily the richest, in North American sports . When she plays, WNBA television audiences are huge. When she doesn't play, and she was injured recently, audiences are tiny. No single athlete moves the needle at this time the way Clark does, and watching her play, she brings a Gretzky-element to her sport. She finds players open that no one knows are there … One year, Mike Krushelnyski scored 88 points playing alongside Gretzky in Edmonton. The rest of his career, he averaged 48 points a game … The WNBA is damn foolish if it doesn't start protecting Clark better than it has through a season and a half … Just when you think you've seen everything in the CFL,. along comes Friday's Argo game. Trailing the entire night, the Argos tie the game in the final seconds against Saskatchewan with a touchdown and a two-point conversion. And they kick off and you expect overtime, not a 99-yard touchdown return to win the game for the Roughriders. Honestly, there is nothing in sports like the last three minutes of a CFL game. Even if you don't care who wins … This is the strangest Blue Jays season I can remember. The Jays spent $15 million on Max Scherzer, $92 million on Anthony Santander and inherited the oversized contract of Andres Gimenez — all of them the kinds of deals that could get a GM fired — and here are the Jays are in position to challenge for the American League East. Go figure. The next time you hear Mitch Marner talk about his close friends Auston Matthews and William Nylander, understand this. One of the apparent reasons Marner wants out in Toronto is he truly believes he gets more heat for Leafs troubles than either Matthews or Nylander get. Can you say Mitchell Petty? … The NHL free agent class, Marner aside, is rather limited. The Maple Leafs' needs are many. It's easy to have doubt about where the Leafs are headed. But I'll go to a year ago on this: Leafs needed a goaltender and signed Anthony Stolarz for $2.5 million a year. They needed a lead defenceman and signed Tanev for $4.5 million a year. GM Brad Treliving spent $7 million for near all-stars in goal and on defence. That's value buying. Can he do it again? … If the Leafs have Matthews and Matthew Knies on one line, John Tavares and Nylander on another, what they still don't have is anything resembling the third line of the Panthers, assuming that Florida re-signs playoff star Bennett, which I'm assuming. I had been hearing since mid-winter in Florida that the Panthers would be re-signing Bennett but not likely defenceman Aaron Ekblad. I still believe that to be the economic case … Does the possibility of a Matthews-Knies-Marchand line excite you? I still wonder about Marchand. He looked rather lost at the 4 Nations tournament playing for Team Canada, then finished second in Conn Smythe voting in the playoffs. So which player will he be next year or in the future? If the Leafs commit to Marchand in free agency, it remains something of a gamble … What a nice pickup Jonathan Toews is for the Winnipeg Jets, no matter how much he has left. The Jets are a team that has to learn how to win when it matters. Toews is a professor on the subject … Who would have ever believed this would happen: The Edmonton football team, now foolishly known as the Elks, are the saddest in-stadium, ticket-selling team in Canadian football. We expect all that in Toronto. We should never expect that in Edmonton … The greatest teams in Canadian sports history (modern version): The five-time Grey Cup champion Edmonton Eskimos with Tom Wilkinson, Warren Moon and Dan Kepley; The Scotty Bowman-Guy Lafleur-Ken Dryden Montreal Canadians; The Pat Gillick-Cito Gaston-Roberto Alomar Toronto Blue Jays. The Glen Sather-Gretzky-Mark Messier Edmonton Oilers ; The Masai Ujiri-Kawhi Leonard-Kyle Lowry Toronto Raptors. The Mike O'Shea-Zach Collaros Winnipeg Blue Bombers … Best way to win a Stanley Cup. Fire Dale Tallon. All Tallon left behind when he was let go by the Panthers as general manager: Barkov, Bobrovsky, Ekblad, Lundell, Jonathan Huberdeau and MacKenzie Weegar (traded for Tkachuk) and Spencer Knight (traded for Seth Jones Jr.). When he was fired by the Blackhawks, all he left behind was Keith, Toews, Patrick Kane — three Hall of Famers — Patrick Sharp, Dustin Byfuglien, Brent Seabrook, Nic Hjalmarsson and several other quality players … Happy birthday to Paul Beeston (80), Scottie Scheffler (29), Josh Naylor (28), Tyler O'Neill (30), Danny Green (38), Dustin Johnson (41), Clyde Drexler (63), Richard Jefferson (45), Kurt Warner (54), Ron Low (75) and Bob Bourne (71) … And hey, whatever became of Ilya Bryzgalov? ssimmons@
Ottawa Citizen
2 hours ago
- Ottawa Citizen
SIMMONS SAYS: The Florida Panthers are one of hockey's greatest teams
Article content HEAR AND THERE Article content The 2025 Hockey Hall of Fame Class will be introduced on Tuesday. So here's my Hall of Fame class a few days early: I'll start with the long-overdue Alexander Mogilny and then add the three first-time eligible Carey Price, Zdeno Chara and Joe Thornton. And apologies to Duncan Keith, who deserves first-ballot Hall of Fame entry but there's only room for four players … My Builder, who has been passed over for far too long, is women's hockey executive Fran Rider. And my choice from the women's side as a player, Jennifer Botterill, who also should have been added by now …. So how exactly did lower taxes in Florida help GM Zito trade for Sam Reinhart, Matthew Tkachuk, Bennett, Seth Jones, Brad Marchand and Brandon Montour? Anybody anywhere do better trading than that? And how did lower tax rates in Florida help the Lightning draft Steven Stamkos, Victor Hedman, Andrei Vasilevskiy, Nikita Kucherov and Brayden Point over a short period of time? Do they have an accountant as their chief scout? By the way, the Dallas Stars have been in a state without taxes long before the NHL went to a salary cap. They have won the Stanley Cup only once — and that came on an illegal goal in 1999. One more thing: Nashville has won no Stanley Cups in 26 years in business and might be the best place to live in America. How have the tax laws helped the Predators, who had a Hall of Fame general manager in David Poile? … The last three teams to win back-to-back Stanley Cups had terrific third lines: Florida had Anton Lundell centring Eetu Luostarinen and Marchand; Tampa had Yanni Gourde centring Blake Coleman and Barclay Goodrow; And before that, Pittsburgh had Nick Bonino centring Phil Kessel and Carl Hagelin. The Lundell-Luostarinen-Marchand line finished these playoffs with 57 points. The HBK line had 56 in 2016 … The best defensive defencemen in hockey: 1. Jaccob Slavin of Carolina; 2. Gustav Forsling of Florida; 3. Chris Tanev of Toronto … How great is the combination of Barkov and Forsling on the Panthers? Well, add this up: McDavid had just four even-strength points in the Stanley Cup final and was a minus-7. Last year, he had eight even-strength points and was plus-5 … Washington's Brian MacLellan did not get nominated for the Jim Gregory Award as general manager of the year for one simple reason. He wasn't the general manager of the Capitals this season. Chris Patrick was. But MacLellan was GM last June and early July when the Capitals made eight roster changes to vault them into a first-place season. If there was a GM of the year award for someone no longer a GM, it would go to MacLellan. Article content Article content SCENE AND HEARD Article content Sunday night is Game 7 of the NBA Finals that will not end. And possibly it willl be history in the making. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander could become the first Canadian basketball player to win the MVP, the championship with the Oklahoma City Thunder, and win the Finals MVP all in the same year. Steve Nash has won MVPs but never won a title. Other Canadians, most notably Jamal Murray and Andrew Wiggins, have been significant parts of championship teams. But to win all three, if that happens Sunday night against the Indiana Pacers, is something that may only happen once. And you can pencil Gilgeous-Alexander in as Canadian athlete of the year if all this goes his way … Mark Walter, soon to own controlling interest in the Los Angeles Lakers, is already the majority owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers and the owner of the Professional Women's Hockey League. The league championship trophy is actually called the Walter Cup … As big as Shohei Ohtani may be to American sports and as a large a figure as Patrick Mahomes may be, Caitlin Clark may well be the most significant sporting figure, not necessarily the richest, in North American sports . When she plays, WNBA television audiences are huge. When she doesn't play, and she was injured recently, audiences are tiny. No single athlete moves the needle at this time the way Clark does, and watching her play, she brings a Gretzky-element to her sport. She finds players open that no one knows are there … One year, Mike Krushelnyski scored 88 points playing alongside Gretzky in Edmonton. The rest of his career, he averaged 48 points a game … The WNBA is damn foolish if it doesn't start protecting Clark better than it has through a season and a half … Just when you think you've seen everything in the CFL,. along comes Friday's Argo game. Trailing the entire night, the Argos tie the game in the final seconds against Saskatchewan with a touchdown and a two-point conversion. And they kick off and you expect overtime, not a 99-yard touchdown return to win the game for the Roughriders. Honestly, there is nothing in sports like the last three minutes of a CFL game. Even if you don't care who wins … This is the strangest Blue Jays season I can remember. The Jays spent $15 million on Max Scherzer, $92 million on Anthony Santander and inherited the oversized contract of Andres Gimenez — all of them the kinds of deals that could get a GM fired — and here are the Jays are in position to challenge for the American League East. Go figure. Article content Article content AND ANOTHER THING Article content The next time you hear Mitch Marner talk about his close friends Auston Matthews and William Nylander, understand this. One of the apparent reasons Marner wants out in Toronto is he truly believes he gets more heat for Leafs troubles than either Matthews or Nylander get. Can you say Mitchell Petty? … The NHL free agent class, Marner aside, is rather limited. The Maple Leafs' needs are many. It's easy to have doubt about where the Leafs are headed. But I'll go to a year ago on this: Leafs needed a goaltender and signed Anthony Stolarz for $2.5 million a year. They needed a lead defenceman and signed Tanev for $4.5 million a year. GM Brad Treliving spent $7 million for near all-stars in goal and on defence. That's value buying. Can he do it again? … If the Leafs have Matthews and Matthew Knies on one line, John Tavares and Nylander on another, what they still don't have is anything resembling the third line of the Panthers, assuming that Florida re-signs playoff star Bennett, which I'm assuming. I had been hearing since mid-winter in Florida that the Panthers would be re-signing Bennett but not likely defenceman Aaron Ekblad. I still believe that to be the economic case … Does the possibility of a Matthews-Knies-Marchand line excite you? I still wonder about Marchand. He looked rather lost at the 4 Nations tournament playing for Team Canada, then finished second in Conn Smythe voting in the playoffs. So which player will he be next year or in the future? If the Leafs commit to Marchand in free agency, it remains something of a gamble … What a nice pickup Jonathan Toews is for the Winnipeg Jets, no matter how much he has left. The Jets are a team that has to learn how to win when it matters. Toews is a professor on the subject … Who would have ever believed this would happen: The Edmonton football team, now foolishly known as the Elks, are the saddest in-stadium, ticket-selling team in Canadian football. We expect all that in Toronto. We should never expect that in Edmonton … The greatest teams in Canadian sports history (modern version): The five-time Grey Cup champion Edmonton Eskimos with Tom Wilkinson, Warren Moon and Dan Kepley; The Scotty Bowman-Guy Lafleur-Ken Dryden Montreal Canadians; The Pat Gillick-Cito Gaston-Roberto Alomar Toronto Blue Jays. The Glen Sather-Gretzky-Mark Messier Edmonton Oilers; The Masai Ujiri-Kawhi Leonard-Kyle Lowry Toronto Raptors. The Mike O'Shea-Zach Collaros Winnipeg Blue Bombers … Best way to win a Stanley Cup. Fire Dale Tallon. All Tallon left behind when he was let go by the Panthers as general manager: Barkov, Bobrovsky, Ekblad, Lundell, Jonathan Huberdeau and MacKenzie Weegar (traded for Tkachuk) and Spencer Knight (traded for Seth Jones Jr.). When he was fired by the Blackhawks, all he left behind was Keith, Toews, Patrick Kane — three Hall of Famers — Patrick Sharp, Dustin Byfuglien, Brent Seabrook, Nic Hjalmarsson and several other quality players … Happy birthday to Paul Beeston (80), Scottie Scheffler (29), Josh Naylor (28), Tyler O'Neill (30), Danny Green (38), Dustin Johnson (41), Clyde Drexler (63), Richard Jefferson (45), Kurt Warner (54), Ron Low (75) and Bob Bourne (71) … And hey, whatever became of Ilya Bryzgalov?
