Pete Babando, NHL Discipline and DeMelo’s Value

With the trade deadline coming ahead soon, the trades and moves are leading all the news headlines. What else is going on with the Senators and the NHL? Let’s find out in this week’s version of the Thursday links.

• Pete Babando: while most of us are too young to remember Babando, he was a Red Wings legend known for probably the most exciting types goals to ever get scored in the NHL. In 1950, Babando helped the Red Wings beat the New York Rangers for the Stanley Cup by scoring the first ever Stanley Cup overtime goal in Game 7. A true hero indeed. Sadly, the Detroit legend passed away yesterday at the age of 94. We take for granted the old timers but it’s always an interesting refresher to remember the originals of all the little things we enjoy in the game today.
• Jamie Benn: If there has been anything more inconsistent in the NHL than the officiating, it has been the disciplinary after every suspicious hit we’ve seen this season. Last night, Jamie Benn of the Dallas Stars was ejected from the game against the Arizona Coyotes after a questionable and dangerous hit against Oliver Ekman-Larsson. Luckily, Ekman-Larsson came back to play but it will be interesting how the league handles this hit and whether Ekman-Larsson’s health will affect the decision.
• Pierre Dorion: While many were upset about the departure of Dylan DeMelo, and more particularly his return, it seems it could have been the best we’ve got? Personally, I think he was worth extending and since there were no discussions tabled for him to accept or refute, we may never know what we missed out on. However, Ian Mendes tweeted today an interesting quote from Pierre LeBrun:/

.@PierreVLeBrun tells us that he spoke to a number of teams around the NHL about the Sens return for Dylan Demelo. His response:

"No one was going to pay a second round pick for Dylan Demelo. I didn't get a single team that said, 'Yeah, they could have gotten a second.'"

— Ian Mendes (@ian_mendes) February 19, 2020

I find that hard to believe considering the work DeMelo was doing on a shelled team such as the Senators. Perhaps, his value took a dip playing on the Senators where others just attributed his success to being on a lowly team. Either way, it remains unclear why Dorion was in such a hurry to trade him away.

• Adam Foote: We’ve heard of a few firings in the past couple of months in the NHL but on a junior level, Adam Foote was recently let go from his coaching duties with the Kelowna Rockets. The firing itself isn’t interesting, it’s the fact that his son Nolan is the Captain of the team. By what it seems, Nolan is a fantastic player and while I doubt it will immensely impact his play, it must be a tough situation to be part of. Just an interesting thought on including parents in the coaching of developing players. /