Monday Links, News and Notes: Matt Dumba’s Speech and Drake Caggiula’s Suspension

The NHL is officially back, with playoff action happening every day which you can follow with our daily RTP threads. Those will discuss the series, but you know the drill for Links, News and Notes, where we have you covered with the everything happening in the NHL over the past weekend.

• After their watered down attempts at Black Lives Matter activism backfired in their first few events, the NHL provided a platform for Minnesota defenceman Matt Dumba before the Edmonton-Chicago matchup. A member of the newly-formed Hockey Diversity Alliance, Dumba delivered a powerful and direct speech which you can find below, followed by kneeling for the American national anthem. It was a brave and historic action to take the spotlight and protest alone, making it a bit disappointing that the other players left him hanging by not joining in during the anthems. But hopefully his words were met with open ears by the NHL and hockey leaders worldwide, and that the NHL starts to follow the Hockey Diversity Alliance’s demands./

When an issue is bigger than the game, we must speak out. #WeSkateFor Black Lives. pic.twitter.com/mgmMgRM8vI

— NHL (@NHL) August 1, 2020

• The day prior, NHL.com published an op-ed by J.T. Brown who reflects on his protest from three years ago and how his relationship has evolved with activism. He also dives into why it’s as important as ever to continue the fight against police brutality.
• Jeff Petry’s overtime goal against Pittsburgh has been garnering some buzz as to how it all unfolded, and Jesse Marshall puts it to rest in his detailed video explainer of the play. Spoiler: Jack Johnson may not be a good player, but it wasn’t his fault.
• The hammer has been laid down for the first time in the NHL’s bubble, with Edmonton Chicago forward Drake Caggiula suspended for a single game after checking Senators Oilers forward Tyler Ennis in the head.
• In other news about players I forgot no longer play for the Oilers, the NHL remedied the conditional draft pick in the trade involving Milan Lucic and James Neal: Edmonton will have to send Calgary a third round pick in either 2020 or 2021, although the Oilers have until the Conference Finals to choose which one to send. Fortunately the Sens don’t have any draft conditions affected by the shortened season, but keep an eye out for more of these decisions to be made around the league.
• Wrapping this up with something fun released a couple weeks ago, the prospect website Future Considerations recently overhauled their look, and with it included some new tools for creating your own draft board and generating your own mock drafts, powered by Franchise Hockey Manager which you may know well from Brandon’s series. It’s similar to the tool from DraftProspectsHockey albeit with a few less features, although personally I prefer the built in order from FC. Make your picks for the Sens and post them in the comments!/