Huberdeau Signs, Canada Wins Gold, World Juniors Kicking Off & More

Good morning, it’s Monday again! Let’s take a look at the news that happened around the league over the weekend.

• On Friday night, the Calgary Flames took the Matthew Tkachuk trade to the next level by surprising many with an 8 year, $84M contract extension.
• This weekend, Canada took home gold with a 4-1 victory over Sweden at the Hlinka Gretzky Cup in Red Deer. Through the round robin, Canada was a perfect 3-0 while Sweden was right behind them in second in Group A. It’s unsurprising to see Canada on top at this years tournament when you see that a Canadian led the tournament in points, goals and assists while both Canadian netminders ranked top three in both GAA and SV% throughout.
• On Tuesday, the rescheduled World Junior tournament kicks off in Edmonton. There are plenty of names to monitor, even though many of the top prospects won’t be in attendance as the schedule is just too close to training camp for the comfort of many NHL teams. Sens fans will get a chance to see Ridly Greig and Zack Ostapchuk suit up for Canada while Roby Järventie and Leevi Meriläinen will represent Finland. For Team USA, Tyler “K-Train” Kleven will be patrolling the blueline and we’ll get our first taste of Ottawa’s 2022 third round selection Tomas Hamara as he made the final cut for Czechia. Here are some predictions for the tournament.
• Shayna Goldman put together an interesting piece for Sportsnet on analyzing this summer’s moves to clear cap space. With life being tight for many teams, it was an intriguing offseason for these types of transactions.
• If you like to get ahead of yourselves, Scott Wheeler has posted his top 32 prospects for the 2023 NHL Draft (paywall). As Sens fans, there’s no need to dive too deep as the front office should be selecting Radek Bonk’s son Oliver at all costs./