Links, News and Notes: HHOF Decisions, Growing the Game on Social Media, and Free Agency

It’s Monday, and you know what that means: it’s time for another edition of Links, News and Notes!

• Pay attention to your preferred source of hockey news today, because this afternoon we will know whether or not our efforts to get Daniel Alfredsson into the Hockey Hall of Fame will be successful, as the class of 2022 is set to be announced. The big names this year are the Sedin twins, who are eligible for the first time and are considered near-locks. I’ll admit that, while I agree that Daniel and Henrik Sedin should be in the Hall of Fame, it seems very weird to me that there seems to be so little debate about the matter when Daniel Alfredsson had better stats than either of them almost completely across the board. The twins each won an Art Ross, and Henrik won the Hart once while Daniel won the Ted Lindsay, and it would make sense that those achievements help their cases a lot, but by that much? It just feels like Daniel Alfredsson really isn’t getting his dues.
• The NHL is reporting record growth in viewership this year, and a huge part of that growth is specifically with female fans and young people. I’m inclined to credit this to the rise of hockey fanfiction and social media communities rather than anything the NHL has done, but it’s really nice to see that so many new people are getting into the sport.
• Speaking of fans and growing the game, Sylvain St-Laurent wrote a very entertaining piece about the Sens engaging more with fans on social media recently, and specifically the “Gulk” meme that took off last week after an iconic Frank Senators tweet. The article is in French, but it’s well worth using the translate feature for if you don’t speak French.
• St-Laurent also wrote a great article about analytics in hockey.
• The draft is the big story right now, but we’re also inching closer to the start of free agency. The Athletic ($) takes a look at some of the top forwards who are due to hit unrestricted free agency on July 13th, many of whom will be of interest to Sens fans.
• Barry Trotz has announced that he is not going to take a coaching job just yet, after being offered a job with the Winnipeg Jets. I can only assume he’s doing like Claude Giroux and every other big name free agent and holding out for a great offer from the main characters of the NHL, the Ottawa Senators.
• Hockey Canada is still being investigated for its handling of sexual assault allegations, after news broke of the 2018 sexual assault incident involving members of that year’s world juniors team. The Heritage Committee has issued subpoenas for witnesses from Hockey Canada and the CHL.
• Hockey Canada has also lost its government funding, effective immediately, as a result of these allegations./