Links, News, and Notes: Plus ça change...

Are you tired of hearing about the "pending" sale of the Ottawa Senators yet? Yes? Well, sorry, that saga just refuses to die!

• Unsurprisingly, the remaining bidders for the Ottawa Senators are growing impatient. The money quote from this Garrioch piece:

A source familiar with these types of deals said Andlauer probably feels like he’s in a position of strength with the Melnyk estate. Like everybody else, he’s frustrated with the amount of time this is taking and some of the requests being made by representatives of the Melnyk estate.

• The Hockey News has some proposed Alex DeBrincat trades, and, probably unsurprisingly, the returns are mostly underwhelming. If the Sens are forced to trade DeBrincat because he won't re-sign, it's going to be very hard to recoup the kind of quality he brings to a top six. Stay tuned.
• All the talk about DeBrincat's seemingly assured exit aside, a source also has Alex DeBrincat saying he loves playing in Ottawa and, specifically, for DJ Smith. So, now we've got a good ol' fashioned he said/she said.
• The Athletic digs into NHL-wide trade rumours, which are mostly about (again) DeBrincat and Pierre-Luc Dubois
• Ian "Autogreen" Mendes has Part 2 of his latest mailbag, including more DeBrincat chatter, as well as some Chychrun thoughts
• The Golden Knights are up 3–1 over the Panthers in the Stanley Cup Finals, with Game 5 coming on Tuesday at 8 p.m. (ET). Notably, Matthew Tkachuk's health is a question mark for Tuesday
• Who saw Adin Hill's dominance coming these playoffs? Nobody, probably, but going into Game 5, he has a .934 save percentage in these playoffs
• Luke Fox takes an in-depth look at Mark Stone's journey to captaining a team one game from winning the Stanley Cup. It is no slight to Brady Tkachuk to say it is a shame we never got to see Stone wear the "C" in Ottawa.
• After acquiring Ivan Provorov, the Blue Jackets continued shoring up their defence, acquiring Damon Severson from the New Jersey Devils in a rare sign-and-trade. Severson is a capable defender but that contract seems...onerous.
• Could the Coyotes trade the 6th- or 12th-overall picks? Probably not, but possibly, and that could make things interesting
• Patrick Roy told NHL.com that he wants to return to the NHL as a coach, so I guess those Roy-to-Ottawa rumours won't go away any time soon.
• Barry Trotz is looking to make the Predators more entertaining in his first season as GM. For a guy who has a reputation for playing grind it out hockey, Trotz sure talks like someone who is going to place a premium on high-end skill.
• Shane Doan has joined the Leafs' front office, for some reason
• Stars GM Jim Nill revealed that Evgeni Dadonov and Jani Hakanpää both had season-ending knee injuries in the playoffs
• Scott Laughton and Noah Hanifin are two of the biggest non-DeBrincat names on the trade market right now
• The NHL Combine took place this weeken, and though the results are largely irrelevant to NHL success, you can see who succeeded at which even here. Connor Bedard, for all of you interested, measured in at 5'9, 185.
• The Ice Garden have your latest PHF signings: Allison Attea sticking with the Beauts, and the Six extending Carly Jackson
• Pension Plan Puppets looks at recent examples of trading stars, and what the Leafs could get if they traded one of their Big Four
• Finally, a couple of non-hockey sports stories. First, a look at Nikola Jokic, who continues to set NBA playoff records while leading the Nuggets to within a game of their first-ever championship
• And Lionel Messi, arguably the most famous current athlete on the planet, turned down offers to play back in Barcelona or in Saudi Arabia (for over $500M per year!) to instead play for Inter Miami in MLS. This will have huge benefits for MLS, for AppleTV+ (who bought MLS broadcast rights for the next decade), and possibly even for Messi, whose reported $53M salary isn't as big as it would've been elsewhere, but the ownership stake he's also getting should continue to grow, especially if World Cup-winning superstars keep coming over late in their careers

And one last thing:

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