Monday LNN: Summertime and the Living is Easy
It's your Monday Edition of Links, News, and Notes
As has been remarked upon at least a couple of times around these and other parts, the Ottawa Senators got almost all of their business out of the way early this year. There are no big pending free agents, blockbuster trades in the works (that we know of anyways!), and, besides maybe an addition to the fourth line, likely a roster that's mostly set. All that to say: it's been quiet in Sens-land recently.
Nevertheless, we still have some tidbits from around the hockey world to share:
-Steve Warne makes a case for Zack Ostapchuk on the Sens' fourth line next year. I'm not particularly convinced that fighting will a big determining factor one way or another, but Ostapchuk's got as good a chance as anyone – presuming the Sens will line one of Shane Pinto, Ridly Greig, or Josh Norris up on the wing and thus in the top nine.
-Writing for the Athletic, Scott Wheeler has Carter Yakemchuk at #24 among his top 100 NHL-drafted prospects. Yakemchuk is, unfortunately, the only Sens player to crack the list.
-You know that there's not much to discuss in the hockey world when writers are looking at next summer's potential UFAs. There are actually a lot of very interesting players on that list, including two Ottawa Senators, who I would very much prefer did not leave!
-Frankie Corrado shares his thoughts on some of the biggest questions facing Travis Green ahead of his first season in Ottawa.
-Speaking of player contracts, with the dust having settled on almost all of the big deals for the summer, Dom Luszczyszyn takes a crack at ranking the league's 10 best contracts – as well as the 10 worst. The best value contract, by Dom's model, may surprise you. But anyone who watched the Florida Panthers win the Stanley Cup would recognize that Gustav Forsling was the engine that made that blueline go. As for the worst, well, it seems pretty unlikely that poor Jonathan Huberdeau's deal is going to look any better next season.
-The Vancouver Canucks snapped up Daniel Sprong for a meagre $1M on a 1 year deal. That's some shrewd work by the Canucks, and evidence that Steve Staios is clearly not reading our blog.
-Looking forward to next year, Ryan Clark over at ESPN has a preview of all the potential candidates for the Calder. To me, it's Macklin Celebrini by a wide margin barring injury.
