Thursday Links, News and Notes: Chychrun Maybe On The Move At Last, Hockey Canada Audited, An Ownership Update and More

It’s that exciting time of year, the stretch of playoff spot battles and trade deadline. There’s always a few big names that seem to be bandied about at the deadline and this season is no different with Erik Karlsson headlining that list — a familiar feeling as a Sens fan. What else is happening around the league? Let’s find out in this edition of the Thursday Links, News and Notes.

• Jakob Chychrun has been wanting to be traded for a while now. The Coyotes know they need to do something with him but are not willing to settle for a less than perfect package for him. This saga has drawn on seemingly forever. His wait may be coming to an end soon, though, as the Coyotes have made him a healthy scratch this week and are citing “trade-related reasons”. They better be able to pull a deal off or things might get a bit awkward in the next few weeks.
• Hockey Canada has been under scrutiny for a while now and rightfully so. While investigations into the sexual assault scandals are ongoing, a federal audit was ordered to look more closely into Hockey Canada’s budgets and use of federal funds. The major outcome from this audit was that accounts to settle (or cover up) any misconduct cases did not come from federal money but rather the National Equity Fund which includes children’s registration fees. This doesn’t really change the fact that Hockey Canada chose to put money into cover ups rather than hold its own players accountable, but I guess it’s nice to hear they didn’t use federal funding?
• If you’re a “The Last of Us” fan, this one is for you. Young actor Keivonn Woodard has been wowing with his on-screen performance but it seems he has eyes set on an on-ice performance for the ages. Woodard fell in love with the sport during a skating party and now dreams of becoming the first deaf Black NHL player. Now that’s a dream we can all cheer for. Jim Kyte was the first legally deaf player to play for the NHL; he finished his career with 598 games between the Ottawa Senators, Pittsburgh Penguins, Winnipeg Jets, Calgary Flames and San Jose Sharks!
• Ryan Reynolds has finally found his partners. Reynolds has been garnering a lot of excitement in Ottawa ever since he announced his interest in purchasing the team. This week it was announced that Reynolds has joined forces with The Remington Group, a Toronto based development company. Now, I doubt many of us know much about Remington but they’re not the local business groups many thought he would choose. Without more information, we really can’t think much more of it. The Remington group have a history with event center so that could be an advantage to the Sens downtown plans. Elliotte Friedman seems to think that this group would not be considered among the favourites to win the bid but the process does seem very much wide open right now.
• Our old friend Karlsson continues to make noise with a tremendous season and was named second star of the week. New York Rangers’ Artemi Panarin was the first and Arizona Coyotes’ Clayton Keller was the third.
• Lastly, Anson Carter has a moving piece for The Players’ Tribune about hockey hair — and what it means to have hockey hair as a black player. /