Thursday LNN: Old News, New News, Sens News
Montour brings the Cup to Six Nations; Pavelski in the Hall of Fame?
- To open up on a cool/positive note, Stanley Cup champion Brandon Montour will bring the cup home to Six Nations of the Grand River on July 24th and you absolutely love to see it.
 | NHL champion Brandon Montour will bring the Stanley Cup to Six Nations of the Grand River next week. The community will host a celebration at the Six Nations Sports and Culture Memorial Arena, featuring the former Florida Panthers defenceman and the trophy he helped win in June. |
- File it under things everyone saw coming I guess as the NHL dream in Arizona has really, really, died for real this time. Having sold the Coyotes in April, Alex Meruelo has now also forfeited the rights to the franchise in Arizona. Meruelo had a five-year window to re-establish the team and decided to cash out instead. Every time I see the Utah temporary name and logo, I miss those iconic Coyotes uniforms a little bit more but like the Thrashers and the Whalers, now all we have are monuments to futility. Egor Sokolov deserved the Kachina, damnit.
 | According to a report by PHNX Sports' Craig Morgan on Wednesday, NHL debut commissioner Bill Daly confirmed that the former Arizona Coyotes owner has signed off on relinquishing his rights to the franchise. |
- Not that I have any idea how I'll keep tabs on LTIR-related moves in a post-capfriendly paradigm but we got one of our first big injury headlines of the offseason as Tory Krug may miss most of, if not all of, the upcoming season in St. Louis. The Blues will have a difficult enough time navigating a division with Dallas and Colorado (and Nashville?!?) so maybe this doesn't actually move the needle.
 | Defenseman diagnosed with pre-arthritic changes in left ankle |
- Speaking of Dallas and the central division, the Stars will officially have to proceed without Joe Pavelski who has officially retired from the NHL. I can't think of many non-Senators I have enjoyed watching more than Pavelski. Every fan of every team would want Pavelski on their roster. The folks over at Sports Illustrated have their reservations about admitting Pavelski to the hall of fame but as a Sens fan who long campaigned to see Alfie make the cut, I think Pavelski absolutely deserves that distinction in the late-expansion NHL.
 | After 18 seasons in the NHL, Joe Pavelski officially announced his retirement. He leaves the game after 1,332 games of NHL action split between the San Jose Sha |
- Carter Yakemchuk took another step towards representing Canada at the World Juniors as the National team has invited the lanky blueliner to their summer showcase. The invite doesn't make Yakemchuk a lock to crack the final roster and as we saw at the draft, a lot of good defenders will compete for a few spots. Let's just hope they go with the tallest kids.
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- Over at the Hockey Writers, Graeme Nichols penned a surprisingly optimistic take on some of Steve Staios' recent roster tinkering. By virtue of writing thousands of words every year on most of the players who come through Ottawa's prospect pool, I have as much attachment to these players as anyone. Despite that, I feel inclined to agree with the sentiment that the time had come to cut bait on a lot of Pierre Dorion's experiments and that you sometimes have to accept sunk costs for the sake of forging a new team identity.
 | After selecting Sokolov and Jarventie in the second round of the 2020 NHL Draft, the Senators traded away both this month. Why? |
- Murray Pam poses the question as to how Staios will round out the Sens roster with a few weeks left in the offseason and only a player's worth of cap space left to work with. I agree that the Sens have some good fringe options out of Belleville such as Angus Crookshank and Max Guenette. I also think the Sens should absolutely jump on a PTO for a player like Justin Schultz or Kevin Shattenkirk if those ideas have any basis in reality. Also, sign Daniel Sprong if you can.
 | Ottawa Senators general manager Steve Staios continued his facelift of the organization Monday, making a pair of AHL-level trades while |
- Life has come at Evgeny Kuznetsov fast since he won the cup in Washington. His tenure with the Capitals came to an end earlier this year and now his time in the NHL also seems to have run out. The Hurricanes and Kuznetsov have agreed to the rather rare mutual contract termination with rumours suggesting that Kuznetsov will sign overseas. Best of luck in your future endeavours, Eagle!
