Among all of the hypotheticals, I find the notion of Steven Stamkos wearing the Maple Leafs crest next season among the least plausible.
It doesn’t make sense that No. 91, having gone through a rebuild at the start of his career with Tampa Bay, would choose to spend the best years of the rest of his career doing the same in Toronto.
And signing Stamkos, presuming he in fact becomes a free agent, wouldn’t seem to quite mesh with the plotted step-by-step reconstruction of the Leafs carefully plotted by Brendan Shanahan and that is now being effected by Lou Lamoriello.
The era of lowered expectations would come to an end immediately upon the signing of Stamkos, whose addition would beg for accompanying moves.
So, no, I don’t believe that there is the slightest correlation between Stamkos’ looming availability this summer and Toronto’s excise of Dion Phaneuf’s $7 million cap hit that runs through 2020-21 via last week’s stunning trade with Ottawa.
The deal does indeed create oodles of projected space for the Leafs down the line, albeit with a skeleton roster, following the 2017-18 season. And who might become available as a 27-year-old free agent on July 1, 2018?
Why, none other than John Tavares.
It is more than two years down the line, and the steps that might take the Mississauga native — for whom Greater Toronto has lusted since ever before this other No. 91’s junior career commenced in Oshawa a decade ago — from here to there cannot be plotted at this early date.
But the Islanders have work to do here with not only Tavares, working on the fourth year of a club-friendly six-year deal worth $5.5 million per season, but with their entire team in making the transition from Long Island to Brooklyn.
Maybe it will change upon this summer’s transfer of ownership, but the franchise thus far has attempted to straddle the two locales, in essence refusing to acknowledge the reality of where the team plays and to whom it belongs.
In doing so, in refusing to build a practice facility in the borough but instead recommitting to skating on the Island, ownership has placed an undue burden/inconvenience on the players. The Nets finally were able to build a practice facility in Brooklyn. Wouldn’t you think the hockey team could?
It is a few months into Year 1 of the commute and the Islanders — including Tavares, who, we’ve been told by numerous individuals, has worried about this on behalf of his teammates ever since the move to Barclays became a fait accompli — already are tired of it. Imagine grinding through year after year of it.
We know how proud Tavares is of being an Islander and of being a part — no, the nucleus — of this comparative revival that, still in all, has not produced a single playoff series victory. But times change. A first-round exit this year (or, an unexpected miss altogether) would not bode well for either the core in uniform or anyone within the organization wearing civilian clothes, and it shouldn’t.
Two years from now to then. Now, the focus is on No. 91. In two summers it could well be on another No. 91.
And if it is, expectations will be anything but low in Toronto, where and when the Maple Leafs will be ready.
Now that the banner is up for one Marty Brodeur in New Jersey, it is time for the other Marty to get his due in Tampa Bay, where the bitter exit should be left in the past and the glorious past should be celebrated.
Next year, No. 26 to the rafters for Martin St. Louis.
So Radko Gudas concusses Buffalo rookie Daniel Catanacci with a vicious shot to the head Thursday night in Philadelphia and the Flyers’ defenseman not only isn’t suspended, the Department of Player “Safety” doesn’t even deem the hit worthy of a formal review.
Predatory hits such as this, and predators such as Gudas, will continue to exist, if not flourish, as long as the collective body of players and the NHLPA remain mute on the issue.
If they don’t care enough to put a stop to it, why should anyone?
Listen, if you want to contend that Ryan McDonagh should have gotten a five-minute major for his cross-check across Wayne Simmonds’ head last Saturday in Philadelphia, OK, that might be a fair read of the play.
But meanwhile, Kerry Fraser’s explanation of support for the league’s decision not to suspend Simmonds for the ensuing gloved sucker-punch to the jaw that concussed the Rangers’ captain was simply ludicrous.
Writing for his blog on TSN.ca, the long time, now retired, referee contends that, “The blow delivered by Simmonds could not be regarded as a powerful, forceful punch,” before later referring to “the relative lack of force in the glove punch …”
What?
The punch to the jaw concussed McDonagh.
That’s not powerful and forceful enough?
So Dan Girardi, undrafted, played in his 700th NHL game on Friday. His teammate, Dan Boyle, also undrafted, has played in 1,067.
The top 10 undrafted players of the past 25 years: 1. Ed Belfour; 2; St. Louis; 3. Adam Oates; 4. Joe Mullen; 5. Boyle; 6. Curtis Joseph; 7. Brian Rafalski; 8. John Madden; 9. Steve Thomas; 10. Girardi.
From a PR standpoint, perhaps the Jets did indeed do the right thing by locking up Dustin Byfuglien to that five-year deal worth $7.6 million per season. But what percentage of the Jets’ budget/revenue did they commit to a player who has helped the franchise win exactly no playoff rounds in what is going on five seasons, and at the expense of what that general manager Kevin Cheveldayoff might have gotten in return for No. 33?
If Christian Ehrhoff wasn’t able to play on a needy Kings’ defense, then it should not have been all that much of a surprise that the veteran cleared waivers last week.
Imagine if Game 7 of the Stanley Cup finals were played on an ice surface the equivalent of the field on which Super Bowl 50 was contested. The league never would hear the end of it.
Where was Dan Craig when the NFL needed him?
Finally, we don’t give much quarter in this space, but hopefully people understand that all criticism is confined within the context of the hockey/business side of things. It never is meant to be personal.
On the human side of it, this sport and industry are filled with fine folks with big hearts, the latest of evidence of which has been manifested through donations to stricken and beloved Associated Press writer Ira Podell though the GoFundMe.com/TeamIra fundraising page, including $5,000 from the Rangers and $2,000 from the NHLPA.
Similarly, the NHL and its teams’ generosity has been reflected by their continuing charitable efforts on behalf of the NWHL Boston Pride’s seriously injured and irrepressible Denna Laing that include a $200,000 donation from the league.
Keyboard taps to all.