from Larry Brooks of the New York Post,

- While we’ve been told by several agents that their North American and non-Russian, European clients are seeking to leave the KHL immediately, the IIHF has a decision to make regarding Team Russia’s entry in the rescheduled 2022 World Juniors, now set for August in Red Deer and Edmonton following the Omicron-related winter postponement.

Of course, no organization within the international hockey community seemed to have second thoughts about going to Beijing, so there is no reason to expect too much from the IIHF in this regard.

- Two decades later, it still remains impossible to process.

But with Mike Milbury running the Islanders’ show — and under Charles Wang’s ownership, he ran things as a sideshow, to be more precise — in successive Junes at the 2000 and 2001 drafts, the team wound up trading Roberto Luongo, Olli Jokinen, Chara, either Marian Gaborik or Dany Heatley and Jason Spezza in exchange for Rick DiPietro, Alexei Yashin and Mark Parrish.

- t’s hard for me to believe that an Avalanche team that would otherwise be a clear-cut favorite to win the Cup is entrusting the goaltending to Darcy Kuemper.

- Is the bar to clear for the Maple Leafs winning four games in the playoffs or, more like 16? If the latter, good luck with Jack Campbell in net. Maybe applies to the former, too, and certainly so if they wind up in a first-round matchup with the Lightning.

more on the first two topics plus other notes on interest...