Kukla's Korner Hockey

Kukla's Korner Hockey

Sunday Morning Hockey Talk

07/23/2017 at 4:51am EDT

via Steve Simmons of the Toronto Sun,

- I love hockey negotiations. The Stanley Cup champions played Brian Dumoulin on their first defence pair in the playoffs and now are trying to lowball him in salary arbitration ... Nashville is doing the same with Austin Watson, who played large playoff minutes. It’s like David Poile tells agents on occasion: “I love your player at $2 million. I hate him at $3 million.”

-The upper NHL brass will tell you there is no contingency plan for NHL players to go to the Olympics in South Korea, so I wonder: Why hasn’t Hockey Canada or USA Hockey named coaches and general managers for the next Olympics? It’s expected Sean Burke and Willie Desjardins will head up Team Canada. But it’s almost August, and still no announcement.

- Every kid I know keeps the ticket from the first sporting event they ever attended, or maybe the biggest one. And now the Montreal Canadiens aren’t just getting rid of tickets. They’re charging extra for them. How dumb is that? ... My bet: They’ll end up changing that policy.

- This is the last year on Lou Lamoriello’s contract with the Maple Leafs. How long before an announcement is made about some kind of contract extension.

- So Johnny Gaudreau, who grew up in the Jersey-Philadelphia area, said it would be neat to play near home one day and everybody goes screaming to their windows. Truth is, if you asked most NHL players whether they would want to play close to home, they would say yes. Even if they weren’t telling the truth.

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About Kukla's Korner Hockey

Paul Kukla founded Kukla’s Korner in 2005 and the site has since become the must-read site on the ‘net for all the latest happenings around the NHL.

From breaking news to in-depth stories around the league, KK Hockey is updated with fresh stories all day long and will bring you the latest news as quickly as possible.

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