from Steve Simmons of the Toronto Sun,

- They are set up to succeed — now and into the future. And more when the NHL salary cap jumps in the years to come.

Nikita Kucherov, with 93 playoff points the past three seasons, the most subtle player in hockey, isn’t going anywhere.

He is signed for five more seasons at $9.5 million. That’s $1.4 million a year less than the Leafs pay Mitch Marner now and he’ll be a free agent at the age of 27.

It isn’t just Vasilevskiy and Kucherov. Brayden Point is signed for eight more years at $9.5 million. Victor Hedman is signed at a bargain-basement price of $7.87 million for three more years while the Leafs have four more years of his draft counterpart, John Tavares, at $11 million a season....

- The knock on Paul Maurice, after all these years, is not enough playoff wins. So where does he get hired? In Florida, where the Panthers are looking for, you guessed it, playoff wins.

- Language issues? Twelve writers cover the Montreal Canadiens regularly: Only one gave a first-place vote to Matthews for the Hart. Eighteen writers cover the Maple Leafs regularly: Seventeen voted for Matthews as first choice to win the Hart. One voted for McDavid.

- Little things make me laugh, like seeing the historically hated Claude Lemieux sitting at the Red Wings table at the NHL Awards. Turns out Lemieux is the agent for rookie of the year Moritz Seider.

- I don’t have a vote, but my personal Hockey Hall of Fame Class for 2022 would have a Vancouver slant, starting with the Sedin twins, goaltender Roberto Luongo and former Leaf Alexander Mogilny. And that doesn’t include builders or women. The class is announced on Monday afternoon.

- Hall of Fame hockey writer Larry Brooks refused to vote for NHL awards this year, his personal protest against lack of access to players on a daily basis (which I completely agree with) and NHL masking policies

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