from Steve Simmons of the Toronto Sun,

- Every four years, when the NHL can’t or won’t allow its players to participate in the world’s largest winter sporting event, substituting the world junior tournament would be a way to generate the kind of excitement and energy that was lacking from Olympic men’s hockey in China and Korea the past two Winter Games.

It makes all kinds of sense — but then it makes no sense at all.

And that is the problem here. It always comes back to money. There are stakeholders and rightsholders involved with the world junior event that understand the kind of money the tournament can generate. It’s not just Hockey Canada or whatever national body happens to be in whatever country you’re talking about — it’s the local organizers, it’s the amount of money that can be generated in ticket sales, it’s the television value of the event and that means it won’t, in fact, be for sale now or at any time in the future.

- The Maple Leafs are paying the numbing number of $40 million for Matthews, Marner, Tavares, and Nylander. Combined they’ve scored a credible 207 points this season. The NHL-leading Colorado Avalanche pay $28 million for their top four forwards: captain Landeskog, Mikko Rantanen, Nathan MacKinnon, and Nazem Kadri. They’ve combined for 234 points and MacKinnon has missed 13 games.

- The messy season for the Chicago Blackhawks just keeps getting messier. Word from the inside is that there’s a split in the front office about who should be the next general manager of the club. Danny Wirtz, son of the explosive owner Rocky Wirtz, wants interim GM Kyle Davidson to get the job. President of business operations, Jaime Faulkner, wants to go off the grid and bring in baseball executive Jeff Greenberg, who has never worked in hockey. And nobody seems to be considering my obvious choice for a very difficult position: Ed Olczyk.

- Didn’t understand when Seattle hired Dave Hakstol to coach the Kraken to begin this season. Still don’t understand the decision.

- Dennis Polonich brought his wife and two daughters along for help the first time he took Zdeno Chara clothes shopping in Prince George, B.C.

“We were trying to get him a winter jacket and a shirt and tie because that’s what our players wore in those days,” said Polonich, the former NHL player who was then GM in Prince George. “We went to two or three stores. We finally found something for him. It was a quadruple X (XXXX) in size and the sleeves were still four or five inches too short.
“But that was the best we could do. He was a little like a newborn giraffe in those days, all legs and arms going everywhere in all directions and slowly he found his coordination. It was the same with some equipment, too. Regular elbow pads didn’t fit him. Our trainers took part of a shin pad and cut it into elbow pads for him when he was here.”

more on the first and last topic plus other hockey notes, many Toronto related...