Owen Krepps
Restricted free agent signings, players bashing their former teams, and Nazem Kadri updates are all on the agenda today. Let’s jump right into things.
Vegas Golden Knights
Vegas: We’re currently taking a good hard look at the Golden Knight’s depth charts for specific positions in a mini-series. So far, we have looked at goaltenders, centers, and defensemen. We will finish things up today with wingers and then look at some specific free agent targets over the weekend.
Carolina: Max Pacioretty has spiced up the NHL offseason in a recent podcast interview with Chris Nilan and Tim Stapleton. Pacioretty stated that the Golden Knights have “no accountability” when losing.
Montreal: A lot of Pacioretty’s comments centered around his time as captain of the Montreal Canadiens.
Seattle: Comparing the Golden Knight’s first season in the NHL to the Seattle Kraken’s. There are more similarities than you think!
NHL Logo Debates
A buddy of mine texted me a trivia question the other day regarding NHL logos. He said there were two NHL teams that technically use different logos between their home and away jerseys. After some research, I proved him wrong (as usual) and found nine teams that do this.
I then quizzed my Twitter followers to see if they could name all of them, but to my surprise, there was more than I expected. They brought up a lot of minor border differences, like how the Islanders have a white border for home jerseys and a blue border for away jerseys.
If we were to count borders, nearly every team in the league would qualify, so in terms of just raw logo changes, I believe there are nine. I am pretty sure we have finally found them all; if I didn’t at me on Twitter @OKrepps85. All in good fun.
The teams are:
- The Carolina Hurricanes– (they use the abbreviation ‘Canes’ for away games).
- The St. Louis Blues– (different shade of Blue in the music note).
- The New York Rangers– (different color lettering for the word ‘Rangers’).
- The Calgary Flames– (different color ‘C’ that changes from white to red).
- The Vancouver Canucks– (different color on the tail of the Orca).
- The Washington Capitals– (different colored lettering and stars).
- The Toronto Maple Leafs– (different color on the Maple Leaf).
- The Tampa Bay Lightning– (different color logo being blue and then white).
- The Florida Panthers– (the word ‘Panthers’ is on their home jerseys, and ‘Florida’ is on their road jerseys).
NHL News, Free Agency Rumors, and RFA Signings
Long Island: An updated look at the New York Islanders’ situation involving Nazem Kadri.
We have seen a good chunk of restricted free agents sign this week to avoid arbitration. The Golden Knights currently have four RFA’s left to re-sign with Nicolas Roy, Nicolas Hague, Keegan Kolesar, and Jake Leschyshyn. Jason Robertson, Noah Dobson, and Jake Oettinger are notable RFA’s elsewhere.
New Jersey: RFA Jesper Bratt has re-signed in New Jersey. One year $5.45 million.
Edmonton: Kailer Yamamoto also avoids arbitration and re-signed with the Oilers. Two years $3.1 million.
Calgary: The Flames have re-signed both Andrew Mangiapane and Oliver Kylington. Mangiapane’s deal is three years for $5.8 million and Kylington’s two years at $2.5 million.
Now they turn their attention towards convincing newly acquired star Jonathan Huberdeau, to stay.
Colorado: Lastly the Avalanche have signed forward Anton Blidh. One year $750k.
