Weekend Quick Strikes: Milan Lucic moves for the first time in three years

The Bolts

In the summer, not much happens. One thing we are grateful for is the fact that European players go home for the summer and chat with the local media. We are also extremely grateful to Igor for translating all of these interviews for us. [Raw Charge]

Andrei Vasilevskiy: Totally agree! He doesn’t like this stuff. But he’s a very open and cheerful guy between us. There are some people whom he trusts - me, Mikhail Sergachev, a couple of other guys. But he’s not into meeting new people. It’s like Kucherov has a goaltender’s mind. Not that he is fixated on himself, but he’s very concentrated.

Sean Tierney is one of the best hockey analysts going. His work to help create the cutting edge of information and put it into forms everyone can understand is among the best. I really like his roster prediction model here. It shows a lot of information without very many words. For example, the Bolts are going to be silly good yet again this season.

The ECHL Orlando Solar Bears Twitter account tweeted an Orlando Sports x Lion King thread and it’s very good.

Street hockey is back in Syracuse! If you’re in the area, check it out!

The Game

There were two hockey things that happened yesterday. A trade and a signing. First, the trade that no one wanted.

Here are the details of the trade, via Cap Friendly, who were the first to break the retained salary portion of the trade.

And here is the condition referenced in the Cap Friendly tweet.

James Neal is going to the Edmonton Oilers and is going to carry a cap hit of $6.5 million for the next four years. Milan Lucic heading over to the Calgary Flames and will likely be worse for a cap hit of $5.25 million for the next four years.

The memes from this trade were hearty and plentiful.

The other bit of news from the day came from the New York Rangers. They’ve signed star defenseman Jacob Trouba to a seven-year, $8 million contract that will take him from age 25 to age 32. It’s a pretty sweet deal if you ask me. The question now becomes, will Trouba produce now that he’s the bonafide #1 defenseman? [Blueshirt Banter]

The salary arbitration hearing between Jacob Trouba and the New York Rangers scheduled for July 25 will no longer be necessary. Today, Trouba pledged his future to his new team by signing a seven-year deal worth an average annual value of $8,000,000. This is the first long-term contract of his career.

Moving on, how long before Connor McDavid asks for a trade? I personally hoped it would’ve happened already.

And while Connor McDavid is off solving crimes, the city of Calgary and the Flames have appeared to come to terms on an arena deal. In other news, the cuts to government services are coming fast and hard. [Calgary Herald]

From women’s hockey. This past spring saw the players make an incredibly bold decision to hold out their services in demand for better working conditions. We know the players who are sitting out. And we know the ones who have chosen to still play. But what about The Undecided? [The Ice Garden]

Russo is a member of a select group of players who have taken their games to a new level in the NWHL. The most visible player of that group is undoubtedly Northeastern alumna Hayley Scamurra, who earned a spot on the United States women’s national team as a result of her outstanding play on the wing for the Buffalo Beauts. Scamurra took the #ForTheGame pledge on social media; Russo did not.

You asked for hockey players to be more interesting. How about country music artist? I actually don’t know if it’s country music, but everything from the tweet down to the album cover screams yee haw.

Also in artist news, Gritty keeps turning out the #content

In OHL news, Commissioner David Branch sat down to do a podcast with Elite Prospects. It’s well worth a listen.