Quick Strikes: Otto Somppi wins ECHL goal of the year

The Bolts

20 years ago, the 1999 NHL Entry Draft took place and that day kicked off a half decade of success leading up to a Stanley Cup. [Raw Charge]

Lecavalier leads his draft class in games played, goals, and points. He is sixth in the draft class in assists, but he never was a super playmaker as evidenced by his Rocket Richard win with 52 goals. Lecavalier won the Cup with the Lightning, and also won a King Clancy Memorial Trophy for his philanthropic endeavors. Lecavalier is a borderline Hall of Famer, and he’s still clearly the best player in this draft class.

In lieu of Sebastian Aho’s offer sheet drama between the Montreal Canadiens and Carolina Hurricanes, Joe Smith took a look at what all this means for the Tampa Bay Lightning and Brayden Point. How much does it change Point’s AAV and term? Does it incite an offer sheet for Point?

CapFriendly.com has an Armchair GM mode that is very very well made. I was fooling around with the Tampa Bay Lightning roster and I can’t believe how good it is and the fact that it’s cap compliant. Let me know what you think of my roster! Is there anything you’d change?

I know the Syracuse Crunch are going to take good care of my favourite AHLer Chris Mueller, but I’m still going to miss him at the rink every week. For those of you who don’t know, I’ve been a Toronto Marlies reporter for the past two seasons. If you have any questions about Mueller, feel free to ask in the comments or tweet me. I love talking about him.

In ECHL news, Tampa Bay Lightning prospect Otto Somppi was awarded with the ECHL goal of the year. He did the classic behind the net lacrosse goal.

The Game

The Canadian Women’s Hockey League (CWHL) folded this spring, and yesterday they released their final statement from the league. Check out a breakdown of what was said. [The Ice Garden]

The CWHL had expenses of $4.2 million CDN in its final season. The league’s board believes that it takes somewhere between $5 million and $6 million CDN to run the league “adequately” and twice that amount to run it professionally. The Board made a point of mentioning that donations from the public were very helpful, and that the amount raised this year as opposed to previous years wasn’t a factor in the decision to shut down.

Phil Kessel was traded to the Minnesota Wild earlier in the spring, but Phil rejected the move and forced a deal to the Arizona Coyotes instead. What if he was traded? How would it have affected the Pittsburgh Penguins? [Pensburgh]

However one traded that was bandied about for a while earlier in the summer — and agreed to by Pittsburgh and Minnesota — was Kessel to the Wild for Jason Zucker. The trade couldn’t be processed though, as Kessel has a 23-team no trade clause and declined to approve it.

Auston Matthews sat down with ESPN and had a wonderful time sharing his dry humour and sarcasm in the interview. [ESPN]

Matthews: I played a lot of hockey tournaments here. For some reason the parents loved coming here. Then they’d show up to the rink in sunglasses the next day. [Laughs] But I never got to experience it [until the awards]. You run into guys, as we’re pretty much staying at the same hotel and going to the same events, nightlife, casinos and stuff like that. Even if you know them or not, it’s nice to say hi to them.

If you need a summary of the biggest moves of the summer, check out these wallpapers!