The Pittsburgh Penguins development camp wrapped up yesterday at their training complex in Cranberry Township, Pennsylvania. What does that have to do with the Tampa Bay Lightning? Well, a couple of familiar names joined the organization as invitees. Ryan and Lucas St. Louis, sons of hall-of-famer Martin St. Louis skated with the rest of the Penguins prospects over the last week. [Pittsburgh Post-Gazette]
Ryan (21-years-old) is currently a forward with Brown University while Lucas (19-years-old) is a defenseman who should be skating at Harvard in the upcoming season. While neither was drafted, they unlikely see that as a deterrent considering their lineage. Why Pittsburgh? Well, there is a connection as the new Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins Kirk MacDonald coached them both in the USHL when they played for the Dubuque Fighting Saints.
Let’s keep the St. Louis theme going and switch over to the NHL franchise.
There are eight teams in the Central Division and as of yesterday, three of them are paying Ryan Suter after the defenseman signed a one-year, incentive-laden deal with the St. Louis Blues [Bleedin’ Blue]. He has a base salary of $775,000, but can earn an additional $2.25 million in performance bonuses. The 39-year-old will be heading into his 20th NHL season and will be collecting checks from St. Louis, Minnesota, and Dallas.
Speaking of the Blues, they are involved in some news in the ECHL world as the affiliate shuffling continues. During the Florida Panthers journey to the Stanley Cup, it was announced that their partnership with the Florida Everblades had ended. The Panthers soon agreed to a deal with the Savannah Ghost Pirates while the Everblades finally joined up with the St. Louis Blues [Florida Everyblades]
The league also announced the players that received a qualifying offer from their respective clubs. [ECHL] For the Orlando Solar Bears, Jimmy Mazza, Kelly Bent, Alex Frye, and Jesse Jacques received their offers.
While we’re talking about the affiliates, a familiar face for Syracuse Crunch fans is heading to the opposite coast as Shawn Element signed with the Ontario Reign [LA Kings Insider]. Element spent 4 seasons with the Crunch, recording 20 goals and 21 assists in 144 regular season games. He added 2 more assists in 10 playoff games. Syracuse signed him in 2021 after he put up 170 points (89 goals, 81 assists) in 274 QMJHL games.
The Alex Meruelo Era in the NHL has finally ended as the former owner of the Arizona Coyotes has signed off on all of the paperwork necessary to relinquish his rights to the franchise [Craig Morgan Twitter]. If hockey comes back to the desert he won’t have anything to do with it. Yay!
Are you starting to adjust to the Post-Stamkos Era, well here’s something to open that wound right back up!
