The Bolts
Injuries have hampered Tampa Bay Lightning prospect Adam Erne from getting a full season of playing time under his belt, but is that enough to keep him out of the NHL? [Raw Charge]
The spread among writers was rather great, mostly because of my ranking him at 19. But in my defense, I wasn’t the only one who went low on Erne. Tom had him at 14, Hardev at 11, and Seldo at 10. Now, astute readers might notice a pattern among those names. None of us that ranked him lower than nine watch the Lightning as our main team. However, other writers that also don’t cover the Lightning as their primary – Justin and Tracey – had a rank for Erne that was more in line with everyone else.
So what gives?
The Lightning joined the Florida Hospital for its second-annual Beat the Heat community skate on Sunday with a goal of getting people in the community out of the July (now August) heat and bring the community together.
The Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto has done some re-modeling in the leadup to Martni St. Louis’ induction into hockey’s most prestigious club.
There are some new faces in town! #HHOF2018 pic.twitter.com/MmLX0Ian22
— Hockey Hall of Fame (@HockeyHallFame) July 31, 2018
Also in HHoF news, the Stanley Cup isn’t there! It’s currently on its tour with the Washington Capitals in Saskatchewan, Canada, but it made a quick stop to say hi to some Lightning history.
Reliving a previous Champion. I hope Cory Sarich isn’t aging as bad as this sign! (Bladworth, SK) #StanleyCup #tblightning @NHL @BoltNation @HockeyHallFame pic.twitter.com/ea1qw0Vzad
— Philip Pritchard (@keeperofthecup) August 1, 2018
The Prospects
Patrick Williams is the best writer covering the AHL nationally right now, and yesterday he repromoted a couple incredible resouces he has kept track of throughout July.
With August starting, here is an updated breakdown of the #AHL offseason so far:
Team-by-team moves: https://t.co/MlHYRKu5au …
Team-by-team management & coaching moves: https://t.co/z5eTnMUejF …
Who is still available: https://t.co/JFsL2QWHWp … pic.twitter.com/yQqYaYetRQ
— PATRICK WILLIAMS (@pwilliamsNHL) August 1, 2018
The Syracuse Crunch have a few high-profile names coming off their roster this summer, hopefully the kids coming up from junior are ready for the challenge. [Around the A]
The Crunch also saw some changes being made to their front office and coaching staff this summer. Gilles Bouchard in for Jeff Halpern isn’t too hard to remember, but my favourite activity while perusing this list is finding some old friends from the Crunch organization. All I’ll say is that Iowa’s changes are really interesting. [Around the A]
Some old friends are still on the free agent market. At this point, looking for a PTO or ATO from one of the 31 organizations will be the way to go for many. I hope some team picks up Jason Garrison and Jamie McBain and plays them together next season. [Around the A]
The Game
Pension Plan Puppets has a fun going on in their daily links piece: who would win in a fight game between a combined squad of the Lightning, Toronto Maple Leafs, Nashville Predators, and Pittsburgh Penguins OR a 27-team All-Star team of the rest of the league? The proverbial horse-sized duck vs. 100 duck-sized horses. Some of Raw Charge’s masthead has joined in the fun (including myself) so feel free to hop in, too! [Pension Plan Puppets]
Last night, Fulemin and Arvind had an interesting idea: make two rosters, one created from the best players on the Maple Leafs, Lightning, Predators, and Penguins; then a second roster created from the best players on the 27 other teams. Then decide which of those two teams would win in a game against each other (treat this like an All-Star game – no salary cap).
Look for news on Mark Stone’s arbitration case today. He wants $9 million next season, while Ottawa only wants to give him $5 million. The number will surely be somewhere in the middle, but one thing that is for certain is that Stone will not return to the Senators after this season. [Silver Seven Sens]
Stone’s position of $9m is one of the highest, if not the highest, amount asked for in arbitration yet. The largest value awarded was $7.5m for Shea Weber in 2011, and his starting point was $8.5m. There may have been other amounts submitted that were higher that did not make it all the way to the hearing, however.
