Yesterday was a bit of a slow news day considering one of the headlines was that the Toronto Maple Leafs added some stripes and shoulder patches to their jersey. Ok, I lie, that’s not all they did as they also announced Dion Phaneuf as the new captain of the team. The Leafs had not had a captain since Mats Sundin left the team back in 2008. Based on the team roster, Phaneuf seems like the most logical choice and with Toronto being such a media crazy city, a central player to have a lot of the attention directed at is good for the team. Whether or not Phaneuf will make a good captain will be something to be seen over time.
Today marks the beginning of the two-week contract buyout period (h/t to James O’Brien at ProHockeyTalk). This will obviously be about teams getting rid of dead weight on their roster, but TSN reports that three Canadian teams (Ottawa, Montreal and Edmonton) are looking into the avenue of buying out a few of their players.
Links from around the NHL and Tuesday night open thread later on today.
