The Bolts
Joe Smith posted a great interview at The Athletic with Anton Stralman. Even if you don’t have a subscription, this is worth using one of your free articles on. Both Stralman and the team come off great in this piece. I, for one, am going to miss Stralman mightily this season. He’s been so fun to watch and it won’t be the same without him. But even so, the team basically had no choice and Stralman got one more big payday in Sunrise, which is great for him and his family.
That’s why I told Julien: “All I want is honesty.” He did all that. He called around mid-June and said, “Unfortunately, we can’t even offer you anything.” I said, “I understand and appreciate you calling.”
It was hard to hear that because, in the end, at some point, you’re always keeping up that hope of an extension or at least an offer to think about. When it happened, it was like a big gulp. We knew it was most likely what was going to happen. Still, it hurt. But it gave us time to prepare for that interview window, what we wanted, (so we) could take it on fully.
The Prospects
After his excellent performance at the World Junior Summer Showcase, Nolan Foote did an interview with TSN. Before the tournament, he looked like a bubble player for the U20 Team Canada this year but after last week, he may have secured his spot.
The Game
Today was the last of the arbitration hearings. No better way to spend a Sunday morning than haggling with one of your depth players over a couple hundred thousand dollars. Wait, actually, I think there’s a lot of better ways to spend a Sunday morning. Such as eating breakfast tacos and watching Money Train starring Woody Harrelson and Wesley Snipes on Starz, which is how I spent my Sunday morning.
Today is the final day of arbitration with 3 hearings scheduled at 9:00am ET this morning.
Joel Edmundson STL
Anton Forsberg CAR
Rocco Grimaldi NSHReminder that a player and club can still settle on a deal at any point prior to the official ruling.https://t.co/YAOHlLeC3V pic.twitter.com/3cWzBuWhDo
— CapFriendly (@CapFriendly) August 4, 2019
NHL Network has begun their summer ritual of releasing top 20 lists at each position that as far as I can tell, serve no purpose than to make everyone mad. Brayden Point came in 10th and Steven Stamkos came in 8th. Fine. Whatever. But Sean Couturier didn’t make the top 20. Jack Eichel did. Sean Couturier didn’t. Cool list, NHL network. Very cool list.
The Top 20 Centers in the NHL right now are…#NHLTopPlayers pic.twitter.com/siDOHhHDSB
— NHL Network (@NHLNetwork) August 4, 2019
Hockey Canada’s women’s Summer Showcase gets started this week in Calgary. Over at Pension Plan Puppets, Nafio has all the details on how to watch and what to watch for.
Prospect-watching has yet to become a national pastime on the women’s side of things the way that it has for the men (if you’re an avid NCAA, U Sports or Under-18 Women’s World Championships watcher you can yell at me in the comments), so here are some pointers on who to look for. The focus here is on the Development team players—only five of the Under-18s were on the 2019 World Championship team so there’s not a lot of information to go on.
Highlight of the Day
Sometimes sports is just wonderfully wholeseome. This is one of those times.
The 4,000 UK Scouts in attendance are rebranding themselves as the Anthony Santander Fan Club™️. pic.twitter.com/AsJITvV1op
— Baltimore Orioles (@Orioles) August 4, 2019
