Under Further Review – July 2 Edition

Under Further Review – Douglas Smith with Editor Bill Morphy. Regular contributors include Jordan Moss, Rob Wagner, Howard Steiss, Ian MacPhee, Dave Kittle, Peter Hucul, Ted Tait, Bill and Glen Myles, Frank Sullivan and Iqbal Grewall.  

Hope you had a wonderful Canada Day. We live in a pretty good country after all, eh? 

Spanning the digital ether to bring you the constant variety of sport… the thrill of victory… and the agony of defeat… the human drama of athletic competition… This is Under Further Review.

Welcome to Silly Season – This is the time of year when the biggest mistakes are made in the National Hockey League. Just go back one year to the Nashville Predators signing of Steven Stamkos and Jonathan Marchessault. They were big July 1 overpays and a calendar year later, there’s nothing but regret in the Music City. Wisely, all the Canadian teams stayed relatively quiet on Canada Day. Maybe they are learning.

The Canucks were active internally with the announcement of new contracts for Thatcher Demko, Conor Garland and Brock Boeser. The Boeser deal was a surprise because everyone assumed he was as good as gone. The Canucks are now pretty much capped out so good luck finding an elite center.

The Canucks move to acquire Evander Kane from the Oilers set off a firestorm of debate. Why help a division rival unload over $5 million in cap space? Kane’s blemished reputation should not be a huge issue although casinos in the Vancouver area may have to extend their hours.

Everyone is still chasing the Florida Panthers. GM Bill Zito said he wanted to get the band together and sure enough the Panthers somehow managed to sign Bennett, Marchand and Ekblad to team friendly contracts. When you build a winning culture, players want to stick around. Can you say three-peat? By the way, weren’t they all supposed to sign with the Leafs?

The Vegas Golden Knights always find a way. Need cap space to sign Mitch Marner? Alex Pietrangelo has what appears to be career-ending hip issues, and presto, bye-bye to the final two years of his $8.8 million dollar salary. Pietrangelo will go on LTIR next season and suddenly Vegas has the money to make the move. Nothing nefarious going on. Just good timing which they always seem to have.

Leaf fans and Toronto media couldn’t kick Marner to the curb quick enough. After the Leafs annual playoff demise, a body always has to be served up. As much as you can criticize Marner for his playoff struggles, he leaves a huge hole in the Leafs lineup on a team already starving for goals. Marner’s 102 points won’t be easily replaced. He’s an outstanding penalty killer and the key to the Leafs power-play from his spot on the blueline. Looking at the composition of the Leafs roster right now, this may not be a playoff team in the evolving Eastern Conference.

Nice work by the Montreal Canadiens to deal from a position of strength and move defenceman Logan Mailloux to the St. Louis Blues for winger Zac Bolduc. Mailloux’s path to ice time in Montreal was stunted with the acquisition of Noah Dobson. Bolduc was drafted 17th overall by the Blues in 2021. He broke out this season with 19 goals and has a chance to fit into the Habs top-six forward group.

The L.A. Kings were the most active team on July 1. They signed Cody Ceci, Brian Dumoulin, Corey Perry, Joel Armia and goalie Anton Forsberg. Not sure the signings make them a whole lot better. It’s like shopping at Bulk Barn.

The general lack of big-name activity made for a slow news day on TSN Free Agent Frenzy. TSN said goodbye to Bob McKenzie on the show as Bob retires to the cottage after 48 years as a journalist and broadcaster. There were no ‘insiders’ before Bob came along. He helped redefine the industry.

In sports circles, July 1 is often referred to as Bobby Bonilla Day. The 62-year-old former New York Met received a cheque from the Mets for $1,193,248.20, just as he has and will every July 1 from 2011 until 2035. In hockey, it’s Rick DiPietro Day. The former New York Islander goaltender has cashed a cheque for $1.5 million every July 1 since 2013 and will continue to receive the payments until 2028. Great work if you can get it.

NHL Draft Takeaways – Before we get into an analysis of the players selected in this year’s NHL Draft, we have to talk about the television production on Sportsnet. If you watched, you will no doubt agree it was god-awful. Judging by the commentary from the panel of so-called draft experts, you would think every player selected was going to be a star. Just a constant flow of platitudes. Can someone please explain why Colby Armstrong was on the panel? It’s doubtful he saw any of the draftees play this season. He did remind everyone on several occasions that he was once a first-round pick.

The NHL moved away from having all team personnel in one location. Thankfully, we no longer had to look at 15 porky scouts marching onto the stage for a group photo with the team’s number one pick. However, the new draft format was awkward and clumsy. Every time a player was selected, we had to watch Gary Bettman take a 15 second walk to the microphone to announce the pick. Why not have him stay in one location?

In a failed attempt to spruce up the new format, each team called on a local celebrity or legendary player to make the announcement. The B-list celebrities were hit and miss. The Buffalo Sabres called on two members of the rock band Goo Goo Dolls. It was a laugh-out-loud moment. The Canucks idea of a celebrity was dragging out former Canuck Mikael Samuelsson. He was about as exciting as diarrhea on your wedding night.

Sportsnet introduced two newcomers to handle the interviews of NHL draftees. Don’t ask us to remember their names – Stormy Buonantony and Ailish Forfar. They served up more softballs than Eddie Feigner. The interviews between drafted players and team personnel were conducted remotely and often cringe-worthy. There were uncomfortable delays during the back-and-forth banter. The interview between James Hagens, the Bruins first-round pick, and Boston front office staff never happened due to technical difficulties. Made Bruins staff look like fools.

Here’s a few observations from this year’s NHL Draft including takeaways on the selections of each Canadian team.

• The 2025 draft was definitely a showcase for Canadian-born players. Six of the first eight picks were Canadian. 19 Canadians went in the opening round.
• The New York Islanders kick-started their rebuild under new GM Mathieu Darche with an A+ draft. The Isles had three first-round picks including the number one overall selection defenceman Matthew Schaefer, pesky forward Victor Eklund and punishing D-man Kashawn Aitcheson. The Isles added 6-foot-6 Russian forward Daniil Prokhorov in round two.
• Pittsburgh GM Kyle Dubas once again tried to prove he’s the smartest guy in the room. The Penguins held picks #11 and #12. They reached for Coquitlam native Ben Kindel, an undersized winger, with the first of the two selections. It’s believed Kindel would have been available in the mid-20’s. Dubas then traded down with Philadelphia and let the rival Flyers select Windsor Spitfires center Jack Nesbitt with the 12th pick. Nesbitt is the guy we touted prior to the draft as one of the fastest rising prospects. Had the Penguins just stood pat, they could have had Nesbitt and Carter Bear or Jackson Smith with the two picks. Pittsburgh led all teams with 13 overall selections. They got quantity but no difference makers.
• Rick Tocchet will be very pleased with the Flyers draft. In addition to Nesbitt, the Flyers landed the top power forward in the draft, 6-foot-3 Porter Martone with the sixth overall pick. They beefed up the lineup with four selections in the second round – 6-foot-6 defenceman Carter Amico, 6-foot-1, 198-pound forward Jack Murtagh, 6-foot-3 winger Shane Vansaghi and 6-foot-5 center Matthew Gard. Grade A+.
• Size was a definite priority for many teams. It’s remarkable how big these kids are at 18. It really turned out to be the story of this draft.
• The San Jose Sharks are putting together a cupboard full of elite prospects. Michael Misa went to the Sharks with the number two overall selection. Alongside Macklin Celebrini, Misa gives San Jose a fine one-two punch at center. The Sharks also added goaltending prospect Joshua Ravensbergen, towering defenceman Simon Wang and potential 3C Cole McKinney.
• The Chicago Blackhawks drafted Finnish center Anton Frondell with the third overall pick. He should pair nicely with Connor Bedard. The Hawks selected the most polarizing player in the draft in Edina, Minnesota center Mason West who’s a dual sport athlete. He’s listed at 6-foot-6 but very raw and there’s a big question whether he will commit to hockey. West plans to return to high school in the fall where he hopes to quarterback the team to the state football title. West will return to the USHL once the football season is over. Chicago traded up to select West with the 29th pick so it’s a huge risk. The Hawks had better hope a D-1 football program doesn’t come calling with a million bucks in NIL money.
• The biggest reach of the draft was made by the Columbus Blue Jackets who took Russian goalie Pyotr Andreyanov with the 20th pick of the first round. He is committed to playing five more years in Russia Hard to justify the selection when the payoff is so far down the road.
• Bloodlines run deep in hockey. This year’s draft produced a number of father-son combinations. The Jets took defenceman Sascha Boumedienne. His dad Josef played 47 NHL games. Seattle drafted defenceman Blake Fiddler. His father Vernon played for a long time with the Nashville Predators. Penguins first rounder Will Horcoff is the son of Shawn Horcoff who played over 1,000 NHL games, many with the Edmonton Oilers. Anaheim took forward Eric Nilson, son of former NHL winger Marcus Nilson. The Senators drafted Blake Vanek, son of Thomas Vanek who bounced around long enough to play more than 1,000 NHL games.

Vancouver Canucks – The Canucks actually had some draft picks. That’s novel. It’s the first draft class in which the Canucks have selected in each of the first, second and third rounds of the draft since 2018. It was the first time they executed a second-round pick since 2019.

It was clear the Canucks wanted to start replenishing the center ice position. They took Seattle Thunderbirds center Braedon Cootes with the 15th overall pick. Cootes captained the T-Birds and the U18 Canadian team so he’s clearly a character kid. Outside of a brief cameo from Elias Lindholm, the Canucks have not had a quality right-shot center in over a decade. Cootes projects as a solid 3C with penalty-killing utility. The selection of goalie Alexei Medvedev in round two came with a stamp of approval from goalie guru Ian Clark. Mededev has good size and will continue to develop with the London Knights. The Canucks took center Kieren Dervin with the first pick of the third round, a selection acquired from the Rangers in the deal involving Carson Soucey. Dervin will play next year with the Kingston Frontenacs before heading to Penn State the following season.

Edmonton Oilers – The 2025 draft will likely end up being a wash for the Oilers. This is what happens when you are in a contention window. Edmonton’s top selection was in the third round, 83rd overall. Good luck getting any immediate help. They wisely took a 6-foot-3 Finnish goalie in round six. Worth a spin of the roulette wheel.

Calgary Flames – The Flames had an organizational shortcoming at center and used their top three selections on centers including Victoria Royals grad Cole Reschny. He’s undersized at 5-foot-11 and 180 pounds but don’t sleep on this kid. Reschny is Joe Sakic-light. Tremendous vision. Great hands. High hockey IQ. He’ll find a way into the Flames lineup in quick order.

Winnipeg Jets – The Jets had a very unremarkable draft with only five selections. Their top pick was the aforementioned Boumedienne. He’s got good mobility for a big man and projects as a potential top four blueliner. The Jets organization is very thin along the blueline so it was important to add to the pipeline.

Toronto Maple Leafs – Multiple draft sites rated the Leafs 2025 draft dead last among NHL teams. The consensus grade was a D-minus. The mandate from Brad Treveling was to draft size. Five of the six Leaf picks were 6-foot-3 or bigger. One draft expert said the Leafs will be lucky if any of the selections play a single game in the NHL. The top pick was Norwegian center Titus Koblar. He was taken with the final pick of the second round, a huge ‘overdraft.’ There’s a good chance Koblar would have still been available in the fourth or fifth round.

Ottawa Senators – The Senators did some nice work at the draft table. They dropped down two spots in the first round and still came away with right-shot defenceman Logan Hensler. Along with Carter Yakemchuk, who was selected last year, the Sens now have two big right-shot defencemen in the system. Hensler will continue developing at the University of Wisconsin. By dropping down two spots in the opening round, the Sens added a third-round pick which they used to acquire defenceman Jordan Spence from the L.A. Kings. Nice bit of business by GM Steve Staios. Ottawa also selected two goalies to bolster their goaltending depth.

Montreal Canadiens – The Canadiens took the biggest swing on draft day by dealing a pair of first-round picks to the Islanders for defenceman Noah Dobson. They immediately inked him to an eight-year contract extension with an AAV of $9.5 million. Dobson is just 25 and only one year removed from a 70-point season. With Lane Hutson, he gives the Habs a pair of elite puck-moving defencemen.

The Canadiens took another big swing in round two by dealing two second-round selections to move up and nab Russian forward Alexander Zharovsky with the 34th overall pick. The Montreal scouting staff were clearly in love with the guy and believe he has high upside. In fact, there were some scouts who believe Zharovsky has top-five offensive skills. He’s committed to playing in Russia for two more years. It will be some time before we know if the gamble was worthwhile.

Doobie’s Big Swing – No team in NHL history had a worse draft than the Toronto Maple Leafs in 2020. The Leafs had a stockpile of 12 picks, the most of any team, and General Manager Kyle Dubas boastfully predicted, “we look at the draft as our chance to really kind of strike with home runs and guys that can really become impact players.”

Well, we are five years down the road, and not one Leafs draft pick from 2020 has played a single NHL game. In the first round, Toronto reached for Russian forward Rodion Amirov. Amirov died tragically at age 21 from brain cancer. With the very next pick in the first round, the Montreal Canadiens selected Kaiden Guhle, a legitimate top four defenceman. In round two, the Leafs picked 5-foot-9 Finnish centre Roni Hirvonen. The New York Rangers followed by taking winger Will Cuylle who’s emerging as a potential top-six power forward.

The only other team that failed to graduate one player to the NHL from the 2020 NHL draft was the Vancouver Canucks but they had only five selections.

Those are Big Busts – Every team has skeletons in the closet when it comes to the NHL Draft. The Canucks have had their share. Who can forget Libor Polasek, the Canucks first-round pick in 1992? However, it would be hard to top the Maple Leafs. Here’s a Top Ten list of Leaf draft busts from The Hockey Illumianti.

1. Tyler Biggs, 22nd overall, 2011 – Brian Burke gave up two picks to Anaheim to move up in the draft and select Biggs. The two picks turned out to be John Gibson and Rikard Rakell.
2. Brandon Convery, 8th overall, 1992
3. Eric Fichaud, 16th overall, 1994
4. Drake Berehowsky, 10th overall, 1990
5. Scott Pearson, 6th overall, 1989 – This one was particularly painful. The next pick was Martin Gelinas followed by three Hall of Famers in a row, Jeremy Roenick, Rod Brind’Amour and Teemu Selanne.
6. Frederik Gauthier 21st overall, 2013
7. Jeff Ware, 15th overall, 1995
8. Stuart Percy, 25th overall, 2011
9. Steve Bancroft, 21st overall, 1989 – The Leafs had three first-round picks in the ’89 draft – Pearson, Bancroft and Scott Thornton and got very little out of it.
10. Jiri Tlusty, 13th overall, 2006

NHL Notebook – In case you missed it amidst all the movement around the league, the NHL and NHLPA have come to a new, four-year collective bargaining agreement. Among the highlights of the new deal:

• 84-game regular season schedule beginning in the 2026-2027 season
• Maximum 7-year term limit for players re-signing with their current team
• Maximum 6-year term limit for players signing with a new team
• Playoff salary cap to close the LTIR loophole

Being old school, we are kind of disappointed the league also agreed to remove the dress code that saw players wear suits to games. Can we now expect NHL players to show up in sweats like in the NBA? We know society has gone all ‘Lululemon’ but the old dress code made NHL players look classy. Sorry to see the change. The players will be happy because they will no longer have to dish out a pile of money for a full wardrobe of suits.

Buffaloed in Buffalo – In 2021, all of the players listed below were in the Buffalo Sabres organization. If they would have just left well-enough alone, the Sabres had the pieces to contend. Instead, the Sabres are 14 years and counting without a playoff berth.

Skinner – Eichel – Reinhart

Cozens – Thompson – Peterka

Hall – Mittelstadt – Quinn

Olofsson – Girgensons – Okposo

Dahlin – Montour

Power – McCabe

Samuelson – Ristolainen

Ullmark – Pekka-Laukkanen

NBA Draft Takeaways – Remember when watching March Madness was more than just a betting platform? Players stayed in school for four years and you actually got to see them develop. Not anymore in the days of ‘one and done.’ Outside of a few viewings of Cooper Flagg, did you know any of the first-round draft choices in this year’s NBA Draft? It’s a complete crapshoot. Second round picks are basically worthless.

The Toronto Raptors chose to select a couple of players who remained in college and are more finished products. The Raptors took South Carolina wing Collin Murray-Boyles with the ninth pick, then added Florida guard Alijah Martin in round two. Both play with defensive intensity and fit the scrappy style the Raptors are trying to develop.

The big story out of Toronto was the announcement that Masai Ujiri is stepping away as president of the Raptors after 12 years. Ujiri is a beloved figure in Toronto after leading the Raptors to the 2019 NBA championship. His departure should not be considered a surprise. Rogers boss Edward Rogers was never in favour of paying Ujiri $15 million per season. The deal was made against his wishes when Bell still had a stake in the team. Now that Rogers has full control of MLSE, there was zero chance Ujiri would receive a contract extension. He follows Leafs president Brendan Shanahan out the door, leaving vacancies at the top of both organizations. Keith Pelley, the new major domo of MLSE, has been on the job for less than a year. In that time, he’s turfed Bill Manning, president of Toronto FC, and now Shanahan and Ujiri.  That’s a pretty serious body count in a short time. Looks like Pelley is just a puppet serving the corporate wishes to save dough.

From the You Are Not Going to Believe It Department – Joel Embiid of the Philadelphia 76’ers has earned $266 million over the course of his 10-year NBA career. He will pocket over $51 million in salary next season. Embiid has missed over 400 games as a result of injury which is the equivalent of five NBA seasons. In other words, he’s earned a quarter of a billion dollars and played half the games. Given his history of injury, what would justify the Sixers giving him a three-year contract extension worth for $193 million? That league is a joke.

The Stats Man –  51 years ago, on June 14, 1974, Nolan Ryan threw 235 pitches in a game while playing for the Los Angeles Angels. His stat-line looked like this: 13 innings pitched, 8 hits, 19 strikeouts, 10 walks and three earned runs. He took a no-decision. It is absolutely criminal that Ryan never won a Cy Young Award.

Random Leftovers – Don’t look now but the Blue Jays are within one game of the New York Yankees in the American League East. Who would have thunk it?

Lanny McDonald and his cohorts who run the Hockey Hall of Fame finally named former Canuck Alexander Mogilny to the Hall. It only took 17 years for Mogilny to be selected.  Mogilny should have been picked year one. Also named were Duncan Keith, Joe Thornton and Zdeno Chara.

We ask the question. Are there really enough Hall of Fame quality women players to justify selections to the HHOF every year? Jennifer Botterill was named to the Hall this year, 14 years after she finished playing. She won three Olympic gold medals as a member of Team Canada but was never a stand-out player which explains why she hadn’t been chosen until now. We have trouble believing she would have been selected had her family not had NHL ties. Her brother Jason Botterill is the GM of the Seattle Kraken. His boss is Ron Francis, who coincidentally, is a member of the HHOF selection committee. We’ve seen this movie before. McDonald promoted the selection of his former teammate Mike Vernon who’s now in the same company as Patrick Roy and Martin Brodeur. Something is grossly wrong when Vernon and Botterill are in the Hockey Hall of Fame and Paul Henderson is not. Case closed.

The Swiss women’s national soccer team, currently ranked 23rd in the world, recently played a friendly match against Luzern’s U15 boys team. Yes, a local club team made up of 13 and 14-year-old boys. The women’s national team lost 7-1. The Boys should be ashamed. How did they let it one goal?

The high hopes for Canada at this year’s CONCACAF Gold Cup evaporated in disappointing fashion. Canada was knocked out after a shootout loss to Guatemala in the quarterfinals. The setback was pretty much self-inflicted. Up 1-0, Canada was forced to play the second half down a man after Jacob Shaffelburg was sent off following a second yellow card. There’s no excuse for losing to an inferior side like Guatemala. Canada had won 10 of the previous 15 meetings between the two teams. One positive from the tournament was the play of youngsters Niko Sigur and Nathan Saliba. Both are just 21 and showed tremendous promise.

Watching TSN’s coverage of the CONCACAF Gold Cup, it occurred to me that I definitely need to get closed captioning. I cannot understand a word Steven Caldwell is saying.

Can someone explain why Jim Nill has won three straight NHL General Manager of the Years awards? The Dallas Stars have won diddly and Nill is chosen over Bill Zito? Doesn’t make sense.

Three Canadians have to be concerned about their status on the PGA Tour. Adam Hadwin has slipped to 120 in the FedEx standings. You need to stay within the top 125 to retain playing privileges. Ben Silverman has dropped to 160 while Surrey’s Adam Svensson has fallen to 168. It will be very difficult at this point for either golfer to hang onto their Tour card.

Our favourite new sports name is Dickie Lovelady, a reliever with the New York Mets. That’s right up there with Rusty Kuntz.

Feature Artist of the Week – Rising young troubadour Connor Selby hails from Essex, England. His self-titled debut album in 2022 was met with critical acclaim. Although Selby has been voted “Young Artist of the Year” at the UK Blue Awards for three straight years, he is more of a crossover artist than a traditional blues artist.

His songwriting is brilliant. He’s got a voice that is mature beyond his years and his guitar work is first rate.  Here’s Connor performing ‘The Truth Comes Out Eventually,’ the title track from his upcoming new release.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uCAaFT5bwR0&list=RDuCAaFT5bwR0&start_radio=1

Here’s Connor performing ‘Love Letter to the Blues.’

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f5PEo4KdOto&list=RDf5PEo4KdOto&start_radio=1

Two tracks have been released from his new release. From Spotify or another other streaming service, check out ‘The Truth Comes Out Eventually’ and ‘Someone.’ From his self-titled 2023 release, have a listen to ‘If You’re Gonna Leave Me,’ ‘I Can’t Let You Go’ and ‘Waitin’ on the Day.’ You will be impressed.

HAVE A GREAT SUMMER EVERYONE!

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