Schedule

With the expansion draft over, it’s time to turn our attention to the Entry Draft. It begins tonight, with the Leafs out in the cold (for now anyway) until Saturday.

July 23 and 24: NHL Entry Draft

July 26: Deadline for Qualifying Offers to RFAs.

July 27: RFAs can discuss interest from other teams, but cannot sign a new SPC or Offer Sheet until the official signing period opens.

July 27: First buy-out period ends at 5 p.m.

July 28: Free Agency Day begins with the signing period opening at noon.

August: RFA negotiation and arbitration takes place over this month and a second buy-out period occurs for some teams after arbitration ends. This is the period where the offseason will be compressed a little to allow next season to start close to its normal timeframe.

Other things to expect today:

With the buy-out period ending on Tuesday and the freeze now lifted, expect to see some players on waivers at noon as their teams prepare to buy them out now that Seattle didn’t helpfully take them in the Expansion Draft.

Trades and signings should continue through the day, and maybe some happened last night while sensible people slept. Expect that to heat up right before the draft begins. The whole thing airs on Sportsnet at 8 p.m.

Our Stories

Maple Leafs announce 2021-2022 schedule - Pension Plan Puppets
The rest of the NHL is in on this too.

Zach Hyman will be signed by the Oilers - Pension Plan Puppets
The deal is one the Leafs could never have even considered.

2021 NHL Draft Profiles - Pension Plan Puppets
A look at the draft from a Leafs perspective.

Trade News so Far

Philadelphia Flyers trade Shayne Gostisbehere, draft picks to Arizona Coyotes - Broad Street Hockey
The Flyers are making room.

Hurricanes trade Nedeljkovic to Detroit for a third-round pick and rights to UFA Bernier - Canes Country
According to reports, the Hurricanes traded the RFA netminder to the Detroit Red Wings for a 2021 third-round pick and the rights to UFA netminder Jonathan Bernier.

Flames Acquire Tyler Pitlick from Seattle Kraken - Matchsticks and Gasoline
Calgary makes a deal with the new kid

Other News

The sexual abuse lawsuit against the Chicago team:

Posting this part of the thread so readers can choose if they should read the details or not. Included are details of violence, coercion, sexual assault, group harassment, homophobia and hate speech. Likely some other things as well. For further coverage on the unsealed amended complaints, see Westhead at TSN.ca, as well as:

Chicago Tribune

Ben Pope of the Chicago Sun-Times

The Athletic Chicago

For commentary, a look at what Brock McGillis has to say is useful:

Hockey is not a safe space, no. I think we all need to just start by saying that inside our own heads. And then we have to find ways to make it safer every day. This is, after all, a thing people do when they are children for fun, and we all want it to stay fun for life.

As mentioned yesterday, please use some caution when reposting some of this dreadful stuff. We don’t want to shy away, because it’s clear that while many good journalists and media outlets are covering this case very well, many people would like it to just go away, often because they are uncomfortable or don’t want to ruin the fun of the drafts or aren’t equipped to talk about it.

But we do want to remember that for some of our readers, reading this sort of thing, hearing about the pain of others, is a setback on their own path to healing.

Speculation about who on the Chicago team might be witnesses or perpetrators or victimized people is not helpful and will not be tolerated. Our focus should be on the victimized people — and remember you don’t know what witnesses have gone through in their lives or if any of them were LGBTQ or the loved ones of LGBTQ people, so you don’t know if they themselves weren’t victimized by the subsequent harassment.

If you are involved in amateur hockey, Hockey Canada has a program and educational materials to help you help your hockey organization prevent abuse.

Speak Out!

Hockey Canada Safety Downloads and Resources

This is a painful topic we need to look at head on. But remember to keep making hockey a safer space. Do the best you can, that’s all anyone asks.

From The Branches