Saturday morning is a gorgeous time here in my tropical rainforest of a state. It's still cool enough to go outside without the soles of my feet searing off on my patio, so I'm writing this FTB from my deck chair. Coffee would be much better with a twitter feed full of hockey news, but since it's summer, it's a good day to sip this iced coffee and idly watch Twitter to see if Stamkos Bernier signed anything yet..

Leafs/PPP News:

Yost: Make or break year for Bernier | TSN -- Audio

Lou Lamoriello can make salary statement in Jonathan Bernier negotiations | Puck Daddy
Species' article got cited!

PPP's Top 25 Under 25 Returns | PPP
"[T]his is an exercise to identify the best Maple Leaf players in the organization under the age of 25, as determined by a panel of PPP writers and contributors."

James van Riemsdyk is NOT touching the Stanley Cup | PPP

Andrew Campbell is excited to be a part of Toronto hockey | PPP

Red Deck Wins: The future hockey analytics driven metagame | PPP
We're still getting some interesting discussion of metagaming over in this post.

Where's Chemmy?

Not Norm has provided an answer.

Other Stuff:

All-Time Tampa Bay Lightning Team | THW
Why have I linked this here? Consider it a creative challenge. If you had to pick an all-time Leafs team, what would it look like?

The NHL’s 12 most unbreakable bromances | Sportsnet
Sadly, they somehow missed Bernier and Reimer!

Most common and unusual NHL player names across four generations | Sports Illustrated
"In the iconic first names department, there is now one Wayne (Simmonds) and one Sid (Crosby) on NHL rosters but no Mario or Gordie."

Ranking the 10 NHL Teams with the Worst Long-Term Salary Cap Issues | Bleacher Report
Click-through slideshow warning.

Matthews seeking redemption for U.S. at 2016 WJC | NHL
McDavid is yesterday's debutante. Hi, Auston.

Canada starts U-18 selection camp for Hlinka Cup | NHL
"Canada has had seven straight gold medal finishes in the tournament, won 10 of the past 11, and won 17 of the past 19 since 1996. The United States won gold in 2003 and Sweden in 2007."

NHL Needs To Continue To Let Their Players Play In The Olympics | Rant Sports
"The first reason why is because the players really want to continue to play in the Olympics [...] The other reason is to keep the Olympics as part of the NHL is the new eyes it brings to the sport."

From The Branches