After a lull in the Erik Karlsson news cycle for the past month or so — following a flurry of a trade that was totally going to happen where he’d go to Tampa Bay — it has finally picked up again.

First, rumours about a Western Conference team being the likely destination came out, including the bizarre twist of the Vancouver Canucks being in on him.

Then, reports came out that this was NOT true, because Karlsson was not willing to sign with ANY Canadian team. However, Erik Karlsson himself then decided to clear the air with Elliotte Friedman, and say that this whole confusion came about because of a bad case of broken telephone.

It’s not that Karlsson “wouldn’t sign with any Canadian team”, but that he “wouldn’t just sign with ANY Canadian team”.

So there you have it. With the trade bringing Karlsson to the Leafs imminent, the Toronto Maple Leafs set up a photoshoot of their soon to be star defenseman in his new threads:

I for one welcome our new completely normally pixelated overlords.

ONTO THE LINKS!

First, a reminder that Saturday evening there will be a PPP meetup in Toronto with Annie coming to our lovely city. If you want to make it, you can read the details here.

I’ll start with one of the best fanposts I’ve ever read...

My Kurt Walker story | by GatorJay

CWHL 2018 Draft: Toronto Furies pre-sign forward Brittany Howard | by Annie and nafio

CHL Notebook: Trades, hires, camp cuts, and more news | by elseldo

Maple Leafs hire and promote in the scouting and player development areas | by KatyaKnappe

Of course, we still have out T25U25 series going on, with this week breaking into the top 10.  If you missed any of our profiles, you can catch up on them here:

#11 — Andreas Borgman | by Brigstew

#10 — Connor Carrick | by Fulemin

#9 — Connor Brown | by elseldo

#8 — Andreas Johnsson | by Species

#7 — Timothy Liljegren | by Kevin

Have a great weekend!

From The Branches