A surprise Instagram post turned heads yesterday. Taylor Hall has signed a deal in Toronto.
A real estate deal.
I’m not sure if he even cares or not, but he probably didn’t realise the architecture of the houses and the streetscaping in these photos are distinctive to a point where anyone with a passing familiarity of Etobicoke knows which neighbourhood he is in. It took me all of two minutes on Google Streetview to find the exact spot he was standing. Not like I spend my days tracking down hockey players to their homes. Not since that court order anyway.
So this means the soon-to-be free agent is joining the Leafs, right? I mean, this neighbourhood is only a few minutes drive away from the Leafs practice facility (perhaps more in Etobicoke traffic)!
Only if you want to invent some very unlikely alternate timeline where the Leafs make room to fit him under the salary cap by trading Mitch Marner; and would that ever be a fun call for Kyle Dubas to have with Hall’s agent for the negotiations since, as Kevin Papetti reminded me, he also happens to use Marner’s agent Darren Ferris too.
So, no. Hall is only here because it’s the centre of the Hockey Universe and where else would he want to be in the future? Obviously not Edmonton! Regardless of where he ends up playing next season, when he goes home, he will go home to Toronto.
Hall isn’t the only soon-to-be free agent player who wants to be here. Leafs winger Kyle Clifford was interviewed yesterday and he made it clear he wants a new contract from the Leafs.
Kyle Clifford on desire to play for another Cup with #Leafs: "We have a young team, and they're hungry. They want it for the city of Toronto bad. I don't think there'd be any greater feeling than to take it down those streets in Toronto for a parade."
— Kristen Shilton (@kristen_shilton) May 13, 2020
Clifford added he believes there’s a real push now to get things going again.
Kyle Clifford says that among his #Leafs teammates, "there's a real strong appetite to get playing, no matter the circumstances."
— Kristen Shilton (@kristen_shilton) May 13, 2020
That being said, we’re still waiting to hear about when the NHL Draft will take place, which was supposedly in less than three weeks from today, but given the sudden radio silence from the league it now feels more likely to be sometime in mid-to-late June at this point.
Other News
Portland Pickles owners interested in purchasing Portland Winterhawks - The Oregonian
They will of course have to complete their due dill-igince first before completing the deal for the junior hockey team which recently filed for bankruptcy.
What if the Philadelphia Flyers didn’t sign Ilya Bryzgalov in 2011? - Broad Street Hockey
* Extremely Bryz voice * Humangous big mistake by Philadelphia Flyers. [SPECIES: This is a great recap of a truly wild era for the Flyers where Paul Holmgren made multiple blockbuster trades each season, gave up on future multiple Vezina Trophy winner Sergei Bobrovsky, and dumped his captain Mike Richards over the famous "Dry Island" incident. It also introduced us to Ilya Bryzgalov through the Road to the Winter Classic series.]
