There was quite a bit of excitement yesterday at the MasterCard Centre. The CWHL held it’s annual draft, the first with two new expansion teams located in China.

It was a hectic affair, with seven teams cycling quickly through twelve rounds of draft selections.

We’ll have more this week, but you can catch up right now with Annie’s first thoughts on the selections made by the two local GTA teams.

ICYMI

Katya looked at the upcoming season for Maple Leafs prospects who will play in Europe.

Don’t forget to vote in round three of our community rankings.

Our Maple Leafs Top 25 Under 25 continues this morning with #10 at 8:00 am.

Other News

The Golden Knights’ depth chart on defense is a mess - Knights On Ice
Without any moves, Vegas’ aging d-men could block the path of promising youngsters.

Penguins confirm interest in signing Hobey Baker Winner Will Butcher - PensBurgh
Oh, right. He still hasn't signed and is continuing his league-wide tour. Pittsburgh Penguins are the latest stop.

Connecting Phil Esposito to Dion Phaneuf - Silver Seven
[Species: So it looks like Chicago won the Dion Phaneuf trade... err. Wait, what?]

J.T. Brown, Lightning, take stand against Confederate monument - Color of Hockey
Brown reached into his pockets and donated $1,500 as part of an effort to privately raise the $140,000 that county officials said would be required to remove the Confederate monument from Tampa’s downtown courthouse.

The Habs Are Opening Canada’s Largest Restaurant This Fall - Eater
The Canadiens are opening a restaurant and the chef's name is Jean-Sébastien Giguère. Seriously.

From The Branches