There were a surprising number of signings yesterday, plus hockey tonight!

Men’s U20 World Juniors

After the Women’s U18 World Juniors in June, the Men’s tournament restarts in Edmonton tonight. Three Leafs prospects will be in the tournament, including 20-year-olds Roni Hirvonen and Topi Niemelä, as well as 19-year-old Matthew Knies. All three are late second round picks (okay, Niemela is an early third, but who cares) and all three are promising prospects for the Leafs in the medium term future.

Hirvonen, Niemelä, and Team Finland will be playing Team Latvia on TSN1 in Canada

Knies and Team USA will be playing Team Germany at 10pm on TSN1 and TSN4 in Canada

For more information on the tournament, read yesterday’s FTB and stay tuned with our daily FTBs for the next two-ish weeks. Finland and USA have a chance to play each other in the finals this year. I really hope that happens, that would be fun.

T25U25 News

Today you will see the players on our eligibility list who didn’t get a vote from our panel. Lots of obvious names, some names at the end that probably could’ve gotten a vote from someone. Not a complete band of misfits, for sure.

NHL Signings

  • Patrice Bergeron, BOS, $2.5 million for one year with performance bonuses, 35+ contract.
  • David Krejci, BOS, $1 million for one year with performance bonuses, 35+ contract.
  • Pavel Zacha, BOS, $3.5 million for one year after arbitration filed, expires as an UFA at 26.
  • Lawson Crouse, ARI, $4.3 million for five years. Arbitration didn’t give him enough to get Arizona over the cap floor, scored 20 goals last year.
  • Nicolas Roy, VGK, $3 million for five years, 15 goals from the middle six centre last year./

Boston is now over the cap with lots of potential players to trade. They also have a second buyout window that could prove useful. Their defense is amazingly bloated.

Various Leafs and Branches

Hockey Canada dropped non-disclosure agreement with sexual assault complainant | CBC

NHLe for Leafs Prospects, 2021-22 | PPP Fanpost

From The Branches