Some mild excitement in the hockey world yesterday, as the Sens and Rangers swapped forwards. In other news, Phil came to Toronto!

Zibanejad and a 2nd for Brassard and a 7th

Blueshirt Banter: Derrick Brassard Trade The Rangers fans seem to feel bittersweet on the deal: they probably won it, but they lost a productive fan favourite. (This is aside from the lunatic fringe of Rangers fans I saw on Twitter, who were--seriously--describing the trade as the worst in the history of New York sports.)

Silver Seven Senators: Sens Acquire Derrick Brassard For Mika Zibanejad Most of the Sens commentariat, on the other hand, does not seem very happy. Brassard probably makes them better right now, but "better right now" is still not great, and Brassard is four and a half years older than Zibanejad. Ottawa finances also may have played a role; Brassard got $2M of his $5M from the Rangers last week in a signing bonus, and his cap hit is higher than his real salary for the rest of his deal.

Scott Cullen: Zibanejad Adds Value To Rangers TSN's lead stathead weighs in in favour of the Rangers being the long-term winners--though again, the Melnyk money factor hangs over the decision. Z-bad is probably going to be due a nice raise in a year.

ICYMI

Phil Kessel Brings Cup To Toronto, Sick Kids If you don't like Phil Kessel, you are a bad person and unworthy of love.

The Toronto Maple Leafs, Taxes, And Parity Our socialist economy and our sport's anti-competitive system are holding the Leafs back. Seldo wants to fix things.

PPPokemon Go: PPPokedex Edition Brigs steps up to analogize our players to pocket monsters.

So You Want To Sign An SPC I decided to actually find out what's written in a Standard Player's Contract. The results will horrify and amaze you and allow you to make money working from home.

Other Stuff

Pensburgh: Analytics vs Old School, Round 856 The analytics people were right again, so the only appropriate thing is for the hockey world to tone police them to death.

Fear The Fin: Sharks Re-Sign Matt Nieto He's from Long Beach.

All About The Jersey: Devils Re-Sign Reece Scarlett The Devils have given a Gone With The Wind character a contract extension.

Broad Street Hockey: Radko Gudas Launches Official Apparel Line Apparently his nickname is "The Butcher", which sounds like he may have committed war crimes.

Battle of California: The BoC Off-season Thread Battle of California is talking about not-hockey, if you can't get your fill of off-topic discussions here in the FTB. All of the California teams are in the process of getting worse, so be nice.

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From The Branches