Yes they do!

LeBrun has it backwards. He's the one dissenting. The overwhelming majority of fans and players do not want this stuff in the game. Notice how few will protest this decision. I don't see how no longer forcing players to play politics on the ice is a step backwards, as he puts it.

I mean, most of the specialty jerseys weren't necessarily political. Nothing political about Cancer awareness, pride, Indigenous history, black history, etc is inherently political. Plus, these nights are still happening, they just aren't platforming the jerseys which is a huge shame. The unique practice designs were always really fun and gave artists the opportunity to have their work honored.

Not really sure why the change was made in this way. It's certainly not as big of a deal as many people are making it out to be, it just kinda stinks

The simple answer is that players don't want to promote something they disagree with. I certainly agree with you that there's nothing political w/ Indigenous Night. Hispanic Heritage Night is a big one in NJ. So is Military Appreciation Night. HFC is a big tradition in November, and is very popular around the NHL. These events are all about bringing people together.

Pride night, for a variety of reasons, has unfortunately been politicized. No player has ever refused to wear a jersey for any of the aforementioned Nights, as far as I know. Anytime you mix religion, sexual identity, and politics, you divide people into groups. Hockey should promote unity, not division. It's not about what side is right or wrong; Everyone is free to exercise their freedoms. Take a look at the disastrous Pride Night celebration at Dodger Stadium last week. Then tell me if that is a healthy environment for unity. That's not what I want for hockey. Bettman, being the political animal that he is, made the popular decision.

completely unrelated to any of the above discussion, how does everyone feel about nhl players returning to the olympics?

I'll believe it when I see it. But the lack of a true best on best tournament hurts the growth of the game.

The problem is how do you fit it into the middle of the NHL season, and do teams actually want some of their players to participate, hence why I think World cups during the offseason makes more sense

Personally, I would love to see a permanent agreement/structure to have an Olympic ice hockey tournament held every 4 years and a World Cup in the years in-between. Logistically I know that there are many challenges to this.

1) Incorporate more of the "series" type scheduling into NHL travel to minimize the days on the calendar needed for the NHL season.
For Example: it took 189 calendar days for the Nashville Predators and 188 calendar days for the San Jose Sharks to complete their 82 game seasons. Most teams were around 182-183.
An 82 game schedule should be able to get completed in 168 calendar days (taking 14 days off for the international tournament) or less.

2) Increase more intra-divisional games to 6 per season, intra-conference to 3, and inter-conference to 1.
Helps achieve #1 and promotes more rivalries. This would allow for at least each team to host one set of B2B nights at their home arena against each divisional opponent.

3) Host the international tournament during a 2 week break at the end of February.
Basically collapse the All-Star break and all of the team's "Bye Weeks" into a 2 week period AT THE SAME TIME.
Winter Olympics could slightly alter this schedule but it will be close enough.
Host the GM meetings during this break as well.

4) Remove the actual NHL All-Star Game (not the honor, just the game and the skills competition, etc).
How does this help the game anymore (at least compared to an international competition?)

5) Remove the International series games played outside of North America. I'm OK with exhibition games/pre-season games but not real games.
-Unless the World Cup or Olympics host site is in Europe of course but those would not be "NHL games".

6) Expand the countries represented with 1-game "play-in" games at the early stage of the tournaments.
This would help expand the audience and exposure for ice hockey. In some ways I don't mind a "collective World team" if there are parameters around it so that we can maintain the spirit of "best on best" and with the view of expanding the audience of the game but I don't know how to do that without making arbitrary decisions that would not work long-term.

Nations like Norway (Zuccarello), Denmark (Ehlers/Bjorkstrand/Andersen), Latvia (Blueger/Balcers/Merzlikins), Austria (Rossi/Kasper), Slovenia (Kopitar), and even Ukraine (conflict aside), Poland, France, England and Italy could make great cinderella stories if given a chance. Not to mention growing the audience. Think about in reverse with Canada at the 2022 World Cup of Soccer recently; just qualifying and getting to play makes a huge difference in the attention and exposure in that country.

7) Alter the format, so there are 8 locked in seeds from the previous international rankings + 16 "play-in" games and no round-robin; just straight to the knockout tournament. This makes every game matter and reduces risk of injury to NHL players and allows for the tournament to be completed within a 2-week window.
For example in 2024 we would have:
Locked seeds (Ranked in order): Canada, Finland, Russia, USA, Germany, Sweden, Switzerland, Czechia.
Play-in games: Slovakia vs Lithuania, Latvia vs Romania, Denmark vs Poland, Norway vs Korea, France vs Great Britain, Belarus vs Hungary, Kazakhstan vs Italy, Austria vs Slovenia
re-seed after each round.

8) NHL/NHLPA and the IIHF co-host the tournament (tickets, etc) and the media rights for these tournaments from a profit-sharing perspective AND the 50% share counts towards Hockey Related Revenue for the salary cap sake.

9) Simultaneously host a women's World Cup (during non-Olympic years) at the same host city and play their games during the "breaks" in competition and aired on the same media outlets as the men's tournament. It might only be an 8 team tournament to start but it can expand from there in the future.

3 x 3.1ish for Haula

pretty fair deal

I wonder if they’ll be able to get Meier on reasonable terms too,

Would be quite the off-season for them:

Bratt under 8
Timo under 8?
Haula under 4

His QO is 10mill so doubt under 8 happens

Hes gonna make at least 9mill

I doubt he’s going to get under 8 million. Probably at least 9mill. However, if they are able to resign him for under 8mill, the Devils off-season would be great.

I think Timo gets around 8 x 8.75ish, just under 9m range.

I would trade him if that first digit is a 9 tho.

Caps officially looking to move up. Arizona and Philly worry me the most with Michkov

I wonder if 8 million is a line that the Devils won’t cross. I love this concept.

I think there are job postings that Timo Meier could fill that are worth Matthew Tkachuk money. I think he’s worth that money in those roles. One example: St. Louis. They would need the expensive version of Timo Meier.

But I wonder if the Devils perspective is that they don’t need Meier to do that exact job, instead they have a structure where he would do a little less, earn a little less. Not a disrespectful amount less, just they already have a lot of interesting and cost effective offensive talent. It isn’t a discount, it’s less work.

If you’re Timo you see the other contracts being signed, and realize that a wagon may be being built, and you decide if you want a seat on it or not. Pretty good seat hockey wise.

I’m on team devils if they can get Timo under 8 mil. 7,900,000 x 8 with max bonuses and clauses possible.

If not, qualify and trade for $.90 on the dollar, which isn’t a bad haircut for a playoff run of a prime scoring winger.

I mean, I wouldn’t put too much stock into some of those draft rumours, Montreal has been rumoured to trade up and down from 5 simultaneously while also picking Carlsson, Smith, Leonard, Michkov and Reinbacher at the same time

NHL should also do this so that its harder to rig lul

Also would make things more exciting

It’s not rigged, it’s never been rigged lul, we joke about that every year but it never actually rigged, it would certainly be more interesting though

Idk that clip with Weeks and the CBJ pick before the card was pulled and on screen be a bit sus

Wouldnt surprise me as it happens in every lottery at some point lul

NBA cold cards be the famous ones

This would make things more fun though thats for sure.

You know that the lottery isn’t live right? Weekes knew the result because the lottery had already been done and the results given to the insiders before so they can plan their show a bit

Everybody thought the McDonalds monopoly lottery was real except it was rigged for years.

I wouldn’t be shocked if the draft lottery were more controlled than ping pong balls. But That’s for the owners to agree as a group on. Getting a group like that to agree is not easy. This alone makes me think that it being full blown rigged is not likely.

Classic blues fan being saltier than the ocean

The owners are 100% paranoid of lottery shenanigans too, I’m pretty sure every team has someone represent them while the live lottery happens

**** off.

If players want to be whiny babies about not wearing jerseys, let them. They have that right, and the fans can see just how ****ty of people they really are.

Bettman’s a coward.