Dan’s Daily: Vegas Marner Bombshell; Extensions; Grading Penguins Draft

Twas the day before free agency, and all through hockey, every creature was stirring, and fans prepared to grouse. When out on the interwebs, there rose such a clatter, the Toronto Maple Leafs and Vegas Golden Knights are working on a trade, but Toronto levied a big accusation unless Vegas paid up. Perhaps St. Gary will soon be there. In matters far less vague, Vegas also traded defenseman Nic Hague while many Nashville Predators fans were nestled all snug. Elsewhere, we graded the Pittsburgh Penguins draft, and I wrote an extensive piece on Kyle Dubas’s heavy choice to make.

I was working in my sleep last night. That Dubas story just … disappeared. It’s … gone. I woke up having typed a paragraph in a new story, but somehow I obliterated the Dubas story, which is a shame because many of you seemed to like it. We’re trying to recover it as I type the Daily.

Also, today is my last official day as the president of National Hockey Now LLC. Beginning tomorrow, I’m … something. We haven’t decided on titles yet, but the new company begins tomorrow, in which I’m a minority partner, as we’ve merged with a larger company with former execs from a pretty massive and influential media giant. We’ve got a lot of plans, including work with newspapers, and hopefully, we can get the TV/video component off the ground, but that is probably a little bit down the list of things we have to do at the moment.

I’m still running Hockey Now, and I’ll still be busting my hump for you, but I won’t be doing the accounting and all of the CEO business that drained the life from me.

A site note: Unfortunately, Dave won’t be coming along for this part of the odyssey. He’ll probably hate that I’m telling you, but he deserves some praise. Dave made me so much better at this job, and I cannot thank him enough for taking a chance on working with us. His work in this industry has earned him the highest honors, and no one can craft a sentence as well as he. I’ve known for a while his role wasn’t right for him, but as we launch the other initiatives, he remains open to rejoining us.

Pittsburgh Penguins

Pittsburgh Hockey Now: The one story of mine that I can link to– We graded the Penguins draft. Fairly. Honestly. Too many newbies got upset that I graded 18-year-old players, and I had to hear about it on social media, but that’s not what we did. We graded the PICKS, not the players. We also compared the Penguins’ work to one of their chief rivals. Here you go, there isn’t much middle ground on the Penguins draft.

UPDATE: We found the text, but couldn’t republish it directly. Here is the Kyle Dubas piece–with the draft trades denied, now he has a heavy decision for the Penguins’ rebuild.

Lost in the shuffle on Friday night, the Penguins’ president of hockey operations/GM, Kyle Dubas, explained the new coaching staff roles. The interesting thing is–they are definitely not what we assumed, and head coach Dan Muse is still looking for more. Here’s the scoop on the Penguins’ assistant coaches.

Steelers Now: How would you feel about a WR homecoming? A Pittsburgh and Pitt boy made good is open to coming home. Could the Steelers sign Tyler Boyd?

Pittsburgh Baseball Now: Where did that come from?! The New York Mets didn’t stand a chance for the three-day reincarnation of the Lumber Company and the Pittsburgh Pirates’ hit parade.

NHL Trade, News, & NHN

Vegas Hockey Now: Make the trade or we’re telling Gary Bettman on you! The Toronto Maple Leafs are playing extreme hardball in their Mitch Marner sign-and-trade negotiations with the Vegas Golden Knights; it’s a little bit of extortion? But if you mention extortion again, I’ll have your legs broken. Here’s the full story on the Golden Knights’ Marner trade attempt.

That’s an Animal House quote for you youngsters who think Super Bad was new ground.

Oh, but the VGK did swing a deal, sending thumper defenseman Nic Hague to the Nashville Predators. Here are the official late-night details from the Golden Knights trade.

Hague quickly signed a healthy deal with Nashville for $5.5 million per season. I know some of you were high on acquiring Hague, but that’s … an overpay.

Ottawa Hockey Now: It was a closely watched negotiation. Would this hometown boy stay home? Yep, Claude Giroux re-signed with the Ottawa Senators.

Other news: Matthew Knies signed a six-year, $46.5-million deal with Toronto. Morgan Geekie signed a six-year deal with the Bruins. The Dallas Stars are hiring Glenn Gulutzan as their next head coach. And the Tampa Bay Lightning put former Penguins winger Conor Sheary on waivers for the purpose of a buyout later today, just beating the deadline.

NYI Hockey Now: I referenced the great work the Isles did at the draft in that Dubas column (that went poof). The Islanders made the hard choices Friday and traded Noah Dobson, then executed their plan flawlessly at the NHL Draft. Russ Macias laid it out–these are quickly GM Mathieu Darche’s brand-new New York Islanders.

Congrats to Russel, too. In June, NYI Hockey Now set a record for most readers in its five-year history. Russ is a Duquesne grad and a pretty smart cookie. It’s great fun to work with young writers as they grow and improve.

Philly Hockey Now (+): Yes, PHN+ subscribers can read this one — Will James puts the Philadelphia Flyers draft on the operating table and delivers the grade. They kept the sixth pick to get Porter Martone, they traded for the Penguins’ 12th overall pick, and here’s how those dastardly Flyers performed.