Dan’s Daily: Penguins Create Battles, Sharks Shopping for Talent

The Daily found enough new hockey content to live for another day, but at the rate of decline, we’ll be into our annual Pittsburgh Penguins Top Five lists by next week. In the Daily, the Penguins are fueling internal battles, the San Jose Sharks are seemingly shopping the free agent market for the post-Erik Karlsson era, an arbitrator delivered the ruling for Jeremy Swayman, and we have some NHL trade talk with the Carolina Hurricanes.

The tabulations are done. The calculations are in. The Hockey Now network pulled in a whopping 5.7 million views in July! People keep telling us what we can’t do. Fortunately, we don’t listen.

Small rant, big topic: Every bit of advice I’ve received regarding building this company posits hiring inexperienced, cheap writers and AI. A potential investor even mentioned AI, and I shut down the meeting until it was understood that it was a no-fly zone (Yeah, I probably killed that deal). However, in February, the owners of Sports Illustrated freely admitted to the Wall Street Journal that they’re using AI on some of their brands and expected to expand its usage.

I want the National Hockey Now brand to mean something, and I have too much respect for you to use artificial content. To me, it’s about integrity. But you have to help. Reject publications that use AI instead of people or every outlet will use it within a few years. Consumers will decide if it’s acceptable … and I hope you say NO.

Rant over.

Pittsburgh Penguins

Pittsburgh Hockey Now: President of hockey operations Kyle Dubas has overstuffed the roster. It was by design and could have significant benefits beyond just depth. Penguins off-season analysis.

San Jose Hockey Now: I’m including San Jose under the Penguins section for indirect but obvious reasons. Sheng Peng astutely spotted a trend about the Sharks and the types of players they’re hunting. The San Jose Sharks are shopping for talent.

If the Sharks want to add more talent, they must move Karlsson. Or, they can have a top-five pick again.

Steelers Now:

Steelers training camp takeaways: George Pickens absolutely dominated on Tuesday.

Sights and sounds: Broderick Jones got to work at Steelers training camp.

Check this out — And the rookies were not to be pushed around. Darnell Washington made a statement with a battle drill win over T.J. Watt.

Pittsburgh Baseball Now:

It was the MLB trade deadline day. The Pirates kept the big names but made several trades, including dealing Austin Hedges and Rodolfo Castro. Here are all of the Pirates’ trades.

After the deadline, the Pirates opened up a can on the Detroit Tigers. Get the quickie Pirates recap.

Congrats to both our Pirates and Steelers writers. The Steelers site set our all-time record with over 200,000 readers on back-to-back days. The Buccos boys had one of their best days ever, too.

NHL Trade Talk, News & National Hockey Now:

Carolina Hockey Now: Big and small names, Bryant Baucom has the trade targets for the Carolina Hurricanes.

TSN Video: After Carolina signed Sebastian Aho to an eight-year deal, did Aho’s contract actually lower the asking price for Maple Leafs forward William Nylander?

The Maple Leafs cannot afford its core. Something has to give, or the media frenzy will get crazy up north. Of course, I’m down for Toronto’s frenzied speculation and absolute hysteria. It’s usually a good time … unless you’re at the center of it.

Montreal Hockey Now: Marc Dumont’s Mailbag! The kid called Wi-Fi, waivers, lineups, and Canadiens trades.

Boston Hockey Now: Jeremy Swayman had to sit through his beatdown known as an arbitration hearing. Tuesday evening, he was awarded a bit less than he wanted. Boston Bruins news.

Philly Hockey Now: Political intrigue and entanglements have kept the Flyers’ goal crease short of one guy who wants to be in North America. However, the IIHF expects to rule soon whether the Flyers can have Russian prospect Ivan Fedotov.

Detroit Hockey Now: Speaking of Russia, Dominik Hasek is no fan of the puffy dictator (good for him). Viacheslav Fetisov is a Russian Hall of Famer and Soviet Russian sports official. Those two are quarreling through the media about Russian Olympic involvement and the Ukranian invasion. Hasek isn’t pulling punches in the battle of the former Detroit Red Wings.

LA Hockey Now: Short and sweet NHL trade talk — Here is the LA Kings trade bait.