Dan’s Daily: Burke Sounds Off to PHN, Early Calder Odds

The hockey betting public does not believe Jarov Slafkovsky will be the Calder trophy winner. The bettors’ money is still on Seattle Kraken forward Shane Wright, who fell to fourth at the 2022 NHL Draft in Montreal, then stared down the Montreal Canadiens draft table as Seatle selected him. The Vegas Golden Knights officially didn’t get anything for Marc-Andre Fleury, as a sad situation ended the career of the minor leaguer they received in return. And Pittsburgh Penguins president of hockey operations Brian Burke spoke with our Dave Molinari and made a few comments which filled headlines.

That’s why we employ the big guy! It was a good read that will continue at 10:30 a.m.

Pittsburgh Penguins / Sports Now Group PGH

Pittsburgh Hockey Now: Brian Burke said the Penguins are better today than they were against the Rangers. And here’s why. Pittsburgh Penguins improvement.

If you missed it, we spoke with Matt Cullen about Mike Sulliand and league sources to get a little dirt about free agents from Zach Aston-Reese to Brian Boyle. Here’s the update on former Penguins UFAs.

Steelers Now: Hey, that’s Alan Saunders on TV! I made my Final Word debut a couple of weeks ago. Alan made his on Sunday night. You can watch it here — the topics were in his wheelhouse. Pitt and the Steelers.

Kenny Pickett is the third QB? The Week 1 Pittsburgh Steelers depth chart.

Pittsburgh Baseball Now: It was an ugly week for the Pirates. Yet another one. However, here are the bright spots for the week that was for the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Tear it down to the studs rebuilding wouldn’t be so bad if there was a payoff every few years, too. There’s just no good reason an MLB team is this consistently bad, yet MLB and the MLBPA seem to be feckless on this issue.

NHL News & National Hockey Now:

Since it was a holiday, the news was a little light. Just to note, we kept working. Subscribe to the Sports Now Group PGH. One price gets you first-hand, first-rate, and first coverage of all of Pittsburgh’s professional sports teams, ad-free. Click here.

Montreal Hockey Now: The early Calder odds do not favor the first overall pick. This could be a fun race between Shane Wright and Jarov Slafkovsky.

Vegas Hockey Now: VGK long ago lost the Marc-Andre Fleury trade, but it became official when COVID led to worsening health and retirement for the player the Vegas Golden Knights received.

Vancouver Hockey Now: the five most important — with a wild card — Vancouver Canucks this season.

Detroit Hockey Now: A Russian coach is ribbing Pavel Datsyuk to return. Mostly a joke. Mostly…for the former Detroit Red Wings captain.