Dan’s Daily: Deadline Fallout; a Flying Punch; Penguins Cleanup

It seems there were more league-changing trades at this year’s NHL trade deadline than in the past decade combined. Elliotte Friedman put a pretty bow on several, including the inside scoops on the Brad Marchand, Brock Nelson, and Mikko Rantanen trades. On Pittsburgh Hockey Now, sources confirmed some of the Penguins trade deadline activity and more on the Luke Schenn hello and goodbye situation. My column on general manager Kyle Dubas’s early moves in the organizational revamp drew plenty of debate, though some seemed to misunderstand the basic analysis of Dubas’s acquisitions and the rub against successful team rebuilding.

I’m going to continue posting the Daily, hopefully by 8 a.m., but I’ll share just how crazy life has been this season. I checked my Apple Health app yesterday for the first time in months. It showed I’m averaging three hours and 39 minutes of sleep per night. Yeah…I might need to improve that number.

Hockey Now has some help on the way, but I still badly want to expand into several markets and get our NFL coverage off the ground. We’ll see if we can get this Spruce Goose off the water. What Hockey Now has done is really unprecedented, but we’re still fighting battles with some PR people just to be recognized. It is entirely frustrating given that our competition is able to exist in a couple of cities that have rejected us despite our competition’s practice of AI writers, unqualified people, not paying people for the revenues generated by syndication, and content “aggregation,” that is so derivative its basic theft.

I hope you enjoy our work because it’s all original, and we’re all in.

Pittsburgh Penguins

Pittsburgh Hockey Now: Instead of the Daily on Monday, sources helped us confirm some news and broke more news surrounding the Penguins’ trade for Luke Schenn, the lack of a Matt Grzelcyk trade, and what comes next. It was the Penguins’ deadline cleanup.

A couple of defensemen prospects finished their college careers and signed their entry-level deals. Here’s more on the Penguins prospects.

And the column that generated a lot of interest and debate. I would caution to actually read it rather than clicking to comment. I could have written a book. It seems Penguins GM Kyle Dubas is repeating two of his mistakes from Toronto early in the Penguins rebuild.

Steelers Now: It’s all about the QB. Justin Fields signed elsewhere, and I can’t believe it is happening, but Aaron Rodgers is negotiating with the Steelers.

NHL Trade Talk, News, & National Hockey Now

32 Thoughts Podcast: Friedman got into the seismic shakes caused by the NHL trade deadline. Yes, it still looks weird seeing Brad Marchand in a Panthers sweater. The Rantanen trade was a surprise and Lou Lamoriello’s comments on the Brock Nelson deal. It’s a whopper this week.

Boston Hockey Now: The new reality begins. It’s turning a few stomachs. The Florida Panthers and Brad Marchand.

Adam Gold 99.9 Sports Radio: Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour pulled back the curtain on the Mikko Rantanen situation. Essentially, Rantanen said he had four teams he would play for and Carolina wasn’t one. Here’s the segment on X.

YouTube: It became a war between the Utah Hockey Club and the Toronto Maple Leafs. Toronto blew a 3-0 lead, but won in the shootout, but you have to see this fight between Simon Benoit and the much larger Michael Kesselring, which included a flying jump punch. Finish him!

Colorado Hockey Now: Nate MacKinnon didn’t waste a lot of time reaching the milestone. 1000 points. He was the fourth fastest active player to get there, and he propelled the Colorado Avalanche.

Philly Hockey Now: Will James unleashes a terrifying opinion upon the masses. Oh no. Sorry in advance. At the trade deadline, GM Danny Briere did a pretty good job for the Philadelphia Flyers.

New Jersey Hockey Now: Here are two names to watch in Dubas’s push for young players. Simon Nemec and Seamus Casey are a pair of highly touted defenseman prospects, but their future is now in question with the New Jersey Devils.

Florida Hockey Now: In his attempt to come back from injury, Aaron Ekblad took some medicine he shouldn’t have. The Florida Panthers defenseman was suspended for 20 games.

Vegas Hockey Now: Hannah Kirkell put the VGK on the table. She explains why they cannot beat the LA Kings and the warning signs for the Vegas Golden Knights.