Every week, we’ll update you on all the important musings in the hockey world over the past seven days — from the NHL and beyond.
There were plenty of viral happenings around the game last week, including the 4 Nations Face-Off rosters dropping, Jacob Trouba trade drama, an emotional Johnny Gaudreau tribute in Calgary, Sheskterkin inking the biggest goalie contract ever, some Teddy Bear toss shenanigans, a Bob Odenkirk sighting in Winnipeg and Patrik Laine’s epic start in Montreal.
Here’s the top sights, sounds and news you might have missed in hockey last week.
Rosters released for February’s ‘4 Nations Face-Off’
The highly-anticipated 4 Nations Face-Off tournament — the first best-on-best international competition featuring NHL players — is set to kick off in a couple months, and the rosters for Team Canada, USA, Sweden and Finland were released last week.
Here’s how team Canada’s 23-man roster breaks down:
Forwards (13)
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Sam Bennett, Florida Panthers
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Anthony Cirelli, Tampa Bay Lightning
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Sidney Crosby, Pittsburgh Penguins
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Brandon Hagel, Tampa Bay Lightning
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Seth Jarvis, Carolina Hurricanes
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Travis Konecny, Philadelphia Flyers
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Nathan MacKinnon, Colorado Avalanche
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Brad Marchand, Boston Bruins
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Mitch Marner, Toronto Maple Leafs
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Connor McDavid, Edmonton Oilers
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Brayden Point, Tampa Bay Lightning
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Sam Reinhart, Florida Panthers
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Mark Stone, Vegas Golden Knights
Defensemen (7)
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Cale Makar, Colorado Avalanche
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Josh Morrissey, Winnipeg Jets
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Colton Parayko, St. Louis Blues
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Alex Pietrangelo, Vegas Golden Knights
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Travis Sanheim, Philadelphia Flyers
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Shea Theodore, Vegas Golden Knights
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Devon Toews, Colorado Avalanche
Goalies (3)
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Jordan Binnington, St. Louis Blues
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Adin Hill, Vegas Golden Knights
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Sam Montembeault, Montreal Canadiens
Team Canada & Team USA have released their 4 Nations tournament rosters🇨🇦🇺🇸
Who has the better roster?👇
(Photos via NHL) pic.twitter.com/Hk1QLu1G1Q
— Everything Hockey (@EHClothing) December 4, 2024
Canada has the deepest forward group in the tournament — especially down the middle with Sidney Crosby, Nathan MacKinnon and Connor McDavid leading the charge — but the American squad is widely-considered to have the best defence and goaltending of the four teams in the event. Winnipeg Jets sniper Mark Scheifele and Chicago Blackhawks sophomore Connor Bedard were two of the most notable omissions from the Canadian squad.
You can check out Team USA, Sweden and Finland’s rosters, here.
Canada, Finland, Sweden and the United States will square off in a total of seven games from Feb. 12-20, 2025. Four of those contests will be played at Montreal’s Bell Centre, while three games, including the finals, are slated for TD Garden in Boston.
Trouba train finally departs New York after months of drama
The Jacob Trouba era in New York did not end well.
The now-former Rangers captain was finally traded out of the Big Apple last week after months of public trade speculation and alleged private “threats” from the Rangers, who were determined to flip Trouba and his massive contract worth an $8-million cap hit per season.
The move was finally made official on Sunday, when Trouba was traded across the country to the Anaheim Ducks for defenseman Urho Vaakanainen and a 2025 fourth-round draft pick.
The move was complicated by Trouba’s modified no-movement clause, essentially allowing Trouba to veto a trade to any city or team he didn’t want to go to.
Jacob Trouba said “it was a threat” that if he didn’t waive his no-trade clause he would get put on waivers.
“It’s a right of passage to get fired at MSG.”
— Peter Baugh (@Peter_Baugh) December 6, 2024
Trouba claimed the Rangers organization and general manager Chris Drury used the “threat” of healthy scratches and waivers to try and force Trouba’s hand.
“Yesterday morning was, ‘Accept this trade or we’re scratching you,’” Trouba said. “Got to the place where I felt comfortable with Anaheim, and that was the place I wanted to go.”
The Ducks, with Trouba and fellow punishing blueliner Radko Gudas on the back end — will now feature their own version of the “Bash Brothers” from the Mighty Ducks movies, as many social media users pointed out.
He added that the rumours and uncertainty surrounding his future in New York — with the team that he was captain of — weighed on him and his play early on this season.
“Don’t like that [possible trade scenarios were] made public necessarily, but I guess that’s New York and how it happens,” Trouba said.
“Made it kind of hard to play, but I’m excited to move forward. In my opinion, things could have been handled better. Not blaming anybody or anything, but it was just kind of an unfortunate end to my time in New York.”
The Gaudreau game
The Calgary Flames and Columbus Blue Jackets, the two former teams of late NHL star Johnny Gaudreau, faced-off for the first time since Gaudreau and his brother Matthew were killed by an alleged impaired driver while riding their bikes at the end of August.
The night, as you’d expect, was filled with tears, tributes and special moments to honour Gaudreau, who spent eight seasons with the Flames before signing with Columbus in 2022 and playing two seasons there.
Calgary took a 3-0 win over the visiting Blue Jackets, but the final score wasn’t the most important part of the night, as, with the Gaudreau family in the stands and every player from each team wearing Gaudreau’s No. 13. The Flames also memorialized Johnny and Matthew with a beautiful pre-game tribute, which lasted nearly eight minutes.
During an emotional night, the Saddledome crowd chanted “Johnny, Johnny” throughout the pregame tribute and “Johnny Hockey” chants rained down after the Flames took a 2-0 lead late in the third period.
Gaudreau’s father, Guy, who has been a fixture around both the Blue Jackets and Flames since the tragic death of his two dons, capped a night filled with tears and beautiful memories by joining Johnny’s good friends Rasmus Andersson and Mikael Backlund to name Johnny the first star of the game.
The trio always shared a beautiful interview after the game.
Absolute chills.
Teddy-Bear Toss chaos
The “Teddy Bear toss” is one of hockey’s best traditions.
In the weeks leading up to Christmas every season, teams across the junior, collegiate and minor-professional ranks host the event where fans purchase stuffed bears and toss them on the ice when the home team scores its first goal of the game. The bears are then collected and delivered to sick children across North America for the holidays.
It’s usually a beautiful moment, but sometimes it just doesn’t go as planned.
In Saturday’s contest between the OHL’s Barrie Colts and Ottawa 67’s, players from both teams engaged in a giant line brawl right after host-team Ottawa’s first goal of the night as the Teddy Bears came pouring down.
A truly unique edition of The Beautiful Game, as the Ottawa 67’s and the Barrie Colts get into a kerfuffle in the middle of the Teddy Bear Toss. pic.twitter.com/2zXj2a1QQc
— David Castillo (@DavidCastilloAC) December 8, 2024
Another wild situation went down over the weekend during a minor-pro ECHL game between Jacksonville and Florida as, after the hometown Everblades thought they had scored, hundreds of bears came raining down before Florida’s goal was called back for goalie interference.
Igor Shesterkin signs richest goalie contract in NHL history
Amid a drama-fuelled week surrounding Trouba and his eventual move out of town, the Rangers made some positive headlines, too, making superstar netminder Igor Shesterkin the highest paid goalie in NHL history.
New York locked up its franchise netminder for eight years and $92 million for an average annual value (AAV) of $11.5 million, which is higher than the eight-year, $84 million deal Carey Price signed with the Montreal Canadiens in 2017 as the richest for a goalie.
Igor Shesterkin thanks Rangers fans and the Rangers’ organization after signing his extension:
“I will try my best and we will try to bring a Cup back to New York” pic.twitter.com/yzeSBvajWB
— Rangers Videos (@SNYRangers) December 9, 2024
Shesterkin is the Rangers’ successor to Hall-of-Fame goalie Henrik Lundqvist, who retired in 2021. The soon-to-be 29-year-old has been arguably the world’s best goaltender since 2021, posting a 144-68-18 record with a 2.47 goals-against average (GAA) and a whopping .920 save percentage.
Shesterkin also captured the Vezina Trophy (NHL’s top goalie) in 2021-22 and has led the Rangers to the Eastern Conference final twice during his tenure as the team’s No. 1 stopper.
Celebrity cameo of the week: A wild Bob Odenkirk appears in Winnipeg
Better Call Saul, Breaking Bad and Nobody star Bob Odenkirk was seen catching the Jets game in Winnipeg on Sunday.
A celebrity lookalike cam on the arena’s Jumbotron hilariously showed Odenkirk in the crowd with an image of his character from Better Call Saul, Jimmy McGill, beside him on the screen.
Odenkirk’s has been spending plenty of time in Manitoba this year. First, to film Nobody 2, a sequel to the 2021 action movie, and now filming the flick “Normal,” which is expected to wrap up shooting in the next couple of weeks.
Goal of the Week: Patrik Laine’s epic return
After missing the first couple months of the year due to an injury suffered in the preseason, sniper Patrik Laine, who the Canadiens acquired in a trade with Columbus this past offseason, made his return to the lineup last week and had an immediate impact — sniping an absolute beauty on the powerplay versus the New York Islanders.
Laine, who received massive ovations from the Montreal crowd throughout his first game with the club, was almost at a loss for words after the game.
“That was the most outrageous thing I’ve ever heard in my entire life … it’ll be something I’ll for sure remember forever. That was the coolest thing I’ve ever seen … Pretty humbling and I’m just grateful and just thankful to be here.”
Laine’s continued his hot start with his new team as the week went on, becoming the first player to tally a goal in three of his first four games with the Montreal Canadiens since Yanic Perreault did so back in 2001.
Dish of the Week: A Nasty no-looker from Matthew Knies
No look, between the legs through the blue paint right on Willy Nylander’s tape.
In-tight assists don’t get much nicer than this:
Through 25 games this season, the youngster has 10 goals and six helpers as the Maple Leafs sit two points out of first place in the Atlantic Division.