NHL offseason thread

1) It's Tshimanga Biakabutuka ... cannot believe after all these years, I still recall exactly how to spell his name. Or, better yet, just Tim for those afraid of non-Anglo names.
2) From college basketball, Oregon's Bol Bol and Campbell's Leek Leek are on Line 1 ...

 

Is #2 really true? I thought that was a joke Gord Miller made during the truncated World Juniors last year, and that it was soon debunked.

 

https://www.sports-reference.com/cfb/players/samoa-samoa-1.html

 

That’s what the Red Wings were saying

 

Chara, Subban and Yandle all announce their retirements this morning. That’s a lot of talent on defense.

 

Gare Joyce on P.K.

News came down that P.K. Subban has announced his retirement today at the tender age of 33. It seems early in the extreme for the winner of a major NHL trophy (the Norris in 2013) and a two-time First Team All-Star without a history of significant injury. I’m inclined to believe that he could be talked into playing this season but at this point no GM has tried or at least tried hard enough.

(Subban’s situation is the opposite of, say, Paul Coffey who over-stayed his time at the dance. People would ask me why Coffey hadn’t retired and I’d reply: “There’s always a GM who won’t let him.”)

I’ve interviewed and written about P.K. more than a few times over the years. He was always incredibly accommodating, maybe because I was one of the first on the scene—in Belleville back in October of 2008 when I filed this as the lead item in a column & notebook for Sportsnet. My one takeaway in retrospect: If he wasn’t fully formed as a player at 19, he was as a personality. Lots are saying now that P.K. is headed to the TV studio, but the fact is he probably had the chops to do that before he ever played a NHL game.

Read in full: THROWBACK: P.K. Subban at 19, Portrait of the Extrovert as a Young Man

 

Making the rounds today:

With Zdeno Chara announcing his retirement today, there are now NO active players in the league who have lost a playoff series to the Toronto Maple Leafs.

 

Rightly or wrongly, the whole “I’ll fight you when I’m ready” nonsense with Trent Frederic a couple years ago is what I’ll most remember him for. He looks like a complete joke here.