Maple Leafs sign Shawn Matthias, Oilers take Justin Schultz to arbitration and acquire a goaltender, plus the latest on the Canucks and Flames.
Maple Leafs sign Shawn Matthias.
THE GLOBE AND MAIL: The Toronto Maple Leafs yesterday signed forward Shawn Matthias to a one-year, $2.3 million contract.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: A solid signing by the Leafs. The 27-year-old Matthias is a big (6’4″, 220 pounds), versatile forward who can play center or wing, possesses good two-way skills and a decent scoring touch, netting 18 goals last season with the Vancouver Canucks.
EDMONTON JOURNAL: The Oilers filed to take defenseman Justin Schultz to salary arbitration, though the two sides can continue to negotiate a new contract leading up to his scheduled hearing. The move also gives the Oilers an opportunity to buy out another player. The Oilers also shipped forward Liam Coughlin to the Chicago Blackhawks for goaltender Anders Nilsson.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Interesting moves by the Oilers. There’s speculation the Oilers could buy out defenseman Nikita Nikitin or goaltender Ben Scrivens. I’ll have more in my rumors section later this morning.
THE PROVINCE: Still more grumbling over the recent moves made by Vancouver Canucks GM Jim Benning.
CALGARY SUN: Goaltender Jon Gillies, defenseman Oliver Kylington and wingers Andrew Mangiapane, Mason Marchment (son of former NHL defenseman Bryan Marchment) and Hunter Smith are five players to watch during the Flames’ development camp.
Good signing for sure. Small raise by NHL standards over last years salary on an affordable contract with a chance to prove himself under a good coach with likely more playing time too.
More sniveling by the Vancouver fluff sports media, and there’s a large subset of fans here who eat that stuff up and run with it. Probably why they do it in the first place. Neither have any patience let alone truly understand what is going on, then when things do turn around they’ll have no idea why. Nobody said this would be easy or painless.
They all cry for changes, then when changes happen they cry even louder. Can’t have it both ways, but for some it seems hand-wringing and sobbing is part of being a Vancouver fan… although perhaps understandable after 45 years with no cup.
Aren’t we bitter 🙂