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Howdy, folks.
Another edition of around-the-horn here as we enter the dog days of summer. Which, considering I’m spending part of today at the Mutt & Masters golf tournament put on by the Canadian Animal Blood Bank, is rather fitting.
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I firmly believe Connor Hellebuyck is going to be traded. In fact, I’d put the odds somewhere north of 95 per cent. I just don’t know exactly when, or to whom.
Jets general manager Kevin Cheveldayoff is right to push for the best return. After all, three-time Vezina Trophy winners who also have a Hart Trophy on their mantle AND a very reasonable contract with term don’t grow on trees. And he is under contract for five more years, so the Jets can afford to be rather patient here.
Still, the writing is on the wall here in Winnipeg. Hellebuyck is (almost certainly) moving on. That became apparent on July 1 when the Jets did not re-sign his personal security blanket, Eric Comrie, allowing him to pursue a new opportunity in San Jose. And it became crystal clear when the Jets did sign Stuart Skinner — a guy who has made at least 50 starts every year of his NHL career — to a two-year US$7.50 million contract ($3.75 million per season).
Not-so-breaking news: If Hellebuyck was returning, the Jets are not making that move. Hellebuyck is a workhorse guaranteed to make at least 60, maybe 65 starts if he stays healthy. No way is Winnipeg paying that kind of money to a guy to come and play once every 10 days, and maybe just 17-22 times in total over a six-month season.
Adding to the intrigue is that Skinner’s agent, Ray Petkau, is also Hellebuyck’s agent (and Comrie’s!). You think he’s selling Skinner on the concept of Winnipeg if he thinks Hellebuyck is still going to be here? Of course not.
I still believe Buffalo is the most logical landing spot, but I also keep coming back to San Jose as a suitable destination — and that was before they went and inked Comrie, which no doubt would make the sales pitch to Hellebuyck even easier. They are my two favourites, with Carolina a distant third.
By the way, if you’re trying to handicap when the deal might go down, how about the week of July 20-24? I say this because myself and colleague Ken Wiebe are on holidays that week. Naturally, something big on the beat will probably go down.
Don’t worry, if it does, I plan to interrupt my staycation to jump all over the story.
Speaking of the Jets, Ken and I are preparing for the latest edition of our monthly online mailbag, now that the dust from the draft and free agency has (mostly) settled.
MAILBAG CALL-OUT: Got a question about the hockey club? Simply hit reply to this email and we will be sure to tackle it.
The following sentence is something I never, EVER thought I would be typing: I’m going to be extremely sad when the World Cup is over.
I admit it. I’m absolutely hooked. The Mexico-England game the other day was absolutely compelling theatre, and there have been plenty of others in that boat as well.
Could I do without the flopping and the flailing? Of course. But the fierce competition and incredible storylines have made it must-see TV for me.
I’m seeing an increasing — and alarming — number of professional journalists, along with aspiring journalists, who are clearly using AI (artificial intelligence) in their work.
At the risk of sounding like an old man yelling at a cloud, that’s a terrible look.
The most blatant examples are posters and advertisements for various podcasts/shows/events they are hosting, which just screams lazy to me.
It also makes me wonder what else they might be using AI for — to write copy, for example?
I realize this relatively new technology is rapidly evolving and that, at the age of 51 and with 30 years in the business I may be somewhat “old school,” but I think if you’re going to use AI at the very least you should have to be up front about it and identify that at least some of your content contains it.
Otherwise, you’re tainting everything to do with your product, in my opinion.
Okay, rant over.
I lied, actually. One more. I’m very sad at what’s become of the Hockey News. It used to be a legitimate publication, one I subscribed to as a child and would gleefully pore through every time a glossy new edition arrived in the mail.
They had some of the best sports writers on the planet, which helped fuel my own passion for the genre.
Now? It’s a shell of its former self as an online entity. And that’s probably being kind. Nothing but clickbait and largely unattributed regurgitation of legitimate reporting done elsewhere.
I’ve spent the past few days covering the Manitoba Boys and Girls Junior golf championship at Pine Ridge and was struck by the fact that there were no other media at the course.
It was a similar story over the weekend as the Manitoba Women’s Amateur was held and covered by Ken for us. And I suspect it will be more of the same next week as the Men’s Amateur — which colleague Joshua Frey-Sam plans to cover — gets underway.
No, these events may not be as glitzy as Jets and Bombers games, but I believe they are an important part of our community that deserves our attention.
I’m thrilled the Free Press still has the staff and support to put resources into these amateur events, plus other overlooked sports and athletes. (Not to mention news stories, business stories, entertainment stories, etc).
That’s what being local is all about.
When I grow up, I want to be able to write like my talented colleague, Jen Zoratti. She opined about the beauty of a Winnipeg summer in her latest newsletter — make sure you subscribe if you aren’t already — and it was seriously one of the best things I’ve read in ages.
“This city comes to life in the summer. It thrums with an energy forced inside in the winter; winter is all sharp elbows and hostility, skeletal trees and bracing wind and frozen surfaces. Of course, you can enjoy the outdoors in winter — there is a brutalist beauty about it — but there’s an ease, a frictionlessness, about summer. You can just… go outside. You can sit down on a surface and drink a coffee. You don’t have to get bundled up or choose an activity in which you have to keep it moving lest you freeze to death. You can linger.”
Damn, Jen. That is just superb.
Programming note: I’m heading out of town for a few days next week to work on a very special and meaningful sports-and-life-related project that I’ve wanted to do for quite some time. I’m thrilled it’s finally coming together, and I can’t wait to deliver the finished product to you, which is slated for the Saturday, July 25 print edition of the Free Press.
Have a great week. Take care.
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