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- A sad note to kick off this edition of Links, News, and Notes as George Armstrong passed away over the weekend. Armstrong, nicknamed “Chief” for his Aboriginal background, was the longtime captain of the Toronto Maple Leafs and his number 10 is retired by the organization. RIP to one of the sport’s true trailblazers.
- As you may have heard, the Columbus Blue Jackets and Winnipeg Jets executed something of a blockbuster trade on the weekend by swapping Pierre-Luc Dubois for Patrik Laine and Jack Roslovic. There has been a lot of speculation about the reasons that Dubois’ stay in Columbus had become so contentious, but for those who weren’t up late on Saturday and might have missed the second intermission, the young forward did answer some rather pointed questions from Ron MacLean. Dubois claims the trade had nothing to do with Tortorella; I’ll let you be the judge of whether to believe him!
- Over at the Athletic, Pierre Lebrun’s got the reaction to the deal from executives around the league.
- The NWHL is playing their season in a bubble, and you can check out all the results from this weekend’s games here. The lone Canadian team, The Toronto Six playing their inaugural season, suffered a heartbreaking collapse on Sunday by giving up a 5-1 lead to the Minnesota Whitecaps. New Toronto hockey team, same Toronto hockey story I suppose.
- In Senators-adjacent news, Ian Mendes has a nice profile of Dean Brown and Gord Wilson over at the Athletic.
- Bruce Garrioch’s got some quotes from DJ Smith after Saturday night’s defeat that really drive home Smith’s message of defensive responsibility.
- And to wrap it up, Graeme Nichols had some good thoughts on the weekend about how the Sens might fill their need for a 1st line centre now that Dubois is no longer an option, as well as getting into some of the more curious of DJ Smith’s line-up choices.