Anders Nilsson, Expensive Defenders & Mete Extended
The big headline for the Sens organization in this roundup of Links, News & Notes is Anders Nilsson’s retirement from hockey following a series of head injuries.
Another quiet-ish few days in the offseason for the Ottawa Senators themselves, but a few interesting tidbits from around the league as we settle into the dead of “winter”, desperately longing for camps to get underway in September.
- Former Ottawa Senators goaltender Anders Nilsson announced his official retirement from the NHL. Nilsson, 31, made the right but difficult decision to hang up his skates after a series of head injuries derailed his career. From 2018 to 2020, Nilsson suited up for 44 games for the Sens, posting a 0.911 SV% in the process. For the state of those Sens rosters, in the early stages of a rough rebuild, Nilsson put up steady numbers. Outside of the rink, Nilsson always used his professional athlete status for good, regularly giving back to the community and being an outspoken advocate for the LGBTQ+ community. All the best to Anders as he enters the next phase of his career, hopefully still within the hockey world.
- If this offseason were an episode of Friends, it would be called “The One Where The Defenders Got That Bread”. This weekend, the Edmonton Oilers joined in on the fun and inked Darnell Nurse to an 8 year, $74M contract ($9.5M AAV). Another contract signed that will make Sens fans happy that Thomas Chabot makes what he makes.
- Hockey Canada announced the 25 players selected that will suit up for the 2021 IIHF women’s world championship that opens Aug. 20. Team Canada will be looking to grab gold for the first time at this tournament since 2012.
- In tribute to the late Matiss Kivlenieks, Pierre Luc Dubois has changed his number with the Winnipeg Jets to 80 - the number Kivlenieks wore when he was a teammate of Dubois’ with the Blue Jackets.
- The Sens’ Matt Tidcombe virtually penned a great piece on Victor Mete following the defenceman’s one year contract extension last week.
- The great Ian Mendes’ latest mailbag (paywall $$) covered a variety of topics from the Mete signing to Brady Tkachuk’s extension talks. The overall theme on the later was for everyone to relax. It’ll get done, it’ll be fine. We should all breathe./