Links, News, and Notes: Please Hold

The Sens are off until Saturday, and PWHL Ottawa doesn't play until next Wednesday (the 14th), so we're in a bit of a waiting period. But that gives us time here at Silver Seven to revisit our preseason predictions this week, and in the meantime, there's no shortage of news to cover:

• ​A quick update on the Hockey Canada sexual assault investigation. Players' lawyers will get access to the evidence in the coming weeks. London, Ont. police will have a press conference today about the case. The trial will likely not take place until 2025 at the earliest due to delays in the Ontario court system. And Gary Bettman confirmed players will earn their salaries unless convicted.
• Brady Tkachuk, bless his heart, is confident the Sens could make the playoffs this year. The team is 6-2-2 in their last 10. If they keep that pace up the rest of the season, they would finish with 91 points, likely not enough to make the playoffs. Having to play better than .700 hockey for the rest of the year seems like a tall order to me, but I'm glad he's staying positive.
• ​Per The Athletic, 88% of NHL players say they now understand the rules that got Shane Pinto suspended. I think the word "now" is doing a lot of heavy lifting there.
• Mayor Mark Sutcliffe says the Sens should absolutely have a new arena downtown, which means pretty much nothing at this point.
• Steve Warne does a fun look at the 5 greatest players to get a cup of coffee with the Sens. Still hard to believe that Barrasso only played 7 games on this team.
• Remember when people were scratching their heads that the Sens drafted Pinto over Arthur Kaliyev? The 22-year-old (Kaliyev, not Pinto) is reportedly on the trade market, and Ottawa could be a destination, given Kaliyev's connection to GM Staios from their Hamilton Bulldogs days.
• CBC has a fun video feature with Rachel Gagnon, showing the behind-the-scenes of her job as PWHL Ottawa equipment manager
• An NHL rumour roundup, including that Eberle likely won't rejoin the Oilers. Too bad. It would actually be super funny to see the former guys come back—Eberle, Taylor Hall, hell, bring back Jeff Petry too.
• ​It seems like a question of when, not if, the NHL will next expand, and Bettman has given a list of potential cities, that curiously contained Atlanta and Omaha, though not Québec City. Personally, I'd like to see the NHL make 32 teams work for another 5–6 years before we even mention expansion, but money talks.
• The Hockey News looks at four late-bloomer NHLers hitting their strides before hitting UFA this summer. Former Sens prospect-turned-trade-chip Stefan Noesen could see a raise this summer.
• The NHL is returning to the Olympics in 2026 and 2030. (There's also going to be a Canada, USA, Sweden, Finland tournament next year, but who cares?) The big question for Sens fans is, with Brady Tkachuk and Jake Sanderson likely to be the biggest Sens names going, ​will anyone consider cheering for Team USA?
• And finally, here's Brady Tkachuk working his usual magic with fans, this time on the ASG red carpet