News and Notes: Weekend Roundup
Some news from the World Junior Summer Showcase, and more
Happy Monday, readers! We’re back for our weekly round-up of the weekend happenings with the Sens and around the league more broadly.
- Lassi Thomson is playing for Finland at the World Junior Summer Showcase and he showed off some of the skill that Pierre Dorion and co. were dreaming about when they picked him in the first round:/
I had Lassi Thomson 23rd on my board. Because of stuff like this. #sens 👇👇👇 pic.twitter.com/Bkqy7qlHp5
— Yannick St-Pierre (@DraftDynasty1) July 28, 2019
Thomson seems to be headed back to Finald for this upcoming season and he’s likely still at least a couple of years away from playing in the NHL, but it’s encouraging to see him flash that type of high-level skill against top youth competition.
- Jon Gruden, Luke Loheit, and Shane Pinto are also all playing in the tournament for Team USA Blue. Gruden’s notably racked up three points in two games. A strong performance for those three could be critical in cementing their spot on the U.S’ world junior championship roster.
- Jacob Bernard-Docker and Jonny Tychonick will be suiting up for Canada, who play their first game on Tuesday.
- In non-Sens news, the Calgary Flames signed David Rittich to a 2 year, $5.5 million dollar deal. Rittich played 45 games for the Flames last year and posted a .911 save percentage. Rittich was a remarkable 27-9-5 and was a big part of the Flames’ ascendancy in the Pacific Division last year. When I first read about this deal, my mind went to Mike Condon. Like Condon, Rittich was a bit older when he got his start in the NHL and his results before his breakout season had been fairly unremarkable. However: Rittich posted the 11th best dSV% for goalies with over 1000 minutes played last season, per Corsica. Maybe the Flames will come out of this looking pretty smart?/