The Dallas Stars, who most Leafs fans think are a good team and well run, did a big dumb thing last year and signed Matt Dumba to two years at $3.75 million. At the time there were not a lot of defencemen available, and they went ahead and signed a player who had not actually shown he was up to NHL play above the third pair – in an emergency – for some time. They made an evaluation error and prioritized their current needs over their future flexibility.

Yesterday, the only for-sure tanking team, helped them out. All it cost was a second-round pick.

Kolyachonok is a defender with some scattering of NHL games every year (he began in Arizona) and is paid $775,000. So Dallas traded Dumba for an AHLer who they can callup and not have to explain how NHL hockey works.

It's not your mistakes, it's how you fix them that counts.

This trade also means there is zero chance they trade Jason Robertson, which would have been a silly thing to do regardless. The chance has been zero for a while, really.

In other news, there has been some talk – some of it wrong on the details – about younger players in the AHL:

Just wait until the CBA is actually available to be read. Makes it easier.

Manson signs 2-year contract with Avalanche | NHL.com
Deal will run through 2027-28 for defenseman, who was limited to 48 games last season
NHL logoNHLdotcom
Samoskevich signs 1-year contract with Panthers | NHL.com
Forward, who was restricted free agent, had 31 points last season
NHL logoNHLdotcom

They now have a buck-fifty in cap space.

Hockey Canada picked this year's big winners to run the WJC team:

Dale Hunter named head coach of Canada’s National Junior Team
Dale Hunter will serve as head coach at the World Juniors, while Mark Hunter will join the management group.
Hockey Canada logoJason La Rose

Dale Hunter, who has won a few things with the London Knights, has coached Team Canada's WJC team once in 2020. Canada beat Russia in the final to take the gold.

That's more than enough for Friday. Have a good one!

Oh, wait, there is more from late last night!

Leafs trade Ryan Reaves to San Jose
Defender Henry Thrun comes back.
PPP LeafsHardev
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