Good morning fans of the Toronto Maple Leafs, and to a lesser extent, the Montreal Canadiens.

With NHL training camps opening in just over two week teams are making depth signings and handing out Professional Try Out agreements:

  • Los Angeles Kings signed Andreas Athanasiou
  • Chicago Blackhawks signed Carl Soderberg
  • Edmonton Oilers signed Slater Koekkoek
  • Columbus Blue Jackets signed Michael Del Zotto to a PTO
  • Garrett Sparks is  was invited to the Calgary Flames training camp
  • Mike Hoffman signed a PTO with the St. Louis Blues
  • Craig Anderson signed a PTO with the Washington Capitals/

Many of these players are fringe guys or near the end of their careers, and aside from Mike Hoffman, not a surprise they’re invites or late signings.

Speaking of guys most teams didn’t want:

Montreal Canadiens sign Corey Perry to a one-year deal

Corey Perry is now a Montreal Canadiens, after a long Stanley Cup winning career with the Anaheim Ducks and losing in the 2020 Stanley Cup Final with the Dallas Stars, and most notably being the star of this video:

Many Maple Leafs fans are now deleting their tweets about wanting the team to sign Perry this summer, but the Maple Leafs themselves aren’t down about Perry joining the Canadiens. Mentioned last week on Hockey Central at Noon, Perry was in the Maple Leafs sights.....but only if they didn’t sign Wayne Simmonds.

And the Maple Leafs did sign Wayne Simmonds, so they had no use for Corey Perry.

So enjoy the Leafs back up plan, Montreal. I’m sure many a TV/Radio host will find a way to use this to cement your spot as Stanley Cup favourites as they’ve enjoyed doing in the lead up to the season.

The Edmonton Oilers also signed an RFA early this morning:

In some less light hearted news, after declaring he was withdrawing from this season, Henrik Lundqvist announced he would be having heart surgery:

The Maple Leafs made a tiny move today, placing Kalle Kossila on waivers:

Kalle Kossila is on waivers today

The only other player on waivers today was Jean-Sebastien Dea of the Buffalo Sabres.

What’s this? A ball, just sitting on a tee? No, it’s too easy. I’ll pass.

Finally here’s your World Juniors rundown for the day:

Scores for December 28th (yesterday):

Sweden 4 - Austria 0
Germany 4 - Slovakia 3 (OT)

Games for today:

USA vs Czech Republic - 2:00PM
Canada vs Switzerland - 6:00PM
Austria vs Russia - 9:30PM

Training camp opens in 16 days. Enjoy the free time everyone!

From The Branches