As a result of the dissolving of Victory+, several NHL teams are moving their local coverage to Prime Video in the USA. I may have the cause and effect backwards there, too.

The WHL was also on Victory+ and they have solved their problem for the time being:

All other junior hockey in Canada is on FloHockey, as is the AHL.

Prime, DAZN, amass local sports rights as Victory+ shutters
The local sports streaming landscape is coming into focus, with Prime Video and DAZN emerging as the top contenders and Victory+ going bust.
Sports Media WatchJon Lewis

Now, to make this clear since we had a lot of confusion when Prime began its NHL coverage: Prime in the USA is not the same "channel" or service or website as Prime in Canada. Or anywhere else. So Canadian Prime subscribers will not see these US games. American Prime subscribers will not see the Canadian teams that Prime has games for.

This is exactly the same process where Sportsnet or TSN shows games in one country and ESPN and NHL Network show games in the other.

However, Prime games in Canada are exclusive content to Prime. These games in the US are aired under local streaming rights, so the same game may be on television in some other way.

The Leafs website updates every day now, with a hilarious program of ampersand hunting (you missed one), and some real changes to staffing and some more title adjustment.

The Marlies are getting some rearrangement:

Denver Manderson is listed as an assistant coach for the Marlies as well as his role as Director of Minor League Development. That makes three assistants to Steve Sullivan. This may have been announced earlier.

Very interesting is Chris Bourque, a former AHL star with Hershey who joined as a scout in 2022 has been promoted to Assistant General Manger of the Marlies. He was one of those hires that was met with a lot of positive comments from those covering the minors back in the day.

Colin McBride is also gone as head of media relations. He had or has still, it's unknown, a job at MLSE doing the same thing for their MLSE Partnerships venture.

This is a very different management shuffle to the previous one under Brendan Shanahan or after the departure of Kyle Dubas. There have been a lot of changes, but it wasn't the big fire everyone on one day and then go looking for staff exercise that Shanahan engaged in, nor was it quite the same acrimonious exit of the Dubas breakup.

Speaking of:

Ouch.

Finally, some news that is both sad, but carries hope with it.

From The Branches