Jesse Compher and Savannah Harmon of the Sceptres are on the team taking part in the National Festival in Lake Placid for Team USA. This is part of the process of assembling the Olympic team as well as other national teams.

2025 USA Hockey Women’s National Festival Set For Aug. 3-9 In Lake Placid, New York
Rosters for U18/Collegiate Series to be Selected; Series set for Aug. 13, 14, 16 in Lake Placid
Team USA HockeyUSA Hockey

As mentioned yesterday Jayden Struble singed a $1.4125M contract for two years with the Canadiens, leaving Dylan Samberg and Nick Robertson the only outstanding arbitration cases.

There were no other signings or trades in the NHL.

Bored with fantasy trading Erik Karlsson, the topic is now Naz – you know, the guy with the full NMC.

Five potential trade destinations for Flames centre Nazem Kadri
Nazem Kadri has found himself front and centre in trade rumours for the better part of the year. Sportsnet’s Ryan Dixon looks at five possible destinations for the Calgary Flames centre.
Sportsnet.caRyan Dixon

The article does note that Kadri's no-move becomes a no-trade next summer, giving it a passing grade on that issue. It also does a pretty upfront job of including Toronto on that list but then explaining why that ain't gonna happen. So Ryan Dixon did a good job!

This was mildly interesting, not surprising, glosses over some of the things about Marner that the Leafs have very little of: namely players that score over expected routinely.

Travis Yost: Auston Matthews preparing for life in a post-Mitch Marner world | TSN
What impact does the departure of Mitch Marner have on Toronto Maple Leafs superstar Auston Matthews? Travis Yost takes a closer look.
TSNTravis Yost

Since that article brings up the roster, and everyone has already been making lines and coming to some obvious conclusions like how there's too many forwards who aren't very good and the top six is weak, let's think about last season.

The changes to the forwards from day one to the first game of the playoffs were fairly minor. The top six was actually identical for those two games, but that changed quickly as Craig Berube proved what he already knew about Max Domi on the John Tavares line. The big change was in the defence, and it was one of both concept and personnel.

On day one, the idea everyone everywhere thought was obvious was in play – a top pair of Chris Tanev and Morgan Rielly. That failed, the Leafs added Brandon Carlo, subtracted Conor Timmins and Rielly and Tanev rarely shared the ice.

This year the idea everyone everywhere is going to try is Domi and/or Matias Maccelli on the top-six wings. And it might work or it might not, but if it doesn't, it's not going to be the configuration that enters the playoffs. Any lineup you make now is likely to be stale-dated by Halloween.

Yost's statement about three million in cap space is likely to change as well, just a lot less than the trade-hungry amongst us wants.

That's your Tuesday. Go out and live it.

From The Branches