Peter Holland, the 32-year-old centre who washed out after 15 games in the SHL two seasons ago, has secured a PTO with the Colorado Avalanche as he looks to make his comeback in the league. I guess he burned through his $5 million in NHL earnings from crypto. He also spent the past year working on Leafs Lunch, being edgy about the climate crisis, and saying weird *lon stuff like this?

Good luck, weirdo.

Meanwhile, the Tampa Bay Lightning got some of next summer's work done by extending a crucial piece of their offense, giving Brandon Hagel an eight year contract.

I think this is a great deal for the Lightning, who are more-and-more turning into a one-line offense – and keeping that top line as elite as possible is what will keep them competitive. The trio of Hagel, Brayden Point, and Nikita Kucherov have an average age of 27 and are locked up together for at least the next four year. And the oldest player on the line, Kucherov, is the first to expire.

Hagel is a top-notch player for that line and with Steven Stamkos' seven-year extension coming to an end at the same time as this extension kicks in, they have the space.

Also, more importantly, these new comparables keep pushing William Nylander's number above $10 million. Sign him. It'll hardly be the worst deal they've signed, and in fact I'm sure he'll be well worth the money. And, IMO, the time to get the Big Three on board with taking less money died with Mitch Marner, it's just a useless talking point now.

For those with a EP Rinkside subscription, JD Burke and the team released their 50th to 26th best affiliated prospect ranking. Some say a Leafs prospect landed the 26th spot.

Ranking the NHL’s 100 best affiliated prospects: Skaters 50-26 - EP Rinkside
The Elite Prospects 2023 NHL prospect ranking countdown continues with the 50th to 26th-best skater prospects.
EPRinksideJ.D. Burke

The Red Wings extended Joe Veleno to a one-year contract. The bottom six forward was taken one pick after Rasmus Sandin and was a prospect many Leafs fans wanted.

Another PTO, Nate Schnarr. He actually bounced around three times on his ELC, getting traded three times. First from Arizona to New Jersey (Taylor Hall deal), then to Montreal, then LA.

PPP retiree and occasional podcaster, Acting the Fulemin, appeared on RMNB's "Greatest Hockey Tweets of All Time, probably" twice!

"They blamed Raptors head coach Darko Rajakovic, hired in June, along with player development coach Noah Lewis, the Raptors' parent company — Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment Limited — and 10 unidentified Raptors employees, saying that they received proprietary information and sometimes directed Azotam to misuse his access to Knicks information."

Raptors sued by Knicks, accused of using ex-employee as ‘mole’ to steal scouting secrets | CBC Sports
The New York Knicks sued the Toronto Raptors, their new head coach and a former Knicks scouting employee on Monday, saying the defendants conspired to steal thousands of videos and other scouting secrets over the past few weeks.
CBCLarry Neumeister

That's the FTB. A bunch of names of various note. I'm really debating whether Hagel or Fulemin is the most famous of the list around these parts.

From The Branches