The biggest stories of the 2019-20 season so far

Whether you like all the topics coming out of the NHL this season or not, there’s no denying that it has been a hot, and most definitely divisive, season for news so far. Some of the stories have caused people to say that hockey, as they know it, is dead, while others have welcomed the changes these stories have seemingly produced. With the season pretty close to half over, let’s take a look at what we’ve deemed to be the top stories of the 2019-20 season so far.

Number 5 – RFA holdouts

Before this season, the two biggest restricted free agent holdouts were Boston’s David Pastrnak and Toronto’s William Nylander. Pastrnak ended up signing a six-year extension in September of 2018, meaning no regular season games were missed. Nylander was the first RFA to hold out into the start of the regular season, signing December 1^st of 2018, just minutes before the deadline that would have made him ineligible to play at all in 2018-19. Then came this September when several young players waited until the first of the month to sign or missed some or all of training camp before agreeing to new terms with their respective teams. There were a number of big names involved. Perhaps the biggest, according to most hockey analysts anyway, was Toronto’s Mitch Marner. For some fans, Marner was simply holding out to get the money he deserved after putting up phenomenal numbers in his final RFA season (26 goals, 68 assists for 94 points). For others, he became the poster boy for the new breed of supposedly spoiled, greedy hockey players. Marner would end up signing a new six-year contract on September 13^th worth very close to $11 million a season. To be fair, there were some big names to ink new contracts before Marner-Philadelphia’s Ivan Provorov and Zach Werenski of Columbus were likely the biggest ones-but it was Marner’s signing that really caused the dominoes to fall. Shortly after him, Philly’s Travis Konency signed a six-year contract, while Vancouver’s Brock Boeser, Tampa Bay’s Brayden Point and Boston’s Charlie MacAvoy signed for three years each. Two of the longest holdouts were Winnipeg’s Patrick Laine and Colorado’s Mikko Rantenen, who both went to Switzerland to train with SC Bern while negotiations continued. These two, along with Winnipeg’s Kyle Connor, were the longest holdouts of any of the RFAs who didn’t miss any games, with all three waiting until the end of September, missing their teams’ respective training camps. There are two RFAs who held out long enough that they are currently not eligible to play in the NHL this season. One would be a lesser known name in Julias Honka of the Dallas Stars, who is currently playing for JYP of the Finnish Elite League. The other is better known to most, and that is Edmonton’s Jesse Puljujarvi, who is currently playing with Oulun Kärpät, also of the Finnish Elite League. Both of these players have demanded a trade and seem quite comfortable playing in their home countries until something gets sorted out. 

To close out the first of our top five stories, while waiting a long time to sign was a fairly new phenomenon for RFAs this season, like it or not you can expect much more of it over the coming years. As many analysts have stated, the NHL has become a players’ league and they are going to get paid well to play or happily sit on the sidelines until they do. 

Number 4 – Auston Matthews caught with his pants down

Hockey has had some strange stories over the years. This one is the strangest in a while. During the offseason, Toronto’s Auston Matthews returned to his hometown of Scottsdale, Arizona for the summer. While there, he and a group of friends were apparently having a bit of a party in late May and decided to have what they believed was some harmless fun. Matthews was slapped with a disorderly conduct charge after allegedly pulling down his pants in front of a female security guard who was disturbed by Matthews and his friends while sitting in her car at 2 AM. The case was eventually settled out of court and the charges dropped. Matthews would issue a public apology for his actions. One of the most puzzling details of this story that seems to get glossed over is that Matthews, for some reason, did not tell Toronto’s management about the charge. In fact, both GM Kyle Dubas and then head coach Mike Babcock said they found out about it at the same time everyone else did, when the story broke on Twitter in September. Patrick Marleau, who had been traded from Toronto to Carolina in the offseason and bought out of his contract, later admitted that Matthews had sought advice from him long before the story hit the media. At the time, the Maple Leafs were preparing to name a new team captain, the first since Dion Phaneuf. Many felt Matthews’ actions and not telling team management about it likely cost him the title of team leader. However, there were many others who said it was always going to be John Tavares regardless of the whole pants-dropping situation. Matthews was named Alternate Captain for Toronto and, while it sparked plenty of debate and memes on the internet, his transgressions seem largely forgotten now. 

Number 3 – Dustin Byfuglien

Coming into the 2019-20 season, the Winnipeg Jets knew they were in for a tough time on the blueline. The team had lost some defensemen to free agency and others through trades, seemingly putting their faith in younger talent while realizing they would need to rely hard on the leadership of veterans that were left. And then one of their most seasoned veterans, Dustin Byfuglien, didn’t show up for training camp. Many were puzzled at first. A couple of days later, it was revealed that Byfuglien, 34, was taking some time off to contemplate his NHL future and had apparently “lost his love for the game.” He would be suspended by Winnipeg for failing to show up at camp, and that’s when the story started taking a turn that would see the team pitted against Byfuglien in a grievance filed by the NHL Players Association. “Big Buff” would end up undergoing ankle surgery in late October to repair injuries his camp said were suffered late in the previous season and made worse by taking part in the playoffs with Winnipeg. The Jets disputed that argument, saying an end-of-season physical in 2018-19 declared Byfuglien fit to play. This issue is so contentious because if Byfuglien was indeed injured and unable to play due to taking part in NHL games, he should have been placed on injured reserved and paid while on the sidelines. The team would also be on the hook for his surgery and subsequent recovery. The situation has yet to be resolved. Byfuglien is out until at least January while he recovers from the surgery. He could choose to return to the NHL and he may not. There hasn’t been a definitive answer either way. In the meantime, it was recently stated that the big blueliner was consulting with the Jets during his rehab period, giving a glimmer of hope that perhaps the apparent rift between him and the team wasn’t as big as people had thought. It's worth noting that despite many analysts believing Winnipeg would be taking a step backwards this season, the team is 21-13-3 so far. Not a bad record at all. 

Number 2 – Allegations against NHL coaches

Blame Marc-Andre Fleury for this one. We’re kidding, of course but several memes have drawn a correlation between Fleury’s huge save during Toronto’s losing streak that would win the game for Vegas and result in Mike Babcock’s firing the next day, and the subsequent flurry of stories that would come out about Babcock and several other coaches after he was dismissed. The story that seemed to trigger everything was “the list.” Shortly after Babcock had been fired, a report came out that he had forced Mitch Marner in his rookie year to create a list of teammates ranked in order from best to worst in terms of work ethic. He then shared that list with some of his teammates, specifically Nazem Kadri and Tyler Bozak, two players Marner had placed near the bottom. Following that, a series of stories came out regarding Babcock’s treatment of former players. Everyone from Mike Commodore (who really can’t stand Babcock) to Chris Chelios, Johan Franzen and several others. The stories regarding Babcock led to Akim Aliu revealing on Twitter that he had once had racial slurs directed at him while playing for the Rockford IceHogs of the AHL by Bill Peters. Peters was the coach for Rockford at the time of the incident and was coaching Calgary when the story came out. Aliu’s disclosure would eventually lead to Peters resigning as Calgary’s coach, although it seems pretty certain he would have been fired anyway. Following Aliu, former NHL defenceman Michal Jordan alleged Peters struck him and another player while the two were with the Hurricanes. Former NHLer Daniel Carcillo alleged that Brent Sutter, owner, GM and head coach of the Red Deer Rebels, had emotionally abused a player to the point where that player couldn’t sleep and had developed anxiety from the experience. Stories from former players were also told about Michel Therrien and Marc Crawford, who both serve as assistant coaches in the NHL now. Crawford would be suspended by the Chicago Blackhawks after Sean Avery told a reporter that Crawford kicked him hard enough to leave a mark while he was playing for the L.A. Kings. Chicago has since decided that Crawford will return behind their bench, but not until after the Christmas break. The stories and their consequences seem to be bringing about some drastic changes in “hockey culture”, changes that some people think are necessary, while others believe it is causing the softening of what is often considered the toughest sport in the world. Whichever side you land on, the changes are real, and they appear unstoppable at this point. 

Number 1 – Don Cherry

There hasn’t been a story out of hockey in years that not only dominated sports headlines, but regular news headlines as well, quite like the saga of Don Cherry. The former coach-turned-broadcaster, who had been a regular on Hockey Night in Canada for very close to 40 straight years, was unceremoniously kicked to the curb by Sportsnet and CBC following a rant regarding immigrants and poppies on November 9^th, two days before Remembrance Day. Cherry would be fired on the very day he was ranting about, ending a run that made him one of the most recognizable faces and voices in Canada and beyond.

“You people that come here… whatever it is, you love our way of life, you love our milk and honey, at least you could pay a couple of bucks for a poppy.”

Cherry’s statement set off a flood of complaints to the Canadiens Broadcast Standards Council, who would eventually request that people stop sending them in as it wasn’t equipped to handle so many of them. The statement also set off a horde of defenders who believed Cherry was simply standing up for what he believed in. Cherry would not apologize for the remarks but did admit on an appearance on the Tucker Carlson show on Fox News that he wished he had said everyone instead of singling out one group of people. Cherry’s longtime Coach’s Corner Partner Ron MacLean would apologize the next night, calling Cherry’s comments hurtful and wrong. Cherry would, in turn, accuse MacLean of “burying” him in a subsequent interview, although he insisted he still considered MacLean a friend. Cherry’s rant and the fallout from it would dominate headlines in Canada for more than a week. While commenting on the incident, The Social’s Jess Allen, who was serving as a guest host, would face backlash of her own after saying she doesn't worship at the altar of hockey and found in her experience that those who did "all tended to be white boys who weren't, let's say, very nice.'' She added that they were often bullies. CTV would issue an apology for her comments, as would Allen herself. However, like Cherry, she was not willing to completely admit that she was wrong in her assessment. After all the smoke cleared, Coach’s Corner was no more, and Cherry started a podcast entitled “Grapevine”. His son Tim serves as co-host. The podcast, in its first few episodes at least, would enjoy major success being among the top downloads on several streaming services. It’s not known yet whether Hockey Night in Canada suffered any drop in ratings following Cherry’s dismissal. Many on social media vowed to never watch again, elevating Cherry to the status of martyr being persecuted for speaking the truth. Others felt Cherry should have been gone decades ago, saying his views on hockey, and society in general, were outdated, divisive and often xenophobic and misogynistic.

Did we miss anything? Do you disagree with the order? Let us know in the comments.