Hi everyone! I hope you’ve all had yourself a great week. It’s almost October, and you know what that means: hockey season is almost upon us. A few exhibition games are starting to pop up on TV, fading veterans are signing PTOs hoping to make enough of an impression to latch on to a new club, and the media is already wondering whether or not Ryan Reeves is going to be the difference between the Toronto Maple Leafs winning the Stanley Cup or doing what they usually do (Spoiler alert: it’s the latter). I personally am looking forward to see my team in action once again, not that I expect them to do much again this year. Like any fan of a rebuilding team, it’s perversely nice to not feel like every game is a life-and-death situation. You can watch the games just hoping that a couple of players take some big steps forward until there are enough players on the roster who can actually help the team make a charge to the playoffs. I see that in teams like Dallas, Buffalo, and Ottawa. Dallas has taken those steps after letting their prospects blossom into superstars. Buffalo has done the same and just missed the playoffs. Ottawa’s youngsters are wonderful to watch, but the playoffs are still a year away, in my opinion. And Montreal? Well, they’ll be better this year, but not good enough to leapfrog Buffalo and Ottawa.

The Canadiens of 2023-24 are a lot like the Seals of the early 1970s in that they are diamond-studded with future stars. I can only hope that unlike the Seals, the Canadiens can actually take that next step forward. Montreal will certainly be helped by the fact they don’t have to compete with the WHA for talent. Which brings me to the topic of this week’s article. The WHA was one of the major reasons why the Seals went on a downward spiral starting in 1972. The team lost all sorts of talent to the rebel league, but one player they didn’t lose was defenseman Dick Redmond. Well, the Seals eventually lost him, and part of the reason why was because the WHA had made him a huge contract offer that Seals GM Garry Young reacted to with an offer of his own. This week I’ve posted an article from legendary Montreal Star writer Red Fisher detailing the entire Dick Redmond contract fiasco.

Since next weekend is Canadian Thanksgiving, that means I will be heading out of town to visit with family and friends, so there won’t be another site update until the following week. If you are living in Canada, I hope you have yourselves a great long weekend, and if you are living in the States, Thanksgiving is just around the corner!

Until next time, stay gold!