The Daily Scan: Flames feeling sting, league hammers Kane, Kessel on the NHL trade block

While the Calgary Flames are still feeling the sting of losing their home opener comeback style, Evander Kane is feeling the NHL’s wrath for violating COVID protocols. Meanwhile, Phil Kessel is pushing hard to get out of the deserted desert, and Arizona is trying to make that happen on the NHL trade market.

Plenty happening around the league this week, so happy scanning!

NHL trade rumour and suspensions

GOPHXN: Craig Morgan reports the Kessel-Coyotes relationship will be over as soon as possible. The Coyotes have put Kessel on the NHL trade block, per his request. AZ is working feverishly to make it so. 

San Jose: The NHL lowered the boom on Evander Kane. The league dished a 21-game suspension for faking and breaking COVID protocols.

Canada Hockey Now

Toronto: Auston Matthews returned, but it wasn’t enough as the original Breadman (sorry Mangiapane) Artemi Panarin helped the New York Rangers beat TO in OT.

Montreal: Things have not gone well so far, but Mike Hoffman returned to the practice and Dominique Ducharme juggled the defence pairings again.

Vancouver: Travis Hamonic wasn’t suspended by the club after all. The team announced the player and team agreed on Hamonic taking an unpaid “leave of absence.” Either way, the final $1.85-million cap hit that remained after he was waived comes off the books. He’s not in Vancouver or in Abbotsford, and VHN’s Rob Simmer understands it’s a very private matter.

National Hockey Now

Detroit: Dylan Larkin was suspended for a game and admitted he was at fault. But Bob Duff says since George Parros took over, chaos is the natural order. The NHL has a policing problem.  

Colorado: A scoop for the Hockey Now family. Adrian Dater reports Nathan MacKinnon tested negative and was whisked to Washington for the Avalanche-Capitals game on Tuesday. 

Florida: Rookie Spencer Knight is a future star. So, critics are piling up on Sergei Bobrovsky – who is tuning everyone out and heating up. The Flames may need Jacob Markstrom to do the same.

Vegas: Mark Stone has a mystery injury, but Vegas might get a few others back. That puts top prospect Peyton Krebs on the bubble. Drama!

This, that and the other …

— Bit of a flashback when the three stars were announced for opening week with Anze Kopitar (34), Alex Ovechkin (36) and Steven Stamkos (31) getting the honours. Thought this was a young man’s game. 

— Derick Brassard was one of six different goal scorers as the Flyers earned their first victory of the season. After signing as a free agent, Brassard became the 11th player in NHL history to score a goal with at least nine franchises. (also CBJ, NYR, OTT, PIT, FLA, COL, NYI, ARI).  

A few former Calgary Flames are on this list.