Dater’s Daily: Darcy Kuemper off the market, P.K. Subban trade rumors

Welcome to what I have always considered the first official day of Fall – the day after Labor Day. I hope everybody had a good weekend. Let’s do some hockey links, thoughts and observations, starting with a note on Avalanche goalie Darcy Kuemper. Judging by his Instagram feed, he’s off the dating market.

• Boston Hockey Now: Our boys in Boston are on the P.K. Subban, NHL trade rumors.
• TSN: The Carolina Hurricanes GM Don Wadell insists signing Jesperi Kotkaniemi was NOT revenge–that part was just marketing
• Sure thing, Don.
• Detroit: Steve Yzerman won’t sign an RFA, probably, but the Detroit Red Wings still have piles of salary cap space to make moves.
• The NWHL rebranded completely over Labor Day Weekend and is now the Premier Hockey Federation. Holly Morrison takes a look at the league’s new image and what it all means. (The Ice Garden)
• With Jack Eichel apparently out of the picture for now, the New York Rangers could be in on a new top forward: Tomas Hertl (Forever Blueshirts)
• 10 years ago today, the Lokomotiv Jaroslavl KHL team plane crashed, taking the lives of everyone on board, including former Avs Karlis Skrastins and Ruslan Salei. They were such good guys. I talked a lot with Salei at his locker, and he was just a great guy to talk about life and hockey with. May they RIP.
• San Jose: Due to a medical exemption that prevents him from getting the COVID-19 vaccine, assistant coach Rocky Thompson won’t be returning to the Shaks staff.
• Jeff Carter might be the key to how the season plays out for the Penguins.
• Florida: Assessing the Panthers as training camp draws near.
• The top-5 wildest hockey-fan interactions (Hockey News)
• I still crack up over a memory from, I think, 1996 preseason. We were in Fresno, Calif., for a preseason game with the Sharks and the team had Bernie Nicholls on it. He had played the previous two years with the Blackhwks. He wasn’t playing in the game, so he was just hanging out in the stands for some of it. Some guy in a Blackhawks jersey spotted Nichols and just started cursing him out, saying he was a bum of a player and a disgrace to the Blackhawks in his time there. Nicholls started jawing back at him, pointing a finger at him. I thought they might have gotten closer together and escalated things, but I think someone Nicholls was with grabbed him and walked him out of the situation. I thought it was hilarious actually.