Don Waddell, GM of the surprising Columbus Blue Jackets, stopped by The Sheet last week and I asked him if the recent success of the team has complicated any of his plans for this season specifically around the Trade Deadline.

“No, because I’ve gotten a lot of calls from some of our free agents going back the last month and a half or so, and I’ve told them all that we’re not willing to just get rid of players at this point. We’re looking at if we can improve our team through hockey trades and all that. Our job as a general manager is to continue to look at that. But, you know, a guy like Ivan Provorov, who I get a lot of calls about, he’s one of our best defenders, if not our best defender. And there’s an opportunity, potential to sign him. And if we can sign him, that would be great. And if not, then come March, we’ll have to make a decision about what we do. But I owe it to the players, I owe it to the fans, I owe it to the ownership that if we’re in the hunt, we’ve got to try to continue at least to stay in the hunt and play it out and see how it goes.”

Interesting about being open to an extension with Provorov. I’ve been told he does like it in Columbus.

USHL does right by the Hockey Gods in Gaudreau tribute

Major stick taps to the USHL, who announced ‘The Gaudreau Award’ this weekend, which will be given annually to the player who best embodies the legacy of Johnny and Matthew Gaudreau. Each team will nominate one player who they feels meets the criteria, after which the top three finalists will be announced, and each USHL coach will cast one vote to get to a winner. The award will be handed out during the final regular season game of the winner’s team.

The league came up with the idea of the award back in September but wanted to wait until Johnny’s USHL team, the Dubuque Fighting Saints (Matthew played for the Omaha Lancers), were ready to retire his jersey, which they did Saturday in an emotional ceremony before their game against the Sioux City Musketeers.

And if you didn’t believe in Hockey Gods before this game, you may want to reconsider.

The first goal of the game was scored by Matthew and assisted by Jon (Dubuque’s Matthew Desiderio from Jon Morello).

DESIIIII‼️#Fighting15 #HalosHigh #JG8Forever https://t.co/VkgdRsXyJ8 pic.twitter.com/Y4uX4e9kP9

— Dubuque Fighting Saints (@fightingsaints) January 12, 2025

Matthew and Jon in on the first goal. Perfect.

And Dubuque’s second goal was scored by Michael Barron. It was his 13^th goal of the season and Barron wears number…13, in honour of Johnny’s NHL digits.

🚨#13 for #13🚨#Fighting15 #HalosHigh #JG8Forever https://t.co/Dws6wEDjze pic.twitter.com/z9ECXBmLGU

— Dubuque Fighting Saints (@fightingsaints) January 12, 2025

Such a classy touch skating over and pointing to the Gaudreau #8 banner.

But there’s still some more.

One of the linesmen in the game, Ryan Devine, played against Johnny in Philadelphia with the Jr. Flyers, while referee Kevin McManus’ father went to Norwich University with Guy Gaudreau, Johnny and Matthew’s father.

Why the Wings are finally flying under Todd McLellan

There’s no doubt the Detroit Red Wings are a much different team under new head coach Todd McLellan. Winners of seven in a row, you can notice right away how much more aggressive the Wings are in all three zones. They attack the game now and support each other all over the ice.

Our friend Troy Smith of HockeyIQ.ca has a good breakdown here.

On their 7 Game heater DET has become much more aggressive offensively attacking the net and working away from the puck to support each other. This clip is a great illustration of that. #hockeytown pic.twitter.com/wEkVk5uQBi

— Troy Smith (@dtroysmith) January 13, 2025

Gabe giveth in style

Hands up: who thought Winnipeg Jets winger Gabe Vilardi was going to shoot this puck on the power play Friday night against the Los Angeles Kings?

Serious question: Does Gabriel Vilardi have eyes in the back of his head?

Mark Scheifele is up to 24 goals in 43 games. He had 25 in 74 last season. Is that good? pic.twitter.com/dRskNwrmhZ

— Dave Minuk (@ICdave) January 11, 2025

One of the nicest passes you’ll see all season.

Pacific Northwest plants seeds for PWHL expansion

It’s going to be tough for the PWHL to look at the success of the Takeover Tour in both Vancouver and Seattle and not give those markets strong consideration for expansion. Nineteen thousand fans at Rogers Arena and 12,000 at Climate Pledge Arena are another indication that those two markets, who have both supported women’s hockey historically, are ready to welcome professional hockey teams.

I asked Montreal Victoire defender Erin Ambrose on The Sheet last week what she would think if those two were the next expansion cities for the league.

“I wouldn’t be surprised. I think both cities and both venues have shown up and honestly provided a very professional environment for us. It’s one thing to go out there and have everybody in the stands and be super popular and have a lot of people in seats, but it’s another thing to actually treat us like professionals and make sure we’re going to a rink and going to a venue that’s ready for us. And I think that both places have done that. I will say, I know there’s a lot of places that have put in a good amount of work, a lot of ways to make it sustainable in those cities and those venues…I have no idea what’s going to happen, but I love that the possibility of the expansion is there. And I think that’s something that we as professional athletes really want.”

Pou’s perfection

The Vancouver game also gave us this beauty courtesy of Marie-Philip Poulin:

Marie-Philip Poulin doing Marie-Philip Poulin things. Scores a beauty of a goal from her knees. 3-0 Montreal. Victoire are taking over the game. #PWHL pic.twitter.com/hI53RotCoc

— Marc Dumont (@MarcPDumont) January 9, 2025

I know we’ve all seen it before, but any excuse to show this goal again I’ll take.

And what did Ambrose think of the latest bit of genius from MPP?

“I’m still in awe. I think that that’s the thing that continuously happens with Pou, and you see things that happen and it’s just like, I don’t know how she does it. At the same time, it’s because, and this is so cheesy, but she plays the game the right way. Her goal was a highlight reel goal, but let’s talk about her empty net goal, like she’s in the right place at the right time to intercept that path. I don’t love a lot of people shooting a puck from the other side of the red line but with Pou, I’ll take that every time.”

And how about Carolina Ouellette’s Concordia Stingers trying to pull off ‘The Pou” (I just made that up) at practice?

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Caroline Ouellette (@caroouellette13)

PWHL fans keep toppling records

Should also mention the Montreal vs Minnesota game Sunday set an American all-time professional women’s attendance record as 14,018 fans saw the defending champion Frost beat the Victoire 4-2. The previous record was 13,736 set last March in Detroit at Little Caesars Arena for a Boston/Ottawa game.

Listen to the chants of “We want a team” inside Ball Arena.

After breaking the PWHL's US attendance record (14,018), fans in Denver chanted "we want a team" 🗣️

(via @BauerHockey) pic.twitter.com/x7HxZf2T9o

— B/R Open Ice (@BR_OpenIce) January 12, 2025

If you’re still steamed about the World Juniors…

I wanted to throw one more thing in about Hockey Canada and the World Junior situation after continuing to hear and read takes about their selection process. First off, does Hockey Canada deserve blame for what happened in Ottawa? Absolutely. But as informed criticism is always superior to hot takes, I just wanted to mention how the process worked this time around, and then if hockey observers want to treat HC as a pinata, at least they’ll be swinging with a smarter stick.

Let’s start with The Program of Excellence (U17, U18, U20). The PoE is overseen by Hockey Canada leadership, CHL President Dan MacKenzie and the three CHL member league commissioners, Dan Near (WHL), Bryan Crawford (OHL) and Mario Cecchini of the QMJHL.

This year’s PoE Management group for the U20 (the WJC) was led by Lethbridge Hurricanes GM Peter Anholt, who did both jobs this year. Al Murray acted as his full-time head scout, but he also had regional scouts working under him). Brent Seabrook and Scott Walker also joined the management group for this cycle.

This management group works closely with Hockey Canada’s hockey operations staff led by Scott Salmond (who oversees the men’s, women’s and para programs). Anholt would report to Salmond. This is the group who builds the rosters and coaching staff.

Dave Cameron and his staff were hired in July in advance of the World Juniors Summer Showcase and helped support the process of identifying players for the National Junior Team Selection Camp and WJC roster.

Hockey Canada is now in the process of going through their annual review of the World Juniors which we all assume will lead to changes. Anholt’s two-year term has come to an end, and I would imagine Hockey Canada would now look at naming a full-time GM.

Al Murray is still under contract as head scout while Dave Cameron and his staff are not under contract for any future events.

Normally, Hockey Canada has their management group and coaches figured out in late Spring, so I would expect that to be the timeline if not earlier since the WJC debrief is underway and not being kicked down the road.

It’s women’s Beanpot time

Something I wanted to get on your radar – The Women’s Beanpot is on the horizon with the semifinals going Tuesday Jan. 14 at Northeastern’s Matthews Arena as Boston University faces Harvard and Northeastern takes on Boston College.

The championship and consolation games go Jan. 21 at TD Garden. Last year was wild, with Northeastern beating BU 2-1 in OT in front of more than 10,000 fans at TD Garden. Tickets available here.

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