Evan’s NHL Daily: Former Avalanche Defenseman Retires, Babcock Controversy

Mike Babcock hasn’t even made it to the start of NHL training camp without being shrouded in controversy, as some allegations were made against him that were quickly denied.

Meanwhile, the Colorado Avalanche made an addition to their team, and a former player moved on to the next portion of his career.

All that and more in this Wednesday edition of Evan’s Daily.

Colorado Hockey Now

Showed up to Captain’s Skate yesterday, and just happened to see Tomas Tatar there. 15 minutes later, it became official – the Avalanche are signing him to a one-year deal.

What can Tatar bring to the Avalanche? I’m going to post my thoughts on the move later today, but I spoke to an Eastern Conference scout to get their opinion. (+)

Scout Talks Tomas Tatar Fit With Avalanche, Playoff Struggles (+)

Around The NHL

When Nick Holden signed with the Avalanche in 2013, he had 7 NHL games under his belt. On Tuesday, he joined the Development Staff for the Golden Knights after playing 654 NHL games. Not bad for someone who didn’t become a regular in the league until he was 26. Best of luck to him in retirement.

I’ll admit that with everything happening with Tatar, I wasn’t following along with the Mike Babcock situation, but it’s a wild one. During Tuesday’s episode of “Spittin Chiclets,” Paul Bissonnette said that Babcock called Blue Jackets Captain Boone Jenner into his office, and asked to see the photos on his phone, AirPlaying them to a TV in his office. The Blue Jackets looked into it, and then released statements from both Babcock and Jenner, saying the story was misrepresented.

Bissonnette, however, isn’t backing down, saying he’s had tons of players confirm it to him.

Bizarre stuff. Who knows if it will go away, but Babcock isn’t exactly loved by his former players, so I’m not sure it will. I’m still not sure why the Blue Jackets, with all the coaching options that were available to them, chose to hire Babcock, but now they’re dealing with some controversy, and the guy hasn’t even coached a game for them.

National Hockey Now

The Boston Bruins announced their Top 100 players.

Maxime Comtois, a name we talked about at CHN, is headed to the Golden Knights camp on a PTO.

Good news for the Flyers, as Matvei Michkov has been loaned to another KHL squad. I watched Michkov’s SKA team last week, as they were playing Nikolai Kovalenko’s squad, and I didn’t even know Michkov was playing. Probably because he only got a handful of shifts.

Ryan Reaves said the player he used to fear the most in the NHL was Brian McGrattan.

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