Friday Morning Hot Links: Blackhawk Down

Good morning all, I hope you’re ready for some links before the Blackhawks game.

We start with Oliver Ekman-Larsson. This is a fantastic defenseman whose contract ends after next season. Craig Custance suggests that how the Coyotes handle the situation could dictate this year’s trade deadline. (The Athletic)

Oscar Klefbom opens up a little bit about his shoulder injury. I’m glad they’re finally admitting that that’s what it is, but would like them to be a little more transparent about it. The Oilers won’t, so I will. It’s affected him his entire career and is probably not going away. It’s not the kid of thing that’s ever going to be cured — especially in a week — so the best we can hope for is for him to just manage it. If you watch how he takes a slapshot, it’s comical that the Oilers even thought they could keep this a secret. He’s adapted to make the shoulder as little part of the equation as anyone else. Have you ever seen a slapshot like that? Very little follow-through, legs hardly bent, it’s almost all core-strength derived. It also explains why he needs his abs to look like that. It’s damn effective but it’s not to hard to point to the shoulder as the reason he has opted to learn to shoot in that manner. Anyway, I hope he can manage it for 10 or so games before another trip to the IR. (NHL)

Dustin Brown talks about playing in LA among some other things in his contribution to the tribune. (The Players Tribune)

The Oilers have signed undrafted forward Cameron Hebig. He’s probably not going to be an NHL player, but you never know. Signing undrafted players can work out on occasion. (NHL.com)

That’s all for now, we will have game coverage right here.