Dear Reader,

Welcome to this week’s edition of the Hockey of Tomorrow newsletter. For those who've just signed up ( welcome!), you're joining more than 15,300 intellectually-driven hockey lovers that are passionate about the sports cultural, tech, social, and innovation side of things.

Here are the top stories this week

• NHL Says New Ottawa Senators Ownership Should Include Ryan Reynolds

• Exciting new hire for Hockey of Tomorrow staff: Chanel Keenan

• Former NHL Legend Jaromir Jagr Makes His Season Debut in the Czech League

• New Hockey Canada board nominees

NHL Says New Ottawa Senators Ownership Should Include Ryan Reynolds

A recent report from the Ottawa Sun suggests that Hollywood mega-actor Ryan Reynolds is keeping in touch with the Ottawa Senators and NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman about being involved in any ownership group that is going to acquire the franchise.

Reynolds publicly stated his interest a while ago and he already has experience owning a sports franchise. He currently owns the Welsh soccer club Wrexham FC. The 46-year-old British Columbia native is most famous for his role as the lead actor in the Deadpool comic quick movies, his ludicrously funny tussles with acclaimed actor Hugh Jackman and most recently his very lucrative entrepreneurial activities that include Aviation Gin, Mint Mobile & many more.

His story about acquiring the soccer team is even being featured in a Disney+ series. Not only that, but Reynolds’ ownership of the club has drastically improved its exposure, and sponsorship revenue has been flooding into the team ever since he made the purchase.

...Money flooding over professional teams? You know what that means....

Gary's listening.

Prior to Eugene Melnyk buying the team many years ago, the Senators were a franchise constantly being talked about as one that might be up for sale.

While the NHL can’t force an incoming ownership group to make Reynolds a part of the deal...uh hold on, we can't even finish that sentence, because that's exactly what the NHL is firmly suggesting, as per reports recently.

The NHL and Reynolds have met and discussed options. We can't say we don't like it, but there's probably a slicker way to orchestrate this than open-public-groopyism by Gary B.

Inclusivity leader Chanel Keenan joins the ranks of Hockey of Tomorrow

We rarely speak about ourselves, but in this case, we're making an exception because we're a little bit giddy: one of hockey's influential inclusivity leaders, Chanel Keenan, has decided to join our staff at Hockey of Tomorrow.

Chanel is an accomplished professional and community leader who has worked as a consultant for the Seattle Kraken & the Boston Bruins in addition to handling a plethora of nonprofit volunteer roles.

She's been named one of the top 25 most powerful women in Hockey by Sportsnet in 2022 & has a very powerful voice across the sport, advocating for change when it comes to diversity and inclusivity.

Chanel will be acting as the Community & Contributor Manager at Hockey of Tomorrow, with one of her first assignments being the coverage of the NHL Winter Classic in January.

She's on a mission to find the top 10 most diverse, non-mainstream, interesting, and up-and-coming voices to join as content creators for the launch of Hockey of Tomorrow's digital media/community platform in February. Think you know somebody who fits that mold? Reply back and we'll forward the info over to her.

Former NHL Legend Jaromir Jagr Makes His Season Debut in the Czech League

You probably didn’t think he was still playing, but he is. 51-year-old Jaromir Jagr is playing for the Kladano Knights of the Czech Extraliga. He scored two assists in his first game back over the weekend.

The fact that he is still playing professional hockey at 51 years of age is cool. Scratch that, it's just flat-out remarkable to see that some people, as rich and as successful as they have been, just...love the game for the game.

Minor issue though: It also pushes back his Hockey Hall of Fame eligibility three more years which means he won’t be eligible until 2026.

Jagr’s longevity puts him right on par with former NHL defenceman Chris Chelios and all-time legend Gordie Howe as players who continued to play pro hockey into their 50s. Jagr is perhaps the most dominant of them all when it comes to not only playing for a long time, but still being very much productive on the scoresheet.

He managed 16 goals and 30 assists in 82 games for the Florida Panthers during the 2016-17 season (the last time he played a full season in the NHL). Overall, he managed a whopping 1,921 career points in the 1,733 career NHL games. Remember that none of that includes several stints in foreign leagues throughout his illustrious career across four different decades. That includes time in the KHL, Czech Extraliga, and single-game appearances in Germany and Italy during the 94-95 season.

Wow!

Hockey Canada Announces Nominees for New Board Of Directors Including Cassie Campbell-Pascal

Cassie Campbell-Pascal was the captain of the women’s Canadian national team when they claimed gold at the Olympics in both 2002 and 2006. Now she is being nominated to join Hockey Canada’s new Board of Directors. There are nine vacant spots on the Board of Directors.

This opportunity comes of course because of all of the fallout surrounding sexual assault and harassment claims made against many hockey players involving various Hockey Canada programs. The scandal itself is one of the biggest in Canadian history. Both the government and the general public at large have been calling for massive changes within the organization and appointing a new Board of Directors is an obvious part of that.

Of all the nominees, Campbell-Pascal has the closest ties and the most experience related to Hockey Canada. She’s also the first woman to ever appear as a color commentator on Hockey Night in Canada and is a recipient of the Order of Canada.

Retired Ontario court judge Hugh L. Fraser is nominated for the role of Board Chair. He has more than 30 years of judicial experience.

Other nominees include former public sector employees who have held senior roles, lawyers, accountants, and senior executives from various diverse hockey backgrounds as well as several individuals with non-sports related backgrounds.

With each passing day as news like this comes out, we get a step closer to healing and moving on towards a more positive hockey culture. What do you think?

That’s the end of your shift for this week. Let us know what you think about Hockey of Tomorrow.

We also would like to ask you to maintain the spirit of giving during this upcoming holiday season and please share the Hockey of Tomorrow newsletter with your friends and family🎅🎄❄.

We would really appreciate it.

See you again next week,

Tom Sychterz, Founder

If you don't feel like ever being bothered again, then it's super easy peasy: just click unsubscribe below. We apologize for not being worth 5 mins of your time ( really, we mean it, no sarcasm.)