Jerome Miron-Imagn Images
It’s time for another edition of Screen Shots, a regular THN.com feature in which yours truly looks at a few different hockey topics and addresses them in short-ish paragraphs. Moving along:
The Toronto Maple Leafs have some difficult decisions to make by the end of training camp. One of the bigger ones is what to do with newly acquired defenseman Jani Hakanpaa. The 32-year-old Hakanpaa is still dealing with a significant knee injury, but his first day practising with the Leafs is a good harbinger of what’s to come.
Jani Hakanpaa is skating with the group today in Bracebridge. First time we’ve seen that for the defenseman. pic.twitter.com/hIrbgl6VXx
— David Alter (@dalter) October 2, 2024
Sooner than later, Hakanpaa will make this Buds defense corps fairly deep as they pursue a playoff berth. Even if Hakanpaa needs more than another week or two to recover from off-season knee surgery, bringing him in at any point during the regular season doesn’t force Leafs GM Brad Treliving to pay a higher price for defensemen on the trade market by next spring’s trade deadline.
The Leafs don’t have a Norris Trophy front-runner in their lineup, but they do have a solid number of assets on the back end. Considering Treliving’s job is to make the ‘D’ better than they were last season, he’s doing well in that department, and Hakanpaa’s eventual arrival will only make the Buds better. Having him protect the net, be physical and make life easier for his goaltenders will only help Toronto.
Related: Toronto Maple Leafs Face Cost-Cutting Moves This Week
The prospect of 3-on-3 hockey at the 2030 Olympic Games bubbled to the surface this week, and we’re here for it.
The #IIHF wants to add 3-on-3 men's and women's tournaments to the 2030 Olympics, which creates a lot of things to speculate on, from rules to team compositions. What do you think? @TheHockeyNews https://t.co/IQ1f71Rkxw
— Derek O'Brien (@Derek_J_OBrien) September 28, 2024
Other sports have adapted successfully to smaller and quicker formats, including 3-on-3 basketball, rugby sevens, and beach volleyball and mixed doubles curling. So why not give it a shot for hockey at the Olympics?
The worst that can happen is they shut it down after one Winter Games. But regardless of the form it takes – first and foremost, the possible but improbable inclusion of NHL players – 3-on-3 could be lots of fun. We could also instead wind up with some new and intriguing amateur players who didn’t get to hockey’s top league for one reason or another but who are getting a chance to entertain the masses in the hunt for a gold medal.
A 3-on-3 Olympic hockey tournament would probably nauseate the NHL’s defense-obsessed coaching community, but for the rest of us, it’d provide another opportunity to expand the hockey community and reach a global audience. That’s why we think 3-on-3 Olympic ice hockey games are a terrific idea and why they’d bring in nothing but good news for the industry. The more angles of the sport you can promote, the better off the sport will be, and 3-on-3 elite hockey has a lot of promise.
Finally, the hockey business world had fresh news of a hockey equipment-and-apparel-maker’s sale this week, with Swedish private equity firm Aldor announcing it agreed to purchase a majority stake in CCM Hockey. No sale amount was officially announced, but TSN’s Rick Westhead reported earlier this year the sale could eclipse $570 million to current CCM owner Birch Hill Equity Partners. Birch Hill purchased CCM Hockey in 2017 from apparel giant Adidas for $110 million.
There have been worries the sale of CCM would wind up being felt by consumers who will be faced with rising prices for hockey equipment, but it’s too soon to confirm that. However, there’s also the matter of Bauer’s forthcoming sale to Fairfax Financial Holdings, a Canadian private equity firm that this week agreed to buy control of Bauer’s parent company from Montreal’s Desmarais family.
The sale cost for Bauer and its sister and parent companies also was not disclosed, but clearly, the hockey business is sufficiently attractive to boost the value of these businesses exponentially. These recent maneuvers indicate how much money is in play as companies jostle for supremacy in a pricey hockey equipment sales market.
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News Summary:
- Screen Shots: Hakanpaa's Value To Leafs, 3-On-3 Olympic Hockey And CCM's Sale
- Check all news and articles from the latest NHL updates.