Wednesday Links - American Walnuts and T-Ravs

Did anything happen yesterday? I was at work.

BLUES NEWS:

• Oh, I guess a thing or two happened. Like, oh hey, the Blues signed Paul Stastny to a 4-year, $28MM contract to probably be their top-line center. WAIT, WHAT?! SWEET. Army got his guy! [SLGT]
• And it was at a hometown discount, according to his agent, who is probably spinning things but WHATEVER LET'S HAVE OUR MOMENT GODDAMNIT. [SLGT FanShots]
• And he wasn't the only center the Blues got yesterday. Remember Jori Lehtera, who the team had been trying to lure over for a few years, and whose team rights with the team had run out? Then he went and kicked ass for Suomi at the Olympics and then in the KHL (which we'll get to later)? Well, the Blues finally got him over, two years, $5.5MM. Basically, all the wins for Doug Armstrong yesterday. [SLGT]
• Here's some clips the awesome Steve Dangle put together of Lehtera's time in the KHL. I'll feature one of them later, because of course I will. [SLGT]
• To add to the roster, sometimes people have to leave the roster. Like Adam Cracknell, who signed a one-year deal with the Kings . . . presumably a two-way deal, but for that little money, maybe not. [LA Kings Insider]

HOCKEY NEWS:

• Justin Bourne didn't get to everyone, but he got to a lot of people in his two-sentence recap of (pretty much) all the major free agency action yesterday. (S/T to CrossCheckRaise . . . GET ON HIS LEVEL, FOOLS!) [The Score]
• Yesterday also brought us the first III Communication post in a good two months . . . Obscene Alex's [Redacted] take on the beginning of free agency, posted right before it started. [III Communication]
• And apparently Jason Spezza read part of it. Before the frenzy, the Senators traded their star center along with Ludwig Karlsson (apparently, no relation to Erik) to the Stars for Alex Chiasson, two prospects and second-rounder in next year's draft. Yeah, for that price, Bryan Murray could eat my shit and I still wouldn't pay. [SportsNet]
• There were so many signings, trades and the like that to list them all, I'd be nuts . . . so head over to the TSN Sortable Free Agent Tracker for every signing of note. And for words about some of the bigger signings (as in, more than Justin Bourne would give), go over to Puck Daddy.

2014 FIFA GOD-MOTHERFUCKING-DAMNIT WORLD CUP:

• :-( [CBS Sports Eye on the World Cup]
• Despite the loss to Belgium, the United States has much to look forward to soccer-wise. Much of it involves Julian Green, the young man who scored our lone goal in extra time. [SB Nation]
• In the other Round of 16 match from yesterday, an extra time goal put heavily-favored Argentina through over Switzerland 1-0. [SI / AP]
• No matches until Friday, when France-Germany re-stage WWII and Brazil-Colombia stage . . . ummm, some South American war that never happened.

OTHER SHIT:

• Sorry, but if my getaway vehicle is a kayak, I'm not going to fucking steal anything. [Y! / AP]
• If anyone knows excuses to come up with for day-drinking, it's the one and only Drew Magary. [Deadspin / The Concourse]

VIDEO:

I told you I'd feature one of the videos from the Jori Lehtera post down here . . . well, here it is. Jori Lehtera fought someone! Yes! And it kinda sucked:

I mean, meh.

Send over your links, videos and other shit . . . unless you want to save it for the weekend:

• gtdonutking AT gmail DOT com
• @KingDonutI

And keep an eye out for Episode 46 of Beyond Checkerdome . . . which, of course, was recorded Sunday . . . so it'll have nothing about yesterday's fine dealings.