Rich Clune has a way with words.
The Toronto Maple Leafs winger, who spent the majority of the 2015-16 season with the AHL's Toronto Marlies, chimed in on Twitter after stiffer consequences for fighting were announced by hockey's top developmental league.
Save you reporters some time. The 10 fight limit and no fighting off the face-off rule is great. Fighting isn't done, just guys who suck are
— Rich Clune (@richclune) July 7, 2016
Clune had four assists and 22 penalty minutes with the Maple Leafs last season. He racked up 146 penalty minutes in the minors, along with eight goals and 16 assists for the first-place Marlies.
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Jacob Markstrom is staying in Vancouver.
The goaltender signed a three-year, $11.01-million contract extension with the club on Thursday.
Markstrom appeared in a career-high 32 games as the backup netminder for the Canucks in 2015-16, going 13-14-3 with a 2.73 GAA and .915 save percentage.
The new contract carries an average annual value of of $3.67 million. The 26-year-old has one year and $1.55 million remaining on his original deal.
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Fighting in pro hockey continues down the path of extinction.
The AHL Board of Governors met Wednesday to determine rule changes for the upcoming season, and starting in 2016-17, fighting will warrant harsher consequences.
The new rules state:
"Players who enter into a fight prior to, at, or immediately following the drop of the puck for a faceoff will be assessed an automatic game misconduct in addition to other penalties assessed."
Additionally, if a single player accumulates 10 fighting majors over the regular season, he will automatically be suspended for one game, with subsequent suspensions handed up until a player reaches 13 fights.
If a player reaches 14 fights and higher, suspensions will be two games.
On top of the changes to fighting, the league also opted to ban offending teams from using their timeout after an icing call, a tactic often used by coaches to provide a brief rest period.
The AHL has previously been a buffer zone for the NHL when it comes to adopting new rules, as the affiliate league tested both 3-on-3 overtime and hybrid icing before the NHL implemented them.
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Chris Kelly is going back to where it all began.
On Thursday, the 35-year-old signed a one-year, $900,000 contract with the Ottawa Senators - the club that drafted him 94th overall in 1999.
Kelly played only 11 games last season for the Boston Bruins, scoring twice. He fractured his femur in November and was lost for the remainder of the schedule. He scored seven goals and added 21 assists in 80 games in 2014-15.
A Toronto native, Kelly spent the first seven years of his career in the Canadian capital, playing 463 regular-season games with Ottawa and recording 176 points.
He was traded to the Bruins in 2011, and the timing was perfect. He scored five goals and had eight assists in 25 playoff games as Boston won the Stanley Cup.
"We are excited to welcome Chris back to Ottawa," Senators general manager Pierre Dorion said. "In our evaluation of our roster we felt that we needed to add another player with the ability to succeed in close situations and on the penalty kill.
"Chris will be able to contribute to both of those while adding another accomplished leader to our group. He understands the type of commitment that is necessary to play at a championship level."
The Senators have been mostly quiet this offseason, but the addition of a strong two-way center in Kelly will help a young group that will be playing for a new head coach in Guy Boucher.
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The Calgary Flames have agreed to terms with their first-round pick.
Matthew Tkachuk signed his three-year, entry-level contract Thursday, the club announced.
Pen to paper! pic.twitter.com/OGvflj10KH
— Calgary Flames (@NHLFlames) July 7, 2016
The Flames selected Tkachuk sixth overall in the 2016 draft.
The son of former NHL forward Keith Tkachuk racked up 107 points in 57 regular-season games for the OHL's London Knights in 2015-16, adding another 40 points in 18 playoff contests.
The 18-year-old winger helped the Knights to a Memorial Cup championship in the spring.
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