Bulls & Bears: Flames get sparks of good news, Bombers are anything but blue

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bulls of the week

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After the difficult eight weeks that encompassed their elimination from the Stanley Cup playoffs at the hands of their Alberta rivals the Edmonton Oilers, the loss of Johnny Gaudreau to the Columbus Blue Jackets via free agency, and the departure of Matthew Tkachuk in a forced trade to the Florida Panthers, the Calgary Flames and their fan base got some good news this week.

General manager Brad Treliving was able to complete an eight-year, $84 million contract extension with Jonathan Huberdeau, the linchpin of Tkachuk’s deal two weeks ago. That meant the one-year control of the team that came with the trade was now a very comfortable long-term commitment to the Flames worth $10.5 million a year. Huberdeau’s deal, one point per player, is the largest contract in Calgary franchise history.

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The Winnipeg Blue Bombers are now undefeated in nine games and in a league of their own atop the CFL standings. There are at least four games separating the defending Gray Cup champions from the team with the second-most wins in the nine-team cycle in the 5-1 BC Lions, who sit second in the Western Division.

Meanwhile, south of the border, the biggest bull market was in Southern California, where by winning the Juan Soto toss, the San Diego Padres won Major League Baseball’s trade deadline earlier this week. week. His odds of winning the World Series went from 20-1 and 18-1 to 12-1. The Padres trail far behind their rival Los Angeles Dodgers in the NL West, but hope a batting lineup with Soto, Manny Machato and Fernando Tatis Jr. at center will be enough to win the wild-card round and then get past the Dodgers to finally win a first World Series in franchise history, something Soto helped the Washington Nationals (the former Montreal Expos) do in 2019.

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bears of the week

Despite the hype surrounding the MLB trade deadline and the start of the pennant and wild card races in August and September, the National Football League took over the sports landscape in the US for the season. , kicked off Thursday night with the Hall of Fame game between the Las Vegas Raiders and the Jacksonville Jaguars in Canton, Ohio.

Still, the cloud of weirdness surrounding the DeShaun Watson scandal continued to hang over the league, the Cleveland Browns and Watson’s own $230 million, largely guaranteed contract.

The stench was around what appeared to be a tacit manipulation of signing bonus provisions designed to minimize any lost salary in a six-game suspension imposed on Watson. The media and social media response to former federal judge Sue Robinson’s decision, which ruled based on NFL precedent, left the league and the commissioner’s office with no choice but to appeal and ask for a further suspension. long with more financial teeth.

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At this stage, anything less than a full year’s suspension, or something in the range of 12 games with additional financial penalties, will seem insufficient given all the moving parts of this soap opera involving the star quarterback and two dozen masseuses. which accused Watson of inappropriate conduct and, in some cases, outright sexual assault.

Sports business commentator and marketing communications executive Tom Mayenknecht is a director of Emblematica Brand Builders and host of The Sport Market on BNN Bloomberg Radio 1410 and TSN Radio nationally. Follow Mayenknecht on: twitter.com/TheSportMarket

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