Morning Chirps: Luke Richardson’s Possible Landing Spot, Mitch Marner Rumors

A weekend without hockey is the worst kind of weekend, but we made it through. Thankfully, the Stanley Cup Final gets underway on Wednesday, and I do not doubt that it will be worth the wait. Let’s start your week with a quick trip around the hockey world, catching you up on all the news and rumors.

Blackhawks Chirps

• We’ve got our biggest CHN+ membership sale going on right now! For just $12, you’ll get a full year of access to all paywall material and ad-free browsing across the entire National Hockey Now network. More content here will start becoming available to CHN+ members only, so don’t miss out.
• Blackhawks forward Frank Nazar was on the NHL Network’s Players Only to discuss his recent gold medal at the IIHF World Championship.

• On this date in 1948, the NHL announced that the Art Ross Trophy would be awarded annually to the scoring leader rather than “the outstanding player.” Rory Conacher became the first Blackhawk to win the award by scoring 68 points during the 1948-49 season. Stan Mikita won the Art Ross Trophy four times in his career, while his teammate Bobby Hull won it three times. Patrick Kane is the only other player in franchise history to lead the NHL scoring, doing so in 2015-16 with 106 points.
• On June 2, 2010, the Philadelphia Flyers got their first victory of the Stanley Cup Final with a 4-3 overtime win over the Blackhawks in Game 3. The game headed into the third period tied 2-2 thanks to second-period goals from defensemen Duncan Keith and Brent Sopel. Kane gave the Blackhawks a 3-2 lead early in the final frame, but he was answered quickly by Ville Leino. Claude Giroux beat Antti Niemi at 5:59 of overtime to give the home team the win.
• Three years later, the Blackhawks chased Los Angeles Kings goaltender Jonathan Quick from Game 2 of the Western Conference Finals with goals from Andrew Shaw, Brent Seabrook, Bryan Bickell, and Michal Handzus. The Kings fought back with a pair of goals to cut the lead in half, but the comeback effort was too late. The 4-2 victory was the fifth in a row for the Blackhawks, giving them a 2-0 series lead.
• Blackhawks Birthday Roll Call, June 2: Dick Butler, Dan Frawley, Adam Creighton, and Josef Marha.

NHL Chirps

• Dallas Stars head coach Pete DeBoer admitted that he hadn’t spoken to goaltender Jake Oettinger since he yanked him seven minutes into Game 5 of the Western Conference Final. Former NHL netminder and TSN analyst Martin Biron is “floored and shocked” that a conversation has not occurred.
• David Pagnotta of the Fourth Period had a lot of interesting tidbits over the weekend. First, former Blackhawks head coach Luke Richardson is under consideration to join Rick Tocchet’s staff in Philadelphia.
• Pagnotta added that he believes Mitch Marner has a list of seven or eight teams he prefers to go to, and lists the Kings and Vegas Golden Knights as two of them. He says plenty of teams with a “boatload” of cap space will make a run at him if he’s willing to sign with a team further away from contending. We know a team that fits that description.
• Here’s one for the card collectors! Tyler Holzhammer of The Athletic compiled a list of the top Connor McDavid cards to add to your collection.
• Finally, the NHL Scouting Combine starts today in Buffalo, and Scott Wheeler of The Athletic shared the names of the 90 invited players.