Flyers ship Voracek to Blue Jackets
Receiver Atkinson in return; Coyotes grab another Doan
A familiar bearded face is going back to Columbus, and the Blue Jackets’ longest tenured player is off to Philadelphia.
The player the Flyers got back? Well, Cam Atkinson is already in love with Philadelphia’s favorite, familiar orange-beardedface.
The Flyers sent Jakub Voracek to the Blue Jackets for Atkinson Saturday, the first major trade on the second day of the NHL draft. The moves are expected to keep on coming during a busyoffseason.
Atkinson wasted no time showing his allegiance to his new team, wearing a Gritty T-shirt on a video call only 30 minutes after the undersized winger with scoring pop was shipped to the Flyers. The shirt is his wife’s — a gift from best friend and former Flyers forward Scott Hartnell.
“Everything is all aligned perfectly,” Atkinson said. “We’re ready for this. Couldn’tbe more excited.”
Voracek, who turns 32 in August, returns to the team that drafted him in 2007 after a much-needed split with the Flyers, with whom he spent the past 10 seasons and put up 604 points in 727 regularseason games. After the trade, he posted to Twitter a link to Warren Zevon’s song “Keep Me in Your Heart” and called it a bittersweet development.
Another Doan
Shane Doan recused himself from any scouting meetings when son Josh was broughtup.
One of the faces of the Arizona Coyotes for two decades, Doan is part of their front office now, and only Friday night saw the draft list whittling down to the point he knew it was possible Josh would be their pick. It happened early in the second round Saturday when the Coyotes took Josh Doan with the 37th pick, bringing in a prospect homegrown in theValley.
“Today was a day he’s worked a long time and hard for,” said Shane Doan, who’s now Arizona’s chief hockey development officer. “It’s surreal that it happened to be the Coyotes. He deserves every single bit of everything he’s getting today and soproud of him.”
Shane Doan played 20 seasons in Arizona before retiring in 2017. His No. 19 hangs in the rafters as one of the few numbers retired by the Coyotes, who were used to havinghis children around.
“Just kind of being around the rink my whole life as a kid, it just makes it that much sweeter and cooler,” Josh said.
Josh Doan put up 31 goals and 39 assists for 70 points in 53 games with the Chicago Steel of the USHL last season. The Scottsdale native was ranked 87th among North American skaters by NHL Central Scouting. He’s committed to play at ArizonaState next season.
Orr drafted
With the 136th pick, Carolinapicked Bobby Orr. “Not the Bobby Orr that everyone is used to,” assistant general manager DarrenYorke said.
Not the 73-year-old Hall of Fame defenseman but the center from Quebec with the same name. This Orr is named for his grandfather, playsa different position and the Hurricanes like his speedand two-way abilities.
Draft apology
The morning after the Montreal Canadiens selected him late in the first round, Logan Mailloux apologizedfor sharing an explicit photo of a woman performing a sex act without her consent, a crime he was convicted for while playing in Sweden.
“I am really sorry,” he said Saturday. “It’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever done, and I know that it impacted her life. And I just hope that she knows how remorseful I feel, and I do feel sorry about it.”
Mailloux had asked in a statement shared on social media for teams not to draft him. But there is no way for a player to remove himself from the draft, and Montreal picked him with the No. 31 selectionFriday night.
“I know I had said that I did not want to be drafted this year. But as a young man who wants to become a better person, I feel that being accompanied by the Montreal Canadiens organization will help me greatly. They have committed to helping me grow as a person, and I thank them for this. I’ve already started my personal journey, as I’m participating in professional counseling. I thank them for believing in me and giving me asecond chance. I promise to not let anybody down. I want to use my personal story to be a part of the solution movingforward.”
Pick of the draft?
Lou Lamoriello might be 78, but the New York Islanders general manager still knows how to make waves in the hockey world. Lamorielloand the Islanders might have gotten the steal of the draft by taking 6-foot-2 Finnish center Aatu Raty with the No. 52 pick. Raty was ranked third among skaters playing in Europe and still slipped past the middleof the second round.
The Islanders could be active in the trade and freeagent markets over the next few days after clearing salary cap space by trading Andrew Ladd to Arizona. New York also traded defenseman Nick Leddy to Detroit and lost Jordan Eberle to Seattle in the expansion draft.