In Red Wings Land

Griffins have connections to Vegas and Washington in Stanley Cup Finals | MLive

The Grand Rapids Griffins’ presence is being felt out in Las Vegas. Beyond just the players — Tomas Nosek and Tomas Tatar — there are a few former Griffins behind the scenes working for the Golden Knights.

Around the League

NHL commissioner Gary Bettman says expansion draft rules unlikely to change | ESPN

The league shouldn’t change the rules for Seattle just because a couple of dumb GMs helped Vegas make history in their inaugural season. I like the idea of expansion teams being competitive out of the gate. It’s good for the franchise to build their fanbase and survive long term in the market.

Bettman also touched on the future of the NHL in Houston during his press conference last night.

Also…

Years into concussion lawsuit, Jacobs and other NHL owners deny knowledge of CTE | TSN

TSN is doing a five-part series on the NHL and concussions. There is definitely some interesting stuff here including video from the fall of 2015 that shows Bruins owner Jeremy Jacobs claiming he’s never heard of CTE.

On at least two separate occasions in the days before his deposition, he had met with National Hockey League lawyers to prepare for questions about the league’s concussion lawsuit, according to a 350-page transcript of his deposition, one of 31 deposition records obtained by TSN.

Shortly before a lunch break, a lawyer for the group of ex-NHLers suing the league asked Jacobs a direct question: Have you ever heard of the neurodegenerative disease known as CTE?

“No,” Jacobs answered.

There’s video of Bettman too and quotes from Mario Lemieux and other big names involved with the NHL.