[kirant]

Originally Posted by Macman

Not that it matters but what was the context of this article for Simmons to go off like this. Why would he even go there talking about Akim Aliu?

Article here.


The entire "Here and There" section in context. From what I can tell, stray thoughts are separated by elipses. So it looks like the section quoted is pretty much in as much context as Simmonds was looking to give:

Here are the easy NHL predictions: Connor McDavid will win his third Hart Trophy. Cale Makar will win his second Norris Trophy. Barring injury, that has to happen. The rest, I don’t know … FanDuel has Auston Matthews’ over-under goal total at 56.5. I’ll take the over … I like MacKenzie Weegar enough that I included him on my Norris Trophy ballot a few years back. Not sure I like him for eight years in Calgary and $50 million, though. Same for Matt Barzal and the Islanders. As Lou Lamoriello would say — and it was his contract — too much money, too many years … I’m a list guy. I devour them. But didn’t have a lot of disagreement with TSN’s annual list of the Top 50 NHL players. For me, I thought Sasha Barkov of the Florida Panthers was a touch high at No. 9 and I thought Adam Fox and Charlie McAvoy, two of those rare No. 1 defencemen, were too low at 18 and 30 … No one wants to say this because of the politically correct police and all, but those who coached Akim Aliu must cringe every time they see him in a news report or a commercial talking about what’s wrong with hockey. Like he would know. By my count, Aliu played for 23 teams in nine different leagues in 12 professional seasons and rarely finished any season with the same team he started with. If that was colour-related, how is it that Wayne Simmonds spent just about the same 12 seasons playing in the NHL? … I like the idea of Rasmus Sandin partnering on defence alongside Mark Giordano with the Leafs. Sandin has calm but needs experience: Giordano is as calm as it gets on defence and has 1,024 games on his resume to play the part of instructor … Wonder what the Hockey Hall of Fame will do now and in the future with Joel Quenneville, who is second all-time in wins and has three Stanley Cups on his head coaching resume. Quenneville is unofficially suspended from the NHL — or on leave, call it what you want — for his part in the Kyle Beach abuse fiasco. His career was Hall of Fame worthy until he didn’t have one anymore. Mike Keenan and Ken Hitchcock are interesting Hall of Fame candidates as retired coaches.