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Welcome to Hockey in Society’s Weekly Links post. This feature highlights articles or blog entries that are related to Hockey in Society’s areas of interest and that may be of interest to the site’s readers. Please check out some of the great writing that is happening in the hockey media and blogosphere!

Editor’s note: Not surprisingly, most of the hockey world is focused on the Winter Olympics currently underway in Sochi, Russia. However, there is still great hockey writing being done about non-Olympics issues. This edition of the Weekly Links is thus divided into two posts: today, we post non-Olympics links and on Sunday we will publish a Weekly Links post exclusively devoted to writing about the Olympics. We hope you enjoy both posts!

• A really interesting article by J. Brady McCollough on Evgeni Malkin’s journey from Magnitogorsk, Russia to the Pittsburgh Penguins in the NHL. [Pittsburgh Post-Gazette]
• An interesting and balanced look at HockeyFights.com, the website that catalogs and celebrates fighters in the NHL and beyond. [Grantland]
• Is the NHL ready to announce an expansion franchise in Seattle following the Sochi Olympics? [Raw Charge]

• Tyler Shipley discusses in more depth the fake MLSE press release about “Forces Appreciation Night,” arguing that the event fails to address critical issues about the Canadian military and the treatment of its soldiers. [Left Hook]
• A really interesting article about how the NHL attempted to lure European players to North America beginning in the 1930s, or earlier. [Greatest Hockey Legends]
• NHL great Paul Coffey, now a coach in the highly competitive youth league, the Greater Toronto Hockey League, has been suspended for using a “discriminatory slur” during a game. [Puck Daddy]
• Owner Daryl Katz announced that construction on the Edmonton Oilers’ new arena will be going ahead in the city’s downtown. [Edmonton Journal]
• With the (commercial and rink-making) success of the NHL’s Stadium Series game at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, will the NHL try an outdoor game hosted by the Phoenix Coyotes? [Five for Howling]
• The Quebec Major Junior Hockey League is changing its draft rules, after a high-profile incident in which Cape Breton Screaming Eagles first overall pick Nicolas Roy refused to play for the Nova Scotia team. [Buzzing the Net]