Image from: https://toedraghockey.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/boucha3.jpg

The Weekly Links post highlights important or interesting writing from the hockey blogosphere and media. Enjoy!

• Henry Boucha is a Native American hockey player who won a silver medal with Team USA at the 1972 Olympics and played in NHL in the mid-1970s. He is also a US military veteran and Indigenous activist, and was among the hundreds of veterans who took part in the Standing Rock protest against oil pipeline construction on Native American land in North Dakota. Andrew McGregor has an excellent post about this issue and the significance of Boucha’s activism. [US Sports History]
• It has now been three weeks since the NWHL announced that it would cut players salaries in an attempt to stay afloat financially. Melissa Burgess and Pat Iversen provide updates on the latest developments and what this means for the league going forward. [The Victory Press; SB Nation]
• Hockey in Society’s Courtney Szto had undergrad students in her Communications class at Simon Fraser University participate in a class blog project. Here is one of her student’s submission, about the politics of the Edmonton Oilers’ new publicly-funded arena, Rogers Place. [Media, Sport, and Popular Culture]
• The NHL is slowly becoming a more racially diverse league. Some US teams are trying to increase that trend by supporting youth programs in US urban areas, helping introduce the sport to new and more diverse participants while lowering the (very high) costs of participation. [Rolling Stone]
• Meanwhile, William Douglas highlights some of the slow progress towards more diversity in hockey with a profile of three (out 0f 27) men of colour who are trying to make Team USA’s World Junior Championship team. [Color of Hockey]
• An interesting profile by Bob McKenzie on Jack Han, a 27 year-old Chinese-born Canadian who is rapidly making a name for himself as he attempts to land a professional coaching gig. Han is currently an assistant coach with the McGill University Martlets women’s team. [TSN]
• HC Slovan Bratislava (Slovakia) is the latest KHL team to face financial difficulties – its players have not been paid yet this season. [Of Seasons]
• Oilers star Connor McDavid was not happy to get pulled from a game by the NHL’s concussion spotters after he hit his head on the ice. Barry Petchesky says that his outrage proves that the measures being taken are effective. [Deadspin]
• The latest NHL franchise valuations by Forbes have Canadian teams losing value. [The Hockey News]
• John Scott reflects on his career and post-hockey life. In doing so, provides some fascinating insight into the NHL’s discomfort with his 2015 All-Star Game appearance, which occurred after a fan vote sent the enforcer to the event. The publicity caused issues with the NHL, and may have expedited the end of Scott’s career. [The Player’s Tribune]
• Canada’s sledge hockey team is getting younger, with four teenagers and veterans of the sport cracking the men’s national roster. [Hockey Canada]
• Former NHL star Kevin Stevens pleaded guilty to drug charges for trafficking oxycotin. His lawyer claims that Stevens has addiction issues stemming from a concussion suffered during his career. [Boston Globe]
• As reported by Rick Westhead, the NHL appears to be closing in on a “major partnership” with tech giant Apple. [TSN]
• Vancouver and Victoria, BC, will co-host the 2019 World Junior Championships. [Canucks Army]
• As Gary Bettman and the NHL stay non-committal about potential participation at the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics, what are its long term business goals with regard to international competition? [TSN]