Why not replace Aldrich on the Cup with...Kyle Beach?

Instead of 'XXXX' replace the fourth band of the Cup altogether. Plus, the Binnington clown show and a good, but not elite D-man re-ups with a good, but not elite team

The ring with the 2009-10 Chicago Blackhawks needs a complete replacement, not a renovation.

Nobody spends more time with the Stanley Cup than Phil Pritchard. ‘The Keeper of the Cup’ is the one most responsible for its safety when the players who worked so hard to win the most beautiful trophy in sports get their day with it in the off-season. And in his many travels with Stanley over the years, he gets the same three questions, in the following order:

“People ask me, ‘Is that the real Cup? Can I pick it up?’ and ‘Who is that guy and why is his name scratched out?’ ” Pritchard said.

That guy is Basil Pocklington, the father of former Edmonton Oilers owner Peter Pocklington. After the Oilers won the first of their five Cups in 1983-84, Pocklington submitted his father’s name to be engraved on the chalice. When his malfeasance was later discovered, the elder Pocklington’s name was ‘X-ed’ off the Cup. So the precedent is there. And that’s exactly why Chicago Blackhawks owner Rocky Wirtz has petitioned the NHL and the Hockey Hall of Fame to do the same over the name of disgraced former video coach Brad Aldrich. The same organization that knew of Aldrich’s sex crimes in 2010 and didn’t have the courage to leave his name off 11 years ago wants to make things right by putting ‘XXXXXX’ through his name now. Given how the NHL and its teams think, it’s not outrageous to suggest this is more about the brand and less about doing the right thing.

That would be a fairly easy and expedient fix. But how about this idea? How about the NHL sends a completely new band of silver to engraver Louise St-Jacques to replace the fourth column on the trophy and have her re-engrave every team and every player on that band? That way, the Cup would no longer be sullied with Aldrich’s name, not even with a series of X’s through it.

When St-Jacques receives the Cup in the summer, it typically takes her about 10 days to complete the task of engraving the most recent winner. So if the fourth band were to be redone, it would require her to completely re-engrave the 13 champions from 2003-04 through 2016-17. (Remember, there was no winner in 2004-05 on account of the season was cancelled over billionaires fighting against millionaires.) So you’re looking at more than three months of work for St-Jacques and a significant period where the travelling version of the Cup is out of commission.

It might be worth every day and every penny it would cost. There’s also the school of thought that perhaps all of this would have more impact and a more lasting lesson if Aldrich’s name were covered with ‘XXXXX’. If that’s the third most-asked question of Pritchard, then it would give him and others a chance to say, “Well, this is who Brad Aldrich is and this is what he did,” which keeps the message fresh and the conversation going. That probably isn’t the worst thing. But even with ‘XXXX’ through his name, Brad Aldrich would still be on the Stanley Cup. And that’s wrong.

Here’s another idea. Have St-Jacques re-engrave the Cup without Aldrich’s name and replace it with…Kyle Beach. Of course, this would have to be done with Beach’s approval and there’s a good chance he might not want to have his name associated in any way with the Blackhawks. Like the case with Pocklington, there is precedent for teams lobbying the NHL to have names of players engraved who did not meet the criteria.

Beach did not play a single NHL game, let alone one in 2009-10, but he lost out on an entire career. Who knows? If this hadn’t happened and he hadn’t been carrying around all this pain and shame, he might have been able to focus more on hockey and gotten his name on the Cup with the Blackhawks in 2013 and ’15. Or maybe he wouldn’t have. We’ll never know. But if the Stanley Cup is symbolic of courage and fortitude and perseverance, there’s probably nobody in hockey who deserves his name on it more than Kyle Beach.

BORTUZZO FOR BINNINGTON? GOOD TRADE

Jordan Binnington and Nazem Kadri were each given 10-minute misconducts, one for swinging his stick and the other for having a stick swung at him.

It should come as no surprise that NHL director of player safety, George ‘The Violent Gentleman’ Parros has no intention of disciplining St. Louis Blues goalie Jordan Binnington for swinging his stick at Nazem Kadri of the Colorado Avalanche Thursday night. Because NHL.

For those of you who missed it, Binnington went bonkers after a Colorado goal was disallowed and a scrum ensued. Kadri stayed on the fringes of the scrum, but Binnington pursued him, first shooting the puck at Avs goalie Darcy Kuemper, then swinging his stick at Kadri and missing by a good three feet. It’s pretty clear he had no real intent to strike Kadri with his stick, but it was still a reckless and stupid thing to do.

And here’s where things really get weird. Instead of handing Binnington a match penalty, which would have seen him ejected from the game, referees Corey Syvret and Michael Markovic decided to give Binnington a 10-minute misconduct, which was served by Robert Bortuzzo, a third-pair defenseman who averages about 12 minutes of ice time per game. What’s even worse was Kadri also received a 10-minute misconduct basically for jawing at Binnington, something that almost never happens between two players at the NHL level. Colorado lost one of its top forwards for 10 minutes and St. Louis lost a sixth defenseman for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, the guy who initiated the whole thing received nothing, and stopped all nine shots he faced during the 10-minute span.

“I’m not crazy,” Binnington told reporters Friday. Then he went on with the usual blather about how it’s an emotional game against a rival and how all you kids out there shouldn’t go around swinging your sticks. How about this? How about you set an example by not doing it yourself? And if these games are so big, how about you help your team by, say, not letting in a stoppable wrist shot from the slot?

EIGHT MORE YEARS OF LIFE OF RIELLY

For the second time in his career, Morgan Rielly signed with Toronto for less than market value.

The talking point for today should be the fact that Morgan Rielly signed an eight-year contract extension with the Toronto Maple Leafs worth $60 million. It should be, but it’s not. Again, because NHL.

On one hand, assuming the Leafs don’t make any trades and the salary cap stays flat, a team that is now devoting 49.7 percent of its cap space to four players will next season being devoting 58.9 percent to five players. (It will likely be a lower percentage, but not much, since the cap will probably go up slightly next season.) The Leafs were already the most top-heavy team in the league when it came its cap distribution and this won’t alleviate that one bit.

On the other hand, if you’re all in to win as the Leafs appear to be – as misguided as the notion they’re a serious Stanley Cup contender might be – they would have moved further away from that goal if they had allowed their best defenseman to walk away for nothing. Rielly is making significantly less than equal or lesser defensemen who signed when the market for rearguards exploded over the summer and it’s the second time he’s taken less than his value to stay with the organization. That means something.

The deal should keep Rielly in Toronto for the rest of his career, something that doesn’t happen a whole lot in that organization. Maybe he’ll even get a statue on Legends’ Row someday. What the Leafs are getting – at least for the first half of the contract and perhaps more – is a good, but not great defenseman who is generally predictable, reliable and offensively productive. Chances are, he will not win the first-ever Norris Trophy for the organization. Not now, not in the future.

Good, but not great. Above average, but not elite. Just like the team for which he plays. Rielly is the longest-serving Maple Leaf on the roster, which also means he’s been a part of some really bad teams and some better teams that choked mightily under the weight of expectation. The Leafs didn’t have to re-sign him because he’s not irreplaceable. They could have used the cap space they’ve devoted to him and placed it elsewhere, but in the first part of this contract at least, they’re not going to find anyone who can do what Rielly does for the money they’re paying him.