Subban's jokes, Vermette's value, ESPN's World Cup schedule (Puck Daddy Countdown)

(Ed. Note: The column formerly known as the Puck Daddy Power Rankings. Ryan Lambert takes a look at some of the biggest issues and stories in the NHL, and counts them down.)

7. Gary Bettman

While the commissioner’s 24-page response to Sen. Richard Blumenthal about how the league deals with concussions — and whether there’s a link between concussions and CTE — was obviously a “legal positioning” thing, it was still disappointing.

Like, the league is facing a concussion lawsuit, so he’s not going to say, “Yeah, this is clearly a thing and we’re worried about it.” But man, it’s clearly a thing — even if the science is still technically not there yet — and it’s clearly something to be worried about. To some extent, the legal positioning thing here is probably holding back a better and more robust response to a very real problem. More on that later.

6. Antoine Vermette

I was a little surprised that people were a little surprised Antoine Vermette is getting bought out. Maybe people were surprised he waived his no-move, but from the Coyotes’ point of view, this makes perfect sense. They have a lot of young talent, and Vermette really lost his fastball last season.

Half a point a game is all well and good, I guess, but his underlying numbers haven’t been good for a while now. He is very replaceable.

5. Long-term deals

Hey folks just FYI, you don’t need to give literally everyone five-plus years just because you can.

4. The World Cup exhibition schedule

Far be it for me or anyone else to complain about NHL players playing semi-competitive hockey in early September, but hey, this is NHL fans we’re dealing with.

There was an undue amount of complaining yesterday, when the league unveiled the exhibition TV schedule for the World Cup teams. Mainly because USA/Canada from Columbus is on a Friday night at 8 p.m., and relegated to ESPNU. And the fact that this was only one of four games even being broadcast on regular-ass TV, and not the online streaming service ESPN3.

I will say, though, that y’all should be excited to watch all of the televised games: The North America 23U team versus Europe on ESPN2 on a Thursday night. Canada/USA the next night (they also play that Saturday in Ottawa, but that’s on ESPN3 for whatever reason). Finland/USA from Washington, D.C., a couple days later, then Canada stomping Russia’s guts out the following night to wrap up the exhibitions.

There will be plenty more room for complaining when the announce crews ESPN rolls out spends more time talking about college football or whatever during the games, but they make a mute button for that exact reason.

Like, listen, I’m sure ESPN is going to screw this up somehow, but ESPN is paying attention to hockey again (and won’t use Pierre McGuire!). And also, you’re getting good hockey on Sept. friggin’ 8. Normally it would be another two weeks before NHL exhibitions even start. And then you have to sit through games with half an AHL roster.

This is a lot better than nothing. And if you’re reading this you probably have the ability to stream whatever games you want anyway.

Relax.

3. The guy who threw the stick like a spear

That was extremely good. Make that legal in the NHL. Because as long as you’re making it a gimmick anyway,

2. Gabriel Landeskog

Yesterday, Gabriel Landeskog published something in the Players’ Tribune about concussions that’s absolutely worth your time to read. Basically he said that same thing we’ve been hearing for a while now: You’re not being weak if you say you can’t play because you have concussion symptoms.

This is something people high up in the league have been saying for years now, really starting with Brian Burke ripping Colby Armstrong for hiding a concussion. That was back in 2011. At the time, he said, “Everyone tries to play hurt, but you should never try to conceal a head injury — no one admires that or respects that. We grudgingly respect when players hide other injuries, because they do it routinely. (Head injuries are) one where we absolutely insist the players be forthcoming.”

And yet, almost five years later, players still have to publish things saying, “Well hey yeah I sat out with a concussion but it’s important that you do it.” And I’m sure there are still people who don’t buy it, including in NHL dressing rooms and front offices. Fortunately, Landeskog said that to a man in Colorado’s room (back in 2013) his teammates told him take it easy, don’t rush it, and so on.

That’s good news, but given some of the attitudes seen in the league (including those from the commissioner mentioned above), it’s not good enough. How many times have we seen someone go headfirst into the boards, or get crosschecked in the head, and not miss a shift? And if Dennis Wideman apparently ended a linesman’s career and likewise stayed on the bench after suffering a concussion, it’s clearly not just a player safety issue.

Hopefully someday soon good messages like Landeskog’s won’t have to be said, because everyone would read it and go, “Yeah, no kidding.” The fact we’re not there yet is awful.

1. P.K. Subban

Okay, so the thing with Subban hosting a charity event in Montreal this week was already going to be pretty good (it raised another $130,000 for the hospital to which he already donated $10 million). But the fact that he made fun of the Canadiens the whole time was also real good.

Too bad the best joke was about living in Hamilton, and not what a bad coach Michel Therrien is.

(Not ranked this week: The bat flip celebration.

Just another thing to distract you from the fact that EA’s NHL game hasn’t changed fundamentally in like a decade.)

Ryan Lambert is a Puck Daddy columnist. His email is here and his Twitter is here.

(All statistics via Corsica unless otherwise noted.)