A weirdly busy week for mid-August. I guess the NHL really is changing.

We're talking seven contracts signed since Monday. And yeah, a good number of those were done just to avoid arbitration, but it felt like things got a little closer to the wire with some guys than they usually do. That might just be my perception, but it came down to just a few hours or so in some cases, which is cutting it awful close.

But hey, for a lowly take-doer like me, this is the time of year when I'm normally going, "What's up with these mascots? Two different teams have a bug??? What's up with that?" I'm not complaining!

Let’s go: