The kid is very tall. (Photo: Brian Smiley, The Brantford Expositor)

Numbers can be difficult to fully comprehend without proper context. If you were to read, for example, that a teenager named Alexander Karmanov stands 7-foot-1, you might walk away thinking: “Wow, that kid is pretty tall.” 

Karmanov is not merely tall. He is the tallest hockey player on the planet. LeBron James, the most famous basketball player on the planet, is a mere 6-foot-9 by comparison. The average door frame in Canada is only 80 inches high – which is only six feet, eight inches.  

And the truly staggering fact is that Karmanov, who has recently signed with the North Bay Battalion, is 7-foot-1 before he even puts on his skates. (He has a long way to go, but if the defenceman from Moldova ever makes it to the big league, he’ll soar past Zdeno Chara as the tallest player in NHL history.)  

The Brantford Bulldogs took the 17-year-old in the third round of the CHL Import Draft this year, then assigned him to the Brantford Titans, in the Greater Ontario Hockey League. He signed with North Bay on Nov. 26. 

Did we mention he is also listed at 265 pounds?  

“At least 50 per cent of (NHL) teams have been here,” Titans GM Dan Fitzgerald tells our Brian Smiley. “Everything I’ve heard from the guys that I’ve talked to is that they’re really impressed by what they’ve seen so far.” 

How does a person like that buy skates? Hockey sticks? How do they fit in a team bus?  

You can read answers to those questions right here.

As our Greg Estabrooks reports from North Bay, Karmanov is due to make his OHL debut tonight, and you can read more right here.  

Writing in The Brantford Expositor, Vincent Ball reports city council will discuss plans for a new, $152-million arena during a special meeting tonight at 6 p.m. 

Construction could begin as early as next year, if the plans are approved.  

“Originally projected to cost about $140 million,” writes Ball, “the updated cost is now projected to be $152 million.” 

The building would become the full-time home of the Bulldogs, who left their original home in Belleville, Ont., for a new home in Hamilton in 2015, and then moved again to Brantford in 2023. 

“The updated design includes more than 5,200 seats with a main level event floor that will house Brantford Bulldogs team spaces, visitor team space and storage,” writes Ball. "The second floor or concourse level will have spectator seating and access to a range of amenities; the third level will have private suites, additional premium seats and areas for media and press; the fourth level will have mechanical systems.” 

You can read more about the proposed project right here. 

Sorry, Petes fans. (Photo: Mark Malone, The Chatham Daily News)

Point of clarity: This trade is shocking only if you are a fan of the Peterborough Petes. If you support the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds, it is more of a pleasant surprise.  

On Nov. 27, the Petes traded Colin Fitzgerald – the hometown centre; the 17-year-old they had drafted third overall only one year earlier – to the Greyhounds. Peterborough collected six draft picks in return, but fans in Central Ontario were understandably unhappy.  

The mood was different in Sault Ste. Marie.  

“These types of centres don’t grow on trees,” Greyhounds GM Kyle Raftis tells our Janson Duench. “To find someone who can skate like he can, shoot like he can, who’s that big, who has a great IQ, and plays incredibly hard… at this time, it was too tough to pass up.” 

Fitzgerald is wearing No. 11 with the Greyhounds.  

“I wasn’t predicting a player like this,” says Raftis, "but once I caught more wind that he might be available, we started pushing on it in the last couple weeks, and it came together pretty quickly.” 

You can read the whole story right here.

Sorry, Kitchener. (Photo courtesy London Knights)

Hockey Canada issued a press release about a new corporate partnership with a Canadian brewery last week, and you can be forgiven if you missed it. If you are a fan of the Kitchener Rangers, though, you can also be forgiven if the release made you suspicious.  

The partnership announcement, made on Nov. 27, was with Sleeman Breweries.  

Why might that be significant for people in Kitchener?  

Sleeman is based in Guelph and, one week before the snazzy new partnership with Hockey Canada was announced, Guelph was named host of the 2027 Memorial Cup. The city that it beat out? Kitchener.  

The Rangers wanted answers.  

“I asked them to investigate whether or not they feel as though a conflict of interest existed,” Rangers chief operating officer Joe Birch told The Waterloo Region Record. “It was important for me. I think we wanted some clarity as to whether or not it existed and for the CHL to understand our concerns.” 

The Canadian Hockey League maintains there was no conflict of interest when the event was awarded to Guelph. The CBC has a story on that rationale right here.  

If you have a subscription to Metroland, you can read the Record story right here.

(Photos: John Lappa, The Sudbury Star)

For hockey fans of a certain age, this photograph might raise a series of uncomfortable existential questions focused around the inexorable march of time. 

The player with the puck on his stick, a 19-year-old Sudbury Wolves defenceman from Russia, is Artem Gonchar. 

He is the nephew of Sergei Gonchar, who played more than 1,300 games as a defenceman in the NHL and who is now, somehow, already 51 years old.