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Paul Holmgren, whose birthday is today, will be honored with the Lester Patrick Award during the United States Hockey Hall of Fame induction ceremony on Thursday. You can read all about it in this state media piece, which speaks glowingly of Holmgren.

The award is given for “contributions to hockey in the United States,” which is just perfect, because Holmgren’s last major contribution was signing Vinny Lecavalier, a healthy scratch for the first time in his career tonight, to a five-year, $22.5 million contract with a full no-movement clause. And if we want to go back further: trading away two-time Stanley Cup champions Mike Richards and Jeff Carter and 2013 Vezina winner Sergei Bobrovsky, paying Ilya Bryzgalov to go away, and leaving the Flyers saddled with a mess of bad contracts and mismatching parts that may hamper them for half a decade. Thank you, Paul, for your contributions to hockey.