The Hockey News has been providing the most comprehensive coverage of the world of hockey since 1947. In each issue, you'll find news, features and opinions about the NHL and leagues across North America and the world.

August 14, 2017

The Hockey News has been providing the most comprehensive coverage of the world of hockey since 1947. THN is published 18 times a year, including 14 regular issues and four special issues – such as Future Watch, Draft Preview, Yearbook, the #1 selling hockey annual in North America.

The Hockey News - August 14, 2017

<div class="byline">&#x2013; JARED CLINTON</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0013-0515/157011-1-eng-US/f0013-052.jpg" title="f0013-05" width="263" height="443"></div><p class="dropcap"><span>S</span>nacking isn&rsquo;t often associated with clean or healthy eating, but an athlete who wants to keep their energy up can turn to a quick, tasty treat in order to do so. These energy orbs can be made ahead of time and stored for quick access for an athlete on the move. &ldquo;An excellent snack option provides a source of carbohydrates and some protein,&rdquo; said dietitian Billie Jane Hermosura, owner of Nutrition Intel. &ldquo;Homemade energy orbs like these have carbs from the dates and protein from the nuts and nut butter.&rdquo;</p><h2><b>INGREDIENTS</b></h2><p>1 cup almonds (or other nut)</p><p>3/4 cup shredded unsweetened coconut (plus 1/4 cup for rolling)</p><p>3 tbsp almond butter (or other nut butter)</p><p>2 tbsp cocoa powder</p><p>1 tbsp coconut oil</p><p>Pinch of salt</p><p>15 medjool dates, pitted and roughly chopped</p><h2><b>PREPARATION</b></h2><p>Put nuts in a food processor and pulse until roughly chopped. Add 3/4 cup of coconut and blend until a flour starts to form. Add nut butter, coconut oil, cocoa and a pinch of salt. Blend for a few seconds, then add pitted dates. Blend until combined into a sticky mixture. Using a tablespoon measure, spoon out mixture and roll into balls. Coat each ball in remaining shredded coconut. Place on parchment covered baking sheet, refrigerate until hardened. Store in the fridge in container or plastic bag for up to two weeks.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0013-05

IN THIS ISSUE

CHOCOLATE ENERGY ORBS

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0049-0237/158628-1-eng-US/f0049-022.jpg" title="f0049-02" width="279" height="199"></div><h2><b>CLUE #1</b></h2><p>&ldquo;My minus-29 from 2011-12 is the worst rating by an NHL rookie in the past 11 seasons.&rdquo;</p><h2><b>CLUE #2</b></h2><p>&ldquo;I was the highest-drafted Swiss player ever at No. 5 overall until Nico Hischier went No. 1.&rdquo;</p><h2><b>CLUE #3</b></h2><p>&ldquo;I&rsquo;m only 24, but already lead all Swiss forwards in career NHL goals, assists and points.&rdquo;<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0049-02

GUESS WHO!

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0048-0328/158556-1-eng-US/f0048-032.jpg" title="f0048-03" width="701" height="543"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>PUCK SUPPORT</b> Anderson-Dolan has benefitted a lot from his family and they&rsquo;re proud of his inclusive initiatives. <span class="photo-credit">(BRUCE BENNETT/GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0048-0142/158570-1-eng-US/f0048-012.jpg" title="f0048-01" width="124" height="104"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><p>WITH RYAN KENNEDY @THNRYANKENNEDY</p><span class="image-inline"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0048-0236/158563-1-eng-US/f0048-022.jpg" title="f0048-02" width="19" height="17"></span><p><b>THE MODERN WORLD</b> can be confusing for some folks &ndash; I get that. There is a great unmooring that may have you wondering if values still matter as society speeds up to a breakneck pace. But if you&rsquo;re looking for hope from the hockey world, steer your attention to Jaret Anderson-Dolan, a product of a strong family practically destined to raise a pro.</p><p>Taken 41st overall by the Los Angeles Kings in the draft this summer, Anderson- Dolan is a look-you-straight-in-the-eyes kind of kid who has already worn a letter on his sweater for the WHL&rsquo;s Spokane Chiefs and both Canadian national teams he suited up for. His playing style is admirable, too: he&rsquo;s a hard-working, 200-foot player who routinely wins faceoffs and plays a strong, smart game.</p><p>Whether you believe in nature or nurture, Anderson-Dolan&rsquo;s background makes sense. His parents first met at a hockey tournament in Calgary as opponents in a game between South Calgary and Triwood. Fran had been a high-level talent back in B.C., while Nancy was more of a recreational player. The two hit it off and they&rsquo;ve been together for 27 years. During that time, Fran gave birth to Jaret, while Nancy gave birth to Dorian. The older brother is into skiing, but hockey was always No. 1 for Jaret. &ldquo;There wasn&rsquo;t any question about it,&rdquo; Fran said. &ldquo;As soon as he could walk, he could skate. It&rsquo;s his passion, there&rsquo;s no other way to put it.&rdquo;</p><p>Working for the City of Calgary in recreation, Fran has taught learn-to-skate programs among other things, so it was only natural that she coach her son on the ice. She was Jaret&rsquo;s coach until atom level, but when it came to shooting 300 pucks a day when he was older, Jaret never needed a reminder &ndash; he wanted to do it. As he grew into an elite teenager, he benefitted from the fact Nancy is a nutrition expert with an interest in brain chemistry &ndash; so organic food and a proper diet were always in style at the Anderson-Dolan household. But Jaret&rsquo;s family doesn&rsquo;t end there.</p><p>His uncle Thomas lives in Hawaii with husband Adam. Jaret is close with Thomas and has gone to Hawaii to train, mixing up his usual regimen with paddleboarding and running up the sides of volcanoes (the fact Jaret&rsquo;s Spokane Chiefs buddy Kailer Yamamoto has Hawaiian roots may be the wildest coincidence ever in hockey).</p><p>aret&rsquo;s family became a big story around draft time, since the makeup wasn&rsquo;t something the hockey world had really delved into before. But Jaret has always been prepared. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a little bit unique, so my friends would sometimes ask what it&rsquo;s like,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;But honestly, all my friends supported me, I didn&rsquo;t have many issues growing up. It was really cool to have the support.&rdquo;</p><p>The same goes for Fran and Nancy. They have always introduced themselves as a couple and a family and if any other hockey parents couldn&rsquo;t deal with it, they didn&rsquo;t make it known. Fran was over the moon when Los Angeles announced Jaret&rsquo;s name early on the second day of the NHL draft, and I can&rsquo;t imagine it hurt when Kings director of scouting Mark Yannetti told reporters in forceful terms that any team exec who may have questioned Jaret&rsquo;s upbringing should probably find another occupation.</p><p>It&rsquo;s also telling that new Kings assistant coach Don Nachbaur was Jaret&rsquo;s bench boss with Spokane this past season. Nachbaur was hired by Los Angeles before the draft, so the Kings had even more of a book on what kind of kid Anderson-Dolan is.</p><p>Jaret doesn&rsquo;t shy away from responsibility and he doesn&rsquo;t keep quiet. In Spokane, he promoted Hockey is for Everyone, an NHL initiative that seeks to widen the concept of who can play the game. Jaret wrapped his stick in rainbow-colored tape for a game against Kelowna, prompting his teammates to follow suit during warm-ups (and a couple joined him in keeping it on the whole game). &ldquo;I&rsquo;m so proud of him,&rdquo; Fran said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s a pretty amazing 17-year-old.&rdquo;</p><p>With his combination of skill and hard work, plus a great support network to back him up, Anderson-Dolan has every chance to become an NHLer one day. He gains strength from his family&rsquo;s values and that has put him on the right path. Maybe the world&rsquo;s not so confusing after all.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0048-03

WHERE FAMILY VALUES STILL MATTER

<div class="byline">WITH MATT LARKIN</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0013-0420/156982-1-eng-US/f0013-042.jpg" title="f0013-04" width="519" height="609"></div><p><b>Who did you model your game after growing up?</b></p><p>I idolized Grant Fuhr growing up because of his glove saves. I always was fascinated by them. As I got older and learned about the position more, I modelled my game after Patrick Roy&rsquo;s.</p><p><b>Who was your main hockey mentor?</b></p><p>The one that knows the most about goaltending is Francois Allaire. He used to work with my agent back in the day, so I used to go to his camp every summer as a teen. That&rsquo;s where I learned most of my technique.</p><p><b>Why do you wear No. 1?</b></p><p>I&rsquo;ve always said No. 1 means everything. No. 1 in your programs is No. 1 in your hearts.</p><p><b>What was the first thing you splurged on with your first contract?</b></p><p>A truck. I bought a Jeep Cherokee Laredo. I didn&rsquo;t do anything fancy with it. I was a much quieter kid back in the day. I was very quiet, not flashy at all.</p><p><b>What was your &lsquo;welcome to the NHL&rsquo; moment?</b></p><p>It was a game in Pittsburgh. We lost 9-3 and I was in net for all nine goals. So that was a welcome to the NHL for me. It&rsquo;s funny, because &lsquo;Jags&rsquo; (Jaromir Jagr) was on Pittsburgh back then, so he always reminds me in the locker room that he had seven points that night. He likes to make fun of me.</p><p><b>What&rsquo;s your favorite kind of save?</b></p><p>Flashing the glove. That&rsquo;s why I became a goalie in the first place, just watching Grant Fuhr making those saves. That&rsquo;s always been my favorite save to make, and that&rsquo;s why a lot of times I like to put a little mustard on it for the fans.</p><p><b>What&rsquo;s your craziest fan interaction?</b></p><p>To be honest, 99 percent of the interactions are always normal athlete-fan interaction. It&rsquo;s always been courteous. I&rsquo;ve never really encountered a negative interaction. That&rsquo;s more for Twitter and the Internet. In Buffalo last year, I signed a guy&rsquo;s arm that had a tattoo of my face with the mask on. He had four goalies on his arm. I think it was me and (Carey) Price. I can&rsquo;t remember the other two. He wanted me to sign his arm so he could tattoo the signature on there.</p><p><b>What&rsquo;s your favorite thing about being an NHLer?</b></p><p>There are a lot of things I love about it. Just being around the guys, the locker room banter, is something that&rsquo;s always fun and something that once I&rsquo;m done playing I&rsquo;m really going to miss.</p><p><b>What&rsquo;s the hardest thing about being an NHLer?</b></p><p>It&rsquo;s the travel and being away from your family during the season. There&rsquo;s a lot of time commitment. It&rsquo;s probably the hardest part for me.</p><p><b>What advice would you give your 13-year-old self?</b></p><p>I think I would say, &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t take everything so seriously.&rdquo; And what I mean by that is, the first part of my career, a lot of times I was very upset over losing or what people said about me. And over the years, and you guys know this, once Twitter rolled around, I was able to laugh at myself more and take things more lightheartedly and not so personally all the time.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0013-04

RAPID FIRE

<div class="byline">Jason Kay Editor in chief @JKTHN</div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>J</span>IM RUTHERFORD&rsquo;S ACQUISITION</b> of Ryan Reaves brings to mind the classic scene in <i>Planes, Trains and Automobiles</i> when a couple tries frantically to make John Candy&rsquo;s and Steve Martin&rsquo;s characters aware they&rsquo;re heading into oncoming traffic. &ldquo;You&rsquo;re going the wrong way!&rdquo; they shout. Candy, blissfully unaware of the truth, responds, &ldquo;How would they know where we&rsquo;re going?&rdquo; A few seconds later, the penny drops, Candy and Martin scream hysterically as they charge into the path of two 18-wheelers, and the duo&rsquo;s car is all but totalled.</p><p>Hey, Jim Rutherford. You&rsquo;re going the wrong way!</p><p>Only, Rutherford, a solid bet to enter the Hall of Fame now that he&rsquo;s won three Cups as a GM with two franchises, is anything but unaware. In reality, it&rsquo;s the NHL that is going the wrong way. What other conclusion can you draw when the man who built the first backto- back Stanley Cup champion in two decades feels compelled to add perhaps the toughest player in the league to protect his team&rsquo;s valuable assets? Remember, Rutherford is anti-fighting. &ldquo;I hear every year how everyone loves how the Penguins play,&rdquo; Rutherford told <a href="http://THN.com">THN.com</a> during the Cup final. &ldquo;Well, now it&rsquo;s going to change, and I feel bad, but it&rsquo;s the only way we can do it. We&rsquo;re going to have to get one or two guys&hellip; and some of these games that should just be good hockey will turn into a s--- show. We&rsquo;ll go right back to where we were in the &rsquo;70s and it&rsquo;s really a shame.&rdquo;</p><p>A series of injuries to players who were targeted &ndash; including Sidney Crosby &ndash; were the tipping point for the Penguins, prompting them to opt for sixgun justice. If you can&rsquo;t beat them, then join them in beating them. The irony, of course, is Pittsburgh is beating them already where it matters most.</p><p>The Penguins aren&rsquo;t the only franchise taking matters into their own hands. GMof- the-year David Poile acquired slugger Cody McLeod from the Avalanche for the Predators&rsquo; stretch run. The Maple Leafs protected fourth-line muscle man Matt Martin in the expansion draft over Brendan Leipsic, a point-producing forward who was Toronto&rsquo;s fifth-ranked prospect in THN&rsquo;s Future Watch.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-0144/156495-1-eng-US/f0004-012.jpg" title="f0004-01" width="302" height="375"></div><p>The trend runs counter to what is transpiring outside the NHL&rsquo;s bubble. At least the optics do. As the rest of the world works at finding ways to curb brain injuries, the league is tacitly supporting an environment that encourages increased violence via fisticuffs. And this at a time when the NHL is already in the cross-hairs of a major lawsuit with former players.</p><p>There&rsquo;s been a commonly held notion that fighting will organically disappear from the NHL, and indeed it had been trending down in recent years, to 0.32 per game in 2015-16 (according to <a href="http://dropyourgloves.com">dropyourgloves.com</a>), the lowest figure since the late 1960s. It ticked up in 2016-17 to 0.34, leaving us to wonder if it&rsquo;s levelled off or it was an aberration.</p><p>Either way, the onus should be on the league to do the policing with stiffer deterrents and longer suspensions for reckless and dirty play. The nips and tucks they&rsquo;ve introduced in recent years have produced some benefits, but not enough. Extreme problems often call for extreme solutions. In this case, that means turning the car completely around and going the right way.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-0244/156488-1-eng-US/f0004-022.jpg" title="f0004-02" width="217" height="117"></div><span class="image-inline"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-038/156481-1-eng-US/f0004-032.jpg" title="f0004-03" width="24" height="18"></span><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span>

f0004-01

A POLICE MATTER

<h2><b>HAVE YOUR SAY BY EMAILING US AT <a href="mailto:letters@thehockeynews.com">LETTERS@THEHOCKEYNEWS.COM</a></b></h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-015/156552-1-eng-US/f0005-012.jpg" title="f0005-01" width="460" height="343"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(PATRICK: JEFF VINNICK/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES; BISHOP: ANDREW D. BERNSTEIN/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><h2><b>Where&rsquo;s the Northern love?</b></h2><p class="dropcap"><span>F</span>or the second year in a row you didn&rsquo;t recognize the winner of the RBC Cup, Canada&rsquo;s Jr. A national championship (the Cobourg Cougars) in your Champions Issue. You did denote the winners of both U.S. junior leagues on your champions map, and you have the champions from Hong Kong &ndash; and this is a Canadian magazine.</p><p>I coach junior hockey in Canada and I am very disappointed that these kids are not mentioned as I see the commitment they give to represent towns all over this country.</p><p><b>JUSTIN MURRAY, INNISFIL, ONT.</b></p><h2><b>Cleveland rocks</b></h2><p>Thank you for giving Cleveland its due as one of America&rsquo;s great hockey cities in your feature recapping the brief history of the NHL&rsquo;s Barons (Rewind, June 18). As a lifelong hockey fan (and longtime THN subscriber) who was born and raised in Cleveland, I grew up around the rink collecting pucks while waiting for my sister to finish her figure skating lessons. Clevelanders&rsquo; passion for their sports teams is well documented (we sued Art Modell and the NFL to retain the name, colors and history of the Browns when they were stolen from us). I&rsquo;ve always known an NHL team could have thrived in Cleveland had the stars of economics and demographics aligned. Now with greater Cleveland on the wrong side of history in the postindustrial economy and sandwiched between Detroit, Columbus, Pittsburgh and Buffalo, it&rsquo;s doubtful an NHL team will be iced in Cleveland ever again. As bad as the Barons were, I&rsquo;m proud I can say that Cleveland is part of the history of the NHL. Now someone please issue some vintage Barons gear! I have my credit card on standby...</p><p><b>JEFFREY TUCHOLSKI, CLEVELAND</b></p><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-026/156545-1-eng-US/f0005-022.jpg" title="f0005-02" width="54" height="54"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><h2><b>THN POLL</b></h2><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-034/156538-1-eng-US/f0005-032.jpg" title="f0005-03" width="71" height="71"></div><p><b>@TheHockeyNews</b></p><p>Which of the top three picks in the 2017 NHL draft will be the best player?</p></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-043/156531-1-eng-US/f0005-042.jpg" title="f0005-04" width="339" height="85"></div><p><b>55%</b> Nolan Patrick</p><p><b>32%</b> Nico Hischier</p><p><b>13%</b> Miro Heiskanen</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-053/156524-1-eng-US/f0005-052.jpg" title="f0005-05" width="189" height="288"><figcaption class="caption-body">NOLAN <b>PATRICK</b></figcaption></div><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span>

f0005-01

YOUR SAY

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-062/156581-1-eng-US/f0005-062.jpg" title="f0005-06" width="328" height="431"><figcaption class="caption-body">BEN <b>BISHOP</b></figcaption></div><span class="image-inline"><img src="mon2.jpg" title="common" width="17" height="17"></span><p class="dropcap"><span>G</span>M Jim Nill seems to amaze every Dallas fan every single off-season. This year was probably his best! Ben Bishop is the best starter we have had since Eddie Belfour won us a Cup. Marc Methot will be on the top &lsquo;D&rsquo; pairing. To add forwards Martin Hanzal and Alex Radulov was just icing on the cake. Our biggest signing wasn&rsquo;t even going to be on the ice: Ken Hitchcock is behind the bench again. Wait, didn&rsquo;t Dallas win a Stanley Cup under his helm?</p><p><b>&ndash; Aaron Wilcox</b></p><span class="image-inline"><img src="mon12.jpg" title="common1" width="18" height="17"></span><p>As an Oilers fan, it pains me to say the Flames improved the most. They&rsquo;ve revamped their goaltending and have an impressive top-five &lsquo;D.&rsquo;</p><p><b>&ndash; @OneofHisTools</b></p><span class="image-inline"><img src="mon2.jpg" title="common" width="17" height="17"></span><p>Buffalo has totally remade its defense without losing any core players. It was admittedly horrible last year, but GM Botterill definitely improved it.</p><p><b>&ndash; Michael T. Flaherty</b></p><span class="image-inline"><img src="mon12.jpg" title="common1" width="18" height="17"></span><p>The Flyers, because they proved they trust their young players to step up. The years of free agent splashes are thankfully over!</p><p><b>&ndash; @michelle_timian</b></p><span class="image-inline"><img src="mon2.jpg" title="common" width="17" height="17"></span><p>The Jets. Finally added a decent goalie, which will help our young goalies further develop. Also added to defense, which means we won&rsquo;t have depth players playing when the roster is injury-free. Also managed to protect all key players in the expansion draft.</p><p><b>&ndash; Josh Ranger</b></p><span class="image-inline"><img src="mon12.jpg" title="common1" width="18" height="17"></span><p>Dallas for sure No. 1, but Carolina isn&rsquo;t that far behind. Darling, TVR, Williams, Kruger.</p><p><b>&ndash; @gglenner</b></p><span class="image-inline"><img src="mon2.jpg" title="common" width="17" height="17"></span><p>In terms of who will have the most improvement, have to say the Coyotes. Trading for Stepan, Raanta and Hjalmarsson significantly improves the team. OEL is a beast, Domi and Duclair should have better seasons.</p><p><b>&ndash; Saad Hassan</b></p><span class="image-inline"><img src="mon12.jpg" title="common1" width="18" height="17"></span><p>The Bruins, because sometimes doing nothing is better than trying to do everything.</p><p><b>&ndash; @BearNecessity77</b></p><span class="image-inline"><img src="mon2.jpg" title="common" width="17" height="17"></span><p>The Rangers. Signing Shattenkirk was the smartest thing they did in the off-season. Signing Desharnais was an added bonus and seems to solve the fourth-line problem that plagued the team last year. Trading Stepan and Raanta took guts by GM Jeff Gorton, but I feel it will pay off this upcoming season.</p><p><b>&ndash; Ross Mazin</b></p><span class="image-inline"><img src="mon2.jpg" title="common" width="17" height="17"></span><p>The Maple Leafs made a big move to bring in Dominic Moore and Patrick Marleau, two players with experience in the playoffs and Cup final. And the defense corps is slowly coming together via drafting and the signing of Ron Hainsey.</p><p><b>&ndash; Chris Berger</b></p><span class="image-inline"><img src="mon12.jpg" title="common1" width="18" height="17"></span><p>I think the Panthers are the most improved because they greatly increased their chances to win the first overall pick in the 2018 NHL draft.</p><p><b>&ndash; @NCPANTHERS1</b></p><span class="image-inline"><img src="mon12.jpg" title="common1" width="18" height="17"></span><p>Vegas. Now they have players. <b>&ndash; @hoeppner_nick</b><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0005-06

SOAPBOX

<div class="byline">PHOTO BY JUSTIN BERL/GETTY IMAGES</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0006-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-0146/156694-1-eng-US/f0006-012.jpg"></div><p class="dropcap"><span>D</span>ays after the Penguins hoist the Stanley Cup, their Pittsburgh baseball brethren treat them to a mound visit at PNC Park. Sidney Crosby, the freshly crowned Conn Smythe winner, makes like Cy Young and throws a strike down the pipe.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0006-01

THE CAPTAIN TURNS PIRATE

<div class="byline">BY KEN CAMPBELL</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0008-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-0146/156737-1-eng-US/f0008-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Shattenkirk got a taste of MSG this past season. He&rsquo;ll get a regular serving after signing with the Rangers &ndash; for a surprising amount &ndash; on July <span class="photo-credit">(BRUCE BENNETT/GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>FOR UP-TO-THE-MINUTE COVERAGE, VISIT <b><a href="http://THN.com">THN.COM</a></b></p><p><b>10</b> THE INSTIGATOR <b>11</b> 2018 UFA HYPE-O-METER <b>12</b> LIKE A PRO <b>14</b> GOODS, GEAR, LIFE <b>16</b> DOWN GOES BROWN <b>18</b> THE COUNTDOWN</p><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0009-0130/156730-1-eng-US/f0009-012.jpg" title="f0009-01" width="111" height="111"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><h2><b>WINNER &ndash; SANITY</b></h2><p>Perhaps it was the fact they faced a decidedly mediocre free agent class or that so many teams are so tight against the cap, but the most prominent storyline of July 1 was that so few GMs lost their minds at the start of the proceedings. After so many years of seeing supply and demand economics run amok, it was interesting to see so many teams display so much restraint in money and, more importantly, term.</p><h2><b>LOSER &ndash; PLAYER AGENTS</b></h2><p>These guys get a cut of every deal they negotiate, so you&rsquo;d have to think there are player agents out there wondering what has gotten into their negotiating partners. Remember back in 2011 when Brad Richards held court at his agent&rsquo;s offices and got pitches from a conga line of GMs? Well, much of that has been blunted by the fact teams can meet with players in the days leading up to free agency, but it&rsquo;s hard to believe we&rsquo;ll be seeing a frenzy like that for a while. Actually, the five-day window seems to be a big win for the NHL since teams know going into July 1 exactly what their chances are of landing a player. That has likely led to more realistic offers.</p><h2><b>WINNER &ndash; NEW YORK RANGERS</b></h2><p>For years, the Rangers were the poster boys for much of the insanity that prevailed on July 1, handing out enormous contracts to players who already seemed intent on playing there. That could have happened again this year, but it did not. As a result, the Rangers got the crown jewel of this year&rsquo;s free agent class without overpaying in money or term. Kevin Shattenkirk for four years at $6.65 million per is an outstanding get for the Rangers and doesn&rsquo;t compromise their ability to build their team going forward.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0009-0221/156723-1-eng-US/f0009-022.jpg" title="f0009-02" width="683" height="554"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(FRANCOIS LACASSE/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><h2><b>LOSER &ndash; KEVIN SHATTENKIRK</b></h2><p>You&rsquo;d have to think that right about now, Shattenkirk is sitting at his place in the Hamptons and asking himself, &ldquo;Seriously? This was the year they had to come to their senses?&rdquo; This was Shattenkirk&rsquo;s opportunity to hit a massive home run and chart out the next seven seasons of his career with one team and lots of money. Part of that is on him for his subpar play when he was showcasing himself after the trade to the Washington Capitals last season.</p><h2><b>WINNER &ndash; CALGARY FLAMES</b></h2><p>The Flames did almost nothing in free agency, largely because they got so much of their work done leading up to July 1. The Flames needed to shore up their goaltending, so GM Brad Treliving went out and got Mike Smith and Eddie Lack, obtaining some cap relief on the latter. He traded for Travis Hamonic and, in what could end up being one of the best moves of the free agent process, re-signed defenseman Michael Stone to a threeyear deal at $3.5 million a year. As a result, the Flames can compete with the Nashville Predators for the best defense corps in the league. They also landed coveted college free agent Spencer Foo, which could turn out to be the equivalent of landing a firstround pick without giving up a single asset.</p><h2><b>LOSER &ndash; VANCOUVER CANUCKS</b></h2><p>It seemed as though the Canucks thought they might be able to snow everyone by making a flurry of moves. Just because you&rsquo;re looking busy doesn&rsquo;t mean you&rsquo;re accomplishing much. The Canucks, it seems, don&rsquo;t have a clear direction on where they want to go and appear to be still clinging to the fact they can rebuild on the fly while they still have the Sedin twins in their lineup. We identified the Canucks as a loser on July 1 last year, and they retain that dubious distinction. Not a good sign.</p><h2><b>WINNER &ndash; DALLAS STARS</b></h2><p>Nobody can accuse Stars GM Jim Nill of being gun-shy. He responded to what was a terrible season for the Stars by being proactive on the goaltending front by signing Ben Bishop. He went out and got what the Stars needed most, a defensive defenseman in Marc Methot. And the signings of Alexander Radulov and Martin Hanzal give the Stars even more scoring punch (Radulov) and a big, productive body down the middle (Hanzal). The caveats here are that the Stars will need to keep Radulov motivated after giving him a big payday, and Hanzal must be a lot better for Dallas than he was down the stretch and in the playoffs with Minnesota for this to work.</p><h2><b>FIRE WITHOUT FUEL</b></h2><p>The Stars hope Radulov will still bring his maximum effort even though he&rsquo;s no longer playing for a big contract.</p><h2><b>LOSER &ndash; PITTSBURGH PENGUINS</b></h2><p>It&rsquo;s pretty difficult to label a team that is holding its second straight Stanley Cup summer tour and remains a top contender in the league in this category, but consider that since the expansion draft, the Penguins have lost Marc-Andre Fleury, Nick Bonino, Chris Kunitz, Trevor Daley and Ron Hainsey. At one time or another, each one of them played a significant role in the Penguins&rsquo; playoff run. Perhaps just as importantly, though, the Penguins were forced to lose a group of high-character players in a game where team chemistry means so much.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0008-01

NHL’S OFF-SEASON: WHO WON? WHO LOST?

<div class="byline">BY CHARLIE TELJEUR</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0010-0146/156773-1-eng-US/f0010-012.jpg" title="f0010-01" width="660" height="876"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0010-0228/156766-1-eng-US/f0010-022.jpg" title="f0010-02" width="196" height="292"></div><p><b>THN BOOK REVIEW</b></p><h2><b>HOME ICE: CONFESSIONS OF A BLACKHAWKS FAN</b></h2><p><i>$18.00, University of Iowa Press, 190 pages, 6" x 9", paperback</i></p><p>From the mid-1970s until the Blackhawks&rsquo; meteoric rise in the late 2000s, hockey was considered a fringe sport in Chicago. Games were relegated to cable TV &ndash; if televised at all &ndash; and press coverage was almost nonexistent. In his new book, <i>Home Ice</i>, Kevin Cunningham recalls how he had to build his fandom in bits and pieces: a library book here, a game of table hockey there, maybe catching a &ldquo;game of the week&rdquo; on TV. He reminisces about his favorite games, seasons and players over the past 40 years, the team&rsquo;s biggest disappointments and coming to grips with supporting the club again when it became a powerhouse. Fans who remember Chicago&rsquo;s dark days will particularly enjoy Cunningham&rsquo;s memories, while all diehard fans, regardless of team loyalties, will heartily relate.</p><p>SAL BARRY<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0010-01

THE INSTIGATOR

<div class="byline">&#x2013; JARED CLINTON</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0010-0319/156809-1-eng-US/f0010-032.jpg" title="f0010-03" width="373" height="379"><figcaption class="caption-body">LUKE <b>MURPHY</b></figcaption></div><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0010-0410/156802-1-eng-US/f0010-042.jpg" title="f0010-04" width="116" height="154"><figcaption class="caption-body" style="width: 116px"><span class="photo-credit">(MURPHY: COURTESY OF LUKE MURPHY)</span></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>I</span>N LUKE MURPHY&rsquo;S</b> debut novel, <i>Dead Man&rsquo;s Hand,</i> an injury halts the career of a college football star, leading him to life as a debt collector in Las Vegas. When he wants out, he ends up on the lam, framed for the murder of a casino owner. The tale may not sound like something Murphy, a former minor-league center turned teacher, could relate to, but he has more in common with it than one might think. &ldquo;Not that I was ever a murder suspect or anything,&rdquo; he laughs.</p><p>Murphy did sustain a career-altering injury, though, with the Central League&rsquo;s Oklahoma City Blazers in 2000 when an errant stick gave him a broken nose, sliced eyelid and scratched cornea. The injury limited him to 90-percent vision in his left eye, ended his season and left him searching for something to fill the time. That&rsquo;s when his wife, then in university, asked for help penning a short story.</p><p>The project sparked a new passion in Murphy. He produced a full manuscript within two months of writing the short story. After retiring from hockey in 2005, he shifted his focus to becoming a published author. In 2012, Murphy accomplished his goal with <i>Dead Man&rsquo;s Hand</i>. He released his second novel, <i>Kiss and Tell</i>, in 2015, and his third book, a sequel to his debut titled <i>Wild Card</i>, hits shelves this summer.</p><p>He attributes some of his literary success to translating his on-ice mentality to his new endeavor. &ldquo;Most players have to spend time in the minors,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a long process and not something you can get discouraged over. It&rsquo;s the same when writing a book. You&rsquo;re not going to write a book overnight, and you can&rsquo;t get published overnight.&rdquo;<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p></div>

f0010-03

ICE TO PEN

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0011-0138/156838-1-eng-US/f0011-012.jpg" title="f0011-01" width="695" height="1116"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(TAVARES+SEDINS: JEFF VINNICK/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES; NASH: FRANCOIS LAPLANTE/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES; JERSEY: ADIDAS HOCKEY; VAN RIEMSDYK: MARK BLINCH/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES; THORNTON: ANDY DEVLIN/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><h2><b>STAMKOS SAGA 2.0</b></h2><h3><b>JOHN TAVARES</b></h3><p class="dropcap"><span>E</span>ven if the rumors make no sense from a hockey standpoint, Tavares will be linked to Toronto and every other big-market team until he re-signs with the Islanders. Franchise players almost never make it to July 1 without deals. Not even Steven Stamkos did.</p><h2><b>PACKAGE DEAL</b></h2><h3><b>DANIEL AND HENRIK SEDIN</b></h3><p>They&rsquo;re highly unlikely to leave Vancouver. If there&rsquo;s any hint that they want to chase a Stanley Cup, though, look out. The Sedins could make the 2018 trade deadline a ton of fun if they&rsquo;re available as a tandem rental.</p><h2><b>BRAND-NAME BUY</b></h2><h3><b>RICK NASH</b></h3><p>He&rsquo;s not the player he once was, but 2002&rsquo;s No. 1 overall pick will make news wherever he goes. Nash has enough left in the tank to earn a pretty penny, and he&rsquo;s reasonably likely to reach the open market.</p><p><i>2018 UFA HYPE-O-METER</i></p><h2><b>BIDDING WAR BAIT</b></h2><h3><b>JAMES VAN REIMSDYK</b></h3><p>Players younger than 30 who regularly flirt with 30 goals don&rsquo;t often reach unrestricted free agency. That means &lsquo;JVR&rsquo; should get wooed by half the teams in the league. He&rsquo;ll probably get more than he&rsquo;s worth because demand will be so much higher than the supply of players with his skills.</p><h2><b>DEJA VU</b></h2><h3><b>JOE THORNTON</b></h3><p>He re-upped on a one-year deal with San Jose, meaning he&rsquo;ll face another big decision next summer. Maybe he retires, as he&rsquo;ll be 39. Maybe he stays on with the Sharks. Or maybe, if San Jose has a bad year, he leaves for one last crack at a Cup.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0011-01

START DROOLING

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0011-0226/156881-1-eng-US/f0011-022.jpg" title="f0011-02" width="321" height="321"></div><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0011-0315/156874-1-eng-US/f0011-032.jpg" title="f0011-03" width="114" height="115"></div><p><b>MINNESOTA WILD | 2017-18</b></p><p>Not that Minnesota needed much improvement &ndash; the Wild already had a pretty sweet jersey &ndash; but the new Adidas design for the franchise really takes things to the next level.</p><p>The most obvious addition to the uniform is the Habs-style stripe going through the middle of the sweater, and it really helps the main crest pop. Some fans were disappointed the stripe was white instead of cream, but cream has been getting a little too trendy for a while now.</p><p>Elsewhere, the Wild did right on the shoulders, where a new secondary &lsquo;M&rsquo; logo resides. Taken from the Wild&rsquo;s previous script third jersey, the &lsquo;M&rsquo; is really solid and would look great on a hat.</p><p>&ndash; RYAN KENNEDY</p></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0011-045/156867-1-eng-US/f0011-042.jpg" title="f0011-04" width="356" height="324"></div><p><b>IN THE CARDS</b></p><p>Released not long after the 1991 NHL entry draft, the 1991-92 Pro Set Series I set consisted of 345 hockey cards, plus four randomly inserted &ldquo;chase&rdquo; cards of which you might find one in every box or so. Two of these cards were of 1991 draft picks Pat Falloon and Scott Niedermayer. There was just one small problem: neither Falloon nor Niedermayer had played in an NHL game yet, which violated Pro Set&rsquo;s licensing agreement with the NHL and the NHLPA. So, these cards were pulled early in the production run, making them two of the rarer cards issued that season. &ndash; SAL BARRY OF <a href="http://PUCKJUNK.COM">PUCKJUNK.COM</a><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0011-02

JERSEY HOUND

<div class="byline">BY JARED CLINTON</div><p>LIKE A PRO</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-0146/156910-1-eng-US/f0012-012.jpg" title="f0012-01" width="608" height="913"><figcaption class="caption-body">Though he&rsquo;s never played more than 40 games in a pro season, Darling trains in the summer &ldquo;like I&rsquo;m going to play 82 games.&rdquo; <span class="photo-credit">(BILL SMITH/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p><b>ANYONE FAMILIAR WITH</b> Scott Darling&rsquo;s story knows how far he has come over the past several years. The burly, bearded 6-foot-6 netminder worked his way up from the Southern Pro League to the NHL and became the first player, let alone goaltender, to make it from that deep in the minors to the big leagues. After serving as the Chicago Blackhawks&rsquo; backup for the past three years, Darling&rsquo;s ready to take on the biggest challenge of his career.</p><p>In June, Darling was acquired by the Carolina Hurricanes and promptly inked a four-year, $16.6-million deal, a contract that is sure to give the 28-yearold his first shot as a No. 1 netminder in the NHL. &ldquo;It excites me and makes me really want to work hard to repay them for putting that faith in me,&rdquo; Darling said. &ldquo;I want to make sure they know they made the right decision and be happy they did in the next few years.&rdquo;</p><p>Doing so starts with preparation, and the dedicated Darling is going to have to be more primed than ever entering the 2017-18 season. Darling&rsquo;s heaviest workload with a single team came in 2010-11 when he played 35 games for the ECHL&rsquo;s Mississippi RiverKings, and his busiest season since was the 2014-15 campaign when he split 40 games between the Blackhawks and AHL&rsquo;s Rockford IceHogs. Darling is confident his approach will have him well-prepped for a 50- or 60-game workload. &ldquo;Every summer I train like I&rsquo;m going to play all 82 games,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;That hasn&rsquo;t been the case in my career so far, but that&rsquo;s the way I get ready to go every year.&rdquo;</p><p>What he works on, though, might be something different than in past years. Darling was able to improve his skating and strength during his time in Chicago, but he wants to add a new facet to his game in 2017-18: puckhandling. &ldquo;In Chicago, I just set the puck up,&rdquo; said Darling, who compiled a 39-17-9 record over three seasons with the Hawks, including a 2.37 goals-against average and .923 save percentage. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s the way they liked it, and I just had to get back in net and let Duncan Keith wheel with it. In Carolina, they want the goalie to be active and be a part of the breakout, so that&rsquo;s going to be one of my focuses this summer.&rdquo;</p><blockquote class="pullQuote">THIS IS THE FINAL STEP, GETTING THE OPPORTUNITY TO TAKE A STARTING ROLE &ndash; Scott Darling, Hurricanes goalie</blockquote><p>That work will come over a two-month summer training session in Boston with Brian Daccord, a goaltending consultant for the Toronto Maple Leafs, and Darling will skate alongside Mike Condon and Cory Schneider as Darling gears up for a new chapter. &ldquo;The way my career has gone, I&rsquo;ve always kind of taken the next step,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;And this is the final step, getting the opportunity to take a starting role and have a team put that faith in the me.&rdquo;<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0012-01

LONG ROAD TO THE START

<div class="byline">DUNCAN KEITH</div><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0013-0140/156953-1-eng-US/f0013-012.jpg" title="f0013-01" width="136" height="151"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0013-0236/156946-1-eng-US/f0013-022.jpg" title="f0013-02" width="221" height="402"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(KEITH 1: BILL SMITH/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES; KEITH 2: BRUCE BENNETT/GETTY IMAGES; LUONGO: JEFF VINNICK/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><span>W</span>hen I first got the call from Gary Bettman, I was pretty thrilled. It&rsquo;s not every day you get a call like that. You look at the list of players, and to be named among those guys, it truly is an honor. These are guys I grew up idolizing, trying to skate out there like them and do the things that they do. So for me to be named amongst those guys is a pretty cool feeling. It just makes me want to play better.</p><p>I looked at all those guys growing up &ndash; everybody I talked to at the ceremony, Joe Sakic, Peter Forsberg &ndash; every single day. Ray Bourque, Brian Leetch, Paul Coffey, I talked to all those guys at the event. I watched them every day and tried to emulate them.</p><p>&ndash; WITH MATT LARKIN</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0013-0329/156939-1-eng-US/f0013-032.jpg" title="f0013-03" width="180" height="399"><figcaption class="caption-body">DUNCAN <b>KEITH</b></figcaption></div><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span>

f0013-02

TELLS US WHAT IT’S LIKE...

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-0144/157068-1-eng-US/f0014-012.jpg" title="f0014-01" width="295" height="289"></div><h2><b>AVOIDING GREEK TRAGEDIES</b></h2><p class="dropcap"><b><span>E</span>RIK KARLSSON AND</b> Matt Cooke were tangled up along the boards in February 2013 when Cooke&rsquo;s skate sliced Karlsson&rsquo;s Achilles. The Ottawa Senators&rsquo; star blueliner required surgery and missed 31 games.</p><p>Injuries like this, and others sustained by the likes of Tyler Seguin and Claude Giroux, inspired Peter Mehdizadeh, Speed Hockey&rsquo;s president and CEO, to create The Savior Pro, a carbon-fiber guard that sits on the calf underneath the skate. It shields the calf from pucks, slashes and skate blades. There&rsquo;s also an alternate version, trading the carbon fiber for plastic, but the concept stays the same. &ldquo;The idea is to protect the player,&rdquo; Mehdizadeh said.</p><p>The NHL cleared both versions for in-game use in 2016 and, according to Mehdizadeh, it&rsquo;s already being used by several players.</p><p><i>(<a href="http://speedhockeyinc.com">speedhockeyinc.com</a>)</i> &ndash; ALEX DEBETS</p><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-0230/157061-1-eng-US/f0014-022.jpg" title="f0014-02" width="83" height="87"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><h2><b>BLUE ICE</b></h2><p><b>IF YOU LIKE</b> Cards Against Humanity and hockey, then Pucks in Deep by Palo Alto Innovation is the game for you.</p><p>The rules of the game are simple: a player asks a question from a black &ldquo;puck&rdquo; card and everyone else lays a white &ldquo;ice&rdquo; card with their response on it face down. The player who asked the question picks the funniest combination and the winner gets to keep the puck card. In the end, the player with the most puck cards wins.</p><p>A typical question would be, &ldquo;what&rsquo;s my hockey nemesis?&rdquo; and potential answers include &ldquo;fascist linesman&rdquo; and &ldquo;foot fungus.&rdquo; Some of the answer cards can get a little blue, so maybe put the kids to bed first.</p><p><i>(<a href="http://pucksindeepgame.com">pucksindeepgame.com</a>)</i> &ndash; CHRIS JONES</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-0320/157054-1-eng-US/f0014-032.jpg" title="f0014-03" width="346" height="287"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-0414/157047-1-eng-US/f0014-042.jpg" title="f0014-04" width="321" height="322"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(DESMARAIS: POWER CORP; SPEED HOCKEY: COURTESY OF SPEED HOCKEY INC.; CARD GAME: COURTESY OF PUCKSINDEEP.COM; JERSEY: ADIDAS HOCKEY)</span></figcaption></div><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-0512/157040-1-eng-US/f0014-052.jpg" title="f0014-05" width="114" height="114"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><h2><b>DEVIL&rsquo;S IN DETAILS FOR NEW JERSEYS</b></h2><p><b>ADIDAS HAS LANDED.</b> The company&rsquo;s first NHL uniforms are out and, although the Vegas Golden Knights had the big reveal, all 31 NHL franchises received new looks, ranging from almost imperceptible (Montreal) to quite different (Minnesota).</p><p>The ADIZERO uniform system naturally comes with bells and whistles: the team crests are lighter than in the past, while Clima technology and a streamlined silhouette aim to make the jerseys cooler. The company also used burst and abrasion testing in making the sweaters more durable &ndash; so go nuts when your team scores in overtime.</p><p><i>(<a href="http://NHL.com">nhl.com</a>)</i> &ndash; RYAN KENNEDY<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0014-01

GOODS | GEAR | LIFE

<div class="byline">&#x2013; MATT LARKIN</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-065/157104-1-eng-US/f0014-062.jpg" title="f0014-06" width="157" height="261"><figcaption class="caption-body">PAUL <b>DESMARAIS</b></figcaption></div><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-074/157097-1-eng-US/f0014-072.jpg" title="f0014-07" width="83" height="81"></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>B</span>AUER&rsquo;S LATEST HOCKEY</b> equipment technology is mind-bogglingly impressive. Every piece of the top-end skates is customizable, and the newest composite stick is comprised of the same kind of materials lining the racing boats at the America&rsquo;s Cup.</p><p>But if there&rsquo;s one image that doesn&rsquo;t represent the masses, the beer leaguers, it&rsquo;s a racing yacht. And Bauer&rsquo;s new czar understands that.</p><p>Paul Desmarais III took over the company in the summer of 2016. He&rsquo;s the chairman of Peak Achievement Athletics, the sports juggernaut that owns Bauer. Desmarais understands Bauer&rsquo;s huge commitment to innovation. Its research and development facility employs 82 people and is the size of six hockey rinks, he says. But what excites Desmarais most these days isn&rsquo;t the cutting-edge stuff. His primary vision when he took over was to make the game more accessible to entry-level players. &ldquo;The amount of work that goes into creating the top-of-the-line skate is incredible, but what&rsquo;s fantastic is we also do a ton of work in creating the bottom-of-the-line skates,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s continuously figuring out, &lsquo;How do we make hockey affordable?&rsquo; Bring down the cost of the skate. You can today buy starter kits at Canadian Tire for around $100. And that makes it more affordable for everyone to play.&rdquo;<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p></div>

f0014-06

A MAN OF THE PEOPLE

<div class="byline">VIKTOR ARVIDSSON</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0015-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0015-0133/157133-1-eng-US/f0015-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(MINAS PANAGIOTAKIS/GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><h2><b>SHOULDER PADS</b></h2><h3><b>CCM U+ CRAZY LIGHT</b></h3><p>&ldquo;Right there I feel I want as much protection as possible to just be safe out there. I&rsquo;ve used them for a while, so they&rsquo;re broken in. My shoulder pads are a different brand than my other gear.&rdquo;</p><h2><b>ELBOW PADS</b></h2><h3><b>REEBOK 20K PRO</b></h3><h2><b>STICK</b></h2><h3><b>BAUER VAPOR 1X</b></h3><p>&ldquo;It has a lower whip and kick point. It&rsquo;s really whippy. I like that. I have a 67 flex. I have pretty short sticks. That&rsquo;s what I like. And my blade is pretty hard, too.&rdquo;</p><h2><b>SHIN PADS</b></h2><h3><b>REEBOK 21K PRO</b></h3><h2><b>HELMET</b></h2><h3><b>BAUER RE-AKT</b></h3><p>&ldquo;Comfort is what I look for there. And this helmet is comfortable, so that&rsquo;s what matters.&rdquo;</p><h2><b>GLOVES</b></h2><h3><b>BAUER VAPOR 1X PRO</b></h3><p>&ldquo;I like new gloves. I like them brand new and pretty small, with a lot of grip in them.&rdquo;</p><h2><b>SKATES</b></h2><h3><b>BAUER VAPOR 1X</b></h3><p>&ldquo;They&rsquo;re hard and stiff. I like stiff skates because they help me push off.&rdquo;<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0015-01

EQUIPPED

<div class="byline">BY SEAN MCINDOE</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-0144/157190-1-eng-US/f0016-012.jpg" title="f0016-01" width="520" height="520"><figcaption class="caption-body">KEITH <b>TKACHUK</b></figcaption></div><p><b>DOWN GOES BROWN</b></p><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-063/157197-1-eng-US/f0016-062.jpg" title="f0016-06" width="109" height="111"></div><p><b>THE HALL OF FAME</b> welcomed its newest members June 26, including four players on the men&rsquo;s side. Teemu Selanne made it in as a first-year candidate and was joined by Paul Kariya, Mark Recchi and Dave Andreychuk in a class that didn&rsquo;t feature any jaw-dropping surprises.</p><p>In the days after a new HHOF class is named, it&rsquo;s natural to start looking ahead to future years and speculate about who&rsquo;s up next. Martin Brodeur is a sure thing for 2018, and Martin St-Louis will have a strong case, too. Daniel Alfredsson, passed over this year in his first chance, should have a good shot as well.</p><p>And then we&rsquo;ll get to the leftovers, that group of players who&rsquo;ve been eligible for a few years but have yet to get the call. This group features certain big names every year, like Jeremy Roenick, Curtis Joseph, Theoren Fleury, Alexander Mogilny and Sergei Zubov. A few of these guys will get in eventually. It&rsquo;s just a matter of when. But there&rsquo;s another group: players who seem to have decent HHOF resumes but for whatever reason have been left out. The actual HHOF selection committee debates are kept secret, so we don&rsquo;t know if any of these guys are getting serious consideration, but the buzz around their candidacies has faded.</p><p>In recent years, we&rsquo;ve seen guys like Mark Howe and Rogie Vachon get in after waiting for decades, so there&rsquo;s always hope. Here are five players who have been up for induction at least five times and may be falling off your HHOF radar, but who might have a stronger case to get in than you think.</p></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><h2><b>KEITH TKACHUK</b></h2><h3><b>ELIGIBLE SINCE: 2013</b></h3><p><b>THE CASE FOR:</b> His 538 goals rank 32nd on the all-time list. More significantly, with Recchi and Andreychuk going in this year, Tkachuk is now the career leader in goals among eligible players who haven&rsquo;t been inducted.</p><p>He was also a second-team all-star twice, which doesn&rsquo;t sound like much but is two more than Andreychuk ever managed, and Tkachuk would&rsquo;ve won the Rocket Richard Trophy if the award existed in 1997. He did all that while establishing a reputation as one of the best power forwards of the &rsquo;90s and beyond.</p><p><b>THE CASE AGAINST:</b> Tkachuk is one of those guys who spent his career being viewed as very good but not quite elite. You could say the same of Andreychuk and Recchi, but they stuck around long enough to rack up numbers that couldn&rsquo;t be ignored, while Tkachuk is a tier below. He also never won a Stanley Cup or even had a long playoff run, which probably shouldn&rsquo;t matter, but it does.</p><p><b>BOTTOM LINE:</b> Tkachuk&rsquo;s name hasn&rsquo;t generated all that much buzz in recent years, but it feels like Andreychuk and Recchi going in could change that. At some point, somebody has to be the top scorer who isn&rsquo;t in the Hall, but having it be a guy who played most of his career in the Dead Puck Era seems odd.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-0226/157183-1-eng-US/f0016-022.jpg" title="f0016-02" width="545" height="545"><figcaption class="caption-body">PIERRE <b>TURGEON</b></figcaption></div><h2><b>PIERRE TURGEON</b></h2><h3><b>ELIGIBLE SINCE: 2010</b></h3><p><b>THE CASE FOR:</b> Now that Andreychuk&rsquo;s getting in, Turgeon becomes the all-time scoring leader among eligible players who hasn&rsquo;t been inducted. And it&rsquo;s not even close &ndash; he&rsquo;s more than 100 points ahead of the next highest scorer on the list, Jeremy Roenick.</p><p>And before you bring up that he racked up a lot of those points in the high-flying 1980s, he actually ranks even higher &ndash; 28th all-time &ndash; once you adjust for era. The guy could score.</p><p><b>THE CASE AGAINST:</b> He wasn&rsquo;t doing much if he wasn&rsquo;t scoring. Turgeon didn&rsquo;t exactly rack up Selke Trophy votes during his career. He didn&rsquo;t get many trophy votes, period, beyond a lone Lady Byng Trophy that probably doesn&rsquo;t help his cause. He was a player who put up some impressive stats but was never a guy you built your team around, as evidenced by his having played for six teams, none for more than five seasons.</p><p><b>BOTTOM LINE:</b> Much like Tkachuk, Turgeon may get a boost back into the discussion now that the eligible guys ahead of him have gone in. But without a dedicated fan base to advocate for him, I don&rsquo;t like his odds.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-0316/157176-1-eng-US/f0016-032.jpg" title="f0016-03" width="520" height="528"><figcaption class="caption-body">JOHN <b>LECLAIR</b><span class="photo-credit">(TKACHUK: GERRY THOMAS/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES; TURGEON+LECLAIR: DENIS BRODEUR/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><blockquote class="pullQuote">GIVEN BRIND&rsquo;AMOUR&rsquo;S CAREER NUMBERS AND TWO-WAY PLAY, IT&rsquo;S WEIRD HIS NAME ALMOST NEVER COMES UP</blockquote><h2><b>JOHN LECLAIR</b></h2><h3><b>ELIGIBLE SINCE: 2010</b></h3><p><b>THE CASE FOR:</b> If you view Tkachuk as a guy who was good for a long time but never truly great, LeClair represents the other side of the coin. He didn&rsquo;t hit the milestones you expect from a scorer in a HHOF conversation &ndash; he didn&rsquo;t come all that close to 500 goals or 1,000 points. But when he was at his best, he may have been the top left winger in the league.</p><p>He was a first-team all-star twice and made the second team three times. Those five total selections match Kariya, which is fitting since the two players&rsquo; peak years overlap. LeClair hit 50 goals three times and 40 twice more, plus he had another dominant year in the lockoutshortened 1994-95 season. In fact, between 1994 and 2000, he finished just one goal behind Jaromir Jagr for the league lead. Granted, that&rsquo;s getting a little clever with arbitrary end points, but it drives the point home that for an extended period, LeClair was one of the very best goal scorers in the league, period.</p><p><b>THE CASE AGAINST:</b> He just didn&rsquo;t do it long enough. Injuries cost him most of his 2000-01 season, and he was never really the same after that. If your best HHOF argument is that you scored goals, you&rsquo;re going to need more than 406 to get in.</p><p><b>BOTTOM LINE:</b> The Hall has already inducted guys whose careers were derailed by injuries, including Kariya, Pavel Bure and Cam Neely (a guy LeClair ended up outscoring). If you&rsquo;re someone who feels that a player&rsquo;s peak performance should count for more than his long-term totals, LeClair should at least be in the discussion.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-0415/157169-1-eng-US/f0016-042.jpg" title="f0016-04" width="614" height="575"><figcaption class="caption-body">DOUG <b>WILSON</b></figcaption></div><h2><b>DOUG WILSON</b></h2><h3><b>ELIGIBLE SINCE: 1996</b></h3><p><b>THE CASE FOR:</b> Here are the all-time scoring leaders among defensemen for five of the NHL&rsquo;s Original Six teams: Ray Bourque, Nicklas Lidstrom, Borje Salming, Brian Leetch and Larry Robinson. Those aren&rsquo;t just five Hall of Famers, they&rsquo;re five no-questions-asked Hall of Famers. And yet here&rsquo;s Wilson, who leads the Blackhawks&rsquo; all-time list by a mile, and his candidacy seems to be all but forgotten.</p><p>Wilson wasn&rsquo;t just a guy who stuck around long enough to compile numbers without ever being truly great. He won a Norris Trophy and finished in the top four in voting four times. He was a three-time first- or second-team all-star. He finished in the top 10 in Hart Trophy voting twice, even though defensemen rarely get much MVP love. Most notably, he ranks 15th all-time in scoring among defensemen, and 13 of the 14 guys ahead of him are already in the Hall. Here&rsquo;s a list of guys who won a Norris Trophy and rank in the all-time top 25 in defensemen scoring but aren&rsquo;t in the Hall: Wilson. That&rsquo;s it.</p><p><b>THE CASE AGAINST:</b> Wilson&rsquo;s offensive numbers are inflated because he played in the &rsquo;80s. After all, nobody is lobbying to get players like Gary Suter or Steve Duchesne into the Hall. Wilson&rsquo;s individual honors give him a stronger case than those guys&rsquo;, but after 21 years and counting, it&rsquo;s clear the HHOF committee just isn&rsquo;t interested.</p><p><b>BOTTOM LINE:</b> While his long stint as Sharks GM might keep his name in the mind of committee members, enough time has passed that he&rsquo;s clearly a long shot at this point. But there&rsquo;s a surprisingly solid case for his inclusion.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-057/157162-1-eng-US/f0016-052.jpg" title="f0016-05" width="491" height="519"><figcaption class="caption-body">ROD <b>BRIND&rsquo;AMOUR</b><span class="photo-credit">(WILSON: GRAIG ABEL COLLECTION/GETTY IMAGES; BRIND&rsquo;AMOUR: DAVE SANDFORD/GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><h2><b>ROD BRIND&rsquo;AMOUR</b></h2><h3><b>ELIGIBLE SINCE: 2013</b></h3><p><b>THE CASE FOR:</b> Everyone seems to agree that Marian Hossa is a HHOF shoo-in, based on his two-way play, Stanley Cup rings and 1,134 career points. If so, why isn&rsquo;t Brind&rsquo;Amour in the conversation? After all, Hossa never won a Selke Trophy as best defensive forward, while Brind&rsquo;Amour has two. He also finished with more points than Hossa, with 1,184. And while Brind&rsquo;Amour didn&rsquo;t win three rings, he did get one, and he got to lift the Cup as team captain. None of that is to say that he was better than Hossa. But the gap isn&rsquo;t as wide as some assume, and if one guy is an absolute lock, the other should at least be one the radar.</p><p><b>THE CASE AGAINST:</b> Brind&rsquo;Amour was never a first- or second-team all-star, and he only came close once. He never got serious Hart Trophy consideration, finishing in the top 10 just once. Like a lot of guys on the bubble, he&rsquo;d feed into the &ldquo;Hall of Very Good&rdquo; criticism the HHOF often hears.</p><p><b>BOTTOM LINE:</b> Brind&rsquo;Amour&rsquo;s probably not a Hall of Famer, and his odds of ever getting in seem remote. But given his career numbers and two-way play, it&rsquo;s weird that his name almost never comes up at all. That may be changing, and maybe Hossa&rsquo;s eventual coronation revives Brind&rsquo;Amour&rsquo;s candidacy in the same way guys like Eric Lindros and Peter Forsberg reopened the discussion for Kariya.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0016-01

FIVE NHLers FALLING OFF HALL OF FAME’S RADAR

<div class="byline">BY JARED CLINTON</div><p>TOTAL WINS DURING THE 30- TEAM ERA</p><p><b>THE NHL&rsquo;S 30-TEAM</b> era, which has spanned 16 seasons since the Columbus Blue Jackets and Minnesota Wild joined the league in 2000-01, has been one to remember for a handful of franchises. The Detroit Red Wings, for instance, maintained their magical playoff streak virtually to the bitter end, capturing two Stanley Cups along the way. The Chicago Blackhawks managed a pseudo-dynasty, winning three titles in six years. Four sun-drenched franchises &ndash; the Anaheim Ducks, Carolina Hurricanes, Los Angeles Kings and Tampa Bay Lightning &ndash; were crowned league champions for the first time. And the Pittsburgh Penguins tied a bow on the 30- team NHL by capturing back-toback Stanley Cups.</p><p>But for the San Jose Sharks, the past era is one that will be remembered with could-haves, should-haves and did-nots, because the Sharks could have done more with their considerable success, probably should have won a Stanley Cup at some point, but, disappointingly, did not. We know this to be true, but it&rsquo;s somewhat hard to believe when looking back at what San Jose has accomplished since the start of the 2000-01 season.</p><p>Most may declare the Red Wings, Penguins and Blackhawks as the era&rsquo;s most impressive franchises, but the Sharks deserve mention alongside those multiple Cup-winning teams, if just in a wins-andlosses sense. Over the past 16 seasons, only Detroit &ndash; winners of 820 combined regular season and playoff games &ndash; has accumulated more victories than San Jose&rsquo;s 785. To get to that gaudy total, the Sharks won 702 regular season contests, second only to the Wings&rsquo; 728, and picked up 83 playoff victories, behind only Pittsburgh (100), Detroit (92) and Anaheim (85).</p><p>Though San Jose doesn&rsquo;t have much hardware to show for its success &ndash; just a Presidents&rsquo; Trophy for finishing first overall in 2008-09 and a Clarence Campbell Bowl as the Western Conference playoff champions in 2015- 16 &ndash; the Sharks can take pride in their consistency throughout an era of ups and downs for many clubs. Consider the Penguins, who were league bottom-feeders before winning three Cups since 2009. The same goes for the Blackhawks, who were perennial losers until this past decade. But winning has been a tradition in San Jose, and the Sharks have made the playoffs in all but two seasons since 2000-01. An impressive feat even if it hasn&rsquo;t resulted in Stanley Cup success.</p><p>San Jose&rsquo;s consistency is a testament to the savvy of GM Doug Wilson and his staff. Acquiring Joe Thornton was one of the great steals of the era, as no player has amassed more points over the past 16 seasons. Wilson had another masterstroke in nabbing Brent Burns from the Minnesota Wild. And don&rsquo;t forget the draft. San Jose remained competitive with several astute picks, from Logan Couture, Marc-Edouard Vlasic and Tomas Hertl in the opening rounds to the seventhround steals of Joe Pavelski and Justin Braun.</p><p>This isn&rsquo;t to say the Sharks are the only team that has been underappreciated in the 30- team NHL. Take the Ottawa Senators, who, remarkably, are the era&rsquo;s fifth-winningest squad and boast the third-best points percentage in the regular season (.586). And only the Wings and Sharks have won more regular season games than the Vancouver Canucks, while the Ducks have won nearly 60 percent of their post-season contests.</p><p>But no team has won more or consistently achieved to the level of San Jose without getting due credit. And that might be where the Sharks&rsquo; &ldquo;would-have&rdquo; plays its biggest role. Because if they would have won the ever elusive Stanley Cup, they might just be remembered as the best franchise of the NHL&rsquo;s 30-team era.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-0142/157233-1-eng-US/f0018-012.jpg" title="f0018-01" width="520" height="511"><figcaption class="caption-body">DIAMOND MINERS One reason why San Jose piles up wins in this millennium: constantly finding deep draft gems such as Pavelski. <span class="photo-credit">(DON SMITH/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0019-0131/157226-1-eng-US/f0019-012.jpg" title="f0019-01" width="1155" height="1363"></div><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span>

f0018-01

THE COUNTDOWN

<div class="byline">BY KEN CAMPBELL</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-0143/157283-1-eng-US/f0020-012.jpg" title="f0020-01" width="604" height="1108"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(XXXXX JEFF VINNICK/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>I</span>T&rsquo;S IMPOSSIBLE</b> to quantify how many people have become smitten with one another or how many lasting relationships have begun over a casual lunch. To be sure, Nico Hischier and Ray Shero were not the first two people whose bond started out over what was supposed to be a midday meal that stretched into five hours.</p><p>But it was that lunch in Bern, Switzerland, that made Shero, the GM of the New Jersey Devils, more convinced that he would walk to the podium with the first overall pick in the 2017 NHL draft and select Hischier. The body of work was already impressive enough to warrant selection ahead of Nolan Patrick, who spent much of the season as the consensus No. 1 prospect, but that meeting basically clinched it for Shero. From the moment it began, when Hischier impressed Shero by knowing exactly which platform to go to in order to meet Shero&rsquo;s train, to the lunch that stretched into afternoon coffee, it became more and more clear to Shero he had found the guy most likely to lead the Devils out of the wilderness.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0021-0135/157276-1-eng-US/f0021-012.jpg" title="f0021-01" width="752" height="480"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(MOOSEHEADS: HALIFAX MOOSEHEADS; DRAFT: PATRICK GORSKI/ICON SPORTSWIRE VIA GETTY IMAGES; SWITZERLAND: CLAUS ANDERSEN/GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0021-0221/157269-1-eng-US/f0021-022.jpg" title="f0021-02" width="287" height="386"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0021-038/157262-1-eng-US/f0021-032.jpg" title="f0021-03" width="596" height="386"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>RISE AND SHINE</b> Hischier turned heads in 2016-17 by elevating two teams not expected to accomplish much: the QMJHL&rsquo;s Halifax Mooseheads and the Swiss world junior squad. He took both teams on his back and rocketed up draft rankings throughout the year, settling at No. 1.</figcaption></div><p>&ldquo;Nico&rsquo;s got that great playmaking ability and the ability to make other players better,&rdquo; said Shero at the draft. &ldquo;For our franchise, we thought that was the best pick, so it&rsquo;s a good day for us. No disrespect to the other players, but for myself and (Devils director of amateur scouting) Paul Castron, we just felt our team, how we wanted to move forward, made the most sense for us.&rdquo;</p><p>It&rsquo;s clear Hischier&rsquo;s decision to play major junior hockey for the QMJHL&rsquo;s Halifax Mooseheads paid off for him in a major way. Had he stayed home and played in the men&rsquo;s league in Switzerland and had a good year, he likely would not have rocketed up the charts of the first round. Hischier entered 2016-17 as a good bet to be chosen in Round 1, but was not seen as a contender for No. 1 overall status.</p><p>A couple of things changed that. One was his performance at the 2017 World Junior Championship when he turned in a dominating performance in Switzerland&rsquo;s 3-2 loss to the U.S. in the quarterfinal. Not only did Hischier score both Swiss goals, he had the puck on his stick in the dying minutes and only a spectacular save by Tyler Parsons prevented the game from going to overtime. American coach Bob Motzko said after the game that Hischier was the best player they had seen in the tournament and confided to observers afterward that no matter what combinations he tried, his team had no response for Hischier.</p><p>Another was the impact Hischier had on a very young Halifax team. The Mooseheads are a perennial contender in the QMJHL, but were at the nadir of their rebuilding cycle and weren&rsquo;t expected to make the playoffs. In large part due to Hischier&rsquo;s exploits, they qualified for the post-season and stretched their first-round series to six games against the Rouyn-Noranda Huskies, a team that finished 33 points ahead of them in the standings. Hischier, of course, led the way with three goals and seven points in the series. &ldquo;The difference he made to help them get in the playoffs really said a lot about him,&rdquo; Shero said. &ldquo;He really drove that team and made a difference on a team that really wasn&rsquo;t supposed to be there.&rdquo;</p><p>Hmm, that sounds an awful lot like the Devils, doesn&rsquo;t it? It would be too much to expect Hischier to have that kind of impact in his first season in the NHL, despite the fact he&rsquo;s following in the draft after generational talents Connor McDavid and Auston Matthews. Shero expects him to play in the NHL this coming season, but it&rsquo;s going to take some time for Hischier to find his way in the big leagues. It would be unfair to expect McDavid- or Matthewslike production from Hischier in his rookie season, but his two-way game and his offensive upside have the Devils excited. His positive attitude will also help as the Devils work their way back from oblivion. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s one of these kids who always has a smile on his face,&rdquo; Castron said. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know if he&rsquo;s had any bad days.&rdquo;</p><p>The Nolan vs. Nico race that basically began after the world juniors went right down to the wire, and it will be years before we know which player was the better choice. One scout compared it to the 1988 draft when Mike Modano went first overall, followed by Trevor Linden. Linden was a known commodity, the same way Patrick is, while there was a little more mystery and upside attached to Modano, the way there is with Hischier. Both teams ended up getting superb players, and that&rsquo;s what the Devils and Philadelphia Flyers hope will be the case this time around, too.</p><p>Nothing is guaranteed, though. In a draft that was so wide open, there might be a fourth-round pick that ends up being the best of the bunch. Hischier has a goal of playing, and sticking, in New Jersey in 2017-18 and beginning the process that Shero envisions. &ldquo;Yeah, for sure,&rdquo; said Hischier when asked if it&rsquo;s important for him to play in the NHL immediately. &ldquo;I mean, it&rsquo;s my goal, so it is important for sure. I really want to achieve my goal, but I still know I have to prove a lot of things to play there.&rdquo;<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0020-01

NICO SUAVE

<div class="byline">BY KEN CAMPBELL</div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>I</span>F THE WHOLE</b> playing-in-the-NHL thing doesn&rsquo;t work out &ndash; and it looks increasingly as though it will &ndash; Nolan Patrick would be perfectly content spending his life in the backwoods of Manitoba as a hunting guide. It&rsquo;s good, honest work in the outdoors, and in Canada it pays an average of $70,576 a year, or 36 bucks an hour, which is a pretty good payday. But if he plays this coming season with the Philadelphia Flyers, he&rsquo;ll make more than 13 times that amount in U.S. funds and he won&rsquo;t have to deal with black flies the size of your head.</p><p>There are two places where Patrick feels most at home. One is on the ice, which is good, since he&rsquo;s setting himself up to spend the next two decades there. The other is in the wild. Anywhere will do, but he&rsquo;s particularly fond of his cabin on Falcon Lake and in the woods outside a tiny town called Minnedosa just north of Brandon. Whether he&rsquo;s toting a rifle, bow or spear &ndash; yeah, you read that right, a spear &ndash; Patrick is definitely in his happy place when he&rsquo;s chasing down prey on land or water, preferably with his father, Stephen, a first-round NHL pick himself who played 250 games in the big leagues. When Patrick was rehabbing during the early part of the most trying season of his life, he would find solace in his almost daily hunting outings. Even got himself a good-sized buck. Then he got a turkey a couple of weeks before the draft. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s one of my favorite things to do and I love eating the animals I get,&rdquo; Patrick said. &ldquo;For me, when an animal is so close to you and doesn&rsquo;t know you&rsquo;re there, it&rsquo;s probably the biggest adrenaline rush you can get before you pull the trigger. I like to see the way they act, and then obviously you know what happens next&hellip;&rdquo;</p><p>Yup, we do. Almost always, the animal gets a bullet between the eyes, and Patrick and his family eat it. He took down his first deer when he was 12, and when he was a kid he often took shots on his net in the garage with a buck hanging behind him. Now before you get all worked up and preachy, know that Patrick is not some trophy hunter who gets his kicks posing beside a dead savanna elephant in Africa. He eats what he kills, including the fish he spears at his cabin. That might not sit well with some people, but the way he sees it, there&rsquo;s no difference between what he does and ordering a hamburger at McDonald&rsquo;s. &ldquo;I can go to the store and buy a turkey,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;or I can go out and shoot one myself.&rdquo;</p><blockquote class="pullQuote"><b>WHETHER HE&rsquo;S TOTING A RIFLE, BOW OR SPEAR &ndash; YEAH, YOU READ THAT RIGHT, A SPEAR &ndash; PATRICK IS DEFINITELY IN HIS HAPPY PLACE</b></blockquote><p>If you&rsquo;re getting the sense right about now that Patrick is his own man, well, you&rsquo;re pretty warm. He&rsquo;s an 18-year-old who comes across as refreshing because everything is not &ldquo;surreal.&rdquo; When it comes to Patrick, it&rsquo;s very real. He doesn&rsquo;t start his sentences with &ldquo;obviously,&rdquo; and he doesn&rsquo;t speak in sound bytes that give you the impression he&rsquo;s been coached to be bland and vanilla. There&rsquo;s a certain authenticity about him that is not only refreshing, but that belies his age. Not old enough yet to drink in the state where he hopes to be working and still sporting rosy cheeks, Patrick is not about to be confined by convention. He already has four tattoos on his left arm, two of which he needed permission from his parents to have done because he was too young to give consent. The first is on his wrist and reads &lsquo;SCP 63,&rsquo; a tribute to his grandfather, Stephen Clifford Patrick, who wore No. 63 in his 13 years with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers and won four Grey Cups before becoming a member of the provincial legislature in Manitoba. Moving up the arm, there is a simple &lsquo;C&rsquo; on Patrick&rsquo;s forearm because his grandfather called him Charlie. Then there&rsquo;s a replica of a schooner that is in a picture in his home in Winnipeg, and the fourth on the inside of his bicep is three flowers, one each for his mother, Carrie, and his hockey-playing sisters Madison and Aimee.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-0129/157333-1-eng-US/f0023-012.jpg" title="f0023-01" width="822" height="1116"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(DAVID CURLEIGH)</span></figcaption></div><p>When asked before the draft whether people are still concerned about his injuries, he said, &ldquo;You&rsquo;re asking me right now, so I guess I&rsquo;m still getting questions about it.&rdquo; And after being taken second overall by the Philadelphia Flyers despite being the consensus projected No. 1 choice much of the season, he was asked whether he was disappointed that the New Jersey Devils passed him over in favor of Nico Hischier. &ldquo;If you don&rsquo;t want to draft me,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;then don&rsquo;t draft me.&rdquo; Most players vying for No. 1 say they don&rsquo;t really care where they&rsquo;re drafted and deep down, they do. It&rsquo;s the same way players talk about not even thinking about their contract. What they say for public consumption and what they really feel are different. But Patrick, armed with an enormous amount of perspective, knows that draft position really means nothing. He and his father would watch the Detroit Red Wings play, then look up the players by draft year on the Internet and click on the games played icon, which would list them in descending order. &ldquo;Then you&rsquo;d say, &ldquo;Cripes, (Henrik) Zetterberg went in the seventh round,&rdquo; recalled Stephen. &ldquo;We did that a lot.&rdquo;</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-0144/157326-1-eng-US/f0024-012.jpg" title="f0024-01" width="701" height="541"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-0223/157319-1-eng-US/f0024-022.jpg" title="f0024-02" width="531" height="415"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>SECOND BILLING</b> After being projected as the No. 1 pick virtually all season, Patrick didn&rsquo;t appear to be bothered in the least when he dropped to second overall.<span class="photo-credit">(TOP: DAVE SANDFORD/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES; BOTTOM: BRUCE BUMSTEAD/BRANDON SUN)</span></figcaption></div><p>If you haven&rsquo;t spent much time around 18-year-old hockey players, or ones a lot older, it might be difficult to fathom how remarkable this is. It borders on too-cool-forschool territory, but what it actually turns out to be is a young man who is uncannily well grounded. No doubt, it&rsquo;s in large part due to the fact he has been surrounded by high-profile athletes all his life. In addition to his father and grandfather, his mother was on the Canadian national volleyball team. His uncle, James, was a defenseman who played more than 1,200 games in the NHL and served as an assistant coach with the Buffalo Sabres and Dallas Stars before taking over the WHL&rsquo;s Kootenay Ice this summer. His mother&rsquo;s brother is Rich Chernomaz, who played 51 NHL games and was the AHL&rsquo;s most valuable player in 1993-94. So this is not his Patrick&rsquo;s first rodeo. But still. When asked where he gets his poise, both on and off the ice, Patrick is at a loss. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I ask myself that sometimes.&rdquo;</p><p>It takes a village to raise an NHL player. And Nolan Patrick is no exception. Stephen was always there for advice and input, not to mention the fact he was the one who built the family&rsquo;s backyard rink, but you know how kids and their dads get on at a certain age. And that&rsquo;s where James, a wealth of knowledge with the playing and coaching career to back it up, came in. James was instrumental in Nolan&rsquo;s development as a player, breaking down video of his games in the WHL with the Brandon Wheat Kings. But it started even before that. Nolan began skating with his uncle in the summer when he was 12, and James noticed that his nephew had better hands than a lot of players he was working with in Buffalo. James remembers Nolan sitting rapt in front of the television in his pajamas watching Hockey Night in Canada, but he wasn&rsquo;t just watching. He was breaking down the game. He recalls a time when he was home during a break when he was playing in Germany and they were watching a game on television. Seven-year-old Nolan asked his uncle and his father why a player made a certain play when he had another option, and the brothers looked at each other in awe. James said it was the kind of thing he&rsquo;d hear in a coach&rsquo;s office.</p><p>James also remembers Nolan&rsquo;s first game as a 16-year-old with the Wheat Kings, a season in which Nolan would score 30 goals and be named the WHL&rsquo;s rookie of the year after debuting with three games as a 15-year-old the season prior. James watched the game online from Dallas and began taking notes, starting with his nephew&rsquo;s first shift. Then he called his brother to tell him that Nolan made three mistakes on his first shift. By the end of the night, he had 20 points he wanted to discuss with Nolan. &ldquo;I texted him after the game and called him the next day saying, &lsquo;You should do this and this and this,&rsquo; &rdquo; James recalled. &ldquo;Then I realized, &lsquo;He&rsquo;s got his coach talking to him, he&rsquo;s got me talking to him, and he&rsquo;s got his dad talking to him.&rsquo; After about five or six games, we said, &lsquo;This is crazy. We&rsquo;re going to drive him nuts.&rsquo; So much overkill. Now it&rsquo;s just one or two things.&rdquo;</p><p>That served Nolan well through his rookie season and even better in his second year in the league when he scored 102 points, then added 30 more in the playoffs to take playoff MVP honors and lead the Wheat Kings to the Memorial Cup tournament. It was during that playoff run that Patrick noticed something was wrong with the right side of his groin, and what followed were months of frustration, with Patrick undergoing surgery and being misdiagnosed for a sports hernia. It was only during his second stint on the injury list that Patrick discovered that he originally had a sports injury on his left side that had gone undiagnosed. &ldquo;He basically felt like he was skating on one leg this year,&rdquo; Stephen said.</p><p>That did not stop the questions. Patrick must have declared himself 100 percent a couple hundred times during the draft weekend. Stephen says his son is now stronger than he was before the injuries and his stride is better. You can bet the Flyers did their due diligence and did not allow the fact Patrick has played in only 75 percent of his regular season games in three years of junior hockey to deter them from taking a guy who might be the most complete player in the draft. Because of the injury, last summer was pretty much a write-off as far as training was concerned. A second abdominal surgery June 13 sidelined him another four to six weeks, but after that he should be cleared to go all-out this summer in an effort to get bigger and stronger, Patrick is setting his sights on landing a spot in the Flyers lineup in the fall and staying there throughout the season.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-0138/157312-1-eng-US/f0025-012.jpg" title="f0025-01" width="701" height="567"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>PLAY MAKER</b> Patrick&rsquo;s time in junior hockey is likely over as his elite passing ability and two-way game should translate well to the big leagues. <span class="photo-credit">(BRANDON WHEAT KINGS)</span></figcaption></div><p>Which brings us to Patrick&rsquo;s attributes as a player. His performance in 2015-16 and the body of work in its totality proves he is an elite-level NHL prospect. Patrick idolized fellow Winnipegger Jonathan Toews when he was growing up, which seems kind of strange when you think about it. Toews can barely grow a decent playoff beard, and already players who are coming up the ranks are talking about how they admired him when they were playing minor hockey. There are some similarities there, as there are to Ryan Getzlaf. Patrick has proven to be more playmaker than scorer, with his ability to play a 200-foot game the most valuable commodity he has. Uncle James says sometimes Nolan&rsquo;s poise is a blessing and a curse because people watch him play and don&rsquo;t recognize he&rsquo;s thinking the game on a higher level than other players and they want to see him be more aggressive and move his feet more.</p><blockquote class="pullQuote"><b>&lsquo;FOR ME, PLAYOFF HOCKEY IS WHEN I PLAY MY BEST. I HATE GAMES THAT ARE BLOWOUTS&rsquo;</b></blockquote><p>Wayne Gretzky always used to say that the bigger the game, the better he slept the night before. Patrick thinks much the same way. He wants the puck, and he wants the responsibility of shutting down the other team&rsquo;s best player. He&rsquo;s always conscious of getting under sticks and establishing body positioning, something he learned from his uncle and from watching so much hockey. He knows you can&rsquo;t be cheating if there&rsquo;s a good possibility you&rsquo;ll get burned. &ldquo;For me, playoff hockey is when I play my best,&rdquo; said Patrick, who was pulled from the Wheat Kings&rsquo; last game of the season and sat out their fourgame sweep at the hands of the Medicine Hat Tigers. &ldquo;I played my best hockey in the playoffs (in 2016). I hate games that are blowouts. I don&rsquo;t enjoy playing in them. I love big games and I love getting excited for them.&rdquo;</p><p>As Patrick prepares for this season, he does so with his eyes wide open. He has wanted to be a hockey player for as long as he can remember. When he was five years old, he got a chance to hang up the Sabres&rsquo; sweaters in the dressing room before a pre-season game in Grand Forks, N.D. (One of the perks of having a relative in the NHL.) He knew then that there was a good chance it would be his destiny to play in the best league in the world. If he were to go back for another year of junior, it would not be the worst thing, since he&rsquo;d be a mainstay on Canada&rsquo;s world junior team, but he doesn&rsquo;t really see how a fourth season of major junior hockey would help him.</p><p>Being a Patrick and being constantly immersed in a hockey culture has its advantages. When you consider everyone who plays, the Patricks can give the Sutters a run for their money. Madison is a stay-at-home defenseman for the University of British Columbia varsity team, and Aimee plays high school hockey in Winnipeg for St. Mary&rsquo;s Academy. Earlier this past season, the ninth-grader received a three-game suspension for hitting an opponent from behind, then returned and was suspended again for catching an opponent with a high stick. &ldquo;The first suspension, the girl was pushing her all game and getting up in her face, so I think (Aimee) just took a run at her,&rdquo; Nolan said. &ldquo;The second one was an accident. She&rsquo;s got to avoid that, but she&rsquo;s smart and she sees the ice and she can skate, so I think she might be the best in the family.&rdquo;</p><p>She&rsquo;d have to be pretty good to pull that one off. There are no guarantees for Nolan Patrick, but anyone who can average 1.3 points per game in the world&rsquo;s best junior league clearly has potential. One scout compared the Hischier-Nolan selection order to the 1988 draft when Mike Modano was selected first overall, followed by Trevor Linden. Both great players, but the Vancouver Canucks knew exactly what they were getting in Linden and he delivered with 19 years of impeccable leadership and solid play, while Modano was more of a wild card with more upside offensive potential that was realized.</p><p>The funny thing is that through the draft process, Nolan and Hischier became pretty good friends. When Nolan said it was not, nor was ever, a competition between them to see who would go first overall, he meant it. And contrary to what Alexander Daigle said when he was drafted ahead of Chris Pronger in 1993, people do remember who went No. 2 if they forge a memorable career. (&ldquo;Who&rsquo;s eating the s--- sandwich on that one now?&rdquo; Pronger would say later in one of the greatest lines in hockey history.) There&rsquo;s no reason both players will not be able to carve out their paths in the NHL. As Nolan pointed out ad nauseam in Chicago, the draft really doesn&rsquo;t mean that much in the grand scheme of things. &ldquo;After the draft, people talk about it for two weeks, and then they start talking about the prospects for the next year,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;For me, the pressure is just beginning.&rdquo;<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0023-01

STRAIGHT SHO OTER

<div class="byline">BY MATT LARKIN</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0026-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-0145/157397-1-eng-US/f0026-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Welcome indeed. Garrison, Engelland, McNabb and Fleury will all soon get to know the many sides of the NHL&rsquo;s newest home.</figcaption></div><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0027-0136/157390-1-eng-US/f0027-012.jpg" title="f0027-01" width="86" height="105"></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>D</span>ON&rsquo;T THINK ABOUT</b> the ending to <i>Casino</i>. Just stop. Speeding down a highway bound for the Nevada desert, though, on a record-tying 117-degree day, the mind wanders to the grisly demise Joe Pesci&rsquo;s character meets in a freshly dug hole during Martin Scorsese&rsquo;s crime epic. That&rsquo;s not a spoiler, by the way. The movie is 22 years old. If you haven&rsquo;t seen it, it&rsquo;s your fault.</p><p>The truth is that a trip in Las Vegas anywhere off The Strip, the gauntlet of spectacular hotels in the entertainment capital of the world, is a novelty. It invites silly mob stereotypes because, like so many people, I know almost nothing about the real Vegas. I don&rsquo;t know where this cab is going, only that it&rsquo;s bound for the offices of Black Knight Financial Services, which is chaired by William &lsquo;Bill&rsquo; Foley, proud owner of Sin City&rsquo;s first NHL franchise. The drive through the desert ends at something I had never previously encountered in the state of Nevada: a real live neighborhood.</p><p>The BKFS office in West Las Vegas, which for now serves as the business headquarters of the Golden Knights before they eventually shack up in the team&rsquo;s new state-of-the-art practice facility, looks more like the mob boss&rsquo; mansion in the movie than a typical place of business. It&rsquo;s lavishly decorated, with luxurious furniture and fancy artwork. You&rsquo;d probably find leather-bound books if you looked hard enough.</p></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><blockquote class="pullQuote">WE&rsquo;RE GOING TO THRIVE FIRST AND FOREMOST ON THE TWO MILLION PEOPLE IN THIS MARKETPLACE. IT&rsquo;S AN UNDERSERVED MARKET. THEY LOVE SPORTS HERE &ndash; Kerry Bubolz, Knights team president</blockquote><p>It&rsquo;s June 20, one day before Vegas will reveal its 30- man expansion roster, and it&rsquo;s busy. People in suits scurry left and right. Foley sits across the front foyer, literally ready for his close-up, with a camera in his face, filming promotional footage for the expansion draft. I&rsquo;m parked in the lobby as the hockey operations crew, led by GM George McPhee, may or may not be finalizing their picks in the next room. Team president Kerry Bubolz arrives as the welcoming committee, a friendly face and also a convenient distraction lest I accidentally hear anything.</p><p>He&rsquo;s here to share the story of how a cab ride just like mine changed his perception of Las Vegas. A year ago, Bubolz made the same maiden voyage outside the city grid as I did. He had been to Sin City about 20 times earlier in his life, but quickly realized it was time to view the market through a new lens once he accepted the job. He was blown away by what he saw when he went exploring with his wife: beautiful red-rock mountains and communities filled with schools, churches, playgrounds and salt-of-the-earth people, the same types for which sprawling cities like New York are known and romanticized. As Bubolz explains it, roughly 43 million people visit Las Vegas each year, most of whom don&rsquo;t stray from The Strip. That&rsquo;s about 827,000 tourists a week, and the workforce to service all of them didn&rsquo;t appear out of thin air. These people come from somewhere. They form metropolitan Las Vegas&rsquo; population, which is about two million. And they, not the tourists, are the key to the NHL succeeding there.</p><p>They&rsquo;re the blackjack dealers and bellhops and concierges and executive chefs. Virtually every one of them you bump into, old or young, male or female, has something to say about the Golden Knights. Some are enthusiastic without knowing ice hockey from field hockey and clearly have a lot to learn about the game, but some are already hardcore fans. For example, Ryan, an Uber driver, is a hockey nut so knowledgeable you&rsquo;d swear he was from Toronto or Montreal. He&rsquo;s a transplanted Detroit Red Wings diehard who rhymes off the team&rsquo;s entire protected player list for the expansion draft. He laments GM Ken Holland&rsquo;s decision to keep goaltender Jimmy Howard and expose Petr Mrazek. And Ryan, not a bunch of Canadian dudes cruising in for a bachelor party, is Vegas&rsquo; target demographic. The locals are the ones who will fill T-Mobile Arena for games, so the front office hopes.</p><p>And, not so coincidentally, one of those locals now plays for the Golden Knights. Defenseman Deryk Engelland was one of two UFAs signed during the team&rsquo;s exclusive 72-hour negotiating window leading up to the expansion draft. It was a symbolic commitment. Engelland lives in Vegas, having met his wife, Melissa, there when he played for the ECHL&rsquo;s Las Vegas Wranglers from 2003 to 2005. He understands how passionate the fans are. He&rsquo;s quick to point out the Wranglers were a borderline top-five attendance team while he was there, regularly topping 5,000 fans, which is respectable for third-tier pro hockey. They had a strong 11-season run before folding in 2014 after failing to secure a new arena. And he&rsquo;s convinced the passion the Wranglers fans showed will return with the Golden Knights in town. &ldquo;It&rsquo;ll be great,&rdquo; Engelland said. &ldquo;From the ticket drive to the hype around town, everywhere you go, you see Knights stuff. Hats, shirts, everything. Talking to people around the rink and anywhere, they&rsquo;re just excited for a team and I think it&rsquo;ll go really well.&rdquo;</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-0221/157383-1-eng-US/f0028-022.jpg" title="f0028-02" width="628" height="407"><figcaption class="caption-body">Vegas owner Foley put some pressure on GM McPhee with a public promise of a Stanley Cup within six years.</figcaption></div><p>It won&rsquo;t go well in the standings early on, however. Peruse the list of players Vegas selected in the expansion draft, and it&rsquo;s clear this team wants to tank. It loaded up on draft picks via trades, securing 11 extra selections on expansion draft day alone, and should contend for lottery picks over the next several years. The players who showed up in person on expansion draft night &ndash; Engelland, Marc-Andre Fleury, Jason Garrison and Brayden McNabb &ndash; raved about &ldquo;how good&rdquo; the team looked on paper, and anyone would say the same in their shoes. The reality is the Golden Knights will try to emulate what the Edmonton Oilers and Toronto Maple Leafs have done in recent years, stockpiling high-end prospects via a roster deliberately rigged to sink in the standings and secure prime draft slots.</p><p>The Oilers waited 10 seasons between playoff berths, and the Leafs missed in 10 of 11 seasons be- fore their breakout in 2016-17. The Golden Knights fans, then, will have their patience and attention spans tested. The desert neighbor Arizona Coyotes and their forever flagging attendance rates serve as the cautionary tale. Before finally making some aggressive trades this offseason, the Coyotes were a franchise suspended in a state of building for the future and amassing prospects, and their fan base long ago gave up waiting for a standings ascension. Arizona has finished 28th or worse in attendance percentage for eight consecutive seasons.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-0146/157376-1-eng-US/f0028-012.jpg" title="f0028-01" width="407" height="402"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>THE PRESIDENT</b> Bubolz ran the NBA&rsquo;s Cavaliers &ndash; and learned some lessons from LeBron James &ndash; before returning to his hockey roots with Las Vegas.<span class="photo-credit">(OPENER: VEGAS GOLDEN KNIGHTS: BUBOLZ: SAM WASSON#ENT/GETTY IMAGES; MCPHEE: JEFF VINNICK/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>Foley promised a Stanley Cup within six years of the franchise&rsquo;s inception. If you buy that, try the $11.99 steak and lobster special over on Fremont Street. It&rsquo;s the best in Vegas! But, hey, it&rsquo;s nice to see an owner aim high. In any case, building via the draft lottery is the prudent path to a championship, so the Golden Knights are on the right track.</p><p>Before a championship must come a champion, and Engelland will gladly play the role of campaigner. No player in the league knows the city like he does. &ldquo;If you live here, everyone&rsquo;s like, &lsquo;You live in Vegas? Other than The Strip, what&rsquo;s there to do?&rsquo; But it&rsquo;s a city. It&rsquo;s a great place to raise kids and have a family. It&rsquo;s the same thing for the hockey team. People will come here more often and find that out.&rdquo;</p><p>The franchise&rsquo;s decision-makers match Engelland&rsquo;s confidence in the local fans. The Golden Knights have earmarked just 10 to 15 percent of their tickets toward visiting fans, which could include blocks purchased from businesses and the big hotels, who will likely offer them as comps the same way they&rsquo;ve always hurled show tickets at their guests. But 85 to 90 percent of the tickets are aimed at Vegas&rsquo; long-term residents. &ldquo;A lot of perceptions are, &lsquo;Is this team going to survive on the tourist marketplace?&rsquo; &rdquo; Bubolz said. &ldquo;And the answer is we&rsquo;re not. We&rsquo;re going to thrive first and foremost on the two million people in this marketplace. It&rsquo;s an underserved market. They love sports here.&rdquo;</p><p>Part of servicing the local market, the average fans who want to see hockey games, means a decreased focus on big season-ticket packages. The Golden Knights capped their season-ticket offerings at 12,000 even though they easily could&rsquo;ve sold more. The person most responsible for that decision: LeBron James.</p><p>Bubolz was the Cleveland Cavaliers&rsquo; president of business operations until 2016. He joined the NBA franchise in 2003 and experienced the high of LeBron&rsquo;s first tenure with the team and then the crush of him taking his talents to South Beach in 2010. The Cavaliers survived without their favorite Akronborn son for four seasons despite the worst aggregate record in the NBA over that timespan, but they still fell upon some hard times. A prime reason why: the Cavs handed out full season-ticket packages like candy at the time, and when LeBron left, fans didn&rsquo;t want to pay for such big investments anymore. They backed out.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-0134/157369-1-eng-US/f0029-012.jpg" title="f0029-01" width="411" height="522"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>THE PLAYER</b> Engelland played ECHL hockey in Las Vegas at the start of his pro career and lives there in the off-season after marrying a local. <span class="photo-credit">(ENGELLAND: ETHAN MILLER/GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>When LeBron decided to return in 2014 for what would end up being his championship tenure with the Cavs, the franchise was determined not to make the same mistake. This time, it would offer fans a much larger variety of smaller ticket investments, from 21- game packs to 10-game packs to individual tickets. With a lower-risk commitment, fans would be much less likely to walk away from a weakened on-court product. It&rsquo;s insurance for when LeBron retires or leaves Cleveland again.</p><p>That&rsquo;s the lesson Bubolz brings from the NBA to the NHL. He understands the Golden Knights will be a basement-dwelling team for the first several years of their existence, and offering smaller ticket commitments to the fans should keep them coming back for what will be a fun night out, win or lose. Doing so will also prioritize the local fans.</p><p>That said, the tourists matter a lot to the Golden Knights, too. They&rsquo;re a crucial tool. Before his NBA run, Bubolz was a hockey man, working as vice-president of sales for the Dallas Stars and Carolina Hurricanes. In those days, his job was purely to sell tickets, and he was doing so in two brand-new NHL markets that had transplanted their teams from hockey-friendly Minnesota and Hartford, respectively. He had an eyeopening experience when Carolina reached the 2002 conference final and battled the Toronto Maple Leafs. Driving into the parking lot for an afternoon game in Raleigh, he spotted a sea of RVs with Leafs fans tailgating, and he was even more impressed when he got into the arena. That&rsquo;s when a light bulb went on in his head.</p><blockquote class="pullQuote">TALKING TO PEOPLE AROUND THE RINK AND ANYWHERE, THEY&rsquo;RE JUST EXCITED FOR A TEAM AND I THINK IT&rsquo;LL GO REALLY WELL &ndash; Deryk Engelland, Knights defenseman</blockquote><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0027-0135/157362-1-eng-US/f0027-012.jpg" title="f0027-01" width="86" height="105"></div><p>The Leafs fans were rowdy even before the opening puck drop, and the Hurricanes fans started trying to match their intensity. The Leafs fans cheered not just for goals and saves but also for the little things, the nuances such as killed penalties, conscientious backchecks and defensive-zone faceoff wins. And the Hurricanes fans began to mimic their behavior. Bubolz wants to encourage the same learning experience in Vegas. &ldquo;As much as I want to make sure our building is full of Golden Knights fans,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;there&rsquo;s a part of me that understands that, at least early on, those fans of those other strong, passionate hockey markets are a good thing. Because they&rsquo;re going to cheer at times, and our fans will say, &lsquo;What? They&rsquo;re cheering?&rsquo; They&rsquo;ll ask questions and learn.&rdquo;</p><p>These are different times, of course. Golden Knights fans won&rsquo;t stumble blindly into their first pre-season games with no idea how to watch or cheer a hockey game. It&rsquo;s the social media era, and fans have better access to information than ever. Thus, we won&rsquo;t see remedial explanations of rules on the jumbotron, the way we did for San Jose Sharks games in 1991 or the Nashville Predators in 1998.</p><p>And the most recent example of a non-traditional fan base coming into its own is, of course, the Predators, who have been flourishing for years but really exploded into mainstream consciousness with their recent run to the final. The Golden Knights see a lot of commonality between the two franchises and really look up to the Predators as a role model. Not only has Nashville become a respected and knowledgeable &ldquo;hockey town,&rdquo; but it also is one of the NHL&rsquo;s most unique markets because it embraces its personality. Nashville is Music City, and the Predators&rsquo; game experience reflects that. It&rsquo;s totally country, with the industry&rsquo;s most talented musicians regularly appearing at games and performing. There&rsquo;s an obvious parallel to Vegas, another city founded on entertainment, and the Golden Knights fully acknowledge that.</p><p>The team plans to avoid the more obvious &ldquo;lowbrow&rdquo; Vegas stereotypes, so don&rsquo;t expect to see Wayne Newton crooning on a stage flanked by the Rockettes. But there&rsquo;s obviously a tremendous opportunity to blend hockey with the Vegas experience. The Golden Knights have partnered with Cirque de Soleil and will feature showcases during intermissions of select games throughout the year. Just as the Los Angeles Kings weave celebrities into their game presentation, with videos of locals like Will Ferrell hyping the fans, the Golden Knights will do the same. They have dozens of big-name local acts, from Celine Dion to Britney Spears to Penn & Teller, and hope to include them during game festivities.</p><p>Fans will also witness plenty of those only-in-Vegas moments in game presentations, too. That could mean, for example, a Cirque to Soleil contortionist, known for shooting a bow and arrow with her feet, doing so on the big screen after a defenseman snipes a long-distance goal. No other NHL market can offer something like that and call it relevant. Vegas also intends to milk everything it can from the team name: the Golden Knights. They want to embrace the imagery of armored warriors from a faraway time. And yes, they fully recognize the potential to exploit <i>Game of Thrones&rsquo;</i> success as a cultural phenomenon. Knights are cooler today than ever. &ldquo;You think about the knight and what it represents, that medieval timeframe, and fearlessness,&rdquo; Bubolz said. &ldquo;Always advancing, never retreating, which speaks to the hockey part of it. A lot of our entertainment experience is going to revolve around that with the goal of creating an environment that, candidly, is not very fun for the visiting teams when they come in.&rdquo;</p><p>Picture the costumed fan base that characterized the Oakland Raiders and the Black Hole for years in the NFL, and maybe Vegas will achieve something similar someday. The on-ice product might not be pretty in the early days, but the Golden Knights plan to win their earliest battles off the ice. They&rsquo;ll do that by dressing up the experience in a way only Sin City can, and they&rsquo;ll do that by embracing what they feel is an underrated, unappreciated, untapped local fan base. No matter what happens, everyone involved should have a lot of fun doing it. That&rsquo;s the Vegas way.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p></div>

f0026-01

THE VEGAS YOU DON'T KNOW

<div class="byline">BY MATT LARKIN</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0031-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-0141/157461-1-eng-US/f0031-012.jpg"></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>S</span>IDNEY CROSBY HAS</b> never looked so lonely. He sits at a podium in the depths of Las Vegas&rsquo; T-Mobile Arena with an unprecedented amount of elbow room. He doesn&rsquo;t face the usual swarm of cameras and reporters. It&rsquo;s the rarest of hockey sights for the game&rsquo;s biggest star.</p><p>That&rsquo;s because every reporter in the room stands about 15 feet away, at another podium, awaiting a different player&rsquo;s arrival. Crosby&rsquo;s ex-teammate, Marc-Andre Fleury, just finished his coronation as the Golden Knights&rsquo; final expansion draft pick, becoming the new franchise&rsquo;s starting goaltender and first big-name player. Nobody wants to miss what &lsquo;Flower&rsquo; has to say when he exits the stage. The reporters choose to let Crosby marinate in the corner rather than relinquish any real estate near Fleury.</p><p>It&rsquo;s an odd scene considering Fleury wasn&rsquo;t even a starting netminder by the end of the Pittsburgh Penguins&rsquo; 2017 playoff run, which culminated in their second consecutive Stanley Cup and third since they drafted Fleury and Crosby first overall in 2003 and 2005, respectively. Fleury carried the Penguins through the first two rounds of the post-season against the Columbus Blue Jackets and top-seeded Washington Capitals, but ceded the crease back to rookie and rising star Matt Murray, who displayed his usual icy poise en route to his second championship in as many springs. Why, then, does everyone care so much about Fleury?</p><p>Well, that&rsquo;s just it. Everyone <i>cares</i> so much about Fleury. Ask teammates, opponents, coaches, GMs and reporters around the NHL, &ldquo;Who&rsquo;s the nicest player in the sport?&rdquo; and Fleury wins the vote hands down. He&rsquo;s the most beloved dressing room character in pro hockey. The idea that he gets a second chance at being a No. 1 NHL goaltender at age 32 isn&rsquo;t news like Connor McDavid&rsquo;s $100-million contract extension is. But it&rsquo;s news because it&rsquo;s happening to a guy everyone roots for. Of the Golden Knights in attendance on the night of the expansion draft, only Fleury got a standing ovation. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s amazing,&rdquo; said Vegas defenseman Deryk Engelland, who played five seasons with Fleury in Pittsburgh. &ldquo;Top-notch in every aspect. A great teammate. He&rsquo;s fun to be around. He&rsquo;s never too high, never too low. And in the community he&rsquo;s great, around the rink and everything. Nothing bad I could ever say about that guy.&rdquo;</p><p>Ask Fleury why everyone loves him and the reaction is predictable: he laughs. He blushes. He downplays it. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s very flattering,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s not something I try to do or force.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-0146/157454-1-eng-US/f0032-012.jpg" title="f0032-01" width="752" height="574"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>LAST HURRAH IN PITTSBURGH</b> Fleury filled in admirably during the first two rounds of the playoffs en route to a third Stanley Cup with the Penguins.</figcaption></div><p>I go to the rink, I love what I do, and I have a lot of great teammates and have made a lot of good friends throughout the years. I always cared about our team, our organization, and always wanted everyone to like it.&rdquo;</p><p>It&rsquo;s remarkable Fleury has no enemies given the pummelling his ego has taken in his career. No one would blame the guy for having a huge chip on his shoulder. He was labelled a choker after clearing a puck off his own defenseman and into Canada&rsquo;s net to lose the 2004 World Junior Championship gold medal game.</p><p>He got rushed to the NHL at 19 only to get rushed back to junior halfway through the season before he could play 25 games and qualify for a major salary bonus. He got pulled in Game 5 of the 2009 Stanley Cup final after being humiliated for five goals in 35 minutes, then rallied to allow only two goals in the next two games, helping Pittsburgh win the Cup. Fleury was maligned for his ugly playoff performance against Philadelphia in 2012, in which he allowed a whopping 26 goals in six games. And after posting his best regular season numbers ever in 2015- 16, a concussion shelved him just before the playoffs, and he never got his starting job back once Murray took over.</p><p>Fleury kept his head down and, by all accounts from the team, was a great mentor to Murray. A Murray injury in Game 1 of the 2017 post-season thrust Fleury back in net, and he excelled more often than not for two rounds, but the Pens jumped at the chance to insert Murray back in the lineup once he was healthy.</p><p>For such a well-liked player, Fleury sure gets jerked around a lot. But he always handles it with a smile. &ldquo;Certainly he was disappointed that he wasn&rsquo;t starting in the next series after playing so well in the first two rounds,&rdquo; said Penguins GM Jim Rutherford. &ldquo;Quietly, he said that, but certainly not to the point where he was creating any issues. He&rsquo;s the best team player in pro sports the way he&rsquo;s handled everything here.&rdquo;</p><p>For the second straight year, Fleury classily stepped aside for Murray, a force-in-the-making with a career .925 save percentage. Fleury kept a poker face on the bench and in the dressing room. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s not always easy,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I never want to hurt my teammates. To me what&rsquo;s important is the team success. I wanted to keep very cool and not show any frustration and try to help the guys the way I could when I was at the rink. I thought it was more important than being selfish and making a big deal about it.&rdquo;</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-0231/157447-1-eng-US/f0032-022.jpg" title="f0032-02" width="222" height="400"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(OPENER: JEFF VINNICK/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES; TOP: BRUCE BENNETT/GETTY IMAGES; BOTTOM: JUSTIN K. ALLER/GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><blockquote class="pullQuote">IT&rsquo;S NOT ALWAYS EASY. I NEVER WANT TO HURT MY TEAMMATES. TO ME WHAT&rsquo;S IMPORTANT IS THE TEAM SUCCESS. I WANTED TO TRY TO HELP THE GUYS &ndash; Marc-Andre Fleury</blockquote><p>Rutherford once described Fleury as, &ldquo;as likely to help you change a tire in a snowstorm as he is to help a teammate.&rdquo; He&rsquo;s affable. He&rsquo;s a known practical joker who likes to chirp his teammates in practice. And he plans to keep running his mouth when he plays his former Penguins buddies. Anything to cut the tension when he faces his old team next, as he believes it&rsquo;ll be &ldquo;very awkward&rdquo; Dec. 14 when the Pens come to town as a full team of guys who know everything about him as a player. They all have soft spots for their now-ex goalie, especially Crosby, Fleury&rsquo;s closest companion on the team, and perhaps none more than Rutherford. He&rsquo;ll never forget the way Fleury treated his nine-year-old son, James. &ldquo;Marc always takes the time and treats him great,&rdquo; Rutherford said. &ldquo;It doesn&rsquo;t matter what day I bring him around the team. Marc&rsquo;s the guy that takes the most time. The other guys are good to him, too, but Marc always takes the time to talk to him, ask him how his school is, ask him how his hockey is and all that. But he does that naturally. He doesn&rsquo;t go out of his way to do that. It&rsquo;s a natural thing for him, and he&rsquo;s very good with other people.&rdquo;</p><p>It thus hurt deeply to bid Fleury farewell. But it was a necessity. The only way to avoid losing Murray to Vegas in the expansion draft was to have Fleury waive his no-movement clause. And doing so was the right move for both parties. After all Fleury gave the Penguins, winning a franchise-record 375 games, they owed him a fresh start. Fleury knew it was coming, too, as far back as last summer. He spoke with Rutherford after the 2016 Cup final and they both figured 2016-17 would be Fleury&rsquo;s final campaign with the Penguins.</p><p>Fleury&rsquo;s name popped up in the media approaching the 2017 trade deadline, but the reality was the Penguins had no intention of moving him mid-season. They wanted insurance for Murray, who has proven a bit injury-prone in his young career, and the plan worked perfectly. The Golden Knights were always in the back of Rutherford&rsquo;s mind, and he had preliminary discussions with Vegas GM George McPhee from the trade deadline onward. It stung Rutherford to know the playoffs would be his last run with Fleury. And Fleury had Vegas on the brain early, too. &ldquo;I was reading a lot about what was happening with the team, with the staff, with the organization,&rdquo; Fleury said. &ldquo;From (owner Bill) Foley down to Mr. McPhee, Gerard (Gallant) as a coach. They all seem like great people.&rdquo;</p><p>It was a lightning-quick life turnaround for Fleury. The freshly crowned Cup-champion Penguins had a team dinner a few days after their victory, and they acknowledged it was a &ldquo;Last Supper&rdquo; of sorts for Fleury. They wouldn&rsquo;t be teammates anymore in a matter of days. &ldquo;We thought that it was going to be it,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;We didn&rsquo;t get too much into emotional stuff. We knew that was it, but we kept it &lsquo;manly.&rsquo;</p><p>He&rsquo;d barely wrung the champagne out of his clothes before heading to Sin City. He brought his wife, Veronique, who has been with him since they met in their teens when he billeted with a family a few doors down from her house. They started exploring the city and, well, shopping. It&rsquo;s Vegas, after all. Not that Fleury and his family will spend 2017-18 holed up in the Caesars Palace presidential penthouse like Celine Dion. No, Fleury has two young daughters, Estelle and Scarlett, and says he wants them to have a normal life. Thanks to the advice of close friend Engelland, a Vegas citizen, Fleury has learned a lot about the other side of Vegas already. He&rsquo;s impressed by the mountains and tranquility. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s the first who told me about the neighborhoods and the people who live in Vegas,&rdquo; Fleury said. &ldquo;Because all I knew was The Strip. He told me there were nice neighborhoods, nice people, nice quality of life, so I shouldn&rsquo;t worry about going there.&rdquo;</p><p>And Fleury immediately had work to do on his new turf. Less than 24 hours after the Golden Knights picked him, he was popping up in team-orchestrated videos, greeting UFC president Dana White, posing at the &ldquo;Welcome to Las Vegas&rdquo; sign and even recreating a famous scene from The Hangover. Fleury, ever the joker, naturally played the Zach Galifianakis role, reading the &ldquo;one-man wolf pack&rdquo; speech from a rooftop. It was clear the moment Vegas took him that he&rsquo;d be the face of the franchise. Fleury claims he doesn&rsquo;t want to be the face of anything, but that&rsquo;s exactly the kind of awe-shucks thing a face of the franchise would say, isn&rsquo;t it? And Fleury has a lot of experience working to grow the game with the local hockey community in Pittsburgh. He&rsquo;s excited to interact with Vegas&rsquo; citizens. He was pleasantly overwhelmed by the fan reaction when he was announced.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-0141/157440-1-eng-US/f0033-012.jpg" title="f0033-01" width="302" height="288"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-0233/157433-1-eng-US/f0033-022.jpg" title="f0033-02" width="302" height="288"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-0318/157426-1-eng-US/f0033-032.jpg" title="f0033-03" width="349" height="605"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>WHAT HAPPENS IN VEGAS...</b> The Golden Knights goalie didn&rsquo;t waste any time making the rounds and spreading the word that the NHL is coming to town. <span class="photo-credit">(VEGAS GOLDEN KNIGHTS)</span></figcaption></div><p>So it&rsquo;s clear Year 1 as a Golden Knight will be fun. But what about on the hockey side of things? It&rsquo;s a real wild card. Fleury of course says he&rsquo;s excited by the roster, but it has one player who&rsquo;s scored more than 58 points in a season in James Neal. Vegas has all of two players who&rsquo;ve been to an All-Star Game in Fleury and Neal and a grand total of zero individual awards on the entire roster. We know the front office&rsquo;s goal here, and it&rsquo;s to contend for a lottery draft pick in 2018. The Knights aced their 2017 draft, though (see pg. 46), and teams can get good in a hurry in an era that rewards speed, youth and salary-cap savvy. So maybe Fleury hangs around longer than just the remaining two years on his contract. He knows he has a starting job all to himself, and that means he can resume his chase with history. His 375 wins rank 15th all-time. The active players ahead of him, Roberto Luongo (453) and Henrik Lundqvist (405), are 38 and 35. Fleury could average an attainable 30 wins over the next six seasons and get to 555 for his career, which would place him second all-time ahead of even Patrick Roy (551) and behind the uncatchable Martin Brodeur (691). He admits to having his eye on the top three of the wins list. &ldquo;Yeah, I took a look at it,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s pretty cool. I&rsquo;ve been lucky to play with a lot of good players and win some games. I want to keep winning, not to get up there, not to get No. 3. I just want to win so our team&rsquo;s successful, to get in the playoffs and have success in the playoffs. That&rsquo;s what matters.&rdquo;</p><p>He&rsquo;ll get his chance. No more Murray blocking his path, and it&rsquo;s far too early to look over his shoulder at Calvin Pickard. The world doesn&rsquo;t always reward the nice guys, so it&rsquo;s worth celebrating when it does. &lsquo;Flower&rsquo; gets a second opportunity to bloom. And he&rsquo;ll have the entire hockey world cheering him on the moment he dons his armor for his first game as a Golden Knight.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0031-01

MR. NICE GUY

<div class="byline">BY JASON BUCKLAND</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-0226/157511-1-eng-US/f0034-022.jpg" title="f0034-02" width="790" height="626"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>SECOND CHANCE</b> Drouin believes &ldquo;everything&rsquo;s gonna be pretty good&rdquo; if he plays up to his potential in Montreal. <span class="photo-credit">(CLUB DE HOCKEY CANADIEN INC.)</span></figcaption></div><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-0146/157518-1-eng-US/f0034-012.jpg" title="f0034-01" width="72" height="81"></div><p>FOR UP-TO-THE-MINUTE COVERAGE, VISIT <b><a href="http://THN.com">THN.COM</a></b></p><p><b>36</b> EBERLE: NEW START IN NEW YORK <b>37</b> PANARIN: PUTS ON JACKET <b>42</b> FLAMES&rsquo; NEW FACES</p></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-0314/157504-1-eng-US/f0034-032.jpg" title="f0034-03" width="121" height="118"></div><p><b>IT WAS HARD,</b> during the public lashing of Jonathan Drouin, to find the low point of the ordeal.</p><p>It was January 2016 and Drouin&rsquo;s pro career was still in its infancy. He was a heralded prospect of the Tampa Bay Lightning, the third overall pick in the 2013 NHL draft, and perhaps the rightful young sidekick to star alongside Steven Stamkos in central Florida. But then, during the first months of his second NHL season, injuries struck. Drouin was in and out of the lineup, logging just 19 games over the season&rsquo;s first three months, failing to find his stride even when he was well enough to play. On its surface, this was no big deal. Yet what seemed like a string of bad luck and growing pains soon turned into something else entirely.</p><p>Two days into the new year, Drouin was reassigned to the AHL&rsquo;s Syracuse Crunch, where he was to heal a nagging quad injury and get a chance to receive some regular ice time. But on Jan. 3, a new portrait of Drouin emerged. His agent, Allan Walsh, illustrated Drouin&rsquo;s frustrations with the Lightning and how the team had handled him. The demotion to Syracuse appeared to be the final straw. Walsh issued a statement, revealing that months earlier he&rsquo;d requested on behalf of Drouin a trade from Tampa Bay, choosing finally to go public with the demand because the situation had grown &ldquo;untenable.&rdquo;</p><p>It was a precarious situation for Drouin, who was still only 20 years old and hadn&rsquo;t established himself in the NHL. As his confused Lightning teammates fielded questions about the young player who apparently wanted out, Drouin reported to Syracuse, where he played the next seven games and believed his leg injury was fully repaired. But just as there appeared to be a calming in the relationship, a powder keg went off on Jan. 20 when Drouin refused to report for Syracuse&rsquo;s game against the Toronto Marlies. According to Walsh, who again spoke through a public decree, Tampa had told Drouin days earlier that a trade was imminent. In response, Walsh said he suggested to the Lightning that Drouin not play in the next few AHL games, to keep from getting hurt and voiding any potential deal. When Tampa refused the request, Drouin balked. Soon after, he no-showed his game with the Crunch, and the Bolts suspended him indefinitely without pay.</p><p>What followed was ugly: public bickering, reputations questioned, press conferences filled with language both passive and aggressive. For Drouin, the pileon came swiftly, the attacks from every direction. On Twitter, retired NHLer Mike Commodore suggested Drouin &ldquo;beg&rdquo; his way into the team&rsquo;s good graces. &ldquo;Nobody,&rdquo; he wrote, &ldquo;is bigger than the club.&rdquo; Ducks GM Bob Murray snorted: &ldquo;Entry-level players requesting trades. Amazing.&rdquo;</p><p>The biggest takedown came in the <i>Tampa Bay Times</i>, where columnist Tom Jones skewered Drouin over a long missive, roasting him as &ldquo;petulant&rdquo; and a &ldquo;spoiled brat.&rdquo; &ldquo;If I&rsquo;m the Lightning,&rdquo; Jones snipped, &ldquo;I&rsquo;d think about letting (Drouin) sit at home just to send the message that it isn&rsquo;t about to give in to the demands of some snot-nosed hockey player who thinks he should be playing ahead of a bunch of players good enough to reach the Stanley Cup final last season.&rdquo;</p></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-0140/157497-1-eng-US/f0035-012.jpg" title="f0035-01" width="790" height="564"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>WEATHER WARNING</b> A trade request and mini-holdout signalled the beginning of the end for Drouin&rsquo;s tenure with the Lightning.<span class="photo-credit">(TOP: ANDY DEVLIN/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES; BOTTOM: SCOTT AUDETTE/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>It was a remarkable fall from grace, a verbal stoning for a phenom whose future with the team once looked so bright. To Drouin, it was a whirlwind, a situation made that much more unbelievable by the horrible things said of him by complete strangers. But he understood the optics. &ldquo;Maybe it didn&rsquo;t look good to just leave, a kid who&rsquo;s 20 years old,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;But the people who knew me personally, it wasn&rsquo;t really a problem. It was just about hockey.&rdquo;</p><p>Once the 2016 trade deadline passed with no deal, it was Drouin who had to make amends. He called Yzerman and asked to be reinstated, and on March 7 the GM did just that. Once he returned to the Lightning in April, &ldquo;we rarely talked about it,&rdquo; Drouin said. &ldquo;We never came back to it. We just kind of moved on.&rdquo;</p><p>It has become the common narrative to say Drouin primadonna&rsquo;d his way out of Tampa Bay. Yet that storyline omits all that came after his impasse with the team. Notwithstanding the 2016 playoffs, in which Drouin scored 14 points in 17 games, the winger showed his promise this past season with the Lightning. Only Victor Hedman and Nikita Kucherov had more points than Drouin&rsquo;s 53, and only Kucherov had more goals than Drouin&rsquo;s 21.</p><p>It seemed Drouin had put his troubled past with the Lightning behind him, but the tale took another twist June 15 when he was traded to Montreal in a move that sent young defenseman Mikhail Sergachev to Tampa Bay.</p><p>If a new chapter was needed to truly conclude his tumultuous time in Tampa Bay, there may be no better place to begin again than with the Canadiens. Drouin is French-Canadian, from nearby Ste.-Agathe-des-Monts. He grew up with these Habs on TV, those familiar RDS broadcasts recalling his youth at home. That he will now play in Montreal, where his parents, Serge and Brigitte, can drive just a short trip to the rink, is somewhat surreal.</p><blockquote class="pullQuote">MAYBE IT DIDN&rsquo;T LOOK GOOD TO JUST LEAVE, A KID WHO&rsquo;S 20 YEARS OLD &ndash; Jonathan Drouin</blockquote><p>Drouin believes his trial with Tampa Bay has made him wiser beyond his 22 years. &ldquo;I learned one thing,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Be more patient and analyze the situation maybe a little more before reacting to something.&rdquo;</p><p>Indeed, it was a tough go for the young pro, who &ndash; whether you believe it was his own doing or not &ndash; was so raked over the coals just as his public life was beginning. The Habs, who signed him to a six-year, $33-million deal, have gambled instead that Drouin&rsquo;s play will do the talking. For his part, Drouin seems to know his role: show up, play well and the rest will take care of itself. &ldquo;If I produce the way I want to produce and the Habs want me to produce,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;everything&rsquo;s gonna be pretty good, I&rsquo;m sure.&rdquo;</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-0229/157490-1-eng-US/f0035-022.jpg" title="f0035-02" width="305" height="379"><figcaption class="caption-body">JONATHAN <b>DROUIN</b></figcaption></div><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span>

f0034-02

HEADING HOME AFTER THE STORM

<div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-0318/157610-1-eng-US/f0035-032.jpg" title="f0035-03" width="72" height="72"></div><p><b>1. SEAN MONAHAN</b></p><p><b>DRAFTED:</b> 6th overall, Calgary</p><p><b>NHL GP:</b> 319 PTS: 217</p></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-0415/157603-1-eng-US/f0035-042.jpg" title="f0035-04" width="72" height="71"></div><p><b>2. NATHAN MACKINNON</b></p><p><b>DRAFTED:</b> 1st overall, Colorado</p><p><b>NHL GP:</b> 300 PTS: 206</p></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-0513/157596-1-eng-US/f0035-052.jpg" title="f0035-05" width="72" height="72"></div><p><b>3. ALEKSANDER BARKOV</b></p><p><b>DRAFTED:</b> 2nd overall, Florida</p><p><b>NHL GP:</b> 252 PTS: 171</p></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-0610/157589-1-eng-US/f0035-062.jpg" title="f0035-06" width="72" height="72"></div><p><b>4. ELIAS LINDHOLM</b></p><p><b>DRAFTED:</b> 5th overall, Carolina</p><p><b>NHL GP:</b> 293 PTS: 144</p></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-0710/157582-1-eng-US/f0035-072.jpg" title="f0035-07" width="72" height="72"></div><p><b>5. SETH JONES</b></p><p><b>DRAFTED:</b> 4th overall, Nashville; traded to Columbus</p><p><b>NHL GP:</b> 315 PTS: 125</p></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-089/157575-1-eng-US/f0035-082.jpg" title="f0035-08" width="72" height="71"></div><p><b>6. ALEXANDER WENNBERG</b></p><p><b>DRAFTED:</b> 14th overall, Columbus</p><p><b>NHL GP:</b> 217 PTS: 119</p></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-099/157568-1-eng-US/f0035-092.jpg" title="f0035-09" width="72" height="72"></div><p><b>7. BO HORVAT</b></p><p><b>DRAFTED:</b> 9th overall, Vancouver</p><p><b>NHL GP:</b> 231 PTS: 117</p></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-108/157561-1-eng-US/f0035-102.jpg" title="f0035-10" width="72" height="72"></div><p><b>8. RASMUS RISTOLAINEN</b></p><p><b>DRAFTED:</b> 8th overall, Buffalo</p><p><b>NHL GP:</b> 273 PTS: 110</p></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-117/157554-1-eng-US/f0035-112.jpg" title="f0035-11" width="72" height="72"></div><p><b>9. JONATHAN DROUIN</b></p><p><b>DRAFTED:</b> 3rd overall, TB; traded to MTL</p><p><b>NHL GP:</b> 164 PTS: 95</p></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-125/157547-1-eng-US/f0035-122.jpg" title="f0035-12" width="72" height="72"></div><p><b>10. ANDRE BURAKOVSKY</b></p><p><b>DRAFTED:</b> 23rd overall, Washington</p><p><b>NHL GP:</b> 196 PTS: 95<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p></div>

RACING INTO THEIR PRIMES

<div class="byline">&#x2013; SAM MCCAIG</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-0323/157639-1-eng-US/f0036-032.jpg" title="f0036-03" width="520" height="497"><figcaption class="caption-body">In the prime of his career, Eberle has seen his pointsper- game average decline four consecutive seasons.</figcaption></div><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-0143/157653-1-eng-US/f0036-012.jpg" title="f0036-01" width="138" height="100"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-0228/157646-1-eng-US/f0036-022.jpg" title="f0036-02" width="109" height="111"></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>T</span>HE SONG BY</b> The Killers came blaring over the conference call, making it almost impossible to hear what Jordan Eberle was saying. In a way, though, it didn&rsquo;t matter, because the newest New York Islander sounded a lot like <i>Mr. Brightside</i> as he talked about his first trade experience. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m excited,&rdquo; said Eberle, who the Edmonton Oilers shipped to the Islanders for Ryan Strome June 22. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s been rumored for the past year, and to have it done with, it&rsquo;s a bit of a relief. It&rsquo;s a new chapter. It&rsquo;ll be great to get a fresh start with a new team.&rdquo;</p><p>Let&rsquo;s begin with the obvious. The Islanders get the best and most proven NHL player in the deal. Eberle is in his prime at 27 and has scored 20 or more goals five times in seven NHL seasons, including a breakout 34-goal, 76-point campaign in 2011- 12. He&rsquo;s coming off a subpar 51-point campaign, but that was still better than Strome&rsquo;s careerbest year.</p><p>The flip side? Eberle&rsquo;s production has been steadily in decline. His points-per-game average has dropped in each of the past four years, and his 20 goals in 2016- 17 represent his lowest output over a full season since his 18- goal rookie effort in 2010-11. The Oilers made the playoffs this spring for the first time in Eberle&rsquo;s seven seasons in Edmonton, but his performance &ndash; zero goals, two assists in 13 games &ndash; left the team&rsquo;s front office and fans wanting more. A lot more. Throw in the fact he&rsquo;s owed $6 million per season for two more years, and his time in Edmonton was up. The Islanders take on the contract, while the Oilers get a work-in-progress in Strome and freed up some money for the massive extensions for cornerstones Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl.</p></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><p>Strome, who turned 24 July 11, is under contract for one more season at $2.5 million. He comes with a draft pedigree as the fifth overall pick in 2011, and he made a splash with 50 points in 2014- 15, his first full season in the NHL. The past two years, however, have been underwhelming &ndash; 28 and 30 points, respectively.</p><p>For both players, the trade represents a fresh start. But Eberle gets a head start, too, due to his history &ndash; and, more importantly, chemistry &ndash; with Isles superstar John Tavares. They won gold at the 2009 world juniors and played together at multiple world championships. &ldquo;John is a generational player,&rdquo; Eberle said. &ldquo;He thinks the game at a very high level. The way I play, I like to think I think the game well as well, and I&rsquo;ve proven I&rsquo;ve been able to score in the past.&rdquo;</p><p>The Islanders, certainly, want that past version of Eberle, the one that synched so well with Tavares on the world stage, scoring frequently and in the clutch. Is that what the future holds? The Isles will just have to wait and see. In the meantime, they&rsquo;re hoping for the bright side. That would be killer.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

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FRESH START ON THE ISLAND

<div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-0418/157731-1-eng-US/f0036-042.jpg" title="f0036-04" width="59" height="59"></div><p class="dropcap"><span>T</span>he fact <b>PAUL POSTMA</b> was their highest-profile addition gives you an indication of how idle the Bruins were in the early days of free agency. Signed to a low-risk one-year deal worth $725,000, Postma is a depth defender and likely slots into the No. 7 spot on the blueline vacated by Joe Morrow, who left for Montreal.</p></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-0513/157724-1-eng-US/f0036-052.jpg" title="f0036-05" width="59" height="58"></div><p>Jason Pominville has the name recognition in Buffalo, but the key piece in the Sabres&rsquo; predraft trade with Minnesota is defenseman <b>MARCO SCANDELLA</b>. He was buried in the Wild&rsquo;s depth chart but will play a far more prominent role with the rebuilding Sabres. He could partner with Rasmus Ristolainen on Buffalo&rsquo;s top pair.</p></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-0610/157717-1-eng-US/f0036-062.jpg" title="f0036-06" width="68" height="41"></div><p>The new guy in Carolina is an old guy &ndash; and that&rsquo;s just fine with the Hurricanes. <b>JUSTIN WILLIAMS</b> returns to the site of his first Stanley Cup (he added two more in L.A.) and brings veteran leadership and scoring punch. The first mission for &lsquo;Mr. Game 7&rsquo; will be getting the Canes back to the playoffs for the first time since &rsquo;09.</p></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-079/157710-1-eng-US/f0036-072.jpg" title="f0036-07" width="70" height="60"></div><p>While Artemi Panarin is the most notable acquisition, Columbus will have some competition on the blueline thanks to the ascent of rookie <b>GABRIEL CARLSSON</b>. The smart kid with the big reach played two games at the end of 2016-17, plus all five playoff contests. He&rsquo;ll push Markus Nutivaara for ice time.</p></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-087/157703-1-eng-US/f0036-082.jpg" title="f0036-08" width="72" height="53"></div><p>Acquiring <b>TREVOR DALEY</b> as a free agent not only gives the Wings a puck-moving blueliner with good mobility and a winning pedigree, it also solidifies their top four on defense. Daley&rsquo;s expected to start the season with Danny De- Keyser, as Detroit wants to keep the Niklas Kronwall- Mike Green pairing intact.</p></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-097/157696-1-eng-US/f0036-092.jpg" title="f0036-09" width="58" height="65"></div><p>It&rsquo;s tough to portray a 28-yearold who has already played there as a &ldquo;new guy,&rdquo; but <b>EVGENY DADONOV</b> returns to the Panthers from Russia as a legitimate offensive threat. The fifth-highest scorer in the KHL this past season, he&rsquo;ll be asked to help offset the losses of Jonathan Marchessault, Reilly Smith and Jaromir Jagr.</p></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-106/157689-1-eng-US/f0036-102.jpg" title="f0036-10" width="71" height="49"></div><p>Days after getting Alexei Emelin&rsquo;s $4.1 million off the books, Habs GM Marc Bergevin signed a younger, better version of Emelin for five years and slightly more money. <b>KARL ALZNER</b> is a strictly defensive defenseman with little offensive upside. He won&rsquo;t help the Canadiens&rsquo; transition game, which is a growing concern.</p></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-116/157682-1-eng-US/f0036-112.jpg" title="f0036-11" width="54" height="54"><figcaption class="caption-body" style="width: 54px"><span class="photo-credit">(ANDY DEVLIN/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>Washington&rsquo;s cap pain was Jersey&rsquo;s gain, as the Devils nabbed <b>MARCUS JOHANSSON</b> for a song. The two-way forward excelled in the playoffs for the Capitals and hit another level this past season, establishing highs in all major offensive categories. He&rsquo;ll help stabilize a forward corps that also adds Nico Hischier and Brian Boyle.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p></div>

MEET THE NEW GUY EASTERN CONFERENCE

<div class="byline">&#x2013; AARON PORTZLINE</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-0136/157767-1-eng-US/f0037-012.jpg" title="f0037-01" width="520" height="434"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>POINT MAN</b> Panarin has been prolific: only six players have more points than him during his first two seasons in the NHL. <span class="photo-credit">(MINAS PANAGIOTAKIS/GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>T</span>HERE WERE TWO</b> glaring causes of death in April when the Blue Jackets performed an autopsy on their first-round playoff flameout versus Pittsburgh.</p><p>First was in the Columbus end of the ice, where goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky &ndash; so magnificent during the regular season &ndash; came unglued in the presence of the Penguins&rsquo; array of sharpshooters. Second was at the other end of the ice, where the Blue Jackets dominated for long stretches but reaped very few rewards. &ldquo;We had to work so hard,&rdquo; said Columbus coach John Tortorella. &ldquo;We needed so many scoring chances to score our goals. And then (Pittsburgh) would come down and&hellip;bang.&rdquo;</p><p>To that end, the Blue Jackets went into the off-season with the goal of becoming more danger- ous up front, and it didn&rsquo;t take long. Left winger Artemi Panarin, who has been among the NHL&rsquo;s top 10 scorers in his first two seasons, was acquired in a blockbuster trade with Chicago June 23, one day before the draft. The Jackets sent Brandon Saad back to the Blackhawks, along with goalie Anton Forsberg and a fifth-round pick in 2018 for Panarin, left winger Tyler Motte and a sixth-rounder in this year&rsquo;s draft. &ldquo;Panarin has that dynamic 1-on-1 ability that we&rsquo;re looking for,&rdquo; said Jackets GM Jarmo Kekalainen. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s somebody who can create an odd-man situation by beating a guy and creating space with his quickness, a guy who can make room out of nothing.&rdquo;</p><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-0230/157760-1-eng-US/f0037-022.jpg" title="f0037-02" width="109" height="111"></div><p>Since Panarin left the KHL to join the Blackhawks in 2015-16, he has 61 goals and 151 points in 162 games. Only six players have more points in that span: Patrick Kane (195), Sidney Crosby (174), Jamie Benn (158), Nicklas Backstrom (156), Erik Karlsson (153) and Blake Wheeler (152). Notice the first name on the list. Panarin played almost exclusively with Kane in Chicago, which is high-rent real estate on one of the NHL&rsquo;s most skilled lines.</p><p>How big of an impact did Kane have on Panarin&rsquo;s game? He had not just an assist, but the primary assist on 34 of Panarin&rsquo;s 61 career goals, so those are big skates to fill. In Columbus, the job of Panarin&rsquo;s setup man will likely fall to 22-year-old center Alexander Wennberg, who had a breakout season in 2016-17 with 46 assists and 59 points.</p><p>Perhaps just as important will be the coaching of Tortorella, who will surely love the infusion of skill that Panarin brings. But &lsquo;Torts&rsquo; will have to put up with Panarin&rsquo;s individual play, the high-wire act with the puck in the neutral zone. Tortorella said he watched extensive film of Panarin before the trade, has seen his style of play and plans to &ldquo;get out of his way.&rdquo; That&rsquo;s good news for Panarin, an ebullient type who, according to agent Daniel Milstein, is &ldquo;looking forward to the opportunity to be a leader&rdquo; with the Blue Jackets. They&rsquo;d settle for some big goals next spring.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p></div>

f0037-01

SCORING DYNAMO PUTS ON JACKET

<div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-0318/157845-1-eng-US/f0037-032.jpg" title="f0037-03" width="58" height="56"></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>R</span>YAN PULOCK</b> may finally get a real chance. The big blueliner with the booming shot has been marinating in the AHL for what seems like an eternity (really just three seasons), but now the NHL roster needs him. With Travis Hamonic off to Calgary, Pulock has the opportunity to jump in and make an impact. Look for him on the power play.</p></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-0415/157838-1-eng-US/f0037-042.jpg" title="f0037-04" width="56" height="53"></div><p>It pays to know the local kid. New York landed the most coveted free agent on the market in New Rochelle&rsquo;s <b>KEVIN SHATTENKIRK</b>, who took less money and term than he could&rsquo;ve gotten elsewhere to play for the team he grew up cheering for. Now captain Ryan McDonagh gets an elite right-shot &lsquo;D&rsquo; partner.</p></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-0512/157831-1-eng-US/f0037-052.jpg" title="f0037-05" width="55" height="66"></div><p>If Guy Boucher isn&rsquo;t Ottawa&rsquo;s coach, there&rsquo;s a good chance <b>NATE THOMPSON</b> doesn&rsquo;t sign with the Senators. But when they were looking for help at center, Thompson became an option. The 32-year-old, who sat out much of last season with an Achilles injury, has a history with Boucher that goes back to their time together in Tampa.</p></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-0611/157824-1-eng-US/f0037-062.jpg" title="f0037-06" width="59" height="42"></div><p>Yes, it&rsquo;s ominous that the Flyers&rsquo; big signing was a goalie who struggled in the playoffs, but <b>BRIAN ELLIOTT</b> has surprised in the past. He took most of the blame for Calgary&rsquo;s firstround loss to Anaheim and needs to bounce back. The upside? He plays his best when he&rsquo;s fighting for starts, which he&rsquo;ll do with incumbent Michal Neuvirth.</p></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-0710/157817-1-eng-US/f0037-072.jpg" title="f0037-07" width="59" height="56"></div><p>Coming off backto- back Stanley Cups, you get a little leeway. But the Penguins gave up a first-rounder and prospect Oskar Sundqvist for enforcer <b>RYAN REAVES</b>, something no one in the hockey world could have predicted. GM Jim Rutherford wanted more protection for his stars, and Reaves certainly fits the bill.</p></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-089/157810-1-eng-US/f0037-082.jpg" title="f0037-08" width="66" height="60"></div><p>Only nine players in modern NHL history have hoisted the Stanley Cup with three different teams. The Lightning are hoping <b>CHRIS KUNITZ</b> becomes the 10th. If it happens, it will have to be in short order, since Kunitz turns 38 in September and is only under contract with Tampa Bay for the coming season.</p></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-097/157803-1-eng-US/f0037-092.jpg" title="f0037-09" width="62" height="70"></div><p>The Leafs made no bigger statement that their rebuilding plan has been accelerated than they did when they signed <b>PATRICK MARLEAU</b> to a three-year deal. He instantly becomes their highest-paid and oldest player. Marleau has been a consistent 20- to 30-goal scorer since forever, and that shouldn&rsquo;t change in the short term.</p></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-107/157796-1-eng-US/f0037-102.jpg" title="f0037-10" width="83" height="52"></div><p>The most important stat involving <b>DEVANTE SMITHPELLY</b> is his salary: just $650,000. The hard-working winger won&rsquo;t light up the marquee, but he comes cheap, and that&rsquo;s crucial for the Capitals as they try to navigate the salary cap. Washington lost a ton of talent this summer, with no gains other than Smith-Pelly.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p></div>

f0037-10

<div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-0417/157966-1-eng-US/f0038-042.jpg" title="f0038-04" width="75" height="43"></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>R</span>YAN MILLER</b> had more reasons than just hockey to choose the Ducks as a free agent. The 37-year-old stopper is married to actress Noureen DeWulf, whose career has her in southern California more often than not. Miller signed a reasonable two-year, $4-million deal to back up injury-prone John Gibson. It was a good family move.</p></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-0513/157959-1-eng-US/f0038-052.jpg" title="f0038-05" width="54" height="57"></div><p>It was just seven years ago <b>DEREK STEPAN</b> stepped into the Rangers lineup after two years at Wisconsin and scored 21 goals. There was no pressure back then and, as it turned out, he topped that total just once in the next six seasons. Now he&rsquo;ll be an offensive horse and seasoned leader for a young Arizona team &ndash; and he just turned 27.</p></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-0612/157952-1-eng-US/f0038-062.jpg" title="f0038-06" width="63" height="54"></div><p>The Flames took a calculated risk going with 35-yearold Mike Smith as their No. 1 stopper this season. But they hedged it a bit picking up <b>EDDIE LACK</b> as the backup. The 29-year-old had a pair of solid 41- game seasons with Vancouver prior to joining Carolina in 2015. What&rsquo;s more, the Canes are picking up half of Lack&rsquo;s $2.75-million ticket.</p></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-0710/157945-1-eng-US/f0038-072.jpg" title="f0038-07" width="66" height="58"></div><p>The 2017-18 Hawks will look more like the 2014-15 Hawks than last year&rsquo;s team. Chicago dealt Artemi Panarin to reacquire <b>BRANDON SAAD</b>, a bigger, stronger left winger. He&rsquo;ll likely reunite with Jonathan Toews. As for replacing Panarin on Patrick Kane&rsquo;s line, it could be returning UFA Patrick Sharp or Nick Schmaltz.</p></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-086/157938-1-eng-US/f0038-082.jpg" title="f0038-08" width="59" height="48"></div><p>The Avs bolstered their top-nine forward group with reclamation project <b>COLIN WILSON</b>, whom GM Joe Sakic called &ldquo;another powerful forward to complement Gabriel Landeskog.&rdquo; Wilson, who weighs in at 221 pounds, has struggled with consistency. He has produced in spurts in the playoffs, but the Avs may not get there for a while.</p></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-094/157931-1-eng-US/f0038-092.jpg" title="f0038-09" width="79" height="66"></div><p>The Stars &ldquo;won&rdquo; the off-season by shoring up their goaltending with Ben Bishop, their defense corps with Marc Methot and their forwards with Martin Hanzal and <b>ALEXANDER RADULOV</b>, who signed a five-year deal worth $31.25 million. He should enjoy a career year playing alongside Jamie Benn and Tyler Seguin.</p></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-104/157924-1-eng-US/f0038-102.jpg" title="f0038-10" width="57" height="56"><figcaption class="caption-body" style="width: 57px"><span class="photo-credit">(SMITH: ANDY DEVLIN/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES; HAMONIC: GREGG FORWERCK/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>Expectations have been sky-high for <b>RYAN STROME</b> since he was drafted fifth overall by the Islanders in 2011. But after a breakout 50-point season as an NHL sophomore, he has been producing like a fringe thirdliner. Jordan Eberle didn&rsquo;t work out on Connor McDavid&rsquo;s right wing. The Oilers hope Eberle&rsquo;s replacement does.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p></div>

MEET THE NEW GUY WESTERN CONFERENCE

<div class="byline">&#x2013; RYAN KENNEDY</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-0229/157888-1-eng-US/f0038-022.jpg" title="f0038-02" width="511" height="473"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p>MIKE <b>SMITH</b></p><p>TRAVIS <b>HAMONIC</b></p></figcaption></div><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-0146/157895-1-eng-US/f0038-012.jpg" title="f0038-01" width="138" height="98"></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>A</span>S GM BRAD TRELIVING</b> addressed the media at the introductory press conference, he made a point that the Calgary Flames don&rsquo;t make splashy moves to make a statement. They make them to improve their team.</p></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-0319/157881-1-eng-US/f0038-032.jpg" title="f0038-03" width="109" height="111"></div><p>That&rsquo;s all well and good but, along with making the franchise better, Treliving certainly did make a statement in acquiring defenseman Travis Hamonic from the New York Islanders and goaltender Mike Smith from the Arizona Coyotes. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re ecstatic to have both players join our group,&rdquo; Treliving said. &ldquo;As we said after the playoffs in our exit meetings and in talking with players, it was incumbent upon us to raise our level. And it starts with management. We all needed to be better.&rdquo;</p><p>For a team done in by bad goaltending in the 2017 playoffs, Smith represents a bit of a gamble, but it&rsquo;s one Treliving has confidence in. Their relationship dates back to Treliving&rsquo;s days as the assistant GM of the Coyotes and, in Smith, the Flames get an athletic goalie not too far removed from an eight-shutout season. Sure, the past few years in Arizona have been a trial, but now Smith will play behind one of the best defense corps in the league, not to mention one of the best possession lines in the NHL, led by Mikael Backlund. This is Calgary&rsquo;s time to do damage in the post-season. Just making the dance means nothing anymore. But that pressure is fine with the new netminder. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a breath of fresh air,&rdquo; Smith said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s something I&rsquo;ve been begging for, for quite some time. I&rsquo;m a competitor, and I want to win real bad. I feel like this move is an opportunity and a challenge that I&rsquo;m going to take on full-steam.&rdquo;</p><p>Along with his size and athleticism, Smith is also one of the better puckhandling goalies in the NHL, which is music to the ears of new teammate and offensive wizard Johnny Gaudreau. &ldquo;Every season, you have high hopes as a team,&rdquo; Gaudreau said. &ldquo;And bringing in a goaltender of that caliber is pretty exciting. It gets your team excited. I&rsquo;m just excited for 3-on-3. It&rsquo;ll be like playing 4-on-3 hockey with him. I&rsquo;m looking forward to that part.&rdquo;</p><p>Smith&rsquo;s cost wasn&rsquo;t too steep. He came over from Arizona in exchange for fellow goalie Chad Johnson, prospect defenseman Brandon Hickey (who is good, but no sure thing) and a conditional draft pick. Hamonic came at a slightly higher price. In exchange for his services &ndash; and very reasonable $3.86-million cap hit for the next three seasons &ndash; the Flames surrendered next year&rsquo;s first-round draft pick plus two future second-rounders to the Isles. But for a player who has been coveted by teams for years, he was never going to come cheap. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve been talking about Travis for a long time,&rdquo; Treliving said. &ldquo;We paid a steep price for him, but that&rsquo;s how it works.&rdquo;</p><p>The upshot is that Calgary turned an already solid defense corps into one of the NHL&rsquo;s best. With Mark Giordano, Dougie Hamilton and T.J. Brodie returning, the Flames have a wicked top four that can move the puck up the ice as well as shut down op- ponents. That&rsquo;s important because that other team in Alberta, the Edmonton Oilers, are quickly becoming an offensive juggernaut. As good as Gaudreau is up front, no NHLer will match Oilers captain Connor McDavid in terms of scoring potential in the upcoming season &ndash; and running mate Leon Draisaitl is more than a handful, too. The Flames can&rsquo;t fight fire with fire, but they can attempt to douse Edmonton&rsquo;s scorchers by trotting out two of their Four Horseman of the Defense every time No. 97 takes to the ice. Imagine the Nashville-Pittsburgh Stanley Cup final, but with a lot more animosity and references to the tar sands. So, yeah, the &lsquo;Battle of Alberta&rsquo; is back on.</p></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-0138/157874-1-eng-US/f0039-012.jpg" title="f0039-01" width="1063" height="651"><figcaption class="caption-body">The addition of Hamonic gives the Flames one of the best bluelines in the league, with goalie Smith stepping in as the last line of defense.</figcaption></div><p>And the timing couldn&rsquo;t be any better, because the California teams in the Pacific Division are getting old. The Kings are falling off the map already, and it wouldn&rsquo;t be a surprise at all to see Calgary and Edmonton vying for a division title with Anaheim and San Jose in 2017-18.</p><p>The Oilers are primed to contend for the Stanley Cup, and there&rsquo;s no way the Flames are going to sit back and let their northern brethren get there without a fight. &ldquo;There&rsquo;s going to be pressure, sure,&rdquo; Hamonic said. &ldquo;But it&rsquo;s something I&rsquo;m excited for. You want to win and be surrounded by great players.&rdquo;</p><p>The Flames have more high-end players on their roster than they&rsquo;ve had in a long time thanks to Treliving&rsquo;s moves. If Hamonic can fit into the collective on the blueline, Calgary becomes near-impossible to game plan around. If Smith and new backup Eddie Lack can improve on the combined .910 save percentage of the jettisoned Johnson and Brian Elliott from this past season, even better.</p><p>But the playoffs will be the acid test. The Flames have dipped their toes in the water lately, but now there is a viable reason to believe in them. They have been bolstered to the hilt, and results must follow. &ldquo;When something like this happens, you&rsquo;re immediately looking at the calendar, waiting to get going,&rdquo; Hamonic said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re ready to rock, truthfully.&rdquo;<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0038-02

FIRE STARTERS FOR FLAMES

<div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-0228/158044-1-eng-US/f0039-022.jpg" title="f0039-02" width="47" height="56"><figcaption class="caption-body" style="width: 47px"><span class="photo-credit">(CALGARY FLAMES)</span></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><span>T</span>he circle of NHL life sometimes lands you back where it began. <b>MIKE CAMMALLERI</b> is back in L.A. 15 seasons after making his debut, following three seasons at the University of Michigan. It&rsquo;s worth noting his bargain salary of $1 million is less than the $1.075 million he first signed for in 2002.</p></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-0320/158037-1-eng-US/f0039-032.jpg" title="f0039-03" width="84" height="54"></div><p>The Wild hope <b>TYLER ENNIS</b> returns to the speedy, shifty form that made him a first-round pick in 2008 and threetime 20-goal man with Buffalo. He has to score if he&rsquo;s going to replace Jason Pominville. Ennis, however, has just eight goals in 74 games over the past two years, battling major concussions.</p></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-0419/158030-1-eng-US/f0039-042.jpg" title="f0039-04" width="86" height="50"></div><p>The Preds needed to get stronger at center after losing to Pittsburgh in the Cup final. So, they signed one of the Penguins&rsquo; centers, <b>NICK BONINO</b>. He&rsquo;s clutch, with three career playoff OT winners, and he&rsquo;s gutsy, finishing Game 2 of the final with what turned out to be a broken tibia, sustained blocking a shot.</p></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-0515/158023-1-eng-US/f0039-052.jpg" title="f0039-05" width="72" height="61"></div><p><b>MARCUS SORENSEN</b> is 25 and just barely eligible for the Calder Trophy. The left winger played 19 games for the Sharks this past season and impressed in the AHL with 34 points in 43 games. There are roster spots available and the early line is the undersized sharpshooter will crack the lineup.</p></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-0612/158016-1-eng-US/f0039-062.jpg" title="f0039-06" width="61" height="49"></div><p>The Blues lost too much size and physicality up front when David Backes and Troy Brouwer departed last summer. They got some of that back trading for <b>BRAYDEN SCHENN</b>. He can play left wing or center, and will compete for the coveted top-line gig with Vladimir Tarasenko on the right side.</p></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-0711/158009-1-eng-US/f0039-072.jpg" title="f0039-07" width="60" height="58"></div><p>If <b>SAM GAGNER</b> wants to get acclimated to Vancouver, he can talk to his teammates or just call his dad. Dave Gagner spent a half-season with the Canucks at the end of his 15- year NHL career. Gagner will see at least one familiar face &ndash; newcomer Michael Del Zotto was his teammate two seasons ago in Philadelphia.</p></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-089/158002-1-eng-US/f0039-082.jpg" title="f0039-08" width="48" height="64"></div><p><b>VADIM SHIPACHYOV</b> isn&rsquo;t just a new face in Vegas. He&rsquo;s a new face around the NHL. The Russian center, 30, is more playmaker than scorer. He finished two points behind linemate Ilya Kovalchuk in the KHL scoring race this past season, and Shipachyov&rsquo;s 50 assists were one off the league lead.</p></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-097/157995-1-eng-US/f0039-092.jpg" title="f0039-09" width="67" height="62"></div><p>The Jets thought Connor Hellebuyck was their goalie of the present, but he struggled in 2016-17. Signing <b>STEVE MASON</b> at a starter&rsquo;s annual salary of $4.1 million tells us Hellebuyck has been demoted back to goalie of the future. Mason&rsquo;s deal is just two years long, and he&rsquo;s expected to mentor Hellebuyck.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p></div>

f0039-03

<div class="byline">BY JASON BUCKLAND</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0040-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-0144/158080-1-eng-US/f0040-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">The support of his family helped buffer the blow that Bickell&rsquo;s days in hockey were over.</figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><span>O</span><b>N THE DAY</b> he received the news that his life would never be the same, Bryan Bickell strode unsure from a Raleigh, N.C., medical office. It was last fall, early afternoon, as he walked toward his wife, Amanda, who sat in the driver&rsquo;s seat of the family car. In the back were the couple&rsquo;s two young girls, Makayla and Kinslee, who had slipped into a nap after lunch.</p><p>Amanda didn&rsquo;t normally accompany Bryan to doctor&rsquo;s appointments, but something felt different about this visit. During the 2015 playoffs, Bickell, then with the Chicago Blackhawks, was felled under mysterious circumstances. He couldn&rsquo;t catch his legs. He was dizzy, easily winded. He first believed the culprit was an infected tooth, but despite treatment he never could seem to feel quite right.</p><p>To some doctors, the symptoms suggested vertigo, and Bickell, who was traded to the Carolina Hurricanes in 2016, underwent every test under the sun to determine a course of treatment. Eventually, when nothing seemed to take, an MRI was ordered, and when the results came in last fall, Bickell was summoned into the office of Dr. Josh Bloom, the Hurricanes&rsquo; team doctor.</p><p>While Bryan met with Dr. Bloom, Amanda stayed in the car with the sleeping kids, her feet on the dash, tapping away on her phone. Suddenly, after just 15 minutes inside, Bryan emerged at the car door. Something was off.</p><p>He stared blankly at his wife. &ldquo;Hey,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;What&rsquo;s up?&rdquo;</p><p>&ldquo;Can you go in to talk to the doctor?&rdquo; Bryan asked.</p><p>Amanda did her best not to read too much into the request. &ldquo;I just said, &lsquo;OK,&rsquo; got up and walked in,&rdquo; she recalled. &ldquo;Initially, my mind didn&rsquo;t go very negative. I kind of thought maybe he just didn&rsquo;t understand what the doctor was saying.&rdquo;</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-0228/158073-1-eng-US/f0040-022.jpg" title="f0040-02" width="520" height="365"><figcaption class="caption-body">Bickell&rsquo;s late goal in Game 6 of the 2013 final helped propel Chicago to the Stanley Cup.<span class="photo-credit">(TOP: JULIE NEWELL PHOTOGRAPHY; BOTTOM: BRUCE BENNETT/GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>While Bryan waited by the car, Amanda walked to the reception area, where she was led back into Dr. Bloom&rsquo;s office. Almost immediately, she was greeted with looks of concern. Someone asked her if she&rsquo;d prefer one of the nurses go outside and stay with the girls, so that Bryan could come back in before the doctor began.</p><p>Now, she feared, things were getting serious.</p><p>&ldquo;No,&rdquo; Amanda said, &ldquo;it&rsquo;s OK. Just let me hear it.&rdquo;<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0040-01

The Day Everything Changed

<p class="dropcap"><span>A</span><b>CCORDING TO THE</b> Multiple Sclerosis Foundation, some 2.5 million people around the world suffer from the disease, a disabling neurological condition that&rsquo;s particularly prevalent in young adults.</p><p>Certainly, far fewer are diagnosed while they are playing in the NHL.</p><p>Before last fall, when Dr. Bloom told him he had MS, Bickell was a solid pro, four times eclipsing 20 points over parts of nine seasons with Chicago, where he won two Stanley Cups. His career hallmark came in the 2013 playoffs: Bickell scored nine goals during the Blackhawks&rsquo; title run, including the tying goal with 1:16 left in the third period of Game 6 against the Boston Bruins. Chicago took the lead seconds later, and the rest is history.</p><p>He was traded to Carolina last year along with Teuvo Teravainen, casualties of the Hawks&rsquo; salary cap constraints. Still a respected vet, the hope was Bickell might help shape a young team, but his diagnosis prevented him from making the impact the club thought he could.</p><p>Once they left Dr. Bloom&rsquo;s office that day, Bryan and Amanda scrambled to grasp what their new life would become. At first, Bryan was more irritable, stress finding him more easily than it had before. He struggled with fatigue, and his motor skills began to fail him. The cold seemed to augment his symptoms, which he learned would affect him more or less depending on the time of day.</p><blockquote class="pullQuote"><i>It was the smarter thing for my health</i> &ndash; Bryan Bickell</blockquote><p>Before he could decide his hockey future, Bickell first had to decide on a course of treatment. Doctors placed him on a drug called Tysabri, which he would be administered once a month, hooked up to an IV for about an hour. In some ways, it was a miracle. Though Bickell&rsquo;s MS is in its early stages, the drug seemed to relieve his symptoms completely. Only during the later days in the month, when the medication wears off, do they return. &ldquo;Those days,&rdquo; Bickell said, &ldquo;you&rsquo;re kind of looking forward to the next treatment.&rdquo;</p><p>He was able to return to the ice last February, fighting his way back to playing pro again with Carolina&rsquo;s AHL affiliate, the Charlotte Checkers. Yet Bickell had a tough choice ahead of him. Athis best, with MS, he could reclaim his old game, the speed, stamina and strength that made him the player he was. But it was fleeting. Sometimes, as soon as he regained what he had been on the ice, it was gone again.</p><p>The decision was brutal. Bickell, still only 31, believed he had plenty left in the tank. But ultimately his disease wouldn&rsquo;t allow him to be the player he needed to be, as consistently as he needed to be it. He leaned on Amanda to make the call. &ldquo;She&rsquo;s the rock in our relationship,&rdquo; he said.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-0135/158123-1-eng-US/f0041-012.jpg" title="f0041-01" width="248" height="236"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-0226/158116-1-eng-US/f0041-022.jpg" title="f0041-02" width="248" height="241"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>GRAND FINALE</b> After working his way back to Carolina via the AHL, Bickell ended his career in style with a shootout goal versus Philly.</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-0316/158109-1-eng-US/f0041-032.jpg" title="f0041-03" width="520" height="647"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>SPEAKING FROM THE HEART</b> Bickell was honored at the NHL Awards. His speech thanking Amanda and his family had many fighting back tears.<span class="photo-credit">(CHECKERS: CHARLOTTE CHECKERS; HURRICANES: ANDY LEWIS/ICON SPORTSWIRE VIA GETTY IMAGES; AWARDS: JEFF VINNICK/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>Before he would officially hang it up, Carolina called him up for the last four games of the season, including its final game against Philadelphia, where, in front of nearly 20 visiting family and friends, Bickell scored a thrilling shootout goal on the final shot of his career.</p><p>Of his choice to retire, Bickell said, &ldquo;It was the smarter thing for my health.&rdquo;</p><p>His days now are spent with his wife and daughters. He and Amanda will become faces of this disease, making public appearances and raising funds. Each dollar, Bickell hopes, will bring researchers closer to a cure.</p><p>Largely, Bickell&rsquo;s MS is under control. Most days, aside from fatigue, he shows no symptoms at all. But of course there will be hurdles to come in his life, not all of them physical.</p><p>Bryan and Amanda haven&rsquo;t yet told Makayla and Kinslee of Bryan&rsquo;s condition. Bryan isn&rsquo;t quite sure how that will go, other than he knows it&rsquo;ll be something he has to one day do.</p><p>But his philosophy toward how he&rsquo;ll tell them is maybe a window into how he views his life with this disease, how he refuses to be defined by multiple sclerosis, how he&rsquo;ll continue on as the same man he has always been. &ldquo;They know me as daddy,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;They don&rsquo;t know me as daddy with MS.&rdquo;<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0041-01

BRYAN BICKELL

<div class="byline">BY DEBRA RUGHOO</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0042-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-0144/158173-1-eng-US/f0042-012.jpg"></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>N</span>EARLY 30 YEARS AGO,</b> Jamaica made headlines at the Olympics in Calgary &ndash; not on the sprint track at the Summer Games, where the country is a perennial powerhouse, but on the bobsled track during the Winter Olympics. The Jamaican bobsled team, an unlikely group of winter Olympians, won the hearts of fans worldwide. The four-member crew crashed out on its second run, but it hardly mattered. The team was the feel-good story of the Calgary Games, made famous by the movie <i>Cool Runnings</i>. Flash-forward to today, and the Jamaican Olympic Ice Hockey Federation is trying to follow in the footsteps of that ragtag group of army recruits. It hopes to send a Jamaican hockey team to the Winter Olympics one day and is taking inspiration, and advice, from their bobsled brethren. &ldquo;We would not be here for hockey if the bobsled team didn&rsquo;t do what they did in 1988,&rdquo; said Edmond &lsquo;EJ&rsquo; Phillipps, JOIHF&rsquo;s American-born founder and CEO, whose grandparents hail from Jamaica.</p><p>And who better to help than Devon Harris, a member of that crew. Phillipps recruited Harris to the JOIHF&rsquo;s advisory board to help jumpstart Jamaican hockey the way he did bobsleigh for the country. But Phillipps didn&rsquo;t stop there. He also brought aboard Willie O&rsquo;Ree, who accompanied the JOIHF, which is based in North America, on its 2011 visit to Jamaica to request the government&rsquo;s permission to represent the country. Bernice Carnegie, daughter of Herb Carnegie, a second-generation Jamaican</p><p>who played semi-pro in the 1940s and &rsquo;50s, has also been involved.</p><p>Behind the bench of the national team is Graeme Townshend, the first Jamaican-born NHL player. Townshend, who moved to Toronto at age three, played 45 games in the NHL in the 1990s, then went on to coach in the Central League and the ECHL. He also spent time as a skating and skills coach for the Toronto Maple Leafs. More importantly, Townshend has experience bringing hockey to warmer climes. He ran a 10-week program in Louisiana in the late &rsquo;90s, where he taught kids who had never skated before. After two seasons, he&rsquo;d already brought them up to speed. &ldquo;I brought five players to Maine,&rdquo; said Townshend, who lives and runs hockey camps in the state. &ldquo;You couldn&rsquo;t tell the difference between them and kids from New England on the ice.&rdquo;</p><p>Townshend believes the same can be done in Jamaica, which has produced some of the best sprinters in history, including Asafa Powell and the fastest man ever, Usain Bolt. &ldquo;You look at Jamaica and their propensity for speed, and hockey is all about speed,&rdquo; Townshend said. &ldquo;We could find the right kids and train them within a short period of time. Within 10 years, we can have a whole team of Jamaican-born players.&rdquo;</p><p>Jamaica became the first Caribbean nation in the International Ice Hockey Federation when it was granted associate membership in 2012, but the country can&rsquo;t compete in any IIHF tournaments until it becomes a full member. To do so, Jamaica needs three things: an international- size rink, a professional league and a minor hockey program. While a rink has yet to be built, Townshend points out the JOIHF has already done the legwork, including having conversations with the Jamaican government and the University of the West Indies, as well as identifying buildings that could house a rink. &ldquo;Once the rink gets built,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;we&rsquo;d be able to put together a league and programs rather quickly.&rdquo;</p><p>In the meantime, the JOIHF has created youth teams consisting of players with Jamaican heritage from North America (mainly from the OHL, Jr. A, and Major Midget) to participate in exhibition tournaments to raise awareness. The under-18 team placed second in the 2015 Weekend Hockey tournament in Alliston, Ont., and the U20 squad made the Elite Eight in the 2016 Team Elite Prospect (TEP) Showcase in Toronto, ranking fifth out of 32 teams.</p><p>This year, the U20 team was invited to participate in the Celebrating Diversity Through Sport event in Nova Scotia in May as part of the province&rsquo;s festivities for Canada&rsquo;s 150th birthday. The team won both exhibition games, including defeating Nova Scotia&rsquo;s U20 all-star squad (consisting of major junior, Jr. A, and major midget players) 5-1. In the 2017 TEP Tournament in June, meanwhile, Jamaica&rsquo;s U20 club had a record of 3-2 and made it to the quarterfinal. The team was also invited to this year&rsquo;s Pan American Ice Hockey Tournament in Mexico City but did not participate.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-0135/158166-1-eng-US/f0043-012.jpg" title="f0043-01" width="397" height="249"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-0224/158159-1-eng-US/f0043-022.jpg" title="f0043-02" width="396" height="249"></div><blockquote class="pullQuote"><b>YOU LOOK AT JAMAICA AND THEIR PROPENSITY FOR SPEED, AND HOCKEY IS ALL ABOUT SPEED &ndash; GRAEME TOWNSHEND, THE FIRST JAMAICAN-BORN NHL PLAYER</b></blockquote><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-0317/158152-1-eng-US/f0043-032.jpg" title="f0043-03" width="811" height="480"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>THE ICE MAN</b> Townshend, Jamaica&rsquo;s first NHLer, helms the national team, and has experience bringing hockey to warm climates. He developed the game in Louisiana and believes he can get Jamaica on the fast track to international success once the nation has a proper rink.<span class="photo-credit">(LEFT+TOP: FRANCIS WALLACE/TORONTO STAR VIA GETTY IMAGES; TOWNSHEND: GORDON CHIBROSKI/PORTLAND PRESS HERALD VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>Jamaica is currently unranked by the IIHF. And unlike its bobsled team, which was able to participate in the 1988 Calgary Games less than six months after its inception, the hockey team will take years to achieve its goal of competing in the Winter Olympics. Once the country achieves full membership, it will have to work its way up through the IIHF&rsquo;s six divisions just to qualify. Townshend said the good news is the nation would have access to highquality players, referring to those of Jamaican descent in minor-pro leagues, college and the NHL who would be eligible to play for Jamaica if they didn&rsquo;t play for Canada or the U.S.</p><p>For his part, Phillipps is encouraged by what other countries are doing, citing Morocco and Greece as examples that Jamaica could follow. The Moroccan Ice Hockey Federation recently organized an African Cup tournament, and Greece, which had a rink built, has had a lot of pro players from North America go back to help with development at the grassroots level. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s nice to see what the potential could be for Jamaica,&rdquo; Phillipps said, &ldquo;and the West Indies in general.&rdquo;<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0042-01

THE LITTLE ISLAND WITH BIG DREAMS

<div class="byline">BY RYAN KENNEDY</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0044-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0044-0142/158209-1-eng-US/f0044-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(DAVE SANDFORD/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>FOR DAILY PROSPECT COVERAGE, VISIT <b><a href="http://THN.com">THN.COM</a></b></p><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0044-0231/158202-1-eng-US/f0044-022.jpg" title="f0044-02" width="109" height="109"></div><p><b>SERGEI BOBROVSKY WAS</b> the best goalie in the NHL this past season, helping propel Columbus back to the playoffs. But the Vezina winner also doled out a key assist at the draft. See, his idol is Vadim Tarasov, who won goalie of the year three straight times in the Russian Super League &ndash; the precursor to the KHL &ndash; with Novokuznetsk from 1999 to 2001. Tarasov is now the goalie coach for Ufa, where his son plays for the KHL program&rsquo;s junior squad.</p><p>Daniil Tarasov missed the entire season due to a growth on his shin that had to be removed &ndash; he couldn&rsquo;t even get his goalie pad on. But thanks to the connection between his dad and Bobrovsky, Tarasov stayed on the Blue Jackets&rsquo; radar all year. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve gone through everything and studied him as closely as possible,&rdquo; said GM Jarmo Kekalainen. &ldquo;He was the No. 1 goalie on our list, and we think he has huge upside.&rdquo;</p><p>Columbus snagged Tarasov in the third round with the 86th overall pick. At least eight NHL teams interviewed the 6-foot- netminder before the draft, so the Jackets had to pounce when they did. Still, the franchise put in a lot of legwork. Goalie coach Ian Clark made several trips to Russia during the season to see how Tarasov was recovering from his surgery and even suggested drills for the youngster once he got back on the ice.</p><p>Through a translator, the newest Columbus goalie prospect talked about his lost season. &ldquo;It wasn&rsquo;t easy,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I wanted to play as soon as possible. But my family was a huge support, and now I&rsquo;m fully ready to go.&rdquo;</p><p>While missing the entire campaign wasn&rsquo;t great for Tarasov&rsquo;s portfolio, the youngster did have his resume from the previous season to fall back on, and it&rsquo;s solid. When Russia&rsquo;s world under-18 team was caught up in a drug scandal on the eve of the tournament in April 2016, a group of under-17s and CHL players were pressed into service, including Tarasov. All he did was post some of the best numbers in the tourney. The team fell to the eventual gold medallists from Finland in the quarterfinal &ndash; but only by a goal.</p><p>Tarasov has a two-year deal with Ufa and he will reassess his future after that. His agent, Aljosa Pilko, who works for J.P. Barry of CAA, says that once Tarasov does come over, it will be for good. Even if Tarasov has to spend three years in the AHL, the youngster is willing to put in the time. He wants to get stronger, physically and mentally, while also improving his stickwork. On top of his size, Tarasov boasts great positioning and smarts &ndash; which makes sense, given his bloodlines. Tarasov and his dad (who was drafted by Montreal and played one season for the AHL&rsquo;s Quebec Citadelles) talk about pro hockey all the time, and while there might be pressure to live up to his dad&rsquo;s credentials, the kid isn&rsquo;t sweating it. &ldquo;I only take positives from it,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I just want to prove I can be even better.&rdquo;<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p></div>

f0044-01

THE COLUMBUS CONNECTION

<div class="byline">BY RYAN KENNEDY</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0045-0230/158238-1-eng-US/f0045-022.jpg" title="f0045-02" width="520" height="699"><figcaption class="caption-body">Vancouver picked Pettersson fifth overall in the 2017 NHL draft, betting he&rsquo;ll bulk up and break out.<span class="photo-credit">(PETTERSSON: JEFF VINNICK/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES; SVECHNIKOV: MUSKEGON LUMBERJACKS)</span></figcaption></div><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0045-0136/158245-1-eng-US/f0045-012.jpg" title="f0045-01" width="109" height="109"></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>I</span>N A YEAR</b> with few sure things, the Canucks went out and got their guy. Vancouver grabbed the highly skilled Elias Pettersson with the fifth overall pick in the 2017 draft, bolstering a prospect pipeline that had run fallow for a few years before a more recent uptick. The ascent has dovetailed with the promotion of scout Judd Brackett to director of amateur scouting in the summer of 2015 and, for a team that was basically dragged into a rebuild, the future looks positive.</p></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><p>Pettersson joins a promising young group that includes right winger Brock Boeser, defenseman Olli Juolevi and goalie Thatcher Demko, but Pettersson&rsquo;s journey has just begun. The Swedish national was nearly a point-per-game player for Timra in Sweden&rsquo;s second-tier Allsvenskan circuit this past season and earned himself a promotion up to the SHL, where he will suit up for Vaxjo, the reigning regular season champions. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s very exciting,&rdquo; Pettersson said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a new league for me and a new team. It was a hard time leaving Timra because they meant so much to me, but I wanted a new challenge.&rdquo;</p><p>Pettersson will start out on the wing with Vaxjo, though he can also play center. For now, the challenge is to add some weight to his lean 6-foot-1, 165-pound frame. Training with Vaxjo over the summer will help, though the Canucks seem to like his base already. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s a competitive kid,&rdquo; said GM Jim Benning. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s smart, he knows how to buy time and space, to hold on to the puck to make good plays. He&rsquo;s not strong right now, but he&rsquo;s wiry strong. He has good balance where he can protect the puck and make good plays. As he gets physically stronger, his confidence should improve, and we&rsquo;re really looking forward to what he can develop into.&rdquo;</p><p>Pettersson already has one World Junior Championship under his belt, though it didn&rsquo;t go the way he hoped. Once again, Sweden finished fourth in the tournament. On an individual basis, Pettersson was totally snakebitten, earning just one point in six games. He played well but just couldn&rsquo;t get results. &ldquo;The world juniors for me&hellip;I wanted to play better,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;But it was a great experience to learn how good the players are at my age.&rdquo;</p><p>Pettersson will be a key driver for Sweden at the 2018 WJC, joining fellow returnees Lias Andersson (a Rangers prospect), Rasmus Dahlin (2018 draft-eligible) and Filip Gustavsson (Penguins prospect), among others. Pettersson&rsquo;s best friend and Timra linemate, Jonathan Dahlen, will be too old for another crack, but, thanks to the Alexandre Burrows trade with Ottawa, he&rsquo;s now Vancouver property. So, watch out for that Pettersson-Dahlen chemistry in a few years. It&rsquo;s just what the Canucks need.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0045-02

FAST FORWARD IN PROGRESS

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0045-0321/158274-1-eng-US/f0045-032.jpg" title="f0045-03" width="227" height="326"><figcaption class="caption-body">ANDREI <b>SVECHNIKOV</b></figcaption></div><h2><b>1. ANDREI SVECHNIKOV BARRIE (OHL)</b></h2><p class="dropcap"><span>A</span> potential No. 1 overall pick in 2018, Svechnikov was already in North America playing in the USHL. Now he&rsquo;ll bring his ultra-skilled power forward game to the rebuilding Colts, and he&rsquo;ll be joined by an import pick from last year, Lightning prospect Alexei Lipanov &ndash; his international center.</p><h2><b>2. FILIP ZADINA HALIFAX (QMJHL)</b></h2><p>A consistently dangerous performer for the Czechs, the top-end 2018 prospect takes his talents to the &lsquo;Q,&rsquo; where opponents will face his non-stop motor. The Mooseheads are masters of the Import Draft.</p><h2><b>3. ALEXEI TOROPCHENKO GUELPH (OHL)</b></h2><p>Drafted by the Blues 113th overall in June, Toropchenko is a big dude with offensive upside. Add him to a rebuilding roster that also includes Sharks prospect Isaac Ratcliffe and 2018 draft-eligible Ryan Merkley and the Storm appears to be surging.</p><h2><b>4. ALEXANDER KHOVANOV MONCTON (QMJHL)</b></h2><p>A player to watch in the 2018 draft, Khovanov brings a ton of skill and incredible patience with the puck to the Wildcats. His offensive exploits will be necessary for a team that truly bottomed out this past season.</p><h2><b>5. GILIAN KOHLER KOOTENAY (WHL)</b></h2><p>The Ice wiped out on Klim Kostin last year, but rebounded this time around with Kohler, a highly skilled winger who is up for the 2018 draft. Kohler was one of the Swiss junior league&rsquo;s leading scorers in 2016-17.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0045-03

IMPORTING EXCELLENCE

f0046-01

The Hockey News 2017 NHL DRAFT GRADES

<div class="byline">BY LARRY HUMBER</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0049-0141/158599-1-eng-US/f0049-012.jpg" title="f0049-01" width="485" height="485"></div><h2><b>ACROSS</b></h2><p>1 Prepare to fight, ___ off</p><p>4 Team with a broken stick in its crest</p><p>9 The season&rsquo;s first month</p><p>10 Mark Messier Award winner in 2016</p><p>11 Runner-up to Mario and Jaromir for Art Ross</p><p>12 Jabbed</p><p>13 Like second-hand skates</p><p>15 Bill or Bun ___</p><p>18 One of five Red Wings to win Conn Smythe</p><p>21 Colorado&rsquo;s ___ Center</p><p>23 He steered both the Habs and Leafs to Cups</p><p>24 Cartoonist ___ Schulz was a huge hockey fan</p><p>25 Duck previously a Canuck</p><p>26 Stick fights</p><h2><b>DOWN</b></h2><p>1 Pictured, he&rsquo;s father of the Hawks GM</p><p>2 Loosen one&rsquo;s skates</p><p>3 Bounce back</p><p>5 ___ Morenz or Meeker</p><p>6 &lsquo;Bobby Lou&rsquo;s&rsquo; first name</p><p>7 A step on skates</p><p>8 ___ Russell has seen both sides of the &lsquo;Battle of Alberta&rsquo;</p><p>14 Sidelines</p><p>15 Replaced by Doug Weight as Isles coach</p><p>16 Tom ___ captained the Flames in Atlanta</p><p>17 Fans on a shot, ___ completely</p><p>19 In Quebec, the World Cup is the Coupe du ___</p><p>20 One of the Folignos</p><p>22 It&rsquo;s bad news when a goalie ___ his groin<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0049-01

CROSSWORD

<div class="byline">&#x2013; MATT LARKIN</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0049-03" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0049-0328/158657-1-eng-US/f0049-032.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p>CARTER <b>CAMPER</b></p><p>MIKE <b>FISHER</b></p><p>DEVIN <b>SHORE</b></p><span class="photo-credit">(GUESS WHO: JONATHAN KOZUB/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES; CAMPER: BRUCE BENNETT/GETTY IMAGES; FISHER: DAVE SANDFORD/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES; SHORE: VINCENT ETHIER/ICON SPORTSWIRE VIA GETTY IMAGES; MASK: SYLVIE MARSOLAIS/SYLABRUSH.COM)</span></figcaption></div><h2><b>CONNOR INGRAM | SYRACUSE CRUNCH</b></h2><p class="dropcap"><span>I</span>t&rsquo;s time for Ingram to turn pro, but he can&rsquo;t take his new life too seriously. That&rsquo;s why he carries over his Heath Ledger Joker theme from his Kamloops Blazers mask. It&rsquo;s designed by Sylvie Marsolais, who added a peeling hockey tape effect. Featured on the Joker&rsquo;s card is Tampa Bay&rsquo;s secondary logo, while the Lightning&rsquo;s AHL affiliate, the Crunch, get top billing with their logo adorning the front of the mask.</p><h2><b>SAME AS IT EVER WAS</b></h2><blockquote class="pullQuote"><i>The Hockey News, July 1992</i> The two-time defending Stanley Cup champion Penguins have no peers, at least in their division, when it comes to getting bang for their buck with their first-round draft picks. &ndash; THN editorial</blockquote><p><b>LINES WE&rsquo;D LIKE TO SEE</b></p><p><i>THE COTTAGE WEEKEND LINE</i></p><p><b>CROSSWORD SOLUTION: ACROSS</b> 1. SQUARE, 4. SHARKS, 9. OCTOBER, 10. WEBER, 11. TEEMU, 12. SPEARED, 13. USED, 15. COOK, 18. YZERMAN, 21. PEPSI, 23. IRVIN, 24. CHARLES, 25. KESLER, 26. JOUSTS <b>DOWN</b> 1. SCOTTY, 2. UNTIE, 3. REBOUND, 5. HOWIE, 6. ROBERTO, 7. STRIDE, 8. KRIS, 14. SHELVES, 15. CAPUANO, 16. LYSIAK, 17. MISSES, 19. MONDE, 20. NICK, 22. PULLS</p><p><b>GUESS WHO ANSWER: NINO NIEDERREITER</b><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0049-03

BEHIND THE MASK

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0050-0323/158686-1-eng-US/f0050-032.jpg" title="f0050-03" width="415" height="501"><figcaption class="caption-body">TEEMU <b>SELANNE</b> <span class="photo-credit">(ANDRE RINGUETTE/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0050-0143/158700-1-eng-US/f0050-012.jpg" title="f0050-01" width="137" height="113"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><p>WITH KEN CAMPBELL @THNKENCAMPBELL</p><span class="image-inline"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0050-0239/158693-1-eng-US/f0050-022.jpg" title="f0050-02" width="20" height="17"></span><p><b>IF HISTORY HAS</b> taught us anything, it&rsquo;s that Daniel Alfredsson should not worry too much about not being inducted into the Hall of Fame this year. Nor should he sit waiting by the phone the last Monday every June. His call will come. It always does. But with the Hall of Fame selection committee, nobody can tell for sure exactly when that will be.</p><p>Just ask Dave Andreychuk. For eight years, he wasn&rsquo;t considered up to snuff when it came to induction. Then, in 2017, he suddenly was good enough. The three inductees in 2016 &ndash; Eric Lindros, Sergei Makarov and Rogie Vachon &ndash; waited a combined 52 years, with Vachon on the outside looking in a mind-boggling 32 times before he made it.</p><p>There are four spots on the men&rsquo;s side and two from the women&rsquo;s game open every year. This year, Teemu Selanne was the only player who earned induction in his first year of eligibility, so it was a good time for the Hall to make up for past snubs, and it did so by inducting Andreychuk, Mark Recchi and Paul Kariya. In 2016, the Hall did not see fit to induct any first-timers, so if it had put none of Lindros, Makarov or Vachon in, it would have been in the rather awkward position of holding an induction ceremony in November with no players being inducted.</p><p>Here&rsquo;s the thing. With four spots open every year and no limits on the amount of time a player is eligible, the Hall of Fame has become the Hall of Really Good. That is a reality. So for those of you who believe Paul Henderson should be enshrined for doing little more than scoring three very crucial goals in an exhibition series almost 50 years ago, take heart and keep waiting. Henderson will get in someday. After all, he&rsquo;s waited only 33 years.</p><p>The Hockey Hall of Fame has the least stringent standards and the smallest group of voters of any major hall of fame. It is a group that consists of 18 men &ndash; plus nonvoting chair emeritus Jim Gregory &ndash; who each serve a three-year term, but who can be reappointed to another term once their time expires. Of the current group, the youngest member is 51-year-old Luc Robitaille. There are no women on the committee. A player needs 14 votes for induction each year, but if four are not elected on the first ballot, a series of &ldquo;run-off&rdquo; votes is conducted with the player receiving the fewest votes dropped from subsequent ballots until the maximum is reached or players are voted off the ballot. That&rsquo;s a good number of cracks at getting in each year.</p><blockquote class="pullQuote">THE HALL OF FAME IS NOW RESERVED FOR REALLY GOOD PLAYERS AND TRULY GREAT PLAYERS. IT IS NOT AN EXCLUSIVE CLUB</blockquote><p>It&rsquo;s all a little perplexing. If a player isn&rsquo;t worthy of induction on his first-time eligible, he is held hostage to the whims of a very small, very provincial selection committee from year to year. After all, it&rsquo;s not as though Vachon got any better in the 31 years he waited to be enshrined.</p><p>Which brings me to the following conclusions. First, the Hall of Fame is now reserved for really good players and truly great players. It is not an exclusive club. Second, the criteria for a true Hall of Famer have changed. In my mind, the Hall of Fame is drawn down two distinct lines: those who were inducted in their first year of eligibility (truly great players) and those who have to wait (really good players).</p><p>Let&rsquo;s go back into the recent past to see how it has all shaken out. In the 10 induction years since 2008, there have been 40 spots reserved for player inductions on the men&rsquo;s side (four in each year) and only 16 of those have been occupied by players who were inducted in their first year of eligibility: Brett Hull, Brian Leetch, Luc Robitaille, Steve Yzerman, Ed Belfour, Joe Sakic, Mats Sundin, Chris Chelios, Scott Niedermayer, Peter Forsberg, Dominik Hasek, Mike Modano, Sergei Fedorov, Nick Lidstrom, Chris Pronger and Selanne. Seventeen other inductees during that 10-year window were passed over in previous years.</p><p>With the possible exceptions of Sundin and Modano from that first group of 16 firstyear Hall of Famers, there&rsquo;s no debate among them when it comes to Hall credentials. The other group of 17, including the three others that joined Selanne this year, have been subject to debate, with some thinking they were just really good and not great players. Take Andreychuk, for example. Those who think he&rsquo;s a slam-dunk will point to the numbers and the fact nobody in the history of the game has scored more power-play goals than he has. Those who would argue against him point out that during his long career, he finished among the NHL&rsquo;s top 10 scorers only once and was never the best player on his team. Both arguments have merit. But there is little doubt that if a player is consistent enough for a long enough time, he&rsquo;ll get serious Hall consideration. Debate amongst yourselves whether that&rsquo;s a high enough bar. I personally don&rsquo;t think it is, but I can appreciate the opinions of people who do.</p><p>Which is why from now on, my personal Hall of Fame will be divided into two distinct categories. My true Hall of Fame includes the likes of Howie Morenz, Rocket Richard, Gordie Howe, Bobby Orr, Wayne Gretzky, Mario Lemieux and Sidney Crosby, players for whom induction is what the kids call a no-brainer. The second tier consists of those players who had to wait. And that&rsquo;s all very subjective, but that&rsquo;s exactly what induction to the Hockey Hall of Fame has become.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

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August 14, 2017

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