The Hockey News' Best Of The Best Issue is available now. In our cover story, we break down the very best of the hockey world in 25 categories, from best slapshot to best trash talker. Also in the issue: features on Nikita Kucherov and Torey Krug, plus the best-kept secret for each of the 31 NHL teams, a how-to guide on skating like a superstar and an oral history of the film Mystery, Alaska, 20 years after its release.

Best of the Best 2019-20

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 Oct. 28, 2019 - TBC

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/separated_h_001/615612-1-eng-US/separated_h_0012.jpg" title="separated_h_001" width="215" height="331"><figcaption class="caption-body">(DEBORA ROBINSON/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</figcaption></div><h2>ADAM&nbsp;HENRIQUE</h2>Performs in sold-out arenas with We Will Rock You on speakers. Hasn&rsquo;t played for a Cup champion. Has pair of playoff OT goals. Great under pressure.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/separated_m_002/615605-1-eng-US/separated_m_0022.jpg" title="separated_m_002" width="215" height="331"><figcaption class="caption-body">(PHIL DENT/REDFERNS)</figcaption></div><h2>FREDDIE&nbsp;MERCURY</h2>Performed We Will Rock You and We Are the Champions to sold-out arenas. Made a great pair with David Bowie for Under Pressure. &#9632;

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Time Out

Separated At Birth

<div class="byline">BY MATT LARKIN</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0017-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0017-0167/613061-1-eng-US/f0017-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">(OVECHKIN: MINAS PANAGIOTAKIS/GETTY IMAGES; LUNDQVIST: DARCY FINLEY/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES; FLEURY: JONATHAN KOZUB/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES; STAAL: CLAUS ANDERSEN/GETTY IMAGES; MARLEAU: CLAUS ANDERSEN/GETTY IMAGES; THORNTON: JONATHAN KOZUB/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES; MCDAVID: MICHAEL MARTIN/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</figcaption></div> &#9632;

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BUZZ

NHL Milestone-o-meter

<div class="image-hero"><img title="botb_reaves_025" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/botb_reaves_025/614384-1-eng-US/botb_reaves_0252.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">(ETHAN MILLER/GETTY IMAGES)</figcaption></div>RYAN REAVES | VEGASIT&rsquo;S NO SECRET THAT FIGHTING in the NHL has been trending down big-time since the 2012-13 lockout, and the speed of today&rsquo;s game sent many enforcers into retirement. But there are still some heavies in the NHL, and the success of players such as Reaves and Washington&rsquo;s Tom Wilson have kept the flame burning. According to our experts, Reaves holds the championship belt right now. &ldquo;He just throws with so much velocity,&rdquo; said one former NHL enforcer. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s got reach, strength and speed. It&rsquo;s hard to stand in there with him, and that&rsquo;s why I tip my hat to Evander Kane. He stood in there with Reaves. I don&rsquo;t think those two are done with each other.&rdquo; That&rsquo;s a pretty good bet. Kane, the San Jose Sharks power forward and boxing enthusiast, has kept a running rivalry with Reaves through the press and on social media after the two fought in the playoffs last spring. And unlike a lot of the fighters that came before him, Reaves looks like he&rsquo;s here to stay. The Golden Knights right winger actually set a career high for average ice time last season, playing nearly 11 minutes per game for Vegas while also tallying 20 points, another career best. Pretty amazing to think Vegas got him from Pittsburgh for minor-leaguer Tobias Lindberg while also convincing the Penguins to throw in a fourth-rounder (especially when he cost Pittsburgh a first-rounder and Oskar Sundqvist in a previous deal with St. Louis). Here&rsquo;s hoping for another San Jose-Vegas playoff series. &#9632;

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Best Of The Best

Best FIGHTER

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/next_boldy3_060/615491-1-eng-US/next_boldy3_0602.jpg" title="next_boldy3_060" width="480" height="340"><figcaption class="caption-body">MATVEY GUSKOV (DAVE REGINEK/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</figcaption></div>THE MINNESOTA WILD WERE once again one of eight NHL teams to participate in the Traverse City prospects tournament in Michigan this September, and it did not go well. The Wild kids were the only squad to go winless, and the eighth-place game against Chicago wasn&rsquo;t even close. But there were some extenuating circumstances. To begin with, top center Alexander Khovanov missed the tourney after having surgery to remove a tumor on his leg. Defenseman Filip Johansson stayed back in Sweden, where the season starts earlier. And Matthew Boldy and new Boston College bud Jack McBain couldn&rsquo;t play because the tournament features signed NHL prospects &ndash; so competing against them would be an NCAA no-no.The glass half-full perspective: Minnesota got to see what some of its other picks could do. &ldquo;The kids we do have here, like Adam Beckman or Matvey Guskov, we&rsquo;re pretty pleased with them,&rdquo; said Brad Bombardir. &ldquo;They have worked hard, have some good sense for the game, have some knowledge of how to create space for themselves and hit holes with the puck with quickness and speed to get shots off. For these guys, it&rsquo;s learning how to play on the inside of the ice, the grind game, the cycle work and defending. There&rsquo;s a lot to learn, but overall we&rsquo;re pleased with their effort.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/next_boldy5_061/615484-1-eng-US/next_boldy5_0612.jpg" title="next_boldy5_061" width="456" height="556"><figcaption class="caption-body">TURNER OTTENBREIT (DAVE REGINEK/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</figcaption></div> &#9632;

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TRAVERSING TRAVERSE CITY

<div class="byline">Jason Kay,&#xA0;Editor in chief</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="firstword_m_049" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/firstword_m_049/612760-1-eng-US/firstword_m_0492.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">&lsquo;A&rsquo; GRADEMatthews, who many expected to be named Leafs captain, ended up as an alternate. Tavares got the &lsquo;C&rsquo; instead. (MARK BLINCH/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</figcaption></div>IN THE WONDERFUL AND wacky 1980s, Canadian bank Canada Trust introduced their ATMs, called them Johnny Cash machines and had The Man in Black himself as their star promoter. They produced some classically schlocky TV ads: &ldquo;Life&rsquo;s too short to walk the line,&rdquo; Cash professes, as he expounds the convenience of the instant teller, walking past a long bank queue, with the soundtrack of his first No. 1 hit, I Walk the Line, bouncing in the background.Canada Trust also convinced Cash to license his likeness, in the form of life-sized cardboard cutouts, which they placed beside some of the ATMs. I remember this because my second-year university roommates and I thought it would be a good idea in the fall of 1986 to liberate a giant Johnny and hire him as door greeter at our apartment. Roughly eight months later, early one Sunday morning when we were moving out of our digs, a police officer approached our truck. I don&rsquo;t recall if she saw Mr. Cash, but she caught us loading street signs, stop signs, a park bench and other property that had been, umm, borrowed by our student housing predecessors over the years.The cop was unamused and threatened to arrest us for possession of stolen property. We begged forgiveness and got off with a warning. The thought that street signs we inherited could land us in legal trouble never crossed my 21-year-old mind.A couple years later, I graduated from Carleton University with a degree in journalism and was lucky enough to have Bob McKenzie, then editor-in-chief of The Hockey News, take a chance on me. I&rsquo;d come from a respected program and knew the fundamentals, but I was green and keen with little experience in between. I needed Bob, then his successor, Steve Dryden, along with some of my more established colleagues, to teach me&hellip;for more than a decade. During those years, I got married, had children, faced some of life&rsquo;s curveballs, and opportunities to grow, for the first time. Eventually, when Steve departed in 2001, I was deemed ready to step into a leadership role. Had that happened in my third year, I can confidently say it would have been a disaster.One pivotal conversation I had in my early years as editor, one that bled from hockey into real life, was with then-Chicago Blackhawks center Curtis Brown. He and his wife had lost their four-month-old daughter to Sudden Infant Death Syndrome a few months prior. His tone and messaging on the phone were remarkably poised and strong. I&rsquo;d imagined he would have sounded shattered. He was still grieving but said they made a conscious decision to honor their daughter&rsquo;s life by moving forward with theirs and being the best parents they could be to their other children. &ldquo;Life is a series of tests,&rdquo; Brown said. &ldquo;Sometimes, unfortunately, the only way we can get stronger or better or become who we&rsquo;re supposed to be is to go through these tests.&rdquo; It was a profound learning moment for me, the 40-year-old guy in charge of a national magazine.What&rsquo;s the point? (Yes, there is one). Hockey, too often, eats its young. Sometimes it takes the form of pressure to succeed early or risk being labelled a flop. For those who do excel, it justifies the faith placed in them and verifies they were ready&hellip;to score, hit or save. To be among the best of the best. It does not prove they are ready to shepherd.The most recent case study is Auston Matthews. Just days before the pundits expected him to be made captain of the Toronto Maple Leafs, news broke he was facing disorderly conduct charges stemming from an alleged incident in Arizona. Forget whether he is proven guilty or exonerated (we&rsquo;ll let the court system figure that out), but the notion a 22-year-old is ready to be a mentor of men, in the largest and most scrutinized hockey market on the planet, is confounding. Following days of frenzy in Leafs land, management wisely gave the &lsquo;C&rsquo; to 29-year-old John Tavares.The episode put the issue on the front burner, where the risk of getting burned is inversely correlated to the amount of on-the-job training required for the chosen one. Now more than ever. Omnipresent video and the social-media slingshot have us potentially being watched at all times. That goes exponentially for the famous. The disproportionately huge amounts of money that professional athletes are paid cannot buy savvy. There are no virtual-reality glasses that instill maturity.These young men should be allowed time to grow and understand that some of the things they think are important today are, in the grand picture, space dust. And that some of the small stuff they think is insignificant can make a big difference. We should save them from themselves, give them time to prove they can lead by experience and example, before asking them to, without misstep, walk the line.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/jasonkay_si_046/612753-1-eng-US/jasonkay_si_0462.jpg" title="jasonkay_si_046" width="422" height="231"></div>Twitter: <a datastyle href="https://twitter.com/jkthn?lang=en">@JKTHN</a> &#9632;

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THE FIRST WORD

WALKING THE LINE OF MATURITY

<div class="byline">W. Graeme RoustanW. Graeme Roustan</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/graeme_rous_070/612850-1-eng-US/graeme_rous_0702.jpg" title="graeme_rous_070" width="549" height="541"><figcaption class="caption-body">(PHOTO BY MICHELLE VALBERG)</figcaption></div>Dear readers,I&rsquo;ve travelled around the world many times the past couple of decades on hockey business, and I always took with me the latest issues of The Hockey News and made sure I downloaded the latest podcasts as my preferred onboard entertainment. Quite often, The Hockey News issues were passed around the cabin on long flights to Moscow, and I never saw them again.I looked forward to when the dinner service had concluded and the cabin lights were dimmed, which was the cue for me to put on my headphones and start the first of several podcasts. I would recline and close my eyes, and it was as though I was at the table with Matt Larkin, Ryan Kennedy and Ken Campbell talking hockey for three-quarters of an hour, which flew by. I just had to hold in the laughter while those around me slept on the red-eye flight.You could instantly tell these three guys were more than just writers at The Hockey News. They were friends. They would argue, throw each other to the curb and give great individual opinions backed up with facts and conviction. By the end of each podcast, they were laughing and carrying on. It was a great roundtable. I only wished I was there beside them.When I acquired The Hockey News, among my first set of initiatives was the decision to put cameras on Matt, Ryan and Ken while they did their audio podcasts. That way, our readers can see as well as hear what these guys are really like. It brings the readers closer to the table, just like I wanted to be.We took the podcast trio out of, literally, a kitchen or conference room with an iPhone recorder and put them in a studio with professional recording equipment. The Hockey News Live was born in 2018. The product was such an upgrade the past year that we received rave reviews from our listeners.But even though we would tape the audio/video podcast, put the titles on in post-production and have it up on our website within hours, it wasn&rsquo;t technically &ldquo;live.&rdquo; That sparked the next jump in the podcast&rsquo;s evolution. It started with one microphone and three guys huddled around it, but today it&rsquo;s a truly live production.We built a brand-new, three-camera, high-definition studio in our downtown Toronto headquarters just blocks away from where the Toronto Maple Leafs play. The Hockey News is now regularly live-streaming video seen around the world on platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, VK, Twitch, Mixer, DLive and Smashcast, with more platforms set to launch later this year. The six-figure financial investment in transitioning to a full-blown HDTV professional studio has taken The Hockey News from the 20th to the 21st century.Seventy-two years ago this month, Volume 1, Issue 1 of The Hockey News was published with the banner along the top under The Hockey News describing itself as, &ldquo;The International Hockey Weekly.&rdquo; It cost a whole 10 cents. The Hockey News has always had an international audience, so it&rsquo;s fitting that the next step in our growth is to stream The Hockey News Live over the internet internationally to hockey fans just like you.If you&rsquo;re not already a Gold Member &ndash; if you are, thank you &ndash; please become one and join me in making The Hockey News bigger, better and more available to hockey fans globally like no other media company can.<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/openingthou_075/612843-1-eng-US/openingthou_0752.jpg" title="openingthou_075" width="1403" height="298"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/graemeroust_071/612836-1-eng-US/graemeroust_0712.jpg" title="graemeroust_071" width="583" height="124"></div>Executive Chairman & Publisher, Roustan Media Ltd. <a href="http://roustan.com">roustan.com</a>Twitter: <a datastyle href="https://twitter.com/graemeroustan?lang=en">@GraemeRoustan</a> &#9632;

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Opening Thoughts

Brand’s evolution: NHL action, lights and now camera

<div class="image-hero"><img title="1000words" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/1000words/612881-1-eng-US/1000words2.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">(JEFF VINNICK/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</figcaption></div> &#9632;

1000words

A Thousand Words

Make That A Combo

<div class="byline">BY RYAN KENNEDY</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="buzz_mackin_063" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/buzz_mackin_063/612940-1-eng-US/buzz_mackin_0632.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Speedsters such as MacKinnon push their strides out to the side rather than straight back to generate acceleration. (MINAS PANAGIOTAKIS/GETTY IMAGES)</figcaption></div>QUICK, NAME SOME OF the best skaters in the NHL.The top candidates come to mind pretty easily, because they also happen to be some of the best players in the game: Connor McDavid, Nathan MacKinnon and Taylor Hall. Now think of some of last year&rsquo;s most notable skaters outside the NHL. Kendall Coyne Schofield of the women&rsquo;s Dream Gap Tour (and an Olympic gold medallist with Team USA) made waves at the 2019 all-star weekend in San Jose with her speed, while Florida Panthers farmhand Anthony Greco was faster than everyone in North America &ndash; including McDavid &ndash; with his lap at the 2019 AHL all-star festivities in Springfield.<div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/nhl147/612933-1-eng-US/nhl2.jpg" title="nhl" width="110" height="125"></div>All these players are excellent skaters, but why?If you&rsquo;re looking to crack that code, Dr. Mike Bracko has a lot of information. A sports physiologist, skating coach, strength and conditioning coach and researcher for the past 35 years, Dr. Bracko runs the Calgary-based Institute for Hockey Research and has been fascinated by skating biomechanics. Speaking at the TeamSnap Hockey Coaches Conference this summer in Toronto, Dr. Bracko laid out the habits that all elite skaters share, and it was pretty illuminating.Research on skating biomechanics dates back to at least 1975 when future NHL coach Pierre Page did a master&rsquo;s thesis on the topic. Other minds have followed up on Page&rsquo;s initial findings, including Dr. Bracko. So what separates a fast skater from a slower one? Here are the important categories according to Dr. Bracko, with input from a couple other experts in the field.STRIDE: A wider skating stride is much more effective than a narrower one. Watch footage of the fastest skaters working their magic and you&rsquo;ll see how far apart their legs are. Compared to slower skaters, the difference can be several inches. The legs should be pushing out to the side, too. A deep knee bend before push-off generates more power, and faster skaters have deeper flexion angles than slower skaters. &ldquo;Knee bend is the most important attribute,&rdquo; said power skating coach Katie McDonough. &ldquo;If you don&rsquo;t have that, everything else suffers. Maximum extension allows you to push off the blade, and an effective, efficient skater will produce power and gain ice.&rdquo;McDonough, who runs Cutting Edge Performance Power Skating in Minnesota, worked with Boston&rsquo;s David Backes this summer as the 35-year-old Bruin tried to improve his game. She likes to take pictures of a client&rsquo;s stride with her iPad so she can break it down for them and help them to understand what they can fix. &ldquo;Getting them to slow down is a big part of it,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;They have to be patient and go back to the basics. I tell them, &lsquo;The basics never fail you, they help get you that muscle memory.&rsquo; I want the players to feel what their body is doing.&rdquo;</div><div style="clear: both;"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/buzz1_coyne_064/612926-1-eng-US/buzz1_coyne_0642.jpg" title="buzz1_coyne_064" width="1171" height="769"><figcaption class="caption-body">HOW LOW CAN YOU GO?Coyne Schofield is skating at her explosive best when she&rsquo;s low to the ice and almost falling over. (DAVE SANDFORD/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</figcaption></div>If McDonough gets buy-in, she can get an NHLer like Backes to pick up two strides in one trip from goal line to goal line. In a young player, it can be as much as seven.Coyne Schofield showed the world how good her stride was in San Jose, and her key to success was more out of necessity. &ldquo;I extend my leg out as far as I can, because I&rsquo;m only 5-foot-2,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;I need to pick up as much ice as I can.&rdquo;Whatever the logic was, it worked for her. McDonough is also a big proponent of &ldquo;picking up&rdquo; ice, as it&rsquo;s basically the name of the game when it comes to elite skating.TRUNK ANGLE: According to Dr. Bracko, faster skaters lean a full 10 degrees more forward than slower skaters. Again, watch some of the best burners in the NHL and you&rsquo;ll see how much they lean into it. Dr. Bracko described it as like &ldquo;falling forward and catching yourself.&rdquo; Research has also shown greater hip extension during acceleration and greater hip abduction during striding. When Coyne Schofield isn&rsquo;t at her top form, she sees it right away. &ldquo;When I get tired, I stand up more,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;When I&rsquo;m being powerful and explosive, I&rsquo;m the lowest I can be. When I&rsquo;m watching film, I&rsquo;m like, &lsquo;Oh boy, that was a long shift. I&rsquo;m practically upright.&rsquo;&rdquo;McDonough likes to see a skater&rsquo;s torso and core controlled, or &ldquo;quiet.&rdquo; If a player has a weak core or gets complacent, they can become a &ldquo;stick leaner.&rdquo; And of course, your stick should be used for handling the puck, not propping yourself up.ARMS: This one was particularly fascinating but also controversial. Dr. Bracko believes the most efficient technique is for the arms to move side to side when skating, not back and forth. He brought up Newton&rsquo;s third law of motion for this aspect: &ldquo;For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.&rdquo; The arms are working with the legs when skating and those who moved them side to side generated 37 percent more force than those whose arms went back and forth. In this movement, the shoulders should rapidly abduct and adduct. McDonough&rsquo;s concern here is that nailing down this particular technique is elite. &ldquo;It takes a very skilled player to accomplish what he is referring to,&rdquo; she said.<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/buzz1_hall/612919-1-eng-US/buzz1_hall2.jpg" title="buzz1_hall" width="2119" height="1413"><figcaption class="caption-body">SWEAT BEFORE SPEEDMuscle memory doesn&rsquo;t last forever, even for burners such as Hall. Practise and training are other big factors. (MARK BLINCH/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</figcaption></div>Having said that, McDonough does believe in the overall importance of full-body biomechanics. &ldquo;The biggest problem with hockey players,&rdquo; she said, &ldquo;is that they are not taught the knowledge of how important their body movement is with their feet.&rdquo;RECOVERY: A quick recovery after push-off is a major factor in speed, and the skates should not land under the mid-line of the body. Ideally, the skates land directly under the shoulders. And it probably goes without saying that a high stride rate is necessary, too. Coyne Schofield cited recovery as the most important element of efficient skating in her mind. &ldquo;Skating is like building blocks,&rdquo; McDonough said. &ldquo;If you&rsquo;re missing a block, you&rsquo;re affected by it.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/buzz1_greco_065/612912-1-eng-US/buzz1_greco_0652.jpg" title="buzz1_greco_065" width="1022" height="652"><figcaption class="caption-body">ANTHONY GRECO (STEPHANE DUBE/GETTY IMAGES)</figcaption></div>And going back to the leg extension, McDonough cautions players not to pick up their skates too fast &ndash; they need that full extension first. Then it&rsquo;s time for a quick recovery.Now here&rsquo;s the big question: do elite skaters know why they are elite? And did they get there by nature or nurture? Coyne Schofield knows all about her mechanics now as a pro, but her origin story is a lot more organic. &ldquo;What made me develop my stride was being fearless on the ice,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;When you first start skating, the ice is scary, but I loved to go fast and I didn&rsquo;t care if I fell a hundred times. Working with kids now, I see the same thing in some of them. They&rsquo;re willing to push, and they trust their edgework.&rdquo;She also loved power skating when she was growing up, which would be music to the ears of experts like McDonough and Dr. Bracko. What is also apparent here is players must be vigilant if they want to maintain their strides. With enough practice, it all becomes muscle memory, and at this point, NHL speedsters such as Dylan Larkin or Mathew Barzal probably couldn&rsquo;t have a bad skate if they tried. But there&rsquo;s also hope for those with less than ideal strides. Backes may be an old dog, but he was willing to try some new tricks with McDonough in order to keep his NHL career viable for a little longer. Today&rsquo;s NHL game is faster than ever, and the plodders of yesteryear simply can&rsquo;t keep up. That&rsquo;s part of the reason so many enforcers are out of the game now, but they&rsquo;re not the only ones. To paraphrase an old John Tortorella classic, &ldquo;Slow is death.&rdquo; And don&rsquo;t forget that knee bend.For up-to-the-minute coverage, visit&nbsp;<a href="http://TheHockeyNews.com">THEHOCKEYNEWS.COM</a> &#9632;

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A HARMONY OF MOTION

<div class="byline">MATT LARKIN</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="buzz_mask1" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/buzz_mask115/612985-1-eng-US/buzz_mask12.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">(DAVID GUNNARSSON/DAVEART.COM)</figcaption></div><h2>ELVIS MERZLIKINS | COLUMBUS BLUE JACKETS</h2>NEWCOMER MERZLIKINS DOESN&rsquo;T HAVE any pro experience above the Swiss League, but the Latvian-born goalie caught the Jackets&rsquo; eye with his swagger &ndash; and his new mask design from Dave Gunnarsson reflects that. It&rsquo;s chaotic and brash. The right side salutes Columbus fans and features their slogan, &ldquo;We Are The 5th Line.&rdquo; The left side has a blue-jacketed general holding a hockey stick and red mountains to honor Merzlikins&rsquo; time in Switzerland.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/buzz_mask212/612978-1-eng-US/buzz_mask22.jpg" title="buzz_mask2" width="554" height="736"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/buzz_mask38/612971-1-eng-US/buzz_mask32.jpg" title="buzz_mask3" width="588" height="741"></div> &#9632;

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Behind the Mask

<div class="byline">RYAN KENNEDY</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/jerseyhound_052/613030-1-eng-US/jerseyhound_0522.jpg" title="jerseyhound_052" width="660" height="761"><figcaption class="caption-body">(AVANGARD OMSK)</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/jerseyhound_050/613016-1-eng-US/jerseyhound_0502.jpg" title="jerseyhound_050" width="196" height="186"></div><h2>AVANGARD OMSK | 2019-20</h2>LAST SEASON, THE KHL&rsquo;S Avangard introduced a bold uniform change, adding a fierce new hawk logo to its primary jersey. This year, they came out with exclusive pre-season sweaters featuring a giant slanted &lsquo;A,&rsquo; pulled from the new logo, emblazoned on the front. And while there&rsquo;s also a white version, it&rsquo;s the grey base that steals the show. The jerseys were part of the franchise&rsquo;s push to take its branding game to the next level, according to Avangard chairman Alexander Krylov. The hawk logo is perched on the sweater&rsquo;s left arm, while the Omsk coat-of-arms gets placement on the right side.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/jerseyhound_051/613023-1-eng-US/jerseyhound_0512.jpg" title="jerseyhound_051" width="660" height="763"></div> &#9632;

jerseyhound_052

Jersey Hound

<div class="byline">SAL BARRY OF PUCKJUNK.COM</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/itc1/613106-1-eng-US/itc12.jpg" title="itc1" width="602" height="863"></div>FEW NHLERS WORE GLASSES when playing &ndash; and even fewer were pictured on hockey cards while wearing them. Early cards tended to use posed shots, and players would ditch their eyewear when being photographed. But when cards started using game-action shots, a few NHLers were shown playing with glasses. Hal Laycoe, while not the first bespectacled NHLer, was the first to be pictured on a hockey card with glasses. Al Arbour can also be seen wearing specs on some of his later cards. Perhaps most interesting is Dan Lambert, who wore sport glasses for a handful of games in 1991-92, long enough for them to be immortalized on some of his cards the following year.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/itc2/613099-1-eng-US/itc22.jpg" title="itc2" width="450" height="627"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/itc3/613092-1-eng-US/itc32.jpg" title="itc3" width="459" height="645"></div> &#9632;

itc1

In The Cards

<div class="byline">BY MATT LARKIN</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="buzz_hamilt_038" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/buzz_hamilt_038/613333-1-eng-US/buzz_hamilt_0382.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">DOUGIE HAMILTON (ANDRE RINGUETTE/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</figcaption></div>WE USED TO CALL the Carolina Hurricanes&rsquo; defense &lsquo;Nashville East.&rsquo; Now the Preds are &lsquo;Carolina West.&rsquo; The Canes&rsquo; blueline is second to none.You can take any of Carolina&rsquo;s top five defensemen and build a tandem that could be a top pair on some teams. The Canes have two high-end puck-movers in Dougie Hamilton and UFA signee Jake Gardiner. They have great shutdown options in Jaccob Slavin, Brett Pesce and new addition Joel Edmundson, acquired from St. Louis in the Justin Faulk trade. Last season, 55 &lsquo;D&rsquo; pairs played 500 or more minutes together at 5-on-5, and Slavin-Hamilton ranked third in Corsi. The Canes have youngsters Haydn Fleury and Jake Bean ready for bigger roles, while Trevor van Riemsdyk is a safe stay-at-home option. Once his shoulder heals, the Canes will have more viable NHL D-men than available lineup spots.The reason Nashville relinquished its top spot in these rankings? The P.K. Subban trade turned the &lsquo;Big Four&rsquo; into a &lsquo;Big Three.&rsquo; Roman Josi, Ryan Ellis and Mattias Ekholm keep the Predators elite, and a Dante Fabbro breakout could help them reclaim No. 1. But don&rsquo;t sleep on the Dallas Stars, led by rising star Miro Heiskanen.Disclaimers: (a) names alternate left-right from top to bottom pair; and, (b) players with short-term injuries qualify, but players out long-term do not.1. CAROLINA HURRICANES J. SLAVIN, D. HAMILTON, J. EDMUNDSON, B. PESCE, J. GARDINER, T. VAN RIEMSDYKLeague&rsquo;s best, most balanced top-six blends mobility and shutdown skill, and bottom pair isn&rsquo;t a throwaway.2. DALLAS&nbsp;STARS E. LINDELL, J. KLINGBERG, M. HEISKANEN, A. SEKERA, S. JOHNS, R. POLAKLindell&rsquo;s a PK whiz, Klingberg runs PP, Heiskanen has best of both. If Johns gets healthy, this group could be No. 1.3. NASHVILLE&nbsp;PREDATORS R. JOSI, R. ELLIS, M. EKHOLM, D. FABBRO, D. HAMHUIS, Y. WEBERAs strong as anyone at Nos. 1 through 3, but we can&rsquo;t automatically anoint rookie Fabbro as a perfect Subban replacement.4. BOSTON&nbsp;BRUINS Z. CHARA, C. MCAVOY, T. KRUG, B. CARLO, M. GRZELCYK, C. CLIFTONEven as Chara reaches middle age, this group is deep and well-rounded. Can McAvoy become an elite No. 1 this year?5. TAMPA BAY&nbsp;LIGHTNING V. HEDMAN, M. SERGACHEV, R. MCDONAGH, E. CERNAK, B. COBURN, K. SHATTENKIRKBolts lean on Hedman and McDonagh. Need step forward from Sergachev. Shattenkirk an underrated addition.6. COLUMBUS&nbsp;BLUE JACKETS Z. WERENSKI, S. JONES, R. MURRAY, D. SAVARD, M. NUTIVAARA, V. GAVRIKOVWerenski-Jones is the envy of league as top pair. Murray still brittle but has shed bust status. Reliable second-pair guy.7. SAN JOSE SHARKS M-E VLASIC, E. KARLSSON, R. SIMEK, B. BURNS, B. DILLON, D. PROUTBurns-Karlsson-Vlasic a magical trio, though Vlasic coming off down year. The depth behind them has taken a hit.8. CALGARY&nbsp;FLAMES M. GIORDANO, T. BRODIE, N. HANIFIN,&nbsp;T. HAMONIC, O. KYLINGTON, R. ANDERSSONGiordano best in biz last year, but he&rsquo;s 36. Brodie always better with him. Valimaki&rsquo;s torn ACL hurts badly.9. PHILADELPHIA&nbsp;FLYERS I. PROVOROV, M. NISKANEN, T. SANHEIM,&nbsp;J. BRAUN, R. HAGG, S. GOSTISBEHEREDeep group with young upside adds veteran poise with Niskanen, Braun. Can coach Vigneault get Provorov on track?10. FLORIDA&nbsp;PANTHERS M. MATHESON, A. EKBLAD, K. YANDLE,&nbsp;J. BROWN, M. WEEGAR, A. STRALMANThere&rsquo;s still time for Ekblad to become elite; he&rsquo;s only 23. Will we ever appreciate durable puck-mover Yandle enough?11. ST. LOUIS&nbsp;BLUES A. PIETRANGELO, J. FAULK, J. BOUWMEESTER, C. PARAYKO, V. DUNN, R. BORTUZZOCup champs have great size and range on &lsquo;D.&rsquo; Faulk, Dunn bring some nice QB skills to the power play, too.12. MINNESOTA&nbsp;WILD R. SUTER, M. DUMBA, J. BRODIN,&nbsp;J. SPURGEON, N. SEELER, G. PATERYNOne of league&rsquo;s best groups at limiting shot attempts last season. But can Suter keep playing 26 minutes a night at 34?13. WASHINGTON&nbsp;CAPITALS M. KEMPNY, J. CARLSON, D. ORLOV,&nbsp;N. JENSEN, J. SIEGENTHALER, R. GUDASCarlson&rsquo;s a horse. Kempny has great chemistry with him. Advanced stats say Gudas is much more than a goon.14. VANCOUVER&nbsp;CANUCKS A. EDLER, C. TANEV, Q. HUGHES, T. MYERS,&nbsp;J. BENN, T. STECHEREdler reviving career in mid-30s. Myers a pricey add but still helps. Hughes one of league&rsquo;s most dynamic young talents.<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/buzz_hughes_036/613284-1-eng-US/buzz_hughes_0362.jpg" title="buzz_hughes_036" width="1019" height="1080"><figcaption class="caption-body">QUINN HUGHES (DEREK CAIN/ICON SPORTSWIRE VIA GETTY IMAGES)</figcaption></div>15. BUFFALO&nbsp;SABRES R. DAHLIN, R. RISTOLAINEN, J. MCCABE,&nbsp;B. MONTOUR, M. SCANDELLA, C. MILLERSignificantly improved on right side. Even if Ristolainen gets traded, Bogosian slides in. Dahlin is a monster.16. COLORADO&nbsp;AVALANCHE S. GIRARD, E. JOHNSON, N. ZADOROV,&nbsp;C. MAKAR, I. COLE, C. TIMMINSImproving every year. Rookie phenom Makar replaces Barrie on PP. Swift puck-mover Girard losing underrated tag.17. ARIZONA&nbsp;COYOTES O. EKMAN-LARSSON, J. DEMERS, A. GOLIGOSKI, N. HJALMARSSON, J. CHYCHRUN, J. OESTERLE&lsquo;OEL&rsquo; is lone true stud in a group that has good depth and decent mobility but lacks top-end offensive talent aside from his.18. TORONTO&nbsp;MAPLE LEAFS J. MUZZIN, T. BARRIE, M. RIELLY, C. CECI, R. SANDIN, T. DERMOTTBarrie trade indicates Leafs will play &ldquo;defense&rdquo; by having puck a lot. Dermott (shoulder) to miss first month of season.19. VEGAS&nbsp;GOLDEN KNIGHTS B. MCNABB, N. SCHMIDT, J. MERRILL,&nbsp;S. THEODORE, N. HOLDEN, D. ENGELLANDThey don&rsquo;t wow in talent department but work well together. Schmidt can fly. Theodore has another gear on offense.20. ANAHEIM&nbsp;DUCKS H. LINDHOLM, J. MANSON, B. GUHLE,&nbsp;C. FOWLER, J. LARSSON, M. DEL ZOTTONot the elite group of a few years back. Lindholm a sturdy, modern-style shutdown &lsquo;D.&rsquo; Fowler must stay healthy.21. CHICAGO&nbsp;BLACKHAWKS D. KEITH, E. GUSTAFSSON, O. MAATTA,&nbsp;B. SEABROOK, C. DE HAAN, C. MURPHYGM Bowman improved weak D-corps a lot this off-season with low-upside vets to keep seats warm for prospects.22. WINNIPEG&nbsp;JETS N. BEAULIEU, D. BYFUGLIEN, J. MORRISSEY, N. PIONK, D. KULIKOV, V. HEINOLALost Trouba, Myers, Chiarot in catastrophic summer. For now, Jets ranked as if Byfuglien will return from his leave.23.&nbsp;PITTSBURGH&nbsp;PENGUINS B. DUMOULIN, K. LETANG, M. PETTERSSON, J. SCHULTZ, J. JOHNSON, E. GUDBRANSONStrong top pair, OK second pair, but old-school Johnson-Gudbranson combo drags Pens down like an anchor.24. MONTREAL&nbsp;CANADIENS V. METE, S. WEBER, B. CHIAROT, J. PETRY, B. KULAK, C. FLEURYWeber rediscovered vintage form. Petry can chew up minutes. Mete epitomizes the rest: not flashy but fairly effective.25. NEW YORK&nbsp;ISLANDERS A. PELECH, R. PULOCK, D. TOEWS,&nbsp;J. BOYCHUK, N. LEDDY, S. MAYFIELDIsles lack a star until Dobson ready to take that role. Pulock can bomb it. Toews a sneaky-good puck-mover.26. NEW JERSEY&nbsp;DEVILS A. GREENE, P.K. SUBBAN, W. BUTCHER, S. VATANEN, M. MUELLER, D. SEVERSONEven with Subban, their &lsquo;D&rsquo; lacks snarl. Greene blocks a million shots, but that means other team has puck all the time.27. NEW YORK&nbsp;RANGERS B. SKJEI, J. TROUBA, M. STAAL,&nbsp;T. DEANGELO, L. HAJEK, A. FOXTrouba the lead dog. This group has an exciting ceiling, but we can&rsquo;t assume Fox is ready. He has no pro experience.28. EDMONTON&nbsp;OILERS O. KLEFBOM, E. BEAR, D. NURSE, A. LARSSON, K. RUSSELL, M. BENNINGMaligned, but chance for rebirth under defense-minded coach Tippett. Bouchard has upside to alter Oilers&rsquo; fate.29. OTTAWA&nbsp;SENATORS T. CHABOT, N. ZAITSEV, E. BRANNSTROM, R. HAINSEY, M. BOROWIECKI, D. DEMELOHainsey, Zaitsev arrive to help PK but were part of a bad &lsquo;D&rsquo; in Toronto. Chabot and Brannstrom are sublime rushers.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/countdown4/613151-1-eng-US/countdown42.jpg" title="countdown4" width="568" height="946"><figcaption class="caption-body">THOMAS CHABOT (ANDRE RINGUETTE/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</figcaption></div>30.&nbsp;LOS ANGELES&nbsp;KINGS T. BJORNFOT, D. DOUGHTY, A. MARTINEZ,&nbsp;M. ROY, B. HUTTON, D. FORBORTAt this point, it&rsquo;s mostly just Doughty carrying an otherwise ragtag group. Kings need some higher-ceiling youth.<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/buzz_dought_037/613207-1-eng-US/buzz_dought_0372.jpg" title="buzz_dought_037" width="1022" height="748"><figcaption class="caption-body">DREW DOUGHTY (ANDY DEVLIN/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</figcaption></div>31.&nbsp;DETROIT&nbsp;RED WINGS D. DEKEYSER, F. HRONEK, P. NEMETH,&nbsp;M. GREEN, D. CHOLOWSKI, T. DALEYHronek made strides last season, but every member of this &lsquo;D&rsquo; would play at least one pair lower on good team. &#9632;

buzz_hamilt_038

The Countdown

<div class="byline">BY TOM THOMPSON</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0020-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-0180/613406-1-eng-US/f0020-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">MARC-ANDRE FLEURY AND PEKKA RINNE (GETTY IMAGES)</figcaption></div>Since the NHL introduced the Conn Smythe Trophy in 1965, it has been awarded to a goalie 16 times while the Hart Trophy has gone to a goalie on only four occasions. Goaltending is obviously deemed to be more crucial in the playoffs than in the regular season. The objective of every NHL team is to win the Stanley Cup. In the playoffs, a goalie is often looked upon as the key player in putting his team &ldquo;over the top.&rdquo; In rating goalies, the ability to raise one&rsquo;s game in the playoffs becomes a crucial consideration.The NHL has become a young man&rsquo;s league. When they reach their mid-30s, goalies are looked at in the same way as skaters. How long can they continue to perform at their present level? Does a short-term dip indicate a permanent slippage? Two netminders who fit into this category are Nashville&rsquo;s Pekka Rinne and Vegas&rsquo; Marc-Andre Fleury. Both have long-term credentials as Grade-A goalies. But Father Time is catching up with them. And because of the crucial importance of goalkeeping, they will not be cut any slack for imperfections. The key question is, what are the future values of Rinne and Fleury? How do they compare with each other?<h2>CAREERS</h2>One month into the 2019-20 season, Fleury will be 35 and Rinne 37. Fleury was the No. 1 overall draft pick in 2003. He jumped directly from junior to Pittsburgh for part of the next season and remained a Penguin until being taken by Vegas in the 2017 expansion draft. Rinne was drafted 258th in 2004. He stayed in Finland for one more season and then played three years in the AHL. He played his first full NHL season in 2008-09 and has been with Nashville since. Despite being two years younger than Rinne, Fleury&rsquo;s NHL career developed much quicker. He probably played his best between 2007 and 2009, when the Penguins made two trips to the final, winning the Cup in &rsquo;09. His final eight seasons in Pittsburgh were marked by inconsistency. Fleury did lead the expansion Knights to the Cup final in 2018. However, I think his role was overstated. People did not want to believe an expansion team could outplay its opponents in three consecutive rounds. The Knights did. They did not require outstanding goaltending. In the final, Fleury was outplayed by Washington&rsquo;s Braden Holtby. In the 2019 playoffs, his inconsistency was noticeable. Rinne has started more than 70 percent of Nashville&rsquo;s games since 2009-10. He had his best regular season in 2010-11, he won the Vezina Trophy in 2017-18 and has consistently had good stats. Then come the playoffs. His post-season play has been below his regular-season level. Nashville did advance to the Cup final in 2017. Rinne was good in the first three rounds, but he was still beaten for some bad goals. In the Cup final, he was outplayed by Pittsburgh&rsquo;s Matt Murray. During the past two post-seasons, he was outplayed by Connor Hellebuyck and Ben Bishop. As a result, Nashville has never won more than one series in any playoff year other than 2017.&nbsp;EDGE: FLEURY<h2>ROLES</h2>Both Fleury and Rinne are No. 1 goalies on teams that are Stanley Cup contenders, but I doubt either one of them can carry his team to a Cup championship. Fleury has shown in recent seasons he can be a No. 2 goalie on a Cup champion who can chip in with a few key wins and be a supportive teammate. The Predators went to the final in 2017. The Golden Knights went to the final in 2018. In neither case did I believe that the goaltending of Rinne or Fleury was a key factor in winning a series. They were both OK when called upon, but their respective teams outplayed the opposition decisively. Both goalies have also delivered some playoff clunkers during this time.&nbsp;EDGE: NEITHER<h2>STYLES</h2>Their styles are vastly different. Rinne is huge. He plays what I call a quiet game. He is fundamentally sound, and he anticipates well. He is usually square to the puck, leaving an opponent very little net to shoot at. His rebound control is good. He does not make much use of his stick, and his puckhandling is unremarkable. Fleury has good size, but he isn&rsquo;t huge. He plays a loud game based on quickness and athleticism. He is often in a low crouch and relies on quick leg movements and a quick glove hand. All of Fleury&rsquo;s reactions are aggressive. At times, he puts himself out of position with pokechecks and double leg stacks. As a result, his rebound control is inconsistent. He is an aggressive and pretty effective puckhandler.&nbsp;EDGE: NEITHER<h2>STRENGTHS</h2>Rinne's strengths are formidable. He&rsquo;s big and sound fundamentally. His anticipation is good, and he&rsquo;s square to the puck. With his positioning and size, he usually doesn&rsquo;t have to make quick movements to stop pucks. His rebound control also avoids the necessity of quick reactions to second shots. Fleury&rsquo;s strengths are in different areas. His movements are quick and athletic. I&rsquo;ll never forget his pre-game warmup routine when he was a member of Canada&rsquo;s world-junior team. He would get into a low crouch and then do a series of rapid-fire split moves with his legs. The only other goalie I ever saw do a similar routine was Soviet great Vladislav Tretiak. Fleury&rsquo;s glove hand is excellent. He can pokecheck well, and his aggressive puckhandling helps out his D-men.&nbsp;EDGE: NEITHER<h2>CONCERNS</h2>Fleury's game is based on reactions and quick movements. Both of these traits deteriorate with age. Fleury is not the goalie he was 10 years ago. He will not get better. The only question is how quickly any further deterioration will take place. Another issue is Fleury&rsquo;s seeming inability to call a &ldquo;personal timeout&rdquo; to stop meltdown situations at key times. Rinne has different concerns. He has not shown the ability to raise his game in big playoff situations. Can he lead his team to a Cup? I don&rsquo;t see it. There are goalies who have had more playoff success than Rinne who are not as strong fundamentally as he is. Those other goalies seem to have an inner fire burning in big games. Rinne seems to lack this ability. I doubt he&rsquo;ll develop that at this stage in his career.&nbsp;EDGE: FLEURY<h2>X-FACTOR</h2>Hockey is the consummate team game. The most valuable players are those who can perform at a top level while, at the same time, raise the level of play of their teammates. I have never heard a bad word about Rinne. He appears to be a consistent performer, and I&rsquo;m sure he is a good teammate. Fleury has an unusually high reputation in the game. His outgoing, infectious personality has endeared him to teammates in Vegas, Pittsburgh and in junior hockey. His upbeat nature was a key factor in the decision by Vegas to bring him in as one of the pillars in building an expansion franchise. I even look to the people from Humboldt singling him out for his hospitality when they visited Vegas during the 2018 playoffs. Fleury has something special. He has the X-factor.&nbsp;EDGE: FLEURY<h2>CONCLUSION</h2>Rinne recently said he has two years left to win in Nashville. However, I think he&rsquo;ll be replaced before then by Juuse Saros. At 37, you can&rsquo;t expect any significant improvement. Regular-season success leading to playoff disappointment is not good for your job security when there&rsquo;s a viable option available. At 35, I don&rsquo;t expect any improvement from Fleury, either. With his aggressive style, further injuries are probable. However, his overall athleticism is likely to extend his career beyond that of most goalies. He has shown he can be a useful backup on a Cup champion, and he has a positive, outgoing personality and winning resume. In a choice of &ldquo;old&rdquo; goalies, I&rsquo;ll take Fleury over Rinne.Tom Thompson has been an NHL scout/director/assistant GM since 1985. &#9632;

f0020-01

Pekka Rinne Vs. Marc-Andre Fleury

<div class="byline">WITH MATT LARKINWITH MATT LARKIN</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="malarkey" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/malarkey/613437-1-eng-US/malarkey2.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">A STAR WITHOUT THE &lsquo;SUPER&rsquo;Tampa Bay&rsquo;s Vasilevskiy is the closest thing we have today to a superstar goalie. But you wouldn&rsquo;t call him a poster boy. (MARK BLINCH/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</figcaption></div>THE HOCKEY NEWS HAS published NHL player rankings at the start of every season for several decades. In the 2019-20 edition, curated by Ryan Kennedy, we must scroll to No. 14 to find the first goaltender: reigning Vezina Trophy winner Andrei Vasilevskiy.No goalie could sniff the top 10 because the position has become so fickle from year to year that it&rsquo;s difficult to separate the best of the best from the rest of their peers. Vasilevskiy was a deserving Vezina winner, but he started just 53 games and didn&rsquo;t lead the league in goals-against average, save percentage or shutouts. He led the league in wins, the stat that sways Vezina voters, a.k.a. NHL GMs, the most.If we look at The Hockey News&rsquo; player rankings from the 1990s and 2000s, superstar netminders regularly appeared at or near the top of the list. In 1996, Patrick Roy and Dominik Hasek cracked the top 10. Hasek finished first in 1998. Martin Brodeur was a top-10 mainstay throughout the 2000s. As recently as 2015, Carey Price topped the list, fresh off his Hart Trophy campaign of 2014-15.But just four years later, it feels like we&rsquo;ll remember 2014-15 as the last season of The Superstar Goalie &ndash; the netminder popular enough to sell the most jerseys or appear on every kid&rsquo;s bedroom wall. With all due respect to Vasilevskiy: how many kids&rsquo; rooms are plastered with posters of him right now?Goalie dominance, and goalie superstardom, aren&rsquo;t sustained today like they were in recent generations. Goalies have trouble even stringing together consecutive good seasons. Price hasn&rsquo;t done it since his banner 2014-15, and only two goaltenders in the past seven seasons have been Vezina finalists two years in a row. In the past decade, Sergei Bobrovsky is the lone netminder to win the Vezina more than once. From 1989 to 2008, Hasek, Roy, Brodeur and Ed Belfour accounted for 15 of the 19 Vezinas handed out.We can&rsquo;t rely on any one goalie to rank with the best of the best NHLers every year anymore. Why? The most obvious answer is workload. When star goalies played 70-plus games a year, they were much more prominent contributors to their teams&rsquo; success. Hasek won consecutive MVP awards in 1996-97 and 1997-98. The No. 1 netminders were on the ice a heck of a lot more, in front of the camera more and earned icon status more often. Today, goalies play less. The past seven Cup-winning netminders played fewer than 60 games in the regular season, so the trend isn&rsquo;t likely to reverse.It&rsquo;s not that goalies are necessarily &ldquo;worse&rdquo; and incapable of starting as many games as Brodeur did during his heyday. It&rsquo;s that the position has changed. According to retired NHL goalie and TSN goaltending analyst Jamie McLennan, the crackdown on slashing and other stick infractions, which has opened up the ice and led to the most shots per game since the early 1970s, has forced goalies to adapt. They must move up and down and side to side so much more than even a few years ago. During a recent TSN broadcast, McLennan watched an overhead angle of Price. He faced fewer than 30 shots in that game, but McLennan counted more than 100 movements, up and down, side to side. &ldquo;With the game being so fast and moving side to side, you forget, the goaltender, even if they&rsquo;re not getting a shot, they have to mirror the puck,&rdquo; McLennan said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s really hard on the body as far as duress.&rdquo;The position is so demanding today that &lsquo;1B backups&rsquo; are almost mandatory, and it&rsquo;s tough to become an iconic goalie when you watch a teammate take over the crease for 30 games a year. Another reason why we don&rsquo;t see consistent superstar play at the position from year to year: the shooters have the book on goalies more than ever. Not only does virtually every player have a shooting coach, but McLennan has spotted shooting coaches at goaltending seminars, collecting intelligence on what goalies are being taught.Factoring in shrinking equipment as well, the deck hasn&rsquo;t been this stacked against stoppers since the run-and-gun 1980s. The league-wide SP in 2018-19 was the lowest in 10 seasons. Sure, every goalie faces the same challenges, but it&rsquo;s tougher to be the best of the best year in and year out now. Given what Vasilevskiy has already accomplished at age 25, he has the best shot, but whatever he does, he&rsquo;ll do it playing 25 percent less than the stars of 20 years ago.Twitter:&nbsp;<a datastyle href="https://twitter.com/THNMattLarkin?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor">@THNMATTLARKIN</a> &#9632;

malarkey

Malarkey

UNCOMMON DOMINATOR

Torey Krug

<div class="byline">BY RYAN KENNEDY</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="opener_cmyk_014" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/opener_cmyk_014/613590-1-eng-US/opener_cmyk_0142.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">(BRIAN BABINEAU/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</figcaption></div> &#9632;

opener_cmyk_014

CONNOR MCDAVID | EDMONTON&ldquo;THE OBVIOUS ANSWER IS McDavid, because he&rsquo;s just so fast,&rdquo; said one skills coach. Fun fact: at the 2018 all-star weekend in Florida, the lineup for the skills competition was delayed because the NHL couldn&rsquo;t find enough guys for the fastest-skater event. The reason? They didn&rsquo;t want to get clowned by McDavid, who had dominated the field the year prior in Los Angeles with a time of just over 13 seconds. Sure enough, Edmonton&rsquo;s young superstar won the crown again in Florida, skating a lap in 13.54 seconds. Last season in San Jose, McDavid won the event a third time, clocking in at 13.37 seconds. But it&rsquo;s not just straight burning that makes McDavid the man &ndash; he&rsquo;s got all the mechanics, too. &ldquo;He can turn on a dime,&rdquo; said one NHLer. &ldquo;And his first three steps are scary.&rdquo; Put it all together and you can understand why opposing defenses can game plan all they want for McDavid and still get torched: you can&rsquo;t stop what you can&rsquo;t catch.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/botb_mcdavi_016/613628-1-eng-US/botb_mcdavi_0162.jpg" title="botb_mcdavi_016" width="583" height="675"><figcaption class="caption-body">(ANDY DEVLIN/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</figcaption></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/botb_mcdavi_015/613621-1-eng-US/botb_mcdavi_0152.jpg" title="botb_mcdavi_015" width="1567" height="2709"><figcaption class="caption-body">( JEFF BOTTARI/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</figcaption></div> &#9632;

Best Skater

<div class="image-hero"><img title="botb_dumba" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/botb_dumba/613666-1-eng-US/botb_dumba2.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">(DEREK LEUNG/GETTY IMAGES)</figcaption></div>MATHEW DUMBA | MINNESOTANEEDLESS TO SAY, this was a category where defensemen excelled, with the Wild&rsquo;s newest star shining the brightest. &ldquo;Matt Dumba has the best feet, defensively, in the NHL,&rdquo; said one skating coach. While Dumba missed 50 games due to a ruptured pectoralis muscle last season, it was apparent before he went down that the 25-year-old had really found his game, and skating is a big part of it. Also receiving votes were San Jose&rsquo;s Erik Karlsson and big Tampa Bay rearguard Victor Hedman. &ldquo;He can skate backwards almost as fast as he can forwards,&rdquo; said one NHLer about Hedman. &#9632;

Best Backwards Skater

NATHAN MACKINNON | COLORADOIF THERE WAS A challenger to McDavid for best skater, it would be MacKinnon, a powerful engine who has become a Hart Trophy contender with the Avalanche. Straight off the starter&rsquo;s pistol, he&rsquo;s hard to beat. &ldquo;He uses his skating the best in the league,&rdquo; said one skills coach.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/botb_mackin_017/613704-1-eng-US/botb_mackin_0172.jpg" title="botb_mackin_017" width="763" height="1247"><figcaption class="caption-body">(MICHAEL MARTIN/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</figcaption></div> &#9632;

Best FIRST THREE STEPS

<div class="image-hero"><img title="botb_weber" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/botb_weber/613742-1-eng-US/botb_weber2.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">(FRANCOIS LACASSE/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</figcaption></div>SHEA WEBER | MONTREALBACK WHEN HE WAS A KID, Weber would shoot pucks off a piece of plywood in his hometown of Sicamous, B.C. All that practice paid off, as he ended up developing one of the most potent offensive weapons in the NHL. From breaking the boards in Nashville to putting a puck through the net at the Olympics, Weber&rsquo;s feats of strength are widely known, so it&rsquo;s no surprise he won this category. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s pretty scary when he gets a hold of one,&rdquo; said one NHL player. Given that Weber once accidentally broke Martin Erat&rsquo;s leg with a shot, that&rsquo;s a fair assessment. The Canadiens blueliner is also a three-time winner of the hardest-shot competition at the All-Star Game. If he can stay healthy &ndash; Weber missed 24 games due to knee surgery last season &ndash; his cannon from the point will make Montreal a lot more dangerous on the power play. P.K. Subban, who was once traded for Weber, also got some love in the voting. &#9632;

Best SLAPSHOT

AUSTON MATTHEWS | TORONTO<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/botb_matthe_019/613780-1-eng-US/botb_matthe_0192.jpg" title="botb_matthe_019" width="717" height="860"><figcaption class="caption-body">(KEVIN SOUSA/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</figcaption></div>MATTHEWS HAS BEEN bedevilling NHL goaltenders with his wrist shot since his first game in the league. It all comes down to his release and his fearlessness in shooting from different areas. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s so quick with his hands and his stick on the puck,&rdquo; said one NHLer. &ldquo;He can shoot from everywhere and score.&rdquo; In his first three NHL seasons, the Leafs center piled up 111 goals, for an average of 0.52 goals per game. That ranked second in the NHL to Alex Ovechkin, who was putting in goals from his office at a 0.54 rate. Matthews kicked off the 2019-20 campaign with a two-goal performance against Ottawa, once again proving to be a deadly opening-night sniper (you&rsquo;ll recall his NHL debut, when he hung four goals on the Senators). With his 6-foot-3, 220-pound frame giving him great puck-protection ability and a linemate in William Nylander who knows exactly how to get the puck on Matthews&rsquo; stick, expect more and more wristers going in for No. 34. Also getting consideration in this category was Tampa Bay&rsquo;s Nikita Kucherov, whose deception with the puck makes him near-impossible to deal with. &ldquo;The way he disguises it, goalies don&rsquo;t know where it&rsquo;s going,&rdquo; said one NHLer.<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/botb_matthe_018/613787-1-eng-US/botb_matthe_0182.jpg" title="botb_matthe_018" width="2112" height="1909"><figcaption class="caption-body">(KEVIN SOUSA/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</figcaption></div> &#9632;

Best Wrist Shot

<div class="image-hero"><img title="botb_ovechk_020" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/botb_ovechk_020/613825-1-eng-US/botb_ovechk_0202.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">(GREGG FORWERCK/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</figcaption></div>ALEX OVECHKIN | WASHINGTONENTERING THE SEASON with 658 career goals, Ovechkin has already cemented himself as one of the greatest scorers of all-time. In fact, if he plays long enough, there&rsquo;s the possibility he could break Wayne Gretzky&rsquo;s record of 894. Amazingly, Ovechkin has scored many of his goals from basically the same place: at or above the left faceoff circle, usually on a one-timer. &ldquo;Any time you can stand in one place and everybody knows what you&rsquo;re going to do and you still score?&rdquo; said one skills coach. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s pretty elite.&rdquo; Over the course of his career, Ovechkin has scored about 20 percent of his goals from that area &ndash; and he keeps doing it, notching more than a dozen from there in each of the past two seasons after tallying 11 in 2016-17 (his all-time high was 22 in 2013-14). Needless to say, Ovechkin has constantly worked on his booming one-timer, and his Caps teammates have even gathered around the ice to watch him tee off on a series of pucks after practice. And it is a thing of beauty to see when Ovechkin really gets a hold of one. Maybe that doesn&rsquo;t ring true for goalies, who often watch helplessly as the puck blazes past them on the power play, but you get the idea. There&rsquo;s even a video on YouTube, where some intrepid fan clipped together all of Ovie&rsquo;s goals from his one-timer spot. The video is 25 minutes long. &#9632;

Best One-Timer

<div class="image-hero"><img title="botb_crosby_021" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/botb_crosby_021/613863-1-eng-US/botb_crosby_0212.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">(MIKE STOBE/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</figcaption></div>SIDNEY CROSBY | PITTSBURGHWHEN IT COMES TO STICK CURVES, Crosby&rsquo;s blade is nearly as straight as his persona, but that preference has allowed the Penguins captain to develop one of the best backhand shots in the history of the NHL. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s so confident using it,&rdquo; said one NHL player. &ldquo;And that&rsquo;s not the case with a lot of guys.&rdquo; The backhand shot, when utilized by a mere mortal, can be both difficult to control and unpredictable in its trajectory. In the case of Crosby, however, it is one of the best tools in his arsenal. With 446 career goals entering 2019-20, Crosby is potent with the puck on his stick. And while he doesn&rsquo;t score as much on the backhand as Ovechkin does on one-timers from the left circle, the number has been as high as 14 percent for Sid&rsquo;s backhand. Remember that time he scored on a one-handed backhand against Buffalo? Yeah, maybe don&rsquo;t remind Sabres fans about that one. &#9632;

Best Backhand

<div class="image-hero"><img title="botb_kane" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/botb_kane/613901-1-eng-US/botb_kane2.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">(MARTIN ROSE/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</figcaption></div>PATRICK KANE | CHICAGOHERE&rsquo;S A NO-BRAINER: Kane as the stickhandling maestro. He has basically made a Hall of Fame career out of his puck play, and it&rsquo;s a skill he continues to work on, despite the fact it&rsquo;s already a supreme strength. &ldquo;He controls the puck, goes through traffic and sees the ice at the same time,&rdquo; said one NHLer. The internet is littered with different viral videos of Kane executing beguiling puck-skill drills, and the Blackhawks winger isn&rsquo;t slowing down. Last year, he actually set a career-high with 110 points, and his 44 goals were only two shy of his personal best, when he had 46 in 2015-16. With a new wave of talent rising in Chicago, Kane will get a chance to keep the party going with the Hawks as youngsters such as Alex DeBrincat and Dylan Strome provide matchup problems for the opposition. You never want to leave Kane to your second-best defenders, because with his hands he&rsquo;ll just make you look silly. &#9632;

Best STICKHANDLER

NATHAN MACKINNON | COLORADOHE MAY NEVER be able to top the moves he put on Henrik Lundqvist at the 2016 World Cup of Hockey, but few players in the history of the game will ever one-up that display. The funny thing is, MacKinnon wasn&rsquo;t even moving very fast on that sequence because he was already in the offensive zone. But when it comes to making goalies miss, MacKinnon&rsquo;s speed makes him deadly when he dekes. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s just how fast his hands are and the way he skates and cuts back,&rdquo; said one NHLer. &ldquo;When he makes a move, goalies fall for it.&rdquo; &#9632;

Best DEKER

ANDERS LEE | NY ISLANDERSTHE ISLANDERS CAPTAIN already has a 40-goal season under his belt, and while New York thrived as a defensive squad last year, Lee still caused havoc in front of the enemy crease. &ldquo;He is absolutely the toughest to defend against in front,&rdquo; said one NHL coach. At 6-foot-3 and 231 pounds, Lee has the frame of a football player, and that&rsquo;s because he used to be one: a star quarterback with Edina high school in Minnesota, to be precise. Now he uses his big body and deft hands to tally goals in the NHL, and the Islanders are glad he chose the ice over the gridiron. Also getting consideration was a new veteran member of the New Jersey Devils. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know many guys who can take abuse like Wayne Simmonds,&rdquo; said one ex-NHLer. &#9632;

Best IN FRONT OF THE NET (OFFENSE)

<div class="image-hero"><img title="botb_chara2_027" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/botb_chara2_027/614001-1-eng-US/botb_chara2_0272.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">(BRUCE BENNETT/GETTY IMAGES)</figcaption></div>ZDENO CHARA | BOSTON&ldquo;HE&rsquo;S JUST SO BIG,&rdquo; said one ex-NHLer. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s like an oak tree out there. You can&rsquo;t move him.&rdquo; The legend of Chara grows with every passing season, and the blueliner is still a force, even if he has lost a step or two. But at a gargantuan 6-foot-9 and 250 pounds, the Bruins captain can basically impose his will on opponents whenever he wants. And given his competitive nature, that is basically every shift. Even at 42, Chara is one of the most intimidating players in the NHL &ndash; the guy that once swung 220-pound Bryan McCabe around like a rag doll and still treats his body like the incredible machine it is. The area in front of Boston goalie Tuukka Rask is a no-go zone when &lsquo;Big Z&rsquo; is on the ice. Montreal&rsquo;s Weber also got votes in this category. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s got old-man strength,&rdquo; said the retired NHLer. &ldquo;He&rsquo;ll abuse you.&rdquo; Needless to say, the reasons Chara and Weber rule this category are very similar. &ldquo;Both of those guys are so big and strong,&rdquo; said a current NHL player. &ldquo;And they&rsquo;ll cross-check you a lot.&rdquo; &#9632;

Best IN FRONT OF THE NET (DEFENSE)

SIDNEY CROSBY | PITTSBURGHWHEN YOU&rsquo;RE ONE of the best players in the history of the game, you&rsquo;re going to be a load to handle in the corners. &ldquo;He is the hardest to defend,&rdquo; said one ex-NHLer. Not only is Crosby smart and talented, but he also has the famously big trunk that he can use to his advantage to protect the puck. Also getting consideration was Los Angeles Kings captain Anze Kopitar. &ldquo;He can eliminate you,&rdquo; said a retired player. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s so heavy, and he has very good angles.&rdquo; Using a different set of skills &ndash; and a much smaller frame &ndash; Boston&rsquo;s Brad Marchand received kudos as well. &ldquo;So quick and so good at getting out of the corner,&rdquo; said one NHL coach. &#9632;

Best IN THE CORNER (OFFENSE)

DREW DOUGHTY | LOS ANGELESTHE MAN THEY CALL &lsquo;Dewey&rsquo; has always been a natural freak when it comes to hockey, and his combination of skating ability and physicality make him one to watch out for if you&rsquo;re lugging the puck up the ice. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s a very dense guy, even though he doesn&rsquo;t look it,&rdquo; said one former NHLer. Doughty&rsquo;s victims over the years have included the likes of Taylor Hall and Pavel Datsyuk &ndash; so it doesn&rsquo;t matter how fast or elusive you are, he&rsquo;s going to get you anyway. Doughty, 29 and in his 12th season already, led the Los Angeles Kings with 168 hits last season. Also getting votes were Boston defenseman Torey Krug and New York Islanders staple Cal Clutterbuck. &#9632;

Best OPEN-ICE HITTER

<div class="image-hero"><img title="botb_kucher_022" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/botb_kucher_022/614101-1-eng-US/botb_kucher_0222.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">(MIKE EHRMANN/GETTY IMAGES)</figcaption></div>NIKITA KUCHEROV | TAMPA BAYHE&rsquo;S A WIZARD with the puck on his stick and, with an NHL-best 87 assists last season, it&rsquo;s fair to say Kucherov knows how to distribute. He and Patrick Kane were the notable names in this category. &ldquo;You&rsquo;re looking at those delay guys who pull up and find their man on the weak side,&rdquo; said one skills coach. &#9632;

Best CROSS-ICE PASS

<div class="image-hero"><img title="botb_karlss_023" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/botb_karlss_023/614139-1-eng-US/botb_karlss_0232.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">(ETHAN MILLER/GETTY IMAGES)</figcaption></div>ERIK KARLSSON | SAN JOSEIT&rsquo;S OBVIOUS, ISN&rsquo;T IT? There were questions about how Karlsson&rsquo;s mobility would be affected by his ankle surgery, but he got up to speed in San Jose and helped propel the Sharks&rsquo; transition game. &ldquo;He is so quick, the way he pivots and turns so well,&rdquo; said one NHL coach. &ldquo;Karlsson&rsquo;s still the best, but I like Morgan Rielly, too. Rielly does a lot with his skating, but he also really stretches it out with his passing.&rdquo; Rielly, the Toronto blueliner, is coming off a 52-assist season in 2018-19, which ranked fifth among NHL defensemen. &#9632;

Best PUCK-MOVING DEFENSEMAN

<div class="image-hero"><img title="botb_pietra_028" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/botb_pietra_028/614177-1-eng-US/botb_pietra_0282.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">(DAVE SANDFORD/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES

)</figcaption></div>ALEX PIETRANGELO | ST. LOUISTO THE VICTOR GOES THE SPOILS. &ldquo;He was the hardest to play against in the playoffs,&rdquo; said one NHL coach, &ldquo;so I&rsquo;ll go with him.&rdquo; As captain of the Blues, Pietrangelo got to hold the Stanley Cup over his head before anyone else, and he deserved it. While Pietrangelo didn&rsquo;t win the Conn Smythe Trophy, he was integral to keeping opponents in check during the post-season, just as he was in the regular season when he was guarding the likes of Patrick Kane, Tyler Seguin and Filip Forsberg. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s unreal,&rdquo; said one ex-NHLer. &ldquo;Put him at the top of guys who can do it all. He&rsquo;s worth every penny.&rdquo; Carolina&rsquo;s Jaccob Slavin and L.A.&rsquo;s Doughty also got votes. &#9632;

Best SHUTDOWN DEFENSEMAN

<div class="image-hero"><img title="botb_bobrov_024" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/botb_bobrov_024/614215-1-eng-US/botb_bobrov_0242.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">(ELIOT J. SCHECHTER/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</figcaption></div>SERGEI BOBROVSKY | FLORIDATHE TWO-TIME Vezina Trophy winner comes over to the Panthers with sky-high expectations and a big, honkin&rsquo; contract &ndash; but also a grab bag full of skills. First and foremost is Bobrovsky&rsquo;s glove hand, which allows him to end the dreams of enemy shooters. Andrei Vasilevskiy, Bobrovsky&rsquo;s new cross-state rival in Tampa Bay, also received support in this category. &#9632;

Best GLOVE HAND

ANDREI VASILEVSKIY | TAMPA BAYWHEN IT COMES TO lateral movement, Vasilevskiy is the man right now. Really, it would be easy to just call him the best netminder in the NHL, and the Lightning stopper&rsquo;s first Vezina Trophy is good evidence. But it&rsquo;s why he is the best at going post-to-post that is enlightening. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s his athleticism,&rdquo; said one goalie coach. &ldquo;He&rsquo;ll get you saves that other guys can&rsquo;t get to. His explosiveness is off the charts, and he combines that with great flexibility. Carey Price is no slouch, either.&rdquo; Indeed, a lot of experts still love the Montreal netminder&rsquo;s game, and it will be interesting to see how Price battles through injuries and a less-than-stellar defense in front of him in the coming years. Vasilevskiy doesn&rsquo;t have to worry about his lineup, since Tampa Bay was historically good in the regular season last year and the team entered 2019-20 with a huge chip on its shoulder, one that it won&rsquo;t get rid of until the Lightning lift the Stanley Cup. If they do it, Vasilevskiy and his great movement in the crease will be big factors. &#9632;

Best POST-TO-POST GOALIE

<div class="image-hero"><img title="botb_smith" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/botb_smith/614284-1-eng-US/botb_smith2.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">(CODIE MCLACHLAN/GETTY IMAGES)</figcaption></div>MIKE SMITH | EDMONTON&ldquo;THAT&rsquo;S EASY,&rdquo; said one goalie coach. And sure, the 37-year-old Smith has been known as a deft puckhandler for years, but we had to ask the question anyway. Montreal&rsquo;s Price also garnered support. &#9632;

Best PUCKHANDLING GOALIE

CAREY PRICE | MONTREALWHEN IT COMES TO the technical fundamentals of the butterfly style, Price reigns over the category. His combination of proficiency and size go a long way in explaining his career success. Chicago&rsquo;s Corey Crawford was also mentioned by one goalie coach. &#9632;

Best BUTTERFLY

MARC-ANDRE FLEURY | VEGASIT&rsquo;S THE SCENARIO EVERY KID dreams of: getting the puck on a breakaway with the score tied and the clock winding down. Or, if you&rsquo;re a goalie, wrecking that skater&rsquo;s dream with a wicked save when the pressure is on. In Fleury, the Golden Knights have a stopper who can be counted on in the clutch. &ldquo;He has an excellent read on shooters and also tremendous patience,&rdquo; said one goalie coach. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s not afraid to come out of his structure to make a save, and he&rsquo;s got the hand speed and foot speed to make those last-second moves.&rdquo; While breakaways and shootout attempts aren&rsquo;t precisely the same, Fleury was one of the better NHL starters in the shootout last season, surrendering just three goals on 16 attempts. Another netminder who got votes was Toronto&rsquo;s Frederik Andersen, who was often left to fend for himself in previous years behind an unsteady Maple Leafs blueline. Andersen also has very solid numbers in the shootout, with a cumulative save percentage of .762 the past two years. &#9632;

Best GOALIE ON BREAKAWAYS

<div class="image-hero"><img title="botb_marcha_029" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/botb_marcha_029/614422-1-eng-US/botb_marcha_0292.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">(MARK BLINCH/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</figcaption></div>BRAD MARCHAND | BOSTONCATCH MARCHAND WITH A MICROPHONE on him and you&rsquo;re likely to get a mixture of the profane and, admittedly, the funny. From non-stop chattering to cutting remarks (&ldquo;How are you in the league, are 10 guys hurt right now?&rdquo; is a particularly good one), the Bruins left winger is renowned for his trash-talking ability. So what distinguishes Marchand from some of the other champion chirpers in the game? &ldquo;He can talk with the best of them, and he&rsquo;ll back it up,&rdquo; said one NHLer. &ldquo;Like, 100 points? You can say whatever you want.&rdquo; Indeed, Marchand is coming off his first century mark for points and, given he&rsquo;s once again playing on the best line in hockey with Patrice Bergeron and David Pastrnak, there&rsquo;s no reason to doubt Marchand could do it again. The best part? He even gets into his friend&rsquo;s heads. At the 2019 Memorial Cup in Halifax, former Mooseheads star Nathan MacKinnon was asked about training in the summer with fellow Nova Scotians Marchand and Sidney Crosby, both of whom hit the 100-point mark last season. &ldquo;I had 99 points,&rdquo; MacKinnon said. &ldquo;So Marchy&rsquo;s gonna be all over me.&rdquo; Other notable trash talkers include Vegas&rsquo; Reaves (&ldquo;He&rsquo;s active and he&rsquo;ll do it on camera,&rdquo; said one former NHLer) and New Jersey&rsquo;s Subban (&ldquo;He&rsquo;s in your face, and talking helps get him into the game,&rdquo; said the same retired player). &#9632;

Best TRASH TALKER

<div class="image-hero"><img title="botb_tkachu_026" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/botb_tkachu_026/614460-1-eng-US/botb_tkachu_0262.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">(MATTHEW STOCKMAN/GETTY IMAGES)</figcaption></div>MATTHEW TKACHUK | CALGARY&ldquo;IT SEEMS LIKE EVERY shift there could be a penalty called,&rdquo; said one NHL player, &ldquo;whether it&rsquo;s a trip or something in front of the net.&rdquo; Though Tkachuk is only entering his fourth NHL season, he already has a reputation as a shift disturber who can bait opponents into bad decisions. Last year, the Flames left winger drew 29 minors. Montreal&rsquo;s Brendan Gallagher is a longtime favorite in this category, too. &ldquo;He plays so hard, and he falls down a lot,&rdquo; said another NHLer. &ldquo;So he puts a lot of guys in the box.&rdquo; Many elite players are also good at drawing penalties because of their skill set. McDavid got a vote because of that prowess. &ldquo;Because he&rsquo;s so fast,&rdquo; said an ex-NHLer. &ldquo;And he&rsquo;s also nice to the refs.&rdquo; &#9632;

Best PENALTY BAITER

NIKITA KUCHEROV | TAMPA BAYIN A CATEGORY ABOUT INTELLIGENCE, it&rsquo;s best not to overthink it. Kucherov&rsquo;s Hart Trophy-winning performance last season cemented him as one of the top offensive talents in the NHL and a player who has incredible smarts. But there were a couple voters who took a different tack with the category, and they had interesting ideas, too. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s gotta be a guy who plays both ways for me,&rdquo; said one NHL coach. &ldquo;So Patrice Bergeron is at the top of the list. John Tavares is up there, too. You gotta kill penalties, and that&rsquo;s where the IQ comes in, because you have to manage the ice and anticipate the play both offensively and defensively.&rdquo; Another panelist, a skills coach, really likes what Mark Giordano brings to the table. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s not a top skater, and it&rsquo;s a skating league, but he finds his way around the rink and makes elite plays,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s got to be in the right place early.&rdquo; &#9632;

Best HOCKEY IQ

<div class="byline">BY MATT LARKIN</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="kucherov_1" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/kucherov_1/614550-1-eng-US/kucherov_12.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">(MARK BLINCH/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</figcaption></div>HONESTLY? THE secret-service routine works. It&rsquo;s even a bit intimidating. It really adds to Nikita Kucherov&rsquo;s aura.It&rsquo;s perfectly on-brand when the NHL&rsquo;s most mysterious superstar proves slippery to pin down for an interview in Las Vegas&rsquo; Encore hotel on a late June afternoon. First, he and agent Dan Milstein murmur solemnly to each other in Russian. Kucherov agrees to the interview, which begins in a hallway outside a ballroom &ndash; but not without eyes all around. Two towering Tampa Bay Lightning teammates lurk. Victor Hedman paces the carpeted floor. &ldquo;Hey,&rdquo; asks Andrei Vasilevskiy, a drop of menace in his voice. &ldquo;How long you gonna be with KOO-chy?&rdquo;Meanwhile, Milstein plays watchdog, stealthily sidling up to supervise his star client every few minutes, standing there, staring in stoic silence.There&rsquo;s no actual threat here, of course, but the vibe is fascinating. It feels like Kucherov&rsquo;s entourage wants to protect him &ndash; or preserve the secrecy cloaking him. About 24 hours later, he&rsquo;ll be awarded the Art Ross Trophy as NHL scoring champion, the Hart Trophy as most valuable player and the Ted Lindsay Award for most outstanding player as voted by the players. He thus couldn&rsquo;t be a bigger star, yet the people closest to him seem determined to keep him buttoned down. The tactic is effective and affective. The tougher it is to get a read on Kucherov, the more mythic he seems.Perhaps that&rsquo;s why few people in the hockey world know much about him. In press scrums, he may come across as the archetypal &ldquo;enigmatic Russian&rdquo; who survives with barely passable English. Get him in a private setting, however, and he proves shockingly competent at speaking the language. Hanging out at the Encore hotel, rocking a casual shorts-and-T-shirt look, he provides long-winded answers to every question. He comes off like a Swede who has virtually conquered the language, more Gabriel Landeskog than Artemi Panarin. That makes sense given Kucherov played a season of major junior before turning pro.So why does Kucherov, a player dominant enough to score the most points in a season since Mario Lemieux in 1995-96, continue to hang in the shadows when he&rsquo;s equipped with the verbal tools to reveal much more of himself? One possible explanation: it&rsquo;s one thing to speak a language and another to think it, to truly be yourself in it. &ldquo;With the Russian guys on the team, he&rsquo;s definitely more open to us,&rdquo; Vasilevskiy said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s a really funny guy, good person. But it&rsquo;s tough to speak a different language. Because of the language barrier, it&rsquo;s hard to be the same person as in your language. With me and (Lightning defenseman Mikhail Sergachev), he&rsquo;s a funny guy pretty often.&rdquo;<blockquote class="pullQuote">I&rsquo;M NOT THAT GUY. IF I WANT ATTENTION, I&rsquo;M GOING TO GO ON THE ICE &ndash; Nikita Kucherov</blockquote>The other theory: Kucherov remains an elusive persona whatever language he speaks, because that&rsquo;s how he wants it. It&rsquo;s just who he is. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve never been a public speaker,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve never liked to go in the middle of everything and get attention. I&rsquo;m not that guy. If I want attention, I&rsquo;m going to go on the ice. If you want to talk to me, talk to me. If you don&rsquo;t want to talk to me, I&rsquo;m not going to ask for you to talk to me. I want to make you want to talk to me. That&rsquo;s why I&rsquo;m working hard.&rdquo;The earn-my-attention mentality has served Kucherov well. It didn&rsquo;t take long for the right winger to establish himself as a steal as the 58th overall pick in the 2011 draft. He needed just 17 games of AHL hockey, scoring 13 goals, to force his way to the NHL. By 2014-15, his sophomore season, he was a 29-goal scorer and key member of a Cup-finalist Lightning team. Then he was a 30-goal scorer, then a 40-goal scorer, then a 100-point scorer. The yearly improvements became geometric in magnitude. In consecutive seasons, Kucherov jumped from steal to star to superstar to, according to the stats and the votes from the Professional Hockey Writers Association and NHL Players&rsquo; Association, the world&rsquo;s greatest hockey player. His 128 points last season were 12 more than any other NHLer could muster, beating Joe Thornton&rsquo;s 125 points from 2005-06 for the most in the salary-cap era. &ldquo;It doesn&rsquo;t matter if he had seven points the game before, he&rsquo;s always out there trying to get better,&rdquo; Hedman said. &ldquo;So we&rsquo;re obviously very happy to have him on our side. And to see that record-breaking season was pretty spectacular. You just try to give him the puck as much as you can, let him do his magic.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/kucherov_3/614543-1-eng-US/kucherov_32.jpg" title="kucherov_3" width="1728" height="1101"><figcaption class="caption-body">LOOKING FOR MOREKucherov was happy with his trophy haul last season. The playoffs? That&rsquo;s another story. (ANDRE RINGUETTE/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</figcaption></div>Kucherov averaged almost three fewer minutes per game than scoring race runner-up Connor McDavid but still cruised to the Art Ross on the strength of utterly dominant play. Among 365 forwards who logged at least 500 minutes at 5-on-5 last season, Kucherov finished first in points per 60 minutes at 3.37. That average was 15.4 percent higher than the second-place finisher, Sidney Crosby at 2.92.Unlike Kucherov&rsquo;s personality, of course, stats like those aren&rsquo;t encrypted secrets. We all know that Kucherov is amazing. But what makes him so amazing? Of the 14 NHL scoring champions in the cap era, seven were first overall picks, and 11 were top-three picks. If we acknowledge that Wayne Gretzky and Bobby Orr would&rsquo;ve been obvious first-round picks if eligible, only five of the past 44 scoring champs weren&rsquo;t first-rounders: Bryan Trottier, Martin St-Louis (twice), Jamie Benn and Kucherov.How does a player who was passed over 57 times on draft day morph into the best in his class? For Kucherov, the answer is homework &ndash; highly experimental homework. He installed a synthetic ice surface on the floor of his two-car garage in summer 2017. For the uninitiated: you don&rsquo;t skate on synthetic ice. As Kucherov puts it, leaning a bit into what&rsquo;s left of his accent: &ldquo;I just wear FLEEP-flops.&rdquo; During garage sessions, he hones his deadly release and tests any move he can think of. If you&rsquo;ve ever seen Kucherov pull the breakaway feint in which he pretends to lose the puck and lets it drift through the goalie&rsquo;s legs &ndash; the one that embarrassed Braden Holtby at the 2018 All-Star Game &ndash; it was likely concocted on the synthetic ice surface.<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/kucherov_2/614536-1-eng-US/kucherov_22.jpg" title="kucherov_2" width="1178" height="1205"><figcaption class="caption-body">ALL-STAR TEAMThe mighty Bolts sent Kucherov, Vasilevskiy and Stamkos to the 2019 mid-season classic. (BRIAN BABINEAU/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</figcaption></div>Kucherov ventures there whenever he&rsquo;s bored. As he explains it, maximizing the synthetic rink means spending some time in there almost every day during the off-season rather than logging one long session every week or so. The constant repetition essentially uploads new software into his subconscious. That&rsquo;s where his trademark unpredictability and finish come from, though he insists he doesn&rsquo;t specifically work on being creative. That part is just something that comes naturally to him. &ldquo;You watch a lot of players, how they shoot, what they do, how they train,&rdquo; Kucherov said. &ldquo;You just go in the garage and try and do what they do. And if it works, it&rsquo;s good, if not, just keep getting better at it. It adds to your game and, over time, you&rsquo;re getting better at what you&rsquo;ve been sucking at. It&rsquo;s nice to see a progression of your work and how it pays off.&rdquo;An element of Kucherov&rsquo;s training that makes him unique: he doesn&rsquo;t just study every shift of his own games or watch opponents to get ideas for himself. Kucherov studies his teammates, too. He watches them during practices to get a sense of their habits: where they like to receive the puck and from where they score the most. Perhaps that&rsquo;s why he has become the NHL&rsquo;s pre-eminent playmaker. Factoring in play at all strengths, including time on Tampa&rsquo;s top-ranked power play, Kucherov led all NHLers in assists per 60 minutes and, more importantly, in first assists per 60 minutes last season. To provide a sense of the latter stat&rsquo;s accuracy in identifying elite setup men: McDavid, Mitch Marner, Crosby and Panarin rounded out the top five. By blending sublime skill with a commitment to helping make his teammates better, Kucherov unlocked a tier of offense he didn&rsquo;t know he had.That vaulted Kucherov into a stratosphere previously thought uninhabitable: coexistence with McDavid in the &ldquo;deity&rdquo; tier of current NHL superstars. McDavid is every bit the generational talent that he was hyped to become, the only person other than Gretzky with two scoring titles by age 21 and the owner of three 100-point seasons by age 22. McDavid isn&rsquo;t even done ascending, so it&rsquo;s likely he separates from Kucherov, 26, one of these years and occupies a separate space. Right now, though, these two are stride for stride. They&rsquo;ve traded scoring titles in consecutive years and are the only two players with 100 points in each of the past two seasons. So do they pay attention to each other even though they play 2,366 miles apart in different conferences? That question tees up an easy one-timer for Kucherov to tap home with the hockey cliche, &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think about stats,&rdquo; but he offers a refreshing take instead. &ldquo;You definitely look at the stats and look at the TV,&rdquo; Kucherov said. &ldquo;You know what happens in the games. It&rsquo;s nerve-racking sometimes. Sometimes you see he has three points, and you&rsquo;re like, &lsquo;Agh, I&rsquo;ve got to do better than him next time.&rsquo; It&rsquo;s nice. It&rsquo;s a competition. I&rsquo;ve been waiting to compete against these types of guys. I&rsquo;ve been getting better, and they make you a better player for sure.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/kucherov_4/614529-1-eng-US/kucherov_42.jpg" title="kucherov_4" width="4641" height="1892"><figcaption class="caption-body">STRIKE FORCEKucherov is coming off the NHL&rsquo;s most productive season in more than 20 years. (ANDRE RINGUETTE/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</figcaption></div>Yet Kucherov would trade all his individual accolades for team success. He&rsquo;s still a hockey player. As amazing as 2018-19 was for him in the regular season, the playoffs ended disastrously. The Bolts, having tied the NHL single-season record with 62 wins, opened the post-season leading the bottom-seeded Columbus Blue Jackets 3-0 in the first period of Game 1 at home. Somehow, Columbus fought back, and Tampa never recovered, suffering a stunning sweep. It was one of the biggest upsets in NHL history, and it got to Kucherov. Normally the picture of icy calm, he lost his cool in Game 2, late in the third period of an embarrassing 5-1 home loss. He tripped Blue Jackets defenseman Markus Nutivaara, and while a defenseless Nutivaara tried to get up, Kucherov aggressively drove him into the boards. The uncharacteristically childish, reckless attack earned Kucherov two minutes for tripping, five for boarding, a game misconduct and suspension for Game 3.The incident was a microcosm of the series: Kucherov wasn&rsquo;t himself for a short period in April, and neither were the Lightning. &ldquo;For us to go out the way we did is obviously something we&rsquo;re not happy about,&rdquo; Hedman said. &ldquo;But we&rsquo;re built for a long run for years to come. It&rsquo;s just that we&rsquo;ve got to learn from this and not let it happen again. Hockey&rsquo;s a tough sport. When you have a bad game, the other team is going to take advantage. We had a rough week, and it cost us the season.&rdquo;Kucherov understands that he and the Lightning have to be better when it counts this year. Nothing matters to him more. He knows he is one of the two favorites to win the Art Ross and Hart again. He also knows his career point-scoring trajectory, given his age, puts him on track to challenge Alex Ovechkin and Sergei Fedorov for the all-time lead in points among Russian NHLers someday. But that&rsquo;s all secondary until Kucherov gets a Stanley Cup ring.If that happens, who knows? Maybe we&rsquo;ll see Kucherov dial back his laser-like focus by five percent and let the hockey world inside his head a little more. But don&rsquo;t expect to ever see him pander for the spotlight. &ldquo;I want to make people come to me, not me to them,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;There are a lot of players that like attention. I&rsquo;m just laid back.&rdquo; &#9632;

NIKITA KUCHEROV

CLOAK AND DAGGER

<div class="byline">BY RONNIE SHUKER</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="nhl_danault_041" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/nhl_danault_041/614609-1-eng-US/nhl_danault_0412.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">(MARK BLINCH/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</figcaption></div>THE REBL HOUSE CREATIVE agency in downtown Montreal is maze of aphorisms. Inside the front door, a white screen with small black script reads, I don&rsquo;t know where I&rsquo;m going&hellip;but, I&rsquo;m on my way. Around the corner, leading up to the second floor, is a set of stairs stencilled with Drake&rsquo;s Started From The Bottom Now We&rsquo;re Here. Down the hall and to the right, Do What You Love is written in white neon against a black background. And at the back of the studio, past the #BOSSLADY director&rsquo;s chair to the left, Too Glam To Give A Damn is scrawled on a black wall between the bathrooms.Phillip Danault has his own mantra, and he repeats if often as he lounges in the studio. It&rsquo;d fit in well here, and it has served him well over his three years in the madhouse market that is Montreal. &ldquo;Just go with the flow,&rdquo; Danault said. &ldquo;If you&rsquo;re a nervous person, I don&rsquo;t think you can play here, that&rsquo;s for sure. But it&rsquo;s so much fun.&rdquo;That attitude is evident in Danault&rsquo;s body language as he all but becomes part of a sofa seat in the screening room during a break in a midsummer photo shoot for the clothing brand RW&CO. If he were any more chill, you&rsquo;d have to check for a pulse. He uses words like &ldquo;vibe&rdquo; and &ldquo;cool,&rdquo; though he&rsquo;s so relaxed he&rsquo;s barely audible. &ldquo;Nothing really bothers me,&rdquo; Danault said. &ldquo;I need something really big to bother me. Life&rsquo;s cool. Nice and easy. Peaceful.&rdquo;It&rsquo;s easy to see why. For more than a year now, everything has been coming up Danault after years of little going his way. In July 2018, Danault signed a three-year, $9.25-million contract, giving him the financial security that was in doubt just six months earlier. A week later he married Marie-Pierre Fortin, his girlfriend of two years, and this past February he became a father when the couple had their first baby, Phillip-Edouard, named after Danault as well as Fortin&rsquo;s grandfather.To top it all off, Danault got to fulfill a childhood dream this summer when he flew a helicopter for the first time. Not a plane, he makes clear using eager hand gestures. A helicopter. &ldquo;You can float anywhere,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s just different, even if it&rsquo;s more dangerous. And you can land like this instead of like this. You can land in more tight areas, like a roof or something.&rdquo;Danault wants to get his helicopter license one day, but for now he&rsquo;ll settle for playing on the most famed franchise in hockey. As a Quebec native, Danault is a bit of an oddity. Where many homegrown players have tried and failed with the Canadiens, Danault has not only survived, but thrived. Last season he posted a career-high 53 points, finally realizing the potential that never materialized in Chicago after the Blackhawks drafted him 26th overall in 2011.<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/nhl_danault_040/614595-1-eng-US/nhl_danault_0402.jpg" title="nhl_danault_040" width="1020" height="1496"><figcaption class="caption-body">FASHION FORWARDDanault, one of the game&rsquo;s best two-way forwards, also looks pretty good rocking a two-piece suit.&nbsp; (PHOTO BY SHAYNE LAVERDIERE)</figcaption></div>In 32 NHL games with the Hawks, wrapped around parts of five seasons with the AHL Rockford IceHogs, Danault had just one goal and six points. In his three seasons in Montreal, since being dealt to the Canadiens midway through 2015-16, his points-per-game average has steadily trended upwards. Now 26, Danault has become a key cog on an up-and-coming Canadiens club. And to think, less than two years ago it looked for a moment like he might never play again.On Jan. 13, 2018, during a home game against the Boston Bruins, Danault was hit in the side of the head by a slapshot from the point. The shooter was Zdeno Chara, no less, the NHL&rsquo;s record-holder for the hardest shot (108.8 mph, set at the 2012 All-Star Game). Danault immediately collapsed to the ice and was taken off on a stretcher. It was the kind of freak accident that could end a career, and Fortin was at the Bell Centre when it happened. &ldquo;When we were going to the hospital, I was like, &lsquo;Oh my god, if he never plays hockey again, what would I tell him?&rsquo; You know what I mean? &lsquo;Sorry, it&rsquo;s a done deal. You can&rsquo;t play anymore,&rsquo;&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;It was so hard.&rdquo;Danault was lucky. He spent only one night in hospital and returned to action just over a month later, though he was shut down for the rest of the season shortly thereafter. It was the low point of his NHL career, and no one knew what to expect from him as the 2018-19 season approached. &ldquo;Last year when he went to training camp I said, &lsquo;Remember, you&rsquo;re lucky,&rsquo; Fortin said. &ldquo;&lsquo;A lot of people want your place, want your spot, want your career. But you have it, and you still have it. You&rsquo;re lucky, so have fun.&rsquo;&rdquo;If statistics are any indication, then Danault had the time of his life. He set career highs in assists (41) and points (53) and finished seventh in Selke Trophy voting. The Canadiens just missed the playoffs, but Danault has entrenched himself as the third-line center in Montreal, barely a two-hour drive from where he was born.<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/nhl_danault_042/614588-1-eng-US/nhl_danault_0422.jpg" title="nhl_danault_042" width="1023" height="685"><figcaption class="caption-body">HOME-ICE ADVANTAGEAfter a slow start to his NHL career, Danault found his footing after a trade to Montreal in his home province. (DAVID KIROUAC/ICON SPORTSWIRE VIA GETTY IMAGES)</figcaption></div>Danault hails from Victoriaville, Que., about halfway between Montreal and Quebec City, which is his wife&rsquo;s hometown and the couple&rsquo;s home during the off-season. Danault played junior with the QMJHL&rsquo;s Tigres, and the couple met in Victoriaville while living in the same duplex. Until then, Fortin had paid about as much attention to hockey as Danault did to fashion. Now, the two have since adopted each other&rsquo;s passions. Fortin watches every game and Danault pays close attention to what he wears. &ldquo;At the beginning it was just like hockey style,&rdquo; Fortin said. &ldquo;He had tight pants with white socks and loafers and a hoodie. He had two, three suits at the beginning.&rdquo;Danault has upped that total to more than a dozen, and all of them have Fortin&rsquo;s mark on them. She designs all of his suits, from the tie down to the shoes, and gets them all custom-made. For every home game Fortin chooses Danault&rsquo;s suit and sets it out for him to wear. Most of the time her designs are a hit in the dressing room. Only one has missed the mark so far, at least in the eyes of Danault&rsquo;s teammates, who called it &ldquo;an old couch suit.&rdquo;&ldquo;They didn&rsquo;t like it, but I thought it was awesome,&rdquo; Danault said. &ldquo;They&rsquo;ve got to open their mind.&rdquo;With a contract, a wife, a baby boy and a new off-ice interest, Danault has just about everything he ever wanted. Only one thing&rsquo;s missing, and he&rsquo;ll continue to &ldquo;go with the flow&rdquo; until he gets it. &ldquo;I always wanted to have a hockey life and a family, too,&rdquo; Danault said. &ldquo;Those were the two big goals I had. Fashion is coming in, too. I&rsquo;ve got a passion for that now that my wife transferred it to me, like I transferred my hockey passion to her. She wants to win the Cup now.&rdquo;For up-to-the-minute coverage, visit&nbsp;<a href="http://TheHockeyNews.com">THEHOCKEYNEWS.COM</a> &#9632;

nhl_danault_041

NHL Team Reports

DANAULT GOING WITH FLOW, FAMILY & FASHION

<div class="byline">BY KEN CAMPBELL</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="min_dumba1" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/min_dumba1/614654-1-eng-US/min_dumba12.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">SWING AND A MISSAn errant haymaker in a needless fight gave Dumba a season-ending injury last season. He needs to pick his spots better. (DEREK LEUNG/GETTY IMAGES)</figcaption></div>LAST SEASON WAS SUPPOSED to be the one when Matt Dumba established himself as the alpha male on the Minnesota Wild blueline and emerged as an elite defenseman in the NHL. And it was looking really, really good there for a while. Two months into 2018-19, Dumba led all defensemen in goals, putting to good use his philosophy in which, &ldquo;You just want the &lsquo;biskie&rsquo; and rip it, just like a wild horse.&rdquo; That&rsquo;s how Matt Dumba talks, in case you were wondering.Being hockey&rsquo;s version of an equus ferus is not without its downside, however, which Dumba learned while he watched his teammates play the last 50 games of the season and miss the playoffs without him. Players such as Dumba almost always walk a fine line. You don&rsquo;t want to take away the enthusiasm and energy that make them special because then you end up with Dion Phaneuf. But there&rsquo;s an element that must be tamed for them to be successful NHL players.Take last season, for example, when a combination of hockey&rsquo;s outdated &ldquo;code&rdquo; and Dumba&rsquo;s decision-making conspired to put him on the injured list for the last four months of the schedule with a pectoral muscle torn so badly it required surgery. It all started in a Dec. 6 game against the Calgary Flames in which eventual Norris Trophy winner Mark Giordano appeared to intentionally stick his knee out, catching Wild captain Mikko Koivu, clipping Koivu and sending him crashing to the ice. Dumba responded by taking a hard, clean run at Mikael Backlund in the last minute of the game, after which Flames coach Bill Peters sent out Ryan Lomberg, who will never be confused with Jean Beliveau, to tackle Dumba and place a couple of punches to the back of his helmet.<blockquote class="pullQuote">I WANT TO BE TALKED ABOUT IN THE ELITE GROUP OF DEFENSEMEN, LIKE, TOP FIVE. I&rsquo;VE GOT SOMETHING TO PROVE &nbsp;&ndash; Mathew Dumba</blockquote>Nine days later, the Flames&rsquo; Matthew Tkachuk went after Dumba 40 seconds into the game, and Dumba accepted the invitation to fight. After getting caught with a punch where he had already received some stitches, Dumba tried to get even by throwing a haymaker that missed the target and tore his pectoral muscle. In a game where it&rsquo;s all about picking your spots, Dumba probably could have been more judicious.But those things can happen when you&rsquo;re a guy who always wants to make a difference or wants to win the game with one play. You have to find your sweet spot and, with Dumba, that process continues. So now he has to wait until this season to make his mark and jump into the consciousness of hockey fans outside Minnesota, and waiting is not something that always comes easily to him. With Ryan Suter consistently among the NHL&rsquo;s top minute-munchers and Swiss Army knife Jared Spurgeon not far behind, Dumba has flown a little under the radar. Until now. Possibly. &ldquo;Upper level?&rdquo; Dumba said. &ldquo;I want to be talked about in that elite group of defensemen, like, top five. I want to keep climbing. I&rsquo;ve got something to prove, so I&rsquo;m going to keep playing with that chip on my shoulder and see where I can really take this. I do believe in myself and in my abilities, and I&rsquo;ve got a great set of teammates around me, too. Anything&rsquo;s really possible.&rdquo;Barring injury, Dumba will be on the right side of a pairing with Suter, so you know he&rsquo;s going to be on the ice a lot. The energy Dumba brings to the game, the dynamic ability to move the puck and produce offense, the courage he has to make plays with a high element of risk &ndash; none of those represent a problem for him. But as is the case with a lot of young defensemen, particularly those with an offensive bent to their game, the real recognition isn&rsquo;t going to come until he adds some texture to his game. To that end, Dumba has spent the past couple of years gaining the confidence of Wild coach Bruce Boudreau and, just as importantly, Boudreau&rsquo;s defensive lieutenant Bob Woods. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s awesome. (Boudreau) has that trust in me now,&rdquo; Dumba said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s been earned. I&rsquo;ve had to work for that. It hasn&rsquo;t always been the best, but we&rsquo;re at a point where the (relationship) is good. It&rsquo;s awesome. (Woods) is awesome. He&rsquo;s probably the best coach I&rsquo;ve ever had, so I love working with him. I think that&rsquo;s where my game has flourished. Working with him and breaking down my game&hellip;I feel like I can talk to him about anything, really. I think that&rsquo;s what you look for in a coach. It&rsquo;s my ideal coach.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/dumba2/614640-1-eng-US/dumba22.jpg" title="dumba2" width="801" height="1021"><figcaption class="caption-body">MATHEW DUMBA (BRIAN BABINEAU/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</figcaption></div>When Dumba talks about being a stallion now, he says he wants to be a hockey version of American Pharoah. In case you&rsquo;re wondering, that&rsquo;s a tall order. The great-great-great grandson of Secretariat became the first horse in 37 years to win the Triple Crown when he did it in 2015. But you can&rsquo;t blame Dumba for aiming high. Playing a full season in 2019-20 would be a start. At 25, Dumba is rounding into the age group when many defensemen start to dominate their position. For his part, Dumba&rsquo;s defense partner this season wants to see that dynamic, risky player on display as much as possible. &ldquo;I would never talk to him about toning it down,&rdquo; Suter said. &ldquo;Because I love it. I think he&rsquo;s good. I&rsquo;m there, and if things break down, I&rsquo;ll take care of it. You don&rsquo;t want to take that out of a player. There are only a few players who have that, and he&rsquo;s definitely one of those guys. But I think he realized, &lsquo;OK, I can&rsquo;t be one-dimensional. I have to be able to play both ends of the ice.&rsquo;&rdquo; &#9632;

min_dumba1

THE STALLION RUNS WILD

ANAHEIM: Cam Fowler is recognized as Anaheim&rsquo;s No. 1 blueliner, but don&rsquo;t forget HAMPUS LINDHOLM. The 25-year-old, two-way defender has seen his ice time increase in each of his six NHL campaigns. He topped Fowler last season and ranks No. 27 NHL-wide over the past three years.ARIZONA: When you lead a team in goals, the cat is out of the bag. But center BRAD RICHARDSON still isn&rsquo;t on everyone&rsquo;s radar. His team-high 19 goals last year lifted him above his bottom-six reputation. Prior to last season&rsquo;s 14.8 shooting percentage, he was at 7.9 percent in 683 games.CALGARY: When teams defend against Calgary&rsquo;s weapons, the list gets long before DEREK RYAN&rsquo;S name appears. But in the 31 games after the all-star break, Ryan was second to only Johnny Gaudreau in team scoring with 22 points. He&rsquo;s a terrific checker, penalty-killer and a faceoff beast.CHICAGO: D-man ERIK GUSTAFSSON became an NHL regular last season, and his remarkable 17-goal, 60-point output made him a fixture of rookie coach Jeremy Colliton&rsquo;s game plan. He&rsquo;s a pending UFA and will be one of the most sought-after deadline additions if the Hawks don&rsquo;t extend him.COLORADO: SAMUEL GIRARD skated 1,631 minutes last season, the 77th-most of the 906 players to touch NHL ice, and took only three minor penalties. He has 14 penalty minutes in his 155 career games. He&rsquo;s a burgeoning offensive stud and one of the league&rsquo;s most disciplined defensemen.DALLAS: Lost in the Miro Heiskanen hype and John Klingberg&rsquo;s offensive excellence is ESA LINDELL, who broke out last season and established himself as a minute-munching, top-pairing defenseman. His 24:20 average ice time ranked 14th in the NHL and is a testament to his value in Dallas.EDMONTON: If heavy hockey continues its resurgence, ZACK KASSIAN can be a valuable weapon for the Oilers or a playoff-bound team. The rugged right winger has the versatility to play on any line and even chipped in a career-high 15 goals. A pending UFA next summer, he has trade value.LOS ANGELES: If the Kings are going to make any noise before they age out, ADRIAN KEMPE will have to go from best-kept secret to prime-time player. The 23-year-old center had a flat development year offense-wise, but needs more playing time than the 13:41 he has averaged in three seasons.MINNESOTA: If his post-deadline play is any indication, expect big things from winger RYAN DONATO. He burst onto the scene in Boston but really flourished in Minnesota when given the opportunity to skate in the middle of the lineup. Given his skill and smarts, there&rsquo;s plenty of untapped potential.NASHVILLE: The crease transition continues this season, and JUUSE SAROS is ready to assume a greater workload. Pekka Rinne&rsquo;s understudy is undersized &ndash; he stands 5-foot-11, making him the NHL&rsquo;s second-shortest goalie &ndash; but Saros&rsquo; quickness and ability to read the play are assets.SAN JOSE: The last thing the Sharks need is another offensive defenseman, but they&rsquo;ve had one hiding in the back row for a couple years. TIM HEED was one of the top-scoring blueliners in Sweden for two seasons before doing the same thing in the AHL. At 28, the time is nigh.ST. LOUIS: ROBERT THOMAS got his name etched onto the Stanley Cup, but his rookie season was overlooked. His 33-point output was 10th-best among freshmen, and he looks primed to take the next step. Don&rsquo;t be surprised if he&rsquo;s playing second-line minutes by season&rsquo;s end.VANCOUVER: In Toronto, left winger JOSH LEIVO had a tough time earning more than 10 minutes a game, but he made the second line and second power-play unit in Vancouver. His hard wrist shot and quick release help explain why he has more goals than assists in 133 career games.LAS VEGAS: Some day, right winger ALEX TUCH will get a role in the top-six. You&rsquo;d think that would have happened by now. The 2014 first-rounder improved upon a 15-goal, 37-point rookie season with 20 goals and 52 points as a sophomore. Yet he still sees bottom-six ice time. That will change.WINNIPEG: If Jacob Trouba&rsquo;s departure tells us anything, it&rsquo;s just how confident Winnipeg is in JOSH MORRISSEY&rsquo;S ability to be the go-to guy on the blueline. He is one of the NHL&rsquo;s most complete rearguards, and it won&rsquo;t be long before he steps out of obscurity and into the spotlight. &#9632;

WESTERN CONFERENCE BEST KEPT SECRETS

<div class="byline">BY KEN CAMPBELL</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="det_athanas_008" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/det_athanas_008/614835-1-eng-US/det_athanas_0082.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">QUICK STRIKEAthanasiou used his elite speed to post a career-best season in 2018-19. At only 25, he still has another level to reach. (MINAS PANAGIOTAKIS/GETTY IMAGES)</figcaption></div>IT&rsquo;S TANTAMOUNT TO ASKING which member of the Beatles was the better songwriting genius, Paul McCartney or John Lennon. Rolling Stone magazine posed that question a few years back and bailed by naming the McCartney/Lennon duo second behind Bob Dylan. So for hockey purposes, let&rsquo;s say Edmonton&rsquo;s Connor McDavid is Dylan and Detroit&rsquo;s Dylan Larkin and Andreas Athanasiou are Lennon and McCartney.We&rsquo;re not going to be Rolling Stone, darn it. We&rsquo;re going to give you a definitive answer. So who is faster between Detroit Red Wings teammates Larkin and Athanasiou? Our expert panel for this query is the two players in question and their coach, Jeff Blashill.Larkin: &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know.&rdquo; (Not real helpful.)Athanasiou: &ldquo;(Larkin) might win straight away, but if there were some turns in there, I might be able to get him. He&rsquo;s a top-notch skater, and I try to keep up with him.&rdquo; (Getting there, but not good enough.)Blashill: &ldquo;Oh, &lsquo;Double A&rsquo; is faster than Larkin. I believe that, and that&rsquo;s not a knock on Larkin, who&rsquo;s super-fast, but &lsquo;Double A&rsquo; has an explosiveness to him that is pretty unparalleled.&rdquo;So there you have it, although, when given a moment to think about it, Athanasiou might have an even more compelling inquiry: &ldquo;Honestly, what I started thinking about now is, who are two players on a different team who could keep up with both of us?&rdquo; It&rsquo;s a good question, but not one Athanasiou has had a lot of time to ponder, because he&rsquo;s busy doing everything&hellip;at warp speed. Ever since he was six and his father, Stanley, would slingshot him down the ice as he learned to skate, Athanasiou has always had a need for speed. When he wasn&rsquo;t playing hockey, he did track and field and played soccer and basketball, anywhere he could exploit his quick feet. &ldquo;I always had that fast-twitch growing up,&rdquo; Athanasiou said. &ldquo;I just wanted to go fast. I wanted to run fast, I wanted to jump high.&rdquo;For someone with such a penchant for quickness, success in the NHL has not been a rapid, linear path for Athanasiou. He enjoyed a major breakout season with the Red Wings in 2018-19, scoring 30 goals and finishing second to Larkin on the Detroit roster in goals and points, but it has been a few years in the making.There is a real sense in Detroit that better days are on the horizon and, at 25, Athanasiou is a big part of that optimism. Athanasiou pretty much shed the &ldquo;underrated&rdquo; tag with his performance last season. It&rsquo;s clear he can do a lot of good things with the puck at high speed. Now the task is to do it consistently in all areas of the ice and to be known for more than just a guy who blazes around the rink.It&rsquo;s certainly not inconceivable Athanasiou has another level, but that level has to come in the form of a more well-rounded game. Blashill puts Athanasiou in that group of 20-something players on the Wings who are at a crucial point in their careers. &ldquo;To me, he&rsquo;s at the age in which young players go from being real good offensive players to really, really, really good winners,&rdquo; Blashill said. &ldquo;Learning that 200-foot game to go along with it&hellip;I think that&rsquo;s one of the biggest keys is learning how to produce offense but still playing winning hockey, and that&rsquo;s not to say that any of (our young players) haven&rsquo;t done a decent job of that, but that&rsquo;s the next step for all of them, all of our young players, including &lsquo;Double A.&rsquo;&rdquo;Perhaps taking it down a gear once in a while might be a key to success for Athanasiou. In a pre-season game, Athanasiou sprung himself for a breakaway using his speed (which was good), only to crash into the boards after he scored (not so good). He was a little banged up and missed a couple of exhibition games, but it may have served as a warning that there is sometimes a downside to going that fast.Blashill acknowledges there is sometimes a &ldquo;recklessness&rdquo; to Athanasiou&rsquo;s speed, something the coach is not about to discourage. &ldquo;It can get you in trouble a lot of times, too,&rdquo; Athanasiou said. &ldquo;It can put you out of position quick. You take too many strides, you get out of that lane. So it&rsquo;s (about) using your speed at the right time. I think that is what&rsquo;s most effective. You can&rsquo;t just fly around the ice at all times. It&rsquo;s a gift and a curse a little bit. I&rsquo;ve loved going fast my whole life, but those collisions are at high speed, too. I&rsquo;m only 25, but it&rsquo;s been a good 10, 15 years of high-speed collisions happening along the way.&rdquo;The Red Wings are smack-dab in the middle of a rebuild and probably won&rsquo;t be very good this season. Success in Detroit in 2019-20 will be measured by how players such as Larkin, Athanasiou, Anthony Mantha and Tyler Bertuzzi can push the needle upward as players. With a deep prospect pool and what looks like an AHL championship contender in Grand Rapids, the Wings have help on the way.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/andreas2/614821-1-eng-US/andreas22.jpg" title="andreas2" width="801" height="1372"><figcaption class="caption-body">ANDREAS ATHANASIOU (DAVE REGINEK/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</figcaption></div>Athanasiou has one more year on his contract before becoming an RFA with arbitration rights. So it&rsquo;s a crucial season for Athanasiou to make his case for arbitration or perhaps earn a long-term deal. It will also be a year for him to continue to assert himself as a legitimate impact player in the NHL. &ldquo;Anyone who watches, they can see,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I think if you&rsquo;re good, you&rsquo;re good. You can only be in the shadows so long. You hear that you&rsquo;re underrated, whatever, it doesn&rsquo;t really faze me too much. I know that my game will take care of itself.&ldquo;If you&rsquo;re good, you&rsquo;re going to be seen no matter what. You can only be hidden for so long.&rdquo; &#9632;

det_athanas_008

SLOW DOWN, YOU MOVE TOO FAST

BOSTON:&nbsp;During Boston&rsquo;s run to the 2019 Cup final, &ldquo;The SEAN KURALY line has been the best tonight&rdquo; became a popular refrain. Among the 17 Bruins who played at least 200 minutes at 5-on-5 in the playoffs, Kuraly ranked first in points per 60. Big, strong and tireless, he&rsquo;s a matchup nightmare.BUFFALO: COLIN MILLER carries a reputation as a solid puck-moving D-man, but despite his success in Boston and Vegas, he played highly sheltered minutes. As a Sabre, he has a chance to blossom into a household name with more responsibility. He is slated for Buffalo&rsquo;s No. 1 power-play unit.CAROLINA: Look at the league leaders for penalties drawn, and you&rsquo;ll find many of the NHL&rsquo;s top stars, from Connor McDavid to Nathan MacKinnon to&hellip;WARREN FOEGELE. The young left winger drew 31 minors last season despite playing only 12:30 per night. Foegele was also a beast in the playoffs.COLUMBUS:&nbsp;Every training camp, coach John Tortorella puts the Blue Jackets through a timed, two-mile run. Swedish pivot ALEXANDER WENNBERG ran it in an incredible 11:02 to win this year, while finishing second to 6-foot-6 prospect D-man Doyle Somerby in 2018 with a nearly-as-impressive 11:24.DETROIT: Is FILIP HRONEK Detroit&rsquo;s long-term power-play quarterback? He earned opportunities late last year with Mike Green injured. From Jan. 1 onward, Hronek had 19 points in 31 games, playing close to 21 minutes. He&rsquo;ll open 2019-20 as a top-four blueliner and has breakout potential.FLORIDA: Give winger FRANK VATRANO a chance, and he&rsquo;ll give you goals. He popped 24 last year playing just 14:40 a night. Among 365 forwards with 500-plus minutes at 5-on-5, Vatrano ranked 44th in goals per 60. Since debuting in 2015-16, he ranks in the top five in the NHL in shots per 60.MONTREAL: VICTOR METE has zero goals through 120 NHL games. He&rsquo;s a defensive D-man who succeeds via positioning and mobility. Intimidation isn&rsquo;t an option at 5-foot-9. Mete and Shea Weber were fourth among &lsquo;D&rsquo; pairs in Corsi for per 60, so they &ldquo;shut down&rdquo; by having the puck more.NEW JERSEY: Amidst all the flashy names New Jersey brought in over the summer, the Devils know they have a gem coming back in versatile center BLAKE COLEMAN. He&rsquo;s a demon on the penalty kill, with five shorthanded points last year and finishing second in the NHL with 25 shots during a kill.NEW YORK ISLANDERS: ANTHONY BEAUVILLIER makes the most of his shifts. Though he only averaged 14:39 of ice time per game last season, the two-way left winger was one of the Islanders&rsquo; best players when it came to drawing penalties (16). Even better? Beauvillier only took four minor penalties himself.NEW YORK RANGERS: As a prospect, TONY DEANGELO was viewed as an offensive D-man, but it&rsquo;s worth noting he was up there with the rest of the Rangers&rsquo; defense corps last year when it came to blocking shots, averaging 1.3 per game. On the offensive side, he was one of the team&rsquo;s best shootout shooters.OTTAWA: As a rookie winger, CONNOR BROWN played a lot with Auston Matthews, and the result was a 20-goal effort. With each year, however, Brown&rsquo;s role and ice time shrunk. He arrives in Ottawa fresh off a measly eight-goal year. But he&rsquo;s still just 25. The Sens will give him every chance.PHILADELPHIA: OSKAR LINDBLOM was a fifth-round pick but has developed quite nicely. He was one of the Flyers&rsquo; best possession players last year, behind only Sean Couturier and Claude Giroux. As a rookie left winger, Lindblom had 33 points in less than 14 minutes of ice time per game.PITTSBURGH: He may not have the offensive hops of Kris Letang or Justin Schultz, but BRIAN DUMOULIN gets the job done on the back end. The veteran defender was one of the Pens&rsquo; better possession players last season, even though he started the majority of his shifts in the defensive zone.TAMPA BAY: MATHIEU JOSEPH was drafted 120th overall in 2015, but after one NHL season he ranks 30th in that class in goals. The winger managed 13 despite playing just 11 minutes a game in 2018-19. He was 44th out of 574 NHLers (min. 500 minutes) in hits per 60 at 5-on-5. Another late-round steal.TORONTO: Negative hype can mask a secret positive. Right winger WILLIAM NYLANDER was maligned for his seven-goal flop in 2018-19 after reporting in December, but he actually set career highs in shots, individual scoring chances and individual high-danger chances per 60. He was unlucky.WASHINGTON: If you&rsquo;re a young player in Washington, T.J. OSHIE is the veteran you likely see the most. The affable right winger often stays on the ice after practice to help any kids who are making their way on the Caps. With a Cup ring and extensive experience, Oshie has a lot of wisdom to impart. &#9632;

EASTERN CONFERENCE BEST KEPT SECRETS

<div class="byline">BY JARED CLINTON</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="womens1" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/womens1/615030-1-eng-US/womens12.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">(PHOTO BY ANNE-MARIE PELLERIN)</figcaption></div>A SAYING CAME TO LIZ Knox&rsquo;s mind the day the Professional Women&rsquo;s Hockey Players&rsquo; Association announced its Dream Gap Tour: &ldquo;A dream without a destination is just a fantasy.&rdquo; And if the PWHPA&rsquo;s goal is to turn fantasy into reality, the fledgling women&rsquo;s organization taking the show on the road was an all-important first step.To be sure, the announcement of the tour, a late-August surprise that captured the attention of the hockey world, was no overnight decision. Rather, it was some five months in the making. Following the sudden, shocking shutdown of the CWHL, to the creation of the #ForTheGame campaign and later the formation of the PWHPA, the Dream Gap Tour had been a long time coming and was the collective effort of some of the best women&rsquo;s players in the world, from Olympians and all-stars to college standouts on the cusp of their professional careers.It didn&rsquo;t come together without difficulty. &ldquo;This summer has really shown me how much work goes into organizing any sort of format, whether it&rsquo;s a tournament or a league,&rdquo; said Knox, a former CWHL netminder and players&rsquo; association co-chair turned Dream Gap Tour GM and PWHPA player representative.<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/womens3/615016-1-eng-US/womens32.jpg" title="womens3" width="1022" height="1122"><figcaption class="caption-body">GAME CHANGERKnox hopes the Dream Gap Tour connects today&rsquo;s top female players with the stars of tomorrow. (PHOTO COURTESY OF LIZ KNOX)</figcaption></div>&ldquo;A lot of it was balancing ideas and working with the board. We all come from different backgrounds. Some of the girls are with the national team, others have played pro the last few years, so it&rsquo;s working out what makes sense and what encapsulates what we want this year and how we want to showcase our talent.&rdquo;Ultimately, what was decided upon was a three-city tour featuring a rotating cast of some of the top players in the women&rsquo;s game, including superstars such as Hilary Knight, Marie-Philip Poulin, Brianna Decker and Kendall Coyne Schofield. Kicking off across the Sept. 21 weekend in Toronto &ndash; and flanked by additional exhibition events in San Jose and Boston &ndash; the tour carried on through Hudson, N.H., in early October ahead of its final announced stop in Chicago.In one sense, the tour&rsquo;s goal is to keep many of the world&rsquo;s top women&rsquo;s players visible and front of mind in the midst of their pursuit of a single, viable women&rsquo;s league, which is and has been the PWHPA&rsquo;s mission statement since its establishment. But there&rsquo;s far more to the showcase than the four-game mini-tournaments taking place in each city. &ldquo;We want to really connect with the fans, connect with the minor girls organizations and hopefully give them a chance to meet the athletes up close and personal,&rdquo; Knox said. &ldquo;A lot of these girls are their idols, their dream players, so give them the chance to meet them and get on the ice with them and interact with them off the ice.&rdquo;As evidenced by the packed house at Toronto&rsquo;s Westwood Arena, there&rsquo;s a desire to meet with and watch these gifted players ply their trade. Fan support is one thing, though, and what has been arguably more encouraging is that the fans&rsquo; fervor has been matched by something long missing from the women&rsquo;s game: enthusiastic sponsors who provide more than just dollars.Noted among the myriad reasons the CWHL was deemed &ldquo;unsustainable&rdquo; by its board was a lack of sponsorship and true strategic partnerships. But still in a relative embryonic stage, the Dream Gap Tour already has a list of sponsors that has seemingly grown by the day. &ldquo;Because of the situation, there being no (CWHL), people want to step up and support,&rdquo; said Chelsea Purcell, former Markham Thunder GM and the PWHPA&rsquo;s Canadian corporate sponsorship consultant. &ldquo;They know there&rsquo;s an opportunity right now to be seen in women&rsquo;s hockey, and women&rsquo;s hockey fans are very committed to those that step up.&rdquo;It&rsquo;s not just the CWHL&rsquo;s closure and resulting spotlight that shone on the women&rsquo;s game that have helped garner that backing. Interestingly, Purcell explained that some momentum came not on the ice and not in North America, but rather on a pitch halfway around the world. As a result of the mainstream media attention the U.S. women&rsquo;s national soccer team garnered throughout its journey to victory at the 2019 World Cup in France, the Canadian counterparts of American brands that had seen success sponsoring and partnering with the soccer team jumped at a similar opportunity with their on-ice equivalents.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/womens2/615009-1-eng-US/womens22.jpg" title="womens2" width="621" height="1184"><figcaption class="caption-body">A LEAGUE OF THEIR OWNPurcell won a CWHL title in 2018 with Markham. A year later, the league folded &ndash; and a movement began. (PHOTO COURTESY OF CHELSEA PURCELL)</figcaption></div>These aren&rsquo;t local sponsors, either. These are big brands. For instance, the Toronto showcase was sponsored by Budweiser, who also stepped up to provide live-streaming of each of the four weekend contests, as well as Adidas, Bauer, the Toronto Maple Leafs, NHL Players&rsquo; Association and &ndash; true to Canadian form &ndash; Tim Hortons. American coffee chain Dunkin&rsquo; is the event sponsor in Hudson, as well, while Magellan Corporation has stepped up to help put on the Chicago showcase.And there&rsquo;s more to these partnerships than financial support, Purcell said, adding the PWHPA isn&rsquo;t actively turning away those who&rsquo;ve shown interest but that it seeks more than the backing that appears on a balance sheet. &ldquo;We want those that actually want to support,&rdquo; Purcell said. &ldquo;They don&rsquo;t want to just give us money but give us money and want to market, push people into games, drive the awareness of what&rsquo;s happening in women&rsquo;s hockey. That&rsquo;s what we want. A true sponsorship, not just people giving us money.&rdquo;To Purcell, the PWHPA&rsquo;s development of those partnerships is a step in the right direction. And while she acknowledges there&rsquo;s &ldquo;still a long way to go,&rdquo; her hope is the increase in sponsorship will equate to an increase in marketing dollars, which will in turn create room for greater promotion of the women&rsquo;s game. &ldquo;Then hopefully we just keep making more of a dent and more of a dent and people start realizing what&rsquo;s happening,&rdquo; Purcell said.And what the PWHPA hopes will happen, as the tour name suggests, is that the chasm between the on-ice dream that young boys chase, and that young girls don&rsquo;t yet have, will close.&ldquo;When we were all young kids, we all wanted to play in the NHL, and we&rsquo;re female,&rdquo; Knox said. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s all we had to look to. That&rsquo;s all young girls still have to look to. Yes, they have the Olympics, and that&rsquo;s kind of become the pinnacle of women&rsquo;s hockey, but why isn&rsquo;t there that dream for them to play in a professional league? And the answer is that we just have never had a professional league, a league that offers a living wage, the comfort of being able to train every day, and I think that&rsquo;s what it is really all about.&rdquo; &#9632;

womens1

WOMEN

DARE TO DREAM

<div class="byline">BY RYAN KENNEDY</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="internation_009" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/internation_009/615082-1-eng-US/internation_0092.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">TIME FOR SOMETHING NEWSlovakia has disbanded its Orange 20 program after just one WJC medal &ndash; a bronze &ndash; since its formation in 2007. (KEVIN LIGHT/GETTY IMAGES)</figcaption></div>THE HOCKEY LANDSCAPE in Slovakia has shifted dramatically recently, with big changes coming at the international and professional levels. The former concerns the nation&rsquo;s junior programs, while the latter involves Slovan Bratislava, one of the most notable teams in the country, leaving the KHL and rejoining the Extraliga. This season, the merits of those decisions will begin to unfold.On the junior scene, Slovakia has shuttered its Orange 20 program, which was originally designed as the nation&rsquo;s own version of USA Hockey&rsquo;s National Team Development Program. Orange 20 brought together a bunch of Slovakia&rsquo;s under-20 players on the same team, where they would prepare for international tournaments by facing off against men in the Extraliga and the second-tier Liga. In terms of wins and losses, it did not go well.The Orange 20 kids didn&rsquo;t win a single game in 24 contests against the Extraliga teams last year, though they did nab five victories in 12 games against the lesser Liga opponents. Despite that, Toronto Maple Leafs defenseman Martin Marincin was happy with his Orange 20 experience in 2009-10. &ldquo;For me it was pretty good,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I was working on my &lsquo;D&rsquo; zone, so it helped me that way. Every time I played with older guys, I was OK with that. We played all year as a group, working on one system, so it was good. It was a good idea.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/internation_010/615068-1-eng-US/internation_0102.jpg" title="internation_010" width="1018" height="642"><figcaption class="caption-body">YOUTH MOVEMENTWith an eye to the future, Slovakia has introduced a centralized team of the country&rsquo;s best under-18 players. (KEVIN LIGHT/GETTY IMAGES)</figcaption></div>Originally formed in 2007-08 as an attempt to boost the nation&rsquo;s fortunes at the world juniors, Orange 20 never had the intended impact. Slovakia won precisely one bronze medal in the decade since Orange 20 began, mainly on the back of goaltender Denis Godla, the tournament MVP in 2015. Now, the Slovaks are going back to the drawing board.Orange 20 has been scrapped this year in favor of an under-18 squad that plays against other Slovakian junior teams and some Liga competition. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a big challenge,&rdquo; said new under-20 coach Robert Petrovicky. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re experimenting with something different.&rdquo;Petrovicky takes over the bench from longtime WJC coach Ernest Bokros, while Ivan Fenes will coach the new centralized under-18s. Overseeing everything is Slovak Federation president Miroslav Satan, the former NHLer.Satan and Petrovicky met recently with other Slovakian officials to plan for the future, and the Extraliga is getting involved, too. The pro league&rsquo;s teams are being encouraged to keep at least two under-20 players on their roster, and there will be financial incentives if those players average at least 10 minutes of ice time per game each month. &ldquo;These guys have to play at this level,&rdquo; Petrovicky said. &ldquo;They have to play with the big boys, and they learn a lot when they do. But they won&rsquo;t get it for free. They have to earn it and realize that someone is trying to help them. It&rsquo;s going to be up to them.&rdquo;<blockquote class="pullQuote">THEY HAVE TO PLAY WITH THE BIG BOYS, AND THEY LEARN A LOT WHEN THEY DO. THEY HAVE TO EARN IT. IT&rsquo;S UP TO THEM &ndash; Robert Petrovicky</blockquote>Already, the new under-18 squad has lost talent to teams in the Extraliga, Finland and Sweden, and some underagers have played in their absence, including 2004-born phenom defenseman Simon Nemec. Petrovicky noted the idea of creating a dedicated under-17 squad has also been bandied about. Losing talent to other places has been one controversial issue for Slovakian hockey, though usually North American major junior has been the culprit. Marincin played two seasons in the WHL &ndash; with Prince George and Regina &ndash; after being drafted by the Edmonton Oilers in 2010, and he had a positive experience. &ldquo;I had great billets in Prince George who helped me a lot,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It felt like home. I came here because I wanted to play in the NHL and just played and had fun. I was a happy man there.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/internation_011/615061-1-eng-US/internation_0112.jpg" title="internation_011" width="1182" height="894"><figcaption class="caption-body">HOME AGAINSlovan Bratislava, founded in 1921, has returned to the Extraliga after a failed seven-year foray in the KHL. (STEPHAN WOLDRON/SEPA.MEDIA/GETTY IMAGES)</figcaption></div>Petrovicky, who played in the NHL with Hartford and Tampa Bay among other teams, is OK with youngsters eschewing home for the CHL, with a caveat. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t mind, but make sure you&rsquo;re ready,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;If you want to go for it, try. Everything has two sides. We had a couple guys drafted this summer that decided to stay here and play in the top league. I was drafted by (WHL) Tri-City, but I was young, so I stayed home. I ended up winning a championship with Trencin a couple years later.&rdquo;Robert&rsquo;s younger brother Ronald Petrovicky (who also played in the NHL) did head to the CHL, also playing for Prince George. The Cougars&rsquo; other import at the time? One of the best Slovakian players ever, Zdeno Chara. Whether today&rsquo;s young Slovaks play at home or abroad, they need to keep their heads above water internationally. Last year&rsquo;s under-18 team got relegated at the worlds, so the new program basically needs to run the table at the Div. 1-A championship in April in order to climb back up to the top rung.On the pro side of the ledger, the Extraliga got a shot in the arm this season with the return of Slovan Bratislava from the KHL. The circumstances weren&rsquo;t ideal &ndash; the team ran into financial problems and had to retreat from the Russian-centric circuit &ndash; but it does bring one of Slovakia&rsquo;s best-known clubs back into the fold. Originally founded in 1921, Slovan&rsquo;s most famous players include Hall of Famers Peter Stastny and Vaclav Nedomansky. Former NHL defenseman Andrej Meszaros currently plays for the team. In 2012, the squad was lured over to the KHL, but success did not follow. The team only made the playoffs twice and was swept in the first round on both occasions. Keeping up with deep-pocketed competition was a problem.Coincidentally, Petrovicky used to be an assistant coach for Slovan, and he acknowledged the controversy surrounding the departure, but also had fond memories of those KHL days.&ldquo;Personally, I really enjoyed it,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;We had a few guys who made the national team because they had been playing such tough competition.&rdquo;At home, Slovan still needs to win back the hearts of fans who saw their team sink in the KHL. The road is a different story, however. &ldquo;Every away game they sell out now,&rdquo; Petrovicky said. &ldquo;People are looking forward to Slovan being back. It&rsquo;s like old times.&rdquo;Slovan&rsquo;s final pre-KHL season in Slovakia in 2012 resulted in a championship. In the team&rsquo;s first year back, they&rsquo;re near the top of the table. Home sweet home, it appears. &#9632;

internation_009

INTERNATIONAL

GAME CHANGE IN SLOVAKIA

<div class="byline">BY JARED CLINTON</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="grassroots1_032" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/grassroots1_032/615134-1-eng-US/grassroots1_0322.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">MADDY SAMOSKEVICH (PHOTO BY MATT ADDINGTON)</figcaption></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/grassroots2_033/615127-1-eng-US/grassroots2_0332.jpg" title="grassroots2_033" width="1018" height="1252"><figcaption class="caption-body">MACKIE SAMOSKEVICH (PHOTO BY MIKE MARCOTTE)</figcaption></div>FOR MOST HOCKEY parents, going through the post-secondary recruitment process with their children once is plenty. Twice is more than enough. But Fred and Patty Samoskevich can count themselves among a group of recruitment veterans who&rsquo;ve gone through the process three times, though it was only recently their eyes were opened to a whole new world.Over the past several years, they have watched their oldest daughter, Melissa, and 16-year-old twins, daughter Maddy and son Mackie, complete the college-hockey commitment trifecta. Back in 2014, when Melissa chose Quinnipiac University mere months into her tenure at Shattuck St. Mary&rsquo;s &ndash; all three of the Samoskevich children are Shattuck&rsquo;s alums &ndash; it was a relatively straight-forward process.It was much the same for Maddy, who arrived at Shattuck&rsquo;s for the 2016-17 season and not long after signed her letter of intent with Quinnipiac, following in her sister&rsquo;s footsteps. But for Mackie, who skated with the U.S. under-18 team at the Hlinka Gretzky Cup in August, the journey not only took far longer, but it was also &ldquo;scarier,&rdquo; Patty said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s very complicated,&rdquo; she added. &ldquo;You can make a wrong decision one year, and it could set you back two or three years depending on where you&rsquo;re going. When you&rsquo;re coming into a freshman or sophomore year, where you&rsquo;re playing as a U16, you could progress where you&rsquo;re going, or you could make a bad decision and it doesn&rsquo;t work out, and that puts you behind.&rdquo;It&rsquo;s those complexities and the pursuit of the NHL dream that result in one of the most noticeable differences in the development process for elite teenaged boys and girls, particularly when it comes to deciding where to spend their formative years.While Maddy visited schools she thought could be the right fit before making her decision &ndash; Quinnipiac &ldquo;felt like home,&rdquo; she said, which makes sense given its proximity to Sandy Hook, Conn., the Samoskevichs&rsquo; hometown &ndash; Mackie&rsquo;s quest to map out his on-ice future was instead aided by a family advisor. Beginning in his freshman year of high school, the Samoskevichs enlisted the help of Pat Brisson, the NHL agent who represents other Shattuck&rsquo;s grads like Sidney Crosby and Jonathan Toews, and at times Mackie leaned on Brisson for his expertise during the search for the right college program.&ldquo;Having an advisor for him to turn to, to talk through the process, the pros and cons&hellip;that was a big help,&rdquo; Patty said.But because of the weight of the decision and that a career in the big leagues could be at stake, commitment can be a painstaking process. Mackie didn&rsquo;t officially sign his letter of intent with University of Michigan until days before the Hlinka tournament, 20 months after Maddy had made her choice. Patty suggested the breadth of talent in the men&rsquo;s game and the limited spots mean recruiters want to take a longer look at each player and, at times, remain patient with their development. &ldquo;And sometimes, if you recruit too early, things can change in a year,&rdquo; Patty said. &ldquo;Boys, they are more careful and don&rsquo;t make the commitment as fast as the girls do.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/grassroots4_035/615120-1-eng-US/grassroots4_0352.jpg" title="grassroots4_035" width="1566" height="1104"><figcaption class="caption-body">CAREER GOALSMaddy Samoskevich is also set to play NCAA in 2020. But her hockey options are limited after college. (PHOTO BY MATT ADDINGTON)</figcaption></div>Maddy echoed that sentiment and quipped that she thinks it bothered Mackie that she was able to settle into her commitment nearly two years earlier. And she might be on to something there. According to Mackie, there were times he wished there were fewer distractions, that the process was simpler. &ldquo;I feel like my two first years at Shattuck were a little like, &lsquo;Oh, I have to do this, I have to do this, make sure colleges see me, make sure I&rsquo;m playing good,&rsquo;&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It would have been easier to just play hockey than think about, &lsquo;Oh, so-and-so is here,&rsquo; and stuff like that.&rdquo;Despite the difference in the search for an on-ice fit &ndash; and Maddy and Mackie made it clear the ability to grow their game was a significant element &ndash; one aspect remained the same for the Samoskevich twins: the importance of academics.Mackie, for instance, was selected 36th overall by the Rouyn-Noranda Huskies in the 2019 QMJHL draft, but he&rsquo;s spending this season with the USHL&rsquo;s Chicago Steel. That&rsquo;s not only because he believed it to be the best fit for him right now, but also because he wanted the opportunity to get a college education, and playing major junior would have made him ineligible for the NCAA.<blockquote class="pullQuote">I NEED TO FOCUS ON MY CAREER AND WHAT I WANT TO DO AFTER HOCKEY, BECAUSE I DON&rsquo;T HAVE A CHOICE TO MAKE HOCKEY MY LIVING, YOU KNOW? &ndash; Maddy Samoskevich</blockquote>Maddy, meanwhile, said academics &ldquo;were a huge factor&rdquo; in her decision, albeit for a different reason. &ldquo;I know (Mackie&rsquo;s) goal in the future is to make it to the NHL, so he&rsquo;s mostly focused on that, but of course he has a Plan B of finding something else career-wise,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;But definitely I feel like I need to focus more on my career and what I want to do after hockey for a living, because I don&rsquo;t have a choice to make hockey my living, you know?&rdquo;And that is indeed the unfortunate economic reality of the women&rsquo;s game despite the growth of the NWHL and the emergence of the Professional Women&rsquo;s Hockey Players&rsquo; Association. Maddy admitted, too, that it bothers her at times that Mackie &ldquo;has basically a whole load off his shoulders&rdquo; and can focus on making the most of his on-ice career, adding that she can still play in a professional women&rsquo;s circuit down the line and get paid to play, &ldquo;but it&rsquo;s nothing close to how much (Mackie) would make in the NHL and how he can make a living off of that.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/grassroots3_034/615113-1-eng-US/grassroots3_0342.jpg" title="grassroots3_034" width="1020" height="1120"><figcaption class="caption-body">MAN OF STEELMackie Samoskevich is playing for USHL Chicago this season before he heads to the NCAA in 2020. (PHOTO BY MIKE MARCOTTE)</figcaption></div>Even if the NHL is a possibility for Mackie, though, and even if the opportunity exists for Maddy, who has national-team aspirations, to earn a wage as part of Team USA, Patty said that education has to be a top priority regardless of gender. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s how you&rsquo;re raised,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;It would be great if you make the NHL, but you definitely have to have a fallback on education.&rdquo; &#9632;

grassroots1_032

GRASSROOTS

TWINS PEAKING

<div class="image-hero"><img title="biz1" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/biz1/615186-1-eng-US/biz12.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">(PHOTO BY SAM WASSON/GETTY IMAGES)</figcaption></div>KERRY BUBOLZ, president of the Vegas Golden Knights, spoke with The Hockey News publisher Graeme Roustan as part of our ongoing Peer-To-Peer Q&A series with prominent members of the hockey business world.GRAEME ROUSTAN: Let&rsquo;s go back to when you walked into Oklahoma State University back in 1985 or &rsquo;86. Did you ever think that one day you&rsquo;d be running one of the most successful franchises in pro sports?KERRY BUBOLZ: No, I can&rsquo;t say that I did. I didn&rsquo;t know anything about the business of sports. I really didn&rsquo;t know it existed. I knew that I loved sports, and I had an interest in it. But when I thought of sports marketing, I thought of companies like Nike. You know, Bo Jackson and &ldquo;Bo Knows Football&rdquo; or Michael Jordan and &ldquo;Do It Like Mike,&rdquo; and so I always thought I was going to work for a company like that. I was fortunate along the way to read an article about the business manager of the minor-league baseball team in my hometown of Tulsa. I remember thinking that&rsquo;s what I want to do, and I reached out and ended up meeting with him, and it really kind of went from there. I started working in minor-league baseball, and was fortunate to touch most of the professional sports out there. But hockey, really, from early on, became a passion, and I just enjoyed the experience of the game even though I didn&rsquo;t have the opportunity to play it growing up in Oklahoma.GR: How did you get your start in the NHL with the Carolina Hurricanes?KB: Prior to that, I was working in Cleveland with the IHL&rsquo;s Lumberjacks. I&rsquo;d been there six years, started out by running the sales sponsorships and the broadcasting areas and then eventually became the president and COO of that franchise. Our owner at the time, Larry Gordon, ended up selling the team, and it just felt like it was time for me to take the next step. I had worked 11 or 12 years in professional sports but never at the major-league level, and it felt like it was time to make that jump. A gentleman by the name of Doug Piper, who was actually working for the Edmonton Oilers, was hired to lead Carolina&rsquo;s business operations, and he hired me to run the sales, sponsorships and ticket sales for the Hurricanes. And that&rsquo;s how I got started in the NHL.GR: And then your next stop was with the Dallas Stars, right?KB: Yes, it was a brief stop with Dallas. At the time, Tom Hicks owned (baseball&rsquo;s) Texas Rangers as well. My timing wasn&rsquo;t great, literally within a couple of months after I arrived in Dallas they decided to split the organization because Hicks was selling off the Stars. And so I ended up being more focused on the baseball side with the Rangers, and the candid answer is that really wasn&rsquo;t why I went there or my passion, and so it was a pretty short run in Dallas. But I had an opportunity to go back to Cleveland, in a familiar environment in the same building that I was working with the Lumberjacks. I went back and worked for the NBA team, the Cavaliers, and I was there for 13 years, and it was a great business experience.GR: Can you share how your move to Vegas went down?KB: In Cleveland, in addition to my role with the Cavaliers, we owned an AHL team. And the people in Cleveland who knew me well, even though I was very focused on the NBA side, I was also the president and governor of our AHL franchise, so I was very active, and that was connected to a lot of NHL relationships. (Vegas) knew my passion for hockey and reached out and said, &ldquo;Would you be interested in being a part of our process as we look to hire a president to run the team?&rdquo; We had just finished winning the Calder Cup with the Lake Erie Monsters, and then, literally nine days later, we won the NBA championship with the Cavaliers, so it was a pretty exciting time in the market. But my ultimate passion was to get to the NHL and lead a business organization, so even though we had incredible momentum with those two situations, it felt like it was a good time to move on. And so I jumped at the opportunity and it&rsquo;s been tremendous from Day 1 when I arrived here in October 2016.GR: Of course, the thing everyone talks about is the on-ice performance of the Golden Knights in their first season. But when you&rsquo;re running a business, there&rsquo;s a lot of groundwork. What were the early challenges from a business point of view?KB: First of all, as it relates to what happened on the ice, all of the credit and the work was really led by George McPhee, under the guidance of our owner, Bill Foley. In a lot of ways we divided and conquered, George focused on hockey and I focused on business and we worked closely together on those areas that would cross over. All of my time was spent thinking about the business and what we needed to do to lay the foundation to build this brand. We knew there was a national narrative that we had a bad logo and a bad name and it was a bad idea to put a team in the desert. But I already knew the numbers. We had already seen what had happened here with the ticket drive. We knew people were prepared to spend the type of money and make the investments that are necessary to make these teams work. The NHL is not a cheap business, and the average ticket price and the revenues that are necessary to support these organizations are significant. But there was already a great foundation in place, and we had 16,000 people who said, &ldquo;Hey, we&rsquo;re prepared to put down deposits on a multi-year basis.&rdquo; We have three-, five-, seven-and 10-year season-ticket commitments. Based on that, I put together a plan that I presented as part of the interview process with Bill Foley and really just went through each area of the business and laid out what I believed would be the most important things that you need to do to lay a foundation to build a successful sports organization. It was heavily focused on the core things we had to do in that first year. And so if I step back and say, &ldquo;What am I most proud of about Year 1,&rdquo; it&rsquo;s that we were able to prioritize and do it at a very high level. We needed to get the season-ticket base and get those deposits converted, and we did that. We needed to build out a sponsorship platform and drive our sponsorship revenues to the level that we needed them to be, and we did that. We needed to put a game presentation in place. This is the entertainment capital of the world, and there was a heavy expectation on that side of the business. So we weren&rsquo;t going to just play hockey, we were going to put on a show for people that was very, very much consistent with the Vegas marketplace.<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/biz2/615165-1-eng-US/biz22.jpg" title="biz2" width="1570" height="935"><figcaption class="caption-body">GOLD STANDARDBubolz, right, with casino CEO Derek Stevens and coach Gerard Gallant, has big plans for the Vegas &ldquo;brand.&rdquo; (PHOTO BY SAM WASSON/GETTY IMAGES)</figcaption></div>GR: You&rsquo;ve got this &lsquo;VGK Worldwide&rsquo; initiative. Are you expanding the brand outside of the state? Is that what you&rsquo;re doing?KB: We really are. Our TV territory covers Montana, Utah, Idaho, Wyoming, all of Nevada, parts of California, and parts of northern Arizona, so we wanted to have a distribution partner that can touch all of those areas. And it was really more of a mantra that our owner had put out, &ldquo;Let&rsquo;s be the team of the Rockies,&rdquo; and it&rsquo;s really focused on that. But after we made the playoffs in that first season, we started to hear from people in Europe. I remember meeting a woman from Australia, and she was talking about watch parties that she was having, so that&rsquo;s really where we started thinking that Vegas is already a global brand. So we started to think about &lsquo;VGK Worldwide&rsquo; and what that program would look like. And we put together a member kit, which has unique products in it, just for people who are a part of the &lsquo;VGK Worldwide.&rsquo; And through technology, they&rsquo;re able to mark their place on a map, and then find other Golden Knights fans in their community or in their region. And we create content that we distribute through our social channels to them.Listen to the full Q&A with Kerry Bubolz at <a href="http://TheHockeyNews.com/P2P">TheHockeyNews.com/P2P</a><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/sipcover3/615172-1-eng-US/sipcover2.jpg" title="sipcover" width="238" height="331"><figcaption class="caption-body">For more insider information on the business of hockey, pick up our annual Money & Power Special Edition, available at:&nbsp;<a href="http://TheHockeyNews.com/store">THEHOCKEYNEWS.COM/STORE</a></figcaption></div> &#9632;

biz1

BUSINESS

FIRST NEVADA, THEN THE WORLD

mystery1

Mystery, Alaska: An Oral History

Building a Mystery

<div class="byline">BY BRIAN COSTELLO</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="rewind_habs_043" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/rewind_habs_043/615325-1-eng-US/rewind_habs_0432.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">DETECTIVE WORKThe photo has no date, but the roster of players visible represents a specific Habs season, creating a timestamp. (PHOTO COURTESY OF BRIAN COSTELLO)</figcaption></div>ONE OF THE FIRST things you notice in this photo from 1927 is the youthful look of excitement on the face of Howie Morenz, seated in the snow in the middle. He either just shared a laugh with Herb Gardiner, looking down on him from his left, or he got a nudge in the back from the foot of Pit Lepine, standing above him with a devilish look to Morenz&rsquo; right.Maybe Morenz and George Hainsworth shared a joke about how they&rsquo;ll soon be walking away from this photo shoot with wet bums. They&rsquo;re lying in the snow with the same gap-lipped smile, suggesting they were laughing or talking a second earlier.Whatever it was, Morenz looks great. A happy kid. Just 24. Hanging out with his Montreal teammates. That&rsquo;s such a different look from what hockey&rsquo;s history has taught us over the decades. Morenz was one of the game&rsquo;s early greats &ndash; maybe the first true superstar of the NHL. But by the time he was 30, he was broken down and tired. When he was 32 and playing in Chicago, he looked 50. His game deteriorated and he became a nervous wreck. He broke his leg at 34, went to hospital and was dead less than six weeks later.Not on this day. Young Morenz was in his prime. He was in his fourth NHL season with the Canadiens and on his way to finishing second in the league in goals. He won the goal-scoring title the next season. He&rsquo;d win his third Hart Trophy a few years later and would score his 200th NHL goal before playing in his 300th game.And on this day, he was frolicking in the snow with the rest of the Habs. There were four Hall of Famers in the group you see here. Gardiner and Hainsworth were in their 30s but playing in their first NHL seasons after storied careers in the comparable Western League. Sylvio Mantha, standing above Hainsworth with a foot resting on the goalie, was a 23-year-old blueliner in his fourth NHL season. Another Hall of Famer, Aurel Joliat, was on the team but not in the photo. Could he have been the one snapping the shot? He did a lot of that on the ice, scoring 30 goals in 25 games two years earlier.It&rsquo;s a rare photo. Here&rsquo;s the story behind it.Herb Gardiner is my great uncle. He&rsquo;s a Winnipeg native who served in the First World War. After service, he became an engineer settling in Calgary. He was a force for the WHL&rsquo;s Calgary Tigers, typically playing 60 minutes a game on defense. The Tigers lost to the Montreal Canadiens in the 1924 Stanley Cup final, and after the last game, the Canadiens offered Gardiner a contract for the 1924-25 season. Gardiner declined, saying he was raising his family in Calgary. When the WHL folded in 1926, the Canadiens went after Gardiner again. He accepted the offer and went on to win the Hart Trophy as a 35-year-old rookie. He&rsquo;s one of just three rookies to win the Hart.Partway through Herb&rsquo;s rookie season, the Canadiens must have gone out to the back country during a break in the schedule for a retreat to a cabin on snowshoes. That&rsquo;s when this photo was taken. It became part of the Herb Gardiner scrapbook collection, compiled by his wife Carrie. It was later passed along to his daughter Pat, then her cousin Barry (my father), then recently to me. I had never seen that image before and was stunned when I first set eyes on it. It&rsquo;s pure art.Players are identified by last name, written in ink on the 7-by-10-inch print itself. We don&rsquo;t know whose penmanship it is. There&rsquo;s no date written on it, but the neat thing about a team photo is you can time stamp what season it&rsquo;s from by the players you see. Laying in the snow next to Morenz is Carson Cooper, a 27-year-old right winger who only spent a few months with the Canadiens. He was acquired Jan. 17, 1927 from Boston in a trade for Bill Boucher. The two players were returned to their original team May 22.That&rsquo;s the window. After the Canadiens acquired Cooper, they had three five-days breaks in their schedule when they were in Montreal &ndash; late January, early February and mid-March. One of those is probably when they had this team outing.Most players are on snowshoes. People in street shoes are standing on the snowshoes of their teammates for this photo, as though they&rsquo;d sink too much in the snow or the frozen ground was uncomfortably cold on their feet. Four players are wearing their Canadiens sweaters &ndash; they were wool, after all, and warm on cold, snowy days. The cresting isn&rsquo;t consistent, though, but Montreal Canadiens historian Carl Lavigne said there was little regard for uniformity in team jerseys back then, saying it was usually the trainer or his wife who sewed things together. The sleeve patch you see on a couple sweaters was done for the 1925-26 season, so it looks as though Art Gagne and &lsquo;Battleship&rsquo; Leduc were hanging out in the previous season&rsquo;s duds.In addition to the 11 players in the photo (NHL teams went with 10 skaters in the 1920s), there are some team personnel, including Canadiens part-owner Louis A. Letourneau (wearing a fur coat and smoking a cigar), trainer Ed Dufour, club secretary Jules Dugal, and reserve goalie Alphonse Lacroix, as well as men identified as Kennedy and Disken. Historian Lavigne has no record of their first names.It certainly looks like it was a good bonding session that day. Montreal was 10-10-1 before acquiring Cooper, then went 18-4-1 afterwards, losing in the second round of the playoffs to eventual Cup champion Ottawa. Was this the trigger for the turnaround?Maybe. When Morenz was happy, the Habs were doing well. &#9632;

rewind_habs_043

Rewind

IF A PICTURE COULD TALK

<div class="byline">BY RYAN KENNEDY</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="next_byram" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/next_byram/615370-1-eng-US/next_byram2.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">THE RICH GET RICHERThe Avs will soon add Byram, a point-per-gamer last season, to a &lsquo;D&rsquo; already stacked with offensive talent. (RICH LAM/GETTY IMAGES)</figcaption></div>THE COLORADO AVALANCHE knew they had a reputation, and it wasn&rsquo;t a good one. For years, the organization struggled to develop NHL-caliber defensemen, with top-50 draft picks such as Duncan Siemens, Cameron Gaunce, Chris Bigras and Stefan Elliott failing to make an impact.Fast-forward and the team is swimming in promising young blueliners. &ldquo;We got beat up a few years ago because we didn&rsquo;t have that, so we&rsquo;ve rectified that problem,&rdquo; said Alan Hepple, the Avs&rsquo; director of amateur scouting. &ldquo;Probably to the point it&rsquo;s going to be really good. It&rsquo;s going to be fun.&rdquo;With Cale Makar as the marquee name, Samuel Girard coming in via trade and top-100 prospect Conor Timmins in the system, the Avs were already off to a good start, and then they snagged Bowen Byram fourth overall in the 2019 draft.The top blueliner in the class, Byram led the WHL playoffs in scoring with 26 points in 22 games as his Vancouver Giants went all the way to the league final before falling to the Prince Albert Raiders. Byram was also more than a point-per-gamer from the back end in the regular season, so yeah, he can drive the offense.The dream scenario would be to have the lefty Byram and right-shot Makar on a dashing pair in the near-future (or at least manning the points on the power play together).Hailing from Cranbrook, B.C., Byram may never be the best defenseman ever to come out of that town, but the bar is pretty high. In 1991, the New Jersey Devils selected a Cranbrook kid named Scott Niedermayer third overall. The Niedermayers and Byrams know each other, and for Colorado&rsquo;s newest defensive gem, it&rsquo;s wild to think of the parallel. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s pretty unbelievable to be mentioned in the same sentence as him,&rdquo; Byram said. &ldquo;He was such an incredible player and person. He&rsquo;s definitely somebody I look up to.&rdquo;Another key figure in Byram&rsquo;s life has been Giants coach Michael Dyck. The two met on a spring hockey team Byram played for, and at age 12, Byram moved to Lethbridge, Alta., to play for Dyck full-time on the bantam Lethbridge Golden Hawks. Not long after, they reunited when Dyck was hired by the WHL&rsquo;s Giants. That squad built up during Byram&rsquo;s tenure, culminating in the run to the final last season and a lot of great lessons. &ldquo;Whenever you&rsquo;re on a run like that, there are a lot of highs and lows,&rdquo; Byram said. &ldquo;We had an unbelievable group, a really resilient group, so it was a lot of fun. We had tremendous character on that team, and I learned a lot about myself.&rdquo;And to think: this is only the beginning for Byram. Must be nice to be the Avs right now.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/next_byram3_078/615356-1-eng-US/next_byram3_0782.jpg" title="next_byram3_078" width="577" height="800"><figcaption class="caption-body">BOWEN BYRAM (ETHAN MILLER/GETTY IMAGES)</figcaption></div>For daily prospect coverage, vist&nbsp;<a href="http://TheHockeyNews.com">THEHOCKEYNEWS.COM</a> &#9632;

next_byram

WEAKNESS BECOMES FORCE

<div class="byline">BY ALAN BASS</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="next_obrien_079" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/next_obrien_079/615408-1-eng-US/next_obrien_0792.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">SPRING IN HIS STEPA bigger and stronger O&rsquo;Brien has quickly shown signs of his old swagger with BCHL Penticton. (PHOTO BY JACK MURRAY)</figcaption></div>SELDOM DOES THE HOCKEY world see a first-round draft pick decide to drop down a level of competition. But that&rsquo;s exactly what Jay O&rsquo;Brien has done, in the hopes it will carve him a clearer path to the NHL.Despite being an undersized center, O&rsquo;Brien was highly touted going into his draft year. He committed to Providence College at 15, securing his dream of playing NCAA hockey. Notching 43 goals and 80 points in 30 games in his final year at Thayer Academy prep school, the native of Hingham, Mass., dominated a program that has churned out multiple NHLers. At the USA Hockey under-18 nationals the same year, he posted eight points in eight games.O&rsquo;Brien played an excellent 200-foot game. His teammates, coaches and the scouts marvelled at his balanced commitment to offense and defense and putting the team above his own ambitions. Seeing his upside, the Philadelphia Flyers selected him 19th overall in the 2018 NHL draft.But when O&rsquo;Brien began his first season of NCAA hockey, he hit a wall. As an undersized forward at 5-foot-11 and just over 170 pounds, playing on a team loaded with talent down the middle, O&rsquo;Brien found himself fighting for ice time and struggling to put the puck in the net. His season was further derailed when two concussions relegated him to the stands while his teammates competed for a national championship. The Friars&rsquo; 2018-19 season ended with a healthy O&rsquo;Brien helplessly watching from the press box while his teammates played in the Frozen Four.It was, without question, the most difficult point of O&rsquo;Brien&rsquo;s hockey career. For the first time, he seemed unable to keep up. While it is difficult for any college freshman to play against older opponents, it is doubly so for a center who doesn&rsquo;t have the muscle to compete. &ldquo;I wasn&rsquo;t ready for that challenge,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It seemed like every time I took a few steps forward, I&rsquo;d take a step back. It was frustrating.&rdquo;By the end of last season, O&rsquo;Brien knew he needed a change. He made the excruciating decision to walk into coach Nate Leaman&rsquo;s office and inform him he was leaving. &ldquo;I just needed to clear my head,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;I guess take a step back. I just told him I needed to re-evaluate things&hellip;Things change, things happen, that&rsquo;s life. Everybody&rsquo;s got to make moves to better themselves and go to a place where they&rsquo;re most happy.&rdquo;His search for a new hockey club was supported by everyone involved &ndash; his parents, Frank and Amy; his agent, Matt Keator; and, the Flyers organization. &ldquo;I sat down with (Flyers executives) Chuck Fletcher and Brent Flahr at the end of (2019 rookie) camp,&rdquo; O&rsquo;Brien said, &ldquo;And they basically said, &lsquo;We&rsquo;re going to support you, we see you&rsquo;re not different than when we drafted you. Don&rsquo;t let the one bump in the road turn things around.&rsquo;&rdquo;He landed with the Penticton Vees of the B.C. League, one of Jr. A&rsquo;s most prolific organizations. With the change of scenery came a change in O&rsquo;Brien&rsquo;s eating, sleeping, and working habits. He added 12 pounds of muscle and bulked up to 184 pounds. For Vees coach Fred Harbinson, it was a unique opportunity to take a talented player and build him back up to his potential. The team helped O&rsquo;Brien regain his confidence back by placing him on a line with Jackson Niedermayer (son of former NHLer Scott) and Alex DiPaolo, two talented forwards committed to playing NCAA hockey next season. In the team&rsquo;s first four games, O&rsquo;Brien posted seven points, including the overtime winner in the team&rsquo;s fourth game that showcased his speed and slick hands.His teammates have responded to his positive attitude, rallying around him as someone who can lead by example and through his experience. O&rsquo;Brien was named an alternate captain before even suiting up for his first game. &ldquo;When he comes to the rink every day, you can see he&rsquo;s going to be a leader for us,&rdquo; Harbinson said. &ldquo;He has a real good demeanor that way. On the ice he&rsquo;s leading by example with his work ethic.&rdquo;Although the season is still young, O&rsquo;Brien has regained the swagger that intrigued scouts in his draft year. His game is back to where it was, and he is confident that next season, when he suits up for Boston University, the result will be different. Life may knock you down and when it does, it&rsquo;s going to, in his words, &ldquo;suck.&rdquo; But there&rsquo;s no shame in admitting failure. The most important thing is to acknowledge the setback, get up off the mat and put yourself back in a position to succeed. &#9632;

next_obrien_079

GOING DOWN TO GET BACK UP

<div class="byline">BY RYAN KENNEDY</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="next_boldy" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/next_boldy/615446-1-eng-US/next_boldy2.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">BIGGER STAGE, BIGGER BOYBoldy had a huge growth spurt in the past couple of years &ndash; just in time to tackle college competition. (USA HOCKEY)</figcaption></div>AS FAR AS ORIGIN stories go, Matthew Boldy has a pretty good one. Lost amidst a sea of bigger names like Jack Hughes and Trevor Zegras, Boldy nearly didn&rsquo;t make the final 40-man tryout roster for USA Hockey&rsquo;s National Team Development Program in 2017. But enough staffers believed in giving the 5-foot-10, 160-pound Massachusetts kid a chance.Boldy blossomed on the ice &ndash; and also grew four inches, while putting on 25 pounds &ndash; to become one of the team&rsquo;s deadliest forwards. After two seasons with the NTDP, he was drafted 12th overall in 2019 by the Minnesota Wild. &ldquo;I knew how other people were thinking about me when I came in, but I had confidence in myself,&rdquo; Boldy said. &ldquo;I proved a lot of people wrong and, going into my under-17 year, I opened some eyes. Following my under-18 year, I proved I could play at that level and be an elite player.&rdquo;A Boston College commit who grew up watching Eagles such as Johnny Gaudreau and Kevin Hayes, Boldy dreamt of playing for Hall of Fame coach Jerry York and, this fall, Boldy will get that opportunity. He&rsquo;ll also get to play in the four-team Beanpot tournament that all of Boston&rsquo;s NCAA scene lives for, with his former NTDP mates on both sides: goalie Spencer Knight joins him at BC, while Zegras, among others will suit up for the rival Boston U. Terriers. &ldquo;It was a big attraction, being able to play in the Beanpot,&rdquo; Boldy said. &ldquo;I grew up going to those games. And being able to play some of my best friends, guys I basically lived with for the past two years, is going to be pretty special.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/next_boldy2_059/615439-1-eng-US/next_boldy2_0592.jpg" title="next_boldy2_059" width="472" height="581"><figcaption class="caption-body">MATTHEW BOLDY (KEVIN LIGHT/GETTY IMAGES)</figcaption></div>As for the Wild, they&rsquo;re incredibly excited about the big winger&rsquo;s potential. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s competitive, he&rsquo;s strong, and he&rsquo;s got a great sense for the game offensively,&rdquo; said Brad Bombardir, director of player development. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s got a good feel for pucks along the wall and creating space for himself or lanes to make plays.&rdquo;While Boldy will need a few years in college before he&rsquo;s ready for the pro game, the youngster can use that forgiving NCAA schedule to build his strength in the gym. &ldquo;Going to college will be a great opportunity to get stronger and get more leg strength underneath him to improve his skating,&rdquo; Bombardir said. &ldquo;Staying low and powerful will help him on that inside ice and on cycles.&rdquo;As for growing off the ice, it sounds as though Boldy is already ahead of the curve. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s a very impressive young man,&rdquo; Bombardir said. &ldquo;Character for us is huge.&rdquo; &#9632;

next_boldy

RUNT OF LITTER EXACTS REVENGE

<div class="byline">BY RYAN KENNEDY</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="next_seider_007" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/next_seider_007/615522-1-eng-US/next_seider_0072.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">(CITY-PRESS VIA GETTY IMAGES)</figcaption></div>HOCKEY IQ "We do like that. He&rsquo;s a smart player, and he plays the game with his head up. In the transition game, you have to move it right away, and he sees the ice really well. And the one thing I&rsquo;ve noticed is how hard he passes the puck. For an 18-year-old kid, he snaps his passes. Our player development guys, Shawn Horcoff and Dan Cleary, that&rsquo;s something they talk to the younger guys about, passing the puck harder. And Moritz gets it. When he sees it, he snaps that puck.&rdquo;DEFENSE "Any 18-year-old defenseman has to continue to improve on that. Sometimes physically, he gets into a battle with players that are four, five, six years older and that&rsquo;s when he puts himself in a bit of trouble. But he obviously has a good build (6-foot-4), and you know he&rsquo;s going to get stronger.&rdquo;SKATING "We think he's a very good skater. With his position, there&rsquo;s a need for mobility and definitely off-the-rush defending. He has good feet and good awareness. When you can get back to pucks quick, it&rsquo;s going to help on breakouts.&rdquo;COMPETE LEVEL "The first game (in Traverse City) he took a pretty good shot (high hit) from Kirby Dach, and we thought he responded well. Everyone was wondering how that would go. He stayed on the bench, talked to the trainer, and you could see a little fire there. He wanted to get back on the ice, and that&rsquo;s something you love to see.&rdquo;PLAYMAKING "When you're a smart player with hockey sense and vision, you&rsquo;re going to be able to make that good first pass. A couple times under pressure, he has shown the ability to make that little pop-out play, which is a huge asset going forward to be a high-end NHL defenseman.&rdquo;SHOT "We like the way he shoots and it comes back to his footwork, how he walks the blueline. He has some deception with the puck and he does a real nice job getting pucks to the net.&rdquo; &#9632;

next_seider_007

SCOUTING REPORT MORITZ SEIDER

<div class="byline">WITH RYAN KENNEDY</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="next_veleno_083" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/next_veleno_083/615560-1-eng-US/next_veleno_0832.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">GRAND, RAPID ASCENSIONThe Griffins will be a fun bunch to watch, especially with Veleno joining the squad as a rare 19-year-old from major junior. (GRAND RAPIDS GRIFFINS)</figcaption></div>YOU HAVE TO HAND it to AHL president Dave Andrews: he takes the old &ldquo;campsite rule&rdquo; very seriously. Because when Andrews retires this June, he will be leaving the league in much better shape than when he first got there.The most recent good news comes from Palm Springs, where the California resort town is poised to become the league&rsquo;s 32nd franchise and NHL Seattle&rsquo;s farm team for the 2021-22 season. But we&rsquo;ve still got a lot of time before the Fightin&rsquo; Coachellas take to the ice. In the here and now, the AHL promises to be filled with exciting talent this year, even more so than usual.While the majority of NHL players still come through the AHL first, it seems like this season is particularly fruitful. One factor is the amount of European kids who are coming over to North America earlier in order to get their bearings in the different rinks and cultures that make up the sport here. They all have NHL dreams, and spending time in major junior or the USHL or the NCAA before turning pro allows them to get used to life on this side of the pond.Because of this trend, we&rsquo;re seeing high-end teens or players who just turned 20 in the AHL. Vitali Kravtsov (New York Rangers) in Hartford, Rasmus Kupari (Los Angeles) in Ontario and Lucas Elvenes (Vegas) in Chicago are a few examples of guys getting their first North American experience. But if you want a team that really embodies the excitement in the AHL this season, look to the Grand Rapids Griffins.<blockquote class="pullQuote">WITH SO MANY YOUNGSTERS MAKING THE NHL THESE DAYS, YOU&rsquo;D THINK THE AHL WOULD BE ADVERSELY AFFECTED. THAT&rsquo;S NOT THE CASE</blockquote>Detroit&rsquo;s farm team has been blessed with an abundance of talent, including 2019 first-round draft pick Moritz Seider. The 18-year-old defenseman decided to stay in North America instead of returning to Germany, where he would have played big minutes for Adler Mannheim in the DEL. Seider was part of the Red Wings&rsquo; entry that won the Traverse City prospects tournament this September, an eight-team affair in Michigan hosted by Detroit. Also on that squad were 2018 first-rounders Filip Zadina and Joe Veleno and both of them started the season with the Griffins, too. Toss in high-end prospects such as Michael Rasmussen, Evgeny Svechnikov, Givani Smith and star goalie Filip Larsson, and you&rsquo;ve got a very fun team to watch.Veleno is particularly interesting because he is the rare 19-year-old Canadian allowed to play in the AHL. Veleno was the first player in QMJHL history to gain exceptional status, which means he played for the Saint John Sea Dogs as a 15-year-old in 2015-16. So even though major junior players aren&rsquo;t supposed to join the AHL until they&rsquo;re 20, Veleno had already exhausted his four years of duty (ending with Drummondville).Now, I could certainly open up a can of worms about why more 19-year-old Canadian kids could easily play in the AHL even without playing four years of major junior, but column space is precious, my friends, and I simply don&rsquo;t have the inches. So let&rsquo;s just appreciate the fact Veleno managed to be the exception to the rule.As the Red Wings rebuild, they will need their youngsters to battle each other for spots. Internal competition is the first barrier to overcome and, by having so many suitors for a couple spots in the NHL, the Griffins will (hopefully) get everyone&rsquo;s best effort each night.With so many youngsters making NHL rosters these days, you would think the AHL would be adversely affected, but that has not been the case. If anything, you&rsquo;re getting more college kids like Oliver Wahlstrom (New York Islanders) and Joel Farabee (Philadelphia) leaving school earlier because they think they&rsquo;re up for the challenge of the pro game &ndash; and that&rsquo;s great news for Bridgeport and Lehigh Valley, respectively. If these kids can hang, then the second-best league in the world is the place to be.If these trends continue, the AHL is going to be wildly fun for a long time. I hope Palm Springs is ready for it.&nbsp;Twitter: <a datastyle href="https://twitter.com/THNRyanKennedy?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor">@THNRYANKENNEDY</a> &#9632;

next_veleno_083

The Straight Edge

GREAT BOUNTY ON THE FARM

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0081-0130/615650-1-eng-US/f0081-012.jpg" title="f0081-01" width="939" height="417"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0081-0218/615643-1-eng-US/f0081-022.jpg" title="f0081-02" width="939" height="417"><figcaption class="caption-body">Answer: Brianna Decker (GETTY IMAGES)</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0081-01

Name Game

While it&rsquo;s no Hart Trophy, being named All-Star Game MVP is impressive. Listed here are 10 ASG MVPs since 2000. The full name of the first formally recognized All-Star Game MVP, from 1962, will appear in the red boxes.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0081-0311/615681-1-eng-US/f0081-032.jpg" title="f0081-03" width="690" height="967"><figcaption class="caption-body">PUCK PUZZLE SOLUTION: JOHANSEN, SIMMONDS, DAZE, GABORIK, HEATLEY, BOESER, SHARP, STAAL, SCOTt, SAKIC (FINAL ANSWER: EDDIE SHACK)&nbsp;</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0081-03

Puck Puzzle

<div class="byline">WITH KEN CAMPBELL</div>DURING A VISIT TO the United Kingdom this summer, my wife and I stayed a couple of nights with some friends who moved to the countryside where roads are really narrow and the shoulder is comprised of a 10-foot hedge. One of the days was transfer-deadline day, which is every bit as big and overhyped as the NHL trade deadline and free-agent frenzy.It was during that trip that my host revealed his allegiance as a Norwich City supporter. He spoke wistfully and nostalgically about the 1993 season when his team finished third in the Premier League. Third. Apparently for a team that has virtually no chance of ever winning anything and basically serves as a supplier of players to the richest teams in the league, taking bronze 26 years ago is considered an historic event.They&rsquo;ve been playing football in Norwich since 1902, and 1993 marked the only time in its history the team finished in the league&rsquo;s top three. It might be another 117 years before that happens again. In the past 27 years, Manchester United has won the title 13 times, Chelsea five, Manchester City four and Arsenal three. The only outliers in that time have been the Blackburn Rovers and Leicester City.That got me thinking about Gary Bettman&rsquo;s NHL, where the most redeeming quality of the Original 31 is that, on any night, any team can beat any other team; where teams are so closely aligned that all you have to do is make the playoffs and you have a legitimate chance of winning a championship; where you can be dead-last when the calendar turns to January, then host a Stanley Cup parade six months later. The NHL in this era of its history is not tight. It is hermetically sealed.And you know what? That&rsquo;s OK. It&rsquo;s actually more than OK. This season in Major League Baseball, the Detroit Tigers finished 53.5 games out of first place. Four years ago, the NBA&rsquo;s Philadelphia 76ers won 10 games out of 82. Ten. As of this writing, the NFL&rsquo;s 0-4 Miami Dolphins were averaging barely more than one point scored for every touchdown they were giving up.The first couple weeks of the NHL season, meanwhile, produced nothing but lead changes and surprises. Unlike in a lot of other leagues, there is no night when an NHL team can throw its sticks on the ice and be assured of a win. Ever. And what the NHL loses in dynastic teams that set the standard for everyone else it gains in utter chaos during games and in the standings. Say what you want about the much-maligned loser point and the faux .500 teams all over the league, but at the very least you can almost get back into the playoff picture with a three-game winning streak.Back in the day, I used to love dominant teams that wreaked havoc on the rest of the NHL. I was weaned on the Montreal Canadiens of the 1960s and &rsquo;70s, who would simply tell their fans every year that the parade would follow &ldquo;the usual route.&rdquo; That was followed in successive decades by the New York Islanders, then the Edmonton Oilers, with the Philadelphia Flyers and Pittsburgh Penguins having mini-dynasties. The Oilers set a standard for talent and offense that was impossible to match, and it brought out the best in teams such as the Calgary Flames. You went into a lot of those seasons pretty sure who was going to win, but the way those teams ran roughshod over the league was something to admire and behold.<blockquote class="pullQuote">IN GARY BETTMAN&rsquo;S NHL, YOU CAN BE DEAD-LAST IN JANUARY AND THEN HOST A STANLEY CUP PARADE SIX MONTHS LATER</blockquote>So try picking a winner in the NHL these days. Good luck with that. The Tampa Bay Lightning tied the record for regular-season victories last year, and as comedian Kenan Thompson pointed out at the NHL Awards ceremony, they tied another record for fewest wins in the playoffs with zero. Would anyone really be super surprised if the Carolina Hurricanes won the Stanley Cup this season? How about the Colorado Avalanche?<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/lastword_bi_080/615712-1-eng-US/lastword_bi_0802.jpg" title="lastword_bi_080" width="782" height="1364"><figcaption class="caption-body">JORDAN BINNINGTON (BRUCE BENNETT/GETTY IMAGES)</figcaption></div>Whether it&rsquo;s the salary cap or the gruelling path to a championship or the fact NHL teams no longer have to endure an agonizingly long rebuild if they do things right, there has never been a time in the game&rsquo;s history when it&rsquo;s been more difficult to project a winner &ndash; in single games or over the course of a season. (Which is why we wonder a little why the NHL is so intent on getting involved in legalized gambling. Why would you spend money gambling on a sport that is almost impossible to predict?)In Bettman&rsquo;s NHL, it is of paramount concern that every fan in every market goes to a game feeling like his or her team has a chance to do something special. That&rsquo;s because the NHL is not the NFL, where terrible teams are awarded with enough TV money to run their operations before they sell a single ticket. The NHL isn&rsquo;t selling skill and wins and losses as much as it is selling hope. And when it comes to doing that, business has never been better. If it keeps fans engaged and observers scratching their heads, that&rsquo;s not a bad thing at all.Twitter:&nbsp;<a datastyle href="https://twitter.com/THNKenCampbell?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor">@THNKENCAMPBELL</a>&nbsp; &#9632;

lastword_bi_080

The Last Word

WELCOME TO THE ERA OF HOPE

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-01210/617902-1-eng-US/f0004-012.jpg" title="f0004-012" width="518" height="698"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/005b_thn_7218.p1_150dpi-23/617909-1-eng-US/005b_thn_7218.p1_150dpi-2.jpg" title="005b_THN_7218.p1_150dpi-2" width="2169" height="2884"></div> &#9632;

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