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July 1, 2020

July 1, 2020

In the July edition of The Hockey News, we have features on Tuukka Rask, Elvis Merzlikins, projected rosters for the 2022 Olympics, and what the NHL will look like in 2020-21. Plus: some of the games biggest names tell us the best advice they ever received, who are the NHL's best bang-for-buck players, and much more.

WOMEN’S HOCKEY

BREAKING INTO THE BOYS’ CLUB

FLORENCE SCHELLING already had quite the resume. She’s one of the top goaltenders in women’s hockey history, having won the Olympic tournament MVP representing Switzerland in 2014. She was a Patty Kazmaier finalist when she played Div. I college hockey at Northeastern. In the last three seasons of her career, playing for Linkoping in the SDHL, her worst goals-against average and save percentage were 1.65 and .938. She’s the only woman to compete in the Swiss Men’s National B League, too. She retired in 2018 with a list of accolades that could earn her Hall of Fame juice someday. And yet, with all due respect to her accomplishments to this point, what she accomplished in early April may eventually define her hockey career more than anything else. SC Bern of the Swiss…

NHL TEAM REPORTS

BEST BANK FOR BUCK

>ANAHEIM DUCKS The Ducks are a bit of an oddity in that they didn’t have a single player who greatly outperformed his contract. Derek Grant was third on the team in goals (14 in 49 games) on a league-minimum deal, but he was dealt to Philadelphia. So give the honor to Rickard Rakell, second on the team in scoring and making less than $4 million. >ARIZONA COYOTES Darcy Kuemper had five seasons of NHL duty as a backup with three organizations when it was contract time in the summer of 2018. Because he was a 28-year-old UFA he got a premium (for a backup) two-year deal ($1.85 million AAV) with the Coyotes. What a bargain today. He’ll cash in soon. >BOSTON BRUINS David Pastrnak embodies the Bruins’ mantra of taking less in the name of…

Olympics

Imagining Beijing 2022: Olympic Athletes From Russia

THIS IS A MAJOR contender, stacked at forward and the most loaded in net. If the Olympic Athletes from Russia – still banned from participating officially as Russia – can get out of their own way, they should have a real shot at defending the gold medal they won at the NHL-less 2018 Olympics. Special thanks to regular THN contributor Slava Malamud, who acted as a consultant. Reminder: center Evgeny Kuznetsov’s four-year IIHF ban for testing positive for cocaine in 2019 bars him from competing in 2022. FORWARD LINE 1 > A. Panarin (30), E. Malkin (35), N. Kucherov (28) Just a deadly line – because you can’t key on any of them to be the shooter or the puck-carrier or the passer. All three are wizards with the puck, and all three…

BUZZ

NEW SEASON IN A NEW NORMAL

YOU COULD MAKE THE argument right now that the business of the NHL has never been more uncertain. And that’s saying something, given this league has endured a strike and three lockouts in the past 25 years. As it stands, nobody really knows whether the NHL will actually be able to pull off the near impossible and finish the 2019-20 season with a champion. And if you’re looking for certainty when the 2020-21 season reconvenes, whenever that is, well, these are unprecedented times. The fact is, the COVID-19 pandemic has thrown the NHL into a state of flux in the short term but will almost certainly have lasting effects on the business of the league for years to come. Much of that jolt will be felt in 2020-21, a season that…