It's our annual Trade Deadline Preview, where we break down what each NHL team will be hunting for and who will be on the move. Also in the issue: features on Huberdeau, Kessel, Hertl and many more.

Trade Deadline 2022

The Hockey News Trade Deadline 2022

<div class="byline">BY RYAN KENNEDY</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="tomashertl1_117" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/tomashertl1_117/799337-1-eng-US/tomashertl1_1172.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(DARREN YAMASHITA-USA TODAY SPORTS)</span></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>T</span>HE SCENE IS</b> Pittsburgh, the year is 2012. Specifically, we&rsquo;re at Pizza Milano, a stone&rsquo;s throw from what was then known as Consol Energy Center, the new home of the Penguins and the site of the NHL draft. It&rsquo;s around midnight. Various reporters, fans and random Yinzers pile in for a slice, excited after a heady night that saw the hometown squad trade center Jordan Staal for the eighth overall pick (Derrick Pouliot &ndash; which, at the time, was exciting), Brandon Sutter and Brian Dumoulin.</p><p>In the middle of it all is Tomas Hertl, enjoying the pizza and Pittsburgh for the first time. He&rsquo;s still rocking San Jose&rsquo;s unmistakable teal jersey and smiling ear to ear as he and his agents from Newport Sports bask in the excitement of his going 17th overall to the Sharks. &ldquo;That was actually my first visit to the United States,&rdquo; Hertl said. &ldquo;It was big for me because when I was younger, I really liked Pittsburgh because of Lemieux and Jagr.&rdquo;</p><p>Ten years later, Hertl is not only one of the Sharks&rsquo; most important players, but he&rsquo;s also one of the most talked-about talents in the league, a pending unrestricted free agent who could change the fortunes of a new squad &ndash; or help steer San Jose back toward the top of the Western Conference.</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/tomashertl2_118/799330-1-eng-US/tomashertl2_1182.jpg" title="tomashertl2_118" width="1020" height="1558"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>HERTL POWER</b></p><p>Hertl was a big part of the Sharks&rsquo; ability to overcome injuries in the early part of the 2021-22 season.</p> <span class="photo-credit">(CHRIS BROWN-USA TODAY SPORTS)</span></figcaption></div><p>While the Sharks have been in a soft rebuild for years now, they have been surprisingly plucky this season, and Hertl is one of the chief reasons. &ldquo;At one point in time, he was carrying us,&rdquo; said coach Bob Boughner. &ldquo;We had some guys injured for an Eastern road trip, and he just caught fire. He was a little slow out of the gate, but he&rsquo;s like that. When he starts getting bounces and the puck is going in, he goes on serious runs. We needed that, and he carried us for a month-and-a-half, along with Timo Meier.&rdquo;</p><p>What is most impressive about Hertl is how his game has evolved over the years. He broke in as a scoring winger but has transformed into a devastating two-way center who is now counted on to kill penalties, win faceoffs and play in crucial situations <i>on top</i> of putting the puck in the net. &ldquo;The one thing that has grown in his game is his details,&rdquo; Boughner said. &ldquo;Playing against top lines and not only providing offense but being able to shut down the other team&rsquo;s top line or protect a lead. It&rsquo;s also his level of leadership and maturity. Tommy was a young kid that always loved the game and came in with a smile, just a nice guy. Now he has developed into a man, a really vocal guy in the room who says what needs to be said and helps the young guys in the room. He has evolved into a leader.&rdquo;</p><p>Give the Sharks credit for setting the table in that regard. When Hertl came over to North America for the 2013-14 campaign, the Sharks had him live with a billet family to help him adjust to the culture and an entirely new language. &ldquo;If I had been alone in an apartment, I probably would have just watched movies in Czech,&rdquo; Hertl said. &ldquo;Instead, I was in a family that cooked for me and watched TV shows with me in English. It helped me keep trying and helped me focus on hockey because I didn&rsquo;t have to think about anything else. It was a great first year for me.&rdquo;</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/tomashertl3_122/799323-1-eng-US/tomashertl3_1222.jpg" title="tomashertl3_122" width="1021" height="1003"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">( CODY GLENN-USA TODAY SPORTS)</span></figcaption></div><p>Watching <i>The Big Bang Theory</i> &ndash; a show he has now watched all the way through three times &ndash; helped Hertl learn English, but his hockey education came at the rink, and with elite teachers, to boot.</p><blockquote class="pullQuote"><b><i>WHEN HE STARTS GETTING BOUNCES AND THE PUCK IS GOING IN, HE GOES ON SERIOUS RUNS</i></b><br>&ndash; Sharks coach Bob Boughner</blockquote><p>&ldquo;I was lucky,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;My first year, I played with &lsquo;Jumbo&rsquo; (Joe Thornton) and Brent Burns, which made hockey easier. Martin Havlat really helped because he was Czech, and I didn&rsquo;t speak English. He could translate and was always there for me. When I hurt my knee, my girlfriend stayed over at his house, which was really cool.&rdquo;</p><p>Hertl also found someone to show him the ropes off the ice in Tommy Wingels. The two became fast friends, and Wingels drove Hertl around and hung out with him on the road. By Hertl&rsquo;s second year, they were as close as &ldquo;peas and carrots,&rdquo; as Wingels used to say, and Hertl has never forgotten their friendship. This past fall, they briefly got to reunite in Chicago during the NHL&rsquo;s media tour when Hertl was in town (Wingels, an Illinois native, spent his last two pro seasons in Switzerland, finishing in 2020).</p><p>In terms of an incubator, you couldn&rsquo;t find many better places than San Jose to be an impact forward in Hertl&rsquo;s early years. Thornton, Patrick Marleau and Joe Pavelski were all mainstays, passing down knowledge to the likes of Hertl and emerging two-way center Logan Couture &ndash; himself now another Sharks staple. &ldquo;You try to learn from them, and what I remember most is from Pavelski in my third year,&rdquo; Hertl said. &ldquo;I couldn&rsquo;t get going in the first half, and they put me on a line with him and Jumbo. It was actually the year we went to the final, and he came to me before a game and said, &lsquo;Just play, just relax, don&rsquo;t worry about anything.&rsquo; Right away, that first game, I had two points. At the time, I had like three goals, and in the next 30 games, I had 19 or something. I still remember that moment, and it was super cool for me.&rdquo;</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/tomashertl4_119/799316-1-eng-US/tomashertl4_1192.jpg" title="tomashertl4_119" width="2836" height="2020"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(JOHN E. SOKOLOWSKI-USA TODAY SPORTS)</span></figcaption></div><p>Couture, a few years Hertl&rsquo;s senior and now captain of the Sharks, learned similar lessons during his early years in San Jose. He sees the big Czech maturing as a leader, too. &ldquo;Now he&rsquo;s comfortable to really speak his mind, and his play backs it up,&rdquo; Couture said. &ldquo;He plays extremely hard, and when your best, most-talented skill players are playing hard at both ends of the ice, other players have to buy in as well. He&rsquo;s been a great player here for a long time, and we&rsquo;re hoping he sticks around after this year for sure.&rdquo;</p><p>That sentiment runs throughout the organization. San Jose has several young players who have bubbled up from the prospect pipeline. And with Thornton, Marleau and Pavelski all gone, the mentorship responsibilities have fallen heavily to Hertl and Couture. Boughner cited centers Jasper Weatherby and Noah Gregor as two in particular who have benefitted from watching and learning from the two wily veterans.</p><p>The big question now is if Hertl will remain in San Jose for the near future. Playoff hopes had dimmed &ndash; but were not entirely extinguished &ndash; as the stretch drive neared, and it was only prudent for outsiders to wonder if the Sharks would trade Hertl for a massive return at the deadline. After all, big two-way centers who are still in their 20s aren&rsquo;t the kinds of players who pop up on the market that often, and the Sharks do risk losing Hertl for no return if they stand pat and he walks in the summer.</p><p>On the other hand, a nucleus of Hertl, Couture, Meier and Burns isn&rsquo;t half bad, and Erik Karlsson was having a serious rebound year before surgery on his arm landed him on the shelf for a couple of months. If you&rsquo;re an optimist, you look at youngsters such as Mario Ferraro and prospects like William Eklund, Tristen Robins and Thomas Bordeleau and believe the Sharks can be dangerous again sooner than later.</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/tomashertl5_120/799309-1-eng-US/tomashertl5_1202.jpg" title="tomashertl5_120" width="1128" height="1583"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>DECISION TIME</b></p><p>With Hertl set to become a UFA this summer, he and the Sharks must decide where his future lies.</p> <span class="photo-credit">(SERGEI BELSKI-USA TODAY SPORTS)</span></figcaption></div><p>The timeline may be critical. San Jose has already missed the playoffs twice in a row, and they likely will again this spring. And as sunny as Hertl tends to be, he is fiercely competitive. &ldquo;Anybody who knows me, especially from back home, knows that nobody hates losing more than me,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Even if it&rsquo;s a board game, everybody is scared of me because I want to win so bad. It&rsquo;s a big part of me. If I played tennis against Roger Federer and lost, I would be so pissed. That&rsquo;s just me.&rdquo;</p><p>Needless to say, the past few campaigns have been trying. &ldquo;I was lucky to come to the Sharks when we had great teams, finals and conference finals,&rdquo; Hertl said. &ldquo;The past few years haven&rsquo;t been easy. For sure, I&rsquo;m looking to win, but after nine years, you still want to be the guy and lead the team, be one of the guys everyone follows.&rdquo;</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/tomashertl6_121/799302-1-eng-US/tomashertl6_1212.jpg" title="tomashertl6_121" width="1023" height="728"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(ERIC HARTLINE-USA TODAY SPORTS)</span></figcaption></div><p>That&rsquo;s something the Sharks hope Hertl will take to heart when he thinks about his long-term future. Here&rsquo;s a kid who arrived in town with no grasp of English and a ton of potential, who took the lessons from his teammates and became one of the most important voices and players on the team. &ldquo;He really does have a big heart, and you can tell he loves the game,&rdquo; Boughner said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s one of those guys that comes early and stays late. He has really taken ownership of his career and the team. We all know his contract situation being an unrestricted free agent, and everyone wants him to stay. I know deep down in his heart he wants to stay, and hopefully they can work things out.&rdquo;</p><blockquote class="pullQuote"><b><i>IF I PLAYED TENNIS AGAINST ROGER FEDERER AND LOST, I WOULD BE SO PISSED. THAT&rsquo;S JUST ME</i></b><br>&ndash; Tomas Hertl</blockquote><p>If they do, the Sharks know they have the leaders to help the next generation reach their potential, and that would put San Jose back on the path to contending for the Cup &ndash; right where they were when Hertl was finding his way under Pavs and Jumbo.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

tomashertl1_117

Tomas Hertl

CLEARING HERTLS

<div class="byline">BY&#xA0;MATT LARKIN</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/mask_helleb_133/798273-1-eng-US/mask_helleb_1332.jpg" title="mask_helleb_133" width="964" height="1052"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(STEVE NASH/EYECANDYAIR.COM)</span></figcaption></div><h2><b>CONNOR HELLEBUYCK</b></h2><h3>&gt;WINNIPEG JETS</h3><p class="dropcap"><b><span>F</span>EW ACTIVE GOALTENDERS EMBRACE</b> mask art like Hellebuyck. He&rsquo;s known to swap in special-event masks for charity endeavors during the season, and he loves telling stories on his primary mask. This new one from EyeCandyAir&rsquo;s Steve Nash features abstract renditions of the Jets logo and ultra-realistic hand-drawn art. On one cheek: Hellebuyck, in shades, proudly clutching a freshly caught fish. On the other: his beloved Tinley, an Alaskan malamute.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/mask_helleb_134/798266-1-eng-US/mask_helleb_1342.jpg" title="mask_helleb_134" width="574" height="636"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/mask_helleb_139/798259-1-eng-US/mask_helleb_1392.jpg" title="mask_helleb_139" width="562" height="680"></div><p><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

mask_helleb_133

Buzz

BEHIND THE MASK

<div class="byline">BY LARRY HUMBER</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="crossword_b_044" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/crossword_b_044/801214-1-eng-US/crossword_b_0442.jpg"></div><h2><b>CROSSWORD</b></h2><h3><b>ACROSS</b></h3><p>1. Philadelphia team that spent a single season in the NHL in the 1930s</p><p>4. Jamie ___ scored the game-winner in Game 7 for the Sharks against the Wings in 1994</p><p>7. The ECHL&rsquo;s ___ Fuel</p><p>8. Attackers, such as the center</p><p>10. Oslo-born NHLers, such as Mats Zuccarello, are this (plural)</p><p>12. Avoid a hard check or fight, ___ clear of trouble</p><p>13. Pulls</p><p>14. Where a player has only the goalie to beat</p><p>18. An aging player may be dubbed a &lsquo;___ vet&rsquo;</p><p>19.&nbsp;<i>NHL Hockey</i> first appeared on this system</p><p>20. Veteran center Stepan</p><p>21. Completes a pass between defenders, ___ the needle</p><h3><b>DOWN</b></h3><p>1. Legendary Canadian coach inducted into HHOF as a builder in 2016</p><p>2. He&rsquo;s now between the pipes in Carolina</p><p>3. Team Finland in its native tongue</p><p>4. Avs blueliner taken fourth in the 2019 NHL draft, pictured</p><p>5. ___ Alzner was a longtime Capital</p><p>6. Steps down, sometimes for personal reasons</p><p>9. Former Hurricanes stopper now with Toronto</p><p>11. A Metropolitan Division building</p><p>12. Punched</p><p>15. A player ___ must be certified by the NHLPA</p><p>16. They play at the American Airlines Center</p><p>17. The NAHL is a ___ II junior league</p><h2><b>Word</b>&nbsp;<b>SEARCH</b></h2><p>You instantly think Gretzky, but there have been other Waynes in NHL history. Here are 10&hellip;</p><h3><b>NHLers Named Wayne</b></h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/wordsearch__042/801207-1-eng-US/wordsearch__0422.jpg" title="wordsearch__042" width="812" height="870"></div><p><b>BABYCH</b></p><p><b>CARLETON</b></p><p><b>CASHMAN</b></p><p><b>CONNELLY</b></p><p><b>MAKI</b></p><p><b>MERRICK</b></p><p><b>PRESLEY</b></p><p><b>PRIMEAU</b></p><p><b>SIMMONDS</b></p><p><b>RIVERS</b></p><h2><b>Hockey</b>&nbsp;<b>TRIVIA</b></h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/trivia_hoss_043/801200-1-eng-US/trivia_hoss_0432.jpg" title="trivia_hoss_043" width="474" height="458"></div><h3><b>&gt; BEGINNER:</b></h3><p>The Penguins added this future Hall of Famer, pictured, at the 2008 deadline. He would later win three Stanley Cups with the Blackhawks.</p><h3><b>&gt; INTERMEDIATE:</b></h3><p>This man, often dubbed, &ldquo;the greatest deadline acquisition ever,&rdquo; helped the Islanders win four straight Stanley Cups and captured the 1981 Conn Smythe.</p><h3><b>&gt; EXPERT:</b></h3><p>Mike Sillinger holds the record for most times traded, but this undrafted enforcer has been dealt the most at the deadline &ndash; a record four times.</p><h2><b>PUCK PUZZLE</b></h2><p>Can your hockey brain bring its A-game? The challenge is on!</p><p>Eight women are now enshrined in the Hockey Hall of Fame. We&rsquo;ve listed seven of them here. Fill in the blanks to identify the seven and the name of the eighth, who&rsquo;s now a scout with the Kraken, will appear in the red boxes.</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0097-0137/801193-1-eng-US/f0097-012.jpg" title="f0097-01" width="1077" height="694"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(TRIVIA: JERRY LAI-USA TODAY SPORTS; CROSSWORD: JOHN E. SOKOLOWSKI-USA TODAY SPORTS)</span></figcaption></div><p><b>CROSSWORD SOLUTION: ACROSS</b> 1. QUAKERS, 4. BAKER, 7. INDY, 8. FORWARDS, 10. NORWEGIANS, 12. STEER, 13. YANKS, 14. BREAKAWAYS, 18. GRIZZLED, 19. SEGA, 20. DEREK, 21. THREADS <b>DOWN</b> 1. QUINN, 2. ANDERSEN, 3. SUOMI, 4. BOWEN BYRAM, 5. KARL, 6. RESIGNS, 9. PETR MRAZEK, 11. PNC ARENA, 12. SLUGGED, 15. AGENT, 16. STARS, 17. TIER <b>TRIVIA ANSWERS:</b> MARIAN HOSSA, BUTCH GORING, ALAN MAY <b>WORD SEARCH:</b> PLAY ONLINE AT <a href="http://THEWORDSEARCH.COM/PUZZLE/3289923">THEWORDSEARCH.COM/PUZZLE/3289923</a>&nbsp;<b>PUCK PUZZLE SOLUTION:</b> RUGGIERO, HEFFORD, JAMES, WICKENHEISER, HEANEY, ST. PIERRE, GOYETTE (FINAL ANSWER: GRANATO)<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

crossword_b_044

TimeOut

TIME OUT

<div class="byline">BY BRIAN COSTELLO</div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>T</span>HERE ARE SIX POPULAR</b> ways to assemble a team of NHLers, and the method of trading for players is generally regarded as the cherry on top, the final touch to a competitive roster.</p><p>The entry draft and free-agent signings are by far the foundation for putting together a team. The expansion draft and offer sheets are far less frequent but still occur from time to time. Picking up a contract on waivers happens at the fringe end of the roster, and those players are mostly interchangeable. So it&rsquo;s the trade route that grabs the headlines, especially at this time of year.</p><p>But can you build a contender by trading for players? Ask the two-time defending champion Tampa Bay Lightning and they say no. Tampa Bay&rsquo;s current roster includes just three players acquired via trade, which ranks near the bottom of this Countdown. The Lightning have shown that trading for players, as important as they may be, is for finishing touches. The Bolts&rsquo; roster is made up of 13 homegrown draftees and seven free-agent signings.</p><p>Having said that, five teams at the top end of this Countdown are among the most competitive in the NHL this season. Vegas, Florida, the New York Rangers, Washington and Colorado have a good chunk of their rosters made up of players acquired by trade. And they all sit near the top of the NHL standings.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/chi-cdlogo7/802122-1-eng-US/chi-cdlogo7.jpg" title="CHI-CDLogo7" width="270" height="84"></div><h1><b>1. CHICAGO</b>&nbsp;<b>BLACKHAWKS</b></h1><p><b>13 TRADE ACQUISITIONS</b></p><p>Seth Jones and Marc-Andre Fleury are the biggest names. Would you believe only five Hawks are homegrown?</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/buzz_fleury_145/798607-1-eng-US/buzz_fleury_1452.jpg" title="buzz_fleury_145" width="1024" height="1158"><figcaption class="caption-body">MARC-ANDRE <b>FLEURY</b> <span class="photo-credit">(CANDICE WARD-USA TODAY SPORTS)</span></figcaption></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/ott-cdlogo21/802213-1-eng-US/ott-cdlogo21.jpg" title="OTT-CDLogo21" width="270" height="84"></div><h1><b>2. OTTAWA</b>&nbsp;<b>SENATORS</b></h1><p><b>13 TRADE ACQUISITIONS</b></p><p>Virtually all their support players came via trade. Josh Norris and Erik Brannstrom have staying power.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/veg-cdlogo30/802271-1-eng-US/veg-cdlogo30.jpg" title="VEG-CDLogo30" width="270" height="84"></div><h1><b>3. VEGAS</b>&nbsp;<b>GOLDEN KNIGHTS</b></h1><p><b>13 TRADE ACQUISITIONS</b></p><p>Just four players remain from 2017 expansion draft. And only Nic Hague from five entry drafts. Trades are trending.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/ari-cdlogo2/802079-1-eng-US/ari-cdlogo2.jpg" title="ARI-CDLogo2" width="270" height="84"></div><h1><b>4. ARIZONA</b>&nbsp;<b>COYOTES</b></h1><p><b>10 TRADE ACQUISITIONS</b></p><p>Acquiring albatross contracts has stacked the roster. But they come with building blocks &ndash; high draft picks.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/fla-cdlogo13/802157-1-eng-US/fla-cdlogo13.jpg" title="FLA-CDLogo13" width="270" height="84"></div><h1><b>5. FLORIDA</b>&nbsp;<b>PANTHERS</b></h1><p><b>10 TRADE ACQUISITIONS</b></p><p>Trading for two Sams &ndash; Reinhart and Bennett &ndash; has netted the Panthers three of the top four picks from the 2014 draft.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/mtl-cdlogo16/802178-1-eng-US/mtl-cdlogo16.jpg" title="MTL-CDLogo16" width="270" height="84"></div><h1><b>6. MONTREAL</b>&nbsp;<b>CANADIENS</b></h1><p><b>10 TRADE ACQUISITIONS</b></p><p>The Habs have acquired a lot of stellar players over the years, from Shea Weber to Jeff Petry to Nick Suzuki.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/nyr-cdlogo20/802206-1-eng-US/nyr-cdlogo20.jpg" title="NYR-CDLogo20" width="270" height="84"></div><h1><b>7. NEW YORK</b>&nbsp;<b>RANGERS</b></h1><p><b>10 TRADE ACQUISITIONS</b></p><p>Two of the best trades in recent years brought in Mika Zibanejad and Adam Fox, with not much going the other way.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/wsh-cdlogo31/802293-1-eng-US/wsh-cdlogo31.jpg" title="WSH-CDLogo31" width="270" height="84"></div><h1><b>8. WASHINGTON</b>&nbsp;<b>CAPITALS</b></h1><p><b>10 TRADE ACQUISITIONS</b></p><p>The Caps don&rsquo;t chase big-ticket free agents. They&rsquo;d rather trade for them &ndash; T.J. Oshie, Anthony Mantha, Lars Eller.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/buf-cdlogo4/802108-1-eng-US/buf-cdlogo4.jpg" title="BUF-CDLogo4" width="270" height="84"></div><h1><b>9. BUFFALO</b>&nbsp;<b>SABRES</b></h1><p><b>9 TRADE ACQUISITIONS</b></p><p>Almost half a roster acquired via trade, but not an impact player in the bunch. Jeff Skinner was one, Alex Tuch is close.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/col-cdlogo8/802129-1-eng-US/col-cdlogo8.jpg" title="COL-CDLogo8" width="270" height="84"></div><h1><b>10. COLORADO</b>&nbsp;<b>AVALANCHE</b></h1><p><b>9 TRADE ACQUISITIONS</b></p><p>We love Trader Joe&rsquo;s deals to get Nazem Kadri, Devon Toews, Andre Burakovsky and Samuel Girard, among others.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/van-cdlogo292/802304-1-eng-US/van-cdlogo29.jpg" title="VAN-CDLogo29" width="270" height="84"></div><h1><b>11. VANCOUVER</b>&nbsp;<b>CANUCKS</b></h1><p><b>9 TRADE ACQUISITIONS</b></p><p>Many seasoned vets arrived via trade, such as J.T. Miller and Oliver Ekman-Larsson. But the reviews are mixed.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/stl-cdlogo262/802311-1-eng-US/stl-cdlogo26.jpg" title="STL-CDLogo26" width="270" height="84"></div><h1><b>12. ST. LOUIS</b>&nbsp;<b>BLUES</b></h1><p><b>8 TRADE ACQUISITIONS</b></p><p>The deal to acquire Ryan O&rsquo;Reilly in 2018 was pivotal for the franchise. Getting Justin Faulk has worked out well, too.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/det-cdlogo11/802150-1-eng-US/det-cdlogo11.jpg" title="DET-CDLogo11" width="270" height="84"></div><h1><b>13. DETROIT</b>&nbsp;<b>RED WINGS</b></h1><p><b>7 TRADE ACQUISITIONS</b></p><p>Getting Nick Leddy and Marc Staal were gap deals; Jakub Vrana, Alex Nedeljkovic and Robby Fabbri future deals.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/la-cdlogo14/802164-1-eng-US/la-cdlogo14.jpg" title="LA-CDLogo14" width="270" height="84"></div><h1><b>14. LOS ANGELES</b>&nbsp;<b>KINGS</b></h1><p><b>7 TRADE ACQUISITIONS</b></p><p>With so many good young prospects in the system, you may see L.A. trade some to secure important veteran support.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/nj-cdlogo18/802185-1-eng-US/nj-cdlogo18.jpg" title="NJ-CDLogo18" width="270" height="84"></div><h1><b>15. NEW JERSEY</b>&nbsp;<b>DEVILS</b></h1><p><b>7 TRADE ACQUISITIONS</b></p><p>P.K. Subban, acquired in 2019, is the longest-serving trade subject. And he&rsquo;ll be dealt soon or depart as a UFA.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/pit-cdlogo23/802234-1-eng-US/pit-cdlogo23.jpg" title="PIT-CDLogo23" width="270" height="84"></div><h1><b>16. PITTSBURGH</b>&nbsp;<b>PENGUINS</b></h1><p><b>7 TRADE ACQUISITIONS</b></p><p>Other than Kris Letang, the blueline is mostly guys who came via trade &ndash; Brian Dumoulin, Mike Matheson, John Marino.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/sj-cdlogo24/802241-1-eng-US/sj-cdlogo24.jpg" title="SJ-CDLogo24" width="270" height="84"></div><h1><b>17. SAN JOSE</b>&nbsp;<b>SHARKS</b></h1><p><b>7 TRADE ACQUISITIONS</b></p><p>We missed the 10-year anniversary of the Brent Burns trade with Minnesota, for Devin Setoguchi and Charlie Coyle.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/win-cdlogo32/802283-1-eng-US/win-cdlogo32.jpg" title="WIN-CDLogo32" width="270" height="84"></div><h1><b>18. WINNIPEG</b>&nbsp;<b>JETS</b></h1><p><b>7 TRADE ACQUISITIONS</b></p><p>Ditto for the Blake Wheeler&rsquo;s 10-year anniversary. Off to Boston were Rich Peverley and Boris Valabik. What a steal.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/cgy-cdlogo5/802115-1-eng-US/cgy-cdlogo5.jpg" title="CGY-CDLogo5" width="270" height="84"></div><h1><b>19. CALGARY</b>&nbsp;<b>FLAMES</b></h1><p><b>6 TRADE ACQUISITIONS</b></p><p>Elias Lindholm and Noah Hanifin were key acquisitions. But going out the door were Dougie Hamilton and Adam Fox.</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/buzz_lindho_146/798558-1-eng-US/buzz_lindho_1462.jpg" title="buzz_lindho_146" width="1024" height="1125"><figcaption class="caption-body">ELIAS <b>LINDHOLM</b></figcaption></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/car-cdlogo6/802087-1-eng-US/car-cdlogo6.jpg" title="CAR-CDLogo6" width="270" height="84"></div><h1><b>20. CAROLINA</b>&nbsp;<b>HURRICANES</b></h1><p><b>6 TRADE ACQUISITIONS</b></p><p>Canes always find secondary scoring via trade &ndash; Vincent Trocheck, Teuvo Teravainen, Nino Niederreiter, Jordan Staal.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/cbj-cdlogo9/802101-1-eng-US/cbj-cdlogo9.jpg" title="CBJ-CDLogo9" width="270" height="84"></div><h1><b>21. COLUMBUS</b>&nbsp;<b>BLUE JACKETS</b></h1><p><b>6 TRADE ACQUISITIONS</b></p><p>Quality over quantity: Patrik Laine, Jakub Voracek, Adam Boqvist, Jack Roslovic, Max Domi, Jake Bean.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/ana-cdlogo/802073-1-eng-US/ana-cdlogo.jpg" title="ANA-CDLogo" width="270" height="84"></div><h1><b>22. ANAHEIM</b>&nbsp;<b>DUCKS</b></h1><p><b>5 TRADE ACQUISITIONS</b></p><p>An amazing 14 Ducks are homegrown through the draft dating back to Ryan Getzlaf. Sonny Milano a shrewd trade.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/min-cdlogo15/802170-1-eng-US/min-cdlogo15.jpg" title="MIN-CDLogo15" width="270" height="84"></div><h1><b>23. MINNESOTA</b>&nbsp;<b>WILD</b></h1><p><b>5 TRADE ACQUISITIONS</b></p><p>Kevin Fiala and Marcus Foligno were extremely astute trade targets. Victor Rask and Nick Bjugstad? Not so much.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/nsh-cdlogo17/802192-1-eng-US/nsh-cdlogo17.jpg" title="NSH-CDLogo17" width="270" height="84"></div><p>&nbsp;</p><h1><b>24. NASHVILLE</b>&nbsp;<b>PREDATORS</b></h1><p><b>5 TRADE ACQUISITIONS</b></p><p>In case you missed it, the Preds gave up Martin Erat to get Filip Forsberg in 2013. Forsberg has 202 goals since, Erat 13.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/phl-cdlogo222/802318-1-eng-US/phl-cdlogo22.jpg" title="PHL-CDLogo22" width="270" height="84"></div><p>&nbsp;</p><h1><b>25. PHILADELPHIA</b>&nbsp;<b>FLYERS</b></h1><p><b>5 TRADE ACQUISITIONS</b></p><p>The Cam Atkinson trade from Columbus has worked out well. Injuries have scuppered Ryan Ellis and Kevin Hayes.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/bos-cdlogo3/802091-1-eng-US/bos-cdlogo3.jpg" title="BOS-CDLogo3" width="270" height="84"></div><p>&nbsp;</p><h1><b>26. BOSTON</b>&nbsp;<b>BRUINS</b></h1><p><b>4 TRADE ACQUISITIONS</b></p><p>The Bruins are always keen on homegrown development. Taylor Hall is the best of the trade-and-signs lately.</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/buzz_hall3/798460-1-eng-US/buzz_hall2.jpg" title="buzz_hall" width="1024" height="1177"><figcaption class="caption-body">TAYLOR <b>HALL</b> <span class="photo-credit">(LINDHOLM+HALL: SERGEI BELSKI-USA TODAY SPORTS)</span></figcaption></div><p>&nbsp;</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/edm-cdlogo122/802325-1-eng-US/edm-cdlogo12.jpg" title="EDM-CDLogo12" width="270" height="84"></div><h1><b>27. EDMONTON</b>&nbsp;<b>OILERS</b></h1><p><b>3 TRADE ACQUISITIONS</b></p><p>Some fans weren&rsquo;t crazy about the trade to acquire Duncan Keith. Zack Kassian and Warren Foegele are the other two.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/tb-cdlogo27/802255-1-eng-US/tb-cdlogo27.jpg" title="TB-CDLogo27" width="270" height="84"></div><h1><b>28. TAMPA BAY</b>&nbsp;<b>LIGHTNING</b></h1><p><b>3 TRADE ACQUISITIONS</b></p><p>Blueliners Ryan McDonagh, Mikhail Sergachev and Erik Cernak were crucial trade targets over the years.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/tor-cdlogo28/802262-1-eng-US/tor-cdlogo28.jpg" title="TOR-CDLogo28" width="270" height="84"></div><h1><b>29. TORONTO</b>&nbsp;<b>MAPLE LEAFS</b></h1><p><b>3 TRADE ACQUISITIONS</b></p><p>Imagine the Leafs&rsquo; home front without Jake Muzzin and Jack Campbell holding down the fort. The other is Alex Kerfoot.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/dal-cdlogo10/802136-1-eng-US/dal-cdlogo10.jpg" title="DAL-CDLogo10" width="270" height="84"></div><p>&nbsp;</p><h1><b>30 DALLAS</b>&nbsp;<b>STARS</b></h1><p><b>2 TRADE ACQUISITIONS</b></p><p>Going to Boston in the 2013 Tyler Seguin deal were Loui Eriksson, Reilly Smith, Joe Morrow and Matt Fraser. Win: Dallas.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/nyi-cdlogo19/802199-1-eng-US/nyi-cdlogo19.jpg" title="NYI-CDLogo19" width="270" height="84"></div><p>&nbsp;</p><h1><b>31. NEW YORK</b>&nbsp;<b>ISLANDERS</b></h1><p><b>2 TRADE ACQUISITIONS</b></p><p>Grinders Cal Clutterbuck and Jean-Gabriel Pageau the only Isles arriving by trade. Pageau was for two early picks.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/sea-cdlogo25/802227-1-eng-US/sea-cdlogo25.jpg" title="SEA-CDLogo25" width="270" height="84"></div><p>&nbsp;</p><h1><b>32. SEATTLE</b>&nbsp;<b>KRAKEN</b></h1><p><b>0 TRADE ACQUISITIONS</b></p><p>The Kraken have traded several players &ndash; Vitek Vanecek, Tyler Pitlick to name a couple &ndash; but haven&rsquo;t acquired anyone.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

EDM-CDLogo12

THE COUNTDOWN

<div class="byline">Ryan Kennedy</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="rk_2020_cmy_081" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/rk_2020_cmy_081/798072-1-eng-US/rk_2020_cmy_0812.jpg"></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>S</span>OME BIG NAMES ARE</b> being bandied about for this year&rsquo;s NHL trade deadline, from Philadelphia captain Claude Giroux to Chicago goaltender and Stanley Cup-decorated Marc-Andre Fleury.</p><p>Of course, a major blockbuster already went down this season when Buffalo sent Jack Eichel and a 2023 third-rounder to Vegas for a package of Alex Tuch, Peyton Krebs and two high draft picks. Eichel famously clashed with the Sabres on how to deal with his neck injury, and his exit from Buffalo was entirely expected.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/firstword_s_083/798065-1-eng-US/firstword_s_0832.jpg" title="firstword_s_083" width="913" height="728"><figcaption class="caption-body">MARK <b>STONE</b><span class="photo-credit">(KENNEDY: STEVEN ELLIS/THE HOCKEY NEWS; STONE: JAMES GUILLORY-USA TODAY SPORTS)</span></figcaption></div><p>But the Golden Knights did have one more hurdle to climb once Eichel was healthy enough to play &ndash; the salary cap. The dominating center&rsquo;s $10-million cap hit would be hard to fit in on most NHL teams, let alone a contender stacked with talent such as Vegas.</p><p>Luckily &ndash; and some of you are rolling your eyes right now &ndash; Golden Knights star right winger Mark Stone was put on LTIR for back issues just as Eichel was cleared to play in February. Some folks cried foul, bringing up last year&rsquo;s Nikita Kucherov situation in Tampa, where the superstar recovered from hip surgery as soon as the regular season ended and the salary cap was no longer in effect. The Bolts, of course, went on to win the Cup with a power-packed lineup that otherwise would not have been possible based on the salary cap.</p><p>In terms of the CBA, Tampa Bay did nothing wrong. And Vegas hasn&rsquo;t done anything wrong with Stone and Eichel either. Sure, you can be jealous if <i>your</i> team didn&rsquo;t take every advantage possible to seek out a championship. But just don&rsquo;t knock the franchises giving us what we want: star players teaming up in the post-season, ready to face off against other excellent teams. Because that&rsquo;s what we&rsquo;re poised to see with Vegas, as the Golden Knights will likely run into one or more of Nathan MacKinnon&rsquo;s Avalanche, Johnny Gaudreau&rsquo;s Flames and Connor McDavid&rsquo;s Oilers just to get out of the conference.</p><p>Besides, it&rsquo;s not like anyone is cheering for the <i>salary cap</i>, am I right? The only folks who like the cap are the owners &ndash; who got financial certainty out of it &ndash; and the capologists, who got jobs because of it (and hey, much respect to them, because as a writer, I was told there would be no math in my industry). We want fun, and the Eichel trade gave it to us. So, bring on the trade deadline, and let&rsquo;s see who else can load up for the playoffs.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/ryankennedy_082/798058-1-eng-US/ryankennedy_0822.jpg" title="ryankennedy_082" width="375" height="167"></div><b>Ryan Kennedy</b><br>Senior Writer<br><span class="image-inline"><img src="mon042.jpg" title="common04" width="42" height="34"></span><b>@THNRyanKennedy</b><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span>

rk_2020_cmy_081

The First Word

DON’T KNOCK THE HUSTLE

<div class="byline">W. Graeme RoustanW. Graeme Roustan</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="0_graemerou_128" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/0_graemerou_128/798110-1-eng-US/0_graemerou_1282.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(PHOTO BY MICHELLE VALBERG)</span></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>C</span>OLUMNIST ROSIE DIMANNO LIT</b> up a firestorm of controversy on social media when she wrote an article on Feb. 6 titled &ldquo;Why women&rsquo;s hockey doesn&rsquo;t belong in the Olympics.&rdquo; Her basic premise was that Canada and the U.S. were so strong that all the games were lopsided and there was no parity across all countries in the tournament. Although factually true, the story missed the big picture.</p><p>In 1976, I stepped behind the bench as an assistant coach for the Marymount High School women&rsquo;s hockey team, a job I wrangled from coach Ann Cudahy, leveraging my position as the president of the student council. One of the players on that team was Kathleen Casey, who went on to play for the Concordia Stingers before she started her career as an educator in Montreal at Trafalgar School for Girls. As a role model and mentor, she influenced thousands of young women during her career. Let&rsquo;s call that the circle of support and influence.</p><p>Remembering Casey on the ice in high school and at Concordia always came to mind when I watched the amazing women who played in the Canadian Women&rsquo;s Hockey League for 12 years before its board announced on March 31, 2019 that it was shutting down the league for good.</p><p>The CWHL board issued a press release followed by the chairwoman appearing on TV stating that the league was &ldquo;economically unsustainable&rdquo; even though the league was financially profitable. (I know because I have the financials.) As they were all resigning, I had offered the board to let me replace them with other people to serve and that I would finance the league.</p><p>Rather than accept my offer, the board members apparently decided it was preferable to remove 100 to 200 professional-women-hockey-player opportunities rather than to let them continue to play with a new board replacing them.</p><p>CWHL interim commissioner Jayna Hefford stated: &ldquo;There are a large number of organizations that have stated their support for women&rsquo;s hockey and expressed the desire to see this sport continue to grow. Our hope is that those organizations will step forward in actionable ways to continue to advance the growth of Canada&rsquo;s game.&rdquo;</p><p>I asked a board member who voted to shut down the CWHL what &ldquo;organizations&rdquo; Hefford was referring to and was told that the primary organization that they were hoping to force their hand was the NHL. The &ldquo;hope&rdquo; was that Gary Bettman would be forced into forming a new women&rsquo;s league, the WNHL. I have to admit that I was stunned by this logic, because, knowing Bettman for 30 years, in my humble opinion, this was definitely not the way to proceed. I argued that it would be better to demonstrate to Bettman and the hockey world that the CWHL was a thriving organization than to tell him and the world it was &ldquo;economically unsustainable.&rdquo;</p><p>I explained that in business, an organization is much more valuable and influential as a going concern, and as soon as you shut it down and announce to the world that it is &ldquo;economically unsustainable,&rdquo; you lose their attention. I let the board know that in my opinion what they were doing was not the way to proceed if they wanted to get new partners, investors and corporate sponsors, and that it could harm women&rsquo;s hockey.</p><p>A going concern can organically grow, be merged with another synergistic organization or be acquired. A dead league has absolutely no value and can cast a shadow when it states that any form of women&rsquo;s hockey is &ldquo;economically unsustainable.&rdquo; Advertisers and investors might think they are throwing away their money if they invest in women&rsquo;s hockey. I build enterprises, not shut them down, and I have never seen an enterprise or industry cut its way to growing.</p><p>Sami Jo Small and Brenda Andress approached me in 2008 when I was chairman of Bauer and pitched me on the great future of women&rsquo;s professional hockey in the CWHL before asking if Bauer could become its first global sponsor. I agreed on the spot that Bauer would do an equipment deal and provide cash, plus I agreed to write a personal cheque, which I was thrilled to do many times over the next decade.</p><p>In 2019, the CWHL board was forcing some women to hang up their professional skates forever and were eliminating future opportunities for thousands of women to play professional hockey in the CWHL, Canada&rsquo;s only professional women&rsquo;s hockey league. Women&rsquo;s hockey needs to have as many players on the ice and as often as possible. The more women playing, the better these players will become around the world, and the Olympics will become more competitive. Some believe that there should be one league with six to eight teams made of the 200 very-best players. I&rsquo;d like to see 1,000 professional women hockey players, even if that was in more than one league. Keep in mind, I grew up in the era of the NHL and WHA before they merged.</p><p>I started my involvement in women&rsquo;s hockey 46 years ago, and I am a firm believer that women&rsquo;s hockey not only has to remain in the Olympics but we need more teams in more leagues at every level. Every woman coming out of a high-school program, a Canadian university or an American college should continue to play the game they love as a professional and not be forced to hang up their skates. Layer on all of the coaching and front-office positions, which are a great training ground for the NHL, leagues and IIHF countries, and one can only imagine how the CWHL board diminished off-ice hockey opportunities for women as well. Shameful.</p><p>DiManno missed the big picture in her story, as did the CWHL board of directors. I know this because I am a big-picture person who has supported women&rsquo;s hockey for 46 years and counting.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/graemeroust_1292/798103-1-eng-US/graemeroust_1292.jpg" title="graemeroust_129" width="583" height="123"></div><span class="image-inline"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/twitterlogo_112/783763-1-eng-US/twitterlogo_1122.jpg" title="twitterlogo_112" width="39" height="32"></span>&nbsp;<a datastyle href="https://twitter.com/GraemeRoustan?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor">@GRAEMEROUSTAN</a><br><span class="image-inline"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/linkedin2/783756-1-eng-US/linkedin2.jpg" title="linkedin" width="31" height="31"></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;<a datastyle href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/roustan/">GRAEME-ROUSTAN</a><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span>

0_graemerou_128

Opening Thoughts

NEED MORE, NOT LESS

<div class="byline">BY JAMES BENESH</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="buzz_kessel_005" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/buzz_kessel_005/798169-1-eng-US/buzz_kessel_0052.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Kessel will likely be on the move at the deadline. New teammates and a deeper attack could stoke his play. <span class="photo-credit">(TERRENCE LEE-USA TODAY SPORTS)</span></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>A</span>S THE MARCH 21</b> trade deadline approaches, just about any player with an expiring contract on a non-playoff team will be the subject of trade rumors. Teams with their eyes set on long post-season runs (a.k.a. buyers) will be on the hunt for the elusive &ldquo;final piece&rdquo; to help bolster their squad down the stretch and into the spring. These pieces are based on a team&rsquo;s needs, but often the target is that elusive top-six forward.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="mon052.jpg" title="common05" width="187" height="187"></div><p>Buyers expect their new acquisitions to help in several ways, but the evaluation of any top-sixer will be based primarily on offensive output. These players&rsquo; ability to quickly integrate into their new teams&rsquo; attacks and to score in crunch time will be critical to playoff runs, and it&rsquo;s that &ldquo;wild card&rdquo; aspect that makes the top-six-forward addition so enticing.</p><p>Phil Kessel, for example, will be one of the biggest names on this year&rsquo;s market. One could argue a trade from the desert &ndash; and the opportunity to play with better players &ndash; will allow him to put up better numbers immediately, that he&rsquo;s been saddled with playing on a punchless attack all year in Arizona. But, conversely, on a stronger, deeper team, Kessel may be less relied upon than he was by the Coyotes. He&rsquo;d likely play further down the lineup, see less ice, may not be on the first power-play unit, and the offense won&rsquo;t need to &ldquo;go through him&rdquo; nearly as much. And fewer puck touches means fewer points.</p><p>Which argument is correct? These divergent viewpoints both make sense on the surface, and one could point to numerous examples from the past that bear out either side. But in the long run, statistically, which is more accurate?</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/buzz_kovalc_006/798155-1-eng-US/buzz_kovalc_0062.jpg" title="buzz_kovalc_006" width="1151" height="1227"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>FREQUENT FLYER MILES</b></p><p>Kovalchuk is one of several top-sixers who switched area codes at more than one recent trade deadline.</p> <span class="photo-credit">(TOM SZCZERBOWSKI-USA TODAY SPORTS)</span></figcaption></div><p>Only a deeper look at the numbers can say for sure, so that&rsquo;s what we did. We tallied the stats of each top-six-forward trade-deadline acquisition for each season since the 2004-05 lockout year. To qualify, players must have been dealt from a non-playoff squad to a playoff team within one month of the season&rsquo;s trade deadline. Further &ndash; to satisfy the &ldquo;top-six forward&rdquo; criteria &ndash; they must either (a) have been clearly among the six top forwards on their original team in non-penalty killing ice time or (b) have produced at a rate that would make them a top-six scorer among their team&rsquo;s forwards at the time of the trade. But usually, players in the data set met both criteria.</p><p>Then, qualifying players&rsquo; production with their new teams &ndash; down the stretch and in the playoffs &ndash; was compared with their pre-deadline numbers.</p><p>After crunching the numbers, a few facts immediately jumped off the page. Though 99 players met the criteria, an average of roughly six per season, the number varies widely from season to season. In two years (2006 and &rsquo;12), only three such players were traded, and in 2017, just two (Patrick Eaves and P-A Parenteau) changed area codes. But at the wild 2007 deadline, 12 top-six forwards were added to contending lineups. It&rsquo;s also interesting how the same players kept finding themselves as bargaining chips for sellers.</p><p>Bill Guerin, Mark Recchi, Ilya Kovalchuk, Erik Cole, Kris Versteeg, Jeff Carter and Derick Brassard were sent to contenders twice each. Antoine Vermette was a three-timer (2009, 2012 and 2015). And it&rsquo;s surprising what caliber of player sometimes qualified as a top-six forward. In 2007-08, Tampa Bay&rsquo;s Jan Hlavac had just 22 points in 62 games before being sent to Nashville. But based on his ice time and production relative to other Bolts forwards, there&rsquo;s no doubt Hlavac had a role in the Lightning&rsquo;s shallow top six.</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/buzz_st-lou_007/798148-1-eng-US/buzz_st-lou_0072.jpg" title="buzz_st-lou_007" width="2120" height="1205"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>STARS KEEP SHINING</b></p><p>GMs need not worry about proven studs the ilk of St-Louis &ndash; they retain their sparkle with new squads.</p></figcaption></div><p>The results were quite illuminating. In 5,292 games with their old teams, the 99 qualified top-sixers averaged 0.64 points per game, but in the 1,647 regular-season games they spent as guns for hire, their production fell to just 0.57 points per game. In the playoffs, their production dropped further &ndash; to just 0.53 points per game, across 1,046 games. That means these players, as a whole, saw a drop of 11 percent in scoring just by moving from their old team to their new team. That became 14.5 percent if you compare their playoff scoring to the rate they enjoyed in the regular season (across the entire season).</p><p>But everyone knows scoring drops in the playoffs, so is it possible this phenomenon is just a result of that league-wide trend? Not according to recent numbers. Since the lockout, there&rsquo;s been an average of 2.798 goals per regular-season game and 2.704 per game in the playoffs &ndash; only 3.4 percent lower. So the playoff environment alone can&rsquo;t explain the downfall of the scoring rates of traded top-six forwards.</p><p>Looking deeper, however, exceptions emerge. Separate these 99 players into three groups based on their production level with their old teams &ndash; stars (above 0.93 PPG), marginal top-sixers (below 0.50) and everyone in between &ndash; and these differences become starker. Star players are money in the bank: their playoff scoring only drops five percent on average, consistent with the league-wide trend. This seems logical: these are once-every-few-years players such as Mark Stone (2019), Peter Forsberg (2007) and Martin St-Louis (2014). Why would they miss a beat after the trade, when they&rsquo;re sure to play on the top line and the first power-play unit, and do so with better linemates than they had before?</p><blockquote class="pullQuote">EVERY PLAYER AND TEAM ARE DIFFERENT, BUT HISTORY TELLS US <b>IT IS WISE TO BE SKEPTICAL OF A RECENTLY ACQUIRED TOP-SIX FORWARD</b></blockquote><p>Marginal top-sixers may be solid pickups for the right price as well: they saw only a six-percent drop in playoff production following a trade. This also makes sense: they weren&rsquo;t the stars of their old teams, they didn&rsquo;t have heavy offensive responsibilities before. And they won&rsquo;t have those responsibilities following the move either.</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/buzz_stone4/798141-1-eng-US/buzz_stone2.jpg" title="buzz_stone" width="1099" height="833"><figcaption class="caption-body">MARK <b>STONE</b><span class="photo-credit">(ST-LOUIS: GARY A. VASQUEZ-USA TODAY SPORTS; STONE: STEPHEN R. SYLVANIE-USA TODAY SPORTS)</span></figcaption></div><p>So, it&rsquo;s the players in the middle &ndash; those with 0.5 to 0.929 points per game at the time of the trade &ndash; who are the big question marks. Those players typically got fewer chances to score once on deeper rosters, and it showed in a near 20-percent decrease in production from the regular season to the playoffs (0.63 to 0.51). This group represents most of the players included in the study (71 of 99), with only the players at the margins proving significant exceptions.</p><p>Of course, every player and team are different, and there will never be an all-encompassing answer, but history tells us it is wise to be skeptical of a recently acquired top-six forward. So whether you&rsquo;re an NHL GM or a fantasy-hockey fan, just be careful with that shiny, new &ndash; and dangerous &ndash; top-six toy.</p><div class="sidebar"><h4>For up to the minute coverage, visit</h4><h3><a href="http://TheHockeyNews.com">Thehockeynews.com</a><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></h3></div>

buzz_kessel_005

THE NUMBERS DON’T LIE

<div class="byline">BY SAL BARRY</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/puckcultre__112/798228-1-eng-US/puckcultre__1122.jpg" title="puckcultre__112" width="574" height="798"></div><h2><b>1.</b><b>&nbsp;JIM HENDY</b></h2><p><b><i>1985 Cartophilium Hockey Hall of Fame #19</i></b></p><p>Jim Hendy is one of the game&rsquo;s first writers, so it&rsquo;s fitting he was the first hockey writer to appear on a card. Hendy is credited with developing hockey statistics and published an annual stat book called <i>The Hockey Guide</i> from 1933 to 1951. He also wrote for <i>The Morning Telegraph</i>, <i>The Saturday Evening Post</i> and <i>McCall&rsquo;s</i>, and was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame posthumously as a builder in 1968. Hendy&rsquo;s card was part of the 1985 Hockey Hall of Fame set, which was sold via mail order by <i>The Montreal Gazette</i> as well as in the Sears Canada Christmas catalog.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/puckculture_1142/798221-1-eng-US/puckculture_1142.jpg" title="puckculture_114" width="570" height="802"></div><h2><b>2.</b><b>&nbsp;AL MORGANTI</b></h2><p><b><i>1991 Star Pics Pro Prospects Hockey CardArt #1</i></b></p><p>Short-lived card company Star Picks released a 50-card box set of &ldquo;Hockey CardArt&rdquo; in 1991 that featured players selected in the &rsquo;91 NHL entry draft. Eric Lindros was noticeably absent from the set due to licensing reasons. Taking his place was Al Morganti, who was a columnist for The Hockey News at the time. Morganti, who used to cover the Atlanta Flames and now provides analysis during Flyers TV broadcasts, penned the &ldquo;scouting report&rdquo; that appears on the back of each card. There is both a normal and a special autographed version of his card, the latter of which is signed on the back.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/puckculture_115/798214-1-eng-US/puckculture_1152.jpg" title="puckculture_115" width="570" height="812"></div><h2><b>3.</b><b>&nbsp;AL STRACHAN</b></h2><p><b><i>1993 Action Packed Hall of Fame Induction Set #10</i></b></p><p>Al Strachan covered hockey for <i>The Montreal Gazette</i>, <i>The Globe and Mail</i> and the <i>Toronto Sun</i>, and he was a commentator for <i>Hockey Night In Canada</i>. He was recognized by the Hockey Hall of Fame with a media award in 1993, which is the reason why he has a card. That year, Action Packed &ndash; best-known for its &ldquo;puffy&rdquo; football cards &ndash; issued a commemorative 10-card set of the 1993 HHOF inductees. The set, limited to 5,000 serial-numbered copies, was given away at the induction ceremony on Nov. 16, 1993, and later sold at the Hall of Fame.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/puckculture_1163/798207-1-eng-US/puckculture_1162.jpg" title="puckculture_116" width="577" height="799"></div><h2><b>4.</b><b>&nbsp;BRIAN MCFARLANE</b></h2><p><b><i>2006-07 Parkhurst #72</i></b></p><p>There isn&rsquo;t much Brian McFarlane has not accomplished over the past nine decades. He was a commentator on <i>Hockey Night In Canada</i> for 28 years, wrote more than 90 hockey books and was recognized with a Hockey Hall of Fame media award in 1995. Just over a decade later, McFarlane got his own card. It was in packs of 2006-07 Parkhurst Hockey, a set that focused on retired players, legendary coaches and popular commentators. There are both signed and unsigned versions of his card.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/puckculture_1133/798200-1-eng-US/puckculture_1132.jpg" title="puckculture_113" width="574" height="801"></div><h2><b>5.</b><b>&nbsp;GREG WYSHYNSKI</b></h2><p><b><i>2013-14 Panini Crown Royale &ndash; Fans of the Game #FG-GW</i></b></p><p>Greg Wyshynski, the former editor of the popular Yahoo! Puck Daddy blog and current writer for ESPN, is the most recent journalist to get the trading-card treatment. Wyshynski&rsquo;s card was randomly found in packs of 2013-14 Panini Crown Royale as a part of its &ldquo;Fans of the Game&rdquo; autographed insert set. There are two versions of his card: a regular version with silver foil and an ultra-rare &ldquo;purple&rdquo; parallel version that was limited to just one copy.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

puckcultre__112

PUCK CULTURE

<div class="byline">BY&#xA0;RYAN KENNEDY</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="jerseyhound_131" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/jerseyhound_131/798311-1-eng-US/jerseyhound_1312.jpg"></div><h2><b>COACHELLA VALLEY FIREBIRDS</b></h2><h3>&gt;2022-23</h3><p class="dropcap"><b><span>E</span>XPANSION TEAMS ARE SO</b> fun. We all waited in breathless anticipation for the reveal of the Seattle Kraken&rsquo;s first look, and now we know what their new AHL affiliate will be rocking, too.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/jerseyhound_130/798304-1-eng-US/jerseyhound_1302.jpg" title="jerseyhound_130" width="209" height="209"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(COACHELLA VALLEY FIREBIRDS)</span></figcaption></div><p>The Coachella Valley Firebirds, slated to take the ice in 2022-23, are based out of California, and they&rsquo;re going to look pretty awesome. To begin with, the club has an excellent main crest, plus a cool palm tree/mountain secondary logo on the shoulder. The team shares three colors with the Kraken &ndash; deep-sea blue, ice blue and red alert &ndash; but gets its own twist with the orange. It&rsquo;s an original look that really hits the mark.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

jerseyhound_131

JERSEY HOUND

<div class="byline">BY MATT LARKIN</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0015-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0015-0169/798342-1-eng-US/f0015-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(STOJANOV+GILMOUR: DOUG MACLELLAN/HHOF IMAGES; MARTIN: JAYNE KAMIN-ONCEA-USA TODAY SPORTS; ERAT: JEROME MIRON-USA TODAY SPORTS; CLARK: DAVE SANDFORD/HHOF IMAGES; MILLER: JEROME MIRON-USA TODAY SPORTS)</span></figcaption></div><p><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0015-01

TRADE DEADLINE FLOP-O-METER

<div class="byline">&#x2013;&#xA0;SAL BARRY</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/buzz_cards1_140/798380-1-eng-US/buzz_cards1_1402.jpg" title="buzz_cards1_140" width="596" height="819"></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>P</span>ITTSBURGH PIRATES RIGHT FIELDER</b> Dave Parker fractured his jaw and cheekbone during a home-plate collision in a 1978 game against the New York Mets. To protect his face until he was fully healed, Parker experimented with a few different masks from other sports. He tried using a fiberglass goalie mask, cutting it down so it would fit under a batting helmet and painting it yellow and black to match his uniform. Parker wore the mask for just one game, on July 16, 1978, and he was intentionally walked in that at-bat. As cool as it looked, no baseball card ever showed him wearing the mask&hellip;until recently. Pop artist Alex Pardee illustrated Parker donning his goalie mask on a card that was sold online by Topps as a part of its &ldquo;Project70&rdquo; set. The card was available for four days in August 2021 and had a print run of 5,522 copies.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/buzz_cards2_141/798373-1-eng-US/buzz_cards2_1412.jpg" title="buzz_cards2_141" width="568" height="886"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(DAVE PARKER)</span></figcaption></div><p><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

buzz_cards1_140

IN THE CARDS

<div class="byline">BY STAN FISCHLER</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="buzz_franci_069" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/buzz_franci_069/798687-1-eng-US/buzz_franci_0692.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(BRAD PENNER-USA TODAY SPORTS)</span></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>W</span>HEN WORD CAME</b> over the wires that Emile &lsquo;The Cat&rsquo; Francis had died at 95, the first thought that came to mind had nothing to do with his adventures as an NHL goalie nor his managerial acumen. Rather, I thought back almost eight decades to when I first saw him at Madison Square Garden. It was then that I&rsquo;d say &ldquo;indomitable&rdquo; best fit the little goaltender.</p><p>It was 1943-44 &ndash; amid the Second World War &ndash; and 17-year-old Emile Percy Francis of North Battleford, Sask., had just emerged from the Philadelphia express train. He was with the Philadelphia Falcons, and I would watch him play against the New York Rovers. By that time, I&rsquo;d seen plenty of hockey since 1939, but I&rsquo;d never seen a goalie so small &ndash; and so fast and unafraid.</p><p>&ldquo;Until we walked out of Penn Station,&rdquo; Francis once told me, &ldquo;I&rsquo;d never seen a skyscraper before, and there it was, the Empire State Building, right down the block. I learned then and there you had to be tough to play Eastern League hockey, but I was ready for the challenge.&rdquo;</p><p>A year later, I saw him again at The Garden, this time stopping pucks for the Washington Lions. He eventually made it to the Chicago Black Hawks &ndash; &ldquo;I once played before the biggest crowd in NHL history, 20,000-plus at Chicago Stadium&rdquo; &ndash; and then the Rangers. Neither team had much of a defense, but Emile, who&rsquo;d lost his father at eight, never complained.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/buzz_franci_068/798680-1-eng-US/buzz_franci_0682.jpg" title="buzz_franci_068" width="676" height="685"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p>EMILE <b>FRANCIS</b></p> <span class="photo-credit">(HHOF IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>&ldquo;I was just happy to be in the NHL,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;and I made the best of it.&rdquo; But there really was no &ldquo;best&rdquo; for the Blueshirts in the early 1950s. Francis learned a lot about geography playing in such towns as Cincinnati, Vancouver, Cleveland, Saskatoon, Seattle and Spokane.</p><p>During the summer, he played for and managed semi-pro baseball teams in Western Canada, teammates with Hockey Hall of Famers Max and Doug Bentley. &ldquo;We&rsquo;d play against some of the best teams in the Negro National League,&rdquo; Francis recalled, &ldquo;and it helped me develop my managerial skills.&rdquo;</p><p>The Rangers liked what he had learned and put Francis in charge of the Guelph Juniors where he honed the skills of Rod Gilbert and Jean Ratelle. MSG moguls finally imported him as GM Muzz Patrick&rsquo;s aide, and eventually Francis replaced Patrick in November 1964, although he also would coach when necessary.</p><p>Francis&rsquo; managerial and coaching career was summed up best in George Grimm&rsquo;s book, <i>We Did Everything But Win</i>. In 1972, Francis&rsquo; unit came close &ndash; losing in six games to Boston in the final &ndash; but the fans loved him and so did the players. &ldquo;Francis rebuilt the franchise,&rdquo; Grimm said. &ldquo;He changed the way the team was viewed by the rest of the league. He ushered in one of the most successful eras in Blueshirt history. Their success reignited the existing fan base as well as attracting new followers. By the time the Blueshirts moved into the new Garden in 1968, they were playing to a sold-out house every night.&rdquo;</p><p>The fans adored his elan, like the night he signed himself to a one-dollar contract as backup goalie when Ed Giacomin was stranded in a blizzard. And they remembered when he ran halfway around the arena to challenge goal judge Arthur Reichert&rsquo;s decision on a Red Wings goal. And no one will forget his creation of the &lsquo;GAG (Goal A Game) Line&rsquo; with Ratelle centering Gilbert on the right and Vic Hadfield on the left.</p><p>&ldquo;Emile was the most organized coach I ever played for,&rdquo; said Hall of Fame defenseman Brad Park. &ldquo;He was honest and straightforward.&rdquo;</p><p>One of his most significant acquisitions was Hall of Famer Giacomin, whose game was mediocre at first but improved under Francis&rsquo; tutelage. &ldquo;He was like a second father to me,&rdquo; Giacomin said. &ldquo;His trust and loyalty helped shape the person I am.&rdquo;</p><p>Francis also created a Met League in the New York area and encouraged the development of homebred players such as reigning Norris Trophy winner Adam Fox. The first such New York-developed Ranger was Staten Island&rsquo;s Nick Fotiu. &ldquo;Cat gave New York kids like me the opportunity to learn and love hockey,&rdquo; Fotiu said. &ldquo;His guidance helped me become the first New York native to don the Blueshirt.&rdquo;</p><p>Added Grimm: &ldquo;Emile&rsquo;s inspiration for the league was seeing kids playing roller hockey in the schoolyard of Hell&rsquo;s Kitchen, two blocks from the Garden.&rdquo; That&rsquo;s where Joe and Brian Mullen got their start that led them to the NHL.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

buzz_franci_069

In Memoriam

THE CENTURY OF THE CAT

<div class="byline">BY JAMES BENESH</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/buzz_hornun_066/798725-1-eng-US/buzz_hornun_0662.jpg" title="buzz_hornun_066" width="933" height="1287"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(PHOTOS COURTESY OF WHL)</span></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>O</span>N FEB. 8, BRAD</b> Hornung succumbed to cancer at 52. Almost 35 years earlier, on March 1, 1987, he was paralyzed after colliding with the end boards while playing for the WHL&rsquo;s Regina Pats. In the time between, Hornung made so much more of his life than many would have thought possible and served as a beacon of inspiration for many along the way.</p><p>Jarrod Livingstone, who Hornung helped settle into the Wascana Rehabilitation Centre in Regina, Sask., said, &ldquo;He was just the most gentle person&rdquo; and someone who taught &ldquo;very good life lessons&rdquo; about how to accept adverse situations. He maintained a lighthearted disposition, saying, &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve accepted this is my life. Go with the flow.&rdquo;</p><p>The future for Hornung was wide open in 1987. He had 32 goals and 66 points in 61 games in his NHL draft year. He was expected to be selected, and scouts projected him as a safe pick. The 5-foot-10, 175-pound Hornung had good all-around skills, with skating being his only question mark. Pats coach Doug Sauter trusted him to shadow a young Joe Sakic. Hornung had good bloodlines, too: his father, Larry, played 869 pro games, including 58 in the NHL and 408 in the WHA.</p><p>But fate redirected Brad&rsquo;s future in that 1987 game between Regina and the Moose Jaw Warriors. While cruising to the net, he was hit with a routine cross-check from behind. His forward momentum carried him into the boards head-first, crushing his spinal cord. He needed an emergency tracheotomy on the ice. Just by living, he had defied the odds for the first of many times.</p><p>Within months, he was breathing on his own and living in a wheelchair, despite neither being forecast in his initially grim prognosis. He completed high school and then earned a history degree from the University of Regina. The Pats retired his No. 8, and the WHL renamed its most sportsmanlike player award in his honor. Hornung took an internship with the Chicago Blackhawks in 2000, which led to a job as an amateur scouting analyst until cost cuts ended that in 2004. He later worked for NHL Central Scouting.</p><p>In his 2018 acceptance speech for an honorary doctor of laws degree, he acknowledged that his teenaged self would have thought his circumstances unimaginable: &ldquo;The day before&hellip;if you had told me I would become a quadriplegic, I would have said&hellip;&lsquo;If that happens, my life as I know it will be over.&rsquo;&rdquo;</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/buzz_hornun_067/798718-1-eng-US/buzz_hornun_0672.jpg" title="buzz_hornun_067" width="686" height="727"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>BRAD HORNUNG</b> & SAM REINHART</p><p>The WHL&rsquo;s most sportsmanlike player each year wins the Brad Hornung Trophy.</p> <span class="photo-credit">(PHOTOS COURTESY OF WHL)</span></figcaption></div><p>When the scenario he described became a reality, nothing Hornung said to anyone conveyed a sense of bitterness, regret or self-pity. As Hornung soon learned, &ldquo;People tend to underestimate themselves and how well they would react to different circumstances.&rdquo;</p><p>Both he and his family immediately forgave the opponent who delivered the check, and they then made the most of Hornung&rsquo;s life. According to Sauter, who remained close to Hornung for life and was at his bedside when he died, &ldquo;Brad never, ever blamed anybody&hellip; It was an accident that happened.&rdquo;</p><p>Hornung&rsquo;s outlook set the tone for the rest of his family, who had every reason to be devastated. &ldquo;He never lost his initiative,&rdquo; said his mother, Terry, in 2004. &ldquo;It made it a lot easier for us because he was never depressed. There was no anger.&rdquo;</p><p>Sauter said in 1987 that the accident &ldquo;makes you question your teaching methods.&rdquo; Although the two-hander in the back still passes for a hockey play today, Hornung never held anything against the game. &ldquo;Hockey has been good to me. It&rsquo;s been good to my family. My dad made a living in it. He loved it. I love it. I didn&rsquo;t feel any bitterness or any anger towards it.</p><p>&ldquo;Unpleasant things are going to happen to (everyone) at one time or another in your lives&hellip;you have the strength within you to face these challenges in ways you cannot even imagine right now&hellip;Even in what may seem like your darkest hour, there is always a place in your life for hope.&rdquo;</p><p>He didn&rsquo;t just say that. He lived it.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

buzz_hornun_066

ACCEPTING ADVERSITY

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0021-0166/798875-1-eng-US/f0021-012.jpg" title="f0021-01" width="807" height="178"></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>F</span>rom <a href="http://THN.com">THN.com</a> contributor @IanKennedyCK:</b>&nbsp;There are so many Black women making hockey history, from @nursey16, @SportBlake, @blackgirlHockey, @elindsay08 and more.</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/trending-li_065/798868-1-eng-US/trending-li_0652.jpg" title="trending-li_065" width="1010" height="724"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/trending-an_050/798861-1-eng-US/trending-an_0502.jpg" title="trending-an_050" width="686" height="208"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/trending-cl_056/798854-1-eng-US/trending-cl_0562.jpg" title="trending-cl_056" width="686" height="275"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/trending-li_061/798847-1-eng-US/trending-li_0612.jpg" title="trending-li_061" width="686" height="145"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/trending-bg_051/798840-1-eng-US/trending-bg_0512.jpg" title="trending-bg_051" width="686" height="135"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/trending-ca_053/798833-1-eng-US/trending-ca_0532.jpg" title="trending-ca_053" width="686" height="145"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/trending-er_057/798826-1-eng-US/trending-er_0572.jpg" title="trending-er_057" width="686" height="340"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/trending-ti_064/798819-1-eng-US/trending-ti_0642.jpg" title="trending-ti_064" width="686" height="137"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/trending-ca_054/798812-1-eng-US/trending-ca_0542.jpg" title="trending-ca_054" width="686" height="145"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/trending-ja_060/798805-1-eng-US/trending-ja_0602.jpg" title="trending-ja_060" width="686" height="186"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/trending-gu_059/798798-1-eng-US/trending-gu_0592.jpg" title="trending-gu_059" width="686" height="268"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/trending-ab_049/798791-1-eng-US/trending-ab_0492.jpg" title="trending-ab_049" width="686" height="250"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/trending-fa_058/798784-1-eng-US/trending-fa_0582.jpg" title="trending-fa_058" width="686" height="208"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/trending-mi_062/798777-1-eng-US/trending-mi_0622.jpg" title="trending-mi_062" width="686" height="180"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/trending-bo_052/798770-1-eng-US/trending-bo_0522.jpg" title="trending-bo_052" width="686" height="145"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/trending-ck_055/798763-1-eng-US/trending-ck_0552.jpg" title="trending-ck_055" width="686" height="275"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/trending-sh_063/798756-1-eng-US/trending-sh_0632.jpg" title="trending-sh_063" width="686" height="135"></div><p><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0021-01

#TRENDING

<div class="byline">BY ALAN ADAMS</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="olympics_wo_009" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/olympics_wo_009/798941-1-eng-US/olympics_wo_0092.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>NORTHERN GOLD RUSH</b></p><p>Canada claimed Olympic glory by going undefeated in Beijing, including two wins over the rival Americans.</p> <span class="photo-credit">(GEORGE WALKER IV-USA TODAY SPORTS)</span></figcaption></div><p><b>THE COUNTDOWN WAS ON.</b></p><p>The seconds were winding down toward the end of what has become the perennial Olympic women&rsquo;s hockey gold-medal game between Canada and the United States as both benches focused on the digital scoreboard hanging over center ice at the Wukesong Sports Centre.</p><p>Unlike rinks in North America, the countdown to the final buzzer on Beijing&rsquo;s side of the globe is not 5-4-3-2-1 but rather 56-57-58-59-60. And when the seconds ran out, or in this case reached their limit, the Canadians, up 3-1 as they entered the third period, hung on to beat Team USA 3-2 in another classic encounter of the two powerhouse teams at the 2022 Winter Olympic Games. &ldquo;It is insane,&rdquo; said 21-year-old center Sarah Fillier, who looks every bit the next great player with a maple leaf on her chest. &ldquo;I can&rsquo;t stop shaking. It&rsquo;s a dream come true. I don&rsquo;t think I can find the words. I&rsquo;m still shaking.&rdquo;</p><p>On the other side of center ice, the Americans held back tears as they watched their rivals enjoy the Olympic spotlight. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think we scratched the surface with our ability to play,&rdquo; said U.S. defender Lee Stecklein. &ldquo;But at the end of the day, the score is what it is, they won the gold medal, we didn&rsquo;t. You have to give them credit.</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/olympics_wo_010/798934-1-eng-US/olympics_wo_0102.jpg" title="olympics_wo_010" width="1345" height="998"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>CAPTAIN CLUTCH</b></p><p>To no one&rsquo;s surprise, Poulin popped another pair of goals in the final, including the game-winner.</p> <span class="photo-credit">(ROB SCHUMACHER-USA TODAY SPORTS)</span></figcaption></div><p>&ldquo;It&rsquo;s bittersweet. You sign up for a tournament, you want to win, we didn&rsquo;t win, but weeks from now, we&rsquo;ll have to appreciate the fact that we did go to the Olympic Games and earn a medal. Some people don&rsquo;t get that opportunity. So it&rsquo;s extremely special, but right now, it definitely stings.&rdquo;</p><p>Truth be known, there was another clock that played a more important role in Canada&rsquo;s return to the top spot on the podium. It was after a heart-wrenching shootout loss to the U.S. in the gold-medal game of the 2018 Pyeongchang Games that Canada GM Gina Kingsbury started racking her brain on how to motivate her dejected players. Enterprisingly, Kingsbury and the leadership group at Hockey Canada had the idea of giving each member of Team Canada a clock that counted down the days and hours to the Beijing 2022 Games, 999 days out.</p><p>&ldquo;We were looking at that clock all the time,&rdquo; said Canadian winger Natalie Spooner. &ldquo;We had it in our houses, and even through COVID, we obviously were not able to be together for a lot of that time. When Gina brought this in, we knew it was time to get back to work. There were a lot of days on that clock at the beginning. But when time went off, when it was 00:00, it was time to get the hard work done.&rdquo;</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/olympics_wo_014/798927-1-eng-US/olympics_wo_0142.jpg" title="olympics_wo_014" width="1179" height="811"><figcaption class="caption-body">MARIE-PHILIP <b>POULIN</b> <span class="photo-credit">(ROB SCHUMACHER-USA TODAY SPORTS)</span></figcaption></div><p>The clocks were set to go off on the night of the opening ceremony. Team Canada officials were in a meeting at the athletes&rsquo; village when they were interrupted by an alarm with which they were not familiar. Players called home later to hear family members had had to chase strange noises in their homes. &ldquo;It was for the days when we weren&rsquo;t together as a team, but we were still working hard,&rdquo; said winger Rebecca Johnston. &ldquo;It was for when people aren&rsquo;t watching, we are trying to make ourselves better each day. It was a long four years after the Olympics, so it was about staying motivated after losing the medal in 2018.&rdquo;</p><p>The Canadians were certainly motivated, and they pushed the envelope by cranking up the offense and playing hard in all crooks and corners of the rink. They chased the puck on defense just as hard as they did on offense, and the results spoke volumes. They ate time on the clock, time and time again.</p><p>The Canadians went undefeated with a roster including 10 first-time Olympians, and the top six tournament scoring leaders were all Canadian.</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/olympics_wo_011/798920-1-eng-US/olympics_wo_0112.jpg" title="olympics_wo_011" width="2120" height="1247"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>EFFORT FOR THE AGES</b></p><p>Nurse, who opened the scoring in the final, set a record for points in one Olympics with 18.</p> <span class="photo-credit">(ROB SCHUMACHER-USA TODAY SPORTS)</span></figcaption></div><p>Living up to her nickname &lsquo;Captain Clutch,&rsquo; Marie-Philip Poulin scored two goals in the gold-medal game and became the only hockey player, male or female, to score in four Olympic Games finals. She has scored seven times in the past four gold-medal games, including the game-winning goal in each of 2010, 2014 and 2022.</p><p>Sarah Nurse was the scoring leader, with five goals and 18 points. She broke the record set by Hayley Wickenheiser, who had 17 points at the 2006 Turin Games. Brianne Jenner was named tournament MVP. &ldquo;Good things happen to good people, and when you surround yourself with good people, good things happen,&rdquo; Poulin said. &ldquo;There are great players all around. We are a team that is very special. We are a team that is excited for each other.&rdquo;</p><p>When an NHL team wins the Stanley Cup, it is said the championship casts a long shadow over the league and prompts other clubs to mirror their style of play in the hope of playoff success.</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/olympics_wo_013/798913-1-eng-US/olympics_wo_0132.jpg" title="olympics_wo_013" width="1493" height="816"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p>ALEX CARPENTER & <b>KLARA PESLAROVA</b></p> <span class="photo-credit">(GEORGE WALKER IV-USA TODAY SPORTS)</span></figcaption></div><p>If Canada is the pace car for women&rsquo;s hockey, they have lapped the field. There was more to their victory than just being better than the U.S. and the rest of the pack. The 3-2 gold-medal score could easily have been a lot more lopsided. &ldquo;I think we are taking the game to new heights now,&rdquo; Nurse said. &ldquo;I know that people just look at the score and just think that we are dominating teams, but what we are doing on the ice right now is we are pushing the pace. We are playing a style of hockey that has never been seen in our tournament before, and in five to 10 years, other countries will be playing our style of play. And we will keep pushing the envelope to make our sport better.&rdquo;</p><blockquote class="pullQuote">We are playing a style of hockey that has never been seen in our tournament before, and in five to 10 years, other countries will be playing our style of play<br>&ndash; Sarah Nurse</blockquote><p>The dominance of Canada and the United States sparked the age-old debate over whether women&rsquo;s hockey even belongs in the Games. There was much handwringing by pundits and observers about the competitive balance of the tournament. What they called for was like telling Tiger Woods to bogey the last 10 holes of a tournament so other golfers could catch up.</p><p>Since women&rsquo;s hockey made its debut in 1998, there has been only one championship game in which Canada and the U.S. didn&rsquo;t face off for gold. And while the gap remains between the North American superpowers and the rest of the world, the competitive level of other teams is improving, and the hockey world saw that play out in the Chinese capital.</p><p>The 2022 tournament marked the first time that every team won at least one game. It also took until the last game of the preliminary round to see if Finland &ndash; which was billed as a dark-horse gold medallist &ndash; was going to win its first game of the competition after losing three straight.</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/olympics_wo_012/798906-1-eng-US/olympics_wo_0122.jpg" title="olympics_wo_012" width="1700" height="1039"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>IT&rsquo;S HOW YOU FINNISH</b></p><p>The Finns lost three straight to start the Olympics. They then won three of four to claim bronze.</p> <span class="photo-credit">(DAVID W CERNY/REUTERS VIA USA TODAY SPORTS)</span></figcaption></div><p>Once they found their form, the Finns were off and running and beat Switzerland 4-0 to take the bronze medal for the third time in four Games.</p><p>In other words, if you took Canada and the U.S. out of the picture, you could not know who would win the gold medal in the Chinese capital. &ldquo;The gap between every other team is getting smaller,&rdquo; said Finnish center Susanna Tapani. &ldquo;We are getting there, it&rsquo;s just a slow process. We don&rsquo;t have that many players, so it takes a longer time. But we are getting there.&rdquo;</p><p>There was no shortage of other storylines circling the tournament. The event started out on an ominous note when, on the opening day of competition, veteran U.S. star Brianna Decker broke her left leg in the first game. You could argue the U.S. team never really recovered from the loss of arguably its top forward.</p><p>The Russian women became the focus of much attention over COVID issues. Players from both Finland and Canada wore masks when they faced the Russians in the preliminary rounds due to fears for their health.</p><p>Russian coach Evgeny Bobariko later revealed that COVID-19 cases reached double figures within his squad and affected the team&rsquo;s performance. &ldquo;If we weren&rsquo;t in this hard situation where we had 10, 11 people drop out, then probably we would have shown a different kind of hockey here,&rdquo; he said.</p><p>Meanwhile, the Czechs generated much buzz about how far they have progressed in a short span of time. &ldquo;Hopefully we showed that we are not the underdogs, that we also can play hockey,&rdquo; said goalie Klara Peslarova, who drew a lot of attention for her quarterfinal performance against the U.S. &ldquo;They didn&rsquo;t really know about us, and now they know. Hopefully we made a good name for us, and hopefully teams like the U.S. and Canada want to play against us now.&rdquo;</p><p>In five games, Peslarova had a 1.60 goals-against average and won the best-goaltender honors.</p><p>The focus going forward on the women&rsquo;s game will be on closing the gap between those rich in medals and those aspiring to take their place on the podium. The issue for governing European hockey federations is not to rebuild their programs but simply to <i>build</i> them. The problem is, this has been the issue for years.</p><p>Perhaps other nations can look at what Hockey Canada did when they lost to the U.S. in the last Olympics. Coach Troy Ryan took a new approach with the team, focusing on culture and a high-motor style of play.</p><p>Consider goaltender Ann-Renee Desbiens for a moment. She walked away from the game four years ago, and when Hockey Canada sought her out to see whether she was interested in coming out of retirement, she had long talks with management and players about whether the win-at-all-costs approach had changed. She liked what she heard and decided to return.</p><p>And while Poulin played a key role in the win, you could argue Desbiens was the MVP of the final. With a 3-1 lead, the Canadians sat back in the third period, and the U.S. came on strong. Time and time again, Desbiens was up for the challenge. &ldquo;Four years ago, it was very difficult,&rdquo; she said after the game. &ldquo;There were definitely some tears, not happy tears. I thought I was done. I never thought I would have a gold medal at all around my neck.</p><p>&ldquo;To be here, to have it, to take it home with me, to share it with my family and friends, my hometown, I didn&rsquo;t think was going to be possible. I&rsquo;m really glad I came back. I&rsquo;m really glad to be part of this special group, as this team is special. It&rsquo;s been a lot of fun, the most fun I&rsquo;ve had playing hockey.&rdquo;<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

olympics_wo_009

Beijing 2022 Women’s Wrap

TIME IS OF THE ESSENCE

<div class="byline">BY ALAN ADAMS</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="olympics_me_104" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/olympics_me_104/799007-1-eng-US/olympics_me_1042.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>FINLAND GETS GOLD</b></p><p>The win in Beijing was Finland&rsquo;s first gold in Olympic competition and seventh medal overall since 1952.</p> <span class="photo-credit">(GEORGE WALKER IV-USA TODAY SPORTS)</span></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>P</span>ERCHED IN HIS SEAT</b> high in the stands at the National Indoor Stadium, a longtime observer of all things hockey shook his head as he watched another nobody-can-score men&rsquo;s game on the ice below him.</p><p>&ldquo;There is a reason why these guys are not in the NHL today,&rdquo; he said with resignation in his voice.</p><p>Maybe not all the guys, but most of them. Men&rsquo;s hockey was the only sport in the Chinese capital not to have the best-on-best compete for Olympic gold, and it showed.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/olympics_me_109/799000-1-eng-US/olympics_me_1092.jpg" title="olympics_me_109" width="867" height="979"><figcaption class="caption-body">MIKHAIL GRIGORENKO <b>& FRANS NIELSEN</b></figcaption></div><p>For better or worse, the 2022 Beijing Olympic Winter Games will be remembered for a lot of things that didn&rsquo;t happen at a hockey arena. Though you could argue a Canada-U.S. final &ndash; or Canada-Russia, Russia-U.S., Sweden-Finland &ndash; could have hogged more attention than the actual championship game between a cast of Russian unknowns and an older Finnish team peppered with faded NHL stars.</p><p>Finland won its first gold medal in Olympic hockey and brought much joy in the small Nordic country with a 2-1 victory in the final over the Russian Olympic Committee. Finland first competed in the Games in 1952 and has two silvers and four bronzes from previous tournaments.</p><p>But the best hockey &ndash; by far &ndash; was the women&rsquo;s final between the U.S. and Canada. The game averaged 3.54 million viewers in the U.S., more than any NHL game this season, and the second-most watched game in the U.S. since 2019.</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/olympics_me_108/798993-1-eng-US/olympics_me_1082.jpg" title="olympics_me_108" width="1180" height="1249"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>SEASONED OLD PRO</b></p><p>Ex-NHLer Filppula previously played for Finland at the 2010 Games in Vancouver. He was 37 in Beijing.</p><span class="photo-credit">(TOP: GEORGE WALKER IV-USA TODAY SPORTS; BOTTOM: JONATHAN ERNST/REUTERS VIA USA TODAY SPORTS)</span></figcaption></div><p>Not to take away the shine of Finland mining Olympic gold, but suffice it to say the quality of the product on the ice at the National Indoor Stadium and the Wukesong Sports Centre over 10 days in February was AHL level at its best. One smothering defense against another smothering defense. Teams played not like they wanted to win, but more like they were afraid to lose.</p><p>For the second straight Winter Games, players from leagues spread across the globe proudly chased their dream of Olympic glory in the unlikeliest of places. There was no shortage of former NHL players scattered across the 12 teams in the tournament. Some of them had good careers in North America &ndash; Frans Nielsen of Denmark and Valtteri Filppula of Finland come to mind &ndash; and went back home in the twilight of their careers. Others were bottom-six forwards or bottom-pair defensemen who went back to Europe to make a living in Sweden, Finland, Switzerland, Germany or Russia.</p><p>Four years ago, Russia relied on Pavel Datsyuk and Ilya Kovalchuk to take the team to the final against Germany. Then in overtime, Kirill Kaprizov scored the winner and gave NHL fans a look at what was to come with the Minnesota Wild. Kaprizov won the Calder Trophy as the NHL&rsquo;s top rookie in 2020-21.</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/olympics_me_106/798986-1-eng-US/olympics_me_1062.jpg" title="olympics_me_106" width="2122" height="1311"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>SLOVAK SENSATION</b></p><p>Slafkovsky didn&rsquo;t just turn heads at the Games, he put his name on the radar of hockey fans everywhere.</p></figcaption></div><p>Four years later?</p><p>The Beijing Games will be known as 17-year-old phenom Juraj Slafkovsky&rsquo;s coming-out party. The youngest player in the men&rsquo;s tourney left an impression that improved his chances of going first overall in the 2022 NHL draft. If not 1, then 1A. He led the competition in goals, with seven in seven games, and he was named a top-three forward and MVP of the tournament.</p><p>&ldquo;I watched him play a game, and I was inordinately impressed with what he brought to the table,&rdquo; said Slovak coach Craig Ramsay, the ex-NHL player and coach. &ldquo;Not only is he big (6-foot-4), but he has good feet and a great set of hands. I like his style of playing. He is not just a slug that is big.&rdquo;</p><p>Slafkovsky saved his best for last, scoring twice in a 4-0 win over Sweden to give Slovakia the bronze medal, the first Olympic hockey medal of any color for his homeland. The last time Slovakia was in the bronze-medal game was a dozen years ago, and Slafkovsky missed it because he was in kindergarten at the time.</p><p>Slafkovsky didn&rsquo;t expect to take a run at the scoring title as a 17-year-old. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s just an amazing feeling,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s not about my goals but that we manage to win tough games, against USA and now against Sweden. That&rsquo;s the greatest thing that has happened in my life so far.&rdquo;</p><p>One of the best stories of the Games surrounded Nielsen, the first player born and trained in Denmark to reach the NHL. He played 15 NHL seasons, and when no team signed him, he took his game to Germany. Nielsen would have missed the Games had he signed with an NHL team. &ldquo;If I&rsquo;d stayed in the NHL, that would&rsquo;ve been a tough one to swallow when they said NHL players couldn&rsquo;t go, so I was really thankful it worked out the way it did,&rdquo; Nielsen said. &ldquo;Being my last year playing, it would&rsquo;ve been tough to miss this.&rdquo;</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/olympics_me_107/798979-1-eng-US/olympics_me_1072.jpg" title="olympics_me_107" width="1614" height="1207"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>SHIMISIOR SMITH</b></p><p>Smith&rsquo;s three seasons stopping pucks for Kunlun in the KHL opened the door for him to play for China.</p></figcaption></div><p>In their Olympic debut, the Danes advanced to the quarterfinal, where they lost 3-1 to Russia. But as far as Denmark was concerned, not all was lost. &ldquo;For us players, it meant everything,&rdquo; Nielsen said. &ldquo;We tried so many times and failed. We finally got here. Hopefully, this will grow a lot more hockey fans back in Denmark. We got here and opened their eyes to this game.</p><p>&ldquo;Hopefully, a lot more people got up this morning and watched it and know more about hockey now. It&rsquo;s still a small hockey country. We&rsquo;ve only got 27 rinks or so. We need more rinks, and we need more young players to play.&rdquo;</p><p>The other feel-good story surrounded the maligned host-nation team. Before the tournament, there was serious concern the Chinese team, with a roster stocked with Canadian and American players, would be an embarrassment. Jake Chelios, son of Hall of Famer Chris Chelios, had no problem going by the adopted Chinese moniker of Jieke Kailiaosi. Same for goaltender Jieruimi Shimisi, who went by Jeremy Smith when he appeared in 10 games for the Colorado Avalanche in 2016-17.</p><p>&ldquo;We have seen a lot, we have been to The Great Wall and the Temple of Heaven, the Summer Palace,&rdquo; said Smith about the past three years in China playing for the KHL&rsquo;s Kunlun Red Star. &ldquo;The culture and the history in China and in Beijing, it is hard to wrap your head around it. You come from (the U.S.) and it was 1776 when it was established. Beijing is thousands of years old, so the history is beyond comprehension.&rdquo;</p><blockquote class="pullQuote">I watched him play a game, and I was inordinately impressed with what he brought to the table<br>&ndash; Slovak coach Craig Ramsay on Juraj Slafkovsky</blockquote><p>Coach Ivano Zanatta, a resident of Scarborough, Ont., felt the Chinese exited with their heads held high. China arguably outplayed Canada in the first period of their qualification-round game and the shots were close, only slightly favoring Canada. &ldquo;There was a point when it was 28-25, so what more can you ask,&rdquo; Zanatta said. &ldquo;This is Chinese hockey, the first time here, and they can only grow from this.</p><p>&ldquo;It has been an incredible experience. We are ranked 32nd in the world and we went toe-to-toe with Germany, toe-to-toe for one period with Canada. It makes you understand it is very feasible if you get the right people and the right chemistry of people, that being players and staff, and we had it.&rdquo;</p><p>Let&rsquo;s get back to the battle for gold. Russia was the pre-tournament favorite simply for the fact it didn&rsquo;t have to look outside its border to assemble a team.</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/olympics_me_105/798972-1-eng-US/olympics_me_1052.jpg" title="olympics_me_105" width="1494" height="817"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(GEORGE WALKER IV-USA TODAY SPORTS)</span></figcaption></div><p>But the plucky Finns used familiarity to fuel their success. GM Jere Lehtinen, who was known as one of the best defensive wingers in hockey when he played in the NHL, didn&rsquo;t look far and wide to build a team. The roster featured five players from Helsinki-based Jokerit and three apiece from SKA St. Petersburg and Vityaz Podolsk &ndash; all KHL teams &ndash; plus two apiece from Karpat of Finland&rsquo;s Liiga and Geneve-Servette of Switzerland&rsquo;s National League. The Finnish roster featured former NHLers Filppula, Leo Komarov, Sami Vatanen and Mikko Lehtonen.</p><p>Finland had the firepower to go along with its hallmark of strong structure, defense and goaltending. The Finns went undefeated in six games, including a three-goal comeback to beat Sweden in the preliminary round, which was followed by wins over Switzerland, Slovakia and Russia to take the gold medal.</p><p>The Finns play with a hybrid of Canadian grit and European flare. They can grind any team into the boards and then beat you up ice with a quick transition game. Russian coach Alexei Zhamnov said his team needed to play a more &ldquo;Canadian&rdquo; brand of hockey to match Finland in the final.</p><p>Former IIHF president Rene Fasel, who has close connections with Russian hockey officials, was critical of Finland&rsquo;s brand of hockey, saying it was not beautiful to watch. That, in turn, prompted Columbus Blue Jackets GM Jarmo Kekalainen to lash out at Fasel, writing: &ldquo;With his comments about the Olympic final, Fasel clearly demonstrated his incompetence in understanding the great game of hockey, unfortunately after serving as an IIHF president for too long.&rdquo;</p><p>The Finns&rsquo; secret weapon was coach Jukka Jalonen, whose resume includes a World Junior Championship gold medal, two World Championship gold medals and now Olympic gold. &ldquo;I am just a simple man,&rdquo; Jalonen said.</p><p>Successful, too.</p><p>The Finns received a hero&rsquo;s welcome at Olympic Stadium in Helsinki during a winter storm when they arrived back home. More than 12,000 fans greeted the gold medallists.</p><p>As for Canada and the U.S, they never really got it going. The Canadian men had back-to-back games against China as their warmup for the quarterfinal against Sweden, which they lost 2-0.</p><p>The U.S. had an emphasis on NCAA players, and their early success drew comparisons to the fabled Miracle on Ice team from the 1980 Lake Placid Games, when a collection of college kids upset a powerful team from the Soviet Union on their way to a gold-medal win.</p><p>In Beijing, the U.S. men lost the lead in the last minute of regulation time against Slovakia and were eliminated via shootout. &ldquo;Obviously, it was not the result we wanted, and there are no words to make them feel better,&rdquo; said U.S. coach David Quinn.</p><p>The 2026 Winter Games are in Milan and Cortina, Italy, and Luc Tardif, president of the IIHF, is optimistic the NHL will be there in full force.</p><p>&ldquo;They understand how it&rsquo;s difficult for us to wait until the last moment,&rdquo; said Tardif about the NHL pulling the plug in December. &ldquo;They understand it is not easy for us, that it&rsquo;s not easy for the IOC and that it&rsquo;s also frustrating for the fans and the players. That&rsquo;s why I&rsquo;m optimistic for the next one.&rdquo;</p><p>Tardif has to be a glass-half-full guy. He witnessed a glass-half-empty tournament and knows all those involved deserved better than the last two Olympic cycles.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

olympics_me_104

Beijing 2022 Men’s Wrap

STARS NOT IN ALIGNMENT

phf_opener

Premier Hockey Federation

INVESTING FOR THE PRESENT

<div class="byline">BY KEN CAMPBELL</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="rodbrindamo_147" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/rodbrindamo_147/799160-1-eng-US/rodbrindamo_1472.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(JAMES CAREY LAUDER-USA TODAY SPORTS)</span></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>T</span>HE ASSISTANT</b> coach of the under-10 AA Carolina Junior Hurricanes couldn&rsquo;t be at practice one night recently because he was out of town on business. And business is really good these days. But he did manage to watch the workout on his laptop from his hotel room in Boston, took some notes and shot a text to head coach Cody Staves the next morning. &ldquo;He told me, &lsquo;I love the new drill you did,&rsquo;&rdquo; Staves said. &ldquo;&lsquo;You might want to try it like this the next time.&rsquo;&rdquo;</p><p>If the guy sending that text is a Type-A megalomaniac who thinks his little Brayden is the second coming of Bobby Orr and believes his ability to sell software also makes him a hockey genius, well, that&rsquo;s all kinds of youth-hockey hell right there. But suppose he&rsquo;s the reigning Jack Adams Award winner who is coaching one of the best teams in the NHL and possesses the humility of an everyman trapped in the body of an Adonis. In that case, that means your trusty assistant coach is Brooks Brind&rsquo;Amour&rsquo;s dad. (Jade Williams&rsquo; dad is another assistant. You might have heard of her father, a chap named Justin.)</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/rodbrindamo_154/799153-1-eng-US/rodbrindamo_1542.jpg" title="rodbrindamo_154" width="776" height="896"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p>ROD <b>BRIND&rsquo;AMOUR</b></p> <span class="photo-credit">(LOU CAPOZZOLA-USA TODAY NETWORK)</span></figcaption></div><p>Twenty-two years, one Stanley Cup and two Selke Trophies after landing in Carolina, Rod Brind&rsquo;Amour has the Hurricanes &ndash; both the junior version and the varsity team &ndash; in an excellent place. The Junior Hurricanes are off to something called the Squirt International in Fargo, N.D., at the end of February. And after the big team missed the playoffs nine straight years, the NHL Canes have found themselves in the post-season each of the past three seasons under Brind&rsquo;Amour. While they&rsquo;re not there yet, the Hurricanes feel as though they&rsquo;re on the cusp of doing something special. Brind&rsquo;Amour, meanwhile, isn&rsquo;t about to start drinking sweet tea from a Mason jar &ndash; too much refined sugar &ndash; but he has become a bona fide Tar Heel, even marrying the daughter of a college basketball coach.</p><p>The on- and off-ice journeys for Brind&rsquo;Amour have been filled with moments of triumph and soul-crushing craters. But there is no doubt he has discovered his identity and found his stride in both places. As a coach, he&rsquo;s risen to the top of his craft and has the unconditional support of both the organization and its players. Personally, he&rsquo;s absorbed some body blows, the most painful of which was a very public divorce from his former wife and the breakup of his family. Brind&rsquo;Amour has since remarried the former Amy Biedenbach, who is Brooks&rsquo; mother and treats Brind&rsquo;Amour&rsquo;s other three sons as though they&rsquo;re her own. &ldquo;Coming down here was the best thing that ever happened to me,&rdquo; Brind&rsquo;Amour said. &ldquo;When it happened, it was the worst thing that ever happened to me. It&rsquo;s crazy how life works, right?&rdquo;</p><p>Yeah, it is. Brind&rsquo;Amour was crushed when the Philadelphia Flyers traded him to Carolina during the 1999-2000 season. Three years later, he found himself stretching before a game in San Jose in the most miserable season of his career and seriously thinking he&rsquo;d have to retire. Brind&rsquo;Amour was separating from his wife and didn&rsquo;t see how he&rsquo;d be able to co-parent his two-, three- and four-year-old boys while continuing to play in the NHL. &ldquo;I was stretching in the hallway and the referees were right across the way, and I was thinking, &lsquo;Maybe I should be a ref,&rsquo;&rdquo; Brind&rsquo;Amour said. &ldquo;All I could think of was, &lsquo;This isn&rsquo;t working. I have to quit hockey because I may not see my kids.&rsquo; My parents are still together, and you just don&rsquo;t get divorced. But I also knew I wasn&rsquo;t being a good parent in this relationship. It was the toughest decision I&rsquo;ve ever had to make.&rdquo;</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/rodbrindamo_150/799146-1-eng-US/rodbrindamo_1502.jpg" title="rodbrindamo_150" width="1021" height="976"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(PHOTO BY CAROLINA HURRICANES)</span></figcaption></div><p>Not long after Brind&rsquo;Amour arrived in Carolina, former NHLer Kevin Dineen introduced him to Wilson Hoyle III. Hoyle, a former placekicker for Wake Forest University who held the school&rsquo;s scoring record for 16 years, runs a company called Captrust, the largest registered-advisory firm in the United States, with more than 1,000 employees, 60 locations and $390 billion in assets under advisement. An acquaintance grew into a friendship, then morphed into a brotherhood. When the schedule allows it, the two show up and work out together at the practice facility or the Hurricanes&rsquo; home, PNC Arena. They talk every day, and when Brind&rsquo;Amour got married in 2010, Hoyle was his best man. Hoyle was there for Brind&rsquo;Amour during the divorce and afterward. Now, they&rsquo;re inseparable. &ldquo;First of all, that guy is the greatest human being on the planet, and he happens to be my best friend,&rdquo; said Brind&rsquo;Amour of Hoyle. &ldquo;I lucked out there.&rdquo; To which Hoyle countered: &ldquo;I&rsquo;m a better person because of my relationship with Rod. When he walks into the room, he makes the room better. We always talk about this. In fact, we just talked about it this morning. Our approach to any challenge is not to have a pity party about it. First thing we do is pray about it. The second thing we do is go and work our asses off.&rdquo;</p><blockquote class="pullQuote"><b><i>COMING TO CAROLINA WAS THE BEST THING THAT EVER HAPPENED TO ME. WHEN IT HAPPENED, IT WAS THE WORST THING. IT&rsquo;S CRAZY HOW LIFE WORKS, RIGHT?</i></b><br>&ndash; Rod Brind&rsquo;Amour</blockquote><p>Pray? That&rsquo;s interesting, but while Brind&rsquo;Amour is an open book on most things in his life, his faith is personal to him, and it&rsquo;s going to stay that way. But it&rsquo;s a big part of his moral compass, which is, in turn, a massive factor in Brind&rsquo;Amour, both the person and the coach. Even though Brind&rsquo;Amour looks as though he could still play and still feels more like a player than a coach, he&rsquo;s developed into an incredible bench boss. There are times when the Hurricanes peel back a layer of the onion and post video of Brind&rsquo;Amour&rsquo;s post-game speeches to his team on social media. And they&rsquo;re something to see. He&rsquo;s pacing around the room like an expectant father, pointing at players and making everyone feel important. Last year during the playoffs, the team even sang <i>Happy Birthday</i> to Brind&rsquo;Amour&rsquo;s father after a win. Imagine John Tortorella&rsquo;s or Ken Hitchcock&rsquo;s team doing something like that. This season, when Div. II North Carolina State asked him to give the lineup, he ended up giving a speech that prompted the school to tweet out, &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve run out of walls to run through.&rdquo;</p><p>The way his friend Hoyle sees it, Brind&rsquo;Amour&rsquo;s success comes from a unique combination of toughness and humility. In the end, athletes need two things from their coach to succeed: equal amounts of encouragement and accountability. Brind&rsquo;Amour has become a master of giving out just enough of the former and expecting more of the latter than has been asked of them before. You have to remember Brind&rsquo;Amour was part of that nine-year playoff drought, an assistant coach for the final seven years of it. He served first under Paul Maurice, then Kirk Muller, then Bill Peters. But current assistant coach Jeff Daniels said when Brind&rsquo;Amour showed up for his first day of camp as the head coach in 2018, there was no ambiguity around what he expected of the team.</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/rodbrindamo_148/799139-1-eng-US/rodbrindamo_1482.jpg" title="rodbrindamo_148" width="2834" height="1930"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>PLAYOFF PAYOFF</b></p><p>Brind&rsquo;Amour has led the Hurricanes to the post-season in each of his three seasons in charge. Soon, it&rsquo;ll be four.</p> <span class="photo-credit">(JOHN E. SOKOLOWSKI-USA TODAY SPORTS)</span></figcaption></div><p>Brind&rsquo;Amour made it clear expectations had been far too low in recent years and that not buying into his desire to play the game fast and hard would not be acceptable. The Hurricanes went on to post what was then their second-best season in franchise history before eventually being swept by the Boston Bruins in the Eastern Conference final. &ldquo;That was really easy, actually,&rdquo; said Brind&rsquo;Amour of changing the culture in the dressing room. &ldquo;I thought all along that we didn&rsquo;t have the bar set high enough. It was really easy for me to say, &lsquo;The bar is on the floor. We&rsquo;ve just got to raise it.&rsquo; I thought it was really easy, an obvious thing. I&rsquo;ve been here a long time, and I saw for a long stretch that we had no chance. You have to change the expectation level, but the funny thing is, it wasn&rsquo;t that much. Suddenly, you&rsquo;re knocking on the door, which is where we think we are. We&rsquo;re not there yet, but we&rsquo;re getting there.&rdquo;</p><p>The Hurricanes are indeed getting there. They were the second-best team in the NHL in terms of points percentage as of mid-February, with very few burps or hiccups along the way. If they play the second half of the season anywhere near as well as they did the first, the Canes are a shoo-in to improve on the best regular season they&rsquo;ve ever had. As it turns out, that best-ever campaign happens to have been last season, under Brind&rsquo;Amour. There have been more than a few changes to the lineup in Brind&rsquo;Amour&rsquo;s almost four seasons in charge, but Jordan Staal is still there. Sebastian Aho spent a couple of seasons gaining Brind&rsquo;Amour&rsquo;s trust before moving from the wing to become one of the league&rsquo;s elite two-way centermen. Jaccob Slavin has developed into a shutdown defenseman who plays the game so well and so cleanly that he became just the second defenseman in 67 years to win the Lady Byng Trophy. No one would be surprised if the &lsquo;Bunch of Jerks&rsquo; rode a Storm Surge all the way to a Stanley Cup this season. If that happens, Brind&rsquo;Amour will become the first person since Toe Blake to both play for and coach the same team to a Stanley Cup and only the third man in NHL history, after Blake and Hap Day, to serve as both a captain and coach of the same Stanley Cup-winning franchise.</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/rodbrindamo_149/799132-1-eng-US/rodbrindamo_1492.jpg" title="rodbrindamo_149" width="2119" height="1486"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>LIVE TO SERVE</b></p><p>Brind&rsquo;Amour is known among friends as having an incredible drive to serve the needs of others.</p> <span class="photo-credit">(SOKOLOWSKI-USA TODAY SPORTS)</span></figcaption></div><p>Back to the toughness and humility thing. Somehow, Brind&rsquo;Amour manages to pull it off where other coaches fail. Everyone who knows Brind&rsquo;Amour can attest to his passion for winning, but he manages to combine it with an ability to treat people the right way. And that&rsquo;s not always easy. Ian Cole, who signed with the Hurricanes as a UFA last summer, said on an off-day, he took his father for a tour of the Wake Competition Center, which is the Hurricanes&rsquo; practice rink. It turns out Brind&rsquo;Amour was in his office watching a tape of his son, Skyler, an Edmonton Oilers draft pick in his junior season at Quinnipiac. Brind&rsquo;Amour poked his head out of the office and had a long conversation with Cole&rsquo;s father that left the elder Cole raving about the coach. It might not seem difficult to most people to be both singularly focused on winning and have a compassionate side, but it&rsquo;s not as easy as it looks, judging by the way some coaches and athletes treat people.</p><p>For his part, Hoyle sees it all the time in the business world. He protects the investments of 3,500 companies, universities and professional athletes, and he is around high-performing people all the time. &ldquo;Typically, they are self-absorbed a--holes,&rdquo; Hoyle said. &ldquo;Their single-mindedness makes them self-absorbed or selfish. What makes Rod so unique is he is focused and disciplined, but that combination of toughness and humility make him the furthest thing from being a selfish jerk. He&rsquo;s a servant-leader, literally. When it comes to getting the most out of his players, he&rsquo;s like, &lsquo;How can I serve them?&rsquo; And it&rsquo;s real.&rdquo;</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/rodbrindamo_151/799125-1-eng-US/rodbrindamo_1512.jpg" title="rodbrindamo_151" width="1188" height="915"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(CAROLINA HURRICANES)</span></figcaption></div><p>After the Hurricanes won the Stanley Cup in 2006, Hoyle remembers Brind&rsquo;Amour leaving the party early with the Stanley Cup in tow. They drove Brind&rsquo;Amour&rsquo;s father to the airport, then went back to his house to watch a continuous loop of SportsCenter and eat cereal until the sun came up. Don&rsquo;t tell Mark Messier or Alex Ovechkin about that one. &ldquo;It has to be the most boring night in the history of the Cup,&rdquo; Hoyle said.</p><p>But Brind&rsquo;Amour wanted to have it waiting in Skyler&rsquo;s room when his son woke up the next morning because he couldn&rsquo;t stay up until the end of the game. No party, no jumping into the pool with it at somebody&rsquo;s mansion. Just two friends eating cereal and watching SportsCenter with the Cup on a coffee table nearby.</p><p>Things have not changed much for Brind&rsquo;Amour since winning the Cup as a player. He still rarely drinks alcohol. He is still in the weight room almost every day, although he stopped bench pressing about five years before his playing career ended because it was murder on his shoulders. He still puts in the time, doing a lot of cardio and core work, with some weights sprinkled in there. He hasn&rsquo;t changed his eating habits since his playing days, which accounts for the two whole pounds he&rsquo;s gained since retiring more than a decade ago. &ldquo;It used to be that if I had a flight at seven, I&rsquo;d get up at five so I could get my workout in,&rdquo; Brind&rsquo;Amour said. &ldquo;But now, I usually bag it for the day. Or I&rsquo;ll work out when I get there or that&rsquo;s my day off.&rdquo; Slacker.</p><blockquote class="pullQuote"><b><i>I&rsquo;M A BETTER PERSON BECAUSE OF MY RELATIONSHIP WITH ROD. WHEN HE WALKS INTO THE ROOM, HE MAKES THE ROOM BETTER</i></b><br>&ndash; Wilson Hoyle III</blockquote><p>The ability to extract every ounce he had as a player allows him to expect the same of the guys who play for him. As Daniels said, Brind&rsquo;Amour will never expect anything out of anyone that he would not have expected out of himself when he played. When you see Brind&rsquo;Amour walking around the room pointing and encouraging, that&rsquo;s not an act for the cameras. It works for him, where it might seem inauthentic from others. And you get the sense that if a player can&rsquo;t play for Brind&rsquo;Amour, it might be time for him to look at himself and what he&rsquo;s not doing right. The message that resonated with the likes of a younger Aho or Teuvo Teravainen or Brett Pesce is just as readily accepted by grizzled veterans. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m a prime example of it,&rdquo; said Derek Stepan, a 31-year-old who signed a one-year deal with the Hurricanes to be their fourth-line center this season. &ldquo;I came in this summer, and fairly quickly, I was able to understand his ability to do all this,&rdquo; Stepan said. &ldquo;The way he communicates with the players, that&rsquo;s special. And that&rsquo;s something that I bought into early on in the year. His ability to motivate me at this stage of my career and also motivate a Seth Jarvis, who&rsquo;s playing his first game&hellip;to be able to squeeze every ounce out of every player, that&rsquo;s what makes a coach special.&rdquo;</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/rodbrindamo_152/799118-1-eng-US/rodbrindamo_1522.jpg" title="rodbrindamo_152" width="1570" height="1153"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(PHOTO BY CAROLINA HURRICANES)</span></figcaption></div><p>Between events during the all-star weekend in Vegas, Brind&rsquo;Amour watched as Brooks&rsquo; team played a weekend series in Charleston, S.C., and watched Skyler&rsquo;s games against Union and RPI. That&rsquo;s before taking the red-eye back to Raleigh right after coaching the Metropolitan Division to a win in the final and the $1-million prize payout. He wanted to get home to spend some time with his kids before leaving the next day for a three-day road trip. That trip also prevented him from being behind the bench for his duties with the under-10 Junior Hurricanes &ndash; duties including breaking down video for the kids for Wednesday night practice. Nothing elaborate, but when they can see a clip of Andrei Svechnikov not doing a fly-by on the forecheck, well, maybe they&rsquo;ll do the same. &ldquo;I love it,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I wouldn&rsquo;t be there if my son wasn&rsquo;t there, but I&rsquo;m there. I might as well help out. What am I going to do, stand on the sidelines?&rdquo;</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/rodbrindamo_153/799111-1-eng-US/rodbrindamo_1532.jpg" title="rodbrindamo_153" width="1022" height="915"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(PHOTOS BY CAROLINA HURRICANES)</span></figcaption></div><p>Nobody would expect Rod Brind&rsquo;Amour to do that. He hasn&rsquo;t done anything like that since he first stepped on the ice as an NHL rookie with the St. Louis Blues more than three decades ago. And he&rsquo;s not about to start now.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

rodbrindamo_147

Rod Brind’Amour

RALEIGH AROUND THE BOSS

<div class="byline">BY IAN KENNEDY</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="granato2" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/granato2/799212-1-eng-US/granato22.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p>CAMMI <b>GRANATO</b></p><p></p> <span class="photo-credit">(CHRIS RELKE/HHOF IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>T</span>HERE WAS NO</b> place for Cammi Granato to formally play. She&rsquo;d spend hours playing hockey with her brothers in the family basement or on their driveway. Granato loved the game. But girls just didn&rsquo;t play hockey. And so, her parents put her in figure skating instead.</p><p>Had Granato simply accepted this decision, her illustrious playing career, and her recent hiring as assistant GM of the Vancouver Canucks, would never have happened.</p><p>In figure skates, Granato was unhappy and determined to find her space in the game she loved. Her parents soon relented and put their daughter onto a boys&rsquo; hockey team. For the Olympic gold medallist, world champion and Hockey Hall of Famer, the rest is history.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/granato5/799198-1-eng-US/granato52.jpg" title="granato5" width="832" height="605"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>AMERICAN ICON</b></p><p>Granato represented Team USA many times on the international stage, at both the Olympics and the worlds.</p> <span class="photo-credit">(USA HOCKEY)</span></figcaption></div><p>Now, Granato is hoping to inspire a new generation of women and girls to push for what they want &ndash; and deserve &ndash; in sport by saying, &ldquo;I can play, too.&rdquo;</p><p>&ldquo;I remember following my brothers around and playing every single game they&rsquo;d play, and our favorite game was hockey,&rdquo; Granato said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;d play in the driveway and make games in the living room, just playing with our hands. For my parents, they thought, &lsquo;You want to skate, so we&rsquo;ll put you in figure-skating lessons like your sister.&rsquo; It didn&rsquo;t even cross their mind to put me in hockey. It&rsquo;s just not what girls did. There were just no girls who played hockey.&rdquo;</p><p>Granato learned to skate across the road from her home, on a field flooded by local firemen each winter, a place she called her &ldquo;winter playground.&rdquo; Arriving at the arena wearing her white skates, however, it wasn&rsquo;t where Granato wanted to be &ndash; or what she wanted to do. &ldquo;I just wasn&rsquo;t interested,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;I was quite miserable, I&rsquo;d leave the rink and go watch hockey, and I think at that point my parents realized I really loved the game and saw me playing with my brothers, so they just let me give it a try. I don&rsquo;t think they thought it was going to be a lifelong thing. I commend my parents for supporting me and saying, &lsquo;Just let her do it. Even though it&rsquo;s not the norm, let&rsquo;s just let her do it.&rsquo;&rdquo;</p><p>For years, the only woman in the world of sport who Granato could see as a role model was American speed skater Bonnie Blair. &ldquo;She was dominating speed skating,&rdquo; Granato said. &ldquo;I just thought, &lsquo;She&rsquo;s like my idol.&rsquo; There&rsquo;s a woman in this position of winning Olympic medals left and right. She was my first role model.&rdquo;</p><p>Later, Granato found a pamphlet for Providence College showing their women&rsquo;s hockey team, including Cindy Curley, the team&rsquo;s leading scorer. &ldquo;She was leading the team,&rdquo; Granato said. &ldquo;And I said, &lsquo;I want to be that, I want to be her, I want to go play college hockey, I want to be at the top of the statistics with her.&rsquo; It was really cool for the first time to understand that women play hockey.&rdquo;</p><p>With that, Granato travelled to Providence unrecruited and began her hockey career. In 1990, she played alongside Curley at the first IIHF-sanctioned women&rsquo;s World Championship. Curley was the tournament&rsquo;s leading scorer, Granato was third en route to the U.S. taking silver. Even though she was now at the highest level, Granato continued hearing stories of women who did not see themselves in sport.</p><p>The 1998 Olympics in Nagano was the first time women&rsquo;s hockey was featured at the Games. And following Granato and Team USA&rsquo;s gold-medal win, the lack of representation for women in the game became a regular conversation for Granato. &ldquo;I heard a lot of stories when we won the Olympic gold medal of girls who wanted to play hockey when they were younger, but they weren&rsquo;t allowed because it was a man&rsquo;s sport. I consider myself very lucky that I got to play.&rdquo;</p><p>Throughout her youth, playing for Team USA, in raising her children, as a scout for the NHL&rsquo;s Seattle Kraken, and today, as the assistant GM for Vancouver, Granato recognizes that representation for women in sport is still lacking in many ways, and that deters some girls from entering the sports sphere.</p><p>That under-representation is something she recognized while reading to her children early on. &ldquo;When I started reading to my kids when they were young, it became a fun ritual for us, and we really got a lot of joy out of it,&rdquo; Granato said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;d read together every night, and I recognized my three-year-old was really drawn to sports books and action, but I didn&rsquo;t notice women represented in that space, so I thought it would be really fun to write a book about a young girls&rsquo; hockey player kind of based on my story and how I grew up and how it happened for me.&rdquo;</p><p>And that&rsquo;s what she did.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/granato-boo_084/799205-1-eng-US/granato-boo_0842.jpg" title="granato-boo_084" width="601" height="723"></div><p>Granato recently released a children&rsquo;s book titled <i>I Can Play Too</i>, which she hopes inspires more youth of any gender or background to try hockey and see themselves in sport. &ldquo;I want them to know that they can play, too,&rdquo; Granato said. &ldquo;Not just hockey, whatever your passion is. If it&rsquo;s different and no one else who looks like you is doing it and you love it, you should follow that dream and follow that passion and love for it. You shouldn&rsquo;t be denied an opportunity. It&rsquo;s not just hockey, it&rsquo;s not just a girl trying to play hockey, it&rsquo;s anyone that&rsquo;s ever felt like they don&rsquo;t belong, but that&rsquo;s what they want to do. They should do it.&rdquo;</p><blockquote class="pullQuote"><b><i>IT&rsquo;S NOT JUST HOCKEY. IT&rsquo;S ANYONE THAT&rsquo;S EVER FELT LIKE THEY DON&rsquo;T BELONG BUT THAT&rsquo;S WHAT THEY WANT TO DO. THEY SHOULD DO IT</i></b><br>&ndash; Cammi Granato</blockquote><p>One of the people who has watched Granato&rsquo;s journey from start to finish is her nephew, Dom, the book&rsquo;s illustrator. Dom, who is gay and plays hockey for an LGBTQ team in San Francisco, always saw his aunt breaking barriers and used her as inspiration. &ldquo;I&rsquo;d heard this story over and over again knowing Cammi&rsquo;s story,&rdquo; Dom said. &ldquo;I wasn&rsquo;t reading it in a book, but I was being told it as kids are being told it now. Cammi has always been a big role model of mine, not just on the ice, which is not debatable, but off the ice. She&rsquo;s an amazing person, she&rsquo;s been super inspiring in all lanes of life.&rdquo;</p><p>Dom Granato knows what it is like feeling like an outsider in hockey. He hopes others will soon feel empowered and safe enough to be themselves within the game. &ldquo;I felt at some points in my career that the two worlds wouldn&rsquo;t mix, that if I came out as gay that I wouldn&rsquo;t be able to play hockey,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;That scared me. Toward the end of my career, I did end up coming out to a few close teammates when I was playing at Tufts University. Those couple of months felt like the best months of my career. I was able to do both, to coexist playing hockey and being myself.&rdquo;</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/granato4/799191-1-eng-US/granato42.jpg" title="granato4" width="1193" height="1588"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(VANCOUVER CANUCKS)</span></figcaption></div><p>He hopes young readers won&rsquo;t need to wait as long as he did to feel they belong in hockey. &ldquo;Hopefully people seeing this book will see that girls have their space in hockey,&rdquo; Dom said. &ldquo;Or a person of any gender has a space or can make their own space in whatever game or sport they&rsquo;re interested in.&rdquo;</p><p>Cammi Granato made her space. From leaning over the boards with figure skates on her feet watching boys play hockey, to becoming one of the greatest American-born hockey players in history, to serving as one of the first women scouting at the NHL level, Granato has shown anything is possible.</p><p>In early 2022, Emilie Castonguay was hired by the Canucks. At the time, she was the only woman serving as an assistant GM in the NHL. Only weeks later, Granato joined Castonguay as a member of Vancouver&rsquo;s managerial staff.</p><p>Through her actions, and now her words, Granato said that she, and other women and girls, or people of any identity, can play the game, too. She&rsquo;s now showing the idea that women and girls can do anything in the sport extends beyond the ice. &ldquo;It doesn&rsquo;t have to be a girl, it can be a boy, a transgender child, any time you&rsquo;ve felt that way, you shouldn&rsquo;t be held back by what other people think,&rdquo; Granato said. &ldquo;They might not understand yet because they&rsquo;ve never seen a girl play hockey, so it might be different for them, but you just have to do what you love and keep going. I think that message for me is the most important one, because I think a lot of us have had to feel that way.&rdquo;<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

granato2

Cammi Granato

AUTHORING CHANGE

<div class="byline">BY MATT LARKIN</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="jonathanhub_040" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/jonathanhub_040/799271-1-eng-US/jonathanhub_0402.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(PHOTO COURTESY OF FLORIDA PANTHERS)</span></figcaption></div><p><b>A 1999 SATURN STATION</b> wagon? Really?</p><p>Imagine being an impressionable teenager, thrilled to pass your driver&rsquo;s test and own your first car. Better yet: mom and dad run a used-car dealership. You&rsquo;re not getting driven onto some dusty lot to buy the cheapest thing on wheels; you have your pick of the family fleet. This will be sweet.</p><p>But&hellip;nope. You get that &rsquo;99 Saturn, the blandest, most forgettable vehicle on the lot.</p><p>Alain Huberdeau has run Prev-automobiles Inc. in Prevost, Que., for more than 30 years, and even he admits the car he gave his youngest son, Jonathan, was second-rate. &ldquo;It was not a nice car,&rdquo; said Alain with a laugh. &ldquo;Five-speed nowhere nothing.&rdquo;</p><p>But that car did exactly what it was supposed to. It was an intelligent, efficient purchase. It got great gas mileage. It was affordable. It smoothly transported 16-year-old Jonathan to and from Saint John, N.B., where he began playing for the QMJHL&rsquo;s Sea Dogs in 2009-10. It forced him to learn how to drive a stick shift. It also instilled a brainy sensibility in young Jonathan. Rather than feeling entitled to the fanciest sports car on the lot, he learned the value of making the most out of what he had. He learned he would have to work harder than everyone around him if he wanted to make it as an NHL hockey player with ordinary skating ability. Even when he earned his first NHL contract and signing bonus after the Florida Panthers drafted him third overall in 2011, he made the sensible choice of another used car from the Huberdeau family dealership, this time a Honda Civic. He wanted to <i>think</i> his way to success &ndash; behind the wheel and on the ice.</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/jonathanhub_039/799264-1-eng-US/jonathanhub_0392.jpg" title="jonathanhub_039" width="1570" height="976"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(BOB DECHIARA-USA TODAY SPORTS)</span></figcaption></div><p>Everything in Huberdeau&rsquo;s life was a slow build to progress &ndash; tracing back to his early childhood. Ironically, one of the greatest current puck wizards in hockey got his start on ice without a puck, without a stick and almost without hockey skates. Huberdeau pushed back on the latter when his parents enrolled him in speed skating as a five-year-old. That&rsquo;s not to be confused with <i>power skating</i>, which many future hockey players try before starting organized hockey. We&rsquo;re talkin&rsquo; actual speed skating, the kind you see in the Olympics, consisting of athletes with tree-trunk legs in bodysuits zooming along the track on flat blades. Huberdeau refused to wear those, so he took speed skating in his hometown of Saint-Jerome, Que., as the only kid in the class wearing hockey skates. But he wasn&rsquo;t the typical youngster yawning his way through each session, complaining of frozen feet and wishing he was playing real hockey. &ldquo;I was OK with it,&rdquo; Huberdeau said. &ldquo;It was actually better for me to start doing speed skating because you got to learn how to skate without a stick.&rdquo;</p><p>Once he got a stick in his hands, speed skating had granted him the mobility to play keepaway with other kids &ndash; particularly when playing on ponds with far more people than are allowed in a regular game. &ldquo;You do learn a lot of things when you play with 40 kids who want to keep the puck for themselves,&rdquo; Alain Huberdeau said. &ldquo;You have to work hard to keep it, so that&rsquo;s probably where he learned a lot of hockey.&rdquo;</p><p>Jonathan, his older brother Sebastien and their younger sister Josiane also learned a lot about the game watching their beloved Montreal Canadiens and, more specifically, the Canadiens facing the Panthers in Florida. The Huberdeaus dabbled in the snowbird life. Every Christmas, they&rsquo;d head down to South Florida in an RV, and they&rsquo;d catch games whenever the Habs and Panthers overlapped on the schedule. And after beach days, the kids played for hours on end at a local roller rink. &ldquo;We&rsquo;d take a break to eat dinner quick, and we&rsquo;d go play a big game,&rdquo; Huberdeau said. &ldquo;And I feel like, in Florida, there weren&rsquo;t a lot of people playing with rollerblades and playing roller hockey, so we&rsquo;d have the rink to ourselves.&rdquo;</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/jonathanhub_036/799257-1-eng-US/jonathanhub_0362.jpg" title="jonathanhub_036" width="2831" height="1965"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p>With 64 points in his first 47 games, Huberdeau led all NHLers in points when the all-star break came around.</p> <span class="photo-credit">(SERGEI BELSKI-USA TODAY SPORTS)</span></figcaption></div><p>Being drafted by Florida, then, constituted a homecoming for Huberdeau. By the time the Panthers called his name in 2011, he was considered a star in the making, having led Saint John to a Memorial Cup weeks earlier. But he never viewed himself as a can&rsquo;t-miss prospect. He wasn&rsquo;t the child phenom who had video-game stats and agents sniffing around when he was barely starting puberty. Even in bantam, he was only playing BB. His parents didn&rsquo;t sense he had NHL potential until he began to excel in U-18 AAA.</p><p>The speed skating had Huberdeau&rsquo;s footwork at an acceptable baseline when he started hockey, but he was no burner. He never even felt he stood out on his own teams as a kid. &ldquo;I was a good player, but I wasn&rsquo;t the best player,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I wasn&rsquo;t the fastest guy, so it wasn&rsquo;t all pretty what I was doing out there. I had good vision, and I liked to pass the puck. When you&rsquo;re young and you&rsquo;re not that fast, you think you&rsquo;re not special. I feel like special players are fast, and they&rsquo;re really skilled, and that&rsquo;s not what I was. But my hockey sense brought me to where I am right now, and that&rsquo;s what I had when I was younger. I tell kids sometimes, no need to give up if you&rsquo;re not always the best at everything. Sometimes you just get better when you get older.&rdquo;</p><blockquote class="pullQuote"><b><i>MY HOCKEY SENSE BROUGHT ME TO WHERE I AM RIGHT NOW, AND THAT&rsquo;S WHAT I HAD WHEN I WAS YOUNGER</i></b><br>&ndash; Jonathan Huberdeau</blockquote><p>Huberdeau carried that modesty with him into the NHL, where he embarked on what was trending toward a good-but-not-great career. He won the Calder Trophy in the shortened 2012-13 campaign but with a mere 31 points in 48 games during a down year for rookies. Across his first five seasons, he amassed 198 points in 303 games, amounting to an average stat line of 18 goals and 54 points per 82 games. He played in one playoff series over the span. No one would&rsquo;ve characterized him as a bust, but he wasn&rsquo;t dominating in the same way he did in his final major-junior years.</p><p>Even if he was too humble ever to see himself as that player, he did believe he could evolve himself into that player. &ldquo;His biggest ability was to persevere,&rdquo; Alain said. &ldquo;He had some tough years in Florida, but he wanted to stick there, and he really believed in that organization. They always treat him well. He could see that one day, they would be better.&rdquo;</p><p>Slowly, the Panthers surrounded Huberdeau with talent. They selected center Aleksander Barkov with the No. 2 overall pick in 2013, and defenseman Aaron Ekblad with the No. 1 pick in 2014. They stole defenseman MacKenzie Weegar in the seventh round of the 2013 draft. The company Huberdeau kept began to improve, and something started to change in his game. He could always rag the puck, but he started to pile up points once he had teammates who could finish his setups. In 2017-18, he had a career-best 69 points. The following season, he leaped to 92. Then it was 78 in just 69 games, then 61 in 55 games, and then, by the 2021-22 all-star break, 64 in 47 games, good for the NHL scoring lead. Was it simply a natural progression of talent causing his numbers to explode? Was it the influx of high-quality teammates? GM Bill Zito has peppered the Panthers lineup with effective forwards since he took over in September 2020. Zito&rsquo;s additions &ndash; from right winger Anthony Duclair to left winger Carter Verhaeghe to center Sam Bennett to right winger Sam Reinhart &ndash; have been difference-makers.</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/jonathanhub_037/799250-1-eng-US/jonathanhub_0372.jpg" title="jonathanhub_037" width="1567" height="2336"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(PHOTO COURTESY OF FLORIDA PANTHERS)</span></figcaption></div><p>In Huberdeau&rsquo;s mind, the steady incline of his play came from understanding what he did best and what gaps in his game needed filling once he reached his mid-20s. He feels he&rsquo;s transitioned from support player to star-caliber by improving his play without the puck and becoming more involved in every aspect of the game, whether it&rsquo;s physical play, general intensity or killing penalties. He cites defensive play as the area of his game in which he&rsquo;s least confident, and he&rsquo;s worked to improve it. He has shown an innate ability to rub off on his linemates &ndash; who may have more raw physical skill &ndash; and use his brain to make them better. According to Bennett, who came over in a trade in April 2021 and has been Huberdeau&rsquo;s most common linemate this year, Huberdeau has a massive influence on the team because he works so hard that he spurs others to follow him. Add in the playmaking skill and it&rsquo;s no wonder Huberdeau&rsquo;s linemates are always over the moon to have him on their left wing. The sense of humor doesn&rsquo;t hurt, either. &ldquo;He does a really good job of bringing life to our room, and he&rsquo;s pretty much in the middle of every joke or every friendly chirp that&rsquo;s going on,&rdquo; Bennett said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s always involved. He really is a leader off the ice. Of course, on the ice, too, but he really is one of the main leaders off the ice as well.&rdquo;</p><blockquote class="pullQuote"><b><i>HE HAD SOME TOUGH YEARS IN FLORIDA, BUT HE WANTED TO STICK THERE, AND HE REALLY BELIEVED IN THAT ORGANIZATION</i></b><br>&ndash; Alain Huberdeau</blockquote><p>Over the past five seasons, Huberdeau, 28, ranks sixth in the NHL in assists, seventh in points and 14th in points per game. Those are hardly the types of numbers that make a player invisible. And yet he&rsquo;s played in two All-Star Games, has one second-team post-season all-star selection to his name and has received Hart Trophy votes in only one season, though that will surely change after this one. You know he&rsquo;s been cloaked in obscurity when a new linemate is surprised to learn how good he is. &ldquo;When I got to actually play with him every day and see what he&rsquo;s like, it&rsquo;s pretty remarkable,&rdquo; Bennett said. &ldquo;I had no idea how talented he really was, his vision, the way he can make plays. He makes plays that I don&rsquo;t think anyone else would even attempt. So it&rsquo;s been really cool to actually see how gifted he is and get the chance to play with him so much.&rdquo;</p><p>Has Huberdeau taken the unofficial crown from Mark Stone to become the NHL&rsquo;s most underrated player? Yes, if we judge him based on how those around him evaluate his skills. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s deceptively fast,&rdquo; said Panthers coach Andrew Brunette. &ldquo;If you asked me which skill of his is underrated, it&rsquo;s his puck protection and ability to hang onto the puck. It&rsquo;s a little bit like Sidney Crosby, a little like Pavel Datsyuk, where they get it on a string, they get it in their feet, and you just can&rsquo;t get it off him when he gets on that roll.&rdquo;</p><p>There&rsquo;s no clich&eacute;d chip on Huberdeau&rsquo;s shoulder, no indication he feels he deserves more acknowledgment. He&rsquo;s aware of the &ldquo;underrated&rdquo; label but unfazed. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re in a market where we don&rsquo;t get talked about too much, playing in Florida, but I don&rsquo;t care,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I know what I&rsquo;m worth. I know what I can do, and that&rsquo;s all that matters for me. Obviously, I think I&rsquo;ve stepped up my game, but I don&rsquo;t care if I&rsquo;m the most underrated player. I know I&rsquo;m a good player, and I know I can make a difference out there.&rdquo;</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/jonathanhub_038/799243-1-eng-US/jonathanhub_0382.jpg" title="jonathanhub_038" width="2359" height="1621"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(PERRY NELSON-USA TODAY SPORTS)</span></figcaption></div><p>Fulfilling his duty like pretty much every Canadian hockey player when asked to sing his own praises, Huberdeau prioritizes the team instead. There&rsquo;s something to it in this case, however. The Panthers have achieved such strong group chemistry that, in another recent interview with The Hockey News, Zito expressed reticence over making any major trades that might upset the vibes. Huberdeau says 2021-22 is the most fun he&rsquo;s had as a Panther, that the team operates like a family, that he&rsquo;s never felt closer to his teammates. The harmonious atmosphere shows in the standings, too. As of Feb. 16, Florida held the Eastern Conference&rsquo;s highest points percentage at .734. How dominant were they? Not only was it by far their highest mark in franchise history, but only 21 teams in NHL history have posted a higher points percentage over a full season &ndash; out of 1,599 teams total. That puts the Panthers&rsquo; current pace in the 98th percentile of every NHL team, ever. Now it makes more sense that Huberdeau would turn the attention toward team goals. Florida has easily the best team in its 28-season history. Through the all-star break, it averaged an incredible 4.09 goals per game, the most of any NHL team since the 1995-96 Pittsburgh Penguins. The Panthers are a clear Stanley Cup threat. But they must conquer the chore of sharing a division &ndash; and, woof, a playoff bracket &ndash; with the two-time defending champion Tampa Bay Lightning.</p><blockquote class="pullQuote"><b><i>I KNOW WHAT I&rsquo;M WORTH. I KNOW WHAT I CAN DO, AND THAT&rsquo;S ALL THAT MATTERS FOR ME</i></b><br>&ndash; Jonathan Huberdeau</blockquote><p>We should know better than to bet against Huberdeau&rsquo;s crew by now, though. Their improvement in recent seasons, from .524 to .565 to .705 to .734 hockey, has been steady and methodical, just like the improvement in his personal play &ndash; and to his car collection. No more Saturns or Civics for Huberdeau now. He earned his way to a two-year bridge deal on a $3.25-million AAV coming off his entry-level contract and is now five seasons into a six-year contract with a $5.9-million AAV. According to <a href="http://capfriendly.com">capfriendly.com</a>, his estimated career earnings exceed $36 million. So, yes, he can afford the sexy cars now. Lots of them. Among his favorites: a Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat, a Cadillac Escalade and a Tesla.</p><p>But Huberdeau&rsquo;s most cherished automobile symbolizes everything he has accomplished to date: the Ferrari. It personifies loud, flashy success. It&rsquo;s everything Huberdeau wasn&rsquo;t for so much of his career, but it&rsquo;s what he&rsquo;s becoming. He&rsquo;s a superstar now, and he can&rsquo;t hide from that, even if he still feels like a 1999 Saturn on the inside.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

jonathanhub_040

Jonathan Huberdeau

APPRECIATION VALUE

<div class="byline">BY JAMES BENESH</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="philkessel1_163" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/philkessel1_163/799396-1-eng-US/philkessel1_1632.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(JOE CAMPOREALE-USA TODAY SPORTS)</span></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>I</span>F YOU HAPPENED TO</b> be watching Phil Kessel at about 9 p.m. on Sept. 22, 2013, you wouldn&rsquo;t have thought he was about to go on to play the next 733 games in a row. Why? A couple reasons: (a) he was in the process of wickedly slashing Buffalo&rsquo;s John Scott on the leg, a play that was sure to earn him a suspension, and (b) the 6-foot-8, 260-pound Scott looked primed to pick up Kessel and crumple him like a car crusher.</p><p>The latter never happened, thanks to the intervention of three Toronto Maple Leafs teammates. The former did happen. However, since it was just the pre-season, the three games he missed while suspended were meaningless contests in which the Leafs may well have rested him anyway.</p><p>But if that suspension was one game longer, you wouldn&rsquo;t be reading this feature. If it was a four-gamer, it would&rsquo;ve spilled into the regular season, causing Kessel to miss one official game, ruining what was, at the time, a nice little streak of 289 consecutive NHL games, counting the regular season and playoffs. As we entered the season&rsquo;s second half, that streak had reached 1,022 games and counting &ndash; the longest in NHL history.</p><p>And the astounding thing is, few people even know. Not even Kessel.</p><p>Kessel said he was unaware that he had reached the 1,000-game mark or that his streak was the longest of all-time. The reason for that is obvious: no one counts ironman streaks that way. The NHL does not combine regular-season and playoff stats (and the public follows suit), but when it comes to records of consecutiveness, it&rsquo;s worth considering whether they should.</p><p>Kessel is the NHL&rsquo;s all-time ironman and will be for a very long time. Keith Yandle&rsquo;s much more famous and recognized ironman streak started seven months before Kessel&rsquo;s did, but Kessel caught up to him on the strength of a couple of Stanley Cup runs with the Pittsburgh Penguins. Since 2018-19, the two have been neck-and-neck, the gap between them largely depending on which of their teams had played more games at any given point in the season, and which of their teams made the playoffs. That ended last year on May 20, 2021, when Yandle was scratched for Game 3 of Florida&rsquo;s first-round series, stalling his combined streak at 979, leaving him two behind Kessel. On Nov. 21, 2021, Kessel suited up for a game in Los Angeles, as unaware as the rest of the hockey world was that it was his 1,000th game in a row.</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/philkessel2_162/799389-1-eng-US/philkessel2_1622.jpg" title="philkessel2_162" width="1573" height="896"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(PHILIP G. PAVELY-USA TODAY SPORTS)</span></figcaption></div><p>It was like Crash Davis hitting his minor-league record-setting 247th home run for the Asheville Tourists and no one really noticing. Well, almost no one. We noticed, and we asked Kessel for his secret to staying in the lineup so consistently. &ldquo;I just don&rsquo;t like to sit and miss games,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I really like to play.&rdquo;</p><p>Maybe that&rsquo;s why Kessel, ever an unassuming figure, broke character for a moment in 2016. Despite leading the Americans in scoring at the 2014 Sochi Olympics and fresh off an outstanding playoff effort with the Penguins, he wasn&rsquo;t named to Team USA&rsquo;s World Cup roster. So with the clock winding down in a 4-2 U.S. loss to Canada at the event, he tweeted: &ldquo;Just sitting around the house tonight (with) my dog. Felt like I should be doing something important but couldn&rsquo;t put my finger on it.&rdquo;</p><p>But just loving to play the game isn&rsquo;t enough to earn the title of ironman. If you&rsquo;re a little hurt, you&rsquo;ve got to be willing to tough it out, and Kessel admits there were several times he perhaps shouldn&rsquo;t have played but did anyway. But there are some ailments you simply can&rsquo;t play through. So to prevent injury, a good start is to avoid major collisions.</p><p>According to <a href="http://naturalstattrick.com">naturalstattrick.com</a>, over the past three seasons, among the 724 NHL players with at least 500 even-strength minutes played, Kessel is third-last in hits per 60 minutes (0.51), eighth-last in hits taken per 60 (1.63) and second-last in total collisions per 60 (2.14, the sum of the two). Coincidence? Nope. The player in third-last in total collisions is Yandle. Last on the list? Johnny Gaudreau, who has a 269-game streak dating back to 2018.</p><p>So, obviously there is something to this. Collisions hurt, and players who engage in them more frequently are more likely to be injured. It wasn&rsquo;t always that way, however.</p><p>Most of the well-known ironmen of the past were known for being highly involved, determined players. None of them were the type to go looking for trouble, but they never shied away from it, either. Ironmen greats of the 1970s such as Craig Ramsay, Billy Harris and J-P Parise all fit that bill. In the 1980s, it was Doug Jarvis, Steve Larmer and Craig MacTavish. The longest 1990s streaks were compiled by Mark Recchi, Trevor Linden and Rod Brind&rsquo;Amour. Thirteen of the 26 longest official ironman streaks in history either ended after the 2005 lockout or are still active. Only one of those 11 players was known for a particularly hazardous style of play, and that was the late Karlis Skrastins, who took so many pucks to the shins and torso that it&rsquo;s remarkable he ever played a complete season, never mind five in a row.</p><p>Kessel&rsquo;s streak gets just a fraction of the fanfare it should, because at least by the official method of tracking, he&rsquo;s still behind Doug Jarvis, and as long as Yandle plays, he&rsquo;s not getting any closer to him. But the smart money is on Kessel one day becoming the official leader. Yandle being a year older and reduced to a third-pairing role on a struggling Flyers team means his streak is likely to come to an end first. Kessel, who still produces like a top-six forward, would then pass Yandle about 24 games later.</p><p>For now, though, Kessel will to have to settle for being the unofficial all-time leader, a record he continues to build on. The closest active overall streak belongs to Brent Burns, who is tied for ninth all-time at 707 games. Depending on how many playoff games San Jose sees the next few seasons, he could hit 1,000 around the end of 2024-25, when he turns 40. So he has an outside chance to one day take the crown. But that would require Kessel&rsquo;s streak to end soon, and what reason do we have to believe it will?</p><div class="sidebar"><h2>TRACKING THE STREAKS</h2><p><b>FIVE YEARS AGO WHEN</b> the NHL made public every game sheet in its history, it became easier to find out exactly which games players did and didn&rsquo;t play in. With the fact-checking help of HFboards user &lsquo;Vujtek,&rsquo; here are the 10 longest ironman streaks from the regular season, playoffs and combined.</p><p>A couple of interesting tidbits discovered during the process: Larry Robinson&rsquo;s entire playoff career was consecutive, but he did miss games &ndash; he sat out the entire first-round series in 1973 and the last four games in 1992, but not a single contest in between. And two days before his streak ended, Nick Lidstrom began the streak that would break Robinson&rsquo;s record 17 years later.</p><h3><b>REGULAR SEASON</b></h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0055-0191/799382-1-eng-US/f0055-012.jpg" title="f0055-01" width="514" height="584"></div><h3><b>PLAYOFFS</b></h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0055-0263/799375-1-eng-US/f0055-022.jpg" title="f0055-02" width="514" height="584"></div><h3><b>COMBINED</b></h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0055-0340/799368-1-eng-US/f0055-032.jpg" title="f0055-03" width="514" height="581"></div><p><b><i>*Regular season and playoffs and combined</i></b><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p></div>

philkessel1_163

Phil Kessel

HOCKEY’S ULTIMATE IRONMAN

<div class="byline">BY KEN CAMPBELL</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="oliverkylin_100" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/oliverkylin_100/799448-1-eng-US/oliverkylin_1002.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>BE IN THE MOMENT</b></p><p>Kylington says a big part of his step forward comes from his ability to focus solely on the present.</p> <span class="photo-credit">(SERGEI BELSKI-USA TODAY SPORTS)</span></figcaption></div><p><b><i>"Maturity is learning to walk away from people and situations that threaten your peace of mind, self-respect, values, morals and self-worth"</i></b><br><b><i>&ndash; Buddha</i></b></p><p><b>YEAH, BUT</b> we&rsquo;re willing to bet this Buddha guy never tossed a muffin up the middle of the ice in the defensive zone in the third period of a one-goal game. Because that&rsquo;s enough to shatter anyone&rsquo;s inner Zen &ndash; not to mention his $300 carbon-fiber stick. Much has been made of Oliver Kylington&rsquo;s transformation from NHL waiver fodder to breakout defenseman, and the maturation process has been a vital part of that. But that journey to self-realization still hits the occasional bump, the way it did on a night in November when all of the good and all of the bad of Oliver Kylington were on full display.</p><p>With members of the Class of 2020 (inducted in 2021 because of COVID-19 delays) looking on in the Hall of Fame Game between Kylington&rsquo;s Calgary Flames and the Toronto Maple Leafs, the 24-year-old blueliner broke the seal on a scoreless game in the third period when he gathered the puck in his own end and took off. Kylington started the rush, made a pass to Johnny Gaudreau, then cut hard to the net. Gaudreau sent the puck back to Kylington, who pulled it out of his feet at full speed and lifted a backhand over the sprawling Jack Campbell. Skilled play all around.</p><p>&ldquo;And then I turned it over on the next play,&rdquo; said Kylington, anticipating the next part of the story as it was retold to him. Well, not exactly the next play, but close enough. Less than eight minutes later, Kylington had the puck under duress and tried to make a play out of the zone, only to see the puck dribble off his stick, right to Alex Kerfoot, who passed to William Nylander, whose one-timer was tipped in by Ondrej Kase. Kylington was so upset with himself that he two-handed the crossbar with his stick. All of it was made worse by the fact the Flames lost the game in overtime, after which Kylington spoke of the contest through gritted teeth.</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/oliverkylin_102/799441-1-eng-US/oliverkylin_1022.jpg" title="oliverkylin_102" width="1024" height="1646"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(SERGEI BELSKI-USA TODAY SPORTS)</span></figcaption></div><p>There would have been a time when a play like that would have deflated Kylington, and that time was as recently as last season. The 2020-21 campaign started with the Flames placing him on waivers, and it got worse when nobody took a chance on him. It got even more depressing when he spent most of the abbreviated season either as a healthy scratch or on the taxi squad, appearing in only eight games. By the time the Flames made him available to the Seattle Kraken in the expansion draft, Kylington looked very much like a player who was not in Calgary&rsquo;s plans, be they short- or long-term.</p><p>That not one other team was willing to pick up Kylington &ndash; who was on a one-year, two-way deal at the time &ndash; likely has more than a few executives leaving scuff marks on their designer suits from kicking themselves. Of course, there wasn&rsquo;t much suggesting the 23-year-old Kylington would do what he is doing at the age of 24. The NHL doesn&rsquo;t have a comeback player of the year award &ndash; the Masterton is sort of that, but not quite &ndash; but if it did, Kylington would be a shoo-in finalist. His development arc has taken a drastic upward trajectory.</p><blockquote class="pullQuote"><b><i>I JUST PREPARED MYSELF FOR AN OPPORTUNITY I KNEW WAS THERE FOR TRAINING CAMP. THAT WAS THE ONLY THING I WAS THINKING ABOUT</i></b><br>&ndash; Oliver Kylington</blockquote><p>Playing regularly with Chris Tanev, a sneaky-outstanding free-agent signing in 2020, Kylington skates meaningful minutes and makes a meaningful contribution. As of mid-February, he led Flames&rsquo; defensemen in goals and was a top-15 blueliner in the NHL in points per 60 at 5-on-5. That reflects several things, not the least of which is the faith Flames coach Darryl Sutter has placed in him. Sutter lives with the occasional mistake, and instead of nailing him to the bench or banishing him to the press box, he keeps putting Kylington out there. Kylington, on the other hand, has matured in his mental approach to the game, which is entirely reasonable for a player entering his mid-20s. Not everybody is Quinn Hughes or Cale Makar or Miro Heiskanen. Most aren&rsquo;t. Mastering the art of playing &lsquo;D&rsquo; in the NHL might be one of the more difficult things for a young athlete in any sport to do.</p><p>This past off-season, Kylington made a conscious effort to put aside all the distractions and focus simply on doing everything within his control to turn his fortunes around. First, he didn&rsquo;t worry about his contract, another one-year deal that pays him literally the lowest possible NHL salary ($750,000). He deliberately put it out of his mind that the Flames had deemed him to be an NHL defenseman for only one of out of every seven games last season, and that they went out and acquired Nikita Zadorov and Erik Gudbranson in the off-season. He worked out all summer with only one objective in mind: to do everything he possibly could to become an everyday NHL rearguard.</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/oliverkylin_101/799434-1-eng-US/oliverkylin_1012.jpg" title="oliverkylin_101" width="2287" height="1583"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>GOOD WITH THE BAD</b></p><p>Kylington had a marvelous goal &ndash; and a costly flub &ndash; in an overtime loss to Toronto in November.</p> <span class="photo-credit">(GERRY ANGUS-USA TODAY SPORTS)</span></figcaption></div><p>&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve always had a big, strong belief in myself,&rdquo; Kylington said. &ldquo;I just said to myself to not just let my emotions or anything drag me into that, to just really be in the moment and know that&rsquo;s the only thing you can control. So I just prepared myself for an opportunity I knew was there for training camp. That was the only thing I was thinking about. I wasn&rsquo;t thinking about anything else. I was just thinking about training camp, do my best there, and just see where it takes me.&rdquo;</p><blockquote class="pullQuote"><b><i>YOU LEARN, AND YOU WANT TO BE AS EFFECTIVE AS POSSIBLE IN TRYING TO ERASE SMALLERRORS IN YOUR GAME</i></b><br>&ndash; Oliver Kylington</blockquote><p>Much of what Kylington is doing this season is because of that attitude. He won the Flames over with a strong pre-season and has been proving what many people thought all along, that all he needed was a sustained opportunity and he would be able to thrive in the best league in the world. And he has done that. A prime example was that game in Toronto. Rather than allow it to stick with him, Kylington followed that up with points in each of his next three games. The ice time has been steady, and so has his play. The mental errors happen less frequently, and the fact he led Calgary defensemen in giveaways was an indicator of how much he&rsquo;s handling the puck now. &ldquo;Before, if you&rsquo;re making a play like that, you&rsquo;re not playing the next game,&rdquo; Kylington said. &ldquo;Obviously, I don&rsquo;t want to make plays like that, but you do sometimes in your career. You learn, and you want to be as effective as possible in trying to erase small errors in your game. I think that&rsquo;s every player&rsquo;s challenge.&rdquo;</p><p>The two most critical people in that have been Sutter and Tanev. Sutter acknowledged the Flames needed Kylington&rsquo;s mobility among their defensemen, and he&rsquo;s been patient and encouraging. &ldquo;For me, he&rsquo;s been a great coach,&rdquo; said Kylington of Sutter. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s very honest, and he cares a lot. For me, having that support system motivates me, but at the same time, I learn a lot from him, and it helps me. I&rsquo;m grateful for that. He&rsquo;s giving me an opportunity to do what I love, so you want to play good and be a good player for your teammates and yourself.&rdquo;</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/oliverkylin_103/799427-1-eng-US/oliverkylin_1032.jpg" title="oliverkylin_103" width="1570" height="1099"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(SERGEI BELSKI-USA TODAY SPORTS)</span></figcaption></div><p>Kylington says Tanev is by far the best defense partner he has ever had, doing for him in Calgary much of what he did for Quinn Hughes in Vancouver. As much as they complement each other on the ice, they could not be more different as people. Kylington is extroverted and gregarious, Tanev understated and quiet, with a wry sense of humor. The two have formed a bond off the ice, despite many of their interactions being rather one-sided. &ldquo;Tany, he talks,&rdquo; Kylington said, &ldquo;but maybe he&rsquo;s not a guy who drives the conversation.&rdquo;</p><p>As a restricted free agent with arbitration rights, Kylington knows he has set himself up for a brighter future. The Flames have been on a season-long heater, of which Kylington has been a big part. Every player thinks about his contract, whether he admits it or not, but to get caught up in the possibilities is something Kylington is not inclined to do anymore. Instead, he&rsquo;ll go back to Sweden this summer and train as he always does, with a twist. Kylington&rsquo;s back story has been well-documented &ndash; in the early 1990s, his mother was shot in the arm while fleeing war-torn Eritrea and settled in Sweden, where she met Borje Kylington, Oliver&rsquo;s father.</p><p>His parents have since divorced, and his father remarried. Kylington&rsquo;s half-brother, Adrian, 13, is a budding sprinter, participating in and winning meets all over Sweden.</p><p>Kylington said Adrian reminds his father of him, with his dedication to training and his love to compete. &ldquo;He recently ran 60 meters in 7.47 (seconds),&rdquo; Kylington said, &ldquo;and that&rsquo;s very fast. I was really impressed when I saw that stat. I think he can add some stuff to our training group this summer, and it will be fun to see him train with us. I think he&rsquo;ll beat us for sure. I told him this summer we have to do an 80-meter sprint to see who&rsquo;s faster. I think he&rsquo;s pretty close to beating me right now. I&rsquo;m pretty curious to see what I can run.&rdquo;</p><p>Even though he&rsquo;s 11 years older than his brother, Oliver Kylington&rsquo;s journey is also just getting started. And if the recent past is any indication, there are so many more places he&rsquo;ll be able to go.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

oliverkylin_100

Oliver Kylington

RISE FROM THE ASHES

<div class="byline">BY JARED CLINTON</div><div class="sidebar"><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/screen-shot-2022-03-02-at-8.19.47-am/802334-1-eng-US/screen-shot-2022-03-02-at-8.19.47-am.png" title="Screen Shot 2022-03-02 at 8.19.47 AM" width="511" height="406"></div><h2><b>20 YEARS AGO</b></h2><h3><b>NEW JERSEY DEVILS</b></h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0060-0171/799570-1-eng-US/f0060-012.jpg" title="f0060-01" width="294" height="125"></div><p><b>ACQUIRE:</b></p><p><b>&gt;</b> Jamie Langenbrunner<br><b>&gt;</b> Joe Nieuwendyk</p><h3>DALLAS STARS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0060-0241/799563-1-eng-US/f0060-022.jpg" title="f0060-02" width="293" height="125"></div><p><b>ACQUIRE:</b></p><p><b>&gt;&nbsp;</b>Jason Arnott<br><b>&gt;&nbsp;</b>Randy McKay<br><b>&gt;&nbsp;</b>2002 first-round pick (Daniel Paille)</p><p><b>BY TODAY&rsquo;S STANDARDS, A TEAM</b> dealing away the offensive linchpin of its second line &ndash; second in goals and fourth in points among forwards &ndash; is the hallmark of a club with its sights set on the draft lottery, not the Stanley Cup. But by then-New Jersey Devils GM Lou Lamoriello&rsquo;s thinking, it was a way to ensure a club that had become far too dependent on one line became deeper, more dangerous and far better in its own end. And that&rsquo;s how it came to pass that Jason Arnott, who on deadline day 2002 had racked up 22 goals and 41 points in 63 games for New Jersey, found himself beating feet to Dallas.</p><p>It&rsquo;s not a deal that paid dividends overnight for New Jersey, however. Joe Nieuwendyk and Jamie Langenbrunner, both outstanding for the Stars en route to the franchise&rsquo;s first Stanley Cup in 1999, played well, sure, but New Jersey bowed out from the 2002 playoffs in six games. It was hardly the run that Lamoriello had envisioned. The following year, though, the genius of the swap came into full, vibrant view.</p><p>Langenbrunner set a then career-best with 55 points in his first full season in New Jersey. A 36-year-old Nieuwendyk, meanwhile, proved age to be irrelevant en route to a 45-point campaign as the Devils&rsquo; second-line center. Only four years removed from the Cup run with Dallas, Langenbrunner led the Devils&rsquo; playoff offense with 11 goals and 18 points. And 1999 Conn Smythe winner Nieuwendyk played the part of savvy shutdown center as New Jersey skated its way to a hard-fought, seven-game Cup victory over Anaheim.</p><p>In the post-Cup glow of the off-season, Nieuwendyk departed for Toronto. As for Langenbrunner, he later captained the Devils for four seasons before returning to Dallas in 2011, then finished his career by playing parts of two seasons in St. Louis.</p></div><div class="sidebar"><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/screen-shot-2022-03-02-at-8.20.02-am2/802367-1-eng-US/screen-shot-2022-03-02-at-8.20.02-am.png" title="Screen Shot 2022-03-02 at 8.20.02 AM" width="333" height="414"></div><h2>5 YEARS AGO</h2><h3>MINNESOTA WILD</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0060-0325/799549-1-eng-US/f0060-032.jpg" title="f0060-03" width="294" height="125"></div><p><b>ACQUIRE:</b></p><p><b>&gt;</b> Martin Hanzal<br><b>&gt;</b> Ryan White<br><b>&gt;</b> 2017 fourth-round pick (Mason Shaw)</p><h3><b>ARIZONA COYOTES</b></h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0060-0419/799542-1-eng-US/f0060-042.jpg" title="f0060-04" width="293" height="125"></div><p><b>ACQUIRE:</b></p><p><b>&gt;&nbsp;</b>Grayson Downing<br><b>&gt;&nbsp;</b>2017 first-round pick (Pierre-Olivier Joseph)<br><b>&gt;&nbsp;</b>2018 second-round pick (Kevin Bahl)<br><b>&gt;&nbsp;</b>2019 conditional fourth-round pick</p><p><b>RARE IS THE TRADE</b> that is panned so roundly and flops so painfully that ownership expresses regret mere months later. Alas, the swap that brought Martin Hanzal to Minnesota is among the few that hold the &ldquo;honor.&rdquo;</p><p>The team&rsquo;s thinking was sound. The Wild were on their way to entering the playoffs with the second-best record in the Western Conference. Hanzal was a solid two-way pivot viewed as a legitimate top-six add. But between the overpayment and Hanzal&rsquo;s middling play in Minnesota &ndash; he scored five goals and 14 points across 25 combined regular-season and playoff games &ndash; the entire trade blew up in Minnesota&rsquo;s face. The Wild were bounced out of the playoffs early, losing in five games to St. Louis. Possibly the only salve for the Wild is that Mason Shaw has the makings of a future NHLer. Otherwise, this is one deal that Minnesota would rather forget.</p></div><div class="sidebar"><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/screen-shot-2022-03-02-at-8.20.30-am/802360-1-eng-US/screen-shot-2022-03-02-at-8.20.30-am.png" title="Screen Shot 2022-03-02 at 8.20.30 AM" width="295" height="405"></div><h2>10 YEARS AGO</h2><h3>LOS ANGELES KINGS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0061-0177/799528-1-eng-US/f0061-012.jpg" title="f0061-01" width="293" height="125"></div><p><b>ACQUIRE:</b></p><p><b>&gt;</b> Jeff Carter</p><h3>COLUMBUS BLUE JACKETS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0061-0254/799521-1-eng-US/f0061-022.jpg" title="f0061-02" width="292" height="125"></div><p><b>ACQUIRE:</b></p><p><b>&gt;&nbsp;</b>Jack Johnson<br><b>&gt;&nbsp;</b>2013 first-round pick&nbsp;(Marko Dano)</p><p><b>WHEN THE BLUE JACKETS</b> acquired Jeff Carter at the start of his 11-year, $58-million deal, they expected he&rsquo;d form a deadly duo with Rick Nash and revamp their attack. Carter signed the pact with Philadelphia in November 2010 but was traded before it kicked in to start 2011-12. Carter wanted out almost immediately, and when the deadline came, L.A. was ready to play vulture.</p><p>The Kings solved their lingering goal-scoring issue by snapping up Carter, and eighth-seeded L.A. proceeded to stun the NHL by capturing the 2012 Cup in 20 games. Carter tied for the team lead with eight playoff goals and became a key part of the Kings&rsquo; attack. During L.A.&rsquo;s miniature reign, which included one more Cup and another Western Conference final appearance, Carter scored a team-leading 24 goals, and his 51 points were only four fewer than Anze Kopitar&rsquo;s team-high 55.</p></div><div class="sidebar"><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/screen-shot-2022-03-02-at-8.20.41-am2/802374-1-eng-US/screen-shot-2022-03-02-at-8.20.41-am.png" title="Screen Shot 2022-03-02 at 8.20.41 AM" width="257" height="396"></div><h2>15 YEARS AGO</h2><h3>NEW YORK ISLANDERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0061-0335/799507-1-eng-US/f0061-032.jpg" title="f0061-03" width="293" height="125"></div><p><b>ACQUIRE:</b></p><p><b>&gt;</b> Ryan Smyth</p><h3>EDMONTON OILERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0061-0430/799500-1-eng-US/f0061-042.jpg" title="f0061-04" width="292" height="125"></div><p><b>ACQUIRE:</b></p><p><b>&gt;&nbsp;</b>Robert Nilsson<br><b>&gt;&nbsp;</b>Ryan O&rsquo;Marra<br><b>&gt;&nbsp;</b>2007 first-round pick (Alex Plante)</p><p><b>FORGET APPLES AND ORANGES.</b> Comparing Ryan Smyth to Wayne Gretzky, statistically speaking, is like comparing apples to a Lamborghini. They&rsquo;re so disparate so as to not even live in the same category. Emotionally, however, it&rsquo;s a different story. Across the first decade of his career, Smyth had grown to become part of the very fabric of the Oilers, a beloved leader and heart-and-soul player whose departure was so fraught with emotion that his post-trade press conference was reminiscent of Gretzky&rsquo;s goodbye. It hurts more in hindsight, too, because none of Nilsson, O&rsquo;Marra or Plante made much impact at all for the Oilers.</p><p>Smyth bounced around from Colorado to Los Angeles in the years following the deal before coming home. In the summer of 2011, L.A. dealt him back to the Oilers, and he played his final three seasons in Edmonton.</p></div><div class="sidebar"><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/screen-shot-2022-03-02-at-8.20.52-am/802353-1-eng-US/screen-shot-2022-03-02-at-8.20.52-am.png" title="Screen Shot 2022-03-02 at 8.20.52 AM" width="314" height="401"></div><h2><b>25 YEARS AGO</b></h2><h3><b>DETROIT RED WINGS</b></h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0061-0524/799486-1-eng-US/f0061-052.jpg" title="f0061-05" width="268" height="128"></div><p><b>ACQUIRE:</b></p><p><b>&gt;</b> Larry Murphy</p><h3><b>TORONTO MAPLE LEAFS</b></h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0061-0619/799479-1-eng-US/f0061-062.jpg" title="f0061-06" width="292" height="125"></div><p><b>ACQUIRE:</b></p><p><b>&gt;&nbsp;</b>Future considerations</p><p><b>AS THE 1997</b> trade deadline loomed, Larry Murphy&rsquo;s best days appeared behind him. And wanting to be rid of the veteran blueliner, Toronto decided to clear him off the books. The Red Wings saw an opportunity to roll the dice on a low-risk, high-reward swap that wouldn&rsquo;t take a bite out of their own group. And it was also a chance to reunite Murphy with Scotty Bowman, a coach with whom the D-man had won a Cup in Pittsburgh. As Murphy has since recounted, the teams pieced the deal together minutes before the deadline, and he waived his no-trade clause to accept the move.</p><p>How did it turn out? Well, Murphy was hoisting his third career Stanley Cup over his head months later after having led the blueline with 11 points in 20 playoff games. He was instrumental in the Wings&rsquo; successful title defense, too, putting up 15 points in 22 outings.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p></div>

Screen Shot 2022-03-02 at 8.20.41 AM

TRADE DEADLINE REWIND

<div class="byline">BY MATT LARKIN</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="ari_chychru_015" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/ari_chychru_015/799930-1-eng-US/ari_chychru_0152.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Chychrun is a dream acquisition for a contender: a young &lsquo;D&rdquo; stud with a low cap hit and term on his deal. <span class="photo-credit">(JOE CAMPOREALE-USA TODAY SPORTS)</span></figcaption></div><p><b>PARITY? IN THIS ECONOMY?</b></p><p>No, seriously. Parity? <i>In this economy?</i> That was NHL commissioner Gary Bettman&rsquo;s dream in a salary-cap world. The &lsquo;have&rsquo; teams could only spend to a certain point, while the &lsquo;have-nots&rsquo; had to spend above a certain point, and, theoretically, that would yield a league power structure in which every team had a shot every year.</p><p>The vision came true in the beginning. The first seven seasons after the salary cap was instituted in 2005-06 yielded seven different Stanley Cup-winning franchises. In the past 13 seasons overall, however, four teams have hoarded 10 of the titles. Six teams have active post-season droughts of three or more seasons. Even in a cap world, the elite teams have managed to stay elite by relying on strong development systems and cap-manipulation wizardry, while the bottom teams have doubled down on ill-fated trades and bad contracts. The cap can&rsquo;t fix poor decision-making, and it has, at times, forced low-budget teams to overspend on mediocre talent to reach the salary floor.</p><p>So, about that parity dream&hellip;the gap between the powerhouses and the cellar dwellers has been remarkably pronounced this season. As of mid-February, seven teams had a points percentage of .700 or better, while 14 teams were north of .600. Meanwhile, four teams were playing below .400 and nine were below .500. Barely past the halfway point of the schedule, a whopping 10 teams were already 10 or more points out of a playoff spot, and only two of them had games in hand on the team they were chasing. The strong and weak teams are further apart than two awkward adolescents at a middle-school dance. As a result, the projected buyers and sellers approaching the trade deadline appear to be defined far earlier than normal this season.</p><p>With so many known seller teams already established, the list of players we can confidently expect to be traded is especially long. We&rsquo;ve therefore expanded our annual trade-candidate power rankings from 10 names to 20.</p><p>Pending UFAs playing on all-but-eliminated teams &ndash; such as Philadelphia Flyers center Claude Giroux, Chicago Blackhawks goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury and Seattle Kraken defenseman Mark Giordano &ndash; are virtual locks to join contenders by the deadline, assuming they&rsquo;re willing to work around the respective movement restrictions in their contracts. Nothing out of the ordinary there. These are the types of trades we see every deadline.</p><p>But a pair of teams are so deeply buried in the standings that we may see them move not just their obvious UFA sell-offs but also high-impact players with term left. The Arizona Coyotes are executing one of the most shameless tank jobs in history, already armed with eight picks in the first two rounds of the 2022 draft, and are reportedly willing to deal cornerstone defenseman Jakob Chychrun. When a team shops a 23-year-old, all-situations blueliner with three seasons left on his contract at a palatable $4.6-million AAV, you know his team wants to tear down every last brick.</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/van_miller2_016/799916-1-eng-US/van_miller2_0162.jpg" title="van_miller2_016" width="1023" height="1039"><figcaption class="caption-body">J.T. <b>MILLER</b> <span class="photo-credit">(BOB FRID-USA TODAY SPORTS)</span></figcaption></div><p>The Montreal Canadiens didn&rsquo;t enter 2021-22 intending to tank but have endured the most humiliating season in their 104-year history and already sold off right winger Tyler Toffoli to the Calgary Flames in February despite the fact he&rsquo;s 29 and has two seasons left at an affordable $4.25-million cap hit. They&rsquo;ll move No. 1 defenseman Jeff Petry for pennies on the dollar if they can find a team willing to take at least half of his $6.25-million AAV for three more seasons, and rugged UFA D-man Ben Chiarot is sure to change addresses.</p><p>There aren&rsquo;t many swing teams approaching the stretch run, but the Dallas Stars and Vancouver Canucks qualify. In defenseman John Klingberg, right winger Joe Pavelski and left winger J.T. Miller, they hold three true difference-making assets, but both teams were still clinging to playoff hopes in mid-February and might not make decisions on moves until close to the March 21 deadline. If they&rsquo;re still in contention, they may opt to keep their best trade assets, just as the Nashville Predators did last season after being hyped as sellers.</p><p>The pages that follow identify buyers, sellers and teams in limbo, breaking down what they want to acquire and what they&rsquo;re willing to move. Note the omission of teams&rsquo; cap-space information. It&rsquo;s been proven time and again, through LTIR manipulation and three-team trades, that cap space often isn&rsquo;t a hindrance to making trades today. The Atlantic Division previews were written by me, Metro by Ryan Kennedy, Pacific by Brian Costello and Central by Jared Clinton.</p><div class="sidebar"><h4>For up to the minute coverage, visit</h4><h3><a href="http://TheHockeyNews.com">Thehockeynews.com</a></h3></div><div class="sidebar"><h2><b>THN TRADE BAIT </b><b>POWER RANKINGS</b></h2><p>The top NHLers who will likely be on the move on or before deadline day. With so much talent on the block, we&rsquo;ve expanded our list to 20 this year.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/screen-shot-2022-03-02-at-11.56.08-am2/802395-1-eng-US/screen-shot-2022-03-02-at-11.56.08-am.png" title="Screen Shot 2022-03-02 at 11.56.08 AM" width="423" height="912"></div><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></div>

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GET READY FOR TRADES GALORE

<div class="image-hero"><img title="Screen Shot 2022-03-02 at 11.56.59 AM" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/screen-shot-2022-03-02-at-11.56.59-am2/802402-1-eng-US/screen-shot-2022-03-02-at-11.56.59-am.png"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/bos_debrusk_095/800108-1-eng-US/bos_debrusk_0952.jpg" title="bos_debrusk_095" width="882" height="895"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(BOB FRID-USA TODAY SPORTS)</span></figcaption></div><h2><b><i>BOSTON BRUINS</i></b></h2><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="mon022.jpg" title="common02" width="110" height="110"></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>B</span>OSTON SAID GOODBYE TO</b> fixtures Torey Krug, Zdeno Chara and David Krejci over the past two seasons. Goaltender Tuukka Rask retired in February. Captain Patrice Bergeron is 36 and can become a UFA this summer. The Bruins must be aggressive if they want one last crack at a championship in their closing Stanley Cup-contention window.</p><p>Their No. 1 need by far is a left-shot blueliner who can move the puck. Detroit&rsquo;s pending UFA Nick Leddy makes sense if the Bruins want someone affordable. But a dream target would be a young player with term and upside, such as Arizona&rsquo;s Jakob Chychrun. Adding him to a &lsquo;D&rsquo; corps led by Charlie McAvoy would prop Boston&rsquo;s window open longer. But the B&rsquo;s may not have sufficient assets to land a difference-maker of that ilk. Their prospect pool isn&rsquo;t overly deep. They don&rsquo;t have a slam-dunk star on the radar, albeit 2021 first-rounder Fabian Lysell has promise. Packaging him with the team&rsquo;s 2022 first-round pick still may not be enough. It&rsquo;s no secret left winger <b>JAKE DEBRUSK</b> is available, but he&rsquo;s struggled over the past two seasons to the point he&rsquo;s more of a throw-in than a centerpiece. His stalled development creates another deadline need for Boston: a scoring winger in the top nine.</p></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/buf_olofsso_096/800101-1-eng-US/buf_olofsso_0962.jpg" title="buf_olofsso_096" width="749" height="600"></div><h2><b><i>BUFFALO SABRES</i></b></h2><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="mon012.jpg" title="common01" width="110" height="110"></div><p><b>THE SABRES WILL SET</b> an NHL record for futility with their 11th straight playoff miss this spring, yet the franchise is still somehow starting over. The Jack Eichel trade suggested as much. The deal landed GM Kevyn Adams legitimate building blocks in right winger Alex Tuch and center Peyton Krebs, but the Sabres must continue to add future upside.</p><p>Unfortunately, by virtue of being a weak team, the Sabres don&rsquo;t have many good players. Their available assets seem more likely to net them mid-round picks rather than first-rounders or top prospects. Squads looking to fill out their bottom &lsquo;D&rsquo; pairs can target pending UFA blueliners Robert Hagg (for muscle), Colin Miller (for mobility) or Mark Pysyk (for defensive play). Center Zemgus Girgensons, signed through 2022-23, could attract interest as a fourth-line grinder. If the Sabres want a more significant return, keep an eye on right winger <b>VICTOR OLOFSSON</b>. He&rsquo;s shown goal-scoring promise as a power-play maestro with a great release, he&rsquo;s just 26, he&rsquo;s controllable as an RFA and he could revive his career in a top-six role with superior linemates. If the Sabres want immediate help rather than picks and prospects, they could target a goalie with term remaining and potential to start for them next season.</p></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/det_leddy/800066-1-eng-US/det_leddy2.jpg" title="det_leddy" width="474" height="488"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(NICK TURCHIARO-USA TODAY SPORTS)</span></figcaption></div><h2><b><i>DETROIT RED WINGS</i></b></h2><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="mon012.jpg" title="common01" width="110" height="110"></div><p><b>THE RED WINGS ARE</b> easily the most competitive they&rsquo;ve been since Steve Yzerman took over as GM in 2019. But he&rsquo;s a realist. Detroit sat nine points out of a playoff spot, behind a team with three games in hand, in early February. The time to push for a playoff berth or even stand pat hasn&rsquo;t arrived yet. The Wings have some expendable assets, and Yzerman will cash them in.</p><p>Veteran left-shot blueliner <b>NICK LEDDY</b>, a 2013 Cup champ, will attract interest from multiple teams. He&rsquo;s a pending UFA, as are fellow vets Danny DeKeyser, Marc Staal and Troy Stecher. Left winger Vladislav Namestnikov and goalie Thomas Greiss, both on the back half of two-year deals, could also go. Namestnikov can play in all situations and would fit on a contender&rsquo;s third line, while Greiss is a luxury-tier backup who could fill in for a playoff team if its starter gets injured or slumps. Yzerman had done an excellent job so far loading up on top-tier prospects, but the farm system hasn&rsquo;t peaked yet, so draft picks will be welcome.</p><p>Yzerman has shown interest in young players with potential for longer-term control, such as left winger Jakub Vrana and netminder Alex Nedeljkovic, so the Wings could target established young assets as well &ndash; particularly at center.</p></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/fla_denisen_097/800045-1-eng-US/fla_denisen_0972.jpg" title="fla_denisen_097" width="474" height="480"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(SAM NAVARRO-USA TODAY SPORTS)</span></figcaption></div><h2><b><i>FLORIDA PANTHERS</i></b></h2><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="mon022.jpg" title="common02" width="110" height="110"></div><p><b>THE PANTHERS HAVE BEEN</b> the most aggressive traders in the NHL since Bill Zito took over as GM in 2020, acquiring high-impact assets such as center Sam Bennett and right winger Sam Reinhart. Florida remains in attack mode. By far, its No. 1 wish-list item is a top-four defenseman to play on the left side, preferably one with penalty-killing acumen, as the PK has been one of the team&rsquo;s only weaknesses. Florida-born Jakob Chychrun would obviously be a dream addition, though the Panthers are dead-set on defensive help to the point they&rsquo;d consider a right-hander as well. Think &ldquo;best available.&rdquo;</p><p>Florida has the enviable position of holding enough high-pedigree assets to tempt seller teams into surrendering game-breakers. Because Florida has arguably the Eastern Conference&rsquo;s deepest forward corps, it can afford to dangle a higher-end prospect such as left winger <b>GRIGORI DENISENKO</b> or right winger Owen Tippett. The club is less equipped to entice trade partners with draft picks, given it&rsquo;s already dealt its 2022 first- and second-round picks.</p><p>On top of an impact defenseman, the Panthers could use a goal-scorer who specializes in power-play work, given they were ranked as a middling team with the man advantage.</p></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/mtl_petry/800024-1-eng-US/mtl_petry2.jpg" title="mtl_petry" width="474" height="481"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(DAVID KIROUAC-USA TODAY SPORTS)</span></figcaption></div><h2><b><i>MONTREAL CANADIENS</i></b></h2><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="mon012.jpg" title="common01" width="110" height="110"></div><p><b>STARTING A REBUILD OR</b> retool during arguably the most pitiful season in Montreal&rsquo;s storied history won&rsquo;t be easy for new GM Kent Hughes. Many of the contracts previous GM Marc Bergevin handed out or acquired during his tenure have large AAVs and, more importantly, lots of term remaining.</p><p>Hughes got an early jump on things by sending right winger Tyler Toffoli to Calgary in mid-February for a package including a 2022 first-round pick.</p><p>Theoretically, fellow right wingers Brendan Gallagher and Josh Anderson would hold real value for contenders, but both being signed through 2026-27 makes things tough &ndash; though providing Montreal with salary relief in the process could lower the acquisition cost.</p><p>If Hughes decides against foundation-shifting trades for now, he should get modest returns for pending UFA blueliner Ben Chiarot and perhaps speedy PK guy Paul Byron, who has one year left at a $3.4-million AAV. Montreal&rsquo;s No. 1 D-man, <b>JEFF PETRY</b>, reportedly wants out, but he&rsquo;s 34, having a brutal year and has three seasons left at $6.25 million per. Montreal would have to retain salary and/or take on another expensive pact to unload him. The Habs could use picks or assets at any position, but center is their primary area of need.</p></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/ott_tierney_098/800003-1-eng-US/ott_tierney_0982.jpg" title="ott_tierney_098" width="474" height="492"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(JOHN E. SOKOLOWSKI-USA TODAY SPORTS)</span></figcaption></div><h2><b><i>OTTAWA SENATORS</i></b></h2><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="mon032.jpg" title="common03" width="110" height="110"></div><p><b>THE STANDINGS PAINT THE</b> Sens as sellers. They were miles away from a playoff spot in early February. But they&rsquo;ve spent the past several seasons auctioning off their best players, from Erik Karlsson to Mark Stone to Jean-Gabriel Pageau, and have amassed a bursting war chest of picks and prospects. Since they already boast a farm system as loaded as any team in the NHL and possess six picks in the first three rounds of the 2022 draft, they&rsquo;re ready for the next phase of their rebuild: improving in the present.</p><p>Sure, GM Pierre Dorion would be wise to deal any obvious rental chips, including center <b>CHRIS TIERNEY</b> and left winger Nick Paul, both pending UFAs. But reports out of Ottawa suggest the team wants to leverage its considerable cap space to make some immediate upgrades. Their ideal targets will be established top-six NHL forwards in their early to mid-20s who still possess plenty of upside but might prove difficult for their current teams to re-sign. One example would be Columbus Blue Jackets RFA left winger Patrik Laine. The Sens believe they have one of the game&rsquo;s best young cores, led by Brady Tkachuk, Josh Norris, Drake Batherson and Thomas Chabot, but must add impactful veterans around them.</p></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/tb_foote6/799996-1-eng-US/tb_foote2.jpg" title="tb_foote" width="624" height="759"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(JEROME MIRON-USA TODAY SPORTS; ROBERTSON: )</span></figcaption></div><h2><b><i>TAMPA BAY LIGHTNING</i></b></h2><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="mon032.jpg" title="common03" width="110" height="110"></div><p><b>HOW MUCH LONGER CAN</b> the Lightning walk the salary-cap tightrope? Last season, they pulled off a coup by keeping star right winger Nikita Kucherov mothballed until the playoffs, a.k.a. the second his cap hit no longer counted. This season, GM Julien BriseBois seems less optimistic about repeating his magic. In January, he told reporters he wanted to &ldquo;manage expectations&rdquo; for the trade deadline because &ldquo;this year, we have no cap space.&rdquo;</p><p>So is BriseBois telling the truth or running some clever misdirection before executing another genius move? Tampa Bay&rsquo;s current roster makeup suggests the former. For the Lightning to create cap space, they&rsquo;d have to deal a chunky AAV, but there&rsquo;s very little fat on the roster. Virtually every player on the two-time defending Cup champions pulls his weight right now, from stars such as Steven Stamkos and Victor Hedman to role players like Ross Colton and Corey Perry. The Lightning, then, despite holding a buyer&rsquo;s position in the standings, are the most likely Cup contender to stand pat. But if a Lightning player lands on LTIR between now and the deadline, everything changes. Should that happen, Tampa Bay does own its 2022 first-rounder, plus trade pieces who still possess some upside potential in Taylor Raddysh and <b>CAL FOOTE</b>.</p></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/tor_roberts_099/799961-1-eng-US/tor_roberts_0992.jpg" title="tor_roberts_099" width="675" height="880"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(JOHN E. SOKOLOWSKI-USA TODAY SPORTS)</span></figcaption></div><h2><b><i>TORONTO MAPLE LEAFS</i></b></h2><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="mon022.jpg" title="common02" width="110" height="110"></div><p><b>WILL THE 2021-22 SEASON</b> mark Kyle Dubas&rsquo; final stand as Leafs GM? It could if Toronto loses in the opening round of the playoffs for a sixth consecutive year &ndash; after Dubas mostly doubled down on keeping his core players together last summer, with the exception being the UFA departure of Zach Hyman. Dubas might therefore feel motivated enough to mortgage Toronto&rsquo;s relatively dwindled group of remaining future assets in pursuit of a championship.</p><p>Any of the Leafs&rsquo; top prospects is theoretically in play: <b>NICK ROBERTSON</b>, Topi Niemela, Matthew Knies and so on. The team&rsquo;s 2022 first-round pick is likely available, too. But, after the Nick Foligno rental flopped last season, the Leafs must feel extremely confident they&rsquo;re receiving game-changing upgrades to make a move. With all due respect to Ilya Lyubushkin, the most glaring need remains a right-shot &lsquo;D&rsquo; to upgrade over Justin Holl on the second pair. If the Leafs want more of a puck-mover, Dallas&rsquo; John Klingberg is easily the top potentially available asset. If they prefer an injection of brute force, which would take pressure off Jake Muzzin to be the Leafs&rsquo; primary physical presence, they could kick the tires on Josh Manson. He was on injured reserve with a finger injury, so acquiring him before he recovers would actually be easier for cap purposes.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p></div>

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ATLANTIC DIVISION TRADE DEADLINE PREVIEW

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/screen-shot-2022-03-02-at-11.56.59-am3/802409-1-eng-US/screen-shot-2022-03-02-at-11.56.59-am.png" title="Screen Shot 2022-03-02 at 11.56.59 AM" width="438" height="192"></div><p>&nbsp;</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/car_lafonta_158/800300-1-eng-US/car_lafonta_1582.jpg" title="car_lafonta_158" width="548" height="567"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(JAMES GUILLORY-USA TODAY SPORTS)</span></figcaption></div><h2><b><i>CAROLINA HURRICANES</i></b></h2><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="mon032.jpg" title="common03" width="110" height="110"></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>W</span>HAT DO YOU GET</b> for the team that has everything? The Hurricanes have the best penalty kill in the league, the best team defense, a top-10 power play and offense, plus excellent goaltending. Needless to say, this is a team that is going for it and is built to win, so really, we&rsquo;re talking about final touches when it comes to the deadline.</p><p>Carolina GM Don Waddell doesn&rsquo;t have any cap space to work with, so any trades would have to involve salary going out as well. Looking at how the playoffs usually go down, the Hurricanes could seek out some burliness. Yes, they do have the likes of Nino Niederreiter and Jordan Martinook, but beefing up (or at least having another option there) couldn&rsquo;t hurt.</p><p>One intriguing name is Arizona&rsquo;s Lawson Crouse. He&rsquo;s a pending RFA on a cheap deal, so the trade price would be high, but he&rsquo;s got the size and snarl to be nasty in the post-season. Carolina does have a raft of good young goalie prospects in <b>JACK LAFONTAINE</b>, Eetu Makiniemi and Pyotr Kochetkov to make things interesting, but would they want to part with any depth given the age of current netminders Frederik Andersen and Antti Raanta?</p></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/clb_domi/800279-1-eng-US/clb_domi2.jpg" title="clb_domi" width="517" height="533"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(DAVID KIROUAC-USA TODAY SPORTS)</span></figcaption></div><h2><b><i>COLUMBUS BLUE JACKETS</i></b></h2><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="mon012.jpg" title="common01" width="110" height="110"></div><p><b>WHILE THE BLUE JACKETS</b> have been decent this year, that&rsquo;s not good enough to vie for a playoff spot in the Metro &ndash; but that&rsquo;s not the end of the world. Columbus has a lot of youthful promise bubbling up, from teen center Cole Sillinger to burgeoning sniper Yegor Chinakhov and defensemen such as Adam Boqvist and Andrew Peeke. With Kent Johnson getting Olympic experience with Canada, there&rsquo;s more help on the way, too.</p><p>So GM Jarmo Kekalainen can feel pretty good about his organization right now, while continuing to build for the future. The Jackets have a couple of rental possibilities to trade away, though it would&rsquo;ve helped if they were playing better. Veteran left winger <b>MAX DOMI</b> has OK stats, but his $5.3-million cap hit is something to consider; Kekalainen would likely have to eat some of that in a deal. And while goalies will be in high demand at the deadline, Joonas Korpisalo&rsquo;s numbers don&rsquo;t really inspire. Having said that, his $2.8-million cap hit is manageable, and we&rsquo;ve seen him catch fire in the post-season before. Columbus has up to eight picks in the 2022 draft, one of which is conditional: if Chicago lands one of the first two overall picks, the Blue Jackets get the Hawks&rsquo; first-rounder in 2023 instead.</p></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/nj_subban4/800272-1-eng-US/nj_subban2.jpg" title="nj_subban" width="600" height="752"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(MARC DESROSIERS-USA TODAY SPORTS)</span></figcaption></div><p>&nbsp;</p><h2><b><i>NEW JERSEY DEVILS</i></b></h2><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="mon012.jpg" title="common01" width="110" height="110"></div><p><b>INJURIES AND COVID-RELATED ABSENCES</b> have hit the Devils particularly hard, with crucial players such as Dougie Hamilton, Jack Hughes and Mackenzie Blackwood all missing significant time. Goaltending depth has truly been stretched to the limit, with six different masked men making starts, including first-timers Nico Daws and Akira Schmid. Which is all a long way of saying that New Jersey&rsquo;s stay in the basement of the Metro is understandable.</p><p>But there is one big chip that GM Tom Fitzgerald could play at the trade deadline, and it comes in the form of veteran defenseman <b>P.K. SUBBAN</b>. While Subban may not be the Norris Trophy-caliber rearguard he used to be, he does boast a great track record of success in the playoffs, and on a contender where he doesn&rsquo;t have to be The Guy, he could certainly provide solid minutes.</p><p>Subban, a pending UFA, has a $9-million cap hit, which will be less intimidating at the deadline than it sounds. First off, the cap hit would be prorated to however many games are left in the season. Secondly, the Devils could retain salary in a potential Subban deal with a cap-strapped team, getting more assets in return for the favor. Center Pavel Zacha is also attracting interest and could use the change of scenery.</p></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/nyi_parise/800237-1-eng-US/nyi_parise2.jpg" title="nyi_parise" width="554" height="792"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(TOM HORAK-USA TODAY SPORTS)</span></figcaption></div><h2><b><i>NEW YORK ISLANDERS</i></b></h2><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="mon032.jpg" title="common03" width="110" height="110"></div><p><b>COVID PROBLEMS AND A</b> long road trip to start the season while their new arena was getting finished put the Islanders behind the eight ball early. Seeing one of the more consistent teams in the league way down at the bottom of the standings was surprising, and though the Isles have largely righted the ship, the playoffs are not looking likely. Having said that, this was a team built to win, and there&rsquo;s no reason to doubt that New York could be back near the top of the Metro next season, so a teardown would be silly. The Islanders have one notable player up for unrestricted free agency this summer, and that&rsquo;s Cal Clutterbuck, but he&rsquo;s so ingrained with the team that it&rsquo;s hard to see him leaving, especially in a deadline deal.</p><p>If any moves are made by GM Lou Lamoriello, they would be minor. Both Zdeno Chara and <b>ZACH PARISE</b> are pending UFAs, though neither has made much of a dent this year. With minimal cap hits and a boatload of veneration, perhaps they could be sent to a contender for one more shot at the Stanley Cup, but the return would be negligible.</p></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/nyr_kravtso_159/800216-1-eng-US/nyr_kravtso_1592.jpg" title="nyr_kravtso_159" width="882" height="895"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(TOM HORAK-USA TODAY SPORTS)</span></figcaption></div><h2><b><i>NEW YORK RANGERS</i></b></h2><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="mon022.jpg" title="common02" width="110" height="110"></div><p><b>BACK IN 1994, THE</b> Rangers were a first-place team, but they weren&rsquo;t the squad coach Mike Keenan really liked. So GM Neil Smith made some shocking deadline trades (Mike Gartner out, Glenn Anderson in, for example), and the end result was their first Stanley Cup since 1940. This year, New York has been a high-end team, but also an outfit that analytics experts believe is a paper tiger thanks to the worst possession numbers in the NHL. So what does new GM Chris Drury do?</p><p>Bolstering his team&rsquo;s defensive play &ndash; particularly among the forwards &ndash; is the most obvious scenario, as the Rangers have been buoyed by Hart Trophy-level goaltending from Igor Shesterkin. And sure, you can ride a hot goalie in the playoffs (see Price, Carey), but why take the chance? The most tantalizing option is Flyers captain Claude Giroux, if everyone can get over the heresy of a Philly-Rangers swap. He&rsquo;s a pending UFA who would certainly make the Rangers a serious threat if he were to waive his no-move clause.</p><p>New York does have assets to spare for any significant deal, in particular a couple of first-rounders who could benefit from a fresh start: Filip Chytil and <b>VITALI KRAVTSOV</b>. Both are still young and cheap with solid pedigrees.</p></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/phi_giroux10/800209-1-eng-US/phi_giroux2.jpg" title="phi_giroux" width="749" height="602"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(KIM KLEMENT-USA TODAY SPORTS)</span></figcaption></div><h2>PHILADELPHIA&nbsp;<b><i>FLYERS</i></b></h2><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="mon012.jpg" title="common01" width="110" height="110"></div><p><b>THIS WAS NOT HOW</b> things were supposed to go. The Flyers were looking to shoot up the division but instead came crashing down even worse than last year. So now GM Chuck Fletcher is forced to confront some difficult decisions. <b>CLAUDE GIROUX</b>, the team captain and a pending UFA, could very well be gone, and whether it happens at the deadline or during the summer is based on whether Giroux will waive his no-move clause. Giroux, the team&rsquo;s top scorer, would fetch a great return on the trade market and has been linked to contenders such as Colorado and Toronto.</p><p>But the captain isn&rsquo;t the only potential rental Philadelphia has to offer. Most of the defense corps is in the same boat, with Rasmus Ristolainen, Keith Yandle and Justin Braun all pending UFAs. Yandle has a no-trade clause, and Ristolainen has struggled, but you have to at least make some calls if you&rsquo;re Fletcher. Easier moves could involve versatile forwards (and pending UFAs) such as Derick Brassard and Nate Thompson, neither of whom carry big salaries or no-trades.</p><p>While the Flyers&rsquo; pipeline is decent, the team has traded away its second-rounders in 2022 and 2023, so they could recoup those picks and more at the deadline to fortify the future.</p><p>&nbsp;</p></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/pit_riikola_160/800174-1-eng-US/pit_riikola_1602.jpg" title="pit_riikola_160" width="474" height="484"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(JEFF CURRY-USA TODAY SPORTS)</span></figcaption></div><h2>PITTSBURGH&nbsp;<b><i>PENGUINS</i></b></h2><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="mon032.jpg" title="common03" width="110" height="110"></div><p><b>STOP US IF YOU&rsquo;VE</b> heard this one before: despite injury woes, the Penguins have managed to stalk their way up the Metro Division and will be one to watch in the post-season. But hey, that&rsquo;s the truth, as Pittsburgh has played without full seasons from both Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin, while also losing Jeff Carter and Kris Letang short-term at inopportune times. With no cap space and a shallow prospect pool &ndash; defenseman <b>JUUSO RIIKOLA</b>, toiling in the minors, might draw some interest &ndash; it&rsquo;s hard to see the Penguins making much noise at the deadline. GM Ron Hextall could simply watch his team get better as players heal (Jason Zucker is the most prominent still on the shelf).</p><p>Goaltending has been a playoff problem of late, but coach Mike Sullivan kept his faith in Tristan Jarry this fall, and the netminder has rewarded the team with a superb bounce-back performance.</p><p>Had the Pens sagged this season, pending UFAs such as Letang and maybe even Malkin could&rsquo;ve been deadline fodder, as could the surprising Evan Rodrigues, but now it seems moot. When you&rsquo;ve got Crosby, Malkin, Letang and Jake Guentzel running the show, you might as well go for it. Pittsburgh currently has six picks in the draft; that&rsquo;s tied for the most they&rsquo;ve had since 2012.</p></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/wsh_alexeye_161/800153-1-eng-US/wsh_alexeye_1612.jpg" title="wsh_alexeye_161" width="474" height="494"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(GEOFF BURKE-USA TODAY SPORTS)</span></figcaption></div><h2>WASHINGTON&nbsp;<b><i>CAPITALS</i></b></h2><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="mon032.jpg" title="common03" width="110" height="110"></div><p><b>NO DOUBT THE CAPITALS</b> could make a long playoff run, but their additions will likely have to be internal, due to cap constraints and a lack of breadth in their prospect pipeline. No matter, though: when you&rsquo;ve played most of the season without Nicklas Backstrom, T.J. Oshie and Anthony Mantha and still have a firm grip on a playoff spot, the worries tend to dissipate.</p><p>Washington has good overall depth, and GM Brian MacLellan has surrounded his high-priced stars with affordable depth players who fill their roles nicely, whether they be Nic Dowd, Conor Sheary or a surprise like Joe Snively.</p><p>If there is one question to address, it&rsquo;s goaltending. Vitek Vanecek has once again been the better of the two starters, even though Ilya Samsonov has long been seen as the goalie of the future. Would the Caps look for some insurance in the blue paint?</p><p>MacLellan&rsquo;s challenge at the deadline will be to forecast just how good his current roster is. Age hasn&rsquo;t tamed Alex Ovechkin, so the team&rsquo;s championship window remains open longer than many expected. Is there a move to be made, or does MacLellan simply dance with the ones he brought? If he does wade into trade waters, he could dangle prospect D-man <b>ALEXANDER ALEXEYEV</b>.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p></div>

METRO DIVISION TRADE DEADLINE PREVIEW

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/screen-shot-2022-03-02-at-11.56.59-am4/802416-1-eng-US/screen-shot-2022-03-02-at-11.56.59-am.png" title="Screen Shot 2022-03-02 at 11.56.59 AM" width="438" height="192"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/ari_chychru_092/800506-1-eng-US/ari_chychru_0922.jpg" title="ari_chychru_092" width="592" height="690"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(MARK J. REBILAS-USA TODAY SPORTS)</span></figcaption></div><h2><b><i>ARIZONA COYOTES</i></b></h2><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="mon012.jpg" title="common01" width="110" height="110"></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>I</span>T&rsquo;S A MOVING SALE!</b> Everything must go! And if it&rsquo;s not bolted down, the Coyotes should be entertaining offers. In the month leading up to the deadline, Arizona has 11 pending UFAs on its NHL roster and only six active players under contract for next season. No team is more prepared to sell.</p><p>The headliner is <b>JAKOB CHYCHRUN</b>, a legitimate top-pairing defenseman whom Arizona is inexplicably looking to deal. Given his team-friendly contract, the Coyotes will receive a king&rsquo;s ransom if &ndash; and it is an if, not a when &ndash; he&rsquo;s moved when teams are paying sky-high deadline prices. Pending UFA forwards Phil Kessel and Travis Boyd should each draw interest, while it&rsquo;s not unfathomable the Coyotes consider offers for RFAs-to-be Lawson Crouse and Christian Fischer. Clubs could further pilfer Arizona&rsquo;s roster in search of veteran blueline help. Anton Stralman is a discount rental, and given the state of affairs in Arizona, Shayne Gostisbehere&rsquo;s rebound season could see him moved along for the right price. Don&rsquo;t be surprised, either, if the Coyotes are used as a cap-space broker. With money to burn, they&rsquo;d gladly take a pick or prospect to make life easier for cap-strapped clubs.</p></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/chi_fleury/800471-1-eng-US/chi_fleury2.jpg" title="chi_fleury" width="746" height="755"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(BOB FRID-USA TODAY SPORTS)</span></figcaption></div><h2><b><i>CHICAGO BLACKHAWKS</i></b></h2><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="mon012.jpg" title="common01" width="110" height="110"></div><p><b>IF THEY&rsquo;RE NOT NAMED</b> Patrick Kane, Alex DeBrincat or Seth Jones, the Blackhawks should be welcoming all overtures for their players as the trade deadline approaches. For the past several seasons, Chicago has clung to the notion they are fringe contenders. Time and again, the brain trust has been proven wrong. Now is the time to press the reset button in earnest.</p><p>There are plenty of pieces in Chicago that would be intriguing to buyers should the Blackhawks be willing to sell. Pending RFAs Dylan Strome and especially Dominik Kubalik can both be middle-six offensive contributors for a contender, the latter having potential to fetch Chicago valuable picks or prospects. Defensemen Calvin de Haan and Erik Gustafsson are both rental options for teams in need of shoring up the depth of their blueline. The real prize, however, is goaltender <b>MARC-ANDRE FLEURY</b>. The reigning Vezina Trophy winner has posted respectable numbers and projects as a perfect fit for a team in need of goaltending support. Given he&rsquo;s on an expiring deal, the Blackhawks would no question be willing to retain a sizable portion of his $7-million cap hit to increase the return, and there&rsquo;s little doubt that Fleury&rsquo;s character alone will be enough for interested parties to kick the tires.</p></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0068-0219/800450-1-eng-US/f0068-022.jpg" title="f0068-02" width="473" height="482"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(JEROME MIRON-USA TODAY SPORTS)</span></figcaption></div><h2><b><i>COLORADO AVALANCHE</i></b></h2><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="mon022.jpg" title="common02" width="110" height="110"></div><p><b>THE AVALANCHE MUST GO</b> all-in, but doing so will require Colorado to navigate a tricky cap situation and balance additions with subtractions. For that reason, Colorado will have to make moves using draft capital, though such deals are made more difficult without first- and second-round picks in the upcoming draft. Thus, GM Joe Sakic will have to mortgage the future, potentially dangling prospects <b>MARTIN KAUT</b> and Justin Barron if Colorado is going to make waves by adding a star such as the Flyers&rsquo; Claude Giroux, with whom the team has been linked heading toward deadline day. Given cap restraints, reeling in a big fish will most likely require laundering the player through an intermediary.</p><p>A more cautious approach would see the Avs target a player who can replace Pierre-Edouard Bellemare, now with Tampa Bay. The defensive specialist was a key cog in Colorado&rsquo;s penalty kill, which was eighth-ranked last year but had slipped to 21st this season. Dallas&rsquo; Michael Raffl would be cost-effective in cap hit and acquisition price, and he&rsquo;s produced some excellent shorthanded results in recent seasons. Sometimes, it&rsquo;s the minor moves that make the biggest difference. Someone of Raffl&rsquo;s ilk could be just what the Avs need.</p></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/dal_klingbe_088/800429-1-eng-US/dal_klingbe_0882.jpg" title="dal_klingbe_088" width="474" height="472"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(SERGEI BELSKI-USA TODAY SPORTS)</span></figcaption></div><h2><b><i>DALLAS STARS</i></b></h2><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="mon032.jpg" title="common03" width="110" height="110"></div><p><b>THE STARS ARE A</b> curious case. If you take a quick glance at the standings, Dallas appears to be a team on the fence. But a quick read of the tea leaves paints a far bleaker picture of where a franchise that was a Stanley Cup finalist two seasons ago really sits in the West&rsquo;s hierarchy. Peak Jamie Benn is a thing of the past, Tyler Seguin is exiting his prime, and the organization dragged its feet with pending UFA blueliner <b>JOHN KLINGBERG</b> to the extent he now appears to be on his way out. That&rsquo;s the bad news.</p><p>The good news is retooling could happen in a hurry if GM Jim Nill plays his cards right at the deadline. Any team looking for a veteran scoring presence should be foaming at the mouth over the chance to acquire rental and ageless wonder Joe Pavelski, who, at 37, remains a point-per-game player. Though he&rsquo;s struggled this season, UFA-to-be Alexander Radulov can still produce. Cup-winning goaltender Braden Holtby has also played well enough that he&rsquo;d be an excellent fail-safe for a team in need of bolstering its blue paint.</p><p>As one of the league&rsquo;s most veteran-laden squads, Dallas needs to begin thinking about the future, but will they be tempted to take one last run if the playoffs are in sight?</p></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/min_beckman_089/800422-1-eng-US/min_beckman_0892.jpg" title="min_beckman_089" width="749" height="587"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(DAVID BERDING-USA TODAY SPORTS)</span></figcaption></div><h2><b><i>MINNESOTA WILD</i></b></h2><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="mon022.jpg" title="common02" width="110" height="110"></div><p><b>OUTSIDE OF KIRILL KAPRIZOV,</b> there&rsquo;s little flash in Minnesota. The Wild are instead a deep, hardworking bunch who&rsquo;ve proven themselves a contender with their substance-over-style approach. It&rsquo;s for that reason, too, Minnesota seems unlikely to make a big splash. One need is a third-pairing defenseman who would represent an upgrade over Jordie Benn and Jon Merrill, but there&rsquo;s nothing sexy about that.</p><p>So, how about this: why don&rsquo;t the Wild try to pursue a natural goal-scorer, the type who can create something out of nothing? While Minnesota&rsquo;s play this season gives credence to the notion they will be able to not only survive but thrive in a tight-checking post-season, it never hurts to have an extra player who can light the lamp. Such a player can come in handy once the opposition focuses in on Kaprizov, too. Given looming cap considerations &ndash; Kevin Fiala is a pending RFA and the blueline needs reinforcement &ndash; the Wild should spy rentals. He&rsquo;s having an off year, but Arizona&rsquo;s Phil Kessel fits the bill. Detroit&rsquo;s Vladislav Namestnikov deserves consideration, too. Dallas&rsquo; Joe Pavelski is a long-shot option and one who might cost Minnesota a princely sum &ndash; a top-10 prospect like <b>ADAM BECKMAN</b>, for example &ndash; they&rsquo;re uncomfortable paying.</p></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/nsh_afanasy_090/800387-1-eng-US/nsh_afanasy_0902.jpg" title="nsh_afanasy_090" width="882" height="895"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(DAVE KALLMANN / MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL)</span></figcaption></div><h2><b><i>NASHVILLE PREDATORS</i></b></h2><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="mon032.jpg" title="common03" width="110" height="110"></div><p><b>TRADES THAT SENT VIKTOR</b> Arvidsson to Los Angeles and Ryan Ellis to Philadelphia during the off-season seemed a signal of intent from the Predators. The rebuild, or at the very least a roster overhaul, was on. But guided by goalie Juuse Saros&rsquo; Vezina Trophy-caliber performance, the Preds have been a surprise in the Central. That makes David Poile&rsquo;s club among the most intriguing at the deadline, as the GM has the rare gift of a team in contention and the cap space necessary to add a big-ticket item, if he so pleases.</p><p>Where things get tricky, though, is that the Predators&rsquo; biggest need is a new pact for Filip Forsberg. Nashville&rsquo;s pending UFA sniper is seeing dollar signs as he takes aim at the franchise&rsquo;s single-season scoring mark. Beyond that, however, the Preds would do well to add a defenseman who can ease the significant burden placed upon Roman Josi and Mattias Ekholm, though Nashville would offer little beyond draft picks or a B-level prospect such as <b>EGOR AFANASYEV</b> to entice deadline sellers. Second- or third-tier rental options are the best bet to add without a significant asset cost, thus making defenders such as Chicago&rsquo;s Calvin de Haan, Detroit&rsquo;s Nick Leddy and Montreal&rsquo;s Ben Chiarot feasible options.</p></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/stl_alexand_091/800366-1-eng-US/stl_alexand_0912.jpg" title="stl_alexand_091" width="474" height="488"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(DENNY MEDLEY-USA TODAY SPORTS)</span></figcaption></div><h2><b><i>ST. LOUIS BLUES</i></b></h2><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="mon032.jpg" title="common03" width="110" height="110"></div><p><b>IF THIS SEASON HAD</b> gone awry, we&rsquo;d be talking about landing spots for Vladimir Tarasenko. As it turns out, St. Louis is in the mix, and the Blues have to take their shot now while the window is wide open. That&rsquo;s especially true considering David Perron&rsquo;s deal will expire this summer, Ryan O&rsquo;Reilly&rsquo;s contract is up next summer and paydays will be due to Robert Thomas and breakout scorer Jordan Kyrou in two years&rsquo; time.</p><p>The issue facing the Blues, and what might prevent them from addressing any needs, is a lack of cap space. Nearly every single dollar is accounted for in St. Louis, which means any moves GM Doug Armstrong intends on making will need to be of the dollar-in, dollar-out variety or be laundered through another club. Likely the best way for the Blues to strengthen is by adding versatile bargain-bin players who can assist a popgun bottom-six attack. Ottawa&rsquo;s Tyler Ennis and Detroit&rsquo;s Sam Gagner are on sub-$1-million contracts and could provide offense from the lower end of the lineup, but the most intriguing option might be the Islanders&rsquo; Zach Parise. He&rsquo;s a 37-year-old veteran who&rsquo;s hungry for the Cup. Will the Blues be willing to part with picks or a prospect like <b>NIKITA ALEXANDROV</b> to make that happen?</p></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/wpg_copp/800345-1-eng-US/wpg_copp2.jpg" title="wpg_copp" width="472" height="482"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(SERGEI BELSKI-USA TODAY SPORTS)</span></figcaption></div><h2>WINNIPEG&nbsp;<b><i>JETS</i></b></h2><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="mon012.jpg" title="common01" width="110" height="110"></div><p><b>SO MUCH MORE WAS</b> expected of these Jets, particularly considering the off-season restructuring of the blueline, which included the additions of Nate Schmidt and Brenden Dillon. But nothing has gone quite according to plan in Winnipeg, as evidenced by the early-season resignation of coach Paul Maurice and the Jets&rsquo; disappointing position among the also-rans in the Western Conference.</p><p>As far as sellers go, Winnipeg falls into a unique subcategory in that the pieces they do have in play are likely seen as second-tier options for those interested in bulking up for a Cup run. The most notable of the trade chips is <b>ANDREW COPP</b>, whose output this season &ndash; 12 goals, 28 points through 47 games &ndash; puts him in line for a sizable raise from his $3.6-million cap hit that the Jets simply can&rsquo;t afford moving forward. Next in line is veteran pivot Paul Stastny, who stands to be an option to which clubs will circle back if in need of shoring up the middle six. GM Kevin Cheveldayoff shipping out a defender such as Dylan DeMelo also isn&rsquo;t out of the question. The Jets are going to need cap space with pending RFA Pierre-Luc Dubois in need of a deal, and a cost-controlled shutdown rearguard will be appealing to a number of buyers.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p></div>

CENTRAL DIVISION TRADE DEADLINE PREVIEW

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/ana_rakell5/800684-1-eng-US/ana_rakell2.jpg" title="ana_rakell" width="882" height="895"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(ERIC BOLTE-USA TODAY SPORTS)</span></figcaption></div><h2>ANAHEIM&nbsp;<b><i>DUCKS</i></b></h2><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="mon032.jpg" title="common03" width="110" height="110"></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>T</span>HIS WAS SUPPOSED TO BE</b> the start of an extended rebuilding period in Anaheim. But who could have predicted fourth-year man Troy Terry would be scoring at nearly a 50-goal pace, rookie Trevor Zegras would be playing well beyond his 20 years or that Edmonton would falter so badly that third place in the Pacific &ndash; and the playoff bid that comes with it &ndash; would be ripe for the taking.</p><p>So why aren&rsquo;t the Ducks presumptive buyers rather than still sitting on the fence as the deadline nears? Well, it has been management&rsquo;s philosophy to grow organically from within rather than push all-in. Anaheim didn&rsquo;t sign any big-name free agents last off-season. Even though patient GM Bob Murray is no longer around and Pat Verbeek is now calling the shots, it&rsquo;s unlikely Verbeek will be swinging for the fences after just a month on the job. With <b>RICKARD RAKELL</b>, Hampus Lindholm and Josh Manson all pending UFAs, there is temptation to see what they can fetch on the market. That said, the Ducks will have a ton of cap space in the off-season, and keeping those veterans shouldn&rsquo;t be an issue if that&rsquo;s the direction Verbeek wants to go in. If the Ducks become buyers, they would likely target character veterans up front and on the blueline.</p></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/cgy_valimak_123/800677-1-eng-US/cgy_valimak_1232.jpg" title="cgy_valimak_123" width="747" height="621"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(SERGEI BELSKI-USA TODAY SPORTS)</span></figcaption></div><h2>CALGARY&nbsp;<b><i>FLAMES</i></b></h2><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="mon022.jpg" title="common02" width="110" height="110"></div><p><b>WITH JOHNNY GAUDREAU A</b> pending UFA and RFA Matthew Tkachuk also on the cusp of a big payday next season, this is Calgary&rsquo;s year to go for it. The fact this group has bought into coach Darryl Sutter&rsquo;s puck-possession approach and plays a heavy, winning style made it a no-brainer to add a secondary scorer to boost the flat middle-six production.</p><p>The first line of Gaudreau, Tkachuk and Elias Lindholm is firing on all cylinders, as is Andrew Mangiapane on the second line. But Mikael Backlund and Sean Monahan have endured scoring slumps all season. Calgary&rsquo;s losses have come when the top line is checked into submission and shuts down. To that end, the Flames went out and acquired Montreal right winger Tyler Toffoli, who is in the second season of a four-year contract at a reasonable $4.25 million per year. He played for Sutter in Los Angeles and will be the much-needed triggerman to replace the sputtering Monahan on the power play. The Flames sent a package including a first-round pick to Montreal, but they still have winger Dillon Dube and promising blueliner <b>JUUSO VALIMAKI</b> to make further moves. Calgary would like to add a depth defenseman at a reasonable price and will probably make a move on the final day due to cap constraints.</p></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/edm_broberg_124/800642-1-eng-US/edm_broberg_1242.jpg" title="edm_broberg_124" width="474" height="474"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(SERGEI BELSKI-USA TODAY SPORTS)</span></figcaption></div><h2>EDMONTON&nbsp;<b><i>OILERS</i></b></h2><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="mon022.jpg" title="common02" width="110" height="110"></div><p><b>WHEN YOU HAVE TWO</b> of the best players in the game, you&rsquo;re always a threat to make a run in the playoffs. So there&rsquo;s not much doubt the Oilers are buyers with Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl at the helm. The problem is there appear to be so many holes in the Edmonton lineup, and the team will be in tough to patch them up with almost no cap space.</p><p>First and foremost, the Oilers need goaltending. Mike Smith had an excellent resurgent season a year ago, but he&rsquo;s made of glass. Mikko Koskinen can get hot at times, but his cold stretches make him an unreliable option. Stuart Skinner isn&rsquo;t ready. Can the Oilers acquire a veteran on the cheap? Perhaps Anton Khudobin or Jaroslav Halak? Edmonton&rsquo;s blueline showed promise early this season, but it&rsquo;s neither nasty enough nor deep enough. Josh Manson would be a good addition. And Edmonton&rsquo;s depth scoring is too inconsistent beyond the top four or five guys. All the Oilers have to offer in return is center prospect Dylan Holloway and defenseman <b>PHILIP BROBERG</b>. Plus, a first-round draft pick. Yes, those are future pieces to the puzzle, but winning right now is imperative. Draisaitl can become a UFA in 2025 and McDavid a year later.</p></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/la_kupari6/800621-1-eng-US/la_kupari2.jpg" title="la_kupari" width="474" height="486"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(KIYOSHI MIO-USA TODAY SPORTS)</span></figcaption></div><h2>LOS ANGELES&nbsp;<b><i>KINGS</i></b></h2><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="mon032.jpg" title="common03" width="110" height="110"></div><p><b>THE KINGS ARE IN</b> much the same boat as Anaheim &ndash; doing much better than expected and ready to make a playoff surge. Most saw L.A. as the rebuilding California team with the most potential to make noise sooner rather than later. That&rsquo;s due to the veteran presence of Anze Kopitar, Drew Doughty and Dustin Brown. So, where do they go from here?</p><p>The Kings have been stockpiling prospects for several years. At some point, they&rsquo;d be astute to consider which young forwards genuinely have a future with the club and which should be parlayed into assets for right now. Just consider all the A- and B-list forward prospects in the system or currently in the NHL: Quinton Byfield, Alex Turcotte, Gabe Vilardi, Jaret Anderson-Dolan, Arthur Kaliyev, <b>RASMUS KUPARI</b>, Lias Andersson, Samuel Fagemo, Martin Chromiak, Tyler Madden, Francesco Pinelli, Akil Thomas, Kasper Simontaival, Samuel Helenius, Alex Laferriere. That&rsquo;s 15 legitimate NHL forward prospects. They can&rsquo;t all make it in L.A., but they&rsquo;d absolutely be blue-chip additions to other teams. It makes sense to deal some of them now if you can boost your current roster to nail down a playoff spot. The Kings need depth everywhere, but especially on the blueline.</p></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/sj_hertl5/800600-1-eng-US/sj_hertl2.jpg" title="sj_hertl" width="474" height="489"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(DARREN YAMASHITA-USA TODAY SPORTS)</span></figcaption></div><h2>SAN JOSE&nbsp;<b><i>SHARKS</i></b></h2><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="mon012.jpg" title="common01" width="110" height="110"></div><p><b>MANY PRE-SEASON</b> predictions had the Sharks at the bottom of the Pacific Division, behind their California cousins and even the expansion Seattle Kraken. Uncertainty in the crease and an aging roster painted a grim picture for the team. A respectable start had San Jose in the playoff picture for good chunks of November and December, but it then became obvious the Sharks just don&rsquo;t have the scoring power or depth to get north of 90 points. So it&rsquo;s making sense to go about the rebuild, something GM Doug Wilson has long been hesitant to do.</p><p>San Jose hasn&rsquo;t had many high draft picks in recent seasons, so it&rsquo;s crucial to continue replenishing the development system. It will all start with pending UFA center <b>TOMAS HERTL</b>. The nine-year veteran is still just 28, and he&rsquo;s in for a big payday in the off-season. The Sharks can surely ask for a first-round pick, a top prospect and a young NHLer in return. San Jose has a few other veterans who could help contending teams, but they all come with big tickets and significant term, so it&rsquo;s unlikely they will move. The Sharks have a decent amount of cap space since parting company with Evander Kane, so they could consider taking on an albatross contract to gain draft picks.</p></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/sea_giordan_125/800579-1-eng-US/sea_giordan_1252.jpg" title="sea_giordan_125" width="474" height="499"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(SERGEI BELSKI-USA TODAY SPORTS)</span></figcaption></div><h2>SEATTLE&nbsp;<b><i>KRAKEN</i></b></h2><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="mon012.jpg" title="common01" width="110" height="110"></div><p><b>THE KRAKEN SHOULD BE</b> moving players early and often. This is the time to sell, sell, sell. Being an expansion franchise, Seattle doesn&rsquo;t have the baggage of getting rid of players with long-standing ties to the fan base or community. That&rsquo;s easier than other teams coming to grips with dealing a proven veteran only because he&rsquo;s nearing the end of his contract.</p><p>Captain <b>MARK GIORDANO</b> is at the head of the class when it comes to veterans who are likely to move before the trade deadline. He&rsquo;s a pending UFA who can play an all-purpose role on any contending team&rsquo;s top four on the blueline, despite the fact he&rsquo;s 38. Left wingers Calle Jarnkrok and Marcus Johansson are also on expiring deals and will yield mid-round draft picks. Jordan Eberle and Yanni Gourde &ndash; tied for second among Kraken scorers with 27 points each through mid-February &ndash; have reasonable term left on their affordable contracts. Cup contenders will be interested in them. Because the Kraken have only had one entry draft so far and GM Ron Francis surprisingly didn&rsquo;t make any side deals during the expansion-draft process, Seattle doesn&rsquo;t have a wealth of early picks to help fill the pipeline this summer. So Francis must now go to work to remedy that.</p></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/van_miller2/800572-1-eng-US/van_miller2.jpg" title="van_miller" width="576" height="770"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(BOB FRID-USA TODAY SPORTS)</span></figcaption></div><h2>VANCOUVER&nbsp;<b><i>CANUCKS</i></b></h2><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="mon012.jpg" title="common01" width="110" height="110"></div><p><b>NEW CANUCKS GM PATRIK</b> Allvin won&rsquo;t be completely cleaning house, but we do expect him to make a few moves before the deadline to trim an inflated payroll and allow Vancouver to become more nimble in the off-season. Question is, how deep will the cuts be? Pending UFA goalie Jaroslav Halak will surely be flipped for a draft pick. Other pending UFAs are Tyler Motte, Brandon Sutter, Alex Chiasson and Brad Hunt. They&rsquo;re all available.</p><p>However, the biggest name in the rumor mill is versatile forward <b>J.T. MILLER</b>. He turns 29 in March and has one year remaining at a very affordable $5.25 million. Miller, Vancouver&rsquo;s top point-getter by a wide margin across the past three seasons combined, won&rsquo;t come cheap. The Canucks will surely be asking for three assets in return &ndash; a first-round pick, an A-list prospect and a young NHLer. There&rsquo;s also chatter that right winger Conor Garland will be on the move less than a year after signing a five-year deal with the Canucks in the off-season. Garland had 11 goals and 26 points in 44 games through mid-February. Tyler Myers has two years left at $6 million per season, but Vancouver will listen to offers for a rangy defenseman who can be a force during the playoff grind. The Canucks are looking to get younger on the blueline.</p></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/veg_smith/800537-1-eng-US/veg_smith2.jpg" title="veg_smith" width="560" height="801"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(BRACE HEMMELGARN-USA TODAY SPORTS)</span></figcaption></div><h2>VEGAS&nbsp;<b><i>GOLDEN KNIGHTS</i></b></h2><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="mon012.jpg" title="common01" width="110" height="110"></div><p><b>HAVE THE GOLDEN KNIGHTS</b> ever been anything other than buyers at this time of year? It could be argued no recent team has been as adventurous as Vegas has when it comes to fine-tuning and, presumably, upgrading its roster. But in February, the Golden Knights were the subject of speculation that they would have to deal off assets in order to get marquee early-season addition Jack Eichel in the lineup.</p><p>Eichel&rsquo;s return from neck surgery, however, coincided with Mark Stone landing on LTIR with a nagging back injury. Stone&rsquo;s $9.5 million AAV mostly offsets the addition of Eichel&rsquo;s $10 million AAV to the salary grid, thus making the numbers work. Stone&rsquo;s return is the great uncertainty. Unless some other roster deletions are made, it won&rsquo;t be able to happen until the playoffs, when salary cap constraints become a non-issue.</p><p>If Stone is healthy enough to play in March or April, Vegas GM Kelly McCrimmon would have to cull about $10 million to be cap compliant. Right winger <b>REILLY SMITH</b> is a 30-year-old pending UFA in the final year of a $5-million-AAV contract. His name has been bandied about for months. Mattias Janmark is also a pending UFA making $2 million. Other candidates to be moved are William Karlsson and Chandler Stephenson. But that would weaken the lineup at a time when it needs to be strong.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p></div>

ana_rakell

PACIFIC DIVISION TRADE DEADLINE PREVIEW

<div class="byline">BY GEORGES LARAQUE</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="bgl_oree" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/bgl_oree/800729-1-eng-US/bgl_oree2.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>A LONG WAY TO GO</b></p><p>Six decades after O&rsquo;Ree became the NHL&rsquo;s first Black player, racism continues to rear its ugly head in pro hockey.</p> <span class="photo-credit">(CHARLES LECLAIRE-USA TODAY SPORTS)</span></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>O</span>N APRIL 15, 1947,</b> Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in baseball by becoming the first Black man to play in the major leagues. Through all the disgusting racial incidents and death threats he had to face, he showed a lot of courage and resilience. He&rsquo;s owed a debt of gratitude for his bravery.</p><p>On Jan. 18, 1958, Willie O&rsquo;Ree made history by becoming the first Black player to play in the NHL. He paved the way for many other Black players, including myself, to have a career in the league. In the days since these two remarkable pioneers broke barriers, the fight against racism in sports has not progressed enough: things get slightly better every year, but not as fast as they should. After all, these events happened over six decades ago.</p><p>So where are we now? It&rsquo;s beyond belief that we are still fighting racism in 2022. And if there&rsquo;s one place you would think racism shouldn&rsquo;t be a problem, it would be in the world of sports. Especially with team sports, since nowadays rosters are comprised of athletes from different backgrounds. In the early months of this year, a couple of racist incidents were brought to light, and this is only hurting the game we love. These were the incidents we heard about, but how many never reach the public sphere? How many kids, how many adults are suffering in silence to play the sport they love?</p><p>With all the different campaigns we&rsquo;ve witnessed, like Black Lives Matter and many other protests fighting for justice, equality and respect, one can wonder: what planet do those individuals who are still using racial slurs come from?</p><p>The NHL is working hard to grow the game, and it is fighting to make its place among all the major sports. Hockey is known as a &ldquo;white man&rsquo;s sport,&rdquo; and this is an image and a culture the league is trying to change. However, every time a racial incident happens in hockey, and this holds true in any sport, it hurts the game. You will get parents who have had enough and will pull their kids out of hockey. You will get kids who are no longer having fun playing the sport they love and subsequently quit. And since, every year, the kids who are choosing to play hockey are more and more from multi-cultural backgrounds, this is a real problem. Facing this reality, many teams are now making efforts to connect with their community to demonstrate that hockey is for everyone, creating various initiatives to attract players from minority groups with the hopes of getting them interested in the game.</p><p>It is now time to step up and have real consequences on those in the game who are still using racial slurs. These actions should no longer be punished with a simple slap on the wrist. Many different leagues still have not upgraded their policies regarding racial slurs. However, after seeing the recent punishments imposed on the players at fault, we can hope that every league will now step up.</p><blockquote class="pullQuote">CHANGE WILL ONLY COME ABOUT IF, ALL TOGETHER, WE PUT IN PLACE STRICTER RULES, <b>FOR THE BENEFIT OF OUR GAME</b></blockquote><p>Here&rsquo;s a good place to start: an offender gets suspended for half a season for a first offense, plus an obligation to enter a specific education program in order to be re-instated. Second offense: banned for life. If you want to stop racism in sports, let&rsquo;s impose measures to do so. If you&rsquo;re a league commissioner, take a stand. If you&rsquo;re a team owner, take a stand. Show your fans that this is not the character you want representing your league or team. Change will only come about if, all together, we put in place stricter rules, for the benefit of our game.</p><p>Although hockey is considered a &ldquo;white man&rsquo;s game,&rdquo; with still too many racist incidents, the true origin of hockey remains unknown by many. You can learn about the history of the game by reading the book <i>Black Ice: The Lost History of the Colored Hockey League of the Maritimes, 1895-1925</i>, written by two white historians George and Darril Fosty. This will blow your mind. Or, search &ldquo;Black Ice &ndash; Colored Hockey League&rdquo; on YouTube to watch an eight-minute video about the subject. After reading the book or watching the video, you will see how the history of the game is much Blacker than a lot of people can imagine.</p><p>No one is born racist, it is learned. Let us all be responsible. Together, let&rsquo;s break that chain.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/laraque_geo_164/800750-1-eng-US/laraque_geo_1642.jpg" title="laraque_geo_164" width="204" height="258"></div><span class="image-inline"><img src="mon042.jpg" title="common04" width="42" height="34"></span><p><a datastyle href="https://twitter.com/GeorgesLaraque?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor">@GEORGESLARAQUE</a><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

bgl_oree

BGL’s Corner

IT’S TIME TO TAKE A STAND

<div class="byline">BY IAN KENNEDY</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="kirsten-wel_111" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/kirsten-wel_111/800788-1-eng-US/kirsten-wel_1112.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>PIVOT</b></p><p>Welsh once harbored dreams of playing over in Europe. But now she&rsquo;s breaking ground in the world of officiating.</p> <span class="photo-credit">(JANA CHYTILOVA / FREESTYLE PHOTOGRAPHY)</span></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><span>A</span>S THE PUCK CROSSES the red line, Kirsten Welsh scans the play. Her instincts as a former star NCAA defender tell her to close the gap and stop the puck carrier before they can enter the zone. But she waits and watches. She stands at the blueline and allows the play to pass. Welsh outstretches her arms, signalling to the other officials that the play is onside. The play would not have gotten this far if Welsh was defending. When the goaltender eventually smothers the puck, Welsh takes quick strides to intervene in a scuffle before grabbing the puck to prepare for the next faceoff.</p><p>Welsh had been on the other side of this exchange for her entire life. Now, she&rsquo;s calling the shots.</p><p>In 2021, Welsh became the first woman to serve as a linesperson in both OHL and AHL history.</p><p>Welsh was only two seasons removed from captaining the NCAA&rsquo;s Robert Morris University Colonials. She was a <a href="http://USCHO.com">USCHO.com</a> all-rookie team selection in 2015-16 and a College Hockey America first-team star in both &rsquo;16-17 and &rsquo;17-18. In 2018, she was the CHA defender of the year. Before her NCAA days, Welsh won back-to-back Provincial Women&rsquo;s Hockey League titles as a member of the Whitby Wolves.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/kirsten-wel_110/800781-1-eng-US/kirsten-wel_1102.jpg" title="kirsten-wel_110" width="862" height="1021"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(PHOTO COURTESY OF THE OHL)</span></figcaption></div><p>Professional hockey seemed the likely next step for a player with her resume. But for Welsh &ndash; and many women like her &ndash; the inequity in hockey forced her in another direction. &ldquo;I was really considering playing in Europe because I wanted the cultural experience as well,&rdquo; Welsh said. &ldquo;That was my goal going into college. But I didn&rsquo;t want to pause my career. As women, we have to make that decision. If you go and play hockey, you pause your career.</p><p>&ldquo;For women, there isn&rsquo;t really an end game or end goal. You just play to play because you love it. I support what women are doing now, working to change this, but at that time, I wasn&rsquo;t willing to commit to that, because I wanted to develop my professional career. It was a lot of commitment that I wasn&rsquo;t willing to make for the amount of money I would make.&rdquo;</p><p>And so, Welsh started looking for other opportunities. That was when Stephen Walkom, the NHL&rsquo;s senior vice-president and director of officiating, made a phone call to one of her coaches at Robert Morris. That call changed her life.</p><p>&ldquo;He contacted my assistant coach and said, &lsquo;Is there anyone graduating who might want to try reffing?&rsquo;&rdquo; Welsh said. &ldquo;I just thought, you know, &lsquo;Why not?&rsquo; I could give it a shot and see where it takes me. I was already in great shape, just graduating from four years of a Div. I scholarship, and I thought I could give it a try, and that there must be some similarities. So, I went to the NHL Exposure Combine in 2019, which was specifically for players looking to transition into NHL referees. It was my first time reffing ever at the camp. It was a great experience of where to stand, what to look for, the bare bones of it. I did well in the on-ice testing, especially the skating test. I had good fitness testing results, and they wanted to give me a chance.&rdquo;</p><p>Welsh now lives in the Pittsburgh area after finishing her playing career at Robert Morris, located in the city&rsquo;s suburbs. Alongside officiating college and junior games around Pittsburgh, she quickly climbed the reffing ranks and made history in the process.</p><p>In November 2021, Welsh became the first female linesperson to officiate a game at both the OHL and AHL levels.</p><p>It&rsquo;s easy to see how the gravitas of the situation could be lost on Welsh, given how quickly after her playing career she&rsquo;s accomplished everything. Until this season, she&rsquo;d spent her entire life trying to be the best player possible and speaking to officials from a player&rsquo;s perspective. Now, she&rsquo;s on the other side of the puck, breaking barriers for future generations of women in officiating.</p><blockquote class="pullQuote">IT&rsquo;S SO IMPORTANT TO KEEP HAVING THESE (MOMENTS) AND SHOW THE WORLD WOMEN CAN COMPETE<br>&ndash;KIRSTEN WELSH</blockquote><p>&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think I understood the magnitude at the time,&rdquo; Welsh said. &ldquo;I haven&rsquo;t been in the officiating side long enough to understand what the limitations were for women. I was always a player focusing on that. Refs were around me, but I never really thought of that aspect or perspective. But now that I&rsquo;m in it, now that I&rsquo;ve been chosen to be that person representing women in officiating, it&rsquo;s shown me that it&rsquo;s opened up a path that was never really considered before. It was never even an option we could consider before.&rdquo;</p><p>Welsh isn&rsquo;t alone in the movement. She was one of four women &ndash; along with referees Katie Guay and Kelly Cooke and linesperson Kendall Hanley &ndash; to work at various NHL pre-season prospect tournaments in 2019. The same group of four trailblazers made up the officiating crew at the Elite Women&rsquo;s 3-on-3 event at the 2020 NHL All-Star Game.</p><p>At the AHL level this season, Cooke and Guay were joined by referees Jacqueline Zee Howard, Samantha Hiller, Laura White, Elizabeth Mantha and Amanda Tassoni, while Hanley and Welsh were joined on the lines by Alexandra Clarke, who was also working games in the WHL this season.</p><p>Welsh sees new possibilities, and she sees more than just an opportunity for herself and the small handful of officials working in men&rsquo;s leagues this season. She sees an important change happening. &ldquo;A path has opened up for women in future generations, just to be a part of this movement, it&rsquo;s truly something I never thought I&rsquo;d be a part of, to show women this opportunity is available in this day and age. It&rsquo;s development for the game of hockey, and for women in sport, it&rsquo;s so important to keep having these breakthroughs and show the world women can compete.&rdquo;</p><p>Despite her successes, both as a player and official, it doesn&rsquo;t mean Welsh has been free of the challenges that women in sport &ndash; and officials in general &ndash; regularly face. Growing up, she often had to dress for games in a janitorial closet as she predominantly played on boys&rsquo; teams in her early years. As an official, verbal abuse from fans and parents remains part of the job until hockey culture can make a more significant shift. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s very intimidating,&rdquo; she said, &ldquo;and that&rsquo;s the reason why so many people don&rsquo;t want to get into officiating. You have to have a very thick skin, you have to have a calm demeanor. You need to stand up for yourself and stand your ground.&rdquo;</p><p>To this point, most of the harassment Welsh has faced has come at the minor-hockey level. Luckily, Welsh feels as though she&rsquo;s been treated equitably in the upper echelons. &ldquo;The most heckling I&rsquo;ve received is during youth hockey. If you&rsquo;re going to go out of your way to insult me because of my gender, you should know better, that&rsquo;s not an excuse. At the higher levels, the OHL and AHL, guys pretty much treat me like any other referee, and honestly, that&rsquo;s all I could ever ask for.&rdquo;</p><p>She&rsquo;s excited to be in the game, and the transition from player to official has been a valuable and empowering move for Welsh. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s been the best decision I ever made,&rdquo; she said of becoming a linesperson.</p><p>Welsh knows change is coming, and she&rsquo;s excited to be one of the women in hockey pushing that particular conversation forward. More importantly, she&rsquo;s thrilled to be on the ice, to be the representation that young women and girls in sport can see and look up to. Whether it&rsquo;s women on hockey cards, women creating and marketing hockey equipment or women in officiating, Welsh knows that if young players can see it, they can be it.</p><p>&ldquo;It&rsquo;s showing the players and the hockey world that women can compete at this level, and that we have the hockey knowledge that men have, and the ability to be an authoritative figure in this sport,&rdquo; Welsh said. &ldquo;Women have the experience and perspective to do this job well. I hope players look at a woman official and they show them the respect that they deserve. We&rsquo;ve established we can do this and that we can get there, so it shouldn&rsquo;t matter of their gender, it should just be the official. If they can do the job, and call the game the way they should, then they should be there.&rdquo;</p><p>Someday in the not-too-distant future, there will be women officiating in the NHL, and more women will join Welsh in bringing inclusion and equity to hockey in all areas. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s what they can see and what they can envision,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re getting there, but there&rsquo;s still a gap, and that&rsquo;s what people are trying to do now, close that gap and make it fair.&rdquo;<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

kirsten-wel_111

Kirsten Welsh

OFFICIAL TRAILBLAZER

<div class="byline">BY WILL MACLAREN</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="rbccup1" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/rbccup1/800868-1-eng-US/rbccup12.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>HOME SIDE</b></p><p>The Caps were feeling the love when they took to the ice in front of the raucous home crowd at the 1997 Royal Bank Cup.</p> <span class="photo-credit">(HOCKEY CANADA IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><span>I</span>F A SCRIPTWRITER SAT DOWN and outlined the events that culminated at a raucous bandbox of a rink in Canada&rsquo;s smallest province 25 years ago, in May 1997, they would probably put the pages in a desk drawer and move on in search of a more believable storyline. But when four visiting teams from various Canadian outposts descended on Summerside, P.E.I., home of the Summerside Western Capitals, little did they know that history awaited. That year&rsquo;s Royal Bank Cup, an event symbolic of Canadian Jr. A hockey supremacy, was indeed proof that overwhelming belief can sometimes trump the unbelievable.</p><p>In the winter of 1995-96, Gerard Gallant was home. A back injury sustained while with the Detroit Vipers of the old International League ended his playing career, which included parts of 11 NHL seasons with the Detroit Red Wings and Tampa Bay Lightning.</p><p>Gallant was 32 years old and contemplating his options when a call from an old friend nudged him in an unexpected direction. &ldquo;I got a call from (then-Summerside Western coach) Gerard Smith asking if I&rsquo;d help out with the team,&rdquo; Gallant said. &ldquo;Once I was done playing, I never thought I&rsquo;d be a coach. I told him &lsquo;Smitty, when I have time, I&rsquo;ll do it.&rsquo; Turned out I had a lot of time on my hands.&rdquo;</p><blockquote class="pullQuote">I NEVER THOUGHT I&rsquo;D COACH. I TOLD HIM &lsquo;SMITTY, WHEN I HAVE TIME, I&rsquo;LL DO IT.&rsquo; TURNED OUT I HAD A LOT OF TIME ON MY HANDS<br>&ndash; GERARD GALLANT</blockquote><p>Smith moved into the GM&rsquo;s chair the following season, handing the coaching reins over to Gallant. In his first full season, the man known to many in the hockey world as &lsquo;Turk&rsquo; was tasked with guiding his hometown team, members of the Maritime Jr. A League (now the Maritime Junior League). The Caps had been awarded the hosting honors for the 1997 Royal Bank Cup two years earlier. No pressure, right?</p><p>Actually, not as much as you&rsquo;d think, according to Gallant. &ldquo;We knew that Gerard Smith had put together a very good team,&rdquo; Gallant said. &ldquo;I was just a young coach trying to figure things out, but the group we had, including assistant coaches Jeff Squires and Ivan Baglole, just had a lot of character and chemistry. There was never any pressure to try and win, just go out and play, have fun and know that we&rsquo;re hosting the Cup.&rdquo;</p><p>That squad Smith and team president Clair Sudsbury put together wasn&rsquo;t just good. It was decidedly local, too. &ldquo;The focus was to give as many Islanders as possible a chance to participate in the RBC Cup,&rdquo; said then-Capitals play-by-play announcer George Matthews. &ldquo;In the end, they had 15 or 16 Islanders who were the base of the franchise. That was the focus.&rdquo;</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/rbccup2/800861-1-eng-US/rbccup22.jpg" title="rbccup2" width="1464" height="1356"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>REDEMPTION</b></p><p>Hayes was lit up in the Capitals&rsquo; round-robin tilt versus Weyburn. But his superb effort in the semis more than made up for it.</p> <span class="photo-credit">(HOCKEY CANADA IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>The coaching staff, also homegrown, is fondly recalled to this day. &ldquo;&lsquo;Turk&rsquo; was always the hardass,&rdquo; said goalie Harlin Hayes with a chuckle. &ldquo;Jeff was the mediator between the players and the coaching staff. And everyone just loved Ivan. I loved having him around.&rdquo;</p><p>Added defenseman Evan Hickey, an alternate captain on the &rsquo;97 team: &ldquo;I think early on, we were in awe of &lsquo;Turk&rsquo; a little. I was a huge fan of his, the Red Wings were my favorite team growing up. But as things went along, we realized he was down to earth, very genuine. He was so passionate, just like he was as a player.&rdquo;</p><p>Gallant wasn&rsquo;t the only person Smith successfully snagged. In the fall of 1995, Hickey was preparing for his second year at Acadia University, having suited up for a handful of games with his hometown Western Capitals the previous season. Just when he thought that chapter of his hockey life had closed, a call from Smith, his under-18 coach, drew Hickey back in. &ldquo;Smitty asked if I was interested in coming back to the Caps since they had just been awarded the Cup for &rsquo;97,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I said I wasn&rsquo;t sure since I just picked out my courses. By the end of the conversation, I don&rsquo;t think I even hung up and called my parents. I just told him, &lsquo;Yeah, I&rsquo;m in.&rsquo;&rdquo;</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/rbccup3/800854-1-eng-US/rbccup32.jpg" title="rbccup3" width="1400" height="1693"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(HOCKEY CANADA IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>Hickey, who went on to earn a business degree at the University of Prince Edward Island and is now a financial planner in Halifax, N.S., had plenty of built-in motivation. &ldquo;I wanted to play for a national championship in my hometown,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I remember in 1989 being one of the kids running around watching the Caps in (what was then known as) the Centennial Cup. That was well ingrained in my memory and was something I wanted to experience myself.&rdquo;</p><p>Something else that lingered in Hickey&rsquo;s memory was the Caps losing in the final of that tournament to the Thunder Bay Flyers. In fact, no team east of Ontario had yet claimed Jr. A hockey&rsquo;s top prize. Not only was the MJAHL searching for its first title, but it was seeking to shake something of an &ldquo;also-ran&rdquo; reputation. &ldquo;I think some hockey people, from outside P.E.I., questioned whether or not we could field a competitive team at the Royal Bank Cup,&rdquo; Matthews said.</p><blockquote class="pullQuote">I GOT PULLED AGAINST WEYBURN IN THE ROUND-ROBIN. IT WAS DEFINITELY A MOTIVATING FACTOR WHEN I GOT THAT SECOND CHANCE TO PLAY THEM<br>&ndash; HARLIN HAYES</blockquote><p>The Caps began their season in the MJAHL inauspiciously, with a 2-4-0 record. But they found their footing, eventually running away with the Roger Meek Division regular-season title.</p><p>To say it was a team effort would be an understatement. The Capitals marched on, led by captain D&rsquo;Arcy Hutchinson, the offensive talent of brothers Mark and Mike White, future University of Nebraska-Omaha center James Chalmers and the goalie tandem of Hayes and Jason &lsquo;Lefty&rsquo; Gallant (no relation to Gerard). They dispatched the Restigouche River Rats, Charlottetown Abbies and Dartmouth Oland Exports in the post-season. It was a grueling ordeal. &ldquo;After Game 1 of the Charlottetown series, a major ice storm shut down the Island for several days,&rdquo; Hayes said. &ldquo;We basically ended up playing every night after that to get through that series.&rdquo;</p><p>Indeed, it was non-stop hockey for both sides as that series went the distance, with the Caps pulling off the Game 7 triumph. The Maritime final featured the top two teams from the regular season. Again, the series featured a tight schedule. Again, it went seven games. And again, Summerside emerged triumphant, taking home their first MJAHL title over the Oland Exports. It also produced a never-forgotten memory for members of the team. &ldquo;We had busloads of fans that showed up at the rink in Dartmouth for Game 7,&rdquo; Hickey said. &ldquo;After we won, we got to Wilmot (a community roughly six kilometers from the Caps&rsquo; home rink at the time, Cahill Stadium) and there were fire trucks and a parade of people leading us into the stadium. There were probably 500 to 600 fans in the rink to greet us. This was at 10:30 on a Sunday night. Seeing that was just amazing.&rdquo;</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/rbccup5/800847-1-eng-US/rbccup52.jpg" title="rbccup5" width="923" height="634"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(EVAN HICKEY)</span></figcaption></div><p>After 13 games in 16 nights, it was back on the bus to the Eastern Canadian Championships, the Fred Page Cup, in Brockville, Ont. The battered Caps went winless at the event, sending them back home to compete on the national stage with a new set of question marks. To add to the situation, in an era of technology that today seems prehistoric, preparing for a group of fellow championship-caliber opponents was far more daunting. &ldquo;We didn&rsquo;t know much about the other teams,&rdquo; Gallant said. &ldquo;But we were rested coming back from the (Fred Page Cup). Everything fell into place, we were able to rest up, have good practices. It worked out for us in that way.&rdquo;</p><p>The tournament-opening game worked out well, too, with the Western Capitals prevailing 5-1 over the Northern Ontario-champion Rayside-Balfour Sabrecats. &ldquo;After we got that first win, Turk kept telling us anything can happen in a single game,&rdquo; Hayes said. &ldquo;We were looking for more but also hoping that that win would possibly be enough to put us through. Turns out, it was.&rdquo;</p><p>Blueline ace Hickey recalls the sense of community that enveloped the tournament, albeit in a less-than-conventional way. &ldquo;My buddy and I were running a hot dog stand,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;We were allowed to park it in the arena parking lot, right by an outside entrance to our dressing room. A few of the guys were going out for free hot dogs during intermissions.&rdquo;</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/rbccup4/800840-1-eng-US/rbccup42.jpg" title="rbccup4" width="745" height="540"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>ISLAND PRIDE</b></p><p>Hutchinson and the Caps became the toast of P.E.I. when they won Atlantic Canada&rsquo;s first Jr. A title.</p> <span class="photo-credit">(EVAN HICKEY)</span></figcaption></div><p>The host squad finished the round-robin with a 1-3-0 record, sandwiching a pair of close losses &ndash; against the Kanata Valley Lasers and South Surrey Eagles &ndash; around their lone blowout of the event, an 8-2 defeat at the hands of the Saskatchewan champions, the Weyburn Red Wings. To make things worse, a flu bug had ravaged the club. Hickey, one of several players affected, missed a pair of round-robin games as Gallant juggled his lineup on a nightly basis.</p><p>Their reward? A trip to the tournament semifinal. Their opponent? Those pesky Red Wings, a powerful group led by eventual tournament MVP and NHLer Mark Hartigan, fresh off a 44-goal campaign in the SJHL. For Hayes, it was a second chance. &ldquo;I got pulled against Weyburn in the round-robin,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t like it, and I told &lsquo;Turk&rsquo; in so many words. It was definitely a motivating factor when I got that second chance to play them with the season on the line.&rdquo;</p><p>Hayes did not take that second opportunity for granted. After 53 saves and more than 80 minutes of hockey, he had led his Capitals club to the brink of victory. &ldquo;Personally, I thought Weyburn was the best team in that tournament,&rdquo; Gallant said. &ldquo;We were outplayed, and we needed a big goaltending performance. Harlin Hayes was outstanding in that game.&rdquo;</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/rbccup8/800833-1-eng-US/rbccup82.jpg" title="rbccup8" width="1309" height="1378"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>VICTORIOUS</b></p><p>Summerside capped off its 1997 Royal Bank Cup run with a 4-3 win over the BCHL champs from South Surrey.</p> <span class="photo-credit">(HOCKEY CANADA IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>Added Matthews: &ldquo;That was one of the best goaltending performances I&rsquo;ve ever seen live at any level. (Hayes) was dialled in and looked unbeatable all night long. There was a bundle of Grade-A scoring chances. Just wave after wave of chances.&rdquo;</p><p>In the second overtime period, a faceoff occurred deep in Weyburn territory. In the booth, Matthews immediately sensed both a miscue and an opportunity. &ldquo;I noticed two-thirds of the Weyburn net was open,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;The Weyburn goaltender (Geoff Derouin) had overplayed the faceoff deep to his stick side. It had to be a mental mistake. Mark White won the draw to his brother Mike, who took a sweeping shot right into the center of the net with Derouin diving headfirst to get back in time. It put the Caps into the final.&rdquo;</p><p>Hayes still looks back on that evening with a mixture of pride and disbelief. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s the type of game you dream of having,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;We just had so many character guys that, when we got to overtime, the longer it went, the more it played in our favor. To have Mike score that goal was just incredible. You weren&rsquo;t tired until that final buzzer went. Then it was just pure exhaustion.&rdquo;'</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/rbccup7/800826-1-eng-US/rbccup72.jpg" title="rbccup7" width="2008" height="1208"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(HOCKEY CANADA IMAGES )</span></figcaption></div><p>Sleep was going to have to wait, however. The final was the following day.</p><p>On May 11, Cahill Stadium was packed to overflowing 90 minutes before puck drop as the hometown boys faced the South Surrey Eagles. The Eagles were led by future NHL star Scott Gomez, all of 17 years old and author of a 124-point BCHL season that year. Much like Weyburn 24 hours earlier, the visitors were the clear favorites in the eyes of many.</p><p>Besides the result, one of Gallant&rsquo;s main recollections was the atmosphere within the tiny arena the Caps called home. &ldquo;It was huge,&rdquo; he said of the crowd, both in size and sound. &ldquo;They were the extra attacker. I remember walking to the bench and all you could see were heads. It was just jammed. I&rsquo;m sure it had to be intimidating for (South Surrey), and it carried us a long way.&rdquo;</p><p>True to script, the Eagles jumped out to a 3-1 lead. Then, in a final act that brought the house down, the Capitals went to work. Goals by semifinal hero Mike White and Steve Dyer sent the Caps into the third period of the last game of the season tied. With less than eight minutes remaining in regulation, Chalmers, battling a severe case of tonsillitis, found the back of the net. It proved to be the clincher. &ldquo;The emotions were unreal,&rdquo; Hickey said. &ldquo;Having our family in the crowd. To do it in our home rink with the team we had, it was a moment I&rsquo;ll never forget.&rdquo;</p><blockquote class="pullQuote">THAT WAS ONE OF THE BEST GOALTENDING PERFORMANCES I&rsquo;VE EVER SEEN LIVE AT ANY LEVEL. HAYES WAS DIALLED IN<br>&ndash; PLAY-BY-PLAY ANNOUNCER GEORGE MATTHEWS</blockquote><p>Hickey was a workhorse down the stretch for the Caps that night. &ldquo;I think I played six-and-a-half of those last seven minutes,&rdquo; he said with a chuckle.</p><p>Gallant&rsquo;s thoughts combine the historical accomplishment with those who came close previously, only to fall short. &ldquo;I remember as a kid listening on the radio when the Sherwood-Parkdale Metros or the Cole Harbour Colts made runs in the tournament and how hard it was for Maritime teams to just make it to the tournament,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;To be the first to win it and do it in my hometown was so important and such a thrill. And keep in mind, we were a team with mostly local kids on the roster. That&rsquo;s what really made it special for me.&rdquo;</p><p>It also set the tone for Gallant&rsquo;s post-playing career. &ldquo;Turned out I enjoyed coaching,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve been enjoying it for the last 25 years.&rdquo;</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/rbccup6/800819-1-eng-US/rbccup62.jpg" title="rbccup6" width="888" height="1205"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(EVAN HICKEY)</span></figcaption></div><p>Two years later, Gallant was back in the pros as an assistant coach with the Fort Wayne Komets of the old IHL. One of his first interactions took him back home once again. &ldquo;I was at training camp with the Dallas Stars (in the fall of 1998) and was sent down to Kalamazoo,&rdquo; Hayes said. &ldquo;We ended up playing Fort Wayne. After the game, &lsquo;Turk&rsquo; called me over, checked in on me to see if I needed anything. I only played with him a year-and-a-half, and to have a guy like that who truly cared about his players was truly fantastic.&rdquo;</p><p>Even the most hardened can have a soft side.</p><p>A few weeks after the tournament, the course of P.E.I. history was again altered when the Confederation Bridge opened to the public, rendering the &ldquo;Island&rdquo; portion of the province&rsquo;s name inexact. Hickey, ever the opportunist, both on the ice and off it, fondly recalls the scene. &ldquo;My buddy and I brought the hot dog stand down for that, too,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;We paid for two years of school each that weekend.&rdquo;</p><p>Although he wasn&rsquo;t carting meat products around, the winning netminder from that weekend in &rsquo;97 also carries with him to this day the impression the people of the town left on his life. &ldquo;I met some wonderful people during my time in Summerside,&rdquo; said Hayes, who won another Royal Bank Cup in 2002 as goaltending coach with the Halifax Oland Exports. &ldquo;I was so thankful to play in such an amazing place. My son turns 18 this year, and he wants to come with me to the Fred Page Cup in Summerside this spring. There&rsquo;s nothing better than to be able to relive some of those old memories and pass them on to the next generation.&rdquo;</p><blockquote class="pullQuote">WE BROUGHT THE HOT DOG STAND DOWN FOR THAT, TOO. WE PAID FOR TWO YEARS OF SCHOOL EACH THAT WEEKEND<br>&ndash; EVAN HICKEY, ON THE OPENING OF THE CONFEDERATION BRIDGE</blockquote><p>How fitting is it that, after all this time, such an important victory in P.E.I. hockey history, from a time when boats led the way to the region, still bridges people from all ages together?<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

rbccup1

Summerside Western Capitals

CAPPING OFF HISTORY

<div class="byline">BY JARED CLINTON</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="grassroots__142" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/grassroots__142/800913-1-eng-US/grassroots__1422.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>HEAD OF THE CLASS</b></p><p>Kartanbay&rsquo;s hockey journey has taken her all over North America. Now, she seeks to start others down that path.</p><p></p><span class="photo-credit">(PHOTOS COURTESY OF BULBUL KARTANBAY/WOMEN’S HOCKEY ACADEMY)</span></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>I</span>T WON&rsquo;T HAPPEN TODAY,</b> nor will it happen tomorrow. It likely will not even happen in the next several years. But should Kazakhstan rise from its current spot in the world rankings and enter the upper echelon of international women&rsquo;s hockey, Bulbul Kartanbay&rsquo;s fingerprints will be all over the accomplishment.</p><p>For now, the 28-year-old is a national-team player with her sights set on developing the future of women&rsquo;s hockey in her home country. And she took a meaningful first step toward her dream in July 2021, when she created the Women&rsquo;s Hockey Academy. It&rsquo;s the first program of its kind in Kazakhstan, where women who play the game have long taken a back seat to their male counterparts.</p><p>According to the IIHF, Kazakhstan has nearly 7,700 players, including around 500 senior men. The men&rsquo;s national team is ranked 13th out of 55 IIHF nations, has appeared in two Olympic Games and finished 10th at the 2021 worlds. The women? They count a mere 173 senior national players, rank 21st of 42 registered nations, have not played in the top-flight World Championship in more than a decade and last participated in Olympic hockey in 2002, their first and only appearance. Nothing more clearly illustrated the disparity between men&rsquo;s and women&rsquo;s hockey resources in Kazakhstan than the derision Kartanbay faced when she made clear her desire to put the national teams on equal footing.</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/grassroots__143/800906-1-eng-US/grassroots__1432.jpg" title="grassroots__143" width="2122" height="1342"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>BE LIKE BARYS</b></p><p>Kartanbay gained financial backing for her idea by selling it as a women&rsquo;s version of Kazakh KHL outfit Barys.</p><span class="photo-credit">(PHOTOS COURTESY OF BULBUL KARTANBAY/WOMEN&rsquo;S HOCKEY ACADEMY)</span></figcaption></div><p>&ldquo;I remember that people were laughing at me and saying, &lsquo;You will not have a team, maybe five or seven girls. You can try, but I don&rsquo;t believe in that,&rsquo;&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;It was really challenging for me because I was fighting for my rights and for (equality).&rdquo;</p><p>But that wasn&rsquo;t exactly a revelation. Kartanbay was more than familiar with the attitude toward the women&rsquo;s game.</p><p>She said the societal expectation in Kazakhstan during her minor-hockey days was that she should give up on her on-ice dream and instead focus on schooling, work and domestic life. By the time she was in her late teens, even her family encouraged her to leave the game. And for a time, she did. After the 2011-12 season, she hung up her skates. By 2016, however, she couldn&rsquo;t resist the pull she felt to return. By April 2016, she was back with the national team. That winter, she played professionally for Aisulu Almaty, a Kazakh-based club in the European Women&rsquo;s League. Further North American experiences then planted the seeds for her upstart academy in the following years.</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/grassroots__144/800899-1-eng-US/grassroots__1442.jpg" title="grassroots__144" width="1024" height="729"><figcaption class="caption-body">PHOTOS COURTESY OF BULBUL KARTANBAY/WOMEN&rsquo;S HOCKEY ACADEMY</figcaption></div><p>From 2018 through to 2021, Kartanbay experienced a crash course in the women&rsquo;s game in Canada and the U.S. She practised with the now-defunct Calgary Inferno, played with the amateur Calgary Coyotes, earned a spot with the then-NWHL&rsquo;s Metropolitan Riveters and spent the 2020-21 season in the PWHPA.</p><p>What stood out to Kartanbay were the opportunities for women in North America, and her time coaching the Princeton Tiger Lilies hockey club gave her firsthand experience with the training grounds available to girls. However, creating similar organizations back home required funding, and it wasn&rsquo;t until Kartanbay earned the opportunity to speak in front of Kazakhstan&rsquo;s president, by way of a program called &ldquo;100 New Faces of Kazakhstan,&rdquo; that she secured the financial backing necessary to begin this journey. &ldquo;I said that I&rsquo;m from Kazakhstan, from a small, small town where there&rsquo;s no hockey, that I went to NWHL and that I was head coach of Princeton&rsquo;s school team,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;I said I want to create something like Barys, the KHL team, but female team, because we need it. After that, everything went well. I met with the mayor of the city, minister of sport and culture in our country. Everything started to work and I got real (financial) support.&rdquo;</p><p>In less than a year, Kartanbay&rsquo;s academy has made tangible impacts. To wit, she insisted on the creation of a championship for girls aged eight to 13. That began this past season. Included in the field were two teams from Kartanbay&rsquo;s academy. Meanwhile, academy participation has exceeded &ndash; by more than tenfold &ndash; the &ldquo;five to seven girls&rdquo; Kartanbay&rsquo;s critics mockingly told her it would register. At last count, she had 75 players, enough for the two under-13 teams, one under-8 team and one under-18 team, all of whom learn under female coaches. &ldquo;This, for me, was a really different step,&rdquo; Kartanbay said. &ldquo;For other people, other hockey communities, they were shocked when I said in my hockey academy, we would have only female coaches. They were surprised. But I think I did the right decision because my girls who are coaches, they really have good experience and can understand girls. The connection with players and coaches is really great.&rdquo;</p><blockquote class="pullQuote">I SAID I WANT TO CREATE SOMETHING LIKE BARYS, BUT FEMALE TEAM, <b>BECAUSE WE NEED IT. AFTER THAT, EVERYTHING WENT WELL</b><br>&ndash; Bulbul Kartanbay</blockquote><p>Kartanbay said the growth she has seen in the players, who are practising &ldquo;almost every day at 6 a.m.,&rdquo; has been remarkable, as has been the response from the players. Some, she said, have been so thankful as to be brought to tears. But just as her players want to continue improving their respective games, Kartanbay intends to keep building on the academy&rsquo;s early success. She has been in conversation with coaches, players and various Canadian and American hockey associations and remains open to partnerships with different academies worldwide.</p><p>&ldquo;In about one year more, we will get like 200 girls, and then we have 300, then 500, and we can do a selection, player evaluation, give them good practices and travel to different countries and get experience,&rdquo; Kartanbay said. &ldquo;I played in Canada and U.S., and I have lot of coaches and players who would love to travel to Kazakhstan and give something to the girls. My long-term plan is to really develop women&rsquo;s hockey in Kazakhstan.&rdquo;<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

grassroots__142

Grassroots

LESSON PLAN

<div class="byline">BY JON ROSEN</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="internation_009" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/internation_0092/800965-1-eng-US/internation_0092.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>THE KINGS OF GERMANY</b></p><p>Eisbaren Berlin is owned by the same group that owns the NHL&rsquo;s Kings, and they&rsquo;ve shared trade secrets for years.</p> <span class="photo-credit">(MARCO LEIPOLD/CITY-PRESS GMBH)</span></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>M</span>UCH OF EUROPEAN</b> hockey personality derives from the cozy marriage of idealized and often aging rinks with the kinship among supporters and the personal relationships with their clubs. When thinking of European hockey, there&rsquo;s the romanticization of rinks like those in Kladno or at Helsinki Ice Hall, HIFK&rsquo;s concavely roofed version of Moose Jaw&rsquo;s colloquial &lsquo;Crushed Can.&rsquo;</p><p>Those types of rinks do exist in Germany&rsquo;s Deutsche Eishockey Liga, the third-most highly attended hockey league in the world, but the DEL has emerged as a circuit whose top teams play in the types of modern, multi-purpose arenas found throughout North America and whose atmospheres deftly mesh each club&rsquo;s unique history with a more contemporary focus on fan entertainment. With a per-game average that trails only the NHL and Switzerland&rsquo;s National League, and boasting four of the 11 largest club rinks in Europe, the DEL&rsquo;s top teams have comfortably increased the scale of their operations without sacrificing atmosphere or the unique personalities of their fan cultures.</p><p>In a league with larger stadia and loosened rules on import players &ndash; up to 11 imports are allowed on a team&rsquo;s roster, easily the most among prominent European leagues &ndash; there exists a route toward success with a greater reliance on star power. And with more seats to fill than the typical European hockey arena, there exists an opportunity to market and sell the team with a much more North American approach.</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/internation_0113/800958-1-eng-US/internation_0112.jpg" title="internation_011" width="1181" height="769"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(DAVID AUTHER/AEG)</span></figcaption></div><p>So, when Los Angeles Kings president Luc Robitaille accepted the role of president of Eisbaren Berlin&rsquo;s board of directors in 2017, he did so vying to reform the business operations of the fellow Anschutz Entertainment Group-owned team while reviving the on-ice success that had defined the club&rsquo;s existence since there was still dust in the air from the fallen Berlin Wall. &ldquo;On the business side, we&rsquo;re really working on the culture of running the same type of business that we run over here,&rdquo; Robitaille said.</p><p>Just as AHL clubs and prospects benefit from implementing similar structures to those of their parent clubs, the Kings are reforming the Eisbaren&rsquo;s sales operations to match the business culture established at home.</p><p>Peter John Lee&rsquo;s official title with Eisbaren Berlin reads vice-chairman and senior advisor, but when the doors open on an early-season game night, he&rsquo;s the Eisbaren&rsquo;s mayor. Few are hitting the pavement harder. Born in England and raised in Quebec and Ontario, Lee twice notched 30 goals in a six-year, 431-game NHL tenure with the Pittsburgh Penguins after he was traded with Pete Mahovlich&rsquo;s rights by Montreal early in 1977-78. Since moving to Dusseldorf as a player in 1983, he&rsquo;s spent all but two seasons as a player, coach or executive in Germany&rsquo;s top league and was the coach of Eisbaren when they were bought by AEG in 1999.</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/internation_0102/800951-1-eng-US/internation_0102.jpg" title="internation_010" width="1181" height="769"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>ROBITAILLE&rsquo;S REACH</b></p><p>L.A. team president Robitaille was named president of the Eisbaren&rsquo;s board of directors in 2017.</p> <span class="photo-credit">(FLORIAN POHL/CITY-PRESS GBR)</span></figcaption></div><p>His responsibilities on this night mirror those of his colleagues within AEG Sports and the Kings. Before reconnecting with hockey executives in the team&rsquo;s private box, he engages with sponsors, partners, season-ticket holders, friends and associates he&rsquo;s known well before his 2008 induction into the German Ice Hockey Hall of Fame. This all takes place within a club lounge and private spread accessed by escalators and overlooking the ice from behind one of the nets, the latest symbol that the Eisbaren are essentially run on a minimally reduced scale of an NHL team. Only the slightest details distinguish Berlin&rsquo;s arena operations with those in Winnipeg&rsquo;s Canada Life Centre, the closest NHL comparable with a capacity only 1,121 seats greater.</p><p>Outside, in the Mercedes Platz, fans congregate in a decidedly Western outdoor retail and hospitality space that draws easy comparisons to an L.A. Live district outside <a href="http://Crypto.com">Crypto.com</a> Arena in downtown Los Angeles. Not for the scale, of course &ndash; at 5.6-million square feet, the L.A. Live campus is exponentially larger &ndash; but as a shiny and prosperous emblem of gentrification whose borders are easily delineated from the traditionally working-class and much more graffitied neighborhoods surrounding it. In Berlin, that&rsquo;s bustling Friedrichshain, which like much of Germany when one faces east, retains its eminently charming grit. Beyond the edges of Mercedes Platz is the divided Muhlenstrasse, then the East Side Gallery &ndash; the longest preserved stretch of the Berlin Wall &ndash; and then the Spree River. The entire neighborhood, whether paved over and dressed up or retaining its punky urban nonconformity, is young and lively.</p><p>That East German influence is important. Hockey in Berlin predates the much more recent Berlin Wall. So, too, did the Stasi-aligned SC Dynamo Berlin, whose ashes ultimately bore a reunified and much more accessible Eisbaren club that navigated away from bankruptcy and toward an increasingly stabilized top flight when purchased by AEG in 1999 and through Mercedes-Benz Arena&rsquo;s 2008 opening.</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/internation_0122/800944-1-eng-US/internation_0122.jpg" title="internation_012" width="1570" height="1214"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>FLY LIKE THE EAGLES</b></p><p>Former star player Kuhl and business magnate Hopp have transformed Adler Mannheim.</p> <span class="photo-credit">(PHOTO COURTESY OF ADLER MANNHEIM)</span></figcaption></div><p>The Eisbaren&rsquo;s developmental structure still retains unique East German traits in which schools at the time featured built-in athletics curriculums funded by the state to facilitate greater Olympic success. As the only club in the 2021-22 DEL hailing from a city once part of the German Democratic Republic, this differentiates Berlin from the rest of the league in which education and athletics are separate entities. Players on Berlin&rsquo;s junior teams attend a high school not too different from the IMG Academy in Bradenton, Fla. It&rsquo;s next to Sportforum Hohenschonhausen, a massive recreational complex that previously fulfilled its mission of training top East German Olympic athletes.</p><p>This is a structure unique to the Eisbaren and an aspect of German hockey that strays away from a North American model rather than toward it. Adler Mannheim is another behemoth of a German hockey brand with an origin predating Dynamo Berlin&rsquo;s and only one fewer championship than the Eisbaren&rsquo;s DEL-record eight. Like other top German clubs, they play in one of Europe&rsquo;s largest and most modern multi-purpose rinks in SAP Arena, whose namesake global software developer is headquartered a half-hour away.</p><p>Based in southwest Germany, Adler Mannheim &ndash; the Mannheim Eagles &ndash; do not base their developmental program on the state-sponsored model. This more familiar European model has helped deep-pocketed Mannheim amass a golden generation of young German breakthroughs in Tim Stutzle, Moritz Seider and Leon Draisaitl.</p><p>The esteemed Jungadler Mannheim youth program, sustained through a foundation created in 1999 by billionaire SAP co-founder Dietmar Hopp, is as representative of the scale of top-flight German hockey as there is. As Mannheim&rsquo;s physical footprint has expanded to incorporate two additional ice sheets and ancillary training and conditioning areas, it has done so with the North American outline in plain view. German hockey legend Marcus Kuhl, a 1980 and 1984 West German Olympian who emerged from a playing career to become a visionary developer as Mannheim&rsquo;s GM and the architect of its youth system, constructed a developmental partnership with Brian Burke and the Toronto Maple Leafs 13 years ago in which prospects, coaches and executives from each club would attend and help orchestrate camps at the other&rsquo;s facility. &ldquo;(Burke) was the guy who brought us over and helped us out and explained to us everything,&rdquo; Kuhl said.</p><p>Toronto&rsquo;s suburban Ford Performance Centre, Kuhl noted, had a clear influence on Mannheim&rsquo;s operations, and Burke&rsquo;s hockey structure is used as a template toward more acute coaching specialization. &ldquo;Goaltending, defensive-zone coaches, forwards coaches,&rdquo; Kuhl said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve focused more on the (conditioning) side the last five, six years. The young players from age 10 and up are growing faster, and we have them in more personal programs.&rdquo;</p><p>Just as figures like Dave Farrish and Derek King represented the Maple Leafs and Toronto Marlies on the ice at Mannheim camps, L.A. executives have also enjoyed an exchange in which Eisbaren players attended Los Angeles development camps, while their coaching staffs participated in off-season coaching sessions managed by former Kings coaches Darryl Sutter and John Stevens. Before the pandemic, the Kings and Eisbaren would send developmental convoys in each direction several times a year, part of a rhythm accentuating the more regular conference calls and Zoom sessions. &ldquo;The last four years, maybe five, we&rsquo;ve found a really good way to communicate as a group where we have weekly calls, we share knowledge on players,&rdquo; Robitaille said.</p><p>They also shared a roof during an international window in 2018 when the Eisbaren travelled to California for an exhibition against Los Angeles&rsquo; top farm club, the Ontario Reign. More than 100 Eisbaren fans made the cross-continent caravan to solidify the fraternity.</p><p>Unique to the histories of many hockey and football clubs in Europe, or even their Dynamo predecessors themselves, there is no partisan social focus or cultural association within the Eisbaren. Rather, there exists regular communication between the fan clubs and the team itself in an outreach program unique to each season.</p><blockquote class="pullQuote">WHAT BERLIN HAS GOING, EVERY TIME WE GO THERE, <b>WE&rsquo;RE LEARNING SOMETHING</b><br>&ndash; Luc Robitaille</blockquote><p>Often associated with breast cancer fundraising in minor league and junior hockey, the Eisbaren&rsquo;s Pink in the Rink Night allows the supporters to choose, with the team&rsquo;s input, which foundations to support through raffles and pink jersey sales. Throughout 2015, during the height of the European refugee crisis, the groups united to enable a refugees skate after practice, and to this date, fan clubs still raise money for immigrants&rsquo; school supplies and essentials. &ldquo;We have our fans, who are probably the most socially engaged fans in basically all over Germany, so they have ideas about diversity,&rdquo; said Eisbaren managing director Thomas Bothstede. &ldquo;Refugees are welcome, and we&rsquo;re trying to help them. That&rsquo;s what our fans are doing together with us. In the winter, they&rsquo;re collecting with us. Coach (Serge) Aubin and I drove around with fans basically from home to home collecting winter stuff, and then giving it to the poor.&rdquo;</p><p>Throughout this late September derby versus Grizzlys Wolfsburg &ndash; the team Berlin defeated in an empty arena four months prior to claim their eighth championship &ndash; a Dynamo flag was waved in the Eisbaren supporter&rsquo;s section along with flags of various fan clubs. A pride flag hung from the railing behind the goal Berlin shot at twice, and the team wore rainbow-striped commemorative jerseys in warm-ups, which would be auctioned off to fund ongoing community outreach. No volatile fan behavior indicated that the federal election drawing worldwide attention was to be held the following day. &ldquo;Certainly, what Berlin has going, we feel like every time we go there, we&rsquo;re learning something as far as fan participation,&rdquo; Robitaille said.</p><p>For many associated with a maturing DEL, the feeling has always been mutual.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

internation_009

International

GERMAN HOCKEY ENGINEERING

<div class="byline">BY IAN KENNEDY</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="rewind-mel-_126" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/rewind-mel-_126/801003-1-eng-US/rewind-mel-_1262.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">MEL <b>WAKABAYASHI</b></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>C</span>HATHAM&rsquo;S MEMORIAL</b> Arena is a cathedral to hockey. Thick beams span the arching roof. Cold and beaten wooden benches surround the smaller-than-average ice surface. Wires run tacked to the outside of the boards, trying to catch up to the advancing technology that left the building behind.</p><p>When Tokuzo and Hatsuye Wakabayashi settled in Chatham, Ont., in 1950, the Memorial Arena was only a year old, and it was more than 4,000 kilometers from Vancouver, where the Wakabayashis&rsquo; journey had begun.</p><p>In 1941, when Pearl Harbor was attacked, it didn&rsquo;t take long for the racist fears of citizens &ndash; and the Canadian government &ndash; to decide that families like the Wakabayashis and 22,000 fellow Canadian citizens were a threat to national safety. Soon, the Wakabayashis were forced to leave their home.</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/rewind-boil_127/800996-1-eng-US/rewind-boil_1272.jpg" title="rewind-boil_127" width="1556" height="959"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>BREAKING AWAY</b></p><p>No. 18 Herb Wakabayashi and No. 19 Wright went from Chatham&rsquo;s East End to Boston University and beyond.</p></figcaption></div><p>Interned at Slocan City in British Columbia&rsquo;s interior, the couple welcomed their fourth child, Mel, to the world in 1943. After being relocated to another Japanese internment camp, Neys Camp 100, in Northern Ontario, their fifth child, Herb, was born in 1944. During World War II, Mel and Herb Wakabayashi left the safety of their mother&rsquo;s womb and entered the confinement of internment.</p><p>This was not the welcome the Wakabayashi boys deserved. And despite the fact that both were born in Canada, their existence as &ldquo;others&rdquo; continued when some years later they became two-thirds of the best line to ever play hockey at Chatham&rsquo;s Memorial Arena. The unit, comprised of a Black man from Chatham and two Japanese-Canadians, was dubbed &lsquo;The International Line.&rsquo;</p><p>The third member of the line, Eddie Wright, lived in Chatham&rsquo;s East End, a predominantly Black neighborhood with a smattering of Japanese-Canadian and immigrant families.</p><p>As children, Mel, Herb and Eddie played road hockey in the Wakabayashis&rsquo; driveway from morning until night, pretending to be Gordie Howe, Johnny Bower, Maurice Richard and other NHL stars. &ldquo;We were out there every day, it was Herb, Mel and I,&rdquo; Wright said. &ldquo;There was one goalie, and it was 1-on-1. We took turns. After school, we were there with the rubber ball, and we were going at it until we lost the ball in the dark. It was competitive. Those were real dreams we were living when we were going through that, and we were hard at it.&rdquo;</p><p>Living in Chatham&rsquo;s East End, which was born out of segregation, the trio carried their equipment across town to Memorial Arena for practices and games. When Mel made the Chatham Maroons, the town&rsquo;s top junior team, Herb and Eddie took turns carrying his bag for him. In the following seasons, when Herb and then Eddie made the Maroons, they formed &lsquo;The International Line.&rsquo; They were all born in Canada, and had been raised in Chatham, but the color of their skin earned them the &lsquo;International&rsquo; moniker, as if whiteness was the definition of being Canadian. For a time, a few white players did skate on the line before Eddie&rsquo;s arrival, and after Mel&rsquo;s departure, but the line was most dominant when the three childhood friends were united.</p><p>In the 1960s, a line of talented Black and Asian hockey players was unheard of, but the three dazzled with their skill and chemistry, which likely stemmed from all those hours together in the Wakabayashis&rsquo; driveway. In an era when brutish play was rewarded, the three, none taller than 5-foot-5, used skill and speed to infuriate the competition.</p><p>From the ice, voices could be heard echoing within Chatham&rsquo;s cavernous arena, raining down both cheers and racist slurs as the trio entertained crowds and outwitted opponents.</p><p>Mel and Herb were offensive dynamos. They were consistently among the league leaders in scoring, while Wright, no offensive slouch himself, took on a defensive role on the line. &ldquo;With Herb and Mel, I knew what my role was primarily, I was a defensive forward,&rdquo; Wright said. &ldquo;I let them do everything they had to do on offense, and I was going to take care of the defensive aspect of the game. I came to the realization the better I played defensively, the more offensive opportunities I got.&rdquo;</p><p>Wright and the Wakabayashi brothers were like family. Wright had a big family of his own, but only his oldest brother, Allan, ever saw him play hockey. The rest of the Wrights avoided the arena, for fear of racist retribution. &ldquo;I felt guilty and went to my brother and said, &lsquo;Eddie, I&rsquo;m sorry that I didn&rsquo;t go and see you play hockey,&rsquo;&rdquo; Wright&rsquo;s sister Dorothy recalled telling her brother. &ldquo;His answer really kind of took me back. He said, &lsquo;I&rsquo;m glad you didn&rsquo;t.&rsquo; He said, &lsquo;I had a job to do on the ice, and I&rsquo;m glad I didn&rsquo;t have to worry about putting up a fight and getting you out of something up in the stands. I couldn&rsquo;t have handled that.&rsquo; I felt better hearing that, because I would have started trouble. There were a lot of racial slurs thrown at him.&rdquo;</p><p>Added Wright: &ldquo;It was whatever it takes to win, and the fans certainly threw the insults at me left, right and center. The players on the ice were worse. I pretty much fought all throughout junior. It really was something else, and I actually ended up with an ulcer in my last year from some of the stress of that time. I didn&rsquo;t really want anybody who I thought really cared about me and loved me, family, there to see what I was going through, because it wasn&rsquo;t easy.&rdquo;</p><p>While their white teammates jovially tied their skates, Wright and the Wakabayashis prepared for battle. That&rsquo;s what they called it. It didn&rsquo;t matter what town they went to &ndash; Leamington, Detroit, London or Chatham &ndash; they had opponents on the ice as well as in the stands.</p><p>Lorne Foster, a York University professor and research chair in Black Canadian studies and human rights, remembers the racism Wright and the Wakabayashis faced. Foster grew up playing hockey himself, and he lived in Chatham&rsquo;s East End. On one occasion, he attended a game with Allan Wright, who was a boxer, and Foster remembers the stands becoming a battleground. &ldquo;He heard this guy in the stands saying the N-word about his brother, and I can remember it, he was tenacious about those kinds of issues, and he wouldn&rsquo;t back down,&rdquo; Foster said. &ldquo;I remember in Windsor, he took this guy that was a head bigger than him, and he would not tolerate that kind of racial slur against his brother, and he just started fighting the guy in the stands. It was so memorable for me, it just stuck in my mind to this day. That was my first entry into sport and racism.&rdquo;</p><p>Despite the hatred the trio faced while playing as linemates for the Chatham Jr. Maroons, they reached incredible levels of success in the hockey world, both on and off the ice.</p><p>Mel was the first to leave Chatham, on a scholarship to play at the University of Michigan. He ended up captaining the Wolverines, and he was named WCHA player of the year as well as an all-American during his time with Michigan. Following his NCAA career, Mel signed with the NHL&rsquo;s Detroit Red Wings. Although he never suited up for the Wings, Wakabayashi played professionally in Detroit&rsquo;s farm system with the Johnstown Jets and Memphis Wings.</p><p>Herb was the next to go. He left Chatham to play in the NCAA at Boston University. At Boston, Herb earned multiple all-American honors and was named BU&rsquo;s athlete of the year and hockey MVP.</p><p>A year after Herb joined Boston University, he was reunited with Wright on a line for the Terriers. Once again they were unstoppable, feeding off one another. In particular, they were remembered as one of hockey&rsquo;s best penalty-killing duos. They&rsquo;d collect the puck and pass it back and forth, playing keep-away from their opponents, and when they&rsquo;d lose control, they&rsquo;d pin the opposing power-play unit deep in its own end. At one point, Herb and Wright killed 36 consecutive minutes of penalty time without allowing a shot on goal.</p><p>Even at Boston University, when Herb and Wright were joined on the line by a third Canadian, Serge Boily of Quebec, the labels depicting them as outsiders in hockey followed, as the trio was nicknamed the &lsquo;United Nations Line.&rsquo;</p><p>Wright finished his time at Boston University earning a master&rsquo;s of education with the goal of becoming a physical educator. Pro hockey was never a goal for Wright, and the game was about to be a thing of the past &ndash; until his phone rang.</p><p>In 1970, the campus of the State University of New York at Buffalo was embroiled in racial turmoil. There was violence and vandalism. Students were protesting what was happening in the city and country, as well as the racist comments and actions of coaches at the school, including discriminatory actions by the basketball coach.</p><p>At the time, Buffalo had a hockey team, but they wanted to take the program to the varsity level. Funding for a coach was a problem, until someone had an idea: if the school could find a Black hockey coach, the costs would be covered by affirmative-action funding.</p><p>It didn&rsquo;t take long for Wright&rsquo;s name to come up, and he was soon hired. Overnight, Wright became the first Black coach in NCAA men&rsquo;s hockey history. According to an interview Wright did with <a href="http://NHL.com">NHL.com</a>, serving as a coach did not protect him from the same abuse he had experienced as a player. &ldquo;Racist taunts and gestures occurred at road games,&rdquo; he said, while also recalling &ldquo;fans chanting racist and homophobic slurs&rdquo; at him.</p><p>The racism Wright faced in his career left an impact. &ldquo;Hearing the crowds chanting, it wasn&rsquo;t easy,&rdquo; he told <i>The Buffalo News</i>. &ldquo;To this day, I think it has an everlasting effect on the type of individual I am and how careful I am about where I go and how I deal with things.&rdquo;</p><p>With Wright coaching, Herb and Mel also remained in hockey following their North American careers. The brothers went to Japan, reuniting on the Seibu Railway Hockey Team, and in 1980, Mel coached Japan&rsquo;s entry at the Olympics, while Herb served as the country&rsquo;s flag-bearer and team captain.</p><p>It was a lifetime away from playing road hockey in Chatham&rsquo;s East End, and even farther from their beginnings in the confines of internment.</p><p>Sport, including hockey, has always played an intersectional, and often confusing and controversial, role in providing respite for populations of oppressed people in Canada, whether it was for Indigenous people at residential schools, Japanese-Canadians in internment camps or Black Canadians in segregated communities.</p><p>Eddie Wright and Mel and Herb Wakabayashi overcame racism, segregation and internment to go from being called &lsquo;The International Line&rsquo; to three men who left an international impact on the game of hockey.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

rewind-mel-_126

Rewind

RISING ABOVE THE HATE

<div class="byline">BY RYAN KENNEDY</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="next_brenna_007" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/next_brenna_007/801041-1-eng-US/next_brenna_0072.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(JAMES DOYLE/PRINCE GEORGE COUGARS)</span></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>M</span>IDWAY THROUGH THE</b> season, two goaltenders had emerged as the top options for the 2022 NHL draft. In Europe, it&rsquo;s Topias Leinonen of JYP in Finland. In North America, it&rsquo;s Tyler Brennan of the WHL&rsquo;s Prince George Cougars.</p><p>Scouts like Brennan&rsquo;s combination of size, flexibility and athleticism, but it has been the more recent development of calmness in the 18-year-old&rsquo;s game that has talent hawks impressed: the kid plays less busy in the crease than he used to, and that&rsquo;s a good thing. Playing on a middle-of-the-pack Cougars squad, Brennan has often been peppered with shots, facing more than 50 in a game on three separate occasions by early February. The mental side of the game has been crucial for him. &ldquo;My year has been up and down,&rdquo; Brennan said. &ldquo;There&rsquo;s been some rough games and some really good games, but I&rsquo;ve focused on bouncing back from those rough games and having a lot more good games. A big part of that is being calm and not letting things bother me, putting the bad things behind me and getting better every day. My ability to bounce back this year has been the best of my entire life, and having a calm mindset has really helped.&rdquo;</p><p>The 6-foot-3, 190-pound Winnipeg native watches a lot of Calgary&rsquo;s Jacob Markstrom for inspiration on the ice, but Brennan also grew up as a fan of Braden Holtby when the veteran was with Washington. Holtby&rsquo;s mental game has also been influential on Brennan.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/prince_geor_006/801034-1-eng-US/prince_geor_0062.jpg" title="prince_geor_006" width="188" height="187"></div><p>Another key netminder in Brennan&rsquo;s career to date is junior vet Taylor Gauthier, who was Brennan&rsquo;s battery mate in Prince George until a recent trade to the Portland Winterhawks. Needless to say, the Gauthier deal gave Brennan a lot more responsibility in net. &ldquo;Obviously every goalie wants to be the starter, and I&rsquo;m happy to finally take over that role,&rdquo; Brennan said. &ldquo;I was ready for it. There&rsquo;s more responsibility, and your playing time shoots up. I like it a lot more, going to the rink knowing you&rsquo;re the guy. Being goalie partners with Gauthier those two years set me up for success, and he taught me a lot.&rdquo;</p><p>Now Brennan also has the draft to be excited about, and he has been doing plenty of Zoom interviews and questionnaires &ndash; the latter of which are always fascinating. One question that stuck out was choosing what animal he&rsquo;d like to be. &ldquo;I said an eagle,&rdquo; Brennan said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve always wanted to fly around, that would be pretty cool.&rdquo;</p><p>And if he can soar in net, he&rsquo;ll make the Cougars &ndash; and an NHL team &ndash; very happy.</p><div class="sidebar"><h4>FOR DAILY PROSPECT COVERAGE, VISIT</h4><h3><a href="http://TheHockeyNews.com">Thehockeynews.com</a><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></h3></div>

next_brenna_007

ONE CALM COUGAR

<div class="byline">BY MELISSA BURGESS</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="next_quinn1_002" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/next_quinn1_002/801079-1-eng-US/next_quinn1_0022.jpg"></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>T</span>HE PAST FEW YEARS</b> have been anything but traditional for Buffalo Sabres prospect Jack Quinn. In the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, and after multiple injuries and ailments, Quinn fulfilled his dream and made his long-awaited NHL debut against the Tampa Bay Lightning on Jan. 11. &ldquo;There&rsquo;s been a lot of exciting things that have happened, obviously all through a weird time with COVID and the pandemic, but it&rsquo;s been really exciting,&rdquo; Quinn said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s gone by pretty quick, to be honest.&rdquo;</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/rochester_a_003/801086-1-eng-US/rochester_a_0032.jpg" title="rochester_a_003" width="187" height="187"></div><p>The 20-year-old scored his first NHL goal on Jan. 20 before sustaining a lower-body injury that has since sidelined him in the midst of an impressive season where he&rsquo;s averaged more than a point per game with the AHL&rsquo;s Rochester Americans.</p><p>In the time between his NHL debut and his first big-league goal, during a brief return trip to the AHL, Quinn also recorded the first four-goal game of his pro career. &ldquo;My game&rsquo;s come a long way,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m that kind of player, I&rsquo;m a point-producer. I get to play with some great players. We have some good chemistry and we have a great team. It&rsquo;s a lot of fun.&rdquo;</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/next_quinn2_004/801072-1-eng-US/next_quinn2_0042.jpg" title="next_quinn2_004" width="608" height="835"><figcaption class="caption-body">JACK <b>QUINN</b> <span class="photo-credit">(MICHELINE V/ROCHESTER AMERICANS)</span></figcaption></div><p>It took Quinn a lot to get here over the past two years.</p><p>He had 89 points in 62 games with the Ottawa 67&rsquo;s when the pandemic forced the 2019-20 OHL season&rsquo;s suspension and eventual cancellation. The NHL draft was postponed, and the OHL cancelled its subsequent season outright. All around North America, many other seasons &ndash; including the AHL&rsquo;s and NHL&rsquo;s 2020-21 campaigns &ndash; were also delayed.</p><p>The draft usually features significant fanfare for players: a festive, in-person event packed with fans, fellow prospects and families. But for Quinn and his fellow 2020 prospects, it was a remote event instead.</p><p>That didn&rsquo;t matter. All that mattered to Quinn was hearing his name called. It would be the Sabres who&rsquo;d make his dream come true, taking him with the eighth overall pick. The selection surprised many observers who expected Buffalo to call on Marco Rossi or Cole Perfetti.</p><p>Being drafted was just the beginning for Quinn, but what a special beginning it was. After months away from action, he returned to the ice to represent Canada at the 2021 World Junior Championship. He delivered five points in seven games en route to a silver medal in the Edmonton bubble.</p><p>From there, he attended the Sabres&rsquo; 2020-21 training camp and joined the taxi squad briefly, giving him a small taste of the NHL experience and the chance to be around the team. During that stretch, he learned about the organization, the city and its love for hockey.</p><p>Quinn should&rsquo;ve had at least one more season in major junior, but due to the OHL&rsquo;s cancellation of its 2020-21 season, there was no option but for him to make the quick jump up to the AHL as a still-raw prospect.</p><p>With eager eyes across Western New York watching his progress, Quinn saw early success. He scored nine points in 15 AHL games despite dealing with a sports hernia. &ldquo;It was tough for me, playing through an injury,&rdquo; Quinn said. &ldquo;It was also a step up in hockey and it humbled me a lot in terms of where my game was at. I realized I had to improve a lot.&rdquo;</p><p>After surgery, Quinn saw limited usage in the Sabres&rsquo; Prospects Challenge as the team attempted to manage his load and recovery. He had an impressive showing at training camp but ended up being one of the team&rsquo;s final cuts this fall.</p><p>Opening this season in the AHL could&rsquo;ve put a damper on Quinn&rsquo;s spirits. Instead, he showcased his offensive ability from the get-go, with 24 points in his first 17 games. He was regularly at or near the top of the AHL in scoring before a bout with mono &ndash; and the ensuing recovery needed to regain some of the weight he lost &ndash; sidelined him for several weeks. But his persistence paid off with his first NHL call-ups, games and points &ndash; moments Quinn calls &ldquo;unbelievable&rdquo; and &ldquo;a dream come true.&rdquo;</p><p>Now, amid moving between the AHL and NHL, the roster and the taxi squad, injuries and illnesses, Quinn&rsquo;s focus remains on his development and being fully present with his current team. &ldquo;We have so many great guys and a great atmosphere,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I obviously haven&rsquo;t really cracked the NHL yet, but just the excitement of being able to look forward to being a Sabre for years to come is really exciting.&rdquo;<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

next_quinn1_002

QUINTESSENTIAL PRODUCER

<div class="byline">BY&#xA0;RYAN KENNEDYBY&#xA0;RYAN KENNEDY</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="next_lysell_005" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/next_lysell_005/801117-1-eng-US/next_lysell_0052.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(ROB WILTON/VANCOUVER GIANTS)</span></figcaption></div><h2><b>FABIAN LYSELL</b></h2><p class="dropcap"><b><span>A</span>FTER SPENDING MUCH OF</b>&nbsp;last season playing against men with Lulea of the SHL, right winger Fabian Lysell made the trek to North&nbsp;America this year to skate for the WHL&rsquo;s Vancouver Giants. Selected 21st overall in the 2021 NHL draft by Boston, Lysell has been one of the Giants&rsquo; leading scorers. While he could have stayed in Sweden, the Bruins liked the idea of the youngster getting top-six minutes and power-play time in Vancouver while adjusting to the smaller ice and culture of North America. To break down Lysell&rsquo;s game, we talked to Jamie Langenbrunner, Boston&rsquo;s director of player development.</p><h3><b>HOCKEY IQ</b></h3><p><b>&ldquo;I WOULDN&rsquo;T PUT IT</b>&nbsp;in the top end of the category, but the next level down because of the defensive side. His offensive IQ is very good, he has great feel, great understanding. Defensively, like a lot of young offensively gifted players, it&rsquo;s just not as developed. He hasn&rsquo;t played as much in that area because he was never expected to. The details there will be part of his next stage of development.&rdquo;</p><h3><b>PHYSICALITY/COMPETE LEVEL</b></h3><p><b>&ldquo;HE&rsquo;S NOT A PHYSICAL</b>&nbsp;player. He&rsquo;s not going to run anybody over. He&rsquo;s more on the slight side. But I would consider him competitive. He&rsquo;s stick-strong, he wants the puck, and a great indicator to me was that, in NHL exhibition games this year, at the end of the game, he was putting himself in a position to get the puck. He&rsquo;s not trying to hide or disappear, he&rsquo;s coming up high and getting himself to a spot where the &lsquo;D&rsquo; has to give it to him, and he&rsquo;s demanding the puck. To me, that&rsquo;s a competitive nature that shines through with him.&rdquo;</p><h3><b>DEFENSE</b></h3><p><b>&ldquo;THE MOST IMPORTANT</b>&nbsp;thing is he is willing. He wants to be good in all three zones, so it&rsquo;s just a work in progress of learning how to play body position and read plays. It&rsquo;s not that hard to defend as a winger, I did it for a long time, so it&rsquo;s just minor details. He&rsquo;ll be just fine thanks to his willingness to compete in those areas.&rdquo;</p><h3><b>PLAYMAKING</b></h3><p><b>&ldquo;I WOULD CALL IT</b>&nbsp;pretty strong. He sees the ice well, he has very good poise with the puck, the ability to buy extra time for the lanes to open up, and he has good spatial awareness. And the accuracy of his passes is pretty good, he knows when to take a little bit off and when to give it some pop.&rdquo;</p><h3><b>SHOT</b></h3><p><b>&ldquo;IT&rsquo;S GOOD WHEN HE</b>&nbsp;uses it. At this point, he has more of a desire to be a playmaker and needs to be assertive in his willingness to shoot. Especially when he was here in camp, he was deferring to guys, which can be natural for a young guy. He&rsquo;ll continue to improve both the accuracy and, with strength, the velocity of it.&rdquo;</p><h3><b>SKATING</b></h3><p><b>&ldquo;IT&rsquo;S PRETTY HIGH-END. STRENGTH,</b>&nbsp;which will come with maturity, will make it even better and allow him to play in traffic and play through stuff. His ability to push back defenders and skate by defenders, the ability to create space, and his lateral mobility are all pretty strong. It&rsquo;s definitely one of his top traits and will need the least improvement at the NHL level.&rdquo;<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

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SCOUTING REPORT

<div class="byline">BY RYAN KENNEDYBY RYAN KENNEDY</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="straightedg_008" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/straightedg_008/801148-1-eng-US/straightedg_0082.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>BASKING IN BRONZE</b></p><p>The Slovakian squad took home its nation&rsquo;s first men&rsquo;s Olympic hockey medal at the 2022 Games in Beijing.</p> <span class="photo-credit">(GEORGE WALKER IV-USA TODAY SPORTS)</span></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>S</span>OMETIMES A BRONZE MEDAL</b> feels a lot better than you might think. That is definitely the case for Slovakia, which finished third in the men&rsquo;s Olympic tournament in Beijing, bringing glory to a hockey nation that hasn&rsquo;t had a lot of big victories in its history.</p><p>The team rode a vintage bus through the streets of Bratislava in the wake of the win &ndash; with adoring fans cheering en masse in the city square. Now, hands up if you saw this team triumphing in such a way before the Olympics began.</p><p>Full credit goes to GM and former NHLer Miroslav Satan, who hired veteran bench boss Craig Ramsay as coach for the 2018 Games and stuck with the Canadian for Beijing. Then Slovakia put together a roster blending youth and experience, with the most prominent being Juraj Slafkovsky. The 2022 draft prospect was a powerhouse at the Olympics, racking up a goal per game and earning tournament MVP honors in the process &ndash; not bad for a 17-year-old kid who still has braces on his teeth.</p><p>So Slafkovsky provided the offense, former Red Wings prospect Patrik Rybar shut the door in net, and the rest of the squad played a physical, stifling brand of hockey that kept the other teams off the scoresheet for the most part. (Personally, I was hoping to see more ice time for 2022 draft prospect Simon Nemec, but I&rsquo;m not going to quibble with Ramsay&rsquo;s strategies when they turned out to be so effective.)</p><p>But this is not just a great story of a team coming together. This is a story of hope for a hockey nation on the cusp of something special. For years, Slovakia has been outside of the ranks of the power countries (Canada, Russia, Sweden, Finland, Czech Republic and the U.S.) and, at the teen level, had even slipped down into minnow status. Thanks to the pandemic, the under-18 squad still hasn&rsquo;t been able to gain promotion back to the top rung of the IIHF tournament after getting relegated in 2019.</p><p>Hope has arrived, however. Slafkovsky, Nemec and 2023 draft prospect Dalibor Dvorsky were among the heroes who led Slovakia to a silver medal at the 2021 Hlinka Gretzky under-18 tourney on home ice. That momentum could have carried over to this year&rsquo;s World Junior Championship had the competition not been cancelled midway through. Now that it has been rescheduled for the summer (away from any Red Deer weddings, we hope), Slovakia will get another shot at making the hockey world shake, and I&rsquo;m excited to see if it does.</p><p>Of course, <i>my</i> excitement is not the priority here. The people of Slovakia and the country&rsquo;s hockey community? They&rsquo;re the real target of these good vibes. It&rsquo;s no secret the nation&rsquo;s influence has shrunken recently, as Slovakia&rsquo;s participation in the 2016 World Cup was limited to sending some of its players to Team Europe. Incidentally, Satan was GM of that squad, and the combination of Slovakians, Slovenians, Swiss and more ended up going to the final against Canada &ndash; but Satan wasn&rsquo;t engineering a team under his own country&rsquo;s flag. Zdeno Chara is nearing the end of his Hall of Fame career, and Marian Hossa is already enshrined in Toronto. A spark is needed.</p><p>I believe the Beijing Olympics could be that spark. As awesome as the run at the Hlinka Gretzky was, that was at the junior level and more for the hardcore hockey fans. The Olympics is <i>the Olympics</i>, even if NHLers weren&rsquo;t around and most of the games were terrible to watch. Any kid in Bratislava or Kosice who watched the Beijing triumph now has something to shoot for. There is a template for success.</p><p>And the best part is the nation isn&rsquo;t building anything from scratch; the history is already there. This is a hockey country that is always at the world juniors and always has players in the NHL. But smaller nations hit peaks and valleys, and it&rsquo;s important to capitalize on the peaks when you&rsquo;re talking about the grassroots.</p><p>Slafkovsky, Nemec and Dvorsky are the near future, but the hope is they are just the beginning of a new generation of Slovakian talent to bolster Satan&rsquo;s national program and lead to more thrilling highs on the international stage.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/rk_2020_cmy_0012/801162-1-eng-US/rk_2020_cmy_0012.jpg" title="rk_2020_cmy_001" width="202" height="256"></div><span class="image-inline"><img src="mon042.jpg" title="common04" width="42" height="34"></span><p><a datastyle href="https://twitter.com/THNRyanKennedy?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor">@THNRYANKENNEDY</a></p><p><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

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The Straight Edge

SLOVAKIA’S NEW GENERATION

<div class="byline">BY MATT LARKINBY MATT LARKIN</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/lastword_or_047/801245-1-eng-US/lastword_or_0472.jpg" title="lastword_or_047" width="668" height="1153"><figcaption class="caption-body">RYAN <b>O&rsquo;REILLY</b> <span class="photo-credit">(WINSLOW TOWNSON-USA TODAY SPORTS)</span></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>T</span>HE FAMOUS BASEBALL ADAGE</b> tells us a great hitter fails 70 percent of the time. When it comes to the NHL trade deadline, it almost feels like a 90-percent fail rate is acceptable among fans, as long as that one trade in 10 helps a franchise win a Stanley Cup.</p><p>Let&rsquo;s try a quick experiment: ask a New York Islanders fan to name a trade-deadline memory. How many of them will mention Butch Goring, considered by many to be the Patient Zero of deadline acquisitions, who helped the Isles win four consecutive Cups from 1980 to 1983 and sprinkled in a Conn Smythe Trophy? And how many Isles fans still think about flops like Ryan Smyth or Travis Zajac? It&rsquo;s fair to assume very few longtime diehards do, whereas GM Bill Torrey&rsquo;s 1980 Goring acquisition is forever romanticized.</p><p>Plenty of deadline deals are fondly remembered as the proverbial &ldquo;final pieces&rdquo; of teams&rsquo; championship puzzles, right? Ron Francis to Pittsburgh. Larry Murphy to Detroit. Stephane Matteau to the Rangers. But is the last-minute trade truly the path to winning a Stanley Cup? We&rsquo;ve debated countless times in the pages of The Hockey News whether expensive star acquisitions or small depth additions better correlate to championships, but it&rsquo;s time to pose a new question: are deadline deals in general the best way to prime a team for a title run? Or do the larger, foundation-shifting trades made the off-season prior make bigger impacts? For every Francis or Murphy, there was a Brian Bellows to Montreal or Claude Lemieux to Colorado, a splashy summer or early-fall acquisition that helped his new team excel through its entire championship story, not just the last few chapters.</p><p>So which way is more effective these days: going for it in the off-season, when there tend to be more teams willing to trade and bigger stars available? Or fine-tuning an already strong group with deadline deals? A look at the past 10 Cup champs is illuminating.</p><p>The 2011-12 Los Angeles Kings made significant, splashy moves to break through. They landed center Mike Richards in a blockbuster off-season swap, added checking center Colin Fraser in a minor summer deal, then made another major trade to acquire center Jeff Carter in the middle of the season. The Kings used both strategies to gear up. The 2012-13 Chicago Blackhawks were stagnant in the off-season before making a now-cult-classic deadline move to land veteran center Michal Handzus. That seemingly minor trade solidified Chicago&rsquo;s middle-six forward group. The 2013-14 Kings: all about the deadline. They acquired a crucial Cup-run contributor in sniping winger Marian Gaborik. The 2014-15 Blackhawks were deadline-only tinkerers, sprinkling in center Antoine Vermette, center Andrew Desjardins and defenseman Kimmo Timonen to varying degrees of effectiveness.</p><p>The 2015-16 Pittsburgh Penguins, under famously wild trader GM Jim Rutherford, were busy year round. Summer trades brought in right winger Phil Kessel and center Nick Bonino, while mid-season moves yielded blueliners Trevor Daley and Justin Schultz plus left winger Carl Hagelin. The following season, the Penguins mostly left their winning chemistry alone, adding a depth contributor in defenseman Ron Hainsey from the Carolina Hurricanes.</p><blockquote class="pullQuote">NINE OF THE PAST 10 CUP CHAMPS MADE AT LEAST ONE DEADLINE DEAL. <b>ONLY THREE OF THE PAST 10 MADE MAJOR TRADES IN THE OFF-SEASON</b></blockquote><p>The 2017-18 Washington Capitals? Quiet in the summer and made one seemingly small but eventually vital deadline deal, getting underachieving defenseman Michal Kempny, who ended up playing on their top pair with John Carlson. The 2018-19 Blues executed what has already been immortalized as one of the most lopsided and impactful trades of the century during the 2018 off-season, picking up disgruntled center Ryan O&rsquo;Reilly from the Buffalo Sabres. Not only did he help St. Louis win its first Cup, but he won the Selke and Conn Smythe Trophies. The 2020 Lightning famously threw two first-round picks overboard to beef up their grit with checking forwards Blake Coleman and Barclay Goodrow, who played crucial parts in consecutive Cup runs. Tampa Bay added rugged right-handed defenseman David Savard before the 2021 deadline.</p><p>To parse through the data: nine of the past 10 Cup-winning teams made at least one deadline deal. Only three of the past 10 champs made major trades to acquire game-breaking help in the off-season directly before their Cup runs. The more common off-season behavior among these championship teams was to trade away key players as a result of salary-cap woes. Overwhelmingly, the preferred championship pattern has been to avoid the major summer deals, which require GMs to surrender far more pick-and-prospect capital, and seek smaller tweaks. In hindsight, the idea makes sense. During the summer, how many GMs know exactly what they have? The groups they put together are theoretical. Deep into the stretch run of a season, it&rsquo;s far easier to identify specific flaws: my team&rsquo;s power play is terrible, my team can&rsquo;t kill penalties, my goaltending is shaky and so on.</p><p>So, a tip for wannabe contenders: don&rsquo;t push too hard for the big summer splash. Yes, teams hit on a Kessel or O&rsquo;Reilly on occasion, but the Kempnys and Goodrows more commonly complete the Cup recipes.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/ml_2020_cmy_0452/801266-1-eng-US/ml_2020_cmy_0452.jpg" title="ml_2020_cmy_045" width="204" height="258"></div><span class="image-inline"><img src="mon042.jpg" title="common04" width="42" height="34"></span><p><a datastyle href="https://twitter.com/THNMattLarkin">@THNMATTLARKIN</a><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

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Trade Deadline 2022

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