Columbus Blue Jackets News Clips May 15-16, 2018

Columbus Blue Jackets PAGE 02: Columbus Dispatch: Blue Jackets exploring offseason options to improve at center PAGE 04: Columbus Underground: Top 10 Things to do in the Arena District

Cleveland Monsters/Prospects

NHL/Websites PAGE 06: Sportsnet.ca: Big heart and big skill turning Jonathan Marchessault into playoff hero PAGE 08: Sportsnet.ca: Five stages of the Vegas Golden Knights' unfathomable first season PAGE 12: Sportsnet.ca: Down Goes Brown Weekend Wrap: Jets, Capitals on collision course? PAGE 17: The Athletic: Wheeler: A 2015 NHL draft re-draft and retrospective look back at my ranking PAGE 25: The Athletic: Home cooking, not for the Washington Capitals and many other teams this spring PAGE 28: The Athletic: Could the legalization of sports betting lead to labor strife in the NFL, MLB and other leagues? PAGE 31: Sportsnet.ca: NHL's road to gambling revenue lengthy despite Supreme Court ruling PAGE 33: Sportsnet.ca: Patrick Kane sets Team USA points, assists records at 2018 worlds PAGE 34: TSN.ca: Statistically Speaking: Stars lift Lightning in must-win game PAGE 35: USA Today: Steven Stamkos' words, deeds get Lightning back into series against Capitals

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http://www.dispatch.com/sports/20180514/blue-jackets-exploring-offseason-options-to-improve-at- center

Blue Jackets exploring offseason options to improve at center By Steve Gorten – May 15, 2018

The Blue Jackets’ season-long preoccupation with the center position was underscored by Alexander Wennberg’s injury in the opening game of the playoffs, and it remains an issue as the franchise wades further into this offseason. Fans might pine for John Tavares or some other pending unrestricted free agent to shore up their lineup down the middle. But if the Jackets hope to sign both left wing Artemi Panarin and goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky to long-term contract extensions as soon as July 1 — each could command $10 million per season in unrestricted free agency next year — acquiring a center isn’t feasible unless they’re willing and able to put together a lucrative trade offer. The Jackets’ best bet might be that Wennberg, Brandon Dubinsky and Lukas Sedlak bounce back from sub-par seasons and a prospect such as Alexandre Texier or Jonathan Davidsson emerges in training camp, as Pierre-Luc Dubois did in September. General manager Jarmo Kekalainen expressed confidence in Dubinsky and Wennberg at his end-of-the- season session with the media. The reality is that he doesn’t have much choice. Dubinsky still has three years left on his six-year, $35.1 million deal, and a buyout of the 32-year-old’s contract would cost the Jackets $11.7 million in addition to the buyouts of Scott Hartnell ($3 million for 2018-19; $1.25 million for 2019-20 and 2020-21) and Fedor Tyutin ($1.458 million each of the next two seasons). Wennberg just finished the first season of a six-year, $29.4 million contract he signed in September when the Jackets thought that he’d be their No. 1 center. Dubois seized that spot early in the season. Wennberg (eight goals, 27 assists in 66 regular-season games; one goal, one assist in three playoff games) never came close to challenging the rookie for that role. “I’m 100 percent confident with Wennberg that he’s going to have a great year next year,” Kekalainen said. “He played through a lot this year with his injuries. There were a lot of painful injuries, real injuries that affected his game that a lot of people would not play through, and he did. I give him credit for it.” Dubinsky’s role shrank. The veteran, who had six goals and 10 assists in 62 games and zero points in the postseason, ended the season playing minimal minutes on the fourth line. “There are a lot of guys on our team for various different reasons that need a big offseason just to improve their game,” Kekalainen said. Dubinsky is “a proud professional. I’m sure he’s pissed off right now. I hope he is. I know that he is. He wants to be better. He wants to have a bounce-back year, and I think I’m 100 percent sure he will.” Said Dubinsky: “The game’s getting faster, and I’m not getting younger, so ... my main focus is going to be getting faster and getting quicker. I know I think the game at a high level, and I can play the game at a high level. If I can add a step or two, it’ll certainly help me out as I go along here.” Dubinsky, whose training last offseason was limited by wrist surgery, added, “This year, I’ll have the full summer to do what I need to do.”

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Sedlak, who had four goals and four assists in 53 games, missed the final seven games of the regular season and all of the playoffs because of a head injury. He was a healthy scratch in seven of the 10 games before that. “Lukas Sedlak’s going to have a better year, for sure, next year, too,” Kekalainen said. The Jackets have 10 NHL forwards signed for next season, including Panarin, who will count $6 million toward the salary cap in the final year of his current contract. Combined, the 10 forwards carry a cap figure of $36,132,499. Two forwards — Oliver Bjorkstrand and Boone Jenner — are restricted free agents. The Jackets used Jenner and fellow winger Nick Foligno at center during the season to compensate for injuries and struggles at the position. They also acquired veteran Mark Letestu at the trade deadline. Letestu is a pending unrestricted free agent. In addition to hoping that Wennberg, Dubinsky and Sedlak have bounce-back seasons in 2018-19, the Jackets have aspirations for Texier and Davidsson. Texier, the Jackets’ first pick in last year’s draft (second round, No. 45 overall), had three primary assists in France’s 5-2 win against Austria at the world championships last week, including a no-look drop pass between his skates and the skates of a defender. Davidsson signed a three-year, entry-level contract with the Jackets this month. “We’re looking to get better in that position internally,” Kekalainen said. “And if it doesn’t happen, we’ll look for some (help) from the outside, too.”

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https://www.columbusunderground.com/top-10-things-to-do-in-the-arena-district-tm1

Top 10 Things to do in the Arena District By Taijuan Moorman - May 16, 2018

The Arena District is home to the Blue Jackets, the Columbus Clippers, and live music that brings in visitors from all over Ohio. With that in mind, these are the top 10 things to do in the Arena District before and after the concert or game, including sharing a bike with CoGo, bar hopping at R Bar or Half Pint, and grabbing lunch at Veranico.

1. Take in a Hockey Game with the Blue Jackets Catch some NHL action at Nationwide Arena with the Columbus Blue Jackets, a four-time Stanley Cup playoff contender and one of two major league sports teams in Columbus. If you’re in town, the NHL season typically runs from October to April. And the team’s on-site practice rink has public and private skating events for some added fun.

For more info about open skate days and tickets for the next season, visit nhl.com/bluejackets.

2. Take in a Baseball Game at Huntington Park Huntington Park is the home of the Columbus Clippers, Columbus’ minor league baseball team (and a Cleveland Indians affiliate). Their season runs from April to September, which is perfect for those long summer nights and breathtaking views of the Downtown skyline.

Visit huntingtonparkcolumbus.com for more info.

3. Check out a Concert at Express Live or Nationwide Arena Nationwide Arena and Express Live! host a variety of events, including championship boxing, MMA events, and local festivals and conventions. But if you’re looking to catch a popular act in Columbus, you’ll probably be headed to one of these venues.

Express Live! is indoor as well as outdoor, making for fun, scenic, summer concerts complete with draft beer and Mikey’s Late Night Slice. And Nationwide Arena is the Arena District’s focal point as the venue for stadium tour stops, but the arena also hosts huge events like the Arnold Classic, NCAA tournaments, and more.

For more info, visit promowestlive.com and nationwidearena.com.

4. Watch a Show at The Basement or A&R Music Bar For a more underground scene, The Basement and A&R Music Bar are your places to go. Located in the same plaza as Express Live, The Basement and A&R Bar feature local and national acts, but with an intimate, authentic setting.

A&R Music Bar’s patio is also open ahead of shows at Express Live and other Arena District events for a chill spot amongst all the action. Find more information here.

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5. Dine Al Fresco on a Patio There are plenty of patios to stop by on the way to a concert or Blue Jackets game, but not too many have a unique take on Mexican food like Nada or gourmet pizza pies like Boston’s. Add to the list Gordon Biersch for brews and bratwurst, and your pre or post-game meal is covered.

6. Rent a Bike and Explore on Two Wheels CoGo is Columbus’ take on the popular ridesharing programs popping up around the country. Visitors can purchase single day and three day passes at $8 and $18 respectively, and there’s even an option for locals to purchase passes at $ 75annually. You can find CoGo stations in the University District, the Short North, Downtown, German Village, and even more locations. For more information, including guided routes, visit cogobikeshare.com.

7. Take in the Views from North Bank Park Located south of an old pumphouse for the Ohio Penitentiary, ground for North Bank Park was broken in 2003 and dedicated in 2005. Today you can find signs detailing Columbus history in the center part of the park, while its trails are perfect for jogging, skating, and bike riding. The park also provides front row seats to the Downtown skyline, with amphitheater lawn seating facing the river and a large patio area. Get more information at the City of Columbus website.

8. Bar Hop Across The District at Night Hockey fans will love R Bar, known for its hockey vibe and frequent patronage of Blue Jackets fans. For the casual drinker or brew fan check out Half Pint, which has 60 beers on tap, growlers, and a large outdoor patio. And for a night out with the girls or guys, definitely stop by Big Bang Dueling Piano Bar, a bar that features comedy, crowds, and two grand pianos.

For more info, visit arenadistrict.com/food-and-drink/.

9. Venture over to The North Market Located just a few steps outside of the Arena District, The North Market features dozens of locally owned merchants, including Hot Chicken Takeover, Pistachia Vera, Destination Donuts, and Taste of Belguim. This is where Jeni’s Ice Cream started it all as well, so you know you’ll find some of Columbus’ best local finds here.

For more information: northmarket.com.

10. Stop by for Lunch at Veranico Last but not least, a lunch spot that vegetarians and meat lovers can agree on. On the menu at Veranico: a grilled wrap made with a two-bean salad, avocado, and black rice; a chicken salad sandwich, or your choice between sirloin, dehli, wakame and quinoa bowls. Find more information on their website, veranicocolumbus.com.

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https://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/nhl/big-heart-big-skill-turning-jonathan-marchessault-playoff-hero/

Sportsnet.ca / Big heart and big skill turning Jonathan Marchessault into playoff hero By Iain MacIntyre – May 15, 2018

WINNIPEG – One thing Jonathan Marchessault has never done in hockey is run from the battle. That he is here at all now in the National Hockey League, when there were so many opportunities for Marchessault to retreat and find less resistance and easier money elsewhere, is evidence of his determination and self-belief. That he has been one of the best players in these Stanley Cup playoffs, and on Monday the best player on the ice as the Vegas Golden Knights beat the Winnipeg Jets 3-1, is proof that his confidence was well- founded and that a lot of people were wrong about him along the way. When his team lost 4-2 Saturday in Game 1 of the Western Conference Final, Marchessault promised: "Next game, no excuses. Everybody needs to come and be ready to play our best game of the playoffs. We’re going to show what kind of team we are." On Monday, Vegas did. So did Marchessault, who scored twice and had eight shots on goal as the Knights punched back against the Jets to even the series as it shifts to Las Vegas for Game 3 on Wednesday. It was a monster game from the five-foot-nine offensive dynamo, the kind of game we should expect from a driven player who has scored everywhere he has been yet only now, after six years in professional hockey, has found in the Knights a team that believes in him as much as he always believed in himself. "I think that’s the story of our club: We were all part of… not being part of the centre of every hockey club we were on, I think," Marchessault said of the expansion Knights. "Everybody sees the opportunity here. That’s what makes our success. We’re just a bunch of hockey players that wanted to find a home, and we did." The undrafted, undersized forward from Cap-Rouge, Que., finally got a full season in the NHL last year at age 26 and produced 30 goals for the Florida Panthers, his third organization. And yet the Panthers still exposed him in the expansion draft last June and let him walk to the Knights. He had 75 points in 77 games for Vegas and with William Karlsson and Reilly Smith formed one of the best lines in hockey. They have powered the Knights’ attack since October and through two games of the Conference final, despite all the hype about the Jets’ firepower, have been easily the best line in the series. In 12 playoff games, they’ve combined for 12 goals and 41 points. "Biggest stage of hockey for us right now," Smith, another Florida castoff, said after setting up Marchessault’s goals, both of them beauties. "Everyone’s excited. It’s a big win for us. I think every professional player loves being able to step up on these stages." Marchessault adores it. His swagger is the most noticeable of the three forwards. He’s also the loudest on his line, constantly chatting and chirping on the ice. But damn, he walks the walk.

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"If you’re going to talk out there in the media that you have to be better, I think you need to lead by example," he said. "I tried to do that tonight. "Definitely satisfied with our effort tonight. Every time when you get a big game for our group, we show up. And tonight, we definitely showed up. I think we showed the hockey world that we owned the right to be here and we’re able to play against a great team." After Tomas Tatar jammed a puck in at the post to make it 1-0 for Vegas at 13:23 of the first period, Marchessault beat Winnipeg goalie Connor Hellebuyck on a breakaway to double the lead at 17:22 during an 8-0 run in shots for the Knights. Marchessault didn’t even look at Reilly on the two-on-zero after his linemate poked the puck away from Kyle Connor in the neutral zone as the Jets were on a line change. When Connor redeemed himself by banking a sharp-angle shot through Vegas goalie Marc-Andre Fleury to give the Jets some hope, down 2-1 at 7:17 of the third period, Marchessault counter-punched and easily sent Hellebuyck the wrong way to finish a two-on-one with Smith at 8:45. Marchessault is not big, but he has a big-game aura. Asked at the morning skate the difference in Marchessault now from the start of the season, Knights’ coach Gerard Gallant said: "More competitive. First time I saw Marchy, he was a skilled guy who stayed on the outside. Didn’t really battle. The reason why he’s a 30-40 goal-scorer now is because he’s more competitive. He’ll go to those hard areas to score some goals. Small guy, but very competitive." Big heart to go with big skill.

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https://www.sportsnet.ca/?sn-article=five-stages-vegas-golden-knights-unfathomable-first-season

Sportsnet.ca / Five stages of the Vegas Golden Knights' unfathomable first season By Rory Boylen – May 15, 2018

The Vegas Golden Knights were poked fun at for dropping “Las” from their name, and sticking with a two-word nickname that the U.S. Army formally opposed in trademark applications. The name and logo unveiling came with a technological glitch and overall wasn’t as crisp as the team’s in-game presentations turned out to be. And the new colour scheme, before the jerseys were unveiled, seemed incompatible. Yet the Golden Knights turned into easily the best story of the NHL season. Here is how their first year unfolded, in five stages. BAD EXPANSION DRAFT In the beginning, the Vegas Golden Knights weren’t getting good reviews for their work in the expansion draft. With rules that undoubtedly set up this expansion team better than others that came before it, the Golden Knights had plenty of options and avenues they could have taken. For instance, the thinking went, they could have gone all-in on trying to be competitive and make the playoffs right out of the gate. This would have come at the expense of making other trades to acquire draft picks and prospects, which would probably send them to the bottom of the standings shortly after. Another line of thinking had Vegas taking calculated risks on players like Charles Hudon, low entry draft picks who had shown well in the AHL, but nothing close to an NHL breakout yet. These players would form the back bone of what was believed had to be a weak forward group — and if they ended up hitting, it would push Vegas further along. The majority certainly believed that Vegas absolutely had to build this thing through the entry draft, rather than rush it with the expansion draft. The crux of Vegas’ plans had to be to accumulate assets, either to flip in trade or in the form of futures to hang on to. And Vegas did go big on the entry draft, coming out of the expansion process with three first-rounders in 2017 and loading up on seconds and thirds for years. But still the conclusion was McPhee missed out on some opportunities to make his roster better out of the gate, or to at least scoop up other players with more trade value. For instance, Petr Mrazek was passed over to be a back up one year removed from a stellar season. They took Deryk Engelland from Calgary one week before he was able to test the UFA market and passed over a veteran like Matt Stajan, or one of those shot-in-the-dark youngsters like Brett Kulak. There were a few examples along these lines. Most thought McPhee could have gotten more bang out of the expansion draft process. There were extremely few anywhere in the hockey community who viewed McPhee’s expansion draft as a success. The overarching belief was that the Golden Knights were losers in their own draft. Stop with the revisionist history on Vegas. Nearly everyone thought they were going to be very bad and absolutely everyone thought they blew their expansion draft (I still think they did). Take the damn L. It's ok to be wrong once in a while.

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— Ian Fleming (@imfleming16) May 7, 2018 Owner Bill Foley certainly didn’t see this year’s success coming. He said a lot of people called him crazy for his initial timeline of success for the Golden Knights: playoffs in three years, Stanley Cup in six. “We don’t have high expectations for this year,” Foley told ESPN.com back in August. “We’re going to be competitive. If we’re going to lose a game, we’d like to lose by a goal or two, not lose by five or six. We don’t want to be a walkover team. We want to be competitive, we want to be entertaining on the ice, we want to score some goals. “We have some really good players, but we’re not deep like a lot of teams are in terms of four lines of forwards and two or three lines of defencemen. But we got some really good players in the expansion draft. So we just need do well for a couple years, then make the playoffs in three years as we start transitioning in some of these younger guys — like Shea Theodore and Alex Tuch and Jake Bischoff. We’ll be pretty good in three years and we’ll make a run in five or six.” McPhee was interviewed by Bob McCown and Damien Cox on Prime Time Sports after the entry draft had concluded, where the Golden Knights nabbed Cody Glass sixth, Nick Suzuki 13th and Erik Brannstrom 15th. Nic Hague and Jake Leschyshyn went to Vegas in the second round. McPhee talked about needing impact players and game breakers and how important it is to find those types through the draft, which is where he hoped Vegas could start making up ground on the rest of the NHL. “Time will tell whether we can pull that off through the draft. We tried to accumulate a lot of picks to be able to hit on a lot of those,” the GM said. “We’ll do our best to do it through the draft. If there’s another way to do it at some point we’ll have to try that as well. Because as we all know those guys are the real difference makers and if you can get those guys in the right positions you can win.” Vegas did, of course, pick up some impact players in the expansion draft. Jonathan Marchessault, David Perron and James Neal all qualified as such, but each were heading into the last year of their contracts before becoming UFA eligible. Far from being viewed as impact players for Vegas conventional wisdom had them being used as trade bait for the Golden Knights to acquire more draft picks and prospects. “The players Vegas drafts, not all of them are going to play for Vegas. It’s not so much an expansion draft for them as it is an accumulation of assets,” Calgary Flames GM Brad Treliving said at the time. He, like many, saw Vegas’ draft as an opportunity to better their own lot. “How can we get a player through Vegas? How do we capitalize on an opportunity here?” MAYBE THEY’RE OK BUT THEY SHOULD STILL TRADE PLAYERS OUT, RIGHT? As we know, Vegas sent shockwaves through the NHL with their fast start when they were almost unbeatable at home. At Christmas the Golden Knights were 23-9-2 and stood as the best team in the Western Conference and second best overall. After nearly three months of this talk was beginning to turn to trade deadline strategy. Surely this flash- in-the-pan success couldn’t change the inevitable, that Vegas was to trade its expiring contracts and players of interest to playoff-bound teams willing to give up futures for a shot in the arm, right? “I don’t think this really changes any of it,” Misha Donskov, Vegas’ director of hockey operations, said on Sportsnet’s Tape to Tape Podcast in December. “When you look back at our expansion draft and the process and strategy that we had going into expansion, we wanted to acquire the best players, the best assets in the short-term and long-term. We wanted to be competitive right away. … We wanted to do our best to win hockey games.

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“We’re having some early success now. That doesn’t change our mindset and how we’re going to look to the future. We still know what the importance is in young players, we know what the importance is in picks and we know how key that is to ultimately having long-term success for the franchise. “We’ll let this play out here until after Christmas and see where we we are, but we’re not going to do anything major at this point based on the success we’re having and the strategy that we have in place for the long-term success of our team.” Despite all their early success, the vast majority was still expecting a down turn at some point. All the wins in the first three months made it evermore likely the Golden Knights would claim the title of best expansion team ever eventually, but it was still hard to imagine them standing pat or buying at the deadline and then reaching the post-season. But the owner was singing a bit of a different, more immediately optimistic tune. “Every game that we win makes me a little more impatient, I have to say,” Foley said in late-December. “I had a timeline of playoffs in three and Stanley Cup in six. I felt like that was very achievable. I felt like we put ourselves in a position to do that with the draft and the draft for the coming years. I have to say I think I moved up our timeline a little bit because we are doing so well. The guys on the ice are gelling so well together. “Now we have a situation where we need to get some unrestricted free agents signed up to make sure we keep the core of this team in place.” Vegas returned from the Christmas break to win its first four in a row and six of seven. Then on Jan. 3 they re-signed one of their big pending UFAs, locking in Jonathan Marchessault for six years and a $5- million cap hit. It was the first turn towards trying to make the playoffs right away and step away from selling off at the deadline. “We’re first place in the Western Conference, we’re an expansion team,” Vegas reporter Gary Lawless said. “It’s blow-your-mind shocking. “The prevailing question prior to the season was ‘how bad is Vegas going to be?’ And now all of a sudden the question is ‘how far can they go?’ It’s been a dramatic change in fortunes.” It was still hard to believe that what Vegas was doing was sustainable even for the rest of the season. “The first half means nothing if you don’t pick it up in the second half and you don’t go to the ultimate goal,” Vegas coach Gerard Gallant said in January. “Keep working hard, playing hard, and get as many points as we can, and we’ll see where it takes us.” THE DEADLINE COMES AND VEGAS ARE … BUYERS On Feb. 1 the Vegas Golden Knights won their 34th game — against the Winnipeg Jets — to set a new wins record for a team in its inaugural season. While Marchessault was now under contract, Perron and Neal still were not. On the day of the trade deadline the Golden Knights were 41-16-4 and still the best team in the Western Conference, one point shy of the league-leading Tampa Bay Lightning. The deadline presented McPhee with some unprecedented questions, but we maybe shouldn’t have been surprised by how he reacted, given what he said about the situation at the end of November. “We do have a master plan, but if this team is in the hunt way down the road, way down the road, in March, then we’ll stay in the hunt. I wouldn’t derail it. It’s not fair to this team or this community.” The Golden Knights ended up being buyers at the deadline, acquiring Tomas Tatar from Detroit for their first-rounder in 2018 and two other picks in 2019 and 2020. Like his expansion draft results, McPhee’s

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trade was mostly met with skepticism and maybe this time we were right. Tatar, 27, had just six points in 20 regular season games and is scoreless in four post-season games while making $5.3 million against the cap through 2021. But the Golden Knights could have gone even bigger than that. As trade deadline day rumours swirled, Vegas was linked constantly to Erik Karlsson. CONGRATULATIONS ON MAKING THE PLAYOFFS, BUT YOUR LUCK RUNS OUT HERE Even after winning the Pacific, finishing third in the West and fifth overall, no one was picking the Golden Knights to win the Stanley Cup. Heck, they were a popular upset pick in Round 1 against the Los Angeles Kings — who, of course, they swept. “People said we were going to lose in the first round, the second round and now they’re saying we’re definitely going to lose this round,” Luca Sbisa said this week. But we don’t listen to those outsiders. It’s been a fun trip. [We are] misfits that no one really wanted or people gave up on. And look where we are now.” Four wins away from reaching the Stanley Cup Final. YEAR 1 WAS AN UNABASHED SUCCESS, SO WHAT’S NEXT? Vegas has roughly $25 million in projected cap space this summer with a number of players to re-sign or let go. UFAs Perron and Neal are still the most impactful players without a contract. Sbisa and Clayton Stoner are also UFAs likely to leave, as is Jason Garrison. Breakout star William Karlsson is the leading RFA, which should be a fascinating negotiation given how due for regression he seems to be. Theodore, averaging 22:26 of ice time per night in the playoffs, is also an RFA and could be the one with the most lasting impact on this roster in the years to come. William Karlsson is an RFA at the end of the year. '14-15: 21 GP, 3G, 5P '15-16: 81 GP, 9G, 20P '16-17: 81 GP, 6G, 25P '17-18: 66 GP, 35G, 59P (+36) How do you handle this situation if you're VGK? — JB (@JB_HockeyTalk) March 7, 2018 But at the core, Vegas should return just as capable of competing as this season. Marc-Andre Fleury is signed for another season. The top line figures to be intact. And, especially after such a successful inaugural season, the city of Vegas could very well be an attractive destination for star free agents (John Tavares?) or a trade partner willing and able to make a splash (revisit Karlsson talks, or enter Drew Doughty discussions?). And as for their three first-round picks from last summer: Glass scored 102 points in 64 WHL games, Nick Suzuki hit 100 in 64 OHL games and defenceman Brannstrom scored 15 points in 44 Swedish League games. Glass, especially, could possibly make Vegas’ lineup next season. Can they replicate their Year 1 success and win another division title? No one is betting against Vegas anymore.

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https://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/nhl/winnipeg-jets-washington-capitals-conference-finals/

Sportsnet.ca / Down Goes Brown Weekend Wrap: Jets, Capitals on collision course? By Sean McIndoe – May 15, 2018

Every Monday, Sean McIndoe looks back at weekend play in the NHL and the league’s biggest storylines. You can follow him on Twitter. Opening faceoff: Jets take off early It’s one game. The first game doesn’t necessarily tell us much about how a series will play out — remember the Bruins thumping the Lighting in their second-round opener? — and there’s a good chance that this one still has a long way to go, with plenty of twists and turns baked in. But even with all the obvious caveats in place, things couldn’t have gone much better for the Jets on Saturday night. They won the game, which is obviously the important part. But not all wins are created equal. Sometimes you steal a game, or barely hang on, or win even though you didn’t put together a 60- minute effort. Sometimes you win games you probably deserved to lose. And sometimes, you show up and are clearly the better team from start to finish. That’s the sort of game the Jets put together on Saturday, scoring on their first shot and pumping three goals past Marc- Andre Fleury before the game was eight minutes old. The Golden Knights regained their footing from there to keep the game respectable, but that’s all they did, as the Jets largely shut them down the rest of the way. Despite playing from well behind for almost the entire game, the high-flying Knights managed just 21 shots and never seemed to be taking the game to their opponents. Again, it’s one game, and maybe we got the result we should have expected – with the Jets coming off the high of a Game 7 win in Nashville and the Knights seeing their first action in nearly a week, some early Vegas rust may have been inevitable. If the series goes long, that discrepancy in time off may yet come back to hurt the Jets. But that’s if the series does go long; it didn’t look like it would on Saturday. And while Fleury was brilliant against the Kings and still leads the league in post-season save percentage and goals-against average, it’s fair to point out that he’s now given up three goals or more in five of his last six games. With Connor Hellebuyck looking sharp lately, that’s not a good sign for the Knights. We’re still in uncharted territory with this Vegas team, which now trails a series for the first time. Maybe they rebound with a better effort tonight and take the series back home tied at one. But the early returns are in, and they’re clear: The Jets were the better team through one game. Now we find out how many more they need. Road to the Cup The five teams that look like they’re headed towards a Stanley Cup. 5. Your team: That’s right. With only four teams left in the playoffs and a suddenly unwieldy five-team power ranking format to work with, we can confirm that your personal favourite team is holding down the fifth spot. Congratulations, and never let it be said that we don’t give credit where it’s deserved. 4. Tampa Bay Lightning: Nikita Kucherov hasn’t done much in the conference finals so far. But he did find a creative way to make last night’s highlight reel: by kicking Brett Connolly.

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3. Vegas Golden Knights: We knew their success was already getting attention from outside of the hockey world. But here’s a new audience we may not have counted on: professional gamblers. 2. Washington Capitals: Last night’s win was the Caps’ seventh in eight playoff road games. 1. Winnipeg Jets: Opponents agree: Dustin Byfuglien is very strong. But apparently not the strongest. Stop me if you’ve heard this one before, but Alex Ovechkin and the Washington Capitals are looking unstoppable on their way towards the Stanley Cup final. Oh, right. This is kind of a new thing for Washington. And it’s confusing people. Still, the Capitals rolled over the Lighting to take a pair of road wins, and now head home with a 2-0 lead. They opened the series by storming out to a four-goal lead on Friday night before closing out a 4–2 win. They had a tougher time through the first half of last night’s game, before stunning the Tampa crowd with a pair of late goals in the second. Ovechkin and Brett Connolly added insurance goals in the third on the way to a 6–2 final. The Lightning aren’t done yet; they’re way too good to write off after two games. And yes, a two-game lead never feels all that secure when we’re talking about the Capitals. But at the risk of sounding ridiculous within a few days, it really does feel different this time in Washington. Maybe beating the Penguins was the sort of franchise-transforming moment that vaporizes all the old narratives. Or maybe this team was always a bounce or two away, and now they’re finally getting them. Either way, the Caps are dominating in a way that virtually nobody saw coming. Even those of us who picked the Capitals to win the series weren’t expecting it to look this easy. The Lightning have pushed back as best they could, and last night’s game took on a nasty edge as it went on. But none of this has been about compete levels or heart or wanting it more. The Capitals just look better. Washington fans will no doubt remember the first round, when the Blue Jackets took a 2-0 lead only to cough it up. But even that counter-example seems to strengthen the Caps’ case, since the team made the questionable decision to start that series with 2016 Vezina winner Brayden Holtby on the bench. Since switching back to their actual starter, they’ve won 10 of 12. Maybe they should go back to Philipp Grubauer against the Lightning, just to make things interesting. It’s fair to say that’s unlikely. If anything, the next lineup change the Capitals make could be the return of Nicklas Backstrom, who remains out with a hand injury but could be back at some point. If so, it would be yet another thing going right for the Washington Capitals during a playoff run. As strange as that still sounds. The bottom five Five stories from around the league that aren’t going so well. 5. Kyle Dubas: The new Leafs’ GM has been on the job for 72 hours now and still hasn’t traded for a single Norris Trophy winner. Hey, you millennial punk — less avocado toast, more Drew Doughty. OK, that’s probably harsh. Dubas hasn’t done anything wrong since he was introduced on Friday. But this is the Bottom Five section, so we have to come up with ways to be negative even when it isn’t warranted. Luckily for Dubas, nobody else in the media ever does that so he should be fine. What we don’t know yet is who he’ll be working with. There are reports that Lou Lamoriello is talking to the Islanders, and it’s sounding increasingly unlikely that Mark Hunter will stick around. Elliotte Friedman reported that Ron Francis could be added to the Leafs’ front office, depending on how things play out.

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So we’ve got a situation that’s in flux, and a new GM who’ll be met with the sort of skepticism you tend to get in Toronto when you don’t have 25 years of experience and multiple Cup rings. Win or lose, the Leafs have been an entertaining team to watch on the ice in recent years. This off-season might be shaping up to be more of the same in the front office. 4. Celebrity fan loyalty: The NHL doesn’t typically attract a ton of interest from A-list celebrities, as evidenced by the slim pickings available to the league at their annual awards show. But every now and then, a familiar face pledges their undying love to a team. But as every checkout-aisle tabloid reminds us, love is fleeting in the celebrity world. That applies to hockey, too, as the weekend saw a pair of stars openly swapping bandwagons. That included actor Wil Wheaton, a diehard Kings fan who’s been vocal about his support for the team through a pair of Stanley Cup wins. But today, he’s apparently a Jets fan — albeit one who wears a Nordiques jersey for reasons we’re not quite clear on. That seems weird, but you can cut Wheaton some slack. The Jets are playing the Knights, who knocked out his Kings in the first round, and no true hockey fan is every above a little post-season grudge- holding. Besides, he only roots for the Kings — it’s not like he’s married to them. Which brings us to Carrie Underwood. She’s been a loyal Predators fan for years, some of which probably has to do with husband Mike Fisher playing for them. But with both Fisher and the Preds now done, Underwood is also hopping bandwagons. She’s a Golden Knights fan now. And I’ll also say, until next season, I am officially a @GoldenKnights fan! I’ll enjoy seeing them make a little history!! — Carrie Underwood (@carrieunderwood) May 11, 2018 I swear, if Jon Hamm shows up at the awards wearing a Dave Manson Blackhawks jersey, I’m going to start wondering about these folks. 3. The Rangers’ coaching search: After we came within hours of making it all the way through the season without a single coaching change, the Rangers were the first team to find themselves with a vacancy after firing Alain Vigneault on April 7. They were quickly joined by the Stars, Hurricanes and Flames. But one month later, those teams have all found new coaches while the Rangers are back to being the only team without one. It sure sounds like they had their guy in University of Denver coach Jim Montgomery. But he chose to take the Dallas job instead, and his explanation as to why has raised a few eyebrows among Rangers fans. The team is now reportedly waiting on assistants who are still active in the playoffs, although it sounds like Boston University’s David Quinn is still in the running despite some question as to whether he wants the job. The good news for the Rangers is that they can afford to be patient – with no more competition for candidates out there, they’re back to being the only game in town. 2. Andrei Vasilevskiy: We’re concerned, right? It feels like we should be concerned. We just saw one Vezina finalist melt down, with Pekka Rinne‘s Game 7 disaster spelling the end of the Predators’ season. Now Vasilevskiy seems to be following suit, coughing up 10 goals in five periods against the Capitals. Not all of those goals have been his fault, with the Capitals making some fantastic cross-ice plays to leave him with little chance. But still, a guy who spent much of the season making highlight-reel miracle saves suddenly seems to have sprung a leak. We won’t rule him out yet, because goaltending is voodoo

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and he’ll probably have a 45-save shutout next game. But if he can’t manage that sort of instant turnaround, the Lightning may be done. 1. Careful what you wish for: It didn’t end up deciding the game, but one of last night’s key moments came in the first period, when T.J. Oshie was whistled for a high-stick on Victor Hedman. The Lightning scored on the ensuing power play to take their first lead of the game. One problem: Oshie’s stick didn’t actually catch Hedman — it was the puck. It’s always frustrating to see a blown call in a key game, especially if it results in a power-play goal. But the puck had barely been fished out of the Capitals’ net before you could hear hockey fans mumbling in unison: Hey, shouldn’t we have replay review for high sticks? No. No, we should not. If the last few seasons has taught us anything, it’s that whatever problem you think the league has, more replay review is not the answer. Would some sort of challenge system or other review have prevented the blown Oshie call? Maybe. But it would also introduce more delays, nitpicking and who knows how many other unintended consequences. Sure, it seems like reviews for plays like Oshie’s would be rare and wouldn’t take long. We thought the same for goalie interference and offside reviews, and look where that got us. Sometimes calls get missed. It happens. But at some point, you can’t stop and review everything. “Just get it right” is a nice concept, but we’ve been down this road enough over the last few years. Livestream every single game of the 2018 Stanley Cup Playoffs—blackout free—plus the Toronto Blue Jays, key Raptors & NBA Playoffs matchups and the 100th Mastercard Memorial Cup, all in one subscription. Quick shifts: 10 more notable moments from around the league • The hockey world lost a legend over the weekend, as Hockey Hall of Fame coach Clare Drake died at the age of 89. Drake was inducted to the HHOF as a builder as part of last year’s class. • Loved this quote from Kucherov on the value of playing entertaining hockey. But condolences to him on the demise of his future coaching career. Nikita Kucherov certainly has the big picture in mind. Read what he had to say about the Lightning and what they need to do in Game 2 tomorrow: pic.twitter.com/wz10SepY5P — Dan Rosen (@drosennhl) May 12, 2018 • Team Canada had a rough weekend at the World Championships, taking a 5–1 loss against Finland. Aaron Ekblad accused the Finns of being “cowardly” for what he saw as frequent diving. • More tough World Championships news for Canadian fans, or at least those in Vancouver. Blue chip prospect Elias Pettersson is out of the tournament with a broken thumb. • Tobias Enstrom took a big hit on Saturday and left the game, sparking fears of another concussion. He did return. • Mike Fisher made it official on Saturday, announcing his retirement for a second time after his late- season comeback with the Predators. • The 2018 Memorial Cup is set, with the Swift Current Broncos, Hamilton Bulldogs and Acadie-Bathurst Titan punching their tickets over the weekend. They’ll join the host Regina Pats in the four-team tournament, which begins on Friday. • Things got a little silly before an ECHL playoff game last night:

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• Mark Scheifele may not possess Buff-strength, but he has joined some impressive company with his post-season so far: • Finally, here’s a long read on young Capitals center (and Penguin-slayer) Evgeni Kuznetsov’s rise to stardom.

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https://theathletic.com/353504/2018/05/15/wheeler-a-2015-nhl-draft-re-draft-and-retrospective-look- back-at-my-ranking/

The Athletic / Wheeler: A 2015 NHL draft re-draft and retrospective look back at my ranking By Scott Wheeler – May 16, 2018

Two of the more common questions I’ve been asked in the last two weeks, as The Athletic has launched its year-end 2018 NHL draft coverage, have been ones of hindsight. Naturally, with the release of my final top-100 ranking, readers are curious as to how my previous rankings have fared. The other, is one I get all year long when commenting on drafted prospects: “Where would Player X fall in a re-draft?” And so I decided I’d try to tick both of those boxes and settled on the 2015 class as a good place to start. Given that three years have now passed, the 2015 draft is the most recent class that I’m able to adequately gauge in retrospect. The goal, here, would be to make this a regular feature where, every May, I’ll look back on the first round of the draft class of three years earlier (Ie. Next year I would re- draft 2016 and evaluate my own ranking). This new ranking, like my draft ranking, does not take into account team need or preferences, but is instead just my evaluation of how things have changed. 1. Edmonton Oilers: Connor McDavid Actual draft pick: No. 1 (change: none) My final ranking: No. 1 (change: none) I mean… 2. Buffalo Sabres: Jack Eichel Actual draft pick: No. 2 (change: none) My final ranking: No. 2 (change: none) I still think Eichel is the second-best player and will be the second-best player to emerge out of the 2015 class but the gap between him and the handful of players that follow in this re-draft is a lot more narrow than we thought it would be, and it wouldn’t shock me if he was surpassed. McDavid has become the generational player everyone expected he would be, but Eichel hasn’t yet risen to the dominant level many (myself included) expected he would. Team, supporting cast, and injuries have played a part and I still believe he becomes a perennial 80-ish point centre, but the rest of his draft’s top players are catching up — and fast. 3. Arizona Coyotes: Mathew Barzal Actual draft pick: No. 16 (change: +13) My final ranking: No. 7 (change: +4) This is the first slot where there’s not only movement but also a discrepancy between where the player was taken and where I had him ranked. I was really, really high on Barzal during his draft year and it still might have proven to not be high enough. I think his fall was an obvious mistake at the time and that was evidenced in his brilliant rookie season this year. Here’s the complete list of under-21 players (not even just rookies) who scored more than Barzal’s 85 points in 82 games over the last 10 NHL seasons:

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Connor McDavid (twice), Steven Stamkos (twice). That’s it. Even if you extend that all the way back to 2005-2006 (the first season after the lockout), that list only adds three more names: Sidney Crosby (twice), Alex Ovechkin, Evgeni Malkin. 4. Toronto Maple Leafs: Zach Werenski Actual draft pick: No. 8 (change: +4) My final ranking: No. 6 (change: +2) This one was tough, but I’m confident it’s the right adjustment. Werenski is not only one of the best young defensemen on the planet, he’s one of the best defensemen on the planet, period. As good as the handful of players who follow him on this ranking have also become, Werenski looks like he’s going to be a Norris contender and he’s already a No. 1 defensemen on most NHL teams. Like with Barzal, I was higher on him on his draft day than NHL teams appeared to be. The Blue Jackets did extremely well to land him at eighth overall though. I’m happy with where I was at with him three years ago, even if he has progressed past a couple of players I had ahead of him. This kind of level was always in the realm of possibility for Werenski and my ranking was indicative of that. He’s the kind of young player every team (especially a team like the Leafs) is dying to acquire — but only a couple actually have. 5. Carolina Hurricanes: Mitch Marner Actual draft pick: No. 4 (change: -1) My final ranking: No. 5 (change: none) Marner slipping from fourth to fifth is less about him going backwards versus expectations and more about a couple of players ranked behind him surpassing him. Marner remains a home run for the Leafs and one of the more dynamic young playmaking wingers in the NHL. If anything, that he has been exactly as advertised should be considered a huge success story because there’s always a chance thin, ultra-talented wingers who aren’t high-end skaters at the time of the draft don’t pan out. He most definitely has and if this year’s playoffs were any indication, he hasn’t reached his ceiling yet either. 6. New Jersey Devils: Mikko Rantanen Actual draft pick: No. 10 (change: +4) My final ranking: No. 9 (change: +3) Rantanen is another player who I was a little higher on than where he was selected — though it wasn’t by much — who has since panned out extremely well. No disrespect to Pavel Zacha, who the Devils took sixth overall (I was much lower at No. 13) and who has become a serviceable depth player, but he was, relatively speaking given how high they picked, a significant miss. Rantanen is fresh off an 84-point season and is one of only three players in the draft to crack 80 points to date with McDavid and Barzal. There’s an argument to be made for him ahead of Marner in a re-draft but he also benefitted from some pretty decent puck luck and I think his sophomore year may be his peak in a way Marner’s wasn’t — though they were both propelled by monster, likely unsustainable production on the power play. Still, 6- foot-4 wingers who can score and create plays? I’ll take one of those sixth overall, please. 7. Philadelphia Flyers: Ivan Provorov Actual draft pick: No. 7 (change: none) My final ranking: No. 8 (change: +1) Provorov isn’t Werenski but he has become a legitimately high-end defenseman very quickly, and by all accounts the Flyers did well to land him where they did and shouldn’t regret it in hindsight. Could they have done better at the time? Maybe. But Provorov should be considered a hit for them regardless. He was outstanding this season and has established himself as one of the more dangerous goal-scoring

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defensemen in the NHL already. He tied Dougie Hamilton and Victor Hedman for first in the NHL in goals by defensemen (17) and I wouldn’t be surprised to see him crack 20 at some point. 8. Columbus Blue Jackets: Noah Hanifin Actual draft pick: No. 5 (change: -3) My final ranking: No. 3 (change: -5) This is probably the first pick where the re-draft actually goes worse for the team that’s selecting than it did in 2015. The Blue Jackets would gladly reject their do-over and stick with Werenski. Hanifin’s also the first player I definitely missed on. Which isn’t to say Hanifin isn’t a fantastic defenseman. He is and he has taken strides in each season while remaining a hugely-positive influence on possession. But I was firmly in the camp that believed Hanifin was in that tier between the third and the fifth pick and it turns out he has ended up in a tier below that. Don’t sleep on Hanifin though. The rest of his offensive skills didn’t quite catch up to his skating like I thought they could but he remains a strong defender and an effortless skater who has learned to jump into the play more aggressively and has become a goal-scoring threat from the backend as a result. He led all Hurricanes defensemen in goals (10) and points (32) last season. 9. San Jose Sharks: Brock Boeser Actual draft pick: No. 23 (change: +14) My final ranking: No. 21 (change: +12) I was higher on Boeser than he was taken at the time, but I’m probably lower on him than most are today (he’s an unquestionably great goal scorer, but he’s also got work to do on the rest of his game to become a reliable defensive player and avoid a pronounced dip in his production next season). There’s no question most of the league missed on him, though. Even if Boeser takes a modest step back, he still has 30-goal upside in a full 82-game season and I fully expect he’ll remain the Canucks’ first-line right winger for the foreseeable future (especially if Elias Pettersson ends up at centre, or on his natural left after years playing opposite his handedness on the right). 10. Colorado Avalanche: Kyle Connor Actual draft pick: No. 17 (change: +7) My final ranking: No. 10 (change: none) I was really high on Connor during his draft year and I’m still a big fan of his game now. I don’t think he’s anywhere close to finished developing and his 31 goals and 57 points in 76 games this season were just the beginning. He still has room to get a little stronger and he’s got the versatility to develop into a consistent 65-plus-point player. I’d identified him as one of the steals of the draft in Florida and that remains true today. He’ll benefit from playing in Winnipeg because their depth at forward will allow him to progress organically when he’s ready to take on a more significant offensive role. 11. Florida Panthers: Dylan Strome Actual draft pick: No. 3 (change: -8) My final ranking: No. 4 (change: -7) Here’s the thing about Dylan Strome: I still believe he’s going to be an outstanding NHL centre. Here’s another thing about Dylan Strome: I still think his skating won’t prevent that from becoming a reality — even if it has to date. Strome falls in retrospect because he’s behind the curve, but if this list is fluid then I’m not sold players like Boeser and Connor are going to remain ahead of him. I still see a kid who sees the play develop before most others on the ice do, makes plays to get the puck to where it ought to be, handles the puck exceptionally well for his height, and can score with a heavy shot even though he’s got a long drawback on his release. In fact, I still think he’s one of the Coyotes’ most talented forwards and

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I’d put his production during his first full season at 50 points at the low end next year and 60-65 if he’s used as a regular in the top-six and on the power play. 12. Dallas Stars: Sebastian Aho Actual draft pick: No. 35 (change: +23) My final ranking: Not ranked in my top 30 I tell myself that everyone else missed on Aho in the first round too (and pat myself on the back for recognizing that early on and taking him in my keeper league before he entered the NHL two seasons ago) but deep down I feel great shame. Looking back, this is my biggest miss in a re-draft. I liked Aho just fine in 2015 but I pegged him more as a second or third-round talent who projected as a depth scorer. I was wrong. He has since grown an inch and a half and become a reliable first-line winger and his team’s leading scorer as a sophomore (Aho’s 65 points with the Hurricanes was one better than Teuvo Teravainen). The Stars picked Denis Gurianov, who I had ranked in the third round, and they missed in a big way — he looks like he’ll be a depth forward. 13. Boston Bruins: Kirill Kaprizov Actual draft pick: No. 135 (change: +122) My final ranking: Not ranked in my top 30 There were always concerns about a couple of things with Kaprizov: 1. That he’s 5-foot-9 and played on the perimeter 2. That he may not come over I wasn’t worried about the former (and have explained why it’s not a factor here) and ranked Kaprizov in my third round. He went in the fifth. The latter has proven to be a real factor, which the Minnesota Wild haven’t helped — and now his NHL future remains in complete limbo. It doesn’t make any sense, but I can’t do this ranking on what-ifs and he’s one of the most talented players to come out of the draft. 14. Boston Bruins: Thomas Chabot Actual draft pick: No. 18 (change: +4) My final ranking: No. 26 (change: +12) If Aho was my biggest miss of the re-draft, Chabot was a close second. I’ll be honest: While I felt everyone in my ranking from No. 11 to No. 29 in 2015 was in a similar tier, I did expect Chabot to top out as a second-pairing defenseman. That year, he finished fifth in the QMJHL in under-18 scoring by defensemen with 41 points in 66 games (0.62 points per game) and then didn’t look good in a brief playoffs. I saw a player who could score and skate but didn’t have the puck skills or the defensive game to become a first-pairing option down the line. Today, while I still question some of his decision-making at the AHL and NHL level, I think he has that upside if all goes well — and he quickly become an absolute terror in the QMJHL. It happens. 15. Boston Bruins: Travis Konecny Actual draft pick: No. 24 (change: +9) My final ranking: No. 12 (change: -3) Though re-drafts normally don’t look good side-by-side any evaluator’s list (the nature of them is one of correction), this really doesn’t look good for the Bruins. Konecny, like Connor, is a player I believed was a steal on draft day and he has provided excellent value where the Flyers selected him at 24th-overall, after they moved up to take him. He shouldn’t have fallen and he has become the well-rounded, can- play-with-anyone-and-anywhere forward he was with the Ottawa 67’s. He doesn’t have the kind of offensive upside that all of the players ahead of him in this re-draft do but he’ll be an up-tempo 50 point

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player and that gives him huge value late in the first round. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if he wears a ‘C’ at some point down the line either. 16. New York Islanders: Jack Roslovic Actual draft pick: No. 25 (change: +9) My final ranking: Not ranked in my top 30 Roslovic is the third player — joining Aho and Kaprizov — who wasn’t ranked in my first round at the time (I had him at No. 41) but who I’d definitely go to bat for today. There are several players who follow who’ve already established themselves with a full NHL season as regulars on their team, but I now see the potential for high-impact upside in Roslovic that I don’t see in them. The Jets have an embarrassment of riches up front and it may take him some time but he’s got the ability to be a 60-point player. 17. Winnipeg Jets: Timo Meier Actual draft pick: No. 9 (change: -8) My final ranking: No. 19 (change: +2) I was lower on Meier than most on draft day despite his high-end production, but I’ve grown to appreciate his game for a lot more than his 36 points in 81 games suggests. (For more on that, read this breakdown of his game from earlier in the season.) With that said, he’s not seriously in the conversation as a top-10 pick in a re-draft and he was probably taken too high at the draft. I really like Meier though. He’s a good player whose going to be better than his offence to date and a big part of whatever the Sharks do moving forward. 18. Ottawa Senators: Vince Dunn Actual draft pick: No. 56 (change: +38) My final ranking: Not ranked in my top 30 I was higher on Dunn than he was taken (I had him ranked 53rd) but this was a miss for me and for most NHL teams not named the St. Louis Blues. There were concerns ahead of the draft about Dunn’s attitude but he has since dispelled those and has taken all of the steps you’d like to see out of a CHL standout by dominating the AHL before stepping into the NHL to play a productive 17 minutes a night as a rookie. I’d like to see where his game goes in tougher minutes but there’s no questioning his talent or his tools anymore. 19. Detroit Red Wings: Jake DeBrusk Actual draft pick: No. 14 (change: -5) My final ranking: No. 27 (change: +8) The Bruins rightly took a lot of heat for the way they managed their back-to-back-to-back picks from 13- 15 in 2015, and they have almost certainly missed on Zach Senyshyn and Jakub Zboril, but they deserve some credit for reaching a little for DeBrusk and hitting on that pick. Even if there were clearly-better players still on the board (Barzal, Connor, etc.), turning a 14th-overall pick into a middle-six winger with some scoring touch and physicality is a success by most standards. I don’t think DeBrusk has a ton of room to grow beyond the valuable player we saw in the Bruins’ playoff run, but that’s good enough. 20. Minnesota Wild: Daniel Sprong Actual draft pick: No. 46 (change: +26) My final ranking: No. 16 (change: -4) This is the hill I’m willing to die on. After making the Penguins out of camp immediately after the draft (probably a year or two too early), Pittsburgh rightly sent him back to junior to iron out some kinks in his

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game. But just because he hasn’t found his way back and stuck doesn’t mean he’s not still going to be an excellent NHL player. I was extremely high on him during his draft year, shocked when he fell, and don’t have any real reason to bet against him today. This is a player who, since the day he was drafted, has done the following in all competitions (playoffs included) below the NHL level: QMJHL: 140 points in 88 games AHL: 73 points in 78 games All he does is score. His AHL All-Rookie Team nod was earned and I still think he’s got serious offensive upside at the next level as early as next season. He remains one of the more rawly gifted skaters and handlers in the 2015 class. 21. Ottawa Senators: Travis Dermott Actual draft pick: No. 34 (change: +13) My final ranking: Not ranked in my top 30 I had Dermott in the 50s and 60s on my draft board for most of 2014-2015 and I thought he was a little bit of a reach on draft day because he was a mediocre skater on a very talented team who hadn’t proven to by as dynamic as a good number of other CHL defensemen with the puck and tended to rely on his outlet pass a little too much. (Plus I was high on Konecny, who the Flyers moved up to take as the Leafs moved down.) So what did he do? Well, he became an excellent skater and transformed his game to become less of a pass-first zone-exit option and more of a handler. Dermott now looks like he’s got contributing second-pairing defenseman written all over him and that’s a win early in the second round for the Leafs. 22. Washington Capitals: Sami Niku Actual draft pick: No. 198 (change: +176) My final ranking: Not ranked in my top 30 Niku was an October 1996 birthday in a 1997 draft class who’d played well in Mestis but hadn’t yet been able to translate that in Liiga. I won’t lose too much sleep about this one but it is a lesson in paying closer attention to second-tier pro leagues, where legitimate prospects are often found (I’m looking at you this year, Jesse Ylonen). Niku’s an outstanding player now and yet another in a long list of standout prospects the Jets have lined up to support a team that is better-positioned moving forward than any other in the NHL. 23. Vancouver Canucks: Anthony Beauvillier Actual draft pick: No. 28 (change: +5) My final ranking: No. 25 (change: +2) Beauvillier is another player who I don’t think is done developing. He paced for 42 points over 82 games this year and that was while playing just 14:32 a night (18th on the Islanders in average time on ice). At 5-on-5, Beauvillier produced 1.76 points per 60 minutes this season, good for sixth among regular Islanders while remaining a positive influence on possession (+2.34 Rel CF%). There’s more there and he should progress into a 50-point player. 24. Philadelphia Flyers: Ilya Samsonov Actual draft pick: No. 22 (change: +2) My final ranking: N/A I didn’t include goalies in my ranking in 2015 but there’s no question Samsonov has defied the first- round goalie curse to date. His numbers in the KHL have remained elite for three consecutive seasons now and there’s a case to be made that he’s in the conversation as the best goalie not currently playing

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in the NHL. It’s only a matter of time until that changes, I’d think, but either way the Caps shouldn’t regret the leap of faith (and it is a leap of faith to draft goalies in the first round). 25. Winnipeg Jets: Colin White Actual draft pick: No. 21 (change: -4) My final ranking: No. 23 (change: -2) White’s first pro season was a disappointment but he also battled injuries, the transition to Belleville, and playing on one of the AHL’s worst teams. I still firmly believe he’ll become a contributing middle-six, two-way centre at the NHL level and an important piece for the Senators. There’s no denying his progression, since an all-world rookie season in the NCAA, hasn’t been as quick as it appeared it might be. Still, I expect big things from White. He does it all and it’s only a matter of time before that adjustment is made in the NHL. 26. Montreal Canadiens: Adam Gaudette Actual draft pick: No. 149 (change: +124) My final ranking: Not ranked in my top 30 The USHL has always been a relative blindspot for me (I don’t get the kinds of viewings of it that I’d like to) but Gaudette was an October 1996 birthday kid with middling gifts and 30 points (eighth on his team!) in 50 USHL games in his draft year so I’m not the least bit surprised he fell to the fifth round. Some players defy the odds. He’s one of them. Now, though, I think the Canucks might have found a gem. His college career was extremely impressive, even factoring in that he played with another elite college player in Dylan Sikura. I’m happy to file him with Sami Niku under ‘WHO KNEW!?’ 27. Anaheim Ducks: Christian Fischer Actual draft pick: No. 32 (change: +5) My final ranking: Not ranked in my top 30 Fischer finished at No. 42 on my ranking in 2015, which was higher than the consensus (Future Considerations had him 53rd, NHL Central Scouting had him 37th among North American skaters). This year, in his first full season in the NHL, he became a serviceable middle-six forward (seventh on the low- scoring Coyotes in points) who still has the ability to give more than he was able to on a bad team — as a rookie who played 13:54 a night no less. I like Fischer’s game a lot and see him becoming at least a 20- 20 guy who can reliably defend in all three zones. 28. New York Islanders: Pavel Zacha Actual draft pick: No. 6 (change: -22) My final rank: No. 13 (change: -15) I was lower on Zacha than just about everyone in the scouting community, and warned several colleagues against ranking him in the top-10, but I thought he had a little more to give offensively than we’ve seen to date (a 30-point pace as a sophomore) and I don’t think he’s done finding his offensive game just yet. Plus, by all accounts, he was given tough minutes with the Devils and handled them well, which is what he does best. 29. Columbus Blue Jackets: Joel Eriksson Ek Actual draft pick: No. 20 (change: -9) My final rank: Not ranked in my top 30 Eriksson Ek is a player who, as a draft prospect, I was cautiously optimistic about but not enough to make him a first rounder (he finished at No. 49 in my final ranking). At this point in the re-draft, he fits in the same nearly interchangeable group as all of the honourable mentions, but his track record in both

23

the SHL and the AHL relative to his peers give me enough confidence that he’s going to be more than the depth forward he was for the Wild this year. Still, I think he was a little bit of a reach at 20th overall. He was a joy to watch in last year’s SHL playoffs though. When he uses his strength to win battles and create plays off the wall he’s a lot to handle. 30. Arizona Coyotes: Oliver Kylington Actual draft pick: No. 60 (change: +30) My final rank: No. 14 (change: -16) I’ve still got a soft spot for Kylington, and explained why in my Calgary Flames prospect ranking earlier in the year. He was a steal at the time and that hasn’t changed for me, even if he’s slightly behind Rasmus Andersson on a deep Flames depth chart. Kylington has everything in a defenseman that I look for; he skates extremely well, he has learned to make smarter decisions with the puck and rely less on his skills than he did as a teenager, and he can create in transition as a handler or a passer. His defensive game — one of the factors which led to his fall — has also been polished nicely. Honourable mentions: Rasmus Andersson, Erik Foley, Denis Malgin, Mathieu Joseph, Troy Terry, Andrew Mangiapane, Jordan Greenway, Anthony Cirelli, Filip Chlapik, Markus Nutivaara, Evgeni Svechnikov, Jakob Forsbacka-Karlsson. All told, I’m pretty happy with how my ranking has looked in retrospect. I was right about players like Barzal, Werenski, Connor, and Konecny, and right to be higher than the consensus — even if I wasn’t high enough — on players like Rantanen, Boeser and Beauvillier. There are also a couple of players I was high on at the time (Sprong, Kylington) who haven’t yet shown it at the NHL level but whose production, alongside my viewings since, still show promise as significantly better prospects than where they were selected. And on the other side, there were also a few players that I was probably rightly lower on than most, including Zacha and Meier. Not included in the re-draft, are also all of the other players I was low on who were taken too high — and haven’t progressed since. They were, among others: Lawson Crouse (taken 11th overall), Zach Senyshyn (incomprehensibly taken 15th overall and ranked in my late third round at the time), Noah Juulsen (ranked 47th, taken 26th), and Denis Gurianov (ranked in my third round, taken 12th). But there were some misses too. Some, I’m happy to live with (Kaprizov, Gaudette, Niku) because they genuinely defied expectations. Others, were on me: Hanifin at No. 3, Strome at No. 4, Chabot at No. 26, Dermott in the 60s. And then there’s the big miss on Aho, a player I believed was a late second-round pick at best but who has since become one of the better players in the draft. Have any questions about why I ranked Player X ahead of Player Y in the re-draft? Leave them below.

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https://theathletic.com/353346/2018/05/16/home-cooking-not-for-the-washington-capitals-and-many- other-teams-this-spring/

The Athletic / Home cooking, not for the Washington Capitals and many other teams this spring By Scott Burnside – May 16, 2018

WASHINGTON, D.C. – So, consider this. The Washington Capitals lead the Eastern Conference final two games to one. The problem is they still have home-ice advantage. And now the rallying cry for the Capitals and their long-suffering fans must be: ‘we’ve got to find a way to win a game at home.’ Huh? How whacked is that? Unless the Caps can find a way to win in their own building where red-clad fans fill every seat every night, their chances of advancing to their first Stanley Cup final since 1998 is pretty much doomed. How counterintuitive is that? And they’re not alone in the wake of a 4-2 loss Tuesday night at the Capital One Arena that followed two straight wins for Washington in Tampa at Amalie Arena. No one, it appears, can win at home this spring. The road team is 3-0 in the East final and 1-1 in the West final. Last round Nashville and Winnipeg, two of the strongest home teams in the NHL whose buildings regularly fill opponents’ with dread, combined to go 2-5 in home games. Tampa and Boston combined for two home wins in five games. Overall, home teams are 34-38 in these playoffs. Tuesday, the Capitals squandered a chance to take a commanding 3-0 series lead because they were undisciplined and lost the special teams and goaltending battle. In Games 1 and 2 in Tampa when Washington outscored the Atlantic Division and Eastern Conference regular season champs 10-4, they did the exact opposite. “I don’t think it’s just us,” veteran Washington defenseman Brooks Orpik said when we asked why it is that the Capitals, now 3-4 at home this playoff spring, have found so little success where logic suggests you should have the most success. “I think if you league-wide I think the home team is under .500. But I don’t really have an explanation for it to be honest with you. “I know when we go on the road I think maybe we feel a little bit more relaxed and when we do make mistakes maybe we don’t let the groaning affect us or whatnot. I mean that being said I think we should be mentally stronger to not let that affect us but. Yeah. I don’t know. We just got to try to find a way to win the next one at home for sure.”

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Longtime NHL executive Laurence Gilman agreed in part telling The Athletic that he thinks that simplicity comes more easily for teams playing on the road while angst can sometimes dog the home team when things go sideways. “I think that during the playoffs the intensity rises significantly, particularly among the fans in a building,” Gilman said. “Consequently, the home team can get severely worked up, even tense. Sometimes it’s easier for the road team to execute a simplistic game plan.” OK. We get it. Maybe playing at home is like a drug. Once the high wears off the crash is profound. As one NHL coach noted after Tampa had built themselves a 3-0 early in the second period thanks to two power-play goals and Victor Hedman’s first of the post-season, there’s the pressure of being at home followed by a lack of energy if things don’t go right. Former Tampa great Martin St. Louis addressed the topic on Twitter saying he liked playing on the road because he got more ice time when his coaches didn’t worry about matching lines because they didn’t have last change. MY OPINION- I USE TO LOVE PLAYING ON THE ROAD BECAUSE MOST OF MY COACHES WOULDN'T WORRY ABOUT MATCHING LINES BECAUSE THEY DIDN'T HAVE THE LAST CHANGE-I ALWAYS FELT I PLAYED MORE ON THE ROAD. CHECKERS ON THE ROAD, CHESS AT HOME! I LIKE BOTH BUT CHECKERS IS MORE FUN! @NHL HTTPS://T.CO/SARDNBYDLP — MARTIN ST.LOUIS (@MSTLOUIS_26) MAY 16, 2018 Winnipeg head coach Paul Maurice, coming off a 3-1 loss at home Monday night to the Vegas Golden Knights that knotted the Western Conference final at one game apiece, admitted he had no real clue as to why it’s turned out like this. “Maybe it’s the structure, I haven’t done the math of the playoff format where you’re getting pretty powerful teams lining up against each other early,” Maurice told reporters. “No, other than the fact that the kids that come into the game now have become used to big stages, big performances, loud buildings at a younger age, maybe it doesn’t faze them. That’s the best I got.” Well, if it was Maurice’s best effort we thank him for that. Certainly the Lightning were the team that executed at a much higher level than they had at home and they got big nights from their big guns who had, for the most part, been silent at critical times in those first two games. Hedman made two splendid passes and Steven Stamkos and Nikita Kucherov both pounded home one- timers on the power play. Andrei Vasilevskiy, under siege for much of the first two games (he was replaced after 40 minutes in Game 1 with the Lightning trailing 4-0), was a rock turning aside 36 of 38 shots. The Capitals, conversely, weren’t as sharp and they didn’t finish on the scoring opportunities that came their way both early in the game when it was within reach and then later when they closed the gap to 3- 1 on a Brett Connolly goal midway through the second period. Not that it truly explains why these two teams are a combined 11-2 on the road now and a pedestrian 8- 7 in their own buildings. Tampa coach Jon Cooper insisted home-ice advantage matters only for Game 7. Everything else is a wash.

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“If you’re going to advance in the playoffs you’re going to have to win on the road at some point. But to me it’s all about, you get to play four games where you get the last change that ultimately comes down to Game 7,” Cooper said. “Other than I don’t think it matters where you play the games at any other time.” OK but tell that to a Nashville team that played all year for home-ice advantage throughout the playoffs and in Game 7 at home against Winnipeg spit the bit in a 5-1 loss. Washington coach Barry Trotz said what was obvious to most observers. “We were just off a little bit and you can’t be off in this game to have success,” Trotz said. “We’ll be better next game. We have to be better and that was probably, that was our weakest game of the series so far.” As for reversing the confusing, if not completely illogical trend of home teams failing to rise to the occasion and rather sinking likes stones, Trotz did appear to have an answer if not ‘the’ answer. “Just play the way we do on the road,” he said and it was hard to tell if he was kidding or not. “I mean we’re invested there, we’re playing with a real good focus. I didn’t think we were as focused as we have been normally on the road. Just pretend that you’re on the road. All the buildings are pretty much the same these days,” he said. Maybe that’s why coaches have throughout the history of the NHL playoffs have occasionally sequestered their teams even when they’ve been at home, checking them into hotels to limit the distractions and create a road-like experience even though they were preparing for a game in their own buildings. Maybe it’s something as simple as players don’t really care where they play during the playoffs because the desire to win each game is the same regardless of the locale and the gut-punch that comes with each loss is equally devastating regardless of where it’s played is the same. “I think you go in the playoffs it really doesn’t matter. That’s the way I look at it,” Tampa defenseman Anton Stralman told The Athletic in the nearly empty Lightning locker room. “It doesn’t matter which game you lose and which game you win if they’re home or away I think you step on the ice in any building and you want to have the best game you can have that night. I mean history tells us that it should be harder (on the road) but why? Why should it be? It’s still the same game and tonight I think we did a good job. We came out with a game plan we executed like we didn’t do in the first two games and it paid off. We know we have a good team we know we’re hard to beat when we play the way we want to and tonight was a good effort.” How about this, then? Maybe it’s not so much where you win or lose but how you respond to those events? “I think so. I think so,” Stralman said in agreement although maybe he was just eager to go and grab some food. “You get pushed up against the wall a little bit and you know you have to bring something more and something better. And you want to do it every night but sometimes it doesn’t go that way. Tonight we were able to pull it out.”

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https://theathletic.com/355542/2018/05/15/could-the-legalization-of-sports-betting-lead-to-labor- strife-in-the-nfl-mlb-and-other-leagues/

The Athletic / Could the legalization of sports betting lead to labor strife in the NFL, MLB and other leagues? By Exavier Pope – May 16, 2018

Monday’s Supreme Court ruling in Murphy vs. National Collegiate Athletic Association, which extinguished the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992 (PASPA), paved the way for the once unthinkable: legalized gambling in all 50 states. The ruling has raised many questions, some of them logistical — how will states regulate this new industry, for example — but the thornier issues surround (as always) how the money will get divided. The professional leagues have and will continue to demand a cut of the new revenue legalized gambling generates. And the NCAA could do the same. Simultaneously, the players’ unions for major sports leagues will also be working to ensure members get a sizeable slice of this new pie. Those negotiations have the potential to upend the labor peace in any (or all) of the major American sports leagues. Before getting to that possibility, some background on Monday’s ruling: What was PASPA? PASPA was not itself a direct federal ban on sports gaming. PASPA essentially prevented states from passing new laws regulating and taxing sports betting. Four states were initially made “exempt” from PASPA in that they were allowed to continue whatever measures previously passed up until a year after the law was signed into law on January 1, 1993. Nevada was granted the right to continue to regulate its then widespread existing sports books while Delaware, Montana and Oregon were permitted oversight over much more limited sports gaming through state lotteries and sports pools. So is betting now legal everywhere? The repeal of PASPA does not mean sports betting is now legal in all 50 states and the United States territories. It does open the door for either Congress to pass another bill regulating sports gaming or for states individually to pass their own laws. What is the expected economic impact of the ruling? The American Gaming Association (AGA) states 97 percent of the estimated $150 billion gambled on sports in the United States is bet illegally. It is highly speculative at this point to estimate how much of that $150 billion will be converted into legal wagering revenue given only 17 states besides Nevada are currently considering introducing sports betting legislation. It is also undetermined whether sports betting income will increase overall due to new legislation post PASPA. What are “Integrity Fees?” Regardless of what monies are ultimately generated by legal sports wagering, professional sports leagues see an additional revenue stream. Earlier this year, Major League Baseball and the National Basketball Association lobbied politicians in Iowa and New York and gave a snapshot of what an income stream to a professional sports league would look like.

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NBA Assistant General Counsel Dan Spillane submitted written testimony before the New York Senate Racing, Gaming, and Wagering Committee on January 24, 2018 outlining what many are dubbing an “integrity fee”: “To compensate leagues for the risk and expense created by betting and the commercial value our product creates for betting operators, we believe it is reasonable for operators to pay each league 1% of the total amount bet on its games. This approach draws from how sports betting is legally regulated in some other international jurisdictions, like Australia and France.” Paying for “integrity” sounds like a strange concept, but alas, here we are. One percent appears to be a small number in comparison to a potential $150 billion in revenues generated from a sports book. However, the “total amount bet” is not actual revenues. Total amount bet in casino terms is called “handle.” According to the American Gaming Association, 95 percent of the total amount bet goes to winning bets, while 3.5-5 percent equals revenue to sportsbooks. A one-percent slice of the handle would represent 20-40 percent of the real revenue generated by sportsbooks, amounting to over a billion dollars or more to professional sports leagues. Even if sports leagues don’t get that large a slice, the potential for new revenue is immense. How have professional athletes responded to the PASPA repeal? The four major professional sports league unions put out a joint statement specifically addressing “privacy rights,” protecting “integrity,” and demanding a “seat at the table” in response to the Supreme Court’s ruling. An important line in the statement states: “We cannot allow those who have lobbied the hardest for sports gambling to be the only ones controlling how it would be ushered into our businesses.” The unions are signaling they aren’t going to stand on the sidelines and let the leagues determine how gambling revenues are allocated. Would professional sports leagues have to share “Integrity Fees” with players under a CBA? Currently, the NBA is the only professional sports league to seemingly address splitting sports gaming revenues in its collective bargaining agreement in Article VII, Section 1(a)(1)(xxiii), including in Basketball Related Income (BRI), “all proceeds, net of Taxes, less reasonable and customary expenses…from gambling on NBA games or any aspect of NBA games.” The NBPA could give guidance to other professional sports unions to negotiate an amendment in their existing CBA to include a similar revenue sharing provision or clarify the language of its existing clause and use it as a benchmark. What about colleges and college athletes? The NCAA has not itself lobbied for an “integrity fee” to states promulgating sports gaming, but politicians in West Virginia have floated the idea that a slice of sports gaming revenues could go to its big state schools, Marshall and West Virginia. That could happen elsewhere, as many Power 5 schools hold a lot of sway in statehouses. The NCAA does not shy away from increasing its profits, but it will be interesting to see if the issues swirling around improper payments to athletes and an ongoing Department of Justice investigation into college basketball influence how the NCAA and its member schools proceed. And, taking gambling profits might only increase the calls for college athletes to be paid. For now, revenue from gambling would not change the status quo, as athletes would not get any of that money.

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Might professional athletes lobby Congress to get paid from sports betting? In a joint union lobbying effort, sports unions can lobby Congress and individual states to take an unprecedented step of legislating fee sharing between professional sports leagues and its players. A post-PASPA world where sports leagues and players unions are negotiating like they would an amendment to their collective bargaining agreement in public hearings are a real possibility. It’s highly doubtful professional sports leagues are interested in players receiving income-related information before merging it with the rest of their accounting. However, getting Congress or states to include integrity fee sharing between leagues and players would give players the benefit of a third party in lieu of relative legislation guaranteeing a share of the potential windfall. What about intellectual property rights? Sports betting revenues do not make up the entire economic equation. Betting sites are likely going to want to use the name, image, and likeness (NIL) of an individual player for bets such as: Who will be the NBA’s regular-season MVP? Any integrity fee could be expanded to an “integrity and rights fee” to include NIL. The upside of using an “integrity and rights fee” for players is it alleviates the cost and expense of an individual player using self-help compliance methods, such as when NFL wide receiver Pierre Garcon sued FanDuel in 2015 and reached a private settlement. Players unions advocating for a “seat at the table” could easily point to this case as an incentive to preclude gumming up the court system with a barrage of cases as well as give more freedom to operators to supply more games to generate tax revenue for the state implementing sports wagering legislation. It also further incentivizes lawmakers to implement a revenue split between leagues and unions at the state level. So how contentious could the battle over revenues get? In practice, changing the CBA on a contestable matter such as revenue depends on the willingness of each league. If the league’s refuse to do that and the government doesn’t address the players’ share of new revenues, things could get ugly. The NFL’s CBA expires in 2020, MLB’s in 2021, NHL’s 2022, NBA’s 2024. It is doubtful any of the players’ unions would wait until a collective bargaining agreement’s expiration to negotiate the allocation of this new revenue stream. They will lobby legislatures, fight with their leagues, or sue in court any entity that abridges their rights to their stake of future income.

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https://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/nhl/nhls-road-gambling-revenue-lengthy-despite-supreme-court- ruling/

Sportsnet.ca / NHL's road to gambling revenue lengthy despite Supreme Court ruling By John Shannon – May 16, 2018

More than 15 years ago, I was part of a meeting in the NBA head office in New York City, attended by then commissioner David Stern, and his assistant Adam Silver. In that meeting, Stern stated that pro sports leagues and their clubs were “running out of runway.” In other words, the conventional ways to generate revenue – tickets, television, advertising, merchandise – were close to full capacity. The challenge was to find new ways to generate cash, without passing all or any of the cost onto the paying customer or business partners. Certainly, the leagues have pushed into the digital world in a great way, and are now growing that part of the business, after considerable experimentation and investment. So it goes to reason that Monday’s United States Supreme Court ruling on sports gambling would be a great way of extending that “runway” as well. Not so fast. There are plenty of hurdles to pass, before revenue flows to the leagues and teams. And even then, there is no guarantee any money will flow that way, or at least substantially. The ruling allowed for all 50 states to control sports gambling in their own jurisdictions. Therefore, there could be 50 different sets of rules as it pertains to sports gambling. That’s assuming all the states will eventually legalize the activity. New York State, for example, still makes sports gambling illegal. There is also no guarantee that any sports gambling system requires the leagues to participate. The leagues, in an attempt to harness the states, will ask U.S. Congress to create a national framework in which the states’ sports gambling can work, in order to avoid multiple systems throughout the U.S. In simple terms, one system of how the gambling can work, as oppose to fifty. North American sports leagues control their intellectual property through copyrighted names, logos, video footage and proprietary data. There is little to no indication that the new sports gambling systems will require any of those elements. As we’ve seen in previous attempts (in Canada and in Nevada), using city names without any league affiliation is allowable, therefore no licensing is required. Bottom line is, the states don’t really need pro sports to participate in the program, in order for sports gambling to occur. It might enhance it. But it is not a necessity. Frankly, I’m not sure why the states would want to share the revenue. Also, don’t be surprised if the success of this activity relies on the prop bets; the ones that take little or no expertise, and can be initiated even after the game begins, particularly in an online environment. From a hockey perspective, we saw yesterday the league, and the players putting a stake in the ground on gambling. For example, from the NHL: “The Supreme Court’s decision today paves the way to an entirely different landscape – one in which we have not previously operated. We will review our current practices and policies and decide whether

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adjustments are needed, and if so, what those adjustments will look like. It’s important to emphasize that the Supreme Court’s decision has no immediate impact on existing League rules relating to sports wagering, and particularly, wagering involving NHL games. So, while changes may be considered in the future, today’s decision does not directly impact the operation of the League or any of our Clubs in the short term.” And from the NHLPA: “The Supreme Court’s decision today may well pave the way for increased, widespread, legalized gambling on sports throughout the United States. While this has the potential to have a positive impact upon sports, fans, and players, it is very important that players’ rights are protected in any new legislative schemes, including rights of privacy and publicity. We look forward, along with the other Players’ Associations, to being a vital part of that discussion.” Those words sound more like pre-CBA negotiations than they do about sports gambling. However, protecting the privacy of the athletes is important. Particularly when it comes to revealing injuries, which may or may not be required, if the leagues partner in the sports gambling business. One would have to assume that all monies (again, if any) raised from sports gambling would be considered part of hockey related revenue, which owners and players share 50/50. So it leads you to ask question, if the leagues don’t in fact get a cut of the revenue, how will the leagues and the clubs prosper? • Through potential higher TV ratings when you are interested in watching your wager develop? • In advertising, as gambling agencies want to buy air time to promote their business? • In sponsorship, as the states or privatized companies (assuming the states license theses companies) pay for association with pro teams? Perhaps, but don’t bet on it. Sorry, I couldn’t resist.

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https://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/nhl/patrick-kane-sets-team-usa-points-assists-records-2018-worlds/

Sportsnet.ca / Patrick Kane sets Team USA points, assists records at 2018 worlds By Mike Johnston – May 16, 2018

Patrick Kane hasn’t been a regular face at the annual IIHF World Championship throughout his career. Mostly it’s because he’s usually on a lengthy playoff run with the Chicago Blackhawks. This year, though, the Blackhawks failed to qualify for the post-season, so Kane decided to don the Team USA uniform and on Tuesday he broke the record for most points recorded by an American in a single tournament. Kane registered a goal and an assist in his team’s round-robin finale against Finland, bringing his tournament totals to six goals and 11 assists. The previous record was 16 points set by Richard Roberge way back in 1962. With a goal and an assist tonight, @88PKane has now set the U.S. record for both points (17) and assists (11) in a single IIHF Men’s World Championship. #2018MWC pic.twitter.com/Zod0mVOBEy — USA Hockey (@usahockey) May 15, 2018 Kane has only competed at the IIHF worlds once prior to this year, registering 10 points in seven games in 2008 following his NHL rookie season—the only other time his Blackhawks have missed the playoffs. In addition to the points record, Kane also set a new high mark for assists by an American in a single tournament with 11. The previous record of 10 was set by Montreal Canadiens star Max Pacioretty in 2012, then tied the following year by Nashville Predators forward Craig Smith. The United States ended up finishing second in Group B after a 6-2 loss to Finland on Tuesday, setting up a quarter-final matchup with a Czech Republic team that finished third in Group A. “It’s not a good feeling losing,” Kane said following the loss to Finland. “It could be good for us to make sure we won’t deal with this again and stay positive. We’re a good team, we’ve had a good tournament to this point. [The Czechs] have some talents, it will be a tough game against them.” Kane is currently tied with Finland’s Sebastian Aho for the tournament lead in points.

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https://www.tsn.ca/statistically-speaking-stars-lift-lightning-in-must-win-game-1.1086562

TSN.CA / Statistically Speaking: Stars lift Lightning in must-win game By Scott Cullen – May 16, 2018

Tampa Bay’s stars led the way to a crucial Game Three win at Washington; Hedman, Kucherov, Stamkos, Point and more in Scott Cullen’s Statistically Speaking. HEROES Victor Hedman – Tampa Bay’s top defenceman produced a goal and two assists on the way to a 4-2 Game Three win at Washington. After starting the playoffs by going five games without a point, Hedman now has 11 points (1 G, 10 A) during an eight-game point streak. Nikita Kucherov – The Lightning sniper recorded a goal and an assist in Game Three, giving him 16 points (7 G, 9 A) in 13 playoff games. Steven Stamkos – Tampa Bay’s scoring centre had a goal and an assist at Washington in Game Three and has 15 points (6 G, 9 A) in 13 playoff games. Brayden Point – The second-year Lightning centre also had a goal and an assist at Washington; he has 14 points (6 G, 8 A) in 13 postseason games. ZEROES Matt Niskanen – The Capitals blueliner had a tough time at 5-on-5 (10 for, 17 against, 37.0 CF%, 5-9 scoring chances) and was on the ice for one goal for and two against. He was also on the ice, with Brooks Orpik, for two Lightning power play goals. Braden Holtby – Washington’s netminder allowed four goals on 23 shots in a 4-2 Game Three loss to Tampa Bay. It was the first time this postseason that he has surrendered four goals in a game. STANLEY CUP HALF FULL/HALF EMPTY Evgeny Kuznetsov – Washington’s playmaking centre scored a goal and had 15 shot attempts (12 SOG) in the 4-2 Game Three loss against Tampa Bay. SHORT SHIFTS Capitals LW Alex Ovechkin launched 18 shot attempts (9 SOG) but couldn’t find the scoresheet in Game Three…Lightning G Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 36 of 38 shots in a 4-2 Game Three win at Washington, a bounce-back performance after posting a .839 save percentage in the first two games of the series.

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https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nhl/columnist/allen/2018/05/15/nhl-playoffs-lightning- capitals-steven-stamkos-andrei-vasilevskiy/614129002/

USA TODAY / Steven Stamkos' words, deeds get Lightning back into series against Capitals By Kevin Allen – May 16, 2018

Steven Stamkos first delivered the speech and then scored the goal that pushed the Tampa Bay Lightning back into the Eastern Conference final. With his team trailing 2-0 to the Washington Capitals in the best-of-seven series, Tampa Bay's captain said it was time for the Lightning to decide “who we really are.” He then showed what kind of leader he is by scoring a late first-period power play goal that launched the Lightning to a 4-2 road win in Game 3. The Capitals won the first two games of the series in Tampa because their top players were better than Tampa Bay’s best. On Tuesday, Tampa Bay’s best players were the ones taking charge to dismiss any notion that this series will be over quickly. Tampa Bay defenseman Victor Hedman, a Norris Trophy finalist, generated a goal and two assists. Nikita Kucherov, who had gone seven games without a goal, had a goal and assist. Brayden Point, another key offensive player, also scored. The other important player in the Tampa Bay equation was goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy, who was leaky in surrendering 10 goals over the first two games. Because he made the NHL at a young age, it’s easy to forget Vasilevskiy is 23 and is still sorting out the mental game and consistency required to be successful in the playoffs. But let the record show that when the Lightning needed him to rise up in this series, he did exactly that. He faced a combined 21 shots by Alex Ovechkin and Evgeny Kuznetsov and stopped 20 of them. The Lightning were even stronger against Washington goalie Braden Holtby, who hadn’t given up four goals this postseason before Tuesday. Stamkos finished with a goal and an assist, but also deserves credit for the win as Tampa Bay's leader. The Capitals had the momentum in this series. Their confidence was overflowing. The Lightning, outscored 10-4 in Tampa, desperately needed that first goal in Game 3 and Stamkos scored it for them. The Lightning needed a greater sense of urgency and Stamkos helped them find it. Captains are important in the NHL. They are expected to deliver strong words and big goals. Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper said Stamkos has grown into a strong captain. Stamkos has scored in every game of this series and has five goals in the last six playoff games. Washington fans were hoping the Capitals new-found swagger might allow them to be up 3-0 after Tuesday’s game. They seem to have forgotten that the Lightning were the Eastern Conference’s best team from October until April. They boast all of the elements necessary to win the Stanley Cup and are highly skilled. When their top players perform like they did in Game 3, they are difficult to subdue. The Capitals, with Kuznetsov and Ovechkin, are a dangerous team, but the Lightning were the No. 1 offensive team in the regular season.

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Instead of discussing a sweep, we might now be looking at a six- or seven-game series. The Capitals have been playing without key center Nicklas Backstrom, who is listed as day-to-day with a hand injury. The best guess is that the Capitals, holding the lead in the series, are trying to give Backstrom as much time as possible to heal. But after watching the way the Lightning came through in Game 3, wouldn’t you guess that Backstrom will attempt to play in Game 4?

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