News Clips Oct. 2, 2018

Columbus Blue Jackets PAGE 02: Columbus Dispatch: Defenseman Ryan Murray hampered by odd injury PAGE 04: The Athletic: No dramas: Blue Jackets get to 23 players far ahead of deadline

Cleveland Monsters/Prospects

NHL/Websites PAGE 07: The Athletic: LeBrun: 10 players who might be dealt before the trade deadline PAGE 09: The Athletic: Down Goes Brown: Oddly specific predictions for the 2018-19 season PAGE 12: Sportsnet.ca: Best NHL team money can buy under 2018-19 without ELCs PAGE 17: Seattle Times: With arena in hand, Seattle should expect a big, fat green light from the NHL on Tuesday PAGE 19: The Athletic: LeBrun: Seattle group set for important meeting with executive committee of NHL owners PAGE 21: TSN.CA: 31 Bold Predictions: Golden Knights will hoist

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Defenseman Ryan Murray hampered by odd injury By Adam Jardy, Columbus Dispatch – October 2, 2018

It has been an unfortunate reality that injuries have at least partially defined Ryan Murray’s tenure with the Blue Jackets. This latest one, though, has managed to set itself apart — both in how it occurred, and where. It came during the second preseason game of the year as the Jackets hosted Chicago at Nationwide Arena. Murray had already shaken off an earlier hard hit along the boards when a Blackhawks player, as he fell over, had the heel of his skate strike the defenseman in a sensitive area. It wasn’t until he got to the bench that Murray, who knew he was injured, realized the kick to the groin could have been much worse. “When it first happened I was kind of (ticked) off,” he said after Monday’s practice. “Such a freak thing, and then I got to the bench and everyone was like, ‘Are you cut?’ The trainers explained it to me that I was pretty lucky.” It was enough to knock Murray out for the remainder of the exhibition slate and rob the Blue Jackets of another key defenseman in the process. Monday, though, he was on the main ice at Nationwide Arena as coach John Tortorella put the players through their paces with an eye on Thursday’s season opener at Detroit. Whether Murray will play against the Red Wings remains to be seen. Getting back on the ice marked progress, and Tortorella described him “day to day” for the first time since the injury. “It felt pretty good,” Murray said. “I just have to dial in a few things a little bit, get the lungs back, all that stuff. I feel like I’m feeling pretty good right now.” In order to meet roster compliance rules, Murray was placed on injured reserve Monday retroactive to Sept. 18, the day of the Chicago game. Tortorella said he hadn’t yet spoken with the trainers about Murray’s day immediately after practice but that he could potentially be in the lineup against the Red Wings. He also dodged a bullet — or rather a puck — inadvertently sent by Cam Atkinson. “He got hit in the head and thought he was going to go down but he stood in there and didn’t miss any type of repetition,” Tortorella said. “We did a defensive zone drill as far as trying to play tired (and) he was tired because he has been off for a little bit, but he’s in good shape.” The second overall pick in the 2012 draft, Murray has shown flashes of living up to that standing but has had his career stunted by injuries. After playing in 66 games as a rookie in 2013-14, Murray has played in 60 games or fewer in three of the last four seasons, including 44 last year before entering the preseason feeling ready to go. He is a player Tortorella has been watching closely this preseason. “He has shown me … he just has a different mental attitude as far as how to approach the game,” the coach said. “Very important guy for us, because he was playing the way we know he can. That would be a good jolt for us, if he’s able to play (Thursday).” Roster moves

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The Blue Jackets sent forward Kevin Stenlund to their affiliate in Cleveland and placed forward Alex Broadhurst on waivers for the purpose of also sending him to the Monsters. Forward Jonathan Davidsson was assigned to Djurgardens IF in the Swedish Hockey League and defenseman Seth Jones was placed on injured reserve retroactive to Sept. 25, when he suffered an MCL injury that will sideline him for four to six weeks. The moves give the Jackets 14 forwards and seven defensemen.

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No dramas: Blue Jackets get to 23 players far ahead of deadline By Aaron Portzline, The Athletic – October 2, 2018

COLUMBUS, Ohio — That wasn’t so hard after all. The Blue Jackets trimmed their roster to 23 active players Monday, more than 24 hours ahead of the 5 p.m. Tuesday deadline, and there were exactly zero surprises. Forwards Markus Hannikainen, Sonny Milano and Lukas Sedlak survived the final cuts, as the Blue Jackets sent center Kevin Stenlund to AHL Cleveland and returned right winger Jonathan Davidsson to Djurgardens of Sweden. Another forward, Alex Broadhurst, was placed on waivers and will head to Cleveland if he clears waivers at noon Tuesday. He missed most of camp with an undisclosed injury. The Blue Jackets will open the season Thursday in Detroit with 14 forwards, seven defensemen and two goaltenders, although there’s still time for movement. That’s especially true on defense, where injuries in the latter half of training camp have caused a disruption. Gabriel Carlsson, Adam Clendening and Dean Kukan all survived final cuts because three players — Seth Jones (knee), Ryan Murray (groin) and Scott Harrington (head) — are currently out of the lineup. It looked pretty clear Monday, however, that Murray is closer to a return. He’s been out two weeks since getting kicked in the groin, but his skating looks good. His lungs, he said, are a different story. “I’ve got to get my conditioning back up,” Murray said. “I’ve been sitting on a couch for a few weeks now.” Murray was placed on injured reserve, but the move was made retroactively to Sept. 18, meaning he could be activated at any time. At this point, it would be a mild surprise if he isn’t in the lineup against the Red Wings. Harrington is in the NHL’s concussion protocol, John Tortorella said, but he has not yet been placed on injured reserve. If the Blue Jackets need a roster spot to put Murray, if he’s activated for the opener, they could simply place Harrington on IR. The Blue Jackets also showed an interesting new look on the power play. The entire No. 1 forward line is now on the top unit, with center Pierre-Luc Dubois taking over for Alex Wennberg. What’s changed is the Blue Jackets’ breakout, how they enter the zone, so it was difficult to get a read on which player was setting up on which half-wall. But this seems a good guess: • The top unit had Zach Werenski on the point, with Cam Atkinson (left) and Artemi Panarin (right) on the half-walls, Dubois in the mid-slot and Nick Foligno down low. So, Foligno has replaced Wennberg at net-front, and Dubois is taking Foligno’s spot in the mid-slot. • The second unit had Murray on the point — another hint that he’s likely returning — with Anthony Duclair (left) and Oliver Bjorkstrand (right) on the half-walls, Boone Jenner at mid-slot and Wennberg down low. Notebook

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• Former Blue Jackets forward Scott Hartnell announced his retirement Monday, ending a 17-year career that was full of color. Hartnell spent three seasons with the Jackets (2014-15 to 2016-17) and totaled 64-82-146 in 234 games. His contract was bought out after the 2016-17 season. • Hartnell is one of many players to stay in Columbus after his playing days. He and his wife, Katie, live in . Atkinson said he was heading over to help Hartnell celebrate Monday evening. “I love that guy,” Atkinson said. “I call him my favorite player on and off the ice. Him and I became best buddies right from the get-go. He sat right next to me in the locker room for a long time. It was great having him as a teammate, just because he kept everyone loose. It’s crazy what he’s accomplished in this league — he never won a Cup, but he’s played 1,300 games, he scored a lot of goals, he’s got a lot of points and he did it the hard way his whole career.” • Atkinson was emotional speaking about Hartnell. Here’s more of what he said, when asked about the impact he had on the Blue Jackets organization: “He came in when times were pretty tough, and he helped change the culture, little by little. We had (a team) at the time where it was ‘all about me, I’m all about me,’ and he really sat down with us as a group. There were little things, like respecting the veterans. It was obviously a different time period when he came into the league to where it is now, where he was the youngest guy and 35-plus-year-old players and now it’s the other way around. So little things like that and always playing the right way, practicing the right way and keeping it loose, that’s what I got from him.” • Here’s Tortorella on Hartnell: “Great career. I loved coaching him. Obviously, at certain times, we had our ups and downs together, but I loved coaching him, really respected him … not only when I was coaching him, but when I was opposing him. He’s had a hell of a career. I wish him nothing but the best. That’s a great career — how hard he played for how long he did. I have a tremendous amount of respect for him.” • More Tortorella on Hartnell, when asked if any memories stood out: “He was a pain in the ass in Philly for me when I was coaching, maybe with the Rangers. He was always yapping at me, and that was when he had the long hair. Memories for me are Scotty played the game the right way. Not a great skater. Certainly, wasn’t overly skilled — really good hockey player. He found a way to make a difference each and every night when he played. I think a lot of young players can look at him and see he’s not the most gifted, but he had a will about him and that’s what I respect about him.” • Hartnell was always a throwback, like he should have played in the 1970s and ’80s when characters ruled the day and skating wasn’t of utmost importance. Throughout the course of his career, Hartnell made the leap from pure character to character guy. He really helped the Blue Jackets mature when he arrived after the 2013-14 season. “I just think he had a great personality,” Tortorella said. “He had personality on the ice. I think he became a really good leader as he’s gone through his career. But I just like the way, the old school in him. We don’t have enough of the old-school character guys that weren’t afraid to show personality. We don’t have enough and we’re going to lose another one in Scotty.” • Former Blue Jackets forwards Sam Gagner — remember THAT power play? — was placed on waivers by Vancouver on Monday, only one year after the Canucks signed him to a three-year, $9.45 million contract. • The Red Wings sent highly touted prospect forward Filip Zadina to minor-league Grand Rapids on Monday, so don’t look for him in the lineup Thursday. Zadina was the sixth overall selection in the draft last June.

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• Carolina, whom the Blue Jackets play in the home opener Friday, might be without starting goaltender Scott Darling after he suffered a lower-body injury in the exhibition finale Sunday. Petr Mrazek could be the Hurricanes’ starter for the foreseeable future. Here’s what the Blue Jackets’ roster looks like: FORWARDS (14) Josh Anderson, Cam Atkinson, Oliver Bjorkstrand, Brandon Dubinsky, Pierre-Luc Dubois, Anthony Duclair, Nick Foligno, Markus Hannikainen, Boone Jenner, Sonny Milano, Riley Nash, Artemi Panarin, Lukas Sedlak, Alexander Wennberg. DEFENSE (7) Gabriel Carlsson, Adam Clendening, Scott Harrington, Dean Kukan, Markus Nutivaara, David Savard, Zach Werenski. GOALTENDER (2) Sergei Bobrovsky, Joonas Korpisalo. INJURED RESERVE D Seth Jones (knee), G Matiss Kivlenieks, D Ryan Murray (groin).

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The Athletic / LeBrun: 10 players who might be dealt before the trade deadline By Pierre LeBrun, The Athletic – October 2, 2018

The trade deadline isn’t until Feb. 25, but it’s never too early to look at players who could potentially be on the move. After all, the three-team, Matt Duchene blockbuster trade went down last November, so while the salary cap era traditionally has pushed most in-season trade activity closer to the deadline, there’s always potential for a few big ones before that. And it just so happens that Duchene enters the season once again with an uncertain future. Here’s a look at 10 players who might be dealt before Feb. 25: Artemi Panarin, Columbus Blue Jackets: What a gut shot for the organization it was last June when the Blue Jackets found out Panarin wasn’t open to signing an extension. He’s a UFA next July and all indications are that his next signature won’t be on a Blue Jackets contract. So what now? The 26-year- old winger is among the NHL’s most dynamic scorers and has generated a number of calls from other teams this past summer but Columbus GM Jarmo Kekalainen so far has stood pat. No doubt Kekalainen wants to see how the season starts before going down that road. Does he keep Panarin all season hoping for deep playoff run then let him walk after the season? That doesn’t seem like a prudent way to play it. Stanley Cup contenders will be lining up for this electrifying rental. Matt Duchene, : No. 1 centres are a rare commodity on the in-season trade market but it might potentially be two years in a row that Duchene gets moved. The 27-year-old pending UFA kept the door open for all options when I asked him about his future in early September. But we all saw how he reacted when Zack Smith was waived last week, Duchene was not a happy camper. The Senators, meanwhile, through owner have announced an aggressive rebuild and roster turnover, so where does that leave Duchene? While I know Ottawa is in proximity to this native Haliburton, which is a major plus for Duchene, it’s still hard to see how Duchene stays long term. I could be wrong, mind you, but that’s my gut feeling on this one. Trade deadline move. Sergei Bobrovsky, Columbus Blue Jackets: See a pattern here? Seems unfair to a Jackets organization that has done some good work building a competitive squad over the past few years but unless there’s a change in contract talks, sure doesn’t seem like the perennial Vezina Trophy contender, UFA July 1, is going to be staying past this season. Unless of course, either side blinks in contract talks. The belief is that Bobrovsky’s camp has asked for big money, and hey, why not given his pedigree, and given that his peer Carey Price is making $10.5 million a season now. I just don’t see Columbus paying double digits. Again, the difficult part here for the Jackets is what to do with their star goalie if they’re once again in a playoff spot. Can you really take a knee on the season at that point? But can you also let this guy walk away for nothing July 1? Just a brutal position to be in. Also a factor, despite how talented he is, the goalie trade market, especially in-season, is so difficult to predict. Really unless a major injury occurs, how many contenders are going to come calling even if it’s a guy of Bobrovsky’s pedigree? Mark Stone, Ottawa Senators: If you’re a Blue Jackets or Senators fan you’re not enjoying this piece so far. I still think there’s a chance Stone could sign an extension and stay put. Word is there had been some prelimary discussions on an eight-year contract this past summer but it didn’t come to pass then. If you’re the Senators you have to try to make Stone part of your rebuild, he’s a homegrown player, an absolute stud, as popular a player as there is in the market. Because Stone signed a one-year deal (worth $7.35 million) in August, he can’t sign a new extension until January at the earliest. While Panarin would be the top winger on the trade market, if Stone ends up available later this season, he wouldn’t be far behind. And I wonder if Vegas wouldn’t get in there. Golden Knights assistant GM Kelly

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McCrimmon had Stone in the WHL with Brandon. There’s a relationship there. If not the trade market, certainly come free agency I think Vegas would inquire. Before we get there, however, I still think we’ll see another push from Ottawa to sign Stone. Mats Zuccarello, : The rebuilding Rangers will have a few potential pieces to move come February and unless they surprise and contend for a playoff spot this season, the 31-year-old pending UFA will be the most attractive piece. The Norwegian winger could be a nice consolation prize for contenders falling short on Panarin. By the way, pending UFAs Kevin Hayes and Adam McQuaid could also be on the move before the deadline. Gustav Nyquist, : The 29-year-old forward is a UFA July 1 and while he’s hardly an aging asset, given where the Red Wings are headed with their rebuild it probably doesn’t make sense to spend future cap space on him unless it’s a short-term deal. I’m not saying the Red Wings wouldn’t do that but I just feel like this is headed for a trade before Feb. 25, mind you the Swedish forward has a no- trade clause so he has a say in it. He’d be the kind of guy that would fit in well in a place like San Jose, in my mind, if the all-in Sharks want to add depth to their top-nine group. Jordan Eberle, : Eberle is entering the final season of that six-year, $36-million deal he signed in Edmonton in 2012. Where does the perennial 25-goal scorer fit in the plans of new Isles GM Lou Lamoriello? Eberle is one of eight pending UFAs on the team, including the likes of top-six forwards Brock Nelson and Anders Lee. What’s interesting is that Lamoriello sometimes over the years has resisted moving pending UFAs for picks and instead try to use the extra time to sign them. But given the crater John Tavares left behind after walking out the door this past July 1, one has to assume either some of these pending UFAs are signed to extensions before Feb. 25 or dealt. And Eberle, 28, would seem like a potential trade deadline player moved. Alexander Edler, : The 32-year-old defenceman is a UFA July 1 and given the Canucks’ youth movement, I can’t see him sticking around. He’s got a full no-trade clause so he will have a major say in what ends up happening before Feb. 25 (Canucks fans remember Dan Hamhuis being in a similar position). But should Edler be interested in joining a Cup contender (and helping improve his stock for July 1), the Canucks might do ok on a return if there aren’t that many blueliners on the market. Jimmy Howard, Detroit Red Wings: Bobrovsky’s potential presence on the trade market later this season would not be good news for the Red Wings in their attempts to perhaps find a home for the pending UFA netminder Howard. The goalie market is normally tight as it is barring a slew of injuries. Bobrovsky re-signing in Columbus during the season would be the greatest news of all for Detroit. Eric Staal, : I have him last on this list because I think he’s the least likely to be dealt. There have already been preliminary discussions between both sides about getting together and talking extension at some point. What an absolute bargain his $3.5-million salary has been for the Wild as his 42-goal season showed last year. Just a great signing by former GM Chuck Fletcher back in July 2016. The pending UFA no question would be interested in staying put and signing an extension. His family is happy in Minnesota. But what makes sense on a new deal? If he remains unsigned by February and the Wild aren’t in a playoff spot (not saying they won’t be) then what? Staal, by the way, has a partial no- trade clause (10-team No list). But I predict he’s more likely to re-sign and stay put.

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The Athletic / Down Goes Brown: Oddly specific predictions for the 2018-19 season By Sean McIndoe, The Athletic – October 2, 2018

Predicting what’s going to happen in the NHL is all but impossible in an age of parity that borders on coin-flipping. You can choose to play it safe and stick with stating the obvious – Connor McDavid will score a lot, the Lightning will win a lot, the Senators not so much – but nobody is giving you any credit for that. Plus you’ll still probably find a way to be wrong. As futile as the whole thing might be, we all keep trying. It’s pretty much mandatory. And when we inevitably miss, our kind readers are right there to remind us all about it. But I’ve always figured that if you’re going to be wrong, at least be really wrong. So whenever I do preseason predictions, I like to make them as specific as possible. Anyone can point to a team and say they’ll make or miss the playoffs. Let’s try to pick the exact date for their 17th win. I’ve been doing this in some form or other for years, and you may be wondering how many have actually turned out to be right. To be honest, not many. But every now and then the blind squirrel finds a nut – check out the double-pronged beauty on the two years ago – and that’s where the fun comes in. So with a new season just a few days away, let’s dial up another round of Oddly Specific Predictions for every team in the league. As always, no warranty of accuracy is expressed or implied. Ottawa Senators – Erik Karlsson’s return with the on Dec. 1 stands as the hottest ticket of the season in Ottawa. But it’s Thomas Chabot who scores the winner that night, leading to a barrage of torch-passing narratives. – I picked Casey Mittelstadt as my Calder winner earlier in the preseason. He’s, uh, not exactly giving off that vibe based on training camp, but what the hell, let’s say he recovers to win a close race over Elias Pettersson. Hopefully the league doesn’t decide this one with a novelty raffle wheel. – After torpedoing their 2017-18 season before it even got off the ground with an 11- game losing streak, the Coyotes flip the script by starting off this year 4-0-0. – He’s running out of time at 36-years-old, so let’s make this the year that Mike Smith becomes the first goalie in NHL history to score a second, regular-season shoot-and-score goal. – Every year, I like to take a team that seems on the verge of a big move in either direction and pick them to annoy everyone by finishing with the same record as last year. The 92-point Stars fit the bill this season. – If the Hawks are as bad as many seem to think they could be, it’s going to be a tough season in Chicago, and they’ll need someone to take out their frustrations on. Luckily, the schedule-maker serves up an old rival in the Blues four times in the season’s first six weeks. Let’s circle that fourth meeting, in Chicago on November 14, and say that something ugly happens. Maybe not a massacre, mind you, but something. – The Avalanche tied for the fewest shootouts in the league last year, with just three. This year, they have that many by the end of October.

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Toronto Maple Leafs – Which of the big guns leads the team in scoring, Auston Matthews or John Tavares? Neither, as Mitch Marner sneaks past both to claim the crown (and eventually a huge new contract). – After rolling to three straight Metro Division titles, this edition of the Capitals fall all the way to third. Absolutely nobody in Washington cares. Detroit Red Wings – Ken Holland tries really, really hard to make it through the season without replacing Jeff Blashill with Dan Bylsma. He fails, and the change is made in January. – They’re the easiest team in the league to predict, since everyone already has them locked into fourth place in the Atlantic. So it goes without saying that they won’t wind up there; instead, they sneak past one of the division’s Big Three and into third place. Columbus Blue Jackets – They decide that going through the season with two star players about to hit UFA status just isn’t workable. So they make it three, pulling off a mid-season trade for Matt Duchene. Here’s hoping that works out better for them than for the last team that tried it. – Ilya Kovalchuk leads the NHL in goals through the first month. He doesn’t stay there, but it’s fun while it lasts. – The Golden Knights will open their season by hosting the Flyers on Thursday. Sorry, I just want to know what it feels like to get a prediction about this team right for the first time in my life. Montreal Canadiens – Max Domi meets and maybe even exceeds expectations, cracking the 25-goal mark for the first time in his career. He just doesn’t do much of that as a center. – The Ducks are this year’s Blackhawks – the perennial contender with the aging roster that finally falls hard – but John Gibson almost single-handedly keeps them in the playoff hunt. It’s not enough to get him the Vezina, but it does make him the rare goalie to earn a top-ten finish in Hart voting. St. Louis Blues – I’m not sure whether Robby Fabbri will ever get healthy enough to be the player we all hoped he would be, but I’m willing to pencil him in as a 2019 Masterton finalist. – Slowly but surely, Juuse Saros takes over the number one job from reigning Vezina champ Pekka Rinne and is the starter by the first game of the playoffs. Wait, is this entry just being used to set up an even more ridiculous part two? – I like the Flyers a lot this year, but don’t trust their goaltenders. I could see Ron Hextall feeling the same way. Midseason trades for starting goaltenders are rare, and often don’t work out. (Remember Ryan Miller to the Blues?) A bigger question is who might be available for Hextall to go out and get as a short-term stop gap. Even in a format that encourages me to be spectacularly wrong, I don’t have the guts to suggest something crazy like the Flyers trading for Rinne. Or do I? Vancouver Canucks – I didn’t pick him for the Calder, so I’ll make it up to Canucks fans here. Pettersson scores a hat trick in his first NHL game. – Last year I predicted that Brad Marchand wouldn’t hit the 30-goal mark, and Bruins fans spent the entire season sending me updates about how wrong I was. So this year, I’ll predict that Marchand hits the 40-goal mark for the first time, just to make those fans feel conflicted when I’m wrong again. – Taylor Hall’s point total drops by roughly 20. But Nico Hischier’s goes up by the same amount.

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Minnesota Wild – The Wild have made the playoffs six straight seasons, but I think this is the year they get muscled out in a tough Central. However, Eric Staal does make it back to the postseason, as the team flips him to a contender at the deadline in a deal that nets them a first-round pick. – Their second-round matchup with the Maple Leafs is the most hyped playoff series in recent memory. Then it ends in a sweep. – Sidney Crosby has followed his 2013-14 MVP season with four straight years with point totals in the 80s. This feels like the year he has a drop to something like 75, we all panic about whether he’s still an elite force, and then it turns out to be a temporary blip. San Jose Sharks – With Erik Karlsson and Brent Burns on the same roster, who’ll lead the loaded blueline in scoring? Both, as they finish the season in a dead heat. New York Rangers – With the rebuild clearly underway, everyone is already expecting guys with expiring deals like Kevin Hayes and Mats Zuccarello to be moved at the deadline. Since those wouldn’t exactly be gutsy predictions, let’s go one further: What if the Rangers were willing to retain enough salary to make a healthy Kevin Shattenkirk seem like an asset worth acquiring for a contender who needed help on the right side of the blueline? – The Hurricanes finally have the breakout season we’ve all been waiting for, and since they have a rookie head coach, that means Rod Brind’Amour has to be a finalist for Coach of the Year honors. It ends up being one of those choices that doesn’t age well. –Having Patrik Laine win the Rocket Richard doesn’t seem like an especially bold prediction at this point, since almost everyone seems to be picking him. So let’s go a step further and give him a specific total. He scores 54, setting the all-time Winnipeg NHL record for most goals by a player who isn’t Teemu Selanne. New York Islanders – Josh Ho-Sang is back in the NHL and putting up big numbers by January. (Careful readers will note that I didn’t say anything about it being with the Islanders.) – We’ll close with one that we should maybe file under “Overly specific wishful thinking” instead, but I can’t help myself: The Oilers return to the playoffs, and set up an opening-round matchup with the Flames in the first postseason Battle of Alberta since 1991.

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Sportsnet.ca / Best NHL team money can buy under 2018-19 salary cap without ELCs By Mike Johnston, Sportsnet.ca – October 2, 2018

Summer is over and the rush of adrenaline NHL fans got from the draft, free agency and subsequent trades has faded. Teams are back on the ice, knocking off the rust in pre-season and rosters will soon be finalized as the games begin to count this week. Not only do all 31 general managers have to put together the most competitive team possible with the parts they’re working with, they have to stay on budget. Some GMs navigate the salary cap like a Sherpa scaling the Himalayas. Others not so much. Look at Detroit’s predicament right now for example. This isn’t meant as a critique of Ken Holland but what the Red Wings are currently spending relative to the talent up and down their roster is askew whereas Tampa Bay has as much talent as any team in the league and they’ve still got room to add a quality piece or two if required. This year’s salary cap was set at $79.5 million, so as a fun little exercise before the regular season gets underway we wanted to see just how star-studded a cap-compliant roster could be under 2018-19 restrictions. The NHL prides itself on parity but with a hard cap it’s tough realistically building a team so loaded to the gills with stars that it’s ostensibly an all-star team – *cough* NBA *cough* soft cap *cough* *cough* – but it is possible. We decided to sift through every NHL roster, put on our cap management caps (whoa, a cap cap!) and see which players have the most bang-for-your-buck value. To make things more difficult we excluded players on entry-level deals. Otherwise you’d end up with a videogame-calibre squad that would require little in-depth thought to assemble. With the average age of NHLers getting slightly younger each year, the inherent value of players on ELCs continues to grow. That means you could have McDavid, Crosby, Ovechkin, Hedman, Doughty and Price as your core then sprinkle in the likes of Laine, Matthews, Marner, Boeser, Barzal, Provorov, Werenski and other young studs and still fit everyone under the cap. That’s not as fun a task and there’s actually no guarantee that team would be better than what we’ve come up with. There are no pigeons, no pylons, only beauties on this team. The first question you might have is: how can you build any type of best hockey team without including the consensus best player? Here’s some math. Connor McDavid had a cap hit of $925,000 in 2017-18. He registered a league-high 108 points which means the Oilers paid $8,564.81 (rounded to the nearest cent) for each McDavid point. Let’s say, for argument’s sake, McDavid scores 108 points again this season. On his new $12.5-million cap hit, each point would cost the Oilers $115,740.74. It’s also why Sidney Crosby, whose $8.7-million AAV is absurd value, didn’t make the roster. Instead, we went with a bit of a Golden Knights approach and focused on depth of attack instead of front-loading a team with superstars.

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Here’s a breakdown of why these specific lines and pairings were put together and what they bring to the table. LINE 1 Taylor Hall – Mark Scheifele – Nikita Kucherov Even if you were to create an All-World roster of the absolute best hockey players on the planet at this moment and you were given zero salary restrictions, it’s highly probable each of these three stud forwards would make the cut. Kucherov is coming off his first 100-point campaign and has finished top eight in Hart voting two years running, Hall is the reigning Hart Trophy winner, while Scheifele is regarded by hockey insiders as an unheralded superstar. All three made appearances on our “Top 100 NHL Players of 2018–19” list with Kucherov, Hall and Scheifele coming in at No. 10, No. 11 and No. 13 respectively. This line has speed for days with few wingers able to make high-level skill plays at the velocity at which both Hall and Kucherov operate and few have the hockey IQ Scheifele possesses. Hall had 41 more points than his next closest Devils teammate in 2017–18, so we can only imagine what he’d be like playing beside two elite talents. When building a team like this it becomes rather difficult to maintain depth if you have more than a handful of players whose cap hits exceed $6 million. Hall is right at that number and will be for the next two seasons. Scheifele is locked in at a cap hit just north of Hall’s on a deal Kevin Cheveldayoff can hang his hat on until it expires in 2024. Kucherov has one more year on his bargain sub-$5-million cap hit before his well-earned eight-year, $76-million deal kicks in at the start of next season. The Russian is a left shot who plays on his off-wing but his usual centre is , a righty. Stamkos doesn’t have trouble getting Kucherov the puck and vice versa so we’re confident him and Scheifele would thrive. Connor McDavid, Evgeni Malkin, Sidney Crosby and Patrick Kane are the only players with a better points per game average than Kucherov over the past three seasons. Those four stars happen to have each won the Hart. Could that be a sign of things to come for Kucherov? If he continues to improve year- over-year like he has then it’s only a matter of time. These are the three most offensively gifted forwards on the roster so putting them on the top line was an easy choice. LINE 2 Brad Marchand – Aleksander Barkov – Rickard Rakell Our first line is all about offence but our second line gets it done in their own end while still putting goals on the board. Say what you will about his frequent cheap shots and aptitude for confusing human faces for tootsie pops but Marchand’s production is undeniable. The pesky Bruins star is behind only Alex Ovechkin and Vladimir Tarasenko in total goals since 2015-16 and is second in even-strength tallies over that stretch. His $6.125-million hit is tied with Scheifele’s as our most expensive salary but it remains an absolute steal. He has the luxury of playing on the NHL’s most dominant line with Patrice Bergeron and David Pastrnak, and when he represents Team Canada swap Pastrnak for Crosby. Marchand is accustomed to and knows how to play with smart players because he’s one himself. That’s why we figure he and Barkov would gel so well.

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The depth of this roster and the fact we have multiple centres capable of playing a shutdown role would free up Barkov to show off more of his offensive chops. He isn’t a point-per-game-player just yet (he had a career high 78 points in 79 games last season) yet this Finn has perhaps the league’s most underappreciated skill set — at least when it comes to centres. “He’s our best player, game in and game out,” Panthers GM Dale Tallon said this off-season when Barkov was named team captain. “Nobody works harder off-ice, his preparation is second to none and his attention to detail is second to none. He’s just 23 years old. He’s an amazing young man.” Put Barkov between a pair of 34-goal scorers from a year ago and you get magic. The Ducks have a few contracts on their roster they probably regret at this point; Rakell’s is not one of them. The Swede was one of 22 players to score at least 34 times in 2017-18 and Rakell had a lower cap hit than all with the exception of William Karlsson and Anders Lee, plus Patrik Laine, Connor McDavid and Auston Matthews, all of whom were on entry-level deals. Play the Sportsnet Fantasy Hockey Pool for your chance to score big with over $30,000 worth of prizes to be awarded! LINE 3 Max Pacioretty – Sean Couturier – Ondrej Kase With Couturier we’ve got one of the elite shutdown centres in the NHL. The Flyers standout finished second in Selke voting this past season and also had a career high 31 tucks and 76 points. It doesn’t get much better than that when it comes to two-way play. His cap hit is lower than other budget-friendly third-line centre options we considered like Nazem Kadri ($4.5 million AAV) and Mikael Backlund ($5.35 million AAV). Just like Philly’s new mascot, Couturier’s grit level is plentiful. Exhibit A? The former Drummondville Voltigeurs star had five goals and nine points in five playoff games last season, including a five-point effort during which he played through a torn MCL! Pacioretty has been on one of the NHL’s best value contracts since 2013 and his cap hit is only going to cost Vegas a hair above $4 million this season. You can play him in all game situations and that’s why he earned a big raise that’ll kick in next season. Kase is a relative unknown compared to his teammates here but as Sportsnet’s Rory Boylen pointed out this summer he’s a breakout candidate to watch this season. He finished eighth in goals per 60 minutes at 5-on-5 and at just 22 he’s bound to keep improving. (Note: Pacioretty’s AAV is $4.5 million but $450,000 of his 2018-19 salary was retained by the Canadiens in the trade so that’s why he’s listed at $4.05 million here. Even with Pacioretty’s full $4.5-million hit this team would remain under the cap.) LINE 4 Yanni Gourde – Radek Faksa – Josh Anderson Putting together an all-star-calibre team without going over budget and without the aid of ELCs means we needed a budget line and we think we’ve got a good one here. Realistically, this could be a solid second line on certain teams in the league right now. Keeping with the mindset that we want a well-rounded team, Faksa flourishes in his own zone and when the opposition has the puck. The 13th-overall pick from 2012 is coming into his own and finished seventh in Selke voting in his third season with the Stars. His defensive zone start percentage of 66.6 in

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79 games last year speaks volumes to how valuable and reliable he has become. Dallas is lucky to have him at $2.2 million for the next two years. Laurel Yanni Gourde is a bit of a utility man for the Lightning and in terms of bang for your buck there weren’t many players who performed better than Gourde in 2017-18. Twenty-five goals and 64 points as a rookie, positive possession metrics, a positive giveaway/takeaway ratio, durability. All for the low cost of $1 million. He’s a pending UFA so if he has another season like he did last year you can expect him to at least quintuple his cap hit on his next deal. One year ago we were talking about Anderson making headlines as a holdout but by the end of the season his performance erased any early-season negativity with 19 goals in 63 games. He won’t become an RFA for another two years and we couldn’t pass up adding 30-goal potential to our fourth line. DEFENCE PAIR 1 Roman Josi – Ryan Ellis In order to boast three quality defence pairs in addition to four forward lines we kept off superstars like Erik Karlsson and Drew Doughty whose cap hits in 2018-19 are easily digestible at $6.5 million and $7 million respectively. But look at it this way: the pair of Josi and Ellis, who have ingrained chemistry from their years playing together in Nashville, adds up to the same price of one Karlsson. You might not get the name value or sell as many jerseys but you get more overall production. Ellis is in the final year of having a $2.5-million cap hit but Josi is locked in at $4 million for another two. PAIR 2 Mattias Ekholm – Seth Jones As you might’ve gathered by now, this blue line is an unofficial love letter to David Poile and the Nashville GM’s unmatched ability to draft stud defencemen. Jones is one he drafted then traded away and his $5.4-million price tag is our most expensive on the back end but since he has legit Norris potential it’s still a snip. It’s a shame for the Blue Jackets that Jones is out to start the year after spraining his knee. Ekholm can do a bit of everything and adapts to whatever his partner is doing. When P.K. Subban jumps into the rush Ekholm covers for him and the same would be true if he played with Jones. Both have plenty of size and strength to complement their long strides and silky skating ability, so going up against the league’s best power forwards wouldn’t be a problem for them. This would be our shutdown pair. Their long, active sticks and ability to cut off angles would frustrate opposing forwards to no end. Ryan Dixon and Rory Boylen go deep on pucks with a mix of facts and fun, leaning on a varied group of hockey voices to give their take on the country’s most beloved game. PAIR 3 Shayne Gostisbehere – John Klingberg If you enjoy seeing offence from the defence you’ll like watching this duo put in work. Klingberg finished second in points among defencemen last season and sits fifth in scoring since he entered the league in 2014.

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Gostisbehere, meanwhile, ranked third in points per game and with his uncanny ability to get the puck on net through traffic is an easy choice to be our power-play quarterback. His 33 points on the man advantage led all blueliners a year ago. You won’t have this pair on the ice against a team’s top line, but when you’re down on the scoreboard and need a jolt of offence this is who you’d turn to. GOALIES Andrei Vasilevskiy – John Gibson Vasilevskiy would be our starter here with Gibson backing up but it’s really a 1a/1b situation with two of the best goalies aged 25 or younger. Vasilevskiy led the NHL in wins and shutouts to go along with his .920 save percentage and 2.62 goals- against average. Gibson didn’t have the team success Vasilevskiy did but his .926 save percentage and 2.43 GAA were better. The combined cap hit in the crease is only $5.8 million, which is less than teams like the Oilers, Devils, Red Wings, Senators and Canucks, all of whom struggled to keep the puck out of their own net. All salary figures are courtesy of CapFriendly and if you’re interested in building your own custom rosters with cap settings you can customize, check out their Armchair GM feature. There were plenty of tough omissions but this team can get to the net, back-check, put up crazy points, kill penalties, light up a power play, defend a lead. It’s not an overly physical group but with a surplus of speed and skill wouldn’t need to be. It’s a team built for the modern game but one we’re confident could thrive in any era.

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With arena in hand, Seattle should expect a big, fat green light from the NHL on Tuesday By Geoff Baker, Seattle Times – October 2, 2018

Inside the NHL This week marks the start of a new season and very likely a new era for the circuit in our city. While nothing official will come out of a Tuesday meeting between the NHL Seattle group and the league’s executive committee, any positive nod makes the deal as good as done. Sure, there would still be a vote required by the 31-member NHL board of governors, likely in Florida come early December, to award Seattle an expansion franchise to play at a remodeled KeyArena starting in October 2020. But the board of governors has never nixed an expansion recommendation by the all-powerful, 10- member executive committee. And if you’re weighing the odds of a positive recommendation out of that committee on Tuesday, well, that particular deck comes about as stacked as the Washington Capitals lineup that will open defense of its Stanley Cup championship the following night against the Boston Bruins. First off, the executive committee chairman is none other than Bruins owner , also known as the 50-year patriarch of family business Delaware North, which happens to have a deal as lead concessionaire of the soon-to-be-revamped KeyArena. Next, you have Tampa Bay Lightning owner Jeff Vinik, who worked tightly with NHL Seattle president and CEO Tod Leiweke for years when he was Lightning CEO and helped Vinik with his Channelside real estate development project. Mariners 3B Kyle Seager had his worst statistical season in 2018. Here's what went wrong. Leiweke’s brother, Tim, who will copresent alongside NHL Seattle at Tuesday’s meeting, is chairman of the Oak View Group company handling the planned $700 million KeyArena renovation. Four of the eight remaining members of the NHL executive committee — of the Capitals, of the Minnesota Wild, of the Chicago Blackhawks and Larry Tanenbaum of the — represent teams playing in arenas now partnered with OVG’s “arena alliance’’ event marketing and promotions initiative. Sure, Tim Leiweke and former boss Tanenbaum had differences while working together a few years back under the Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment umbrella in Toronto. But not enough to prevent the ongoing business deal between Toronto’s Scotiabank Arena and OVG. So, that’s a good start as far as winning over the executive committee goes. Others making Seattle’s presentation Tuesday will include Mayor Jenny Durkan and future team owners and . It should be noted Bruckheimer has a longstanding personal relationship with NHL commissioner Gary Bettman, who, along with executive committee chairman Jacobs, arguably holds the most sway over the board of governors. And let’s get right down to it: Money talks. A league that once allowed convicted swindler John Spano into its ownership ranks knows it could do far worse than adding a bona fide multibillionaire. Bonderman has a net worth estimated by Forbes at $3.3 billion. Only 14 out of 31 NHL clubs are owned by multibillionaires, and Bonderman would rank tied for 12th with Canucks owner .

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Throw in Bruckheimer’s reported $850 million net worth, and you’d have a Seattle ownership duo ranking well among the league’s top 10. That alone doesn’t make Seattle’s the perfect ownership group. But the more billions you have, the less likely you’ll be threatened financially by every sudden market downturn. The NHL has come a long way since the late 1980s, when Edmonton Oilers owner Peter Pocklington was said to have traded icon Wayne Gretzky to the Los Angeles Kings to offset financial struggles. The Kings, by the way, were then owned by Bruce McNall, who misrepresented his net worth, endured his own financial mishaps and was later convicted of fraud for bilking six banks out of $236 million. Delivered bright and early weekday mornings, this email provides a quick overview of top stories and need-to-know news. Like I said, the NHL has come a long way, with 20 individual billionaires now running teams. Plus, though some owners are now said to be privately quibbling that NHL Seattle is getting too good a deal with its $650 million expansion fee, that’s still one heck of a lot of money to split 31 ways. Don’t forget, just three years ago, folks thought the Vegas Golden Knights paying $500 million for an expansion team was too much. Effectively, it’s the early financial success of those Golden Knights spurring talk of Seattle getting off too cheaply. Still, the Seattle franchise, unlike Vegas, will be competing with NFL, MLB, MLS and a major college football program — not to mention a likely future NBA franchise and smaller pro sports teams — for this market’s sports dollars. So, nobody is rejecting Seattle on that expansion fee basis. And it’s highly unlikely the executive committee rejects Seattle on any basis after chasing this market for years. Too many team owners — some of which have no doubt already spent their cut of the $650 million in their minds — want this to happen. Plus, with the season starting Wednesday, any postponement of the Seattle announcement would spur exactly the talk good leagues look to avoid. There are some great NHL story lines to emerge the past 12 months, between the Capitals finally winning a Stanley Cup, the first-year Golden Knights making the final and even the Toronto Maple Leafs possibly becoming a contender for their first championship since Lyndon B. Johnson was president. Want to ruin the warm and fuzzy feelings in two countries before the season even begins? Delay setting a Seattle franchise vote for December and get every North American media outlet speculating about how it’s because the NHL fears a lockout as early as next September. Sure, that lockout stuff might happen. But you don’t put off major business decisions years in the making because of a hypothetical a year down the road. No, the smart money is on the NHL doing the smart thing. It finally got the Seattle City Council to green- light the arena the league long wanted in this market. Now, with only the NHL capable of stopping Seattle from becoming its 32nd franchise, look for the Jacobs-led executive committee to listen closely on Tuesday, break into smiles and do all it can to help finish this process by year’s end.

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The Athletic / LeBrun: Seattle group set for important meeting with executive committee of NHL owners By Pierre LeBrun, The Athletic – October 2, 2018

The moment has arrived. Seattle’s prospective NHL ownership group gets to enter the room in New York on Tuesday. OK, it’s not the big room with the full Board of Governors. But it’s a meeting with the smaller yet powerful, executive committee of NHL owners, as well as commissioner Gary Bettman and deputy commissioner Bill Daly. A chance to officially state where things stand and why Seattle is ready for expansion. So, does it feel like it’s gotten real for Seattle? “Well, it’ll be real when they say, ‘You’re hereby approved,'” Tod Leiweke, the CEO and president of the Seattle NHL group, told The Athletic on Monday morning. “We’ve been working really hard, we want to be in a position to put our best foot forward tomorrow,” Leiweke added. “I know some folks were hoping this was going to go down in June but I think, actually, our case has only strengthened since June and we’re looking forward to tomorrow for sure.’’ An actual vote on expansion by the Board of Governors isn’t expected until December at the earliest but Tuesday morning’s meeting with the executive committee is an important first step for that to happen. For starters, an executive committee recommendation to the Board must happen before any vote can be planned. It’s possible an executive committee recommendation could happen as early as Tuesday afternoon when the full Board meets, but a source said it could also wait. The 10-member executive committee consists of Mark Chipman (Winnipeg), (Anaheim), Jeff Vinik (Tampa Bay), Murray Edwards (Calgary), Larry Tanenbaum (Toronto), Jeremy Jacobs (Boston), Rocky Wirtz (Chicago), Craig Leipold (Minnesota), Ted Leonsis (Washington) and Geoff Molson (Montreal). Strengthening Seattle’s case, of course, is Seattle city council officially approving the group’s $700- million renovation plan of KeyArena last week, a gigantic hurdle to say the least. “Yes, and while some do call it a renovation, the only thing that will remain is the roof and two walls, so it’s really a completely new arena,’’ Leiweke said. “Not the easiest thing to do, but we’ve crossed all sorts of hurdles from additional designs to engineers saying this could be done, and then ultimately a long and arduous two-year process for the city. But we’re there, and we’re partners with the city, and it’s exciting.’’ Leiweke was named to his position with the Seattle group in April after three years as NFL COO. Before that, he had years of experience as a top-level executive with the Minnesota Wild, Tampa Bay Lightning and NFL’s Seattle Seahawks. At 58, the hockey project in Seattle inspired him. He truly believes in it. His brother Tim Leiweke, the former executive with the Los Angeles Kings and Toronto Maple Leafs, is overseeing the KeyArena renovation through his Oak View Group. The question now is whether construction will wait until the NHL actually officially approves Seattle as a franchise or whether the Seattle group can get going with it before that.

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“There’s lots of speculation as to what triggers what, but there’s a whole series of work paths that have to come together here, from our partners in the banks, to the city, to the NHL, to a whole bunch of things,’’ Leiweke said. “But we show up tomorrow confident that we can get all of this done. We’re hoping 2020 is the year, but we’re really going to be respectful to the process, to commissioner Bettman; we’ll present our case tomorrow and let the cards fall where they will.’’ Timing is still in flux when it comes to launching in the fall of 2020. For starters, can they really gut KeyArena and rebuild it in time for puck drop in October 2020? And secondly, and this is out of their hands, will there be hockey that fall? “Well, the one we can really focus on is the construction,’’ Leiweke said. “And we’ve been working diligently, my brother’s company Oak View has really worked diligently to meticulously plan everything from building takeover to this completely new building, really pinpointing the day that all this is going to open. It’s complicated, there’s no question about it, it’s not a renovation, it’s essentially a new building in a dense, urban area, but when done it is going to be extraordinary. And we think for the NHL, there won’t be anything like it. It will be a game-day experience second to none.’’ But again, is he confident the building can be done in time for the fall of 2020? “Yeah, right now all of our mapping shows it will be done and we’ll be able to begin the season there,’’ Leiweke said. “It’s exciting. That’s a lot of work to be done in two years but others have done it and we think we can, too.’’ In the meantime, the hiring of a new GM will depend on the timing of when the potential Seattle franchise would begin. Vegas hired George McPhee 15 months before puck drop. Depending on whether Seattle would open in 2020 or 2021, that general 15-month-out timeline for a GM hire seems to make sense to Leiweke. “That’s a pretty good timeline that Vegas had,’’ Leiweke said. “We are benefitting in that we get to view a lot of what they did and they did a lot right. George McPhee is a guy I’ve known for a long, long time. Kerry Bubolz (Vegas team president) from the business side I’ve known a long time. It’s helpful having them gone first to really look at their time lines. They did everything pretty God-darn well. People have asked whether there’s a lot of pressure because of the success they’ve had, I think there’s more inspiration than anything else.’’ They did bring on longtime NHL coach Dave Tippett to advise, a smart move, but the eventual GM hire and other front office-related decisions are on the back-burner for now. “We have a saying in the office, one miracle at a time,’’ chuckled Leiweke. “And getting the deal done with the city was absolutely fantastic. And our next is to put our best foot forward tomorrow.’’ Indeed on Tuesday morning, the Seattle group finally gets into the room. The message it hopes they convey to the owners’ executive committee? “That Seattle is NHL-ready,’’ Leiweke said. “We’re ready to go. We’re going to lay out a plan that shows how the building will be terrific, that we have terrific local ownership, we’re going to lay out a vision to build the game in the Pacific Northwest that I think will be very compelling and I’m looking forward to that part. “And I’d say the biggest challenge is getting sleep tonight,” Leiweke chuckled. “Because it’s going to be a very, very exciting day tomorrow for sure.’’

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TSN.CA / 31 Bold Predictions: Golden Knights will hoist Stanley Cup By Frank Seravalli, TSN.CA – October 2, 2018

Remember that time I picked Edmonton Oilers to win the Stanley Cup and then they didn’t even make the playoffs? Not even that scar, which will live on in TSN archives forever, can save me from making myself look stupid again. Hockey is back. So are we with one bold (or boneheaded) prediction for each of the NHL’s 31 teams ahead of the 2018-19 season: (Seriously, though, not all of last year’s picks were bad.) 1. ANAHEIM - Dallas Eakins will replace Randy Carlyle as Ducks coach before Christmas. There wasn’t a single NHL coaching change last season for the first time since 1966-67. Eakins has a .615 winning percentage in AHL San Diego since being fired by the Oilers in 2015. 2. ARIZONA - The Coyotes will be playing meaningful games in March for the first time in five seasons. He only played 47 games last year due to injury, so it’s easy to forget how spectacular goaltender Antti Raanta was with the second-best save percentage (.930) in the league. 3. BOSTON - After this 21st season, Zdeno Chara will skate off into the sunset. “Big Z” will go down as one of the most incredible specimens ever to play the game, from his league-exception length stick to fit his 6-foot-9 frame to his all-world fitness level that allowed him to reinvent himself in a younger, faster game and still be a key contributor at age 41. 4. BUFFALO - With all eyes focused on newcomer Jeff Skinner and rookies Rasmus Dahlin and Casey Mittelstadt, it will be Sam Reinhart who again flies under the radar into the 60-point club. Reinhart had one of the best seasons no one talked about last year with 25 goals and 25 assists for 50 points. 5. CALGARY - Bill Peters will taste the Stanley Cup playoffs for the first time in his NHL head coaching career. The Flames will be one of Canada’s four postseason entries, joining the Jets, Maple Leafs and their provincial rival Oilers. 6. CAROLINA - Take the Over: Sebastian Aho will obliterate the 64.5 point total set for him by Las Vegas bookmakers. More importantly, Aho will help the Hurricanes back to the postseason for the first time since 2009 – when he was just 11 years old. 7. CHICAGO - The demise of the Blackhawks won’t be Jonathan Toews or an aging blueline core, but rather their goaltending. With so many question marks surrounding Corey Crawford’s health, signing Cam Ward was the riskiest bet of the off-season by any NHL GM. 8. COLORADO - The Avalanche will win the 2019 Draft Lottery, adding insult to injury in a disastrous Senators season. Colorado may even get two cracks at the lottery if the Avs can’t duplicate last year’s magic. 9. COLUMBUS - The Blue Jackets will miss the playoffs for the first time in three seasons. Clouded by the uncertainty of Artemi Panarin and Sergei Bobrovsky’s futures, plus no Seth Jones for the first month of the season, and you can already see things sliding off the rails.

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10. DALLAS - Rookie bench boss Jim Montgomery will win the Jack Adams Award as coach of the year. Unlike last year when Dallas epically collapsed, the Stars might start a little slower but will be one of the NHL’s best teams in the second half of the season as they become a dangerous playoff opponent. 11. DETROIT - will return home to become the Red Wings’ next general manager after fulfilling his contract with the Tampa Bay Lightning at the end of this season. After 30-plus years with the Wings and four Stanley Cups, the time will be right for Ken Holland to step into another role. 12. EDMONTON - Connor McDavid will lap the field, winning the Art Ross Trophy by at least a 15-point margin as he widens the gap between himself and the rest of the NHL. This is the year McDavid picks up the Oilers and drags them into the playoffs. No need for a Hart Trophy debate this year. 13. FLORIDA - The Cats will be on the prowl in the playoffs for just the third time this century. After falling one point short last year, Bob Boughner’s team will be a force to be reckoned with in the East, earning the first wild-card spot behind the Big Three (Boston, Tampa and Toronto) in the Atlantic. 14. LOS ANGELES - Take the Under: Ilya Kovalchuk won’t hit the 60.5 point total set by Vegas oddsmakers. Kovalchuk will underwhelm in his return to the NHL, proving a player without wheels isn’t a good fit for a team with a reputation for playing slow. 15. MINNESOTA - Eager to put his stamp on the Wild, new GM Paul Fenton will make a direction-altering trade to begin a period of transition. Think Mikko Koivu or Eric Staal. The Wild ice one of the NHL’s oldest opening-night rosters with an average age of 29. 16. MONTRÉAL - Carey Price will not revert to his all-world form in the first year of the NHL’s richest contract for a goaltender at $84 million. That will have more to do with the lack of support in front of him than Price himself, who will have a middling campaign. 17. NASHVILLE - Joey’s baaaaaack. Ryan Johansen’s goal total the last three seasons (15, 14, 14) hasn’t exactly been $8 million worth. The Preds will get their value this season as Johansen will pot 30 goals for the first time since his 21-year-old season in 2013-14 with Columbus by virtue of simply shooting more. (Maybe Johansen can even repeat his awesome preseason walk-off celebration.) Johansen scores the OT winner and goes straight down the tunnel lmao #Preds #preseason pic.twitter.com/BedlNzug6G — Nick Hankins (@nbhco) September 30, 2018 18. NEW JERSEY - After an incredible turnaround, the Devils will fail to sustain that momentum and fall short of a second straight playoff appearance. The is no joke and the Carolina Hurricanes will squeeze out the East’s final playoff spot in the final week of the season over the Devils. 19. NEW YORK ISLANDERS - If you thought losing John Tavares was painful, new Isles GM Lou Lamoriello will have his hands full with pending UFAs Jordan Eberle, Brock Nelson and Anders Lee. It will be an uncomfortable year for the NHL’s homeless team, splitting the season between and Nassau Coliseum. 20. NEW YORK RANGERS - Henrik Lundqvist will pass Curtis Joseph to take sole possession of fifth on the NHL’s all-time wins list. Lundqvist needs 24 to do so, a mark he’s hit in all 13 of his seasons, including the 2013 lockout-shortened campaign. 21. OTTAWA - Matt Duchene will be traded before the Feb. 25 deadline. GM Pierre Dorion will be forced to recoup assets with Duchene unclear on his intentions to re-sign in Ottawa. Mark Stone will ink a long- term extension to help lead the Sens forward.

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22. PHILADELPHIA - Finally healthy and built to blast off, Nolan Patrick will reintroduce himself to the NHL with a 55-point season. With linemates James van Riemsdyk and Jakub Voracek, Patrick will hit the 25-goal mark and have the Flyers in position to win their first playoff series since 2012. 23. PITTSBURGH - The Penguins will fall short of 100 points for just the third time since Sidney Crosby’s rookie year. An improved East and potential for injury to Pittsburgh’s 30-something core will seriously test Jim Rutherford’s roster depth to keep the 12-year playoff streak alive. 24. SAN JOSE - Erik Karlsson will win his third Norris Trophy, cementing himself among the all-time great defencemen with Chris Chelios, Paul Coffey and Denis Potvin. He’ll find chemistry and rhythm with new partner Marc-Edouard Vlasic, one of the premier shutdown ‘D’ of his generation. 25. ST. LOUIS - Ryan O’Reilly will finally get the recognition he deserves as one of the NHL’s premiere centres as he tops the 80-point plateau for the first time in his career. He’ll help the Blues make the rare jump from non-playoff team to true heavyweight contender in the murderous Central Division. 26. TAMPA BAY - The Lightning will advance to the Stanley Cup Final after falling one win short in two of the last three springs. Nikita Kucherov and Steven Stamkos will continue to be the NHL’s most lethal duo. They produced a league-best 4.08 goals per 60 minutes last season together at even-strength. 27. TORONTO - Mitch Marner will lead the Maple Leafs in points for the second season in a row. You read that right: not John Tavares, not Auston Matthews. Quarterbacking what should be the NHL’s No. 1 power play and getting the “Tavares Bump” on J.T.’s line could even make Marner’s next contract more intriguing than Matthews. 28. VANCOUVER - Move over, Pavel Bure: there’s a new Rookie of the Year from Vancouver. Elias Pettersson will capture the Calder Trophy, making him the first Canuck to do so since Bure in 1992, as Vancouver returns to relevance in the country’s pecking order. 29. VEGAS - The Golden Knights will hoist the Stanley Cup in their second season, setting a standard no pro sports expansion franchise will ever match. Fool me once, fine. Fool me twice, shame on me. Betting against Vegas is exactly what the Golden Knights want you to do. They’re reveling in the fact many say last season’s collection of career bests can’t be duplicated. Watch them. 30. WASHINGTON - No hangover for Kuzy. There will be no doubt the Caps are Evgeny Kuznetsov’s team now. Kuznetsov will become the fifth 100-point scorer in Caps history, joining Alex Ovechkin, Mike Gartner, Nicklas Backstrom and Dennis Maruk. 31. WINNIPEG - Connor Hellebuyck will take home the Vezina Trophy one year after finishing as runner- up. Hellebuyck has the confidence of a goaltender rarely seen publicly and the team support in front of him to make the Jets a true contender. Between Hart, Calder and Vezina, that’s a lot of predicted hardware for Canada – with just one prize missing.

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