Coyle signed a six-year deal worth $5.25 million annually, while Wagner inked a three-year pact worth $1.35 million per year. Both players were set to hit unrestricted free agency at season's end, along with teammates Torey Krug, Zdeno Chara, Jaroslav Halak, and Joakim Nordstrom.
Coyle was acquired from the Minnesota Wild ahead of last season's trade deadline. The 27-year-old Massachusetts native was a good fit in Boston right away, and he chipped in 16 points in 24 games during the Bruins' run to the Stanley Cup Final last spring. This season, Coyle's posted five goals and nine assists in 24 contests while averaging 16:30 of ice time per night.
Wagner is an effective depth piece, and he produced a career-high 19 points in 76 games in 2018-19.
The Bruins sit comfortably atop the Atlantic Division with a 16-3-5 record.
Zykov was suspended for 20 games on Oct. 17 for violating the NHL/NHLPA performance-enhancing substances program. The ban is set to end after Vegas' contest Wednesday. The 24-year-old would've been eligible to play Friday.
Following the announcement of Zykov's suspension, the Golden Knights said the 24-year-old forward "knowingly used a banned substance without the consent, recommendation, or knowledge" of the team.
Zykov collected two assists in seven games before the ban.
The Russian winger was selected by the Los Angeles Kings in the second round of the 2013 NHL Draft. In 47 pro contests, he's tallied six goals and 15 points.
Warning: Story contains coarse and offensive language
The messages flooded into Daniel Carcillo's inboxes Tuesday.
Dozens of former and current hockey players, some of whom Carcillo knows well and others he's never met, reached out on Instagram and Twitter to share stories or ask for guidance. They felt empowered by the courage of former NHLers Akim Aliu and Michal Jordan, who had gone public this week with their accounts of playing for Calgary Flames coach Bill Peters.
Expect more players to speak out sooner than later about their treatment by hockey coaches.
"I hope that these abusers are uneasy today, have a hard time sleeping," Carcillo, a retired NHL fighter who's become a fierce advocate for player health and wellbeing, said Tuesday night. "I hope that some of them find the courage to not wait until they're called out but just come out right now."
Daniel Carcillo celebrates 2015 Stanley Cup win with family Bruce Bennett / Getty Images
Peters is accused of hurling racial epithets at Aliu and physically abusing Jordan during coaching stints with the Chicago Blackhawks' AHL team and with the Carolina Hurricanes, respectively, earlier this decade. (Peters hasn’t addressed either matter and remains employed by the Flames while the team and league investigate.)
Mike Babcock, meanwhile, has admitted to humiliating Mitch Marner a few years ago. The story only became public after the Toronto Maple Leafs fired the coach last week amid a losing streak, but that disclosure prompted Aliu to speak out.
Pulling back the curtain on the styles and tactics of two high-level coaches is fueling a broader conversation about some of the problems embedded in hockey culture.
"I believe in karma," Carcillo said, "and I think what you're seeing is a reckoning of sorts."
Programmed this way
The root of the issue is this: Hockey, like many sporting cultures, has developed its own set of rules because of the zero-sum nature of winning and losing games.
A regular workplace has structures and policies in place to report a person in power who abuses a worker emotionally, mentally, or physically. Many hockey team environments, however, don't work that way. Abusive actions are accepted and even lauded in pursuit of team-building, victory, and championships.
Coaches determine a player's ice time, linemates, and practice conditions. General managers determine if a player will be traded, demoted, or released. Authority figures in hockey wield great power over those who report to them.
"There shouldn't be this ivory-tower mentality to hockey operations," said Rachel Doerrie, a former analyst for the New Jersey Devils who now works for the York University athletic department. "Obviously, they're coveted positions, but it's not a license to be a terrible human being. You still should treat your employees with decency and respect."
Mitch Marner and Mike Babcock at the 2015 NHL Draft Bruce Bennett / Getty Images
For years and years, hockey coaches at all levels have used their influence within the team structure to embarrass players, like Babcock did with Marner. They justify their actions by talking about the art of motivation and the drive to win. Such psychological tricks can become so ingrained in the culture that everybody eventually accepts their presence and sees them as part of the process.
When these tactics become especially widespread, trickling all the way down to minor hockey, they're less likely to ring alarm bells. "I don't think (NHL) players realize the risk that they're under because they're so fucking programmed," Carcillo said - programmed, he argues, to expect mistreatment.
Carcillo made headlines last year when he said that, among other incidences of rookie hazing in the 2002-03 OHL season, his Sarnia Sting teammates stuffed him in a bus bathroom naked. The 34-year-old has also admitted to being part of the problem at one point in his life.
"I look back on my fights, and this person that I was on the ice and off the ice, and the way I treated people the first five years of the (NHL), and before I found rehab and spirituality at 25, and I just can't believe how much of a trained assassin I was," Carcillo said. "I can't even recognize that person, and I never want to, you know? It's brutal, man. And it's really, really, really hard to guard against because (coaches) start with you at 4 (years old). It needs to change, it needs to be systematic, and it needs to start with the NHL."
The incident involving Aliu and Peters, in which Aliu says Peters berated him for playing what the coach called "n-----" music in the dressing room, has been corroborated by teammates in interviews with TSN. But until Aliu made his pronouncement on Twitter this week and reporters looked into it, Peters' alleged actions stayed within the teams' bubbles for years.
"It's all out of fear and all out of being the same, right?" said Brock McGillis, a former goalie who isworking to make hockey more respectful and inclusive. "If the black guy didn't come out and say, 'This happened to me,' and it instead happened in a room full of white people or white hockey guys, is anyone going to come out and speak? Or, is anyone going to come out and speak when they're using homophobic language (in a hockey dressing room)?"
Akim Aliu during a 2017 AHL game Icon Sportswire / Getty Images
McGillis, the first pro hockey player to publicly come out as gay, believes the typical North American hockey environment can still be toxic because of its built-in "pack mentality." Arenas and dressing rooms are segregated places often lacking diversity. Abusive behaviors are passed down from coaches and teammates, breeding insularity and conformity from a young age. The behaviors can intensify as players get older and the stakes increase. McGillis believes the problem is not specific to individuals but is systemic.
"When they're done playing, they stay in the sport," McGillis said. "They coach, they manage, they do different things within it. Not a lot of people who play hockey leave hockey."
The funnel contributes to an atmosphere of limited accountability. Hazing and bullying - as well as the use of homophobic, racist, and sexist language - become ingrained in pockets of hockey's culture. The issues exposed by NHL players this week aren't new; they've just reached a critical mass.
"It makes me sick to think about. It has to change," said Doerrie, who's made inroads in a male-dominated sport but not without encountering sexism along the way.
"Hockey's already behind when it comes to social issues," she said. "No one can make an argument that it isn't. And if it doesn't change (soon), it's going to be even further behind."
Searching for solutions
McGillis has seen the effect of telling his own story - of coming out after years of internal struggle and fear of acceptance. He is adamant that there's great utility in addressing the various issues surrounding hockey culture and sports cultures at large. Stories can trigger change.
"The sad thing with sport is that it has so much opportunity to do good," he said. Sports promote teamwork, discipline, and the value of hard work, but not necessarily how to respect one another or be inclusive, he noted. "Why can't we learn to work with people who are different than ourselves?"
TSN reported Wednesday that NHL teams are internally discussing what constitutes unacceptable behavior in coaches' interactions with players. "The bottom line is that it's possible to be demanding without being disrespectful," one GM told Gord Miller.
Carcillo - who has been at the forefront of not only the conversation about hockey culture, but also discussions relating to head trauma - says he couldn't care less about Peters and his job security. Instead, he cares about the victims, their stories, and flipping the script on those abusing their power.
The biggest fallacy about coaching #hockey is the idea that u need to break down minors & then build them back up in order 4 athletes to b productive
Learning from failure is a key ingredient in becoming an exceptional athlete, not having to endure unnecessary suffering#abuse
Carcillo's 5-year-old son isn't allowed to enroll in hockey right now because dad doesn't trust the people in charge. "I love the game of hockey," Carcillo said over the phone. "But I will not subject my son to that."
Rod Brind'Amour corroborated allegations that Calgary Flames bench boss Bill Peters physically abused his players while head coach of the Carolina Hurricanes from 2014-2018.
"You know with Bill, it for sure happened, the two issues that are in question," Brind'Amour, the Hurricanes' current head coach, said Tuesday regarding the allegations. Brind'Amour was an assistant coach on Peters' staff during that time.
Former Hurricanes defenseman Michal Jordan tweeted Tuesday that Peters kicked him and punched other players on the bench, and the coach later acted like nothing happened.
"He kicked me pretty hard in the back during a game," Jordan told TSN's Frank Seravalli. "Even the trainers and the other guys saw it."
Jordan insists there were multiple altercations between Peters and his players.
Carolina's leadership group and other staff members made the incidents known to then-general manager Ron Francis, according to ABC11's Mark Armstrong. Despite that, no changes were made, and Francis' decision to keep Peters as head coach tarnished close relationships spanning decades, The Athletic's Sara Civian adds.
Francis was hired as the general manager of the NHL's expansion Seattle club this past summer.
Flames general manager Brad Treliving said Tuesday that the team launched an investigation into allegations of Peters using a racial slur toward former NHLer Akim Aliu while the two were with the AHL's Rockford IceHogs 10 years ago.
Two former teammates of Aliu have since corroborated his account.
Peters will not be behind the bench when the Flames take on the Buffalo Sabres Wednesday night. Instead, assistant coach Geoff Ward will assume coaching duties.
The 19-year-old phenom suffered the injury after taking an elbow to the head from Tampa Bay Lightning defenseman Erik Cernak on Monday. Cernak was given a two-game suspension for the hit.
Dahlin had been off to a strong start in his sophomore campaign. He's tallied 16 points in 24 games and ranks second on the club with 15 assists.
As a rookie in 2018-19, Dahlin became just the third 18-year-old defenseman in NHL history to record 40 points in a season and finished third in Calder Trophy voting.
The NHL admitted Boqvist's goal should have been overturned when Wild head coach Bruce Boudreau challenged the tally due to an earlier high stick that went uncalled, according to NJ.com's Chris Ryan.
"Minnesota issued a coach's challenge for a missed stoppage event prior to the New Jersey goal at 12:44 of the first period," the league said in a statement. "Since New Jersey's Wayne Simmonds high-sticked the puck in the neutral zone and then played the puck in the attacking zone, a missed game stoppage event occurred.
"Minnesota's challenge should have resulted in the New Jersey goal being disallowed."
Referee Brad Meier apologized to the Wild bench at the start of the second period.
"At least they admitted it," Wild defenseman Ryan Suter told The Athletic's Michael Russo postgame. "I give them a lot of credit. A lot of guys, they don't admit to their mistakes."
Fortunately, the Wild won the game 3-2 in regulation, nullifying the mistake.
