The Arizona Coyotes dealt center Christian Dvorak to the Montreal Canadiens for a pair of draft picks Saturday.

Arizona will receive the better selection between Montreal's own 2022 first-round pick and the first-rounder the Canadiens acquired from the Carolina Hurricanes earlier Saturday. The Coyotes will also get Montreal's second-round pick in 2024 as part of the deal.

However, if either or both of the first-rounders are in the top 10, the Coyotes will instead receive the worse selection in addition to the second-rounder.

The Canadiens landed Dvorak to replace Jesperi Kotkaniemi, the Finnish forward whose offer sheet Montreal declined to match Saturday, making him a member of the Carolina Hurricanes. The Canadiens nabbed a first-round pick and a third-round selection as compensation in that transaction before flipping the higher one to Arizona.

The timing of the latest move wasn't exactly ideal for Dvorak.

Dvorak played five seasons with the Coyotes. He collected 17 goals and 14 assists while averaging a career-high 18:24 of ice time in 2021, suiting up for all 56 games.

The 25-year-old also won 52.1% of his 1,062 faceoffs last season and has a career average of 51.5% in that department. Dvorak authored subpar underlying numbers in 2021, but so did his team as a whole.

Arizona chose him 58th overall in 2014.

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The Montreal Canadiens chose not to match the Carolina Hurricanes' offer sheet for Jesperi Kotkaniemi on Saturday.

As a result, Kotkaniemi joined the Hurricanes on a one-year contract worth $6,100,015. The extra $15 tacked onto the deal mirrors the Finnish forward's jersey number.

The Canadiens receive first- and third-round draft picks from Carolina next year as compensation. Montreal had seven days to match after the Hurricanes initiated the transaction last Saturday.

"Carolina has used a tool available to them in the collective bargaining agreement and we accept that decision," Canadiens general manager Marc Bergevin said in a statement.

The Hurricanes reportedly tried to acquire Kotkaniemi in a trade last week before tendering the offer sheet.

Carolina made it abundantly clear last Saturday that this move was in response to the Canadiens filing an offer sheet for Hurricanes star Sebastian Aho in 2019, which the Metropolitan Division club ultimately matched.

The Hurricanes made multiple references to that incident last week on social media and in their press release confirming their bid to sign Kotkaniemi.

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Hockey has come a long way in the desert, but former Arizona Coyotes forward Conor Garland is excited to see what the city of Vancouver has to offer following his trade to the Canucks.

"I grew up in a hockey city in Boston," he said, according to Matt Porter of the Boston Globe. "I played juniors in Moncton, New Brunswick, a hockey city. You felt every Friday night you were the main event and you had the city behind you. It's a little different in Arizona. You're not one of the major sports teams there."

Garland and teammate Oliver Ekman-Larsson were involved in a blockbuster trade earlier this offseason that sent the pair into the throes of the hungry Canadian hockey market.

He signed a five-year contract with an annual cap hit of $4.95 million four days later, a deal that the 25-year-old thinks is only going to look more attractive over time.

"To get that kind of number and security is pretty good for someone who's only played 164 games," Garland said. "I think I'm just getting started and getting better, and I think I'll be a pretty good player at 30. I think by that time it'll be a pretty good deal for them. I'm excited to fulfill my part of it."

In those 164 contests, Garland has put up 96 career points. During the 2020-21 campaign, he tied his career-high 39 points in just 49 appearances, which is a 65-point pace over an 82-game season.

Garland's crossing his fingers that his first year in a new city will be a bit more ordinary than last year's pandemic-altered season.

"Last year was tough. The season was shortened, but it felt like forever," he said. "I'm looking forward to spreading it out and getting back to the normal schedule we train for and prepare for. Obviously, I've got a new team that's heading in a different direction than the Coyotes were."

Though the Coyotes and Canucks failed to qualify for the playoffs this past season, both found some level of success in the 2019-20 postseason bubble. Arizona topped the Nashville Predators in the qualifying round before getting dispatched by the Colorado Avalanche in the first round, while the Canucks were eliminated by the Vegas Golden Knights in the second round.

The Canucks were plagued by COVID-19 issues throughout last season, and, like Garland, are also looking for a return to normalcy and success. The team still has to iron out deals with two huge parts of the franchise's future in Elias Pettersson and Quinn Hughes.

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San Jose Sharks associate coach Rocky Thompson is no longer with the club because the NHL's new vaccination protocols prohibit him from being a part of the team.

"Due to a medical exemption that prevents me from taking the COVID-19 vaccine, under the new league protocols, I am not permitted to fulfill my duties on the Sharks coaching staff at this time," Thompson said in a statement. "I will have no further comment on this matter."

The NHL's new rules reportedly allow for the suspension of unvaccinated players with certain exceptions, including for medical reasons. The protocols also severely limit what unvaccinated players can do and where they can go. However, the restrictions for coaches are unclear.

The Sharks will replace Thompson soon. The 44-year-old joined San Jose's staff as Bob Boughner's second-in-command in September 2020. Thompson previously guided the AHL's Chicago Wolves as their head coach for three seasons beginning in 2017-18.

He also led the OHL's Windsor Spitfires to the 2017 Memorial Cup championship, and before that served as an assistant coach with the Edmonton Oilers.

Thompson played 25 NHL games over four campaigns as a defenseman with the Florida Panthers and Calgary Flames. The former enforcer spent the majority of his on-ice career in the AHL.

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The Pittsburgh Penguins inked forward Brian Boyle to a professional tryout contract on Friday.

Boyle didn't play in the NHL last season, but he helped the United States claim bronze at this year's World Championship with a pair of goals and an assist in 10 games. The veteran took over as team captain midway through the tournament after Justin Abdelkader's injury forced him out for the rest of the event.

The 36-year-old last suited up in the NHL with the Florida Panthers in 2019-20, collecting six markers and nine helpers over 39 contests. He won the Masterton Trophy in 2018, a year after he was diagnosed with leukemia.

Boyle has logged 12-plus seasons in the league with seven teams. He's played for the Nashville Predators, New Jersey Devils, Toronto Maple Leafs, Tampa Bay Lightning, New York Rangers, and Los Angeles Kings.

The Massachusetts-born grinder has registered 231 points across 805 NHL games.

The Penguins also signed defenseman Matt Bartkowski to a pro tryout. The 33-year-old played four NHL games - three in the regular season and one in the playoffs - with the Minnesota Wild over the last three campaigns.

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The Detroit Red Wings inked restricted free-agent defenseman Filip Hronek to a three-year contract.

Hronek led the team in points (26), assists (24), and average ice time (23:23) last season. He was one of only two Red Wings to play all 56 games along with Marc Staal.

The Czech blue-liner has spent three campaigns with Detroit, which drafted him 53rd overall in 2016.

Hronek, who turns 24 on Nov. 2, was the last remaining free agent of any kind on the Red Wings' NHL roster.

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Just hours after the NHL announced its participation in the 2022 Beijing Olympics, USA Hockey revealed David Quinn, John Hynes, Todd Reirden, and Ryan Miller will serve as assistant coaches for the U.S. men's team under head coach Mike Sullivan.

Quinn was most recently head coach of the New York Rangers but was fired in May after failing to make the playoffs. He held a 96-87-25 record in three seasons as the bench boss in the Big Apple. Quinn has coached on the international stage before, serving as an assistant for Team USA at the 2016 IIHF Men's World Championship.

Hynes is currently the head coach of the Nashville Predators. He has coached 438 NHL games and spent parts of five seasons with the New Jersey Devils. He has never served on an Olympic team but was the head coach of the USA Hockey National Team Development Program from 2003-2009. He guided the U.S. to three medals at the IIHF U18 Men's World Championship.

Reirden has never represented the United States at the international level. Currently an assistant coach with the Pittsburgh Penguins, he was also the head coach of the Washington Capitals during the 2018-19 and 2019-20 campaigns. Reirden has captured two Stanley Cups in his coaching career.

Finally, Miller is making his first international appearance for the U.S. as a coach. The former NHL goaltender played for Team USA on five different occasions, including in the 2010 and 2014 Olympics. Miller retired at the end of the 2020-21 season following an 18-year career in which he suited up for the Buffalo Sabres, St. Louis Blues, Vancouver Canucks, and Anaheim Ducks. His 391 regular-season wins are the most for a U.S.-born netminder in league history.

The 2022 Games are set to kick off in February.

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The Ottawa Senators have signed restricted free-agent forward Drake Batherson to a six-year deal with an average annual value of $4.975 million, the team announced Friday.

Batherson played his first full NHL season in 2020-21, putting up 34 points in 56 games, and his 17 goals were tied for the second-most on Ottawa's roster.

The 23-year-old right-winger suited up for the Sens during the 2018-2019 and 2019-2020 campaigns as well, but he spent most of his time with the AHL's Belleville Senators.

"Drake represents an integral component of our future at forward," general manager Pierre Dorion said. "Dating to his first pro season, he has steadily progressed to the point where he is now widely recognized as a bonafide top-line NHL winger."

While attending the BioSteel fitness camp earlier this week, Batherson seemed confident a deal would get done before training camp.

"I'm looking forward to getting back to Ottawa, seeing all the guys, and just getting it going. It's going to be exciting for sure," he said Monday, according to the Ottawa Sun's Bruce Garrioch.

The Senators selected Batherson in the fourth round of the 2017 draft, and he has 53 career points in 99 NHL games.

Ottawa has a little bit more work to do on the restricted free-agent front, with Brady Tkachuk and Logan Brown still on the books.

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