New York Rangers forward Pavel Buchnevich has been suspended one game for high-sticking Washington Capitals forward Anthony Mantha in the face during Wednesday's contest, the NHL Department of Player Safety announced.

Buchnevich was assessed a game misconduct on the play.

Wednesday's contest between the Rangers and Capitals was littered with fights and penalties from the opening whistle, with 141 penalty minutes handed out during the game.

During a matchup earlier in the week, Tom Wilson injured Rangers star Artemi Panarin in a postwhistle scrum and also took shots at Buchnevich. The winger avoided suspension and was fined $5,000 for the antics.

Regardless of the suspension, general manager Chris Drury announced Buchnevich is set to miss the final two games of New York's season due to injury, according to USA Today's Vince Z. Mercogliano.

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The Vancouver Canucks' AHL affiliate will be playing closer to home starting next season.

The AHL's board of governors approved relocation for the Canucks-owned franchise from Utica, New York, to Abbotsford, British Columbia, beginning in the 2021-22 campaign, the league announced.

Vancouver's new affiliate will play out of Abbotsford Center, but the details of the team's name, logo, and brand are still unknown.

In a corresponding move, the AHL franchise owned by the New Jersey Devils will move from Binghamton, New York, to Utica beginning next season.

The Utica Comets announced a 10-year affiliation deal with the Devils. The organization will keep the same name but will reveal new jersey designs and colors later in the year.

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The Winnipeg Jets booked a ticket to the playoffs with a 4-0 win against the Calgary Flames on Wednesday.

This marks the fourth straight campaign with a postseason berth. The Jets are the third team in the North Division to clinch a playoff spot, joining the Edmonton Oilers and Toronto Maple Leafs.

Connor Hellebuyck turned aside 32 shots in the shutout, while Adam Lowry and Blake Wheeler scored two goals apiece. The victory also marked head coach Paul Maurice's 300th with the club.

The Jets failed to make it past the qualifying round in last season's return-to-play, losing to the Flames in four games.

Winnipeg sits third in the division with a 28-21-3 record. The club trails Edmonton by seven points and is two ahead of the fourth-place Montreal Canadiens.

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Washington Capitals captain Alex Ovechkin left and did not return to Monday's game against the New York Rangers due to a lower-body injury, the team announced.

The sniper played just one 39-second shift in the opening frame after returning from a four-game absence with a lower-body injury.

The Capitals were already shorthanded in the contest, with Evgeny Kuznetsov and Ilya Samsonov reportedly being benched for disciplinary reasons, T.J. Oshie out for personal/family reasons, and Justin Schultz out with a lower-body injury.

Ovechkin has 24 goals and 18 assists in 43 games this season.

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Washington Capitals forward Evgeny Kuznetsov and goaltender Ilya Samsonov were not in the team's lineup Monday against the New York Rangers due to disciplinary reasons, according to The Washington Post's Samantha Pell.

The duo was late to a Capitals function, Pell added.

Alex Ovechkin and John Carlson made their return to action. Ovechkin had missed the past four contests, while Carlson had missed two.

Washington was also without T.J. Oshie, who missed the game due to a personal/family matter, and Justin Schultz, who has a lower-body injury.

Kuznetsov has nine goals and 20 assists in 41 games this season. Samsonov has a 13-4-1 record with a .902 save percentage and 2.69 goals-against average.

Entering Monday's contest, the Capitals sit in second place in the East Division with a 32-14-5 record.

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Montreal Canadiens captain Shea Weber won't play Friday against the Winnipeg Jets due to an upper-body injury, the team announced.

Defenseman Erik Gustafsson will slot in on Montreal's blue line.

With Weber out of the lineup for the first time this season, here's what the team's defensive pairings will look like:

The 35-year-old rearguard is averaging a team-leading 22:42 of ice time this season. He's collected six goals and 13 assists in 48 games.

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The NHL All-Star Game will return during the 2021-22 season, TSN's Frank Seravalli reported on Tuesday's edition of "Insider Trading."

Last year's festivities were canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. There was no guarantee the All-Star Game would take place next season with the 2022 Winter Olympics scheduled.

The NHL and the NHLPA agreed to participate in the Olympics in 2022 and 2026 as part of a modified collective bargaining agreement, which was ratified prior to the league's return to play.

Despite the agreement, the International Olympic Committee still hasn't confirmed the NHL's participation. The league reportedly gave the IOC a late-May deadline to finalize its decision.

The NHL typically doesn't hold the All-Star Game during Olympic years due to the long break in the season the games create. However, the showcase game has gone forward before during Olympic years with player participation in 1998 and 2002, according to Seravalli. But when players participated in 2014, 2010, and 2006, the All-Star Game was axed.

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The 2021 NHL Draft lottery will take place on June 2, TSN's Frank Seravalli reported on Tuesday's edition of "Insider Trading."

The league recently announced several changes to the lottery system, with some taking effect immediately. The lottery will be reduced from three drawings to two this year, which ensures the team with the worst record will pick no lower than third overall.

Starting in 2022, a club will only be able to move up a maximum of 10 spots if it wins one of the draws. Teams also can't win the lottery more than twice in a five-year period beginning next year.

The NHL's regular season is scheduled to end on May 19. The lottery will determine the draft order for the 15 clubs that don't qualify for the postseason.

This year's lottery will also include the Seattle Kraken for the first time. They're set to begin play next season and will receive the third-best odds to win the No. 1 pick.

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Turner Sports has picked up the remainder of the NHL's media rights as part of a seven-year deal worth $225 million per season, report The Athletic's Sean Shapiro and Richard Deitsch.

NBC - which has aired NHL games for the past 16 years - has reportedly moved on from bidding for a broadcast deal with the league. The network won't carry NHL games beyond this season, the final campaign of a 10-year contract worth $2 billion, according to Shapiro and Deitsch.

Turner Sports hasn't aired hockey games since broadcasting Atlanta Flames contests in the 1970s, according to The Associated Press' Joe Reedy. Its outlets include TNT, TBS, and AT&T Sportsnet, and it already owns broadcasting rights for NBA and MLB games.

The NHL and The Walt Disney Company agreed in March to a seven-year deal reportedly worth over $400 million per season to use ESPN and ABC as league broadcasting partners. That deal gives ESPN exclusive rights to four Stanley Cup Finals and guarantees exclusive rights to 25 regular-season games per year for either ABC or ESPN. It also includes coverage rights for the All-Star Game, as well as streaming rights.

This marks the first time since 1998-99 that the NHL will have two network partners in the U.S., according to Reedy.

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Montreal Canadiens top prospect Cole Caufield will make his NHL debut Monday night against the Calgary Flames, head coach Dominique Ducharme confirmed.

More to come.

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