The NHL Players Association announced the dates for pending salary arbitration hearings Monday.
Tyson Barrie, Mike Hoffman, and Brayden Schenn are among the players who now know the dates they will face off against their teams if they fail to reach an agreement prior to the hearings.
Here's the full list of dates for player-elected filings:
The forward - who opted not to re-sign before inking a seven-year, $42-million deal with Buffalo on July 1 - penned a long-awaited goodbye to the Brooklyn-based organization and its fans, thanking them for sticking with him when they had no obligation to do so.
"I'm not a perfect player. I went through some pretty rough times with my game," Okposo wrote in a piece published Monday on The Players' Tribune.
"The Isles' fans and organization stuck by me. I'll forever be grateful for that. The organization could have easily cast me aside and gotten rid of me, but they helped me through it. When I would go to an autograph signing or an appearance during those tough times, the fans would say, 'Stick with it,' or 'We love your game.' Those things brought a smile to my face."
The 28-year-old winger also reiterated his desire to win a championship with the rebuilding Sabres.
"The Sabres are a great organization and I couldn't be happier," he wrote. "All I want to do is give the city a Stanley Cup. I'm excited for the journey and the challenge. I'll see you all in October. Let's get it, Buffalo."
Okposo played parts of nine seasons with the Islanders, who drafted him seventh overall in 2006. He's a three-time 20-goal scorer who collected more than 50 points four times and went over 60 twice.
The ECHL is making a couple of significant changes.
The mid-level pro league announced Monday it will realign from six to four divisions and use a new divisionally focused playoff format next season.
Here's how the league will look in 2016-17:
Eastern Conference
North Division
Adirondack Thunder
Brampton Beast
Elmira Jackals
Manchester Monarchs
Reading Royals
Wheeling Nailers
South Division
Atlanta Gladiators
Cincinnati Cyclones
Florida Everblades
Greenville Swamp Rabbits
Norfolk Admirals
Orlando Solar Bears
South Carolina Stingrays
Western Conference
Central Division
Fort Wayne Komets
Indy Fuel
Kalamazoo Wings
Quad City Mallards
Toledo Walleye
Tulsa Oilers
Wichita Thunder
Mountain Division
Alaska Aces
Allen Americans
Colorado Eagles
Idaho Steelheads
Missouri Mavericks
Rapid City Rush
Utah Grizzlies
The first two rounds of the Kelly Cup playoffs will be intra-division matchups, with the division champion playing the fourth-place team and the second-best club facing the third.
The winners of the division semifinals will meet in the division finals, followed by the conference finals and Kelly Cup final.
The league cited more economical travel and a better chance of playing traditional rivals in the first two rounds as reasons for the changes.
The 24-year-old played six seasons with CSKA Moscow in the KHL, playing a career-high 52 games while posting seven goals and seven assists in 2015-16.
He added four goals and four assists in 15 playoff games, helping CSKA reach the Gagarin Cup final before losing in seven games to Metallurg Magnitogorsk.
Lyubimov also helped the Russian national team win bronze at the World Championship this spring with eight points in 10 games.
The relocation of the AHL's St. John's IceCaps to Laval, Quebec, was unanimously approved by the league Monday.
The franchise's pro affiliate will play one more season in Newfoundland before moving to Place Bell, a multi-purpose facility under construction in the Montreal suburb.
"The relocation of our AHL affiliate in Laval will be beneficial in several ways, allowing for hockey management to follow the organization's young prospects and provide players and coaching staff with a great environment, a state-of-the-art hockey venue and a new and enthusiastic fan base," said Canadiens general manager Marc Bergevin said in a statement.
The city of St. John's is discussing another agreement with the AHL and other leagues, IceCaps president and CEO Danny Williams said Monday, according to Stephen Whyno of The Associated Press.
The Canadiens moved the AHL's former Hamilton Bulldogs to St. John's to become the new IceCaps before the 2015-16 season. The original IceCaps were moved to Winnipeg to become the new Manitoba Moose as the Jets' affiliate.
O'Reilly was arrested and charged with impaired driving after allegedly crashing his truck into a Tim Hortons location last summer.
The Crown folded after testimony from only one witness, who had issues identifying the driver of the vehicle, according to The Free Press' Hailey Salvian.
The trial was expected to last two days, but ended in about an hour and a half Monday. It was adjourned multiple times since his arrest last July.
It's impossible to ignore the commotion across the street.
There's the NBA and its 30 teams, obediently spending billions and billions of dollars to fulfill the requirements of its new, wildly inflated salary scale borne of the league's seismic success.
There are rules to govern spending, of course, including a near $85-million salary floor - or a minimum spending requirement that's almost $12 million more than the NHL's maximum purse. But unlike its little brother, there's an element of elasticity to the walls that police parity in basketball.
And the mandate doesn't punish winners.
The Golden State Warriors - the greatest team in regular-season history and a team that already features the league's two-time reigning MVP and two other All-NBA players - came to terms with a top-three NBA talent this offseason in Kevin Durant.
There was a serendipitous element to this unforeseen marriage. But because it has happened, the NBA has been presented this incredible opportunity to fuel its burning star. The Warriors' every outing will be must-see television, let alone a potential Finals rematch with the NBA champion Cleveland Cavaliers that would achieve pay-per-view intrigue.
All this while the two most successful NHL franchises over the last handful of seasons are being stripped down to their studs, punished for accounting for five of the last seven Stanley Cups.
The Chicago Blackhawks and Los Angeles Kings have managed to preserve the stars capable of anchoring a title run. But winning - and the NHL's desire to maintain competitive balance - has resulted in an erosion of these rosters, and has the clubs now trending toward non-contender status.
The price of winning
No team has hemorrhaged talent quite like Chicago.
Stan Bowman has discarded a head-shaking amount of talent throughout the franchise's dynastic years, a list that includes Brandon Saad, Patrick Sharp, Andrew Ladd (twice), Brian Campbell, Dustin Byfuglien, Nick Leddy, Johnny Oduya, and most recently, Teuvo Teravainen and Andrew Shaw.
They've routinely done quite well padding their core with capable talent, but a quick scan of their current forward fleet is jarring, especially with just a couple million in cap space to play with.
Chicago has just five top-six forwards on NHL contracts, and aside from Marcus Kruger, a supporting cast exclusively earning $875,000 or less.
The Kings, meanwhile, haven't had to juggle a similar mass exodus, though they would certainly have preferred to retain Justin Williams. What's hurt the Kings most is that cap restraints have made it impossible to shore up deficiencies with impact imports. Dean Lombardi moved three valuable pieces that included a current NHL starter and a first-round pick to acquire Milan Lucic, only to lack the means to meet his contract demands after only one season.
Rewards, and other mistakes
It should be noted that Lucic wasn't even the most difficult bargain. Poor decisions prevented Lombardi from retaining the cement mixer and satiating the other needs on his roster. He's worked exclusively at the margins since trading for Lucic, and his latest work includes replacing the power forward with Teddy Purcell, and adding a bottom-tier backup goaltender in Jeff Zatkoff.
But the Kings are in this mess primarily for rewarding fading stars like Dustin Brown and Marian Gaborik with long-term deals that carry a combined average annual value that accounts for 15 percent of the team's total payroll. It's a problem that will compound through until 2022.
Aside from Bryan Bickell, the Blackhawks haven't poured money into rapidly depreciating assets. Instead, they've created a problem by ceding to their stars.
Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane earned $84-million contracts with the two Stanley Cups they delivered the franchise, as well as the third they lifted before the legacy extensions kicked in last summer. But because Toews, Kane, and the similarly extolled Brent Seabrook have been compensated in full, most others have been squeezed.
Virtues
There are benefits to winning, of course, aside from championships. Chicago has held a competitive advantage in recruiting college free agents and assets from overseas since its proliferation of Stanley Cups.
Artemi Panarin chose a winner, then wound up finishing ninth in NHL scoring en route to the Calder Trophy. And now it appears Chicago is chasing Hobey Baker winner Jimmy Vesey, who himself would make an immediate impact at an entry-level rate.
Los Angeles hasn't quite had the same lure, but took advantage of a loophole the Blackhawks exploited in their title trifecta, keeping Gaborik on the shelf until the postseason to ice a roster priced above the cap ceiling.
In a way, that sort of circumvention underscores just how difficult of a task it's become for Bowman and Lombardi to keep championship rosters intact.
Coach Ken Hitchcock and his understudy, Mike Yeo, were busy exchanging notes and drawing up schemes while watching over the team's development camp this week in St. Louis.
And for the veteran Hitchcock, whose experience rivals any coach currently at the helm, there have been more than a few aha moments.
"I learned a lot already," Hitchcock told Jeremy Rutherford of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. "We took some of the really good stuff that we thought Mike and his staff did, and we’re incorporating that into us.
"There were things in their game that you really had a tough time playing against and now we know why. So we’re going to use those things, and it’s going to make us a hell of a lot better."
Meanwhile, the former Wild head coach has gained insight beyond Xs and Os.
"(Hitchcock)'s been unbelievable, as far as sharing his knowledge and sharing information as far as things that have gone on here," Yeo said. "But also asking for input, very interested in a lot of things that we've done.
"That's one of the things that has been more eye-opening and revealing to me than anything is just how committed he is to getting better. Even despite the success that he's had in his career, he's trying to find ways to get better as a coach and trying to find ways to get this team better."
St. Louis' recruitment of Yeo presented the makings of an awkward spot for Hitchcock, who covets a final charge at a championship before moving on to the next chapter of his life. But four weeks in, the unlikely marriage has been a harmonious one.
Pavel Zacha might have a permanent home in New Jersey starting next season.
The Devils' 2015 first-round pick will be looking to crack the opening-day roster for the first time this upcoming season, and as general manager Ray Shero sees it, the 19-year-old should have every chance to do so.
"Absolutely, I'm looking forward to seeing him," Shero said, according to Andrew Gross of NorthJersey.com "He's been battling a hip pointer and we'll see how that impacts him at development camp, but he'll be ready for training camp. Yeah, there's room for him. There's always room for good players."
Zacha has had just one year of development since the team plucked him sixth overall, but what a year it has been.
Zacha returned to the Sarnia Sting of the Ontario Hockey League, where he went off for 28 goals and 64 points in 51 games. He lit up the postseason, managing six goals and 13 points in just seven games. He made his NHL debut in the Devils' final game of the season, scoring two assists.
Then to top things off, Zacha joined the team's American Hockey League affiliate in Albany, where he had three points in three games in the regular season and three points over five playoff games.
The Devils finished last season with a league-worst 2.22 goals per game, but if Zacha is any proof, help could soon be on the way.
Jamie McGinn is hoping new scenery will bring new challenges.
The 27-year-old joined the Arizona Coyotes on July 1 after agreeing to a three-year $10-million contract, and is hoping it comes with an opportunity to serve as a leader on a young squad.
"At this point in my career, I want a bigger role on being a leader," McGinn said, according to Sarah McLellan of azcentral sports. "There are some young guys on the team, so I want to help out in a leadership role and do the best that I can and share my knowledge and help those guys make the next step. That’s a big part in success; they have a lot of talent, but sometimes there’s some adversity that players need help through. That’s where I can come in."
McGinn is coming off the most productive season of his career, having set career highs with 22 goals and 39 points in 84 games split between the Buffalo Sabres and Anaheim Ducks. That aside, McGinn insists he can't be satisfied with last season's success.
"If I find 22 goals acceptable, that means I'm not going to be working hard to get past that," McGinn said. "I'm going to continue to strive to get better."
McGinn is a welcome addition to a club that made has made a splash this offseason with several trades at the draft and the courting and eventual signing of defenseman Alex Goligoski.
"It looks like they're a very positive group," McGinn said. "I’m looking forward to the future."
