Finally, the reigning Norris Trophy winner is on the move.

The Pittsburgh Penguins reeled in star defenseman Erik Karlsson in a three-team megadeal Sunday to enliven a dull part of the hockey calendar. The trade also advances the San Jose Sharks' rebuild and has the potential to shake up next season's Eastern Conference playoff race.

The transaction loops in the Montreal Canadiens and breaks down as follows:

PIT gets: Karlsson, forward Rem Pitlick, prospect forward Dillon Hamaliuk, SJ's 2026 third-round draft pick

SJ gets: Forwards Mikael Granlund and Mike Hoffman, defenseman Jan Rutta, PIT's 2024 first-rounder (top-10 protected)

MTL gets: Defenseman Jeff Petry, goalie Casey DeSmith, prospect forward Nathan Legare, PIT's 2025 second-rounder

San Jose retains $1.5 million of Karlsson's $11.5-million cap hit over the next four seasons. Pittsburgh will foot 25% - or close to $1.6 million - of Petry's $6.25-million AAV for two more years. Montreal retains no salary.

Let's evaluate this blockbuster from all sides.

Penguins

Karlsson, 33, hasn't reached the postseason since the Sharks surged as far as the third round in 2019. Two years earlier, he dragged the Ottawa Senators within an overtime goal of the Stanley Cup Final while nursing two heel fractures, exhibiting his toughness and greatness.

He's this move's biggest winner. Karlsson departs a cellar-dweller to join the team that eliminated those 2017 Senators en route to clinching Sidney Crosby's third Cup. Pittsburgh remains committed to Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, and Kris Letang despite failing to win a playoff round for the last five years.

With the franchise legends staying put, new boss Kyle Dubas had to swing big to try to prolong the contention window. Dubas' first seismic move as president of hockey operations and general manager delivered an incandescent talent who made NHL history last season.

Karlsson's 101 points shattered his previous career best and were the most a blue-liner has produced since 1992. He was the first NHL defenseman to clear the century mark in his 30s, signaling he'll age gracefully if blessed with good health. Karlsson tallied one fewer point at even strength (74) in 2022-23 than runaway scoring champion Connor McDavid.

Acquiring Karlsson relieves the pressure on Letang, who turned 36 in April, to carry the Penguins' defense corps. Head coach Mike Sullivan can ice a puck-mover on the right side of the first and second pairings and at the helm of both power-play units. Karlsson will raise Pittsburgh's offensive floor even if Letang misses games or Jake Guentzel is hampered by the aftereffects of ankle surgery.

Dumping Granlund's bloated contract ($5 million through 2025) is a triumph for Dubas. Moving Rutta and Smith made Karlsson affordable while also saving the Penguins about $3.1 million in cap space, per CapFriendly. If Pittsburgh bounces back into the playoff picture - maybe by vaulting the New York Rangers and Islanders to rise to third place in the stacked Metropolitan Division - that'll soften the blow of parting with multiple picks.

Crosby, set to celebrate his 36th birthday Monday, is signed for two more seasons. The Penguins have about that much time to compete in the Metro before he, Malkin, and Letang finally fade. If things proceed to go south, Karlsson could net Pittsburgh a passable trade return or, at worst, would disappear from the cap sheet before long.

Resisting for as long as possible what's eventually bound to happen - the post-Crosby teardown - makes sense for Dubas. He landed the Norris winner and conserved money in the process. Karlsson might never advance in the playoffs again, but his and Pittsburgh's odds just improved substantially.

Grade: A

Sharks

Karlsson appeared in all 82 games and skated for 25:37 nightly last season. That means he was on the ice for close to 45% of San Jose's campaign. The Sharks plummeted in the standings anyway, recording 60 points to drop to fourth-last in the league while posting the franchise's worst points percentage (.366) since 1996.

Next season promises to be miserable. That's for the best. Drafting future stars is what makes a rebuild tolerable. Jettisoning Karlsson positions the Sharks to tank and add a cornerstone who'll play with Will Smith and William Eklund, headliners of GM Mike Grier's ascendant yet unspectacular prospect pool.

The problem with the Karlsson deal is the pool didn't improve Sunday. Grier obtained one decent asset - Pittsburgh's 2024 first-rounder - while committing to pay Granlund and Rutta for two seasons. The Sharks assumed that burden, as well as the final year of Hoffman's contract, to avoid retaining more than 13% of Karlsson's AAV.

Karlsson's age and steep price tag conspired to lighten the return. To land him in 2018, San Jose sent Ottawa two budding star centers: Josh Norris and the draft pick that became Tim Stutzle. Between the Karlsson, Timo Meier, and Brent Burns trade packages, Grier procured two Round 1 selections, using the first in June to draft winger Quentin Musty at 26th overall.

The Sharks' cap sheet remains messy. Defenseman Marc-Edouard Vlasic, who's 36 years old, is signed for $7 million annually through 2026. Captain Logan Couture, 34, owns an $8-million cap hit through 2027. Tomas Hertl is only 29 but commands more than $8.1 million per year through 2030 on a pact that predates Grier's hiring.

More trades await. The returns for those players, if and when they're moved, will probably underwhelm. Grier didn't get a ton back for the one guy who made his squad watchable.

Grade: D+

Canadiens

Montreal swapped a depth NHLer in Pitlick and a one-dimensional scorer on the decline in Hoffman to bring in Petry at a reduced cap hit and DeSmith to back up Jake Allen in net. GM Kent Hughes also added a second-round pick without sacrificing draft capital or retaining part of Karlsson's salary.

Petry was a pillar of Montreal's North Division championship team in 2021. Dealt to Pittsburgh a year ago for Mike Matheson, he's 35 but spry enough to play with Matheson on a temporary top pair. Hughes could trade Petry again this summer or at next year's deadline. If he sticks around, his presence will buy time for young defensemen Kaiden Guhle, Justin Barron, and Arber Xhekaj - plus top prospects David Reinbacher and Lane Hutson - to make strides.

The cost to butt into the Karlsson trade was minimal. Even if Samuel Montembeault outplays Allen and DeSmith in training camp, making one netminder redundant, Hughes strengthened the Habs by getting involved. That warrants a solid grade.

Grade: B+

Nick Faris is a features writer at theScore.

Copyright © 2023 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

Torching the Ottawa Senators, Auston Matthews pumped four shots past Craig Anderson in his magical NHL debut in 2016. Matthews' 40-goal rookie year sparked the sluggish Toronto Maple Leafs into a new competitive era.

Connor McDavid was slammed into the boards and fractured his clavicle as a rookie but otherwise produced at a point-per-game rate, scoring 48 points in 45 contests. Ahead of his second season, months before McDavid turned 20, the Edmonton Oilers named him the youngest captain in NHL history.

Connor Bedard was born two weeks before Sidney Crosby was drafted No. 1 overall. The Pittsburgh Penguins signed prominent veterans to surround Crosby with help, but he barely needed it, erupting for 102 points even as his team placed last in the Eastern Conference.

He set a high bar for the NHL's new phenom to target. Bedard is the prospective savior of the rebuilding Chicago Blackhawks, who gleefully drafted him first overall in June. His hotly anticipated rookie campaign begins Oct. 10 on the road against Crosby's Penguins.

Hockey news has slowed to a trickle, so let's think ahead to Bedard's NHL arrival. What immediate impact will he have in Chicago? What are fair expectations for fans to establish? Will he produce the greatest rookie season since Crosby's breakout?

A 5-foot-10 center, Bedard annihilated junior competition for the Regina Pats. He joined John Tavares as the only draft prospects this century to pot 70 goals in a Canadian Hockey League season.

Bedard's longest Western Hockey League point streak lasted 35 games. His 31 points across 14 appearances at the world juniors paced Canada to back-to-back gold medals. Those exploits guaranteed Bedard would be chosen first when the Blackhawks, the NHL's third-worst squad in 2022-23, lucked into winning the draft lottery.

Bedard enters the NHL as one of its nastiest shooters. Few snipers rip the puck like he can. Bedard picks corners off the rush, from a standstill, and through heavy traffic, barraging goalies even when he's denied time and a favorable angle.

He's no perimeter floater; Bedard rarely shoots from above the faceoff circles. Smart and rugged, he patiently waits or works to generate space to fire from the slot, The Athletic's Scott Wheeler found when he watched every goal Bedard netted - 100 across all competitions - in his draft year.

A stellar dangler and playmaker, Bedard's speed, dexterity, vision, and gravitational pull create countless openings for his line. Three impalpable attributes make him special. Skills coach Nick Quinn, who trains Bedard and dozens of other NHLers through the Power Edge Pro consultancy, raved about those traits to theScore last season.

Quinn on Bedard's brainpower: "(We) create an environment that puts extreme stress on the player's mind to think and have his feet and his hands respond at the same time. When you watch Bedard, that's what you see. You see an elite multi-tasker - a player who can create deception at top speed. He's reacting to defenders quicker than they can respond."

Bedard's guile: "He hasn't played a day in the show, and I think he shoots the puck better than 95% of NHLers," Quinn said. "It's the way he can give deception to get that defender to bite to get his stick in a different lane or his body in a different lane so he can shoot."

His attitude: "He has a lot more fun than most kids playing hockey. I think he loves the game so much that it doesn't feel like a job to him. It doesn't feel like pressure," Quinn said. "I don't think I've ever trained a guy who loves scoring goals the way he does, whether it's 9-0 or it's 2-1. He just wants to bury shots."

Bedard signed his entry-level contract in July on his 18th birthday. He'll be that age for the duration of next season. By contrast, Matthews was 19 and had already dominated the Swiss pro league when he reached the NHL. Alex Ovechkin waited out a lockout in Russia, debuted at 20, and racked up 52 goals and 106 points to edge Crosby for the 2006 Calder Trophy.

These kids excelled in the league right away.

Crosby's rookie year was chaotic yet electric. Health issues forced two Penguins forwards, Zigmund Palffy and Mario Lemieux, to retire suddenly that January in the span of a week. Pittsburgh's .354 points percentage was second-worst in the league. Crosby shone anyway, tallying 44 more points than his next-closest teammate, veteran defenseman Sergei Gonchar, to become the NHL's youngest triple-digit scorer.

The totals Patrik Laine, Nathan MacKinnon, and Jeff Skinner achieved are more attainable, though only MacKinnon subsequently matured into an elite scorer. Other No. 1 draft picks - Ryan Nugent-Hopkins (52 points in 62 games in 2012), Ilya Kovalchuk (51 in 65 games in 2002), and Steven Stamkos (46 in 79 games in 2009) - were decently productive at 18.

Recent top selections underwhelmed as rookies. Juraj Slafkovsky managed 10 points in 39 games last season before injuring his knee. Alexis Lafreniere's 21 points in 2021 foreshadowed that he'd struggle to seize a top-six role.

Jack Hughes was held to 21 points the previous year, but concerns about his upside were premature. Some budding superstars require time to blossom.

When the 2005 lockout ended, Pittsburgh signed John LeClair, Palffy, and Gonchar to strengthen Crosby's supporting cast. The Blackhawks made similar moves to insulate Bedard. General manager Kyle Davidson traded for Taylor Hall, Nick Foligno, and Corey Perry in June. He signed Ryan Donato and extended Andreas Athanasiou, Chicago's highest remaining scorer at the end of last season with 40 points.

The new-look forward corps is surprisingly recognizable. Eight vets aged 27 or older - Colin Blackwell, Jason Dickinson, and Tyler Johnson are the others - are there to ease Bedard's transition. None are signed beyond 2025.

Bedard and Hall should form a fun duo. Hall once suited up in Edmonton next to fellow No. 1 picks McDavid, Nugent-Hopkins, and Nail Yakupov. The Hart Trophy winner in 2018, Hall averaged 0.75 points per game with four teams over the past five seasons. He drives possession on the left wing, meaning Bedard won't have to carry Chicago's top line himself.

Bedard is the runaway Calder Trophy favorite, a rarity for a teenager. The last five recipients - Matty Beniers, Moritz Seider, Kirill Kaprizov, Cale Makar, and Elias Pettersson - had previous pro or college experience and ranged in age from 20 to 24. Mathew Barzal left the WHL and promptly claimed the Calder in 2018, but by then, he was three years removed from the draft.

Maybe Bedard can recreate Patrick Kane's promising first year. Kane turned 19 in the fall of his rookie season. He tallied 72 points to lead Chicago in scoring and take home the Calder in 2008. Two years after that, Kane's overtime winner in the Stanley Cup Final vanished in the netting and launched a Blackhawks dynasty.

Chicago dreams of getting Bedard to that stage. It won't happen soon, but the journey starts Oct. 10 in Pittsburgh.

Nick Faris is a features writer at theScore.

Copyright © 2023 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

Matheson earned 206 caps in Canada's midfield without ever playing professionally at home. No domestic league sprung up to house her Canadian soccer generation, the first one to ascend podiums and exhilarate fans nationwide.

Filling that gap drives her in retirement. Matheson is spearheading the creation of an eight-team loop to uplift Canadian talent and capitalize on women's sports' newfound popularity.

"I think I've made a career out of recognizing opportunities and going after them," Matheson said in a recent interview. "When people give me half a shot, I'm willing to take it."

Women's sports are booming globally. Salaries have risen and viewership is skyrocketing across a range of leagues on and beyond the pitch. Close to a million people tuned into the National Women's Soccer League's 2022 final. The WNBA's latest season opener was the most viewed game on cable in 24 years. ESPN's broadcast of the LSU-Iowa college hoops championship clash in April attracted 9.9 million viewers, obliterating the tournament record.

Visibility fuels buzz. More games are being televised nationally or streamed online. Citing this as a driver, 25% of United States sports fans surveyed by the National Research Group in 2022 said their consumption of women's sports rose over the past year. Viewership was up for 39% of Gen Z fans, the youngest and most enthused demographic in the survey.

The ground is shifting in Canada. Matheson, an NWSL alumna, is aiming to launch the country's first top-flight soccer league. Canadian franchises will compete in women's hockey's newest pro circuit when that league debuts early in 2024. Toronto is on the shortlist for WNBA expansion and filled the Raptors' arena to capacity for a women's preseason contest this spring.

Constrained by sexist attitudes and underfunded for decades, the Canadian women's sports market now brims with potential. Proponents say the time has come to actualize it. Investors who pony up to keep teams afloat in the coming years could help shape the industry's direction, enhance its profile, and profit as it matures.

"There are audience attendance records and viewership records and rights-fees records. All of these things are being broken every week across so many sports and leagues and teams," said Allison Sandmeyer-Graves, CEO of the advocacy association Canadian Women and Sport.

"All of those speak to the business value of women's professional sport," she said. "We believe (Canada has) the talent. The fan base is there and it's growing. Let's give them a place to play and something to cheer for."

The glow-up

South of the border, Matheson's former league is shining in its 11th season.

Compared to last year, attendance across the NWSL's dozen markets was up 48% at the current campaign's halfway mark. The salary cap rose 25% this year to $1.375 million per team. That rivals the WNBA's $1.42-million ceiling, though soccer rosters are considerably larger.

Matheson has helmed Project 8 - the business organizing the Canadian league - on a full-time basis since last summer. Named after her jersey number, Project 8 announced that Vancouver, Calgary, and Toronto will field franchises when play kicks off in 2025.

The league plans to add two more clubs out west - Edmonton, Saskatoon, and Winnipeg are candidates - and three in the east, possibly split between Ontario, Quebec, and the Maritimes. Under the proposed schedule format, a club would face all seven of its opponents four times between April and November. The entire league would fly to one site twice per regular season to stage several interconference matchups at a time, reducing cross-country travel.

Matheson wants every game to stream live and for some to air on linear channels, broadening the league's potential audience.

"This has to look like a professional product when it shows up on people's screens," Matheson said. "That's been one of the problems in women's sport. Underinvested in. If it doesn't have the production quality, it undermines the on-field quality. We want to get that right."

On the court, the WNBA is making strides at 27 years old.

Ratings for the regular season hit a 14-year high in 2022. The 2023 WNBA Draft drew more eyeballs - an average of 572,000 viewers watched it on ESPN - than any edition since 2004, when Diana Taurasi was selected first overall. The WNBA expanded its national TV reach this season by airing Friday night games on Ion Television. The league is set to sign a rich media rights deal once its ESPN contract, which pays $33 million in 2025, expires that year.

Players rake in more money than ever: The minimum salary this season, as guaranteed by the WNBA's 2020 collective bargaining agreement, is $62,285. Including Taurasi, six stars are signed at or just below the supermax rate of $234,936, per Spotrac. They also increasingly travel in comfort. The league now foots the bill for teams to fly charter on trips that involve back-to-backs and to all playoff games.

Expanding beyond 12 teams is the inevitable next step. Stable but static, the WNBA hasn't added or folded a franchise since the late 2000s. Creating two squads in the next few years - which commissioner Cathy Engelbert has signaled is the plan - would alleviate the league's jobs crisis. Since WNBA rosters are capped at 12 players, teams have waived dozens of recent draft picks before their rookie seasons tipped off.

About 20 cities have expressed interest in landing a franchise, Engelbert recently told Sports Business Journal's Austin Karp. Toronto was one of six aspirants Engelbert named.

Around 2008, Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment rejected the WNBA's pitch to form and operate a Toronto team, former MLSE president and CEO Richard Peddie told Sportsnet's Michael Grange. But a separate group, New Media Sports and Entertainment, began laying the groundwork for a Toronto bid in 2019, the year the Raptors' stirring postseason run delivered an NBA championship.

By population and NBA attendance, Toronto is one of basketball's biggest and most energetic markets. Fans snapped up every ticket available to the Chicago Sky-Minnesota Lynx exhibition matchup at Scotiabank Arena in May.

Canadian WNBA players - there are four in the league, including Lynx forwards Natalie Achonwa and Bridget Carleton - heralded the sellout and the game's joyous atmosphere as proof that a Toronto team would galvanize the city.

"The next generation of athletes, boys and girls, could (see that) women can do this in the professional ranks and be successful playing basketball," Carleton told reporters. "That should be the norm. It's not as accessible in Canada because it's not around us. To have that in our backyard would be special."

In hockey, Canada has a part to play to solidify the women's game's pro future.

Linchpins of the national program - think Marie-Philip Poulin and Sarah Nurse - will suit up in a new pro league that's launching next January. Financed by Mark Walter, owner of MLB's Los Angeles Dodgers and the WNBA's L.A. Sparks, the yet-to-be-named league bought out the Premier Hockey Federation two weeks ago to transform the sport and unite its North American star talent.

Stability beckons after years of division. The sport splintered in 2019 following the financial demise of the Canadian Women's Hockey League. Doubting the PHF - the CWHL's surviving rival - was viable long term, Canadian and U.S. Olympians formed the Professional Women's Hockey Players Association to train in regional hubs while holding showcase tournaments in NHL cities. Designing a league that lasts was their ultimate goal.

"We set out to change the way women's professional hockey exists and set a new standard for professionalism in our sport," Jayna Hefford, the Hall of Fame forward who chairs the PWHPA, told theScore this week.

"The journey was tough. It was challenging. We got questioned a lot along the way in terms of: Why didn't we just be happy with what existed? We always believed that we could do so much more."

The PWHPA union ratified in July the CBA it bargained with Walter and Billie Jean King, the tennis pioneer who's a league board member. The CBA establishes a minimum seasonal salary of $35,000; specifies that six players per team must make at least $80,000 annually on three-year contracts; and covers player bonuses, health insurance, hotel and travel accommodations, and assorted workplace policies, according to The Athletic's Hailey Salvian.

"The overarching theme is that we have an ownership group that wants to ensure players are taken care of and protected," Hefford said.

"It's clear that it was negotiated for a long period of time. Player interests were put to the forefront," agent Spencer Gillis, who represents several former PHFers and has reviewed the CBA, told theScore. "It's promising in that sense. But we still have to know more about what the league looks like - where the teams will be, how many there will be exactly, and what that structure will be."

Pre-buyout, the Toronto Six and Montreal Force were the Canadian franchises in the seven-team PHF, whose salary cap was about to double to $1.5 million. Every PHF contract has been voided, wiping out several six-figure deals and upending the life of any player who quit a part-time job or rented housing in preparation for next season. They'll receive severance pay and health coverage through Sept. 30, per The Hockey News' Ian Kennedy.

The new league is expected to ice three Canadian and three U.S. squads in undetermined markets. The return of Olympians to league competition will limit the roster spots available to PHFers. Some players will take pay cuts while others will have to retire prematurely, Mikyla Grant-Mentis, the PHF MVP in 2021, pointed out to Sportsnet's Sonny Sachdeva.

"It will change a lot of people's lives who were anticipating and promised different things," Gillis said. "I just hope that everybody is accounted for and everybody who wants to continue playing hockey will be able to play next year."

Former Six forward Daryl Watts, whose record $150,000 contract was nixed, said her initial unease about the end of the PHF gave way to excitement. The new circuit's caliber of play will be maximally high. Watts told theScore that she's grateful PHF owners invested in the sport and laid the foundation for a league that should endure.

"For little girls playing hockey today, I think it's so exciting," Watts said. "Women's hockey in 10 years will look so, so much better than how it looked when I was a little kid."

Across the board, women's sports in Canada will flourish as teams and leagues develop local fan bases, said Sandmeyer-Graves, the Canadian Women and Sport chief executive. The organization expressed this belief in a recent report that suggests ways to make the industry vibrant.

Most of the broadcast, sponsorship, and ticket revenue that Canadian women's sports generate stems from periodic events like the CP Women's Open and National Bank Open, the CWS report notes. The Olympics are the biggest driver but, like the golf and tennis tournaments, don't take place frequently enough to stoke regular interest.

"Fans (need to) have an opportunity to be fans consistently - to engage and connect month over month, year over year with the players," Sandmeyer-Graves said. "Having teams and leagues, we feel, is really the key to that. Events can play a really important role. But only events isn't going to get that flywheel going."

The road ahead

Beyond dazzling for Canada, Matheson played for NWSL clubs in Washington and Utah before retiring in 2021 in the midst of the pandemic. Unable to travel far, she spoke virtually to women's soccer builders in myriad countries, from Mexico to England to Japan to Australia, about the potential to copy their example at home.

"Anywhere women's soccer is kicking around, we probably touched base at some point," Matheson said.

As a player, Matheson and her teammates invigorated the national program. Canada is the reigning Olympic champion, medaled at three straight Summer Games, and sits seventh in the FIFA rankings entering the upcoming Women's World Cup. Canadians sign with European powerhouses and feature prominently in the NWSL, but Matheson's global contacts were perplexed to learn there's no domestic pipeline in place.

"Around the world, women's professional leagues in soccer are the norm," Matheson said. "People cannot believe, given the success of women's soccer in Canada and given our fan base, that we don't have a league here. They're incredulous."

Their surprise is understandable. Globally, women's soccer is a hit. A billion viewers tuned into World Cup matches in 2019. The competition subsequently expanded from 24 to 32 teams. Establishing a record, more than a million tickets were sold to the 2023 event in Australia and New Zealand, which kicks off July 20. Every player involved will earn at least $30,000 - the champions get $270,000 apiece - for appearing in the tournament.

European fans flock to the sport. Top women's clubs, Arsenal and Barcelona among them, have begun to sell out cavernous men's stadiums.

In various sports, monetary milestones are being set worldwide. The CWS report points out that franchise valuations have spiked in the WNBA (Seattle Storm, $151 million), the NWSL (Angel City FC, $100 million), and India's nascent women's cricket league ($570 million split between the five founding teams).

"There's been such growth in professional women's sport in so many of our peer countries around the world, like Australia, the U.K., the U.S., and others," Sandmeyer-Graves said.

"It's booming in those spaces. But where is Canada? Canada feels like it's getting left behind."

Several things have to happen in sequence for the Canadian market to thrive, Sandmeyer-Graves said.

No matter the sport, teams need sponsors and TV rights-holders need advertisers to help fund their operations. That places the onus on brands to bet on and bankroll fledgling products. Slick broadcasts and robust media coverage make it visible to the masses.

"And then the audiences are coming," Sandmeyer-Graves said, "and that virtuous cycle starts to hum."

The investors that catalyze growth must be patient. Corporations that put in capital for years, forgoing a fast return in service of a long-term vision, stand to benefit financially as a women's league becomes prominent, CWS' research suggests. Matheson, whose outfit has partnered with Air Canada, Canadian Tire, CIBC, and DoorDash Canada, said their backing is "an essential revenue stream" for Project 8 and the league's future teams.

"We don't have a product yet. These are companies led by Canadians who believe in what we're doing," Matheson said. "They've written us a check, and they've also said: Let us know how we can help you build this thing. That is absolutely the reason that we're able to do this now."

Presenting the business case for women's pro sports has forced Sandmeyer-Graves to challenge preconceptions about their value. People expect startup leagues to be profitable earlier than established men's leagues were. Critics rampantly question if women's games are compelling enough to drive ticket and jersey sales.

They can and will, she said, when "the doubt that gets projected into this space" is quieted.

"What's exciting about it is that, already, we're starting to see those mindsets shift," Sandmeyer-Graves said. "But for investors and for others who are going to be crucial to the success of this, it starts with checking our biases and challenging the narratives that many folks have held over so many decades."

Matheson thinks the rise of the women's national program "made soccer in Canada possible - period." John Herdman's men's team surged to the World Cup after the women he once coached, led by captain Christine Sinclair, put the sport on the map. Sinclair, the international game's all-time leading scorer, sat beside Matheson to lend her credibility and support when the plan for the new domestic league was announced.

Project 8's plan is ambitious, Matheson said. Canada's players and fans deserve a top-caliber competition. Managing to launch one would make it easier for girls to emulate her. International fixtures weren't televised when Matheson was growing up near Toronto, and she didn't envision playing pro or achieving Olympic stardom.

"Having a team in my city and seeing it on TV and being able to go to games would have shifted that," Matheson said. "Visible role models make a difference. There would have been a pathway to a professional career right here in Canada, which I absolutely would have followed."

Nick Faris is a features writer at theScore.

Copyright © 2023 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

Alex DeBrincat, the subject of intense trade speculation this offseason, is headed home to join the Detroit Red Wings.

Detroit extended the 25-year-old sniper immediately after acquiring him in a splashy swap with the Ottawa Senators on Sunday night. DeBrincat's new four-year contract counts for $7.875 million against the salary cap.

In return, Ottawa received veteran forward Dominik Kubalik, prospect defenseman Donovan Sebrango, a 2024 conditional first-round draft pick, and a 2024 fourth-rounder.

The Red Wings will choose which 2024 first-rounder - either theirs or the Boston Bruins' selection, previously acquired for Tyler Bertuzzi - is part of the deal. One caveat: The Bruins could opt to keep their pick if it's in the top 10, at which point Boston's unprotected 2025 first-rounder would be on the table.

Let's evaluate the blockbuster move from both sides.

Red Wings

Until Sunday, Detroit lacked elite attacking talent. This franchise has starved for offense throughout its seven-year playoff drought. The Red Wings haven't finished higher than 22nd in NHL scoring since 2015, back when DeBrincat and Connor McDavid lit up Ontario Hockey League goaltending as Erie Otters teammates.

DeBrincat excels alongside superstars. He racked up 160 goals in five seasons - 32 per year - with the Chicago Blackhawks as Patrick Kane's frequent linemate. Last season, he barely got to play with skilled centers Tim Stutzle (Brady Tkachuk and Claude Giroux were the Senators' top wingers) or Josh Norris (who injured his shoulder and sat out all but eight games).

DeBrincat's stats slipped in Ottawa. He scored 27 goals on a shooting percentage of 10.3%, well below his 15.5% average in Chicago. He also regressed defensively: The Sens were outscored 58-42 in DeBrincat's five-on-five minutes, per Natural Stat Trick.

Sensing an opportunity, the Red Wings capitalized. General manager Steve Yzerman reeled in a proven sniper from the Detroit suburb of Farmington Hills to complement Dylan Larkin on the top line.

The cost of landing and extending DeBrincat was modest. His average annual value is substantially lower than Larkin's $8.7-million cap hit, not to mention the $8.8-million AAV that Timo Meier just procured from the New Jersey Devils.

His contract projects to be team-friendly. If DeBrincat shoots as often as he did in Ottawa and his success rate normalizes, he'll be the first Wings player to flirt with 40 goals since Marian Hossa buried that many in 2009. Even in a down year, DeBrincat's 11 power-play tallies ranked in the top 30 league-wide. His presence on the PP will divert attention from Larkin and elevate the whole first unit.

DeBrincat isn't solely a triggerman. He shone as a playmaker in 2022-23, dishing a career-best 39 assists. He also remained aspirationally durable. DeBrincat has never been injured in the NHL, only missing four games during the 2020-21 season when he was placed in COVID-19 protocol.

His arrival boosts the Red Wings now and for years to come. DeBrincat is the fifth NHL forward Yzerman's brought in this month, joining J.T. Compher, Christian Fischer, Klim Kostin, and Daniel Sprong. Like Larkin, he'll continue to produce at a high clip as Detroit's most promising young forwards, from Lucas Raymond to Jonatan Berggren to prospects Marco Kasper and Nate Danielson, mature into difference-makers.

Three Atlantic Division up-and-comers - the Buffalo Sabres, Red Wings, and Senators - are stuck in the league's longest playoff skids. The Wings have the lowest offensive ceiling of the bunch. Adding DeBrincat narrows that gap and makes next season's Detroit-Ottawa showdowns (four between Oct. 21 and Jan. 31) extremely compelling.

Grade: A-

Senators

On July 7, 2022, the Senators dealt the No. 7 and No. 39 picks in last year's draft, plus a 2024 third-rounder, to nab DeBrincat from the Blackhawks as Chicago's roster teardown started.

Here and now, the Sens recoup a lesser winger in Kubalik (incidentally, a former Blackhawk), AHL defensive depth in Sebrango (incidentally, an Ottawa native), and worse draft capital. Trading the best player involved is a surefire way to lose a deal. It's doubly painful to sell low on DeBrincat to a division rival and possible future playoff opponent.

Still, the move was sensible. GM Pierre Dorion created cap relief and can now focus on balancing and deepening the forward corps.

Ottawa has inked Stutzle, Tkachuk, Norris, and Thomas Chabot to long-term pacts in the $8-million range. Defensive linchpins Jake Sanderson and Jakob Chychrun could command that coin pretty soon. DeBrincat returning would have made it tough to sign RFA Shane Pinto, the club's third-line center, and would have stopped the Senators from enhancing their forward depth, a weakness last season.

Pending UFA Kubalik, twice a 20-goal scorer, makes $2.5 million against the cap. Ottawa can slot him beside Pinto and have money left over to take a swing at Vladimir Tarasenko, the most coveted free agent currently on the market. Strengthened by upgrades on the blue line (Chychrun) and in net (Joonas Korpisalo), the Sens will be fine next season if they can replicate DeBrincat's production collectively.

Notably, the Sens now possess three 2024 fourth-rounders: theirs, Detroit's, and a Tampa Bay Lightning pick acquired in the Mathieu Joseph-Nick Paul swap. Using one as a sweetener to offload Joseph's $2.95-million contract could open space to sign Tarasenko, who bagged 34 goals and 82 points as recently as 2021-22.

Meanwhile, Ottawa owns multiple picks in a first round for the first time since 2020 when Dorion drafted Stutzle, Sanderson, and Ridly Greig. They'll be able to replenish the prospect pool - another organizational need - even if both selections fall late in the round.

The Senators failed to get the most out of DeBrincat but still ice four recent 35-goal scorers: Stutzle, Tkachuk, Norris, and Giroux, the last acquisition left from the fabled Summer of Dorion. They didn't compel Yzerman to part with a young star or Detroit's top '24 first-rounder, but they won't need to shop DeBrincat at the trade deadline - potentially in the midst of a playoff push - to avoid losing him for nothing next summer.

Since DeBrincat wouldn't sign in Ottawa long term, an awkward outcome was inevitable. This solution is somewhat elegant.

Grade: B-

Nick Faris is a features writer at theScore.

Copyright © 2023 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

Budding superstars whose names were called in the 2003 NHL Draft strode to the stage in Nashville to shake hands with Gary Bettman and soak in the pageantry of the event.

Marc Methot, the No. 168 overall pick, was asleep in Ottawa when the Columbus Blue Jackets phoned his house. His mother nudged him awake after 9 a.m. that Sunday morning. Demoralized by his slide, Methot heard he was the first player taken in the sixth round.

"Even then, I wasn't happy," Methot recalled recently. "I was so competitive. Seeing a lot of those names picked ahead of me, I was pissed off. Inevitably, it propelled me forward. The motivation that I used, having to prove people wrong from that point on, honestly was one of the big driving aspects of me making the jump to the NHL."

Columbus nailed the pick. Raw and physically immature at 18 years old, Methot evolved into a shutdown defenseman and 13-year NHLer. He beat the odds - the vast majority of late-round selections don’t sniff the NHL - and was a solid player in a transcendent class.

The 2003 draft produced 16 1,000-game skaters, six 400-goal snipers, eight NHL captains, and a dozen participants in the epic Canada-United States 2010 Olympic final. The cohort's award winners include Corey Perry (Hart and Rocket Richard Trophies), Marc-Andre Fleury (Vezina), Brent Burns (Norris), and Patrice Bergeron (five Selkes, plus seven additional nominations).

Eight of the top-45 picks - Perry, Fleury, Burns, Bergeron, Eric Staal, Ryan Suter, Jeff Carter, and Zach Parise - remain in the league two decades later. The same goes for Joe Pavelski (pick No. 205), Jaroslav Halak (No. 271), and Brian Elliott (No. 291, the second-last selection). Per CapFriendly, Pavelski and those two goaltenders have combined to earn about $140 million in career salary despite generating minimal draft buzz.

Their durability spotlights the class' depth. Including Methot, 15 players chosen in the fifth round or beyond played more than 500 games. Seven became productive contributors by way of Rounds 8 and 9, which the NHL abolished in 2005.

Their journeys provide the roadmap for how to make it as an unheralded prospect. Today's late bloomers could take inspiration from them when the draft returns to Nashville next week.

Viewers marvel at Connor Bedard's gifts and ludicrous junior production. Media coverage focuses on a few dozen of his peers - the class of 2023's surefire and potential first-rounders. Scores of players will be drafted at later stages without eliciting fanfare, as was the case in 2003.

What was it like to fly below the radar in that loaded draft? What skill enhancements or stylistic adjustments helped certain late-rounders achieve NHL longevity? How was luck on their side, and how did they create their own luck en route to realizing the dream?

Five members of the '03 class shared memories and wisdom with theScore.

"I look at the draft as the first step. The work starts after that," said Lee Stempniak, the fifth-round selection who broke into the league with the St. Louis Blues and appeared in 911 games.

"You'd be foolish to say that a first-round pick doesn't get more opportunities than later-round picks or undrafted guys. But at the end of the day, you need to be able to play."

Use doubts as fuel

Stempniak was a 20-year-old sophomore at Dartmouth in 2003. Passed over in two previous drafts, he got the chance to impress scouts who showed up to watch his star linemate, eventual first-round pick Hugh Jessiman. A Blues official phoned Stempniak at school that June 22 to welcome him to the organization.

"It was pretty anticlimactic," Stempniak said. "But it was cool nonetheless."

Recollections of being selected vary by the prospect. United States Hockey League All-Star Drew Miller found out he went in Round 6 when his dad read the news online. The Pittsburgh Penguins' chief scout left a voice message for ninth-rounder Matt Moulson while the Cornell freshman was out practicing lacrosse, his summer sport.

The events of the day frustrated Nate Thompson, another sixth-rounder who attended the draft in person. Thompson's stock slipped after his Western Hockey League season admittedly was underwhelming. He recalls his agent mentioning that some NHL evaluators thought he'd top out as a decent minor leaguer.

"I've always had a chip on my shoulder when I play," said Thompson, who skated in 844 games. "If I made the NHL and I could stick, I knew I could make myself valuable enough to be a player that teams would want."

Every late-rounder has shortcomings to neutralize or doubts to squelch. Moulson, cut from Triple-A youth teams in the Toronto area at age 16, heard forever that his skating wasn't NHL-caliber. Miller hails from an NHL family - goalie Ryan Miller is his older brother, and cousins Kelly, Kevin, and Kip were longtime pros - but was slight as a teenager. He had to learn how to sidestep hits merely "to survive on the ice."

Shy and overshadowed by barrel-chested peers in the Ontario Hockey League, Methot pored over the results of the draft for motivation. Seeing certain defensemen taken earlier than him provided fuel.

"Maybe it was a little shortsighted at the time, but I was thinking, 'I'm better than this guy. I'm better than this guy,'" Methot said.

He focused on personal progression, doing what he could to gradually raise his game as touted players plateaued.

"Even as a 15-year-old, I was writing myself little sticky notes above my bedroom door. Goals, what to achieve in the offseason, where I wanted to see myself," Methot said.

"My parents never told me to do that. That was something that came to me, and I was by no means an exceptional player. It goes to show the drive needed to make that next step."

Continuously improve

A winding pathway to the pros supplies ample time for skill development. Over four seasons at Dartmouth, Stempniak shouldered major minutes and was encouraged to take chances in head coach Bob Gaudet's unrestrictive offensive system.

"I got to play in a lot of big situations, make some mistakes, learn from those mistakes, and have a confidence with the puck that's really hard to get once it's taken away from you," Stempniak said.

Like Methot, Miller, and Thompson, Moulson refined his skill set over several American Hockey League seasons. He signed with the Los Angeles Kings instead of Pittsburgh out of college and benefited from the tutelage of Mike O'Connell, the Kings' director of player development who walked him through video clips in the Manchester Monarchs' dressing room.

Moulson studied Monarchs practice tape and footage of each of his shifts. O'Connell emphasized that Moulson, a prolific shooter and net-front scorer, had attributes that could offset his clunky skating at the next level.

"I remember him telling me to watch Andrew Brunette, who also wasn't a great skater but had a lot of success in the NHL," Moulson said. "I used to watch game after game of Colorado when (Brunette) was with them."

“I realized I had other assets that could be valuable in the NHL."

Adjustments made in the minors can springboard a player up the ranks. Feisty and slippery, Miller found ways to gain body position on big defenders to be able to crash the opposing crease.

An adept skater and puck-mover at 6-foot-4, Methot lacked an aggressive streak that could've hastened his rise. However, the game got easier for him as he grinded in the gym to add strength and stayed disciplined year-round.

"I never drank much. I wasn't a big fan of going out with the guys all the time and getting loaded," Methot said. "I was a bit of a hermit. Hyperfocused on my diet, on training, on playing good hockey games. I wasn't just content playing in the American league. I think that's a mindset a lot of the NHL guys have."

They also commit to being students of the sport. When Stempniak joined the Blues, head coach Mike Kitchen schooled him on certain nuances, urging him to work after practice on redirecting pucks and one-timing them to the far post. Assistant coach Curt Fraser drilled Stempniak on cutbacks and passes to the point.

Stempniak became a reliable depth scorer. Coveting what he brought, playoff contenders dealt for him at four different trade deadlines.

"If you put in the time, you can make gains," Stempniak said. "The game is all about those marginal gains that ultimately make you a better player."

Luck out

NHL careers take shape when talent, drive, and luck intersect. Guys who make it capitalize on fortunate breaks and fleeting chances to shine. When Methot's London Knights won the 2005 Memorial Cup during the NHL lockout year, his overtime goal to beat Sidney Crosby's Rimouski Oceanic in the round robin enhanced his stature as a prospect.

Moulson, a newcomer to the New York Islanders in September 2009, was in the lineup for an exhibition game in Calgary when Dion Phaneuf crushed and injured Kyle Okposo with an open-ice hit. The ensuing fracas led to ejections. When the dust settled, Moulson ascended to the power play and scored twice on recent Vezina winner Miikka Kiprusoff.

Two Islanders forwards, Sean Bergenheim and Doug Weight, nursed groin injuries during that training camp. Seeking an offensive spark, head coach Scott Gordon elevated Moulson to John Tavares' wing. They clicked instantly. Moulson, the breakout star of that preseason, stuck with New York on a two-way contract and proceeded to pot 30 goals in three straight seasons.

"All these things in my life and all these things in the hockey world were perfectly aligned," Moulson said. "I finally got my chance, and I was not ready to let go of it."

Being cut can be a watershed moment. The Islanders waived Thompson in the midst of Moulson's star turn in 2009-2010. That the Tampa Bay Lightning claimed him bought time for Thompson to establish a niche as a heart-and-soul center and ace faceoff taker.

Tampa Bay waived Miller that same season just as injuries struck the Detroit Red Wings. Miller's defensive aptitude and willingness to grind helped him remain with that franchise for eight years.

Timing is everything, Stempniak said. Rather than languish in the minors for long, he debuted with the Blues following his college graduation and the NHL lockout. Laden with expensive veterans, St. Louis plugged players with cheap contracts into the lineup to squeeze under the salary cap.

St. Louis summoned Stempniak from the AHL during a mid-year losing skid. He promptly scored in three straight games, exhibiting his NHL readiness. Stempniak's role increased, he withstood the roster churn that accompanied the Blues' 30th-place finish, and he set career highs in goals (27) and points (52) the next season.

"For me, everything was based on hard work. Extra time on the ice. Extra time in the gym. Trying to be coachable. Trying to soak up everything I could from all of the veteran players," Stempniak said. "My first year, it was Doug Weight. It was Eric Weinrich. It was Keith Tkachuk. It was Barret Jackman. It was Scott Young. Guys who had been extremely successful in the NHL in a lot of different situations."

Trust the process

Miller's introduction to the NHL happened in the postseason. A rookie pro and Black Ace in 2007, he dressed in Games 1 and 2 of the Stanley Cup Final when Anaheim Ducks teammate Chris Kunitz broke his hand. Miller threw a hard hit to create the turnover in the offensive zone that led to Anaheim's opening goal of the series.

"I got my name on the Cup. I got my day with the Cup. I got a ring because I played in the finals," Miller said. "Someone gets hurt, and they picked my name. I'm in there playing with Andy McDonald and Teemu Selanne in the Stanley Cup Final. I'm like, 'Holy crap.'"

Methot toiled in the minors for three seasons before he made the Blue Jackets' roster out of training camp in 2008. A Columbus Dispatch reporter asked him at that camp about the frustration of struggling to break through. Set to be a free agent the following summer, Methot said he'd happily move on if Columbus didn't want him.

"I remember putting that pressure on myself. It was almost unintentional. I think I was just venting to somebody, and that happened to be the newspaper," Methot said. "Some of the veterans gave me the gears that day when I came into the rink, regarding those comments. But I used it. It made me self-aware of my position and that I'd better damn well pull it together now."

Methot fulfilled his potential once he overcame a mental block: "It was getting past the fact that you're (facing) all these guys you used to play as in video games." Star-struck as an NHL call-up, he tended to be able to string together a few good games before his performance declined. Consistency came with maturity.

Most paths to the show aren't linear, Stempniak said. Effort and resilience keep a prospect on track.

"Playing in the NHL, it's an amazing job, but it's a job," he said. "There's pressure. For most people, there's a lot of hard days in terms of not playing well, expectations, adversity.

"That's some of the challenge: putting in the work and not seeing that instant reward or instant gratification, but knowing and trusting that two years from now, three years from now, four years from now, it's going to pay off."

He would know. Stempniak played long enough to suit up for 10 franchises, tied for second most in history. Traded to his hometown Ottawa Senators in 2012, Methot was Erik Karlsson's defense partner when the Swedish virtuoso won his second Norris Trophy. Thompson, an everyday NHLer until recently, was the oldest player in the AHL this past season.

Fellow hidden gems continue to touch up their resumes. Halak and Elliott - the 26th and 28th goalies drafted in 2003 - shared the Jennings Trophy in 2012 as Blues netminding partners. The Dallas Stars left the bench to mob Pavelski in April when he tallied his 1,000th NHL point on a dexterous tip.

They all spent plenty of time in the company of legends. Some members of their draft class are bound for the Hall of Fame.

"It is neat to see a lot of the players - not just mainstays, but some superstars - who happened to be in that draft," Methot said. He laughed, adding: "It gives me a legitimate excuse to tell people why I went in the sixth round."

Nick Faris is a features writer at theScore.

Copyright © 2023 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

The final point Connor Bedard tallied in his brilliant draft season was a fluke.

Bedard's Regina Pats faced elimination from the Western Hockey League playoffs when a teammate rebounded his shot from distance in a hectic scramble. Saskatoon Blades defenseman Tanner Molendyk deftly poked the puck in mid-air away from the goal line. Saskatoon's goaltender headed it backward into the net.

The assist was Bedard's 20th point of the opening-round divisional showdown. He bent the series to his will, though the Blades laughed last. They vanquished the Pats in Game 7 before a sellout throng of 14,768 fans at Saskatoon's SaskTel Centre.

"Playing in front of that loud crowd where the building felt like it was going to collapse, it was pretty fun," Molendyk said in a recent interview. "It was like an NHL feel."

The excitement was warranted. A destructive offensive force, Bedard does what he feels like when he handles the puck. Beyond him, his peer group is deep. Prospects from all over Western Canada could be picked in rapid succession next Wednesday night when the NHL draft gets going in Nashville.

Eight first-rounders taken in theScore's latest mock draft hail from the WHL. No other feeder league produced more than five. The best forwards in the batch are complete players who star in every phase of the game. Snipers, playmakers, and electrifying skaters are available further down the board.

The cohort's talent is prodigious. Five draft prospects - Bedard, Zach Benson, Riley Heidt, Andrew Cristall, and Koehn Ziemmer - finished in the top 10 in WHL scoring in 2022-23. Lukas Dragicevic's 27-game point streak is the longest ever authored by a WHL defenseman.

Netminders shine out west, too. Led by Carson Bjarnason, the Brandon Wheat Kings starter who stood tall in Bedard's division, four WHL goalies outrank the finest puck-stopper from Ontario or Quebec in NHL Central Scouting's North American rankings.

"It's a great time for the Western Hockey League," said Marty Murray, the retired NHL forward from Manitoba who is the Wheat Kings' head coach and general manager. "It was fun, but not so fun sometimes to be on the bench against those high-end prospects night in, night out. At the end of the day, it's a treat."

Bedard, an all-world shooter and hockey mastermind who turns 18 in July, was the main attraction in every rink the Pats toured.

The North Vancouver native produced more five-point performances (eight) than zero-point outings (five) during the regular season. His 1.25 goals per game - 71 in 57 - are the most in the WHL since 1991.

Fans worldwide know about his capabilities. Bedard dangled Slovak defenders at separate World Junior Championships to score off a sweet give-and-go sequence and net an overtime beauty in knockout play.

He's bound for the Chicago Blackhawks at first overall. Benson will be snapped up later in the night. The go-to scorer for the Winnipeg Ice, a league finalist this past season, is physically slight but also agile, elusive, feisty, and an advanced hockey thinker.

Benson influences the action loudly and subtly. He buried eight game-winners in his draft year, trailing only Bedard's 11. He one-upped the Pats prodigy in shorthanded goals (6-5). Benson is disruptive on defense - "He's got one of the best sticks I've seen in the 'Dub," Molendyk said - and savvy when he battles for possession.

"He puts his body in places that other guys don't. He'll bump you before he gets the puck. He'll do the little things that go unnoticed," Molendyk said.

"Even as a 15-year-old kid, we were really impressed with his two-way game," said Ice head coach James Patrick. "When the play changes directions, he stops on a dime and he's right back on his pursuit. The word 'fly-by' is not in his vocabulary."

Nate Danielson, co-captain of the Wheat Kings at 18 years old, is similarly attentive and effective everywhere on the ice.

Smooth on the move at 6-foot-2, the center from Red Deer, Alberta, takes big faceoffs, carries the puck gracefully, and has recorded two point-per-game seasons in Brandon. His coach says he's versatile and no-maintenance.

"I view him as a 200-foot center who can transport the puck. I think he's got an outstanding future ahead," Murray said. "(What) excites me is that he can be effective in a lot of ways on the offensive side, from speed to finesse to the power game."

Brayden Yager's explosive, pinpoint release helped him rack up 34 goals for the Moose Jaw Warriors in 2021-22. The Canadian Hockey League rookie of the year that season rounded out his game as a WHL sophomore, doubling his assist total to 50.

"He's got a shot that can beat goaltenders from anywhere. But he doesn't want to be thought of as a one-trick pony," Moose Jaw head coach Mark O'Leary said. "He talked an awful lot about being responsible in all three zones, where I could trust him to play in all situations, and being more of a playmaker. I think he showed both those things this year."

Over in British Columbia, Cristall's craftiness and creativity with the puck wowed Kelowna Rockets supporters. Samuel Honzek left Slovakia's top pro league to join the Vancouver Giants and showcased his motor, slick hands, and fast stride at 6-foot-4.

Heidt is a clever and nifty pure passer from the Prince George Cougars. He tied Bedard for the WHL assist lead with 72 by sensing openings before they materialized and teeing up Ziemmer, the power winger to his right, for blasts.

"He's got that passing deception. He can look guys off. It's a special skill set that he's got," Cougars head coach and GM Mark Lamb said.

"You don't get that many assists without having pretty incredible vision," said Yager, Heidt's former youth teammate in Saskatchewan. "I played with him growing up pretty much my whole life. Scored a lot of goals playing with him. He seems like he's able to find people all over the ice."

Defensemen in this WHL class get overshadowed, but two could be selected in Round 1.

Sparking offense is Dragicevic's specialty. He controls the puck calmly, is quick to jump into the rush, and can shoot or facilitate as the Tri-City Americans' power-play quarterback. Scouts argue his gap control and defensive awareness need refinement, but no draft-eligible blue-liner in the CHL racked up more points (75 in 68 games).

Molendyk throws crunching hits for the Blades and is impressively mobile. His production (37 points) undershot expectations, but his breezy skating unlocks offensive opportunities. Molendyk sidesteps forecheckers, scoots up ice in transition, and dances with the puck at the offensive blue line to open shooting lanes.

"He already skates at an NHL level. His edges are great. His lateral movement, overall speed, and agility is probably the best in the league that I've seen," Blades associate coach Dan DaSilva said.

Defensively, DaSilva added, "He's pretty physical. He shuts down plays fast. It goes back to his skating. The way he's able to close in on players, they think they have more time and space than they have, and all of a sudden he's right there in their face."

Once Chicago drafts Bedard, touted forwards from every hockey superpower will follow him off the board. Probable No. 2 pick Adam Fantilli is from small-town Ontario and stars for the University of Michigan. Massachusetts native Will Smith, Sweden's Leo Carlsson, and Matvei Michkov of Russia are comparably talented.

Western Canadian prospects could headline the rest of the round. The WHL has produced more high picks lately than the Ontario Hockey League and Quebec Major Junior Hockey League. This year's group has a good chance to consolidate that advantage.

The WHL's identity has evolved over time. Skill abounds league-wide. Speed is emphasized more than it was in past decades. But coaches and players maintain that their particular brand of hockey remains gritty, tests the body and mind, and demands resilience.

Bus rides to faraway barns can crisscross four provinces and veer into Washington or Oregon. Certain WHL road trips take two weeks to complete. O'Leary said players appreciate that the schedule and weather are arduous: "They take pride in finding ways to be great regardless of the circumstance."

"It's a grind. I think that's pretty relatable to how it gets at the next level and the NHL," Danielson said. "Getting in late. That's something that helps all of us."

The style of play taxes a prospect, too. Skaters with different strengths can flourish out west if they're willing to pay a price.

"There's still room for the big, physical defenseman and the teams that play an intimidating style," Patrick said. "You go into Red Deer. You know it is going to be intense and it is going to be physical from the drop of the puck. I'd say the same in Lethbridge."

The Ice coach added, "When I think about a player like (Benson), he competes as hard as anyone. Plays with pace. You're going to go into those buildings, you know that they're going to target you. Get to the puck first, move it, keep your feet moving to not get hit, and then how do you battle to get inside?"

Western Canada is vast, and this prospect group's upbringings spanned the region. Molendyk was raised in scenic snowmobiling country in the 600-person British Columbian village of McBride. Danielson rooted for Ryan Nugent-Hopkins as a young Red Deer Rebels fan and spent untold daylight hours skating on a neighborhood pond with his older brother.

"There would be some days you'd have to run home in your skates. Your laces would be frozen, and we couldn't get them off," Danielson said. "That's really where it all started. A love and a passion for the game grew from there."

As kids, some prospects crossed paths with budding NHL greats. Leon Draisaitl, the Prince Albert Raiders' leading scorer in 2014, visited one of Yager's youth practices with teammate Josh Morrissey that year and handed the awestruck 9-year-old a stick.

"It's hung up in our garage," Yager said.

This year, everyone witnessed Bedard's excellence from up close. Entire crowds buzzed when he touched the puck and expanded his highlight reel. Coaches who fretted about containing his dazzling rushes still felt lucky to be part of the spectacle. Prince George hosted the Pats once and was fortunate to limit Bedard to a pair of snipes, Lamb said: "He could have scored 10 goals that night."

On Moose Jaw's nights off, O'Leary sometimes drove 40 minutes to Regina to take in Pats contests from the stands.

"You can do all the game-planning and talk about him as much as you want," O'Leary said, "but he's so good and so dangerous all the time. It doesn't matter whether he's killing a penalty or on the power play or anything in between. (To see him) score when there's seemingly nothing there, it's fun to watch as a fan."

Defending him is less enjoyable, but the Blades withstood Bedard's 20-point postseason barrage, delighting the SaskTel Centre faithful. When Saskatoon's playoff run ended, DaSilva raved over the phone about Molendyk's ferocity as a competitor and desire to handle the toughest matchups.

Being in the spotlight suits Molendyk, the coach said. At 18 years old, he's convinced Molendyk could take an NHL shift.

"Just by the way he skates, he'd be more than fine," DaSilva said. "I'm not saying he'd go out there and dominate or have five points. But with the way he skates, you'd notice him in an NHL game. You could put him on the ice even against some of the best players in the world."

Nick Faris is a features writer at theScore.

Copyright © 2023 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

Saddled with debt and careening toward bankruptcy, the Ottawa Senators failed to pay their players as scheduled on New Year's Day 2003.

The next night, the Sens thumped the Atlanta Thrashers 8-1, their most emphatic victory in a Presidents' Trophy season. On the ice, the players' motivation to win didn't wither. Off it, there was "more than a chance" the cash-strapped franchise would be sold and relocated to an American market, club owner Rod Bryden warned.

The team the late Eugene Melnyk bought from Bryden for a pittance two decades ago is about to sell for $950 million, according to Postmedia's Bruce Garrioch.

The Senators will stay put - moving out of Ottawa wasn't an option this time - and be governed by Michael Andlauer, the transportation magnate who'll divest his minority stake in the Montreal Canadiens to close the purchase. Andlauer, who also owns the Ontario Hockey League's Brantford Bulldogs, will assume control of the Sens once the NHL approves the agreement.

The transaction, one of the richest in league history, wraps a bow on Melnyk's tumultuous ownership tenure. Occasionally a Stanley Cup contender on his watch, the Senators became a laughingstock at the nadir of the rebuild Melnyk initiated in 2018. His daughters, Anna and Olivia, inherited and opted to sell the franchise following his death last year at 62.

A celebrity bidding war ensued. Snoop Dogg and The Weeknd joined rival consortiums. Senators fans stood to applaud Ryan Reynolds at multiple games this past season, though the actor and marketing maven dropped out of the process recently.

Toronto-based billionaires, Andlauer among them, headlined three of the four groups that submitted bids. Andlauer and his partners will purchase 90% of the team, while the Melnyk estate retains a 10% share.

The Senators were in demand for a few reasons. Big Four sports teams aren't often put up for sale. Rising valuations make them a safe haven for investment. Another Sens bidder, Steve Apostolopoulos, tried and failed to acquire the NFL's Washington Commanders this spring despite reportedly bidding $6 billion.

Ottawa-specific factors resonated, too. Gutted to the studs, the Senators' rebuilt roster now boasts such electrifying talents as Tim Stutzle, a 90-point center at 21 years old. Ottawa could vie for championships if smart additions are made to support the ascendant young core. Most significantly, the franchise has the chance to build a state-of-the-art arena downtown to replace the Canadian Tire Centre, its aging suburban home.

Andlauer's first months in charge promise to be monumental. Early on, he has to clarify the fates of general manager Pierre Dorion and head coach D.J. Smith.

Dorion, the architect of Ottawa's rebuild, is the NHL's eighth-longest tenured GM. Only six head coaches, four of whom are Stanley Cup winners, have held their jobs for longer than Smith, who was hired in 2019. Their four seasons as a tandem have produced a .467 points percentage and no playoff berths.

Dorion's managerial track record is mixed. He acquired Claude Giroux, Alex DeBrincat, and Jakob Chychrun over the past year without trading a player or prospect. He signed Stutzle and captain Brady Tkachuk to long-term deals that should age gracefully. His misfires include dealing Mika Zibanejad in 2016 before the Swedish center's star turn and anointing Matt Murray, then Cam Talbot as prospective saviors in net toward the end of the rebuild.

Smith, a gifted communicator, didn't get to coach a playoff-caliber team until this past season. Those Senators undershot expectations. Ottawa started 6-12-1, was 31st in the league standings on U.S. Thanksgiving, and had to scratch and claw to eventually miss the postseason by six points. Stutzle and Tkachuk blossomed into point-per-game scorers, but DeBrincat, Drake Batherson, and Thomas Chabot endured down years.

The Senators traded consecutive first-round picks to land DeBrincat and Chychrun, swinging big to try to snap their ongoing six-year playoff drought. Only the Buffalo Sabres and Detroit Red Wings - two Atlantic Division rivals on the rise - are in the midst of longer skids. If Andlauer doesn't have time to instate his own people this offseason, 2023-24 will make or break the futures of Dorion and Smith in Ottawa.

Dealing with DeBrincat is an organizational priority. The two-time 40-goal sniper settled for 27 tallies in his first Senators season. Ottawa was outscored 58-42 in DeBrincat's five-on-five minutes, according to Natural Stat Trick, but went 20-1-2 in games where he found the net.

Set to hit unrestricted free agency one year from now, DeBrincat promised to decide by the draft on June 28 whether he's willing to extend in Ottawa. If he isn't, the Senators could pre-emptively swap him for picks or attempt to orchestrate a Matthew Tkachuk-style blockbuster. Dorion has reportedly explored trade options.

Goaltending is another question mark. Talbot will depart as a free agent after one discouraging, injury-riddled season (.898 save percentage in 36 games). Anton Forsberg tore both of his MCLs in a freak collision in February. If the Sens think Mads Sogaard, the 22-year-old budding goalie of the future, requires more AHL seasoning, they'll need to sign a stopgap partner for Forsberg or shell out to trade for a workhorse like Connor Hellebuyck.

There are bright spots elsewhere in the lineup.

Signed to be a mentor, Giroux potted 35 goals at age 35 this past season on Stutzle's right wing. Acing the eye test, Jake Sanderson seemed to make the right play every time he touched or tracked the puck as a rookie defenseman. The Chychrun trade strengthened Ottawa's defense corps to a degree unseen since the Zdeno Chara-Wade Redden era. Josh Norris will be healthy in the fall after recovering from shoulder surgery.

The city is energized coming out of the lean years. Attendance at the Canadian Tire Centre rebounded in 2022-23 to 89.8% of capacity, per Hockey Reference, which was a seven-year high. The fan base would rejoice if Daniel Alfredsson returned to the fold. Earlier this year, the franchise legend and Hall of Fame forward publicly expressed his interest in assuming a “meaningful role” in Senators hockey operations.

Alfredsson captained and was a top scorer on the bankrupt 2003 team that advanced as far as Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Final. In retirement, he rejoined the Senators as a senior adviser, but left the front office in 2017 after two seasons. Maybe he'll get to work for a third ownership regime.

Melnyk, a pharmaceutical billionaire who cheered for his hometown Toronto Maple Leafs before taking over the Senators, bought the franchise and its arena for $92 million in 2003. When the sale closed, he guaranteed the Sens would stay in Ottawa and organized a free Eagles concert for season-ticket holders as a goodwill gesture.

"This is the first time in a number of years I've come to Ottawa without feeling angst and concern," NHL commissioner Gary Bettman told reporters at the time, per ESPN's Chris Stevenson.

Bettman added, "If you were going to computer-generate an owner for this market, (Melnyk would) certainly be on the radar screen. This is a great team in a great place, and now it has a great owner."

A powerhouse at the outset of the salary-cap era, Melnyk's Senators reached the 2007 Cup Final, then curtailed spending and started icing lesser lineups. Since losing that final, Ottawa has qualified for six postseasons and won three playoff rounds, most recently in 2017. Casting a pall over a Senators-Canadiens outdoor game on Parliament Hill, Melnyk said during that celebration that he'd consider relocating the team if home attendance cratered.

The roster teardown that followed spawned more lowlights.

Alienated fans installed #MelnykOut billboards around Ottawa to urge him to sell. Melnyk admitted the Senators were "kind of in the dumpster" in a team-produced interview with defenseman Mark Borowiecki. Following his death, The Athletic chronicled the owner's alleged mistreatment of staff and volatility behind the scenes in a bombshell investigation titled "The Eugene Melnyk era in Ottawa: Hopeful, then bizarre and tyrannical."

The race to succeed Melnyk as owner heated up on Jimmy Fallon's show. Reynolds, the "Deadpool" leading man who briefly lived in Ottawa as a kid, confirmed to the late-night host that he'd seek a "sugar daddy" to finance his bid. The Sens could have been the subject of a "Welcome to Wrexham"-style peek behind the curtain, taking after the Welsh soccer club that Reynolds and actor Rob McElhenney bought in 2020 and made globally visible.

As the spectacle ballooned, Sacramento Kings governor Vivek Ranadive thought about bidding. The Weeknd aligned with Jeffrey and Michael Kimel, the venture capitalist brothers who used to own part of the Pittsburgh Penguins. Snoop Dogg, a pitchman for entrepreneur Neko Sparks' bid, shared his desire to diversify hockey at every level and end Canada's 30-year Stanley Cup drought during a media blitz in May.

Apostolopoulos, the presumptive top bidder at the May 15 submission deadline, quit the process last week as negotiations dragged on.

Nonetheless, this is set to be the most lucrative recent NHL franchise sale. The Senators commanded a greater windfall than the Penguins did in 2021 ($900 million) and the Nashville Predators did this year ($880 million).

The real-estate opportunity involved explains why the price skyrocketed.

The Canadian Tire Centre, the Senators' home since 1996, was constructed on farmland in the suburb of Kanata about 25 kilometers west of downtown. In 2016, the franchise was awarded the right to build an arena on federal land in the LeBreton Flats neighborhood, within walking distance of Parliament and the city core. Strife between Melnyk and his business partner torpedoed the project.

The Senators struck a new agreement in 2022 with Canada's National Capital Commission. Andlauer has the chance to negotiate a lease in the next several months to build an arena and wider entertainment district on the LeBreton land. Reynolds' financial backer, the Remington Group, reportedly hoped to hammer out an arena deal with the NCC before acquiring the Sens, but its request for an exclusive window to hold those talks was denied.

When negotiations start, Andlauer could ask the NCC to grant him access to more land than the six acres at the LeBreton plot that are earmarked for the arena. Or he could try to build a rink elsewhere in Ottawa, perhaps on city land in another central location. Remaining in Kanata and refurbishing the CTC is a third option. His preference should become evident soon.

Andlauer has already scored one big victory. Ottawa's hockey future is his to shape. His decisions will influence where the Senators play for decades to come and how they perform on the ice. The right moves could propel the core that's already in place to the playoffs annually.

As Bryden once put it, there's more than a chance that will happen.

Nick Faris is a features writer at theScore.

Copyright © 2023 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

Players choke in every sport. They brick shots, botch kicks, muff passes, flub catches, blow coverages, forget assignments, and misread the scoreboard at the worst times. Some balk at handling the ball, dishing it off like a hot potato and placing the onus on a teammate to triumph or fail. Coaches perplex and enrage fans with the weird decisions they make as stress mounts and the clock tick, tick, ticks …

Certain kickers and fielders are best remembered for screwing up royally in the postseason. Some player is bound to make a costly mistake in the upcoming NBA Finals or Stanley Cup Final.

Choking is inescapable elsewhere in life too. Public speakers stammer. Test takers freeze. Even monkeys wilt under pressure. Scientists in Pittsburgh found those animals acted cautiously and consequently performed worse when the reward they were offered for nailing a complex reaching task became monumentally big.

Neuroscience explains this is inevitable: Brains are wired to choke.

"If you have a system that works optimally in the usual circumstance, it's going to work suboptimally in exceptional circumstances," said University of Pittsburgh bioengineering professor Aaron Batista, who was part of the research team that studied choking in monkeys.

Choking is a paradox. When the incentive to perform peaks, execution worsens. To probe the roots of this phenomenon, Batista and his colleagues devised a kinematic experiment.

The researchers trained monkeys to control a cursor on a screen, as if the animals were playing a Wii game, and reach when prompted for a small target that appeared somewhere beside, above, or below their hand's starting point. The monkeys were shown a cue that indicated the size of the reward - small, medium, large, or "jackpot," delivered in the form of sips of juice or water - they'd receive if they hit and held the target before a timer expired.

The monkeys' success rate over thousands of trials followed an inverted-U arc, the researchers first noted in the scientific journal PNAS in 2021. Each animal was imprecise with the small reward at stake, often overshooting the target seemingly out of carelessness. Locking in, the monkeys performed better when the medium reward was obtainable. They were maximally accurate with the large reward on the line.

The jackpot reward rattled the monkeys, though: The prize appeared for 5% of the trials, and when it did, their performance cratered. Suddenly, the motivation to succeed was debilitatingly high.

"There's a whole spectrum where incentives can help you dial in precise behavior," Batista said. "But at either end, things go awry."

Every monkey in the study showed the propensity to choke, said researcher Steven Chase, a biomedical engineering professor at Carnegie Mellon University. They choked consistently, faltering at the beginning, middle, and end of sessions. The monkeys frequently didn't reach far enough on jackpot attempts, betraying their apparent overcaution, though they occasionally erred for other reasons.

"Some of them would try to cheat toward the target slowly. Some of them wouldn't be able to hold the target when those jackpot rewards came up. They were jittery at the end," said Adam Smoulder, a Carnegie Mellon biomedical engineering PhD candidate who was one of the study's lead authors.

"There were (these) weird little idiosyncrasies that we saw, which is something I like relating to humans."

Concluding that monkeys and people might share neural mechanisms that spur choking, the researchers set out to chart what happens in the brain when a huge reward is proffered.

They conducted more reaching trials, tracking how reward magnitude influenced the activity in a monkey's motor cortex. Their observations, posted online in April, have yet to be peer-reviewed by independent experts. The scientists posit that monkeys choke when reward cues cause a deficit in the information they use to plan their movements.

The researchers reported seeing neural activity conform to the same inverted-U arc as performance. The monkeys' brains processed more information about the target as the reward increased from small to medium to large.

That changed when the jackpot reward surfaced. Motivational signals appeared to overload the system, clouding the information the monkeys used to plan their reach, before they reliably undershot the target.

"On those jackpot reward trials, those planning signals are weaker. They have less information about what's about to happen than if the reward is just large," Chase said. "If the reward is large, those planning signals are as big as they get."

What does this mean for mankind - and for how we perceive chokers?

For one thing, maybe fans ought to be more lenient in their treatment of players who fold in the clutch. Their brains set them up to fail.

On the other hand, a key difference separates us from the animals: Monkeys always choke, but that isn't true of people. Some players, Chase said, seem to be able "to outwit the system - to think of strategies or ways to approach those high-pressure events that allow them to be calmer and succeed."

The scientists' choking research continues. They received grant funding to investigate if dopamine is the neurotransmitter that floods the motor cortex and inhibits motor planning. In the meantime, they'll applaud any athlete who enters the zone and is able to hit the jackpot.

"There's majesty and power and beauty to being someone who's managing all these feelings and still performing at the absolute top of their game," Batista said. As a viewer, he added, "It keeps you riveted."

Nick Faris is a features writer at theScore.

Copyright © 2023 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

Two springs ago, Jesse Puljujarvi scored the icebreaker in the Edmonton Oilers' first playoff game, whirling in the slot to net a rebound off of Tyson Barrie's point shot. The Winnipeg Jets blanked the Oilers for the next 102 minutes. Defenders subdued Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl while shackling their supporting cast to initiate a Jets sweep.

The Oilers have changed since that meek loss. They traded Puljujarvi, whose Carolina Hurricanes are in the Eastern Conference Final. They swapped Barrie for Mattias Ekholm, grasping that Evan Bouchard could replace his power-play productivity.

Meanwhile, McDavid and Draisaitl flipped a switch. No opponent since Winnipeg has contained them in the postseason. That includes the Vegas Golden Knights, who eliminated the Oilers in six games even though the superstars padded their stats.

Draisaitl's four-goal eruption in the opener against Vegas helped raise his playoff total to 13 in a dozen games. McDavid's 20 points top the league through Sunday's action. Draisaitl is right behind him on the leaderboard, as was the case when both players recorded two points per contest in last year's postseason.

Since the 2022 playoffs started, McDavid paces the NHL with 53 points in 28 postseason appearances. Draisaitl racked up 50 points in this span. The next-closest scorer, Mikko Rantanen of the Colorado Avalanche, collected 35 points in 27 games. Rantanen's numbers are merely great, not stupendous.

McDavid and Draisaitl have competed in nine career playoff series. Certain legends of their era - think Stanley Cup winners like Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Alex Ovechkin, and Nikita Kucherov - are considerably more experienced and boast shinier resumes. But on a per-game basis, the Oilers duo's colossal output is unparalleled.

Wayne Gretzky scored 1.84 points per game in 208 playoff outings. Mario Lemieux averaged 1.61 points in 107 games. History supplies no other comparison for what's happening in Edmonton.

Offense has risen NHL-wide - scoring soared to a 29-year high this season - but McDavid and Draisaitl deserve more credit than anyone for driving that boom. Most star players have off-nights or go cold intermittently. These guys rarely slump, though Vegas held Draisaitl pointless in three of six games. At their playoff peak, Edmonton's top dogs toy with elite opposition, resembling ringers who descended from some imaginary better league.

The salary-cap era record for points in a postseason - Malkin tallied 36 in 2009 - might have fallen if the Oilers reached the Cup Final. The Golden Knights nixed that possibility. Stealing the spotlight on Sunday, Jonathan Marchessault's natural hat trick sparked Vegas to a gutsy 5-2 win in Game 6.

Draisaitl was on track to smash the cap-era high for goals (15), set by Crosby in 2009 and matched by Ovechkin in 2018 when their squads hoisted the Cup. He could have become the first player this century to sniff the all-time record.

Moving at half-speed, Draisaitl torched the Calgary Flames for 17 points in five games on a sprained right ankle last postseason. He was the best playmaker in the sport in that window. This spring, he finished lethally throughout the offensive zone.

By blasting one-timers, foraging for garbage goals, and banking in one wrister off of Laurent Brossoit's nameplate, Draisaitl boosted his shooting percentage in these playoffs to 28.9% (his career average is 18.1%). He exits as the league leader in even-strength goals (seven), power-play goals (six), opening goals (three), and hit posts (three). That said, his giveaway behind the Oilers' net Sunday led directly to Marchessault's winner.

McDavid couldn't buy a whistle when the Jets threw sticks and bodies at him in 2021. He drew eight penalties in this postseason and elevated both Oilers special-teams units. Motoring to the net, McDavid poked the puck through Brossoit's legs on a shorthanded breakaway in Game 2 and tapped his own rebound past Adin Hill on the power play in Game 5. McDavid's snipe in the opening minute of Game 6 was his first goal against Vegas at even strength.

He dazzled at times, but his team's inconsistency was vexing.

Poor defensive reads and careless or untimely penalties, like Ekholm's boarding minor Sunday, burned the Oilers in various Vegas wins. Never solid in back-to-back games, Stuart Skinner allowed five, one, four, one, four, and four goals, in that order, and was yanked from the net on three occasions. Vegas responded to four Edmonton tallies throughout the round by beating Skinner within the next couple of minutes, instantly reversing the momentum.

The Golden Knights iced the best line in the series. They outscored Edmonton 15-9 at five-on-five, including by a 7-1 margin when Marchessault skated with Jack Eichel and Ivan Barbashev, per Natural Stat Trick. Eichel and Marchessault led the matchup in points at even strength with seven apiece.

Edmonton's power play remained laughably good in defeat (39.1% success rate in the round, 46.2% in the playoffs). Bouchard's 15 power-play points in 12 games constitute a new high for defensemen in the cap era. He pulverized the puck and benefited from dishing it to McDavid and Draisaitl on the flanks. Bouchard would have needed nine more points with the extra man to equal Gretzky's record for one postseason (24 in 1988).

This bombardment didn't crush the Golden Knights. They won Game 5, the swing contest in the series, despite conceding three power-play goals. McDavid's scoring rate at five-on-five dipped from 2.71 points per 60 minutes in the regular season to 2.06 against Vegas. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Zach Hyman, Evander Kane, and Kailer Yamamoto - four of Edmonton's top six forwards - combined to score once in that phase.

The Oilers went 18-2-1 to end the regular season after Ekholm arrived at the trade deadline. The NHL's hottest team over the final quarter of the schedule was too leaky in May to fulfill its potential.

The four goals Skinner let in Sunday came on 17 shots, lowering his save percentage in the round to .875. Hill - a .934 goalie in the series as Brossoit's injury replacement - whiffed on two shots to open Game 6 before he stoned 38 in a row. Hill's third career playoff start was his greatest to date.

Draisaitl, who turns 28 in October, is signed for two more years at the bargain rate of $8.5 million. McDavid is 26, and his megadeal runs through 2026. Neither player will get worse anytime soon, not after they combined to notch 281 points in the regular season. But several big-ticket teammates - Nugent-Hopkins, Hyman, Kane, Ekholm, and Jack Campbell, to name five - are in their 30s, reducing general manager Ken Holland's runway to build a winner.

This could have been Edmonton's year. The playoff run didn't last long enough to be transcendent. The Oilers have changed, but their story ended the same way.

Nick Faris is a features writer at theScore.

Copyright © 2023 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

The Edmonton Oilers blasted the Vegas Golden Knights 4-1 at home Wednesday to square their second-round playoff clash at two wins apiece. Edmonton needs to tick these four boxes to triumph in the series as it goes down to the wire.

Be cool under pressure

Vegas' tenacity and pace have troubled the Oilers on occasion. The Golden Knights forecheck aggressively, reducing a defenseman's time and space to move the puck, and race up ice to try to strike in transition when those opportunities arise.

Edmonton was prone to blunders in Games 1 and 3. Giveaways, blown tires, and lackadaisical checking produced Golden Knights goals. Vegas scored on numerous three-on-three rushes when the Oilers' defenders got disconcerted and left a man open.

Game 2 supplied the blueprint for Edmonton to stem the tide. Defensemen made short, simple passes that eluded the high forecheckers and sparked breakouts, which stopped Vegas from racking up quick-hit chances and offensive-zone time. Stuart Skinner stoned every rush shot he faced in a 5-1 win.

Edmonton flipped the script on Vegas in Game 4. Forechecking hard, Nick Bjugstad stripped Shea Theodore by the Golden Knights' net before depositing a wraparound. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins' snappy release beat Adin Hill at the end of a lengthy cycle shift. The Oilers' puck poise and crisp passing in the D-zone helped them dominate on the shot clock and scoreboard in the first two periods.

Crucially, Skinner cleaned up a defensive lapse. When Mattias Ekholm and Kailer Yamamoto both converged on the puck-handler on one Vegas foray, letting Mark Stone slip to the net behind them, Skinner denied Stone's deke with his pad. Leon Draisaitl teed up Ekholm's blast from the left faceoff dot 20 seconds later.

Some nights, the Oilers author their own demise. When the puck's in their zone, they need to be in sync in man coverage, box out the screener on point shots to deter tips, and avoid handing Vegas possession on a platter. They can't afford to repeat the careless plays that led to backbreaking goals earlier in the series. Game 4 was a positive step, though Game 5 will be tougher if Darnell Nurse is suspended for instigating a late fight.

Swamp Vegas on power play

Edmonton's incandescent power play has started to cool. The Oilers are 1-for-8 since Hill entered Game 3 as Laurent Brossoit's injury replacement. That said, they potted the one goal efficiently. Evan Bouchard accepted Connor McDavid's pass and tickled twine Wednesday nine seconds after Shea Theodore went off for a retaliatory slash.

Edmonton's top unit marries three dynamic talents - Draisaitl, McDavid, and Bouchard - with a complementary 100-point playmaker in Nugent-Hopkins and a skilled worker bee in Zach Hyman.

This quintet scores off Draisaitl's one-timers, McDavid's snipes, Bouchard's bombs from the blue line, and the rebounds and scrambles those clappers create. Six of Draisaitl's playoff-high 13 goals have come on the man advantage. Edmonton's success rates in the series (35.3%) and postseason (45.5%) remain extraordinary.

The NHL's least penalized team, the Golden Knights were shorthanded 2.38 times per game in the regular season and 2.40 times per game in Round 1. That rate has rocketed to 4.25 times per game against the Oilers. The minors they took in Game 4 included a blatant too-many-men offense and an elbowing infraction in the Edmonton zone. Alex Pietrangelo's late, reckless slash to the hands of Draisaitl could trigger a suspension.

Five NHL power plays have scored at a 35% clip over a full postseason (minimum 10 games played) since 1978, when data for this became available. The top team's success rate - the 2021 Colorado Avalanche - hit 41.4%. The Oilers' power play could set a new record in defeat or propel them to the conference finals.

Match Golden Knights' scoring balance

When they click into top gear, any of Vegas' top three lines can dictate tempo and turn defense into offense. They force turnovers, string together nice passing sequences, cycle the puck back and forth, and create openings to pepper it on net. NHL ironman Phil Kessel has been scratched since Round 1 because Vegas boasts so many capable scorers and potent forward combinations.

Six Golden Knights - linemates Ivan Barbashev, Jack Eichel, and Jonathan Marchessault, plus Chandler Stephenson, Michael Amadio, and Zach Whitecloud - tallied goals at even strength in Games 1 through 3. Besides Draisaitl, Warren Foegele was the lone Oiler to score in that phase until Wednesday. It's significant that Bjugstad, Ekholm, and Nugent-Hopkins all lit the lamp at five-on-five.

The Oilers excel if their stars uplift the supporting cast and vice versa, like when Yamamoto shrugged off Stone's huge hit in Game 2 to collect his own rebound and feed Draisaitl to score. McDavid's two assists in Game 4 upped his playoff total to 12, the league high.

At worst, no one produces when the big guns rest. That wasn't a problem in Round 1: Yamamoto, Hyman, Bjugstad, Evander Kane, and Klim Kostin all bagged important goals. Although Hyman and Kane are scoreless in the last five contests, Nugent-Hopkins just snapped his 11-game skid.

Subdue Eichel

Vegas' first-line center was productive in Game 1 (assist, empty-net goal); out of sorts in Game 2 (two defensive-zone penalties); and forceful in Game 3 (two helpers, snipe that chased Skinner from the net). In Game 4, Eichel fired five shots on target and whipped a dangerous no-look pass to Barbashev to no avail.

Forever linked to McDavid as the second guy drafted in 2015, Eichel never lifted the Buffalo Sabres to the playoffs, idling as the Oilers experienced the highs and lows of the Stanley Cup chase. In his first postseason, Eichel has done damage as a shooter and facilitator on the Vegas power play's left flank. The Golden Knights' expected goals share is 62.6% when he skates with Barbashev and Marchessault at five-on-five, per Natural Stat Trick.

Eichel is tied with Draisaitl for the series lead with four points at even strength. He and Marchessault are Vegas' top shot generators by a wide margin. They won't outscore Edmonton's superstars on most nights, but managing it once more would dent the Oilers' Cup hopes. More than anyone, Eichel is the player Edmonton has to quiet.

Nick Faris is a features writer at theScore.

Copyright © 2023 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.