Adam Oates appears to have ruffled some feathers with his skills development.

The former coach and veteran of 1,337 NHL games has been employed by several NHLers - most notably the Minnesota Wild's Zach Parise and Ryan Suter - to help with their skills development, but has come under fire from skeptical league executives about his motives.

Oates was questioned about the accusations, the first being that it's just a ploy to get back into coaching, in Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman's "30 Thoughts."

"I presume my coaching days are over," Oates said.

"I understand that is an issue because I was a coach,” he said. "I’m not planning on coaching anymore. I enjoy working with players on their skills, making them better."

The second accusation, however, was a little more personal, the idea that some general managers would avoid acquiring a player employing Oates due to fears he's "poisoning" the relationship between players and teams.

"Not a chance, not a chance, not a chance," Oates said.

"That’s the first thing we talk about with the players, we are not going to talk about your system or how you play. We are going to talk about your game. We are going to talk about improving your skills. If you’re a face-off man and can’t win a draw, what’s the problem? If you need to get the puck off the boards faster, what’s the problem? That’s what I can help with."

Oates remains adamant that his goal is simply to improve players' skills, but admits - while citing one of his clients, Tampa Bay Lightning captain Steven Stamkos - that he could be more transparent with NHL general managers.

"Steve Yzerman did ask me, 'What are (Stamkos and I) working on?'" Oates said. "He’s the only one so far. I could have done a better job of communicating with GMs and next time I will do that. I have no intention other than improving their players.

"Some drills don’t work for 30 guys, they need a private plan. I wouldn’t tell just anyone what I’m doing with a player, but I would tell a GM."

Oates is hopeful he can open an academy-type setting where players can come during the summer, which he feels will help ease the critics.

"Once we go through one summer of it, there will be no big deal," Oates said.

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This doesn't bode well for the Chicago Blackhawks.

Goaltender Corey Crawford has a head injury, a source told Mark Lazerus of the Chicago Sun-Times.

Crawford may be suffering from something similar to the vertigo symptoms that affected former Blackhawks forward Bryan Bickell last spring and summer, according to the report.

The team hasn't changed Crawford's day-to-day status and won't confirm the nature of the ailment beyond classifying it as an upper-body injury.

The netminder hasn't played or skated since allowing five goals in a loss to the Los Angeles Kings on March 14.

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TORONTO - It was only a few weeks into the season. Like other teams, the Anaheim Ducks were off to a slow start. But the pressure was already on in Southern California. There were calls for head coach Bruce Boudreau's head. After a 1-7-2 October, the Ducks went into November with only 10 goals, having been shut out five times - twice in back-to-back games.

Captain Ryan Getzlaf remembers it all too well.

"North of the border I was getting beat up, but that's expected. I don't go around with any illusion that I don't have things going on my shoulders. We're like anybody, we're (in) a results-based business and if you're not performing, you're going to have to take scrutiny with it and you're going to have to deal with it," Getzlaf said. "Fortunately in Anaheim we can quietly deal with what we need to deal with and it doesn't get overwhelming."

Panic

Many were quick to write off the Ducks' season. In this day and age, a slow start - or a prolonged slump - can become a death sentence when it comes to making the playoffs. The NHL's points structure ensures it's difficult to make up ground on opponents, not knowing which teams will be involved in two- or three-point games.

It's why management for most teams can escape blame for pulling the trigger on a coach after a slow start. But the Ducks showed patience still matters.

"Obviously ownership and the group showed a lot of faith in us for a long time and didn't blow things up. We had some changes at the deadline that kind of helped us," Getzlaf said. "The thing about it is if you blow it up and change things you don't quite have that same experience from earlier to build on right now because the same people didn't go through it. We went through it together and obviously stuck together through the tough time and now we've got to prepare to do things well here down the stretch."

Coaching carousel

This season's provided examples of coaching changes that have and haven't worked.

After an 0-7-0 start, the Columbus Blue Jackets fired Todd Richards and replaced him with John Tortorella - a different kind of personality. Tortorella hasn't been able to turn Columbus' fortunes around, as the team sits second-last in the East, but he'll have another opportunity to try.

In Pittsburgh, meanwhile, the Penguins have seen the results they were looking for after disposing of head coach Mike Johnston on Dec. 12. Despite a 15-10-3 record, there were signs of cracks, with Sidney Crosby off to his slowest start and on track for one of his worst seasons statistically. Columns were written questioning whether Crosby's career was in decline.

Today, with Mike Sullivan behind the bench, Crosby is third in scoring with 78 points in 74 games. He has 15 goals and 22 assists in 27 games since the All-Star break, shooting 17.9 percent.

Cup dreams

The Ducks are one of the more compelling teams heading into the Stanley Cup playoffs. They survived adversity and stuck together. When they lost their ability to score, they adjusted their style of play to remain one of the NHL's elite teams in its tougher conference.

"We had a lot of meetings. We had been shut out like five out of our first 10 games where we figured if we weren't going to score we'd better find out how to win 1-0. Consequently, they bought into that and they started to win 1-0," Boudreau said. "It's about us defending and learning how to play the right way and when we do that we're having success because we're still one of the lower-scoring teams in the league."

Patience still matters. The Ducks - and Crosby - are proof.

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The Nashville Predators say they formed their trade deadline strategy around the assumption that highly touted prospect Jimmy Vesey would sign a contract with them.

"We did alter our trade deadline plans based on the information that he we had," assistant general manager Paul Fenton told Sportsnet 590 The FAN on Tuesday.

Vesey spurned the Predators on Monday night, informing Nashville he would not sign with the club and would instead opt for unrestricted free agency on Aug. 15.

General manager David Poile said Monday that Vesey repeatedly told the Predators organization that he intended to sign with them.

Fenton echoed that claim Tuesday, adding that the 22-year-old Harvard product was promised a top-nine role and a playoff roster spot with Nashville this season.

The executive said Vesey's camp gave no reason for the change of heart, other than the opportunity to test free agency.

Fenton also reiterated Poile's sentiment that the Predators haven't given up on trying to sign Vesey. The assistant GM said they will continue to pursue a meeting with the player, his family, and his advisor, an opportunity they haven't yet been granted.

Vesey notched 24 goals and 22 assists in 33 games during his senior season with the Crimson. The Predators drafted him 66th overall in 2012.

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The Columbus Blue Jackets and defenseman Zach Werenski agreed Tuesday to a three-year, entry-level contract that will kick in at the start of the 2016-17 season.

Earlier Tuesday, Columbus announced it had signed the 18-year-old to an amateur tryout contract with its American Hockey League affiliate, the Lake Erie Monsters.

Werenski's slated to make his professional hockey debut Friday when the Monsters take on the Chicago Wolves.

The blue-liner captained the United States to bronze at the World Junior Hockey Championship this winter. He also completed his second season at the University of Michigan, collecting 11 goals and 36 points in 36 games.

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Three straight first-round playoff exits have certainly impacted perceptions of whether the St. Louis Blues are true Stanley Cup contenders.

While the club currently sits atop the Western Conference alongside the Dallas Stars with 99 points, recent playoff failures have tainted expectations among media members for the Blues come playoff time. That's all well and good, as captain David Backes sees it.

"It's fine by us," Backes told ESPN's Pierre LeBrun. "We've been on the other side of that coin, where we've been picked and disappointed. Now, maybe we get to play that underdog role, lower expectations, just come in and, whoever we play, just get our game out there.

"If we're concerned or worried about (what) the writers are saying, no offense, we've got our minds in the wrong place."

The Blues have gotten hot at the right time, going 10-2-0 in their past 12 games - a stretch Backes credits largely to the team's goaltending tandem of Brian Elliot and Jake Allen.

"The goalies have been out of this world," Backes said. "We've done a decent job in front of them, but they're making all the stops that they should be making and stealing a couple that they have really no business making. When you've got that kind of support and protection behind you, it frees you up to make a few more plays in front of them. And we're starting to see a few pucks in the net on the offensive side of things because of that."

While things are looking up for the Blues, Backes also understands they can't get ahead of themselves, especially given recent postseason failures.

Pressure is clearly on the team to advance at least a round or two, and failing to do so could spark major changes within the organization.

"Maybe if we don't get out of the first round, (we'll have) big changes," Backes said. "We need to focus on our task at hand. Somebody is going to have to make that decision once the chips have all settled and we figure out what's happened. We're hoping the situation is that we're going to have a big party and a parade, and everyone can wrap arms around each other, and everyone gets to stay put."

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David Legwand gets by with a little help from his friends.

Like Buffalo Sabres teammate Marcus Foligno, who unknowingly became Legwand's tissue/nose-scratcher during a game against the Detroit Red Wings on Monday.

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The Columbus Blue Jackets signed 2015 first-round pick Zach Werenski to an amateur tryout contract Tuesday.

The deal comes as both sides continue to work on the details of a three-year, entry-level contract, according to Aaron Portzline of the Columbus Dispatch.

Werenski will join the team's American Hockey League affiliate, the Erie Monsters, where he'll get his first taste of pro hockey.

The 18-year-old captained the United States to bronze at the World Junior Hockey Championship this winter. He also completed his second season at the University of Michigan, collecting 11 goals and 36 points in 36 games.

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Claude Giroux has an interesting theory about the Philadelphia Flyers' late-season run.

"Since Tim Panaccio got (his) lower-body injury, we started playing better," the Flyers captain joked in the postgame scrum following a 3-2 overtime win over the Winnipeg Jets on Monday night.

Panaccio, a Flyers insider for CSN Philadelphia, tore several ligaments and broke two bones in his ankle when he slipped on a patch of ice in Montreal before a game against the Canadiens on Feb. 19.

“This is a very significant setback for me," Panaccio told the Montreal Gazette in late February. "I could miss the entire playoffs."

The club is 12-4-3 in the 19 games since the injury, and it now holds the second Eastern Conference wild-card spot with a game in hand on the Detroit Red Wings.

Surely there's no correlation, but it makes you think.

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