Penguins’ Murray: ‘I feel like I haven’t really done anything yet’

Despite winning two Stanley Cups as a member of the Pittsburgh Penguins, Matt Murray humbly believes he has a ways to go before establishing himself as one of the best in the NHL.

"I feel like I haven’t really done anything yet," the 23-year-old goalie told Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. "I definitely don’t view myself as anything other than a guy who’s just trying to prove myself and be the best hockey player I can be.

"A year and a half even though we’ve won both times? I don’t think it really says a whole lot in the long run. I think I have a long way to go, and I feel like I’m just kind of getting started."

Murray was recently listed by the NHL Network as the fourth-best goalie in the league, behind only Carey Price, Braden Holtby, and Sergei Bobrovsky. That reputation is clearly boosted by winning two Cups as a rookie, and deservedly so. At the same time, however, he wants to be known for a long and prosperous reign in the crease, and not as a flash in the pan.

"I don’t want to be the answer to a trivia question," Murray said. "I want to have a career like 'Flower' did - the guy who has been so successful for so long."

"Flower" refers to Marc-Andre Fleury, whom Murray bumped from the Penguins' starting job and who was plucked by the Vegas Golden Knights in this summer's expansion draft. Drafted first overall by Pittsburgh in 2003, Fleury appeared in 691 regular-season games for the club, with an additional 115 playoff games to his credit, including a Cup win in 2009.

Murray has indeed been excellent to date, but it's still a relatively small sample size:

Murray's Resume Games Record Save % Shutouts
Regular Season 62 41-12-5 .925 5
Playoffs 32 22-9 .928 4

He'll enter 2017-18 as the clear No. 1 option in Pittsburgh for years to come, with Antti Niemi serving as backup. As such, he'll have every chance to build on all he's accomplished so far, and thus prove his early success has been no fluke.

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Canucks sign Gaunce to 2-year deal

The Vancouver Canucks announced Wednesday the signing of forward Brendan Gaunce to a two-year, $1.5-million contract.

Gaunce is coming off his second season with the Canucks that saw him dress in a career-high 57 games and contributing five assists.

Over the past three years, Gaunce has played 124 games for the AHL's Utica Comets where he posted 30 goals and 70 points. The 23-year-old was originally drafted by the Canucks 26th overall in 2012.

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Watch: Mason Raymond scores lacrosse-style goal in Sochi Hockey Open

NHLers at the Olympics - who needs 'em?

Certainly not Mason Raymond, who made the most of his opportunity to impress Team Canada's brass at the Sochi Hockey Open with an incredible lacrosse-style wraparound.

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Dany Heatley collects $6.5M in lawsuit against former agent

Former NHL all-star winger Dany Heatley has been awarded $6.5 million in a 2012 lawsuit against his former agent and business adviser, according to CTV Calgary.

Heatley sued Stacey McAlpine, as well as McAlpine's parents, Gerald and Eugina, after they promised high returns on multiple real estate investments that never paid off.

The 36-year-old earned $4,167,839.13 from Presidential Suites Inc. and $2,348,875.53 from Waterfront Developments Inc. in the suit.

Heatley last played in the NHL during a six-game stint with the Anaheim Ducks in 2014-15. Since then, he's played in the AHL and with the Nuermberg Thomas Sabo Ice Tigers in Germany.

Despite a rocky career path, Heatley put together a strong NHL resume that included back-to-back 50-goal seasons with the Ottawa Senators in 2005-06 and 2006-07. In 869 total games, he racked up 791 points, and captured the 2002 Calder Trophy to go along with a gold medal at the 2010 Olympic Games.

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IOC’s Pound: NHL skipping Olympics betrays players, fans

The NHL's decision to pass on the 2018 Winter Olympics doesn't sit well with at least one member of the International Olympic Committee.

Dick Pound, a senior member of the IOC, roundly criticized the NHL's short-sightedness in an editorial in the Montreal Gazette last week, noting that skipping Pyeongchang is disrespectful to players, who will remember this move when negotiating the next collective bargaining agreement.

I 'get' the (NHL's) economic argument. But I also believe that there are at least two larger interests in play. The first is a responsibility for growing and promoting an exciting game, which is important for the sport, its players and spectators throughout the world. It is not sufficient for the NHL to be content with plucking the low-hanging financial fruit, but to fail to invest in the future of the game.

Pound expanded on his point Tuesday, telling "Prime Time Sports," "I think ultimately they have betrayed their fan base, their global fan base, and they've betrayed the players that would like to have this unique chance to represent their country in the Olympics. I think that ultimately translates into bad business because there's a price for ignoring your players and your fans and they've got to think about that. I don't think they have."

Pound speaks from experience, as he serves as chairman of Olympic Broadcasting Services and was previously vice-president of the IOC and president of the Canadian Olympic Committee.

"I think (the NHL) was overlooking some elements of the business side of it, which is a fan base and establishing a much bigger, global footprint through the Olympics than they could possibly do through the NHL," he added. "I would have thought from a business perspective, globally, that maybe the two-week period you take a little bit of a hit, but globally, in terms of getting your players known, I would have thought it would have been great business to be there, and bad business not to."

This isn't the first time Pound has spoken out against the NHL. In 2005, as president of the World Anti-Doping Agency, he slammed the league's policy on performance-enhancing drugs, stating: "You wouldn't be far wrong if you said a third of hockey players are gaining some pharmaceutical assistance."

However, two years later, in an interview with The New York Times, Pound confessed to inventing the one-third figure, saying, "It was pick a number. So it's 20 percent. Twenty-five percent. Call me a liar."

As for Pyeongchang, the 2018 Games will mark the first time in five Olympics where NHL players, who first took to the international ice in 1998 in Nagano, Japan, won't compete. With those players left to watch, the expectation is teams will construct their rosters primarily using players from the KHL and those with minor-league AHL contracts.

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Look: Senators’ Karlsson ties the knot

Ottawa Senators defenseman Erik Karlsson may have fallen short of taking home hockey's biggest prize a couple of months ago, but that doesn't mean he won't be rocking some new jewelry come training camp.

That's because the all-world rearguard got married over the weekend, wedding fiancee Melinda Currey in a ceremony in downtown Ottawa, Ontario.

Fellow Senators Chris Wideman and Mark Stone were in attendance, as well as former Sens Mika Zibanejad and Daniel Alfredsson, who had the honor of being Karlsson's best man, according to the Ottawa Citizen’s Don Brennan.

Beautiful day celebrating a beautiful couple! Congratulations Mel & Erik 💕 #curreydowntheaisle

A post shared by hayley thompson (@hayleyythompsonn) on

Off the ice, Karlsson's free-agent days are now officially over. But on the ice, the 27-year-old is set to become an unrestricted free agent at the completion of the 2018-19 season.

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