When Ron Hainsey was added to the Toronto Maple Leafs' roster last month, Toronto fans weren't exactly singing the veteran's praises. But, after listening to head coach Mike Babcock's rationale for his acquisition, Leafs supporters may change their tunes.

Related: Fixing the Maple Leafs' defense means trading a forward

According to Babcock, Hainsey is in The Six to lend support to Toronto's No. 1 blue-liner Morgan Rielly - a player for whom the Leafs have high expectations.

"We feel Rielly's a real, real good player. We want him to be upper echelon in the league so we needed a partner for him," Babcock said Monday, according to NHL.com's Dave McCarthy.

Despite being 36 years old with 900-plus games of NHL wear and tear, Babcock feels Hainsey can bring more to the table than just a wealth of experience, and expects the rugged rearguard to complement a defensive group that took major strides last season.

"Well, we like our D better than I read about," Babcock said, according to McCarthy. "I thought our D really improved last year."

Toronto also took a significant step as a group, qualifying for the playoffs for only the second time in 12 seasons. On the heels of a campaign in which so many of his players had excellent years, Babcock recognizes that choosing a roster will be a lot harder this training camp compared to last.

"Too many good players for the 23 spots," Babcock told McCarthy.

Both Hainsey and Rielly are locks for the 23-man roster, and both will be counted on to carry the defensive load for a Leafs club that allowed the ninth-most goals per game last season at 2.85.

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Former NHL player, coach, and current NHL on NBC color commentator Eddie Olczyk has been diagnosed with colon cancer, he announced Tuesday.

He's already undergone surgery to remove a tumor following his diagnosis last week and "will be undergoing further treatment in the coming weeks, including chemotherapy," according to Chicago Blackhawks team physician Dr. Michael Terry.

"I have been working with outstanding health care professionals and expect to be back in the broadcast booth after I complete my treatment," Olczyk said in a statement. "Having the support and encouragement from my family, the Chicago Blackhawks organization, NBC Sports, and all my friends and fans means the world to me and will give me continued strength to beat this. "

The Blackhawks made Olczyk the third overall pick in the 1984 NHL Entry Draft. He spent the first three seasons of his NHL career with the organization, then returned to the Windy City for the last two years of his career.

In his 1,031 NHL games, Olczyk also played for the Toronto Maple Leafs, Winnipeg Jets, New York Rangers, Los Angeles Kings, and Pittsburgh Penguins, scoring 342 goals and compiling 794 points.

In his post-playing career, Olczyk coached the Penguins for the 2003-04 season, but was let go midway through the 2005-06 campaign.

Among today's fans, Olczyk is best known for being the lead color commentator for the NHL on NBC alongside Mike "Doc" Emrick.

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The beginning of the 2017-18 NHL campaign is around the corner, and the league announced Tuesday the preseason will begin Sept. 16.

The Vancouver Canucks and Los Angeles Kings will get things started, but the 109-game schedule features several prominent events, including:

• Vegas' first preseason game (Sept. 17 vs. Vancouver)
• The Bruins and Canadiens facing off in Quebec City (Sept. 18)
• The Red Wings' first game at Little Caesars Arena (Sept. 23 vs. Boston)
• The 2017 NHL China Games between the Canucks and Kings (Sept. 21, 23)
• Kraft Hockeyville events in O'Leary, Prince Edward Island (Devils vs. Senators on Sept. 25), and Belle Vernon, Penn. (Penguins vs. Blues on Sept. 24)

The preseason slate concludes Oct. 1, with the regular season schedule beginning Oct. 4.

The entire schedule can be seen here.

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In the midst of a record year for the Minnesota Wild, things didn't go according to plan for winger Zach Parise.

Parise was limited by nagging injuries and illnesses, and finished the season with only 19 goals and 23 assists in 69 games - his lowest full-season totals since his rookie season with the New Jersey Devils.

"For me, last year stunk," he said, according to Dan Myers of Wild.com. "I didn't play that well. I've been working on my game, hoping to put myself in a spot to not let that happen again."

Parise is entering the sixth year of a monster 13-year, $98-million contract signed with Minnesota in 2012, and the hope is he can come back refreshed and ready to help bring a Stanley Cup to his hometown.

For all the regular-season success achieved under first-year head coach Bruce Boudreau, the Wild fell in the first round of the playoffs to the St. Louis Blues in five games, with Parise contributing two goals and one assist.

"I think we all should be looking forward to coming back and playing again," he said. "I think it was a major letdown what happened in the playoffs. I think everyone should be coming back excited to start the season and give ourselves another chance."

The Wild advanced to the second round twice since Parise's arrival, losing to Chicago on both occasions.

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Why not?

That's the approach Sidney Crosby and the Pittsburgh Penguins are taking to the notion of winning a third straight Stanley Cup in 2018.

"I have a pretty good understanding of how hard two is. I can't imagine what three must be like," Crosby said Monday, per the team's website. "I'd love to find out. It's going to be tough, but we're going to training camp with that in mind. It'll be a big challenge, but why not?"

Crosby spent the day celebrating both his birthday and the team's latest Cup win with stops in Halifax and Rimouski, bringing with him the Conn Smythe Trophy, the Rocket Richard Trophy, the Prince of Wales Trophy, and the 2016 World Cup of Hockey championship trophy - all of which he won over the past calendar year. Even more, all that success has come on the heels of Cup and playoff MVP wins the season prior.

The best player in the game is simply trying to take advantage of the opportunities before him.

"Growing up as a kid you want to play in the NHL, you want to win the Stanley Cup," Crosby said "I've been fortunate enough to do that. It's still something that pushes me every day, to be able to win that, to be able to have these kinds of experiences. You have a window to be able to do this. It's not something you take for granted. You have a window and I'm just trying to make the most of that window."

Thanks to a balanced roster that boasts high-end veteran talent, cheap, productive young forwards, and an all-world goalie, the Penguins will be well positioned to defend their title once again.

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Ken Holland has his work cut out for him, having assembled a roster that sits almost $4 million over the salary cap.

What's more, the Detroit Red Wings general manager has yet to sign promising restricted free agent Andreas Athanasiou.

Related: The dark age of Red Wings hockey is upon us

Johan Franzen and his $3.95-million cap hit can be buried on long-term injured reserve come opening night, but that's offset to a large degree by the $2.56 million on the books under a previous buyout for Stephen Weiss.

Holland, therefore, anticipates further trimming.

"If everybody is healthy when we get to opening day, we'll probably have to make a move," Holland said, according to Ansar Khan of MLive. "I'm anticipating we'll be over by a little bit."

Complicating matters is the fact no fewer than 10 Wings carry no-movement or no-trade clauses, meaning a player and his salary may need to be placed on waivers and sent to the minors.

Holland said he'd like to carry 13 forwards, seven defensemen, and two goaltenders, per Khan, but might be forced to go with a 21-man roster due to the cap predicament.

It's not an ideal spot for a club that missed the playoffs last season and will be in tough to contend for the postseason in 2017-18, its first year in brand new Little Caesars Arena.

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An absence of NHLers at the Olympics won't make the Canada-Russia rivalry any less intense.

Canada and Russia-2 took part in the Sochi Hockey Open on Monday - as part of a tournament that both sides are using as evaluations ahead of the 2018 Olympic Games - where things got extremely heated.

When the dust finally settled, Russia-2 escaped with a 3-2 victory.

Both sides hopefully proved that maybe the Olympics will be fine without NHL stars.

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There will be no last-minute agreement to send NHL players to the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea.

Ottawa Senators owner Eugene Melnyk made that perfectly clear on "The Naz and Wally Sports Hour" on Zoomer Radio in Toronto on Sunday, emphatically confirming that ship has sailed.

Related: NHL players under contract in minors can't go to Olympics

"The schedule is set. The dates are set. All of our fan appreciation days are set," Melnyk said, according to Bruce Garrioch of the Ottawa Citizen. "For (the Senators), especially, we're going to Sweden and that's set. We're going to have an outdoor game. You can't move that schedule anymore. There's 31 teams that are planning things and have planned things. We're way, way beyond anything to do with 2018. That's just not going to happen."

The NHL made a formal announcement stating its players won't be going to South Korea back in early April, and it's a door that simply can't and won't be re-opened.

"You asked me if there's any way of fixing this or doing something with this? You can't for this coming season. Absolutely not," Melnyk reiterated. "It's August. We start training camp in a month. People start coming in and then we start full play in early-October. It's actually technically impossible to do. Think of the television that's all set. There's a lot of things that have been set in motion that are pretty much irreversible."

Since the decision was announced, several players have blasted the NHL, while Alex Ovechkin has said he'll be going either way.

In the players' eyes, then, this is far from a dead issue.

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