These moves come in the wake of Toronto's decision to keep 2017-18 AHL goaltender of the year Garret Sparks as the team's backup behind Frederik Andersen this season.
McElhinney, 35, is coming off the best season of his career, posting a .934 save percentage and a 2.14 goals-against average in 18 games with the Leafs a year ago. He'll likely split duties with Petr Mrazek in the Hurricanes' crease while Scott Darling recovers from a lower-body injury.
Pickard, 26, spent the bulk of the 2017-18 campaign with the AHL's Toronto Marlies, registering a .918 save percentage and a 2.31 goals-against average in 33 games. The former Colorado Avalanche netminder will likely serve as Brian Elliott's backup in Philadelphia until Michal Neuvirth regains full health.
Any team can beat any opponent on any given night because of the parity in today's NHL. The league is wide open, but sometimes a tough schedule can trip up a squad.
Lengthy road trips are one of the main disadvantages for a team over the course of a season. Coaches don't have as much control over matchups while trying to manage player fatigue, and multiple long flights across the continent take a toll.
With the season upon us, here are three of the most difficult stretches teams will face away from home in 2018-19.
Washington Captials: Feb. 12th-21st
Opponents: Blue Jackets, Sharks, Ducks, Kings, Maple Leafs, Sabres Back-to-Backs: 1
The reigning Stanley Cup champs should win a healthy amount of games again this season, but the Capitals will be in tough during a grueling five-game stretch in mid-February.
The 10-day period kicks off in Columbus one night after Washington hosts the Kings, with the Caps traveling west for the always daunting California gauntlet. After taking on the Sharks, the Capitals play the Ducks and Kings on back-to-back nights, then head east to face the loaded Maple Leafs and a Sabres team that could surprise this season.
No one's expecting much from the rebuilding Canucks in 2018-19, and a demanding six-game road trip during the first month of the season could derail things early on. Vancouver doesn't have to deal with a back-to-back over that stretch, but the team will take on six top-tier opponents.
After dueling the Flames, the Canucks have a long flight to the east coast, where the Hurricanes will be waiting on a full day of rest. The star-studded Lightning and up-and-coming Panthers each present significant tests before mismatches against the Penguins and Jets, two Stanley Cup contenders.
Boston Bruins: Feb 15th-23rd
Opponents: Ducks, Kings, Sharks, Golden Knights, Blues Back-to-Backs: 1
The Bruins have the talent to match up well against any opponent, but stiff competition comes their way in five consecutive late-February road games.
Four of those five opponents qualified for the playoffs in 2017-18, and the Blues, a team that only missed the postseason by a single point, added several significant pieces over the offseason. Boston will take on the Ducks and Kings on consecutive nights to start off this daunting road trip, then play three games in six nights against three of the Western Conference's top teams.
Darling suffered the injury during Sunday's preseason meeting with the Nashville Predators. After the game, Brind'Amour mentioned it was a hamstring ailment.
The towering 6-foot-6 netminder signed a four-year, $16.6-million contract with the Hurricanes last offseason after he was acquired from the Chicago Blackhawks. He struggled in his first year in Raleigh, going 13-21-7 with an .888 save percentage and a 3.18 goals-against average.
Backup goaltender Petr Mrazek, who was signed to a one-year deal as a free agent this summer, will likely split starting duties with the recently acquired Curtis McElhinney until Darling returns.
The incident occurred during Saturday's game against the Ottawa Senators, according to TSN's John Lu. Team doctors didn't clear de la Rose to travel so he will remain in Montreal for further evaluation.
The 23-year-old Swede tallied 12 points in 55 games with the Habs a year ago. He inked a two-year, $1.8-million contract with the club this past summer.
Leading up to the start of the 2018-19 season, theScore will be counting down the top 100 players in the game today, as voted on by four of our NHL editors. We'll reveal 10 players every weekday until the top 10 is unveiled on Oct. 3.
Since 2015-16, Burns has the 19th-most points in the NHL, ahead of premier forwards such as Mark Scheifele, Vladimir Tarasenko, Taylor Hall, and Nathan MacKinnon. In that span, only Alex Ovechkin has more shots. Giveaways are his Achilles heel, but when a rugged, 6-foot-5 blue-liner is annually posting forward-like numbers, the turnovers are tolerable. -- Wegman
19. Steven Stamkos, Lightning
Wegman
O'Leary
Gold-Smith
Hagerman
21
19
20
22
After being limited to just 17 games in 2017, Stamkos returned to his elite self in 2018. He tallied 86 points, forming one of the top duos playing alongside Nikita Kucherov. Now healthy, his shot from the half wall is as good as ever and his speed remains a killer. -- Hagerman
18. Tyler Seguin, Stars
Tom Pennington / Getty Images Sport / Getty
Wegman
O'Leary
Gold-Smith
Hagerman
29
16
17
20
Since joining the Stars in 2013-14, Seguin has recorded 384 points in 387 games, while his 173 goals over that span trail only Alex Ovechkin. His production gets somewhat overlooked, but there's no denying that the 26-year-old is one of the best centers in the league and is worth every penny of the $78.8-million extension he signed in September. -- O'Leary
17. Brad Marchand, Bruins
Wegman
O'Leary
Gold-Smith
Hagerman
18
26
16
17
When he's not licking or elbowing opponents, Marchand is one of the NHL's best left-wingers. The talented pest trailed only Connor McDavid, MacKinnon, and Evgeni Malkin among qualified players in points per game last season, pouring in 85 over 68 contests. He plays on the edge at times, but there's no denying his offensive skills. -- Gold-Smith
16. Mark Scheifele, Jets
Hannah Foslien / Getty Images Sport / Getty
Wegman
O'Leary
Gold-Smith
Hagerman
23
13
18
19
Scheifele has been a point-per-game player over the past two seasons and showed he has the ability to elevate his game when it matters most by burying 14 goals in 17 playoff contests over the spring. The 25-year-old has entered his prime as a player, and he's cemented his name as one of the league's best players. -- O'Leary
15. John Tavares, Maple Leafs
Wegman
O'Leary
Gold-Smith
Hagerman
16
17
15
13
Tavares is already firing on all cylinders with his new team, and he has Toronto Maple Leafs fans salivating thinking about what he'll accomplish when the games count. The superstar forward averaged 34 goals and 76 points over his final four seasons with the New York Islanders, and he could top that playing on a loaded Leafs power-play unit. -- Gold-Smith
14. Patrick Kane, Blackhawks
Bill Smith / National Hockey League / Getty
Wegman
O'Leary
Gold-Smith
Hagerman
26
12
14
10
His numbers might have dropped last season, but there is no getting around the fact that few NHLers possess the skill set of Kane. He can stick handle in a phone booth, appears at times to have eyes in the back of his head, and has a wicked release to boot. He's still a wizard with the puck. -- Hagerman
13. Drew Doughty, Kings
Wegman
O'Leary
Gold-Smith
Hagerman
7
15
13
15
Doughty's natural offensive abilities are well documented, but what he has that some of the league's other top defensemen lack is a mean streak. He'll hack, whack, dish out physical punishment, and play with a chip on his shoulder. This drives opponents up a wall and makes him very unpleasant to play against. -- Wegman
12. Patrice Bergeron, Bruins
Maddie Meyer / Getty Images Sport / Getty
Wegman
O'Leary
Gold-Smith
Hagerman
12
11
12
8
There isn't a thing Bergeron can't do. He centers what is arguably the best line in the NHL, alongside Brad Marchand and David Pastrnak, he's a wizard in the faceoff dot, and last season put up 63 points in 64 games, good enough for the best points-per-game mark of his career. He's everything you could want in a centerman. -- Hagerman
11. Victor Hedman, Lightning
Wegman
O'Leary
Gold-Smith
Hagerman
10
10
10
11
Hedman's mobility, high-end skill, and instincts are just simply unfair when you remember he's 6-foot-6, 223 lbs. He has the ability to take control of a game the same way some of the best blue-liners of all time have. Despite Nikita Kucherov, Steven Stamkos, and Andrei Vasilevskiy's importance, Hedman is the Lightning's most valuable player. -- Wegman
Guy Boucher isn't focusing on his contract situation entering the 2018-19 season.
The Ottawa Senators' bench boss will be on the final year of the three-year contract he inked in 2016. But he isn't concerned about his uncertain future.
"I've had that before and I won a championship," Boucher told Bruce Garrioch of the Ottawa Sun. "Ask Barry Trotz how he liked his year (in Washington)? I don't do things in life for money, I never have. I don't do things for contracts. I do things because I like being there and I want to do them.
"I put my name at the bottom of that contract for three years and that's what I plan to do and to do it well, and that's exactly what's happening."
In two seasons with the Senators, Boucher has posted a 72-71-21 record, but with wildly different outcomes. In 2016-17, he led the Senators to within one goal of the Stanley Cup Final, only to follow up with a 30th-place finish last season.
After a disastrous 2017-18 season, Senators general manager Pierre Dorion put Boucher through a review period and stressed that, in order to return behind the bench, he must play more young players and hold more practices. That meeting seemingly went well, as Boucher remains in Ottawa.
Boucher is the Senators' seventh coach since 2007.
After the Arizona Coyotes made an off-the-board pick in this summer's draft by selecting Barrett Hayton fifth overall, the young center will begin the upcoming season in the NHL.
"Everything we thought and expected (about Hayton) has come true," Coyotes general manager John Chayka told theScore's John Matisz. "He's one of those guys who you think will keep getting better and better every single day. He does a lot of good things, makes his teammates better, and came into camp and did a nice job. He's going to start off on our opening day roster and we're just going to take it day by day here."
Many pundits projected the Desert Dogs selecting a prospect like Filip Zadina or Quinn Hughes during the 2018 draft. However, the franchise felt Hayton checked many of its boxes, as Chayka told The Athletic's Craig Morgan following the selection.
"He's a premium person, (a) premium player, playing a premium position," Chayka said. "He's a foundational piece for us. We think he's a complete 200-foot center."
Hayton was held scoreless in two preseason appearances. He could see some regular-season ice time with fellow centers Christian Dvorak and Alex Galchenyuk both sidelined to start the season.
Arizona could choose to give the 18-year-old a nine-game trial before sending him to the OHL's Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds. A longer stint, however, would burn the first year of his entry-level contract.
Hayton recorded 60 points in 63 games with the Greyhounds in 2017-18.
"We've talked about it a lot with him. He still chooses to make those hits. I'm sure the league's well aware of that," Crosby told Jonathan Bombulie of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. "I just don't know how many opportunities you need. Obviously, the point hasn't been made yet."
Wilson's been invited to an in-person disciplinary hearing, meaning the NHL could ban him for at least five games. His last suspension came in the second round of the 2018 postseason when he was banned for three games following an illegal check to the head of the Penguins' Zach Aston-Reese.
Crosby added that Wilson's game has plenty more to offer than reckless hits.
"He's a good player," Crosby said. "He's got speed. He goes hard to the net. He's a tough guy to play against. There's really no reason to continue to hit like that."
Wilson finished last season with a career-high 35 points before adding another 15 playoff points en route to the Stanley Cup. His performance landed him a six-year, $31-million extension this summer.
Should Wilson be suspended, Crosby won't have to worry about facing him in the Penguins' season opener on Oct. 4, which will also mark the second game of the year for the Capitals.
