The Toronto Maple Leafs placed William Nylander in COVID-19 protocol on Friday, bringing the total number of players on the team's list up to 13.

Maple Leafs captain John Tavares and goaltender Jack Campbell are also in protocol along with defenseman Morgan Rielly, who landed on the list Thursday.

The other Toronto players who received the designation are forwards Alexander Kerfoot, Ilya Mikheyev, Jason Spezza, Wayne Simmonds, and David Kampf; blue-liners TJ Brodie, Travis Dermott, and Rasmus Sandin; and netminder Petr Mrazek.

Maple Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe, assistant Spencer Carbery, goaltending coach Steve Briere, and four other staff members are in COVID-19 protocol as well.

Nylander ranks second on the club with 13 goals and 18 assists over 30 games.

The NHL initially postponed three Maple Leafs games - on Dec. 16, 18, and 19 against the Calgary Flames, Vancouver Canucks, and Seattle Kraken, respectively - due to a spike in COVID-19 cases around the league and in North America as a whole.

The league then began its holiday break - which normally runs from Dec. 24-26 - on the 22nd. The Leafs' clash with the St. Louis Blues on Thursday, Dec. 23 was among those temporarily halted matchups.

On Friday, the NHL postponed all 14 games originally scheduled for Monday, Dec. 27. That included a game between Toronto and the Columbus Blue Jackets.

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The NHL is delaying the resumption of its schedule by a day, postponing the 14 games that had been slated for Monday, Dec. 27.

Here are the matchups that will now take place at a later date:

These are the four games scheduled for Tuesday:

The NHL started its holiday break - which normally runs Dec. 24-26 - two days early amid a slew of postponements and players landing in COVID-19 protocol.

The league has now temporarily called off 64 games this season.

The NHL said it expects to provide another update by the end of Sunday.

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The IIHF canceled the U18 Women's World Championship on Friday.

This marks the second straight year the event has been axed due to the pandemic. The January tournament, one of seven canceled by the IIHF due to recent COVID-related developments, was supposed to take place in Sweden beginning Jan. 8.

"These are hard facts to have to face, and as with last year, we must take the difficult decision to cancel men's and women's IIHF events, including the women's U18 top division now for the second year in a row," said IIHF President Luc Tardif.

"It is the consensus of the IIHF Medical Committee that the organizers would not have the capability to manage an outbreak of the virus, especially with the rapid transfer of the omicron variant that we have seen in the NHL and other leagues."

Plenty of prominent professional women's players expressed their displeasure in the outright cancelation of the tournament despite the fact that the U18 men's championship is slated to begin this week.

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Ottawa Senators owner Eugene Melnyk didn't really support the idea of sending NHL players to the 2022 Beijing Olympics - mainly because of a haunting memory involving Dominik Hasek in 2006.

"You don’t want your players to go over there and get hurt," Melnyk told Postmedia's Bruce Garrioch. "It’s a nightmare, I’ve lived it, and it cost us the chance of winning a Stanley Cup.

"I don’t want to get caught again because doing it once was enough."

The Senators were one of the NHL's most dominant teams during the 2005-06 season, with a 41-year-old Hasek in the crease. During the first half of the campaign, he recorded a stellar .925 save percentage and 2.09 goals against average in 43 contests.

The club allowed Hasek to suit up for the Czech Republic at the 2006 Turin Olympics. While playing for his country, he suffered an adductor muscle tear less than 10 minutes into his first game of the tournament.

Hasek remained sidelined for the remainder of the season while Ray Emery took over as the team's starter. Ottawa finished first in the Eastern Conference but bowed out of the playoffs in the second round.

"The thing that happened, that we all feared, actually happened (with Hasek getting hurt)," Melnyk said. "You don’t have a lot of chances to win a Stanley Cup. That was our year, and that was our chance, and it was taken away from us."

Hasek went on to sign with the Detroit Red Wings during the offseason, concluding his only campaign with the Senators. The club made it to the Stanley Cup Final the following year but lost to the Anaheim Ducks.

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The NHL not going to the Beijing Olympics sucks. Flat-out sucks.

Sucks for young players like Connor McDavid and Auston Matthews, who are in their prime. Sucks for older players like Sidney Crosby and Alex Ovechkin, whose careers are starting to wind down. Sucks for fans everywhere. Sucks for the NHL's image. Sucks for the sport, plain and simple.

But we've had a few days to dwell on it. Time to look ahead.

What the NHL and NHL players' association should be turning their collective attention to in the near future is the big picture. Because withdrawing from Beijing was a letdown in a series of letdowns. Hashing out a long-term international calendar is imperative to not only the growth of the sport but also to cultivating tradition beyond the Stanley Cup. And if that means prioritizing the World Cup of Hockey, so be it.

There needs to be a best-on-best international event and, as painful as it is to type this, it's become abundantly clear the Olympics aren't that event in the current climate. (Check back after commissioner Gary Bettman and PA executive director Donald Fehr have retired.) The league and PA can leave the door open for Winter Games participation while satisfying the international hockey itch by targeting non-Olympic years for the World Cup. How about starting a new era in 2023? A second event in 2025? Third in 2027?

Lock it in and get to work on making the World Cup standardized and meaningful. No Team North America. No Team Europe. Leave the gimmicks for All-Star Weekend. The World Cup should be eight of the best hockey countries competing for shiny medals and that strange-looking trophy.

It'll take a few cycles to build up momentum and tradition, of course. But if by 2027 the World Cup is the hockey event worldwide, well, everybody wins.

Doing it properly involves proper timing, too. September didn't quite work in 2016 - the tournament had serious preseason vibes. Try January or February, when the players are in fine form. Yep, it'll require shutting down the season for two or three weeks, but, again, you're investing in building a sustainable future of thrilling international hockey under the NHL/NHLPA banner.

Do it right and, eventually, the Olympics will just be the cherry on top.

Flames' Lindholm for Selke?

Elias Lindholm has received 15 votes for the Selke Trophy over his career - 14 in 2018-19 and one in 2019-20. None of those were for first place.

That may change by season's end.

Lindholm has been fantastic for Calgary through 28 games - a chief reason the Flames are fifth in the Western Conference in points percentage. He's been particularly effective on the defensive side of the puck, and if Selke ballots were due today, I might have the 27-year-old Swede in the No. 1 spot.

Everybody has their own process for evaluating a forward's defensive impact, so the strength of Lindholm's Selke candidacy is far from bulletproof, especially with so much of the season remaining. That said, he checks a lot of boxes.

The Flames are a juggernaut when Lindholm is on the ice at five-on-five. His on-ice goals for and expected goals for rates - 82.8% and 61.0%, respectively, according to Evolving Hockey - are elite. Looking strictly at defense, Calgary's five-on-five numbers with Lindholm are still fabulous - a mere five goals against in 389 minutes and a 2.0 xGA/60 rate.

Some forwards rank higher than Lindholm in certain on-ice metrics, but most of them play sheltered roles or bottom-six minutes against relatively weak competition. Lindholm is incredibly important to the Flames' entire operation; no-nonsense head coach Darryl Sutter leans on him for 20:15 of ice time a night, usually against the opposition's top talent.

Lindholm spends 2:15 a game playing shorthanded. It's not a deal-breaker for Selke consideration if a player doesn't see the ice in penalty-kill situations or while the opponent has its goalie pulled. But it's certainly a huge plus that Lindholm is a key member of the league's third-best penalty kill.

Also of note: Lindholm is solid in the faceoff circle with a 52.5% success rate. He's on the right side in penalty differential (plus-1). And he both steals pucks (20 takeaways) and eats pucks (16 blocked shots) on a regular basis. Anybody who's watched a Sutter-era Flames game knows each player benefits from Sutter's defensive structure and emphasis on responsible hockey. But Lindholm goes above and beyond with his consistent attention to detail.

On top of the defensive work, Lindholm's accumulated 11 goals and 16 assists for 27 points, just shy of a point per game. The definition of the award doesn't require the winner to be competent offensively, but I believe a good offense can be a good defense (and vice versa). In other words, while I don't automatically exclude defensive specialists from the Selke evaluation process, players who crush it in all three zones get bonus marks.

Four others with strong early season Selke cases (according to my personal parameters): four-time winner Patrice Bergeron and Brad Marchand in Boston, Anthony Cirelli in Tampa Bay, and Mark Stone in Vegas.

Paul Maurice, hockey savant

Plenty of digital ink has been spilled over Paul Maurice's resignation. And rightfully so - Maurice is well-respected as both a hockey coach and hockey philosopher. Plus, the timing of the resignation itself was notable.

Let's rewind for a moment ...

It's a decade ago. Rod Brind'Amour has recently transitioned into coaching after a highly successful playing career. Brind'Amour, then just a wide-eyed assistant in Carolina, walks into the coaches' room excited to tell Maurice, his boss, about a tiny detail he'd noticed in a practice or game. You know, something 99.9% of the population would never notice.

Maurice, who was in his second stint as the Hurricanes head coach, simply nods in response. "Damn," Brind'Amour thought to himself, "there's nothing this guy doesn't catch." This happened time and time again.

"There's a shit-ton going on in a game. I mean, so much," Brind'Amour told theScore during an interview in September, recalling the impression left by Maurice. "All the way down to every fine detail, there's a lot, and he doesn't miss any of it."

Back then, Brind'Amour figured this savant-level intelligence was typical of NHL head coaches. He became discouraged and started questioning himself. Was he smart enough to climb the ranks? Could he ever become a head guy?

"I was amazed," Brind'Amour said. "(Maurice) would have four assistant coaches talking to him as he was walking to the locker room, like down the hallway between periods. He'd go, 'What do we need to do? What's the adjustment?' And he'd have four different things thrown his way. 'We've got to do this, this, this, this.' As he's walking in, he'd go, 'OK.' Then he'd get to the front of the room and go, 'Duh, duh, duh, duh.' Everything at once."

Brind'Amour notes he's the opposite now that he's the boss in Carolina. The reigning Jack Adams Award winner needs to know ahead of time exactly what he's going to relay to his players between periods. And then Brind'Amour delivers it in a short burst.

"But he can just spit it all out and make sense of it clearly," he said of Maurice.

"Everybody plays basically the same way," Brind'Amour continued, talking generally about the influence of NHL coaches. "Honestly, there's such subtle differences. That's not where the differences lie. The differences lie in how coaches talk to players and get the most out of their players."

Ultimately, Maurice believed he was no longer able to get the most out of his Jets players. But that doesn't mean the hockey savant can't pull off the trick elsewhere. Maurice will be back soon. Count on it.

Don't sleep on Slovakia

Slovakia could easily lose three of four round-robin games at the world juniors in Alberta over the holidays. After all, they've been placed in a stacked Group B that also features the United States, Sweden, Russia, and Switzerland.

Regardless of the win-loss record, intrigue around the Slovaks will be exceptionally high. Slovakia is icing a handful of legitimate NHL prospects, including LA Kings pick Martin Chromiak and three projected 2022 first-rounders in Simon Nemec, Juraj Slafkovsky, and Filip Mesar.

Nemec, an all-situations right-handed defenseman, could potentially go in the top five next July. (Marian Gaborik, drafted third overall in 2000, is the country's highest NHL draft pick.) Scouts love Nemec's mobility and hockey sense. Named MVP at the Hlinka Gretzky Cup in August, he's excelled in Slovakia's pro league this season, collecting 13 points in 22 games.

Up front, keep an eye out for the big-bodied Slafkovsky and speedy Mesar. Slafkovsky, a potential top-10 pick, is a playmaker who can really shoot the puck. He plays in Finland's Liiga. Mesar, who plays in Slovakia, is smaller in stature but possesses quick hands and feet, and a motor that doesn't quit.

Parting thoughts

Tank update: The 6-21-2 Arizona Coyotes are on pace for just 17 wins. GM Bill Armstrong is reportedly "gauging the market" on Jakob Chychrun. The star defenseman is worth a first-round pick and much more. Incredibly, Arizona already owns three first-rounders and five second-rounders in 2022.

Tage Thompson: From the doghouse to top-line center, what a first 30 games it has been for the giant Buffalo Sabres forward. Thompson has already set career highs in goals (10) and points (18). He might be the most pleasant surprise of the season.

Milestone check: Joe Thornton is two games played away from 1,700, potentially on his way to passing Ron Francis (1,731) and Jaromir Jagr (1,733) for a spot in the top four all time. Sidney Crosby is 10 goals away from 500, a mark only 45 other players have reached. Marc-Andre Fleury is already in the top 15 all time in shutouts, but he's one away from 70.

Further down the career leaderboards, Claude Giroux is one assist away from 600. Nicklas Backstrom is 19 points away from 700. Braden Holtby is six wins away from 300.

Takes, Thoughts, and Trends is theScore's biweekly hockey grab bag.

John Matisz is theScore's senior NHL writer. Follow John on Twitter (@MatiszJohn) or contact him via email (john.matisz@thescore.com).

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Chicago Blackhawks superstar Patrick Kane is predictably disappointed the NHL had to back out of the 2022 Olympics but seems to be particularly upset he can't join forces for the United States with Toronto Maple Leafs sniper Auston Matthews.

"We stay in touch throughout the season and got a lot of respect for him as a player, how good he is at scoring goals, his shot, just his overall game," Kane said of Matthews, NBC Sports Chicago's Charlie Roumeliotis reports.

"He’s become one of the best players in the league, so would’ve been huge to have that type of player on the U.S. team and maybe get a chance to play with him as well. Hopefully, we can get a chance to play together in the future, another big tournament, and have that opportunity."

Team USA would've sent arguably its deepest roster ever to Beijing to capture its first gold in men's hockey since the Miracle on Ice in 1980. Kane represented the stars and stripes at the 2010 and 2014 games, but he knows the younger generation of American stars, led by Matthews, had a strong chance to do something special.

"I just think in general, for USA Hockey, we would’ve put together a pretty competitive team, and that’s disappointing," Kane said. "I don’t think that’ll change four years from now, but would’ve been fun to have that opportunity and welcome the next generation of USA hockey players and be able to be part of that."

Matthews hasn't had the chance to play an international tournament since breaking into the NHL in 2016. He suited up and dazzled for Team North America at the World Cup of Hockey before his rookie season, but there hasn't been a best-on-best tournament since.

The reigning Maurice "Rocket" Richard winner was a virtual lock to be Team USA's top center, and Kane was a shoo-in for a top-six role on the right wing in what may have been his final chance to compete at the Olympics. The three-time Stanley Cup winner will be 37 if the NHL is able to go to Milan in 2026.

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We're still roughly three months away from the 2022 NHL trade deadline, but it’s never too early to look at who could be dealt. Below, we explore five high-profile players who could find themselves on the move.

Jakob Chychrun, Coyotes

Position: LD
Cap hit: $4.6M
Years left: 4

Chychrun is the only non-rental on this list. He's also just 23 years old and finished in the top-10 in Norris Trophy voting a year ago. This seems to be the type of player the Coyotes should try and build around rather than trade away.

However, that apparently hasn't stopped Arizona from gauging the market. Given that Chychrun is signed long term, the rebuilding Yotes should be in no rush to pull the trigger and only do so if they get a haul in return.

Chychrun is having a miserable season, too, so his trade value likely isn't at an all-time high. It's hard to blame him, considering how bad the team is. He's recorded just two goals and five assists in 26 games while logging 24:50 of ice time per contest. Plus/minus is a flawed stat, but his minus-29 rating is nearly double the second-worst in the league.

Nonetheless, nearly every team should be at least reaching out to Arizona for the asking price. He's a two-way defender with size and speed entering the prime of his career on a bargain contract - those don't grow on trees. It's also fair to assume he would flourish with a stronger supporting cast.

Best fits: Bruins, Flames, Hurricanes, Oilers, Panthers, Rangers, Blues, Maple Leafs, Canucks, Capitals

Tomas Hertl, Sharks

Position: C
Cap hit: $5.625M
Years left: 1

The Sharks are in unfamiliar waters. After a two-decade run of competitiveness, they're on track to miss the playoffs for the third straight season for the first time in franchise history. They can't quite commit to a full teardown due to the veteran contingent that remains under contract long term, so they're trying to retool on the fly.

San Jose would probably like to keep Hertl around, but it'd be smart to move on. At 28 years old, Hertl's likely going to command a lucrative long-term contract (Evolving-Hockey projects he inks a seven-year deal with an $8.14-million cap hit). The Sharks already have four players (Logan Couture, Erik Karlsson, Brent Burns, and Marc-Edouard Vlasic) on the wrong side of 30 signed through at least 2024-25 making at minimum $7-million per season.

Instead of committing to another pact that could go sideways, the Sharks are better off attempting to trade Hertl for a bundle of assets that can help the team get younger.

There is one significant obstacle in this plan: Hertl's contract contains a three-team trade list. If Hertl wants, he could leverage this to make it nearly impossible to trade him. The Sharks need to hope he's willing to help facilitate a deal to a contender. Otherwise, they could see him walk for nothing at the season's end.

There will be no shortage of interest. Hertl is a big, strong, skilled, two-way center who could be the missing piece for center-needy teams vying for a Stanley Cup. He's recorded 14 goals and eight assists in 30 games this season. The Czech pivot also has a stellar playoff resume with 24 goals and 18 helpers in 62 career postseason contests.

Best fits: Bruins, Wild, Rangers, Penguins

Marc-Andre Fleury, Blackhawks

Position: G
Cap hit: $7M
Years left: 1

The Blackhawks' splashy offseason has not paid immediate dividends, as the club sits seventh in the Central Division and 14th in the Western Conference. It's been no fault of Fleury's, who owns a respectable .913 save percentage in 20 appearances.

Given that the 37-year-old pondered retirement this past offseason, Chicago would be smart to get whatever assets it can for the pending UFA. The Blackhawks can maximize their return for Fleury if they're willing to retain half his salary, too.

Fleury does have a 10-team no-trade list in his contract, which could complicate things considering very few contenders have a need between the pipes. For the teams that do, targeting the three-time Stanley Cup champion should be a no-brainer.

Best fits: Oilers, Capitals

Mark Giordano, Kraken

Position: LD
Cap hit: $6.75M
Years left: 1

It appears there will be no inaugural season miracle for the Kraken. They've performed more like a typical expansion team, sitting last in the Pacific Divison and second-last in the Western Conference.

This makes Giordano a near-lock to be traded. While he is the team's captain, he's also 38 years old, so an extension is unlikely. His contract does contain a 19-team no-trade list, but Giordano's never won a Cup and likely wants to chase a ring.

Giordano's basic stats suggest a decline. He's recorded just eight points in 24 games, putting him on pace for his worst offensive season in nearly a decade. His minus-11 rating is also a career low.

The underlying numbers remain strong. His 53.7% expected goals share is the best among Seattle's regular blue-liners, and his 1.94 expected goals against per 60 minutes would stand as his best since 2010-11. He could still adequately serve as a second-pairing defenseman on a contending team.

Best fits: Bruins, Flames, Blues, Maple Leafs, Capitals

Claude Giroux, Flyers

Position: C/LW/RW
Cap hit: $8.275M
Years left: 1

This is more of a wild card, but it's something to watch for. Giroux has been with the Flyers for his entire 15-year career and it would only be fitting for him to retire in Philly. However, the team is in the midst of a disastrous season relative to preseason expectations. They sit sixth in the Metropolitan Division and are bound to be deadline sellers.

Giroux's contract contains a full no-movement clause, so his future is in his own hands. It seems more likely that he inks an extension to stay, but if he did approve a trade, the Flyers could get a nice return (especially if they retain 50% of his salary), and he could always come back in the offseason.

The 33-year-old is a better fit on the wing at this point in his career, but he can still play center in a pinch. He's remained productive this season, tallying 25 points in 29 games so far. He's also won 61.6% of his faceoffs.

Best fits: Bruins, Panthers, Wild

(Cap source: CapFriendly)
(Analytics source: Natural Stat Trick)

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In the lead-up to the 2022 World Junior Championship, we're looking back at the 25 best players to wear the Canadian jersey at the tournament. Rather than evaluating entire careers, these rankings are based solely on performances during the world juniors. We'll reveal five players each day, culminating with the best of the best Dec. 25.

25-21 | 20-16 | 15-11 | 10-6 (Dec. 24) | 5-1 (Dec. 25)

20. Manny Legace (1993)

The 1992 world juniors was a rough one for Team Canada. Despite boasting a talented roster that included Eric Lindros, the squad stumbled to a sixth-place finish. Legace was at the heart of Canada's gold-medal-winning rebound the following year.

Legace put up a gargantuan 58-save effort in a must-win victory against Finland after handing silver-winning Sweden its only loss of the round-robin tournament. (Between Peter Forsberg, Markus Naslund, and Niklas Sundstrom, the Swedes had three of the tournament's top five scorers.) Legace was deemed the best goaltender and named to the All-Star team.

19. Jarome Iginla (1996)

Iginla only played in one world junior tournament, but he made it count. The recently inducted Hockey Hall of Famer tied for the overall lead in goals and points at the 1996 tourney as Canada claimed gold for a fourth straight year. He was named the event's best forward and remains tied for seventh all time among Canadian junior skaters with his rate of two points per game.

Like many superstars before and after him, Iginla's world junior experience was limited because he was good enough to stick in the NHL afterward. He would later shine on the international stage at the World Championship, the World Cup of Hockey, and three Olympics.

18. Justin Pogge (2006)

If you ask Canadian hockey fans to name the most memorable goaltending performance at the world juniors, chances are many will mention Pogge's. He was barely on Canada's radar entering the 2006 tournament but managed to make his way into the selection camp and ultimately got himself the starting role.

He put together one of the most dominant tournaments ever seen by a goalie, posting three shutouts in six contests, which included a 35-save shutout against an Evgeni Malkin-led Russian team in the gold-medal game. Pogge may have ultimately been a one-hit wonder as he went on to appear in just seven NHL games, but what a hit he was.

17. Dale McCourt (1977)

McCourt certainly isn't the most renowned name on this list, but his efforts in a silver-medal showing in 1977 are among the greatest put forth by a Canadian at the event. His 18 points are the sixth-most in tournament history, and his 2.57 points per game are the third-most by anyone to don the red and white.

McCourt's dominant tournament helped him go first overall to the Detroit Red Wings the following spring.

16. Cody Hodgson (2009)

Hodgson is in the conversation for best individual performance at the world juniors. His 2.67 points per contest are second all time among Canadians (minimum five games played), trailing only Wayne Gretzky, who played in a much higher-scoring era.

The dynamic center didn't just beat up on weak countries in the round robin, either, as he potted two goals and added an assist in Canada's 5-1 win over Sweden to clinch gold.

Hodgson was eligible to play in 2010, but a back injury forced him to miss out. Canada lost to the United States in overtime in the gold-medal game, and it's fair to wonder if Hodgson's presence would've made the difference.

Unfortunately, Hodgson's pro career was cut short after being diagnosed with malignant hyperthermia. But his dominant '09 world juniors will always serve as a reminder of his potential.

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