LAS VEGAS — The Golden Knights always are going for it, constantly willing to chase top talent in order to make a run at the Stanley Cup.

Their latest big-name acquisition, Mitch Marner, appeared on the ice as Vegas opened training camp.

“We haven’t had a stretch in our history where you know you’re taking a step back,” general manager Kelly McCrimmon said. “That’s not how we feel. We’re going to be pedal to the floorboard.”

The Golden Knights would be among the favorites this season even if they hadn’t acquired Marner in a sign-and-trade deal worth $96 million over eight years. But having one of the NHL’s top playmakers on the roster moves Vegas closer to the front of the contender conversation.

Two-time defending champion Florida is the 6-1 favorite at BetMGM Sportsbook and next up are Vegas and Colorado at 8-1 each.

Marner and some of his new teammates attended the Las Vegas Raiders-Los Angeles Chargers game and were shown on the Allegiant Stadium big screen. Included were three of the top five picks from the 2015 draft — Jack Eichel (No. 2), Marner (No. 4) and Noah Hanifin (No. 5).

All on the same club.

It’s not like Marner isn’t used to extraordinarily high expectations.

He comes from the hockey hotbed of Toronto, where he played for the team he grew up cheering on. Marner hoped the storybook tale of leading his beloved team to the championship would eventually come true.

It didn’t, and as disappointed as he was at failing to get past the second round each season, many Maple Leafs fans took it even more personally. As the face of the franchise, Marner often took the brunt of criticism from one of the league’s most rabid fan bases.

He later told Canadian sports network TSN that safety concerns for his family were one of the reasons he wanted to leave. In landing in Vegas, Marner has the chance to start over with a new fan base, and he said he could see their passion at the Raiders game.

“It’s been a lot of fun getting to know the area pretty well now,” Marner said. “It’s been great going out for walks — the sun, the heat, the mountains. The dog’s still getting used to it here with the heat, but it’s just been awesome.”

Marner, like Eichel, is more of a playmaker than a shot taker. He was fifth in the league last season with 102 points and third with 75 assists, both career highs. Marner scored 27 goals.

Eichel produced similar numbers, finishing with 28 goals, 66 assists and 94 points. He acknowledged after last season he probably needs to shoot more often.

One of the key questions going into the season is whether coach Bruce Cassidy will use both players on the same top line or split them up. If they play together like they did in practice— Ivan Barbashev was the third line member — at least one of them will have to be more aggressive.

“We’re both going to have to shoot it,” Marner said. “I think we’re both going to get some good opportunities. We’ve got to be comfortable in the areas to not be afraid to shoot. Barby’s going to be around the net hunting those pucks, so just try to get it around there.”

Eichel contract remains priority

McCrimmon said after last season that keeping Eichel, who has one season left on his eight-year, $80 million contract, was high on the agenda. He maintained that stance with camp opening.

“We have tremendous regard for the player and what he’s meant to our organization,” McCrimmon said. “I think he feels the organization’s been very good for him as well. We’ll continue to have dialogue.”

Eichel was not made available to the media after taking part in only one of two practice sessions. Cassidy said Eichel had tweaked something in the first session and was kept out for precautionary reasons.

Eichel said during the NHL media tour that he wasn’t opposed to continuing negotiations if nothing gets done before the season begins.

“If a contract happens organically, then it happens,” Eichel said at the time. “Right now, you’re just focused on trying to get yourself in as good of a place as you can be to start the season and help the hockey team.”

Pietrangelo still involved

Defenseman Alex Pietrangelo, who won Stanley Cups in St. Louis and Vegas, has been one of the Golden Knights’ key figures as much as for his leadership abilities as his on-ice performance.

He is not playing this season because of a major hip injury and his NHL future is in question.

McCrimmon said Pietrangelo plans on living in Las Vegas and be involved with the club.

“He’s around the facility lots,” McCrimmon said. “He wants to stay connected, stay busy, so we expect to see him a fair bit.”

FRISCO, Texas — Dallas Stars goaltender Jake Oettinger looks forward to one day being able to laugh about how last season ended, when he quickly was pulled after allowing two goals on the only shots he faced in Game 5 of the Western Conference Final.

“In the long run, I feel like I’m gonna look back on it as something that helped me,” Oettinger said during the opening day of training camp for the Stars. “And when we do win it all, it’s going to be, you know, look back and laugh and feel like that was something I had to go through in order to get to that.”

The Stars have been to the playoffs four consecutive seasons with Oettinger in net. They lost in the conference final the past three seasons, with Edmonton knocking them out the last two.

Oettinger was pulled only 7:09 into that 6-3 loss last May, in what was a curious and much-discussed decision by now-former Stars coach Pete DeBoer. After the game, DeBoer pointed out that Oettinger had lost six of his previous seven playoff games against the Oilers and he was hoping that a goalie switch would spark the team in an elimination game.

Well, that obviously didn’t happen and instead prompted questions about how the move would impact the relationship between the coach and the 26-year-old goalie whose eight-year, $66 million contract extension signed last October kicks in this season. The two didn’t immediately talk in the aftermath of the decision.

“A little more blown out of proportion than it actually was. I think stuff happens, emotions run high and people say and do things on a whim that maybe they look back and regret,” Oettinger said. “I mean, I’ve done that in my life. I’m sure everyone here has done that. ... You just learn from it, and that’s what I did.”

Eight days after their season-ending loss, the Stars fired DeBoer. General manager Jim Nill said then that input from players and fallout from the Oettinger move were not the only factors in the decision to move on from the coach who had a 149-68-29 record in regular-season games and 29-27 in the playoffs over three seasons in Dallas.

Only regret for DeBoer

DeBoer told NHL.com in a story posted this week that he still had no reservations about pulling Oettinger, but did regret how he handled the postgame narrative.

“Listen, we were all to blame for coming up short again, and it starts with me,” DeBoer said in his first public comments since being fired. “It was on me, it was on all the coaches, it was on all the players, it was on the organization as a whole. We all created the disappointment. We were all to blame, not just one guy.”

As for his accurate reference to Oettinger losing six of the previous seven playoffs games to Edmonton over two years when responding to a postgame question about why he made the switch, DeBoer said he should have made it clearer that those losses were on everyone.

“It wasn’t just him. It was all of us,” DeBoer told NHL.com. “It was all of us.”

Asked about DeBoer’s comments, Oettinger said, “I think he hit the nail on the head with what he said, so let’s leave it at that.”

Young standout goalie

Oettinger was part of the Stars’ impressive 2017 draft class, the 26th overall pick late in the first round after Dallas got standout defenseman Miro Heiskanen with the third pick. High-scoring forward Jason Robertson was chosen 39th overall in the second round.

In 251 regular-season games (242 starts) over five NHL seasons, Oettinger has a 149-66-27 record, .912 save percentage and 2.52 goals against average. He is 32-30 with a .912 save percentage and 2.56 GAA in 65 playoff games, and the only two of those he didn’t start was when making his NHL debut during the pandemic-impacted 2020 season completed in a Canadian bubble.

“He’s, I think, a top-three goalie in the league for sure,” said Mikko Rantanen, the trade deadline acquisition last March who like Oettinger is starting an eight-year contract extension. “That’s a big advantage to have a goalie who you can trust. And he works hard off the ice. You know he wants to get better, which is really good also.”

PITTSBURGH — Marc-Andre Fleury is ending his NHL career back where it began.

The veteran goaltender, who officially retired last spring following a 21-year career, signed a professional tryout contract with the Penguins on Friday and is going to suit up for the club during Pittsburgh’s exhibition game against Columbus on Sept. 27.

The 40-year-old Fleury was taken No. 1 overall by the Penguins in the 2003 NHL draft. He spent the first 13 seasons of his career in Pittsburgh, helping longtime teammates Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang win three Stanley Cups. Fleury left the Penguins after being selected by Vegas during the expansion draft shortly after Pittsburgh won the second of back-to-back championships in 2017.

“Marc means so much to our team, our fans and the City of Pittsburgh because of the person he is and the example he set,” Pittsburgh general manager Kyle Dubas said in a statement. “The Penguins feel he and his family are most deserving of this opportunity to celebrate this full-circle moment back where it all started in front of the black and gold faithful.”

Fleury, known universally as “Flower,” was incredibly popular with both teammates and fans alike. He ranks second all-time in NHL history in victories (575) and won the Vezina Trophy in 2021 while playing for Vegas.

Yet he is most well-known for his long tenure in Pittsburgh. Fleury holds nearly every major goaltending record in Penguins history, including games played (691), wins (375) and shutouts (44).

CALGARY, Alberta — The Calgary Flames signed goalie Dustin Wolf to a seven-year, $52.5 million contract extension.

Wolf finished second in Calder Trophy voting last season as NHL rookie of the year.

He had a 29-16-8 record with a .910 save percentage and a 2.64 goals-against average.

The 24-year-old American finished 11th in wins and save percentage among NHL goalies in his rookie season, backstopping Calgary to the brink of a playoff berth.

Wolf, who also played 17 games in Calgary during the 2023-24 season, was the American Hockey League’s goalie of the year in 2021-22 and 2022-23.

His extension will kick in for the 2026-27 season and run through 2033.

LAS VEGAS — Sidney Crosby is well aware of the trade talk swirling around him, now that he and the Pittsburgh Penguins have gone three seasons without making the playoffs.

Going into another at age 38 with little realistic hope of the team contending, the three-time Stanley Cup champion acknowledged the rumors are now part of his reality, even if he’d rather they not be.

“I understand it,” Crosby said at the NHL player media tour on the Las Vegas Strip. “That’s the hard part about losing. Everybody thinks that the losing is the buzzer goes (off), you lose a game and that sucks, but there’s so much more than that. It’s the turnover. It’s the unknown, the uncertainty, the question marks. That’s the stuff that’s tough.”

A year ago, Crosby signed an extension that keeps him under contract through the 2026-27 season with the only professional organization he has ever known. It came with a team-friendly $8.7 million salary cap hit — the same he has had through 2008 and a nod to his jersey No. 87 — and provides room to build around the face of the franchise.

Instead, the Penguins look to be in rebuilding mode. They sold at the trade deadline in March, and veterans ranging from Bryan Rust and Rickard Rakell to Erik Karlsson have been speculated as trade candidates even more realistically than Crosby.

“It hasn’t changed my approach,” Crosby said. “I still go out there trying to win every single game and try to be the best that I can be, and I think that youth and having that energy around you isn’t a bad thing either. We’ve got a lot of hungry guys, a lot of competition for spots. I think you just try to find different things that you can feed off of and still continue to learn through it.”

Crosby has a full no-movement clause, essentially putting him in control of his future. He has been linked to Colorado, where close friend Nathan MacKinnon has the Avalanche as one of the top teams in the Western Conference, and even Montreal, especially after starring there during the 4 Nations Face-Off in February.

Growing up in Cole Harbor, Nova Scotia, Crosby was a Canadiens fan and mentioned that during the 4 Nations. So, yes, he understands why folks might think he’d want to play there for an organization on the rise in a hockey-crazed market.

“I get it, trust me,” Crosby said, recalling being in Montreal in June early in his time in the league and marveling at how broadcasts were already projecting lineups for the next training camp in September. “They’re so into it, and I get it as to why that would come up and that sort of thing. It doesn’t make it any easier when you’re losing, for sure, to hear those things, but at the same time, to know that a team like that wants you, it’s not the end of the world. It could be worse. I just think that’s part of it.”

Most of the 44 players at USA Hockey's recent Olympic orientation camp hope to make their Olympic debut in 2026, but Seth Jones' journey to Milan would be unique among that group.

Jones, a 30-year-old Florida Panthers defenseman, is the only potential Olympic rookie who both attended the last Olympic orientation camp in 2013 and was actually named to the 2022 Olympic team before the NHL withdrew six weeks before the Games.

"It was a stab in the heart when they said NHL players weren't going, right, because that's kind of like everyone's dream," he said.

It appeared Jones realized that dream in October 2021 when he was one of the first three players named to the 2022 U.S. Olympic team.

He was the lone defenseman picked, joining forwards Patrick Kane (an Olympian in 2010 and 2014) and Auston Matthews (who has already been named to the 2026 Olympic team as one of the first six).

On Dec. 22, 2021, the NHL withdrew from the Beijing Games due to the COVID-19 pandemic disrupting its season. Kane, Matthews and Jones — and 22 NHL players yet to be named — were replaced by collegians, minor leaguers and those playing for European clubs.

Jones has since seen the U.S. defenseman landscape change significantly. That was apparent as he watched last February's 4 Nations Face-Off final from home.

Jones, the top defenseman in the eyes of USA Hockey in fall 2021, wasn't one of the seven defensemen picked in fall 2024 for the 4 Nations Face-Off.

"You want to be there playing," he said of watching Canada's 3-2 overtime win over the U.S. "It was that intense. It was that competitive. I think every player that was American or Canadian wants that opportunity to play in that situation."

Four months later, Jones lifted the Stanley Cup for the first time — 24 years after attending Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final won by his hometown Colorado Avalanche.

In an oft-told story, Jones' ice path accelerated when his dad, then-Denver Nuggets forward Popeye Jones, asked Avs Hall of Famer Joe Sakic for hockey tips for his sons.

Sakic stressed skating skills. So Jones was taught to skate by a former figure skater.

In Jones' bonus room in his Dallas area home, he has hockey sticks signed by Avs Cup winners Ray Bourque and Patrick Roy, plus game-worn signed basketball shoes from Dirk Nowitzki, a former teammate of his dad.

"I was trying to beg my dad for a pair of (his) Michael Jordan signed shoes," Jones said, "but he's not going to give it to me."

Jones began making U.S. teams at age 16 for junior-level world championships. In 2013, at age 18, he was drafted fourth overall by the Nashville Predators.

As luck would have it, the Predators' general manager, David Poile, was also the USA Hockey general manager for the 2014 Sochi Olympics.

Three weeks after the 2013 draft, USA Hockey announced its 48-player orientation camp roster, a group from which the 25-man 2014 Olympic team was expected to be chosen. Jones was the youngest player to make the camp.

Later that fall, Jones was in serious consideration for the last defenseman spot on the 2014 Olympic team. He could have become the first teenager to play on a U.S. Olympic men's team in the NHL participation era (since 1998).

"I think (Poile) came to me and said — it was one of the last meetings — it was me or somebody else, and they (the selection committee) went with the older guy," Jones said. "I probably took it difficultly. You want to play with Team USA. You're 19 years old. Maybe if you're even sitting (out) a game or whatever it is, or you're playing a third pair, you're still playing in the Olympics, right? So that was always a goal of mine."

While Jones is still in the mix 12 years later, the other defensemen in the running have changed. Exit Ryan Suter and Brooks Orpik. Enter Adam Fox (a Norris Trophy winner), Jaccob Slavin (a breakout star at 4 Nations) and Zach Werenski (leading points scorer at 4 Nations).

Not to mention Quinn Hughes and Charlie McAvoy, who already made the 2026 team as part of the first six players overall.

About six more defensemen will be chosen. The full team, with selection overseen by a player evaluation committee, is expected to be named in early January.

"I wouldn't want to be in their position," Jones said of the committee.

Auston Matthews leads U.S. Olympic men’s hockey team’s first six players for 2026

NHL players will return to the Olympics for the first time since 2014.

• Nick Zaccardi,

MONTREAL — Ken Dryden, the Hall of Fame goaltender who helped the Montreal Canadiens win six Stanley Cup titles in the 1970s, has died after a fight with cancer. He was 78.

The Canadiens announced his death early Saturday, saying Dryden’s family asked for privacy. A team spokesperson said a close friend of Dryden’s appointed by the family contacted the organization, adding that he died peacefully Friday at his home.

“Ken Dryden was an exceptional athlete, but he was also an exceptional man,” Canadiens owner Geoff Molson said. “Behind the mask he was larger than life. We mourn today not only the loss of the cornerstone of one of hockey’s greatest dynasties but also a family man, a thoughtful citizen and a gentleman who deeply impacted our lives and communities across generations.”

Dryden backstopped the NHL’s most successful franchise to championships in six of his eight seasons in the league from 1970-71 to ’78-79. He won the Calder Trophy as rookie of the year, the Vezina as the best goalie five times and the Conn Smythe as playoff MVP in 1971, while being a six-time All-Star.

“Ken embodied the best of everything the Montreal Canadiens are about,” Molson said.

Known for resting his blocker and glove hands on top of his stick in a relaxed manner that became one of hockey’s most recognizable poses, the 6-foot-4 Dryden retired at just 31 in 1979.

“From the moment Ken Dryden joined the Montreal Canadiens as a 23-year-old rookie in 1971, he made an immediate and lasting impact on the NHL, the Canadiens franchise and the goaltending position,” NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman said. “Ken’s love for his country was evident both on and off the ice.”

Inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1983, Dryden was 258-57-74 with a .922 save percentage, 2.24 goals-against average and 46 shutouts in just over seven seasons and went 80-32 in the playoffs.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney posted on social media he was “deeply saddened to learn of the passing of the Hon. Ken Dryden, a Canadian hockey legend and hall of famer, public servant and inspiration.”

“Few Canadians have given more, or stood taller, for our country,” Carney said. “Ken Dryden was Big Canada. And he was Best Canada. Rest in peace.”

From Hamilton, Ontario, Dryden played three seasons at Cornell University from 1966-69, leading the Big Red to the 1967 NCAA title and finishing with a career record of 76-4-1.

Dryden entered the NHL in 1971 and spent just six games in the crease before making his NHL postseason debut. He and Montreal upset rival Boston in the first round and beat Chicago in the final.

“We looked at him and we thought he was coming from another planet,” Hall of Fame teammate Serge Savard said Saturday. “We didn’t see hockey players coming into the dressing room with books under their arms. After practice, he was going to McGill University.”

He was a cornerstone of Canada’s 1972 Summit Series team that beat the Soviet Union, starting in goal in the decisive 6-5 victory in Game 8.

“I feel the history of that tournament, the legacy of that team just as strongly as all Canadian fans do,” Dryden told The Canadian Press in a 2022 interview. “It never goes away. It’s kind of like a good wine, I guess. Actually, the legacy of it grows.”

He also worked at a Toronto law firm while sitting out the 1973-74 NHL season - after previously earning a law degree atMcGill.

After retiring as a player, he went into broadcasting and wrote “The Game,” one of the best known books about the sport, after publishing “Face-off at the Summit” as part of an accomplished career as an author. He was the color analyst alongside Al Michaels for the “Miracle on Ice” when the U.S. beat the Soviet Union and went on to win the gold medal at the 1980 Winter Olympics.

Carey Price, the Canadiens' starter in net for more than a decade, posted on social media: “Thank you Mr. Dryden, for your service not only as a Canadien, but also as a Canadian. You helped me as a young goaltender and I will always be grateful for your thoughtful words of encouragement.”

Dryden served as president of the Toronto Maple Leafs from 1997 through 2004 - a stretch accented by trips to the Eastern Conference final in both 1999 and 2002 - before resigning to enter politics. He ran for the federal Liberals in 2004 and was named minister of social development in Prime Minister Paul Martin’s cabinet.

Dryden, who also taught at various universities across Canada, held onto his seat in Toronto’s York Centre riding in 2006 when the Liberals were ousted, and again in 2008, but lost in 2011.

Dryden is survived by wife Lynda and their two children.

Brother Dave Dryden was a longtime NHL and WHA goalie. He died in 2022 at the age of 81.

Longtime NHL players Joe Pavelski, Zach Parise and Scott Gomez headline the United States Hockey Hall of Fame class of 2025.

Olympic gold medal-winning women’s defender Tara Mounsey and photographer Bruce Bennett are also set to be enshrined at a ceremony in St. Paul, Minnesota. USA Hockey announced the quintet of inductees Wednesday.

“All five of these members of the class share a common bond through the Winter Olympics,” USA Hockey executive director Pat Kelleher said on a video call with reporters. “It’s appropriate as we gear up for another Olympic and Paralympic year that all of these people are going into the Hall together.”

Gomez was one of the first Latino players to make the league and made history as the first to come from the state of Alaska. He won the Stanley Cup twice with New Jersey.

Overlapping for much of their careers, Gomez, Pavelski and Parise combined to play 53 seasons and all represented the U.S. at the Olympics.

Mounsey helped the U.S. win the first women’s hockey gold medal at the Games in 1998 and was part of the team that reached the final in 2002.

“To be a part of that team was incredible,” Mounsey said. “To look back and see how the sport of women’s ice hockey has just exploded since the 1998 year, it’s just incredible to witness the opportunity that these young girls have now on the ice and the role models that they have to look up to.”

Bennett has photographed nearly 6,000 games in the NHL and internationally over his 50 years in the business. He joked that

The NHL will implement a playoff salary cap and remove team dress code requirements beginning this season, a person with knowledge of the situation said.

The person spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity Wednesday because the decisions had not been announced.

The league and Players’ Association agreed to those changes as part of a new collective bargaining agreement that begins in September 2026.

The sides opted to make the playoff cap and dress code policy adjustments immediately rather than waiting another year. Teams will be required to submit a cap-compliant 20-player roster for each playoff game.

Several teams over the past decade have used the lack of a postseason cap to win the Stanley Cup or make a deep run, with players on long-term injured reserve not returning until the first round. Chicago did so with Patrick Kane in 2015, Tampa Bay with Nikita Kucherov in 2021, Vegas with Mark Stone in 2023 and Florida with Matthew Tkachuk this past year, going on to become champions, and it was all allowed under the current CBA.

Extending the regular season to 84 games from 82, reducing the maximum length of contracts and other changes will go into effect in 2026-27. Until Sept. 15, 2026, players can re-sign with their own teams for up to eight years or join another for up to seven - and that will go to seven and six, respectively.

DENVER — The Colorado Avalanche added depth at forward by signing Victor Olofsson to a one-year deal.

The 30-year-old Olofsson spent last season with the Vegas Golden Knights, where he had 15 goals and 14 assists over 56 games. He turned in the longest road point streak in Golden Knights history when he notched at least a point in 10 straight games from Dec. 4 to Jan. 23.

Olofsson got his first taste of the Stanley Cup playoffs last season, scoring two goals as the team reached the second round.

A seventh-round pick by Buffalo in 2014, Olofsson has 105 goals and 106 assists in 370 games with the Sabres and Golden Knights. He reached two milestones last season — recording his 100th career assist on Jan. 17 and notching his 100th career goal the next night.

The 5-fot-11, 180-pound Olofsson was on the 2019-20 all-rookie team.

Before arriving in North America, Olofsson played in the Swedish Hockey League for parts of the 2013-18 seasons.

He was a member of Team Sweden at the IIHF World Championship in 2021 and 2024. He helped the squad to a bronze medal in ’24.