Shane Doan will reportedly soon be working for the NHL.
The retired former Arizona Coyotes forward has joined the league's hockey operations department and will work under Colin Campbell, according to TSN's Pierre LeBrun.
Doan will attend general managers meetings and assist Campbell, Kris King, and the rest of the hockey ops group, LeBrun reports.
The role will apparently be similar to the ones previously served by Brendan Shanahan and Rob Blake, both of whom later moved on to front-office roles with NHL clubs.
The 41-year-old retired as a player in August after more than two decades with the original Winnipeg Jets/Coyotes franchise.
McDavid did all he could to ensure his Edmonton Oilers captured at least one point, netting a perfect shot over the glove of Matt Murray late in the third period to force overtime, seemingly sending a message to his teammates that it's time to climb out of this early-season hole.
Alas, it wasn't enough. Pittsburgh's firepower was the deciding factor, as Evgeni Malkin connected with Phil Kessel to seal the deal in the extra frame, giving Crosby's squad a third consecutive victory over McDavid & Co., despite the 20-year-old being statistically superior each time in the head-to-head matchup.
The outcome of Tuesday night's premier showdown displayed how important it is to surround high-end talent, particularly a generational talent, with a capable supporting cast.
After years of icing lineups with a noticeable drop-off in talent between their top guys and role players, Pittsburgh decided to give Crosby help by acquiring the likes of Kessel, Patric Hornqvist, Justin Schultz, and Carl Hagelin via trade, each of whom turned out to be integral pieces to back-to-back titles. Of course, drafting Malkin second overall in 2004 played a huge role in laying the foundation of the Penguins' decade-plus of success, but championship rosters are deep, and the Oilers need to amend their issues if they want to cash in on this window while it's open widest.
That time is now, in the final year of McDavid's entry-level deal before his record-setting $12.5 million annual cap hit kicks in. Edmonton's campaign has started disastrously, which nobody could have predicted, especially considering the excitement following No. 97's hat-trick in the first game of the season.
But that feels like eons ago for the Oilers, who now sit at 2-5-1 and are averaging a measly 1.88 goals per game - which, not surprisingly, ranks last in the league.
McDavid has obviously done his part, notching nine points in eight games. Leon Draisaitl has only been available for four contests, so he gets a pass, but the rest of the Oilers' lineup reads as a long list of unproductive forwards.
Patrick Maroon, who rides shotgun to McDavid's brilliance, is the only other Edmonton forward with more than three points. Newcomer Ryan Strome, brought in to replace Jordan Eberle on the wing, has one goal and one assist, while the former Oiler has a respectable six helpers in nine games with the Islanders.
Then there's Taylor Hall, the other first round draft pick Edmonton dealt away, who has nine points in eight games while playing top minutes in New Jersey. Some of that production sure would have been helpful early in this season.
Hindsight is obviously 20/20, and there's nothing general manager Peter Chiarelli can do to get those players back, but he can use his club's arduous start as a wake-up call to make sure the current season doesn't go to waste.
Edmonton doesn't need to rush into any decisions, however. In all likelihood, things will start to turn around soon based on the amount of offense they're creating without finishing chances. But as evidenced Tuesday night against the reigning champs, even the best players need support to win.
The Oilers currently have over $8 million in cap space until the end of the season, and Chiarelli would be wise to take advantage of it and find some support while he still can.
Head coach Gerard Gallant, and forwards Jonathan Marchessault and Reilly Smith have all been key ingredients to the Golden Knights' historic 7-1-0 start, but they wouldn't have any of these three important figures if it weren't for some horrible mismanagement from the Florida Panthers organization.
Let's backtrack to 2014-15. The Panthers were coming off a disastrous 29-win season. The franchise had only made the playoffs four times in their 20-year history. In stepped Gallant, the newly-minted head coach. He led the team to a 91-point season - a 25-point increase from the season prior - and the fifth-most in franchise history at the time.
Gallant followed up this promising campaign with a club record 103 points, and was named a finalist for the Jack Adams Award as the league's top coach. Finally, the Panthers seemed to have some stability behind the bench after being a recycling bin for coaches in their existence. However, Gallant was relieved of his coaching duties after the Panthers got off to an 11-9-1 start the following season.
In April of 2017, Gallant was hired as the head coach of the expansion Vegas Golden Knights. He has taken a team largely made up of misfits, and has led them to a terrific start, as they currently rank second in the Western Conference with 14 points. He has done so through adversity too, having to deal with injuries to both his starting and backup goalie.
While Gallant certainly deserves plenty of credit for Vegas' success, in the end, it's the players who play the game. Two of their most important players - Marchessault and Smith - are also products of poor decisions made by the Panthers.
One of the biggest stories of the expansion draft was the fact that the Panthers left Marchessault exposed. The 26-year-old was coming off a breakout 30-goal season, and was only scheduled to make $750,000 for the upcoming season.
Marchessault was left exposed because the Panthers were determined to get Smith's contract off their hands. Although he's owed $25 million over the next five years, the winger is just 26 years old and already has two 50-point seasons under his belt.
Essentially, Florida just gave Marchessault to Vegas so the Golden Knights would take on Smith's contract.
Instead of keeping both Smith and Marchessault, Florida preferred to have a fourth-round pick from Vegas, and protect the likes of Mark Pysyk, Alex Petrovic, and Nick Bjugstad from being taken in the expansion draft.
The Panthers used part of the $5 million from Smith's absence to sign Radim Vrbata (one-year, $2.5 million), Evgeny Dadonov (three years, $12 million), and extend Mike Matheson (eight years, $39 million).
Marchessault has missed three games due to injury this season, but still has a respectable two goals in five games. Smith on the other hand, sits second on the team with seven points in eight games. Both players would undoubtedly provide a boost to Florida's middle-of-the-pack offense.
While it's certainly too early to evaluate Bob Boughner eight games into his NHL head coaching career, with a record of 3-5-0, it must be awfully tough for Panthers management to look at the NHL standings and see the Golden Knights near the top, led by three contributors whom the organization essentially gift-wrapped for Vegas.
If Vegas' miraculous run continues and it actually ends up making the playoffs, it can give a big thank you to the Panthers' brass.
A Bill Barilko hockey card signed by the late Gord Downie and his Tragically Hip bandmates is being auctioned off on eBay to raise money for charity.
The card belongs to Stratford, Ontario, native Blair Babcock, whose father died in 2007 following a battle with glioblastoma - the same form of brain cancer that Downie succumbed to last week at the age of 53. Proceeds from the auction, which ends Thursday, will be split between three different charities, including the Gord Downie Fund at the Sunnybrook Foundation.
As of Wednesday afternoon, the top bid was $3,050.
The Tragically Hip pay tribute to Barilko in their hit song "Fifty Mission Cap," which tells the story of his mysterious disappearance after scoring the Stanley Cup-winning goal for the Toronto Maple Leafs in 1951.
LAS VEGAS (AP) Oscar Dansk stopped 29 shots for his second career win in two appearances, and the Vegas Golden Knights beat the Chicago Blackhawks 4-2 on Tuesday night for their fourth straight victory.
Dansk made his first NHL start after replacing injured Malcolm Subban during a 3-2 win over the St. Louis Blues on Saturday. The 23-year-old gave up goals to John Hayden and Patrick Kane, but was otherwise stellar for the Golden Knights.
Vegas is the 10th expansion team to put together a four-game winning streak. The Golden Knights are 7-1-0 in their inaugural season.
This one didn't start so promising. Hayden stuffed one past Dansk just 3:33 minutes into the game for a short-handed goal.
The Golden Knights didn't take long to answer. William Karlsson tipped Colin Millers' shot from the point past Chicago's Corey Crawford.
A little over a minute later, Tomas Nosek pushed Deryk Engelland's rebound under Crawford's pads to give the Golden Knights a 2-1 lead.
Pierre-Edourard Bellemare extended the lead to 3-1 late in the second when he smacked Nosek's pass from behind the net past Crawford.
Activated from the injured reserve list hours before the game, Jonathan Marchessault took a pass from Nate Schmidt and hit the upper left corner of the goal with a shot Crawford never saw, making it 4-1 with 9:40 left in the game.
Kane finished the scoring with 1:05 left, extending his point streak to six games, the longest this season by a Blackhawks player.
Crawford stopped 29 of 33 shots on goal.
NOTES: Nationals star and Las Vegas High School grad Bryce Harper was at the game. ... The Golden Knights came into the game allowing 2.43 goals per game, fourth-best in the league, with the Blackhawks right behind them at 2.44. ... Vegas reassigned Vadim Shipachyov to the AHL's Chicago Wolves to make room for Marchessault, who has enjoyed success against Chicago, recording a hat trick last season, in March. He has two 3-point games against the Blackhawks in his career. ... Though he didn't register a point Tuesday, Golden Knights left wing James Neal has 20 points (14 goals, six assists) in 28 games against Chicago. The Blackhawks are one of four teams Neal has recorded at least 20 career points against. ... Chicago came into the game having killed 22 of 25 penalites over its previous six games. It killed four of five against Vegas. ... Duncan Keith leads the Hawks with seven assists but has yet to score a goal.
LAS VEGAS (AP) Oscar Dansk stopped 29 shots for his second career win in two appearances, and the Vegas Golden Knights beat the Chicago Blackhawks 4-2 on Tuesday night for their fourth straight victory.
Dansk made his first NHL start after replacing injured Malcolm Subban during a 3-2 win over the St. Louis Blues on Saturday. The 23-year-old gave up goals to John Hayden and Patrick Kane, but was otherwise stellar for the Golden Knights.
Vegas is the 10th expansion team to put together a four-game winning streak. The Golden Knights are 7-1-0 in their inaugural season.
This one didn't start so promising. Hayden stuffed one past Dansk just 3:33 minutes into the game for a short-handed goal.
The Golden Knights didn't take long to answer. William Karlsson tipped Colin Millers' shot from the point past Chicago's Corey Crawford.
A little over a minute later, Tomas Nosek pushed Deryk Engelland's rebound under Crawford's pads to give the Golden Knights a 2-1 lead.
Pierre-Edourard Bellemare extended the lead to 3-1 late in the second when he smacked Nosek's pass from behind the net past Crawford.
Activated from the injured reserve list hours before the game, Jonathan Marchessault took a pass from Nate Schmidt and hit the upper left corner of the goal with a shot Crawford never saw, making it 4-1 with 9:40 left in the game.
Kane finished the scoring with 1:05 left, extending his point streak to six games, the longest this season by a Blackhawks player.
Crawford stopped 29 of 33 shots on goal.
NOTES: Nationals star and Las Vegas High School grad Bryce Harper was at the game. ... The Golden Knights came into the game allowing 2.43 goals per game, fourth-best in the league, with the Blackhawks right behind them at 2.44. ... Vegas reassigned Vadim Shipachyov to the AHL's Chicago Wolves to make room for Marchessault, who has enjoyed success against Chicago, recording a hat trick last season, in March. He has two 3-point games against the Blackhawks in his career. ... Though he didn't register a point Tuesday, Golden Knights left wing James Neal has 20 points (14 goals, six assists) in 28 games against Chicago. The Blackhawks are one of four teams Neal has recorded at least 20 career points against. ... Chicago came into the game having killed 22 of 25 penalites over its previous six games. It killed four of five against Vegas. ... Duncan Keith leads the Hawks with seven assists but has yet to score a goal.
Keller, 19, pocketed two assists against the New York Islanders to bring his season total to 10 points, tops among NHL rookies. It also extended his point streak to three games, over which the Missouri native has notched three goals and three assists.
"If you have not had a chance to watch Keller, you are missing one of the game's brightest young stars," said NHL Network analyst Brian Lawton. "Dynamic every shift."
If Keller can keep it up, he could become the first Coyote to take home rookie of the year honors.
Sergachev delivered a similar performance Tuesday against the Carolina Hurricanes. The Russian blue-liner added another assist to bring his season total to nine points, one behind Keller for the league lead. And no Lightning player has ever won the Calder either.
After a slow start to the season in which he posted two points in six games, Sergachev's experienced a reversal of fortunes in his past four contests with three goals and three assists.
Most impressively, the quality of his play has been a bit unexpected - at least so early. The budding defenseman wasn't a lock to fill a roster spot for the Lightning when the team entered training camp, but the 19-year-old's recent play should negate any talk about developing his game in the minors.
"You're looking for 'Has there been improvement? Is he adapting to the game, the speed of the game, the physicality?' He's done all that," Lightning coach Jon Cooper said prior to Tuesday's game, according to Greg Auman of the Tampa Bay Times.
The Lightning paid a steep price to bring in Sergachev, sending forward and former third overall pick Jonathan Drouin to the Montreal Canadiens. But the deal is quickly providing value.
"When you watch a player like that continue to improve, especially at a young age, looking at the ceiling he has, which is really high right now, it's pretty hard to make a change," Cooper added. "He's had a positive impact on our team. He's a part of a team, and that's how it's going to be moving forward."
