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| 4 | TH E HOC K EY NE WS

CHA MPION S 2021

CONTENTS CHAMPIONS 2021 | VOL. 74 NO. 08 COVER STORY

TRIPLE THREAT | 28

Three is the magic number for the Tampa Bay Lightning: they claimed their third Stanley Cup title in team history and became only the third franchise to win back-to-back championships in the past three decades. How did they do it? Hard work, desire, and unparalleled skill and depth from front to back BY MATT LARKIN

FEATURES

22 TOP 10 NHL MOMENTS

20 IN MEMORIAM

36 TAMPA’S BAY JOURNEY

74 NHL

38 STANLEY CUP IN PHOTOS

84 WOMEN’S HOCKEY

68 AHL YEAR IN REVIEW

86 REWIND

72 WHL YEAR IN REVIEW

88 BUSINESS

From the Bolts to Buffalo, we count down the best, and worst, from the year that was in the NHL. BY RYAN KENNEDY

CHAMPIONS SECTION

PHOTO BY BRUCE BENNETT/ POOL PHOTO-USA TODAY SPORTS

XXXXSX

XXXXX DOUGLAS DEFELICE-USA TODAY SPORTS

ON THE COVER

52 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 62 64 66 66 67 67

WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP KHL VHL SHL ALLSVENSKAN LIIGA MESTIS NWHL QMJHL NCAA USHL NAHL ECHL SPHL

A native Floridian explains how the Lightning took a Sun Belt city and made it a hockey hotbed. BY RYAN HUNT

Celebrating the Lightning’s historic win in the ﬁnal through the camera lens.

The Calder Cup stayed in the vault, but the players got back on the ice and the future looks promising. BY KEN CAMPBELL

Peyton Krebs was one of several prospects who shone brightly during an abbreviated season. BY RYAN KENNEDY

These players are ready for a breakout when they hit the ice next season.

The PWHPA’s work of creating change continues despite COVID-19 setbacks.

There’s a groundswell of support to get Herb Carnegie into the Hall of Fame.

1-on-1s with Larry Robbins, Dan Lehv, Craig Leipold and Matt Majka.

COLUMNS

DEPARTMENTS

8BUZZ

The hockey world loses two good ones in Matiss Kivlenieks and Tom Kurvers.

Will we see NHLers at the Olympics? The clock is ticking on a decision.

6 FIRST WORD 18 MALARKEY 98 LAST WORD

C HA M P IO NS 20 21

THE HO C KE Y NE WS | 5 |

THE FIRST WORD

KEY WORD FOR 2021: SACRIFICE

EXECUTIVE CHAIRMAN & PUBLISHER, ROUSTAN MEDIA LTD.

W. Graeme Roustan

DEPUTY PUBLISHER & CREATIVE DIRECTOR

Erika Vanderveer

SPECIAL ADVISOR TO PUBLISHER

Caroline Andrews

SENIOR EDITOR

Brian Costello

MANAGING EDITOR SENIOR WRITERS

Ryan Kennedy Matt Larkin

CH AM PIO NS 2 02 1

SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGER

Jared Ostroff

FEATURE WRITER Ken Campbell EDITOR AT LARGE Ronnie Shuker EDITORS Nick Emanuelli, Sam McCaig, Ambika Sharma WEBSITE CONTRIBUTORS Avry Lewis-McDougall, Shannon Pakulis, Lyle Richardson, Mike Stephens NHL TEAM CONTRIBUTORS David Alter (Toronto Maple Leafs) INTERNS Jake Crump, Kyle Drinnan

INNING A CHAMPIONSHIP IS

| 6 | THE H O C KE Y NE WS

Steven Ellis

Accounting Manager Leslie Hayes General Counsel David La Salle

tre). Normalcy wasn’t quite there, but it was the closest we had seen in more than a year and a half. The pandemic carved its own schedule in the hockey world, and we just had to go with ϐ Ǥ habit, that could not have been easy. Travel, already tough, featured even more hoops to jump through, and time away from the family became an even bigger issue than usual. But for the teams that managed to push through all the obstacles in the leagues that managed to make it all work, a trophy awaited Ǥ ϐ er sounded and the score was in their favor, sticks and gloves were still tossed in the air, helmets still spun away into the yard sale that is a post-game championship celebration. For at least a few moments, the world was back to normal for these victors; the goal ǡ ϐ Ǥ Whether accomplished in an empty or near ǡ ϐ paid off. And you have to tip your cap to every player in every league who was willing to go through it all, just to get a chance of reaching their dreams.

Ryan Kennedy Senior Writer @THNRyanKennedy

ADVERTISING: 416-840-4644, contact@roustan.media CUSTOMER CARE & SUBSCRIPTIONS: www.thn.com/subscribe, 1-800-365-9982, EMAIL: thehockeynews@kckglobal.com SUBSCRIPTIONS Minimum one-year subscription price: $39.95 including tax for print and digital; $29.95 including tax for digital. • The Hockey News (ISSN 0018-3016) publishes 16 issues per year, including Money and Power, Pool Guide, Yearbook and our Collector’s Edition. Mail In Canada: The Hockey News, C/O Roustan Media Ltd., 260 Adelaide Street East, P.O. Box 47, Toronto, ON, M5A 1N1 Mail In the US: The Hockey News, PO Box 904, Buffalo, NY 14240-9554 NEWSSTAND Minimum Single Copy Price: $6.99. Distributed by CoMag Marketing Group. Distribution Canadian publications Mail Agreement No. 43508014, Registration No. 09255 paid at Gateway, Mississauga, ON. In the US, periodical (579-540) postage paid at 13801 Walsingham Rd Ste A-130, Largo, FL 33774 and at additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER return undeliverable US addresses to The Hockey News Circulation, Box 904, Buffalo, NY 14240-9554. THE HOCKEY NEWS OFFICES Canada: 260 Adelaide Street East, Suite 47, Toronto, ON M5A 1N1; U.S.: 13801 Walsingham Rd Ste A-130, Largo, FL 33774 PRINTING RBW Graphics, 2049 20th Street East, Owen Sound, ON N4K 5R2 PRIVACY POLICY On occasion, we make our subscriber list available to carefully screened organizations whose product or service might interest you. If you prefer that we not share your name and postal address, you can easily remove your name from our mailing list by reaching us at any of the listed contact points. Review our complete Privacy Policy at TheHockeyNews.com. The Hockey News was co-founded by Ken McKenzie and W.V. Cote in 1947. Contents copyright 2021 for Roustan Media Ltd. © All rights reserved articles and photos 2021. Download The Hockey News app on the App Store and Google Play Store. Digital editions are also available on Zinio and Press Reader.

STEVEN ELLIS/THE HOCKEY NEWS

WEB EDITOR

Edward Fraser

Celebration at the end of a long journey is always very sweet. But doing it during a pandemic gave it that extra sugar-coating

never easy. It takes skill, teamwork and in most cases some pretty good luck. But for every hockey team that won the ultimate prize this season, it also took ϐ Ǥ Sure, every year features champions who pulled themselves together despite bruised and near-broken bodies, and every player has gone through long road trips, years away from home and countless hours practising at the rink just to get a shot at glory, but we all know this campaign has been different. Heck, some leagues didn’t even have a championship or a post-season – some didn’t even have a season at all. For those who did get the chance to compete, however, the season was a grind on top of a grind, forced into demanding boxes by a pandemic that still grips the world. There was, of course, the omnipresent COVID testing to make sure everyone was healthy and the quarantines for those who were not. In many cases, players had to live in bubbles or cohorts just to get through the season. In the junior ranks, the WHL’s Red Deer Rebels actually bunked in their arena’s suites for their 24-game schedule, while the QMJHL’s Shawinigan Cataractes bought a small apartment building for all the players to live in. ϐ ǡ top. And while NHLers appreciate the privilege they have in playing in the best league in the world, they are also human and not immune to the hardships of this pandemic era we are living through. Vegas Golden Knights goaltender Robin Lehner made a public plea for more freedom of movement once players got vaccinated, citing the mental health toll that isolation was taking on him and his peers. By the end of the NHL season, fans had returned to the stands in varying capacities, from near-capacity in Tampa Bay to a fraction in Montreal (but eminently bolstered by the throngs of supporters outside the Bell Cen-

ART DIRECTOR

Shea Berencsi

OPENING THOUGHTS champions in your community and in your own family. The real champions this season, however, are those millions of people who were taken from us all way too soon by COVID-19 and are not with us today to celebrate any season of any kind ever again. Too many seniors will not see their children, grandchildren or friends again. Many parents will not go to a hockey game with their child or spend another day with their partner. For too many families, life will never be the same. Parents, grandparents, mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, uncles, aunts, friends, partners, teammates, co-workers and others who were all loved by someone were lost this past season to COVID-19. The blood, sweat and tears that they all ϐ ǡ by themselves without being able to say goodbye to their loved ones, makes each and every one of them the very best of champions.

PUBLISHER’S NOTE

Champions –

Blood, Sweat and Tears...and Masks The real champions from this season are those who had their lives impacted by COVID-19 BY W. GRAEME ROUSTAN

MICHELLE VALBERG

HAMPIONS BECOME CHAMPIONS AFTER

going through a great deal of adversity that typically is referred to as blood, sweat and tears. In this issue, we celebrate the champions of hockey leagues around the world after playing a game for the 2020-21 season. Congratulations to all of the players, coaches and their entire support staff who helped make them all champions. This hockey season is now behind us, its champions are all crowned and trophies have been handed out. Much of this issue is dedicated to celebrating the on-ice players who delivered the well-needed distraction of hockey games while the more serious game of life and death was unfolding right in front of us all on a daily basis. During this season, we celebrated the frontline workers like Hayley Wickenheiser and hundreds of thousands of doctors, nurses and other healthcare workers who saved the lives of countless people, thousands of whom lost their own lives serving

others. The blood, sweat and tears that all of these frontline workers shed make them all champions. As of this writing, more than four million people around the world including 600,000 people in the United States, 133,000 people in Russia, 128,000 in the U.K., 90,000 in Germany, 54,000 in Ukraine and 26,000 in Canada have died from COVID-19. Most would still be with us today had every single person followed the three simple steps of wearing a mask, staying two meters apart and washing their hands. As we celebrate all the champions in this issue, I ask that you celebrate the other champions all around us during the past season. All of the frontline healthcare work ǡ ϐ ǡ viders that we have lost or that are still with us are champions and need to be celebrated every single day. Other champions this season are the family members and loved ones who lost someone near and dear to them. These people suffered the most by their loss of a parent, a sibling, a relative, a friend, a partner, and, in tragic cases, more than one from each of these categories. You don’t need to look too far as you are surrounded daily by

THE REAL CHAMPIONS THIS SEASON ARE THOSE MILLIONS OF PEOPLE WHO ARE NOT WITH US TODAY TO CELEBRATE ANY SEASON OF ANY KIND EVER AGAIN

W. Graeme Roustan Executive Chairman & Publisher, Roustan Media Ltd. roustan.com

C HA MP IO NS 20 2 1

T HE H OCK EY NEW S | 7 |

10 BEHIND THE MASK/JERSEY HOUND 11 CUP DROUGHT-O-METER 12 THE COUNTDOWN: FRONT-OFFICE STABILITY 14 PUCK CULTURE 16 THN AWARDS

Will fans get a chance to see McDavid and other NHL stars at the Olympics in 2022? It’s still unknown.

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CHA M PI ONS 2021

PERRY NELSON-USA TODAY SPORTS

BUZZ

FOR UP-TO-THE-MINUTE COVERAGE, VISIT THEHOCKEYNEWS.COM

BUZZ NHL

THE CLOCK IS TICKING

There’s still no agreement from the NHL, NHLPA and IOC for sending the best players in the world to the Olympics. And time is running out BY KEN CAMPBELL

WINSLOW TOWNSON-USA TODAY SPORTS

HE BEST PLAYER IN

the world was a fresh-faced, 21-year-old 100-point scorer when the NHL passed on the opportunity to showcase its players in the Olympics in 2018. Now that Connor McDavid is 24, he’s still scoring 100 points, even if it’s only in 56 games. And whether the league once again declines the opportunity to display his talents on the biggest stage in the world was very much still up in the air seven months before the 2022 Winter Olympics were set to begin. If the league and the NHL Players’ Association can’t come to terms with the International Olympic Committee on a deal that works for all three, NHL players will be out of their second straight Olympics, and everyone will be lesser for it. The IOC has come to see what a boon having NHLers involved is for its brand. The league, despite less than favorable returns in the past, will have missed an opportunity to expose its players to a burgeoning and enormous hockey market. And stars such as McDavid will miss out on playing in the Olympics during the primes of their careers. “When we signed our last CBA, the players were really pushing for a commitment from the league to allow us to go to the Olympics,” said McDavid when he accepted the Hart Trophy and the Ted Lindsay Award. “It’s my understanding that we got that commitment, and

as players we’re expecting to go. We’re expecting the league to make that happen. I’m fully planning on going if I’m lucky enough to make the team.” Good one, kid. The only way McDavid won’t be in Beijing ϐ conditions favorable. It’s interesting to note that, in the most recent incarnation of the collective bargaining agreement, it stipulates players will participate in the 2022 and 2026 Olympics “subject to negotiation of terms acceptable to each of the NHL, NHLPA, and International Ice Hockey Federation (and/or IOC).” The key words in that provision are “each of.” That basically means that it really doesn’t matter whether or not the players want to go – and they do, badly – if the league doesn’t like what it’s getting in return, it can deep-six the entire endeavor. “We have real concerns about whether or not it’s sensible to have our players participating and us shutting down for an Olympic break,” said NHL commissioner Gary Bettman in a media conference before Game ͳ ϐ Ǥ ǲ ǯ reaching the point that we’re getting concerned about the impact on next season because of the uncertainty. We were already past the time where we hoped it would be resolved.” Added deputy commissioner Bill Daly, the league’s point man in negotiations with the IOC: “We negotiated in good faith with the players’ association last summer. We agreed that if the conditions were right and

we could reach an agreement on all the material issues, that we would commit and support going to the Olympics. That remains our position.” ϐ deadline, but the league would need to know where things stand by the July 23 draft, coincidentally the same day the Summer Games will hold their opening ceremonies in Tokyo. Daly said the league and the other stakeholders have worked out a number of issues, but one of the concerns, as it has been in the past, is insurance for the players. What happens if there is an outbreak and a number of players get sick and can’t play for an extended period of time? “There are COVID-related

has been no way to allow us to monetize it.” But even in early July, there was still a sense among both the NHL and its players that a deal would get done, even if the league is ambivalent about the venture. The pressure of a deadline creates a certain amount of desperation, and there is much at stake for both sides. And there would be nothing stopping the NHL from preparing two schedules, one with Olympic participation and one without. The perception is the IOC doesn’t need the NHL, but its viewership for the hockey tournament in 2018 tells us there isn’t near as much interest when the best players in the world don’t participate.

insurance issues that are important to the players and the clubs and the league alike, and their families,” Daly said. The league would like to be able to bring over its sponsors. With the NHL moving from NBC to ESPN and Turner next season, it no longer has its U.S. rightsholder carrying the Games. Players would like to be able to take their families to Beijing, but it’s not a deal-breaker. “They haven’t made it worth our while to take a couple of weeks off at the best ticketselling point in the season,” said one NHL executive. “There

HOLDING PATTERN Sidney Crosby has played in two Olympics (2010 and 2014), but today’s young stars haven’t had that chance.

Tampa Bay Lightning coach Jon Cooper, a leading candidate to coach Team Canada if the NHL participates, said the players on his team would be disappointed if it didn’t happen. “I can only speak for the guys in the room, our team, and what gets talked about,” Cooper said. “I know they genuinely love going to the Olympics.”

C HA MP I ONS 20 21

THE H OCK E Y N E WS | 9 |

BUZZ

Behind the MASK

TRAVIS MICHAEL, ARTIST | SEATTLE KRAKEN THE CUTTING-EDGE KRAKEN, SOON to become the NHL’s 32nd franchise, submitted a “Best Mask” entry for the NHL

JACOB ROBINSON

RUSTAM KULIZADE

Jersey HOUND EL PASO RHINOS | 2021-22

HOCKEY IS PACKED WITH bears, tigers and hawks, but the animal kingdom offers so much more when it comes to ﬁerce mascots. That is why it’s satisfying to see a franchise go off the board and really nail it, like the El Paso Rhinos. The team will join the NAHL next season after playing at a lower junior level this year, and the jersey looks fantastic. El Paso’s rhino crest is top-notch, and the details surrounding it are just as impressive. The horned “EP” shoulder logo brings to mind the Anaheim Ducks, while the collar detail cribs from the Los Angeles Kings. Now they just need a rival team with a hippo mascot. – RYAN KENNEDY

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CHA M PI ON S 2021

JERSEY: EL PASO RHINOS; MASK: CHRISTOPHER MAST/MASTIMAGES

Fan Choice Awards this season…without a goalie. Michael, who paints masks for the Vancouver Canucks, was asked to design a Kraken one by WHL Everett photographer Christopher Mast, who brought it to Everett’s arena. The Kraken saw the photos on social media and fell in love. And voila, a mask entry with no one to wear it. – MATT LARKIN

BUZZ

STANLEY CUP DROUGHT-O-METER Some have waited years to recapture the Cup. Some have never sipped from it even once. Which teams have the longest active periods without a title? BY MATT LARKIN

MAPLE LAUGHS

MATTHEWS: NICK TURCHIARO-USA TODAY SPORTS; EICHEL: BRAD PENNER-USA TODAY SPORTS; HORVAT: JOHN E. SOKOLOWSKI-USA TODAY SPORTS; GIROUX: ERIC HARTLINE-USA TODAY SPORTS; EKMAN-LARSSON: STAN SZETO-USA TODAY SPORTS; BARZAL: BRAD PENNER-USA TODAY SPORTS

> TORONTO MAPLE LEAFS 53 SEASONS Not even reaching a Stanley Cup ﬁnal, let alone winning the trophy, since the Original Six era ended in 1967, the Leafs have equalled the New York Rangers’ record of 53 seasons without a championship. By the end of next season, Toronto will break the record at 54 even if it wins the Cup.

VAN

TS COUVER CANNO

> VANCOUVER CANUCKS 50 SEASONS The Canucks still haven’t hoisted the chalice in half a century, and the yearning is particularly painful because they’ve been so close, reaching the Cup ﬁnal three times and losing agonizing Game 7s in 1994 and 2011, the latter tainted by a postgame riot in Vancouver.

ZILCH IN ’ZONA

> ARIZONA COYOTES 41 SEASONS The Desert Dogs dragged the Winnipeg Jets’ Cupless history to Arizona in 1996 and have delivered but a single Western Conference ﬁnal appearance (in 2012) since then. Few franchises as old have accomplished less.

SWORD THROUG H THE

HEART

> BUFFALO SABRES 50 SEASONS The Sabres are inching toward the Cup drought record and have never won it and just equalled the NHL record for consecutive playoff misses at 10. Given the current sorry state of the franchise, the Sabres are a good bet to break the playoff drought record at 11 next season.

BROAD STREET

BLUES

> PHILADELPHIA FLYERS 45 SEASONS The 1970s Flyers have such an enduring legacy that Philly’s drought gets overlooked compared to those of the teams ahead of them. Since Bobby Clarke & Co. went back-to-back in 1974 and ’75, the Flyers have returned to the ﬁnal six times and come up empty.

In the CARDS

DURING THE 1990s, CARD companies included practically any prospect they could, from recent draft picks to undrafted junior players, to beef up the number of “rookie cards” in their sets. By the early 2000s, though, the NHL Players’ Association had had enough with nonNHL players appearing in the card sets it licensed and put rules in place on who could be included. Only skaters who played – or goalies who played or backed up – in at least one NHL game were eligible to get a card. Under the new rules, Upper Deck mistakenly issued a Young Guns rookie card of Kings prospect Jared Aulin in its 2001-02 Upper Deck Series One set. But Aulin, a Colorado second-rounder in 2000 traded to Los Angeles, did not crack the Kings lineup that fall and was ineligible for a card. Upper Deck pulled Aulin’s card from production, though a few copies did ﬁnd their way into packs and the secondary market. – SAL BARRY

MAROONED

> NEW YORK ISLANDERS 37 SEASONS The dynastic Islanders captured four straight Cups from 1980 to 1983 and, reaching the ﬁnal in 1984, set one of sports’ most unbreakable records with 19 consecutive series wins. Since? Just three tickets to the ﬁnal four, though two have come in the past two seasons, so the Isles are knocking on the door under coach Barry Trotz.

C HA MP I O NS 20 21

THE HOCK E Y N EWS | 11 |

BUZZ

COUNTDOWN THE

FRONT-OFFICE STABILITY

Which duo of GM and coach have been with their organization the longest? In a vocation that lacks security, it’s Winnipeg BY BRIAN COSTELLO has Latin roots that long predate the glorious history of hockey. But it’s delicious irony that when you break it into two words you get “off ice.” So we’re at liberty to take that literally in this rank Ǧ ϐ Ǥ The category for this Count Ǧ ϐ – but we use that term loosely. Stability is a precarious notion when you’re an NHL GM or coach. One good season and you’re a savior. Follow that up with a not-so-good season and they’re asking what you’ve done for them lately. Being an NHL coach is a fulltime job, of course. But it’s not a permanent position. At least in that city. In fact, we have to chuckle a little bit when we point out Montreal bench boss Dominique Ducharme is still an “interim” coach as of this writing. Aren’t all NHL coaches interim when you think of it? Florida’s Joel Quenneville will crest 1,000 regular-season wins next season. He’s No. 2 all-time behind Scotty Bowman, yet St. Louis, Colorado and ϐ over the years. The NHL’s 32nd team, the Seattle Kraken, aren’t on this list, but they’ve had GM Ron Francis in place since July 18, 2019, two full years ago. He’s been active scouting and preparing for the team’s inaugural season. And they named Dave Hakstol coach in June.

| 12 | T HE H OCK E Y NE WS

WINNIPEG JETS

KEVIN CHEVELDAYOFF, PAUL MAURICE Only Jon Cooper is ahead of Maurice in terms of tenured coaches. Ten-year man ‘Chevy’ stands sixth among GMs.

CHICAGO BLACKHAWKS

STAN BOWMAN, JEREMY COLLITON Colliton looks like a player but he ranks 10th among active coaches. Bowman is fourth among GMs at 12 seasons.

VANCOUVER CANUCKS

JIM BENNING, TRAVIS GREEN Uncertainty for both peaked this spring, but they survived. Both rank top third in service – Green seventh, Benning 11th.

ST. LOUIS BLUES

DOUG ARMSTRONG, CRAIG BERUBE Not long ago, Armstrong looked on his way out and Berube was ‘interim.’ Now they’re ﬁfth and 11th in pecking order.

NASHVILLE PREDATORS

DAVID POILE, JOHN HYNES More than 200 NHLers weren’t yet born when Poile was named GM in ’97. Hynes was hired 35 days after being ﬁred in N.J.

SAN JOSE SHARKS

DOUG WILSON, BOB BOUGHNER Wilson is the only other GM whose job pre-dates the 2005 salary cap. Boughner has yet to make playoffs.

CH AM PION S 2 02 1

ANAHEIM DUCKS

BOB MURRAY, DALLAS EAKINS Murray has topped 1,000 games as both a player and GM. Eakins mid-pack in tenure despite just two-year anniversary.

TAMPA BAY LIGHTNING

JULIEN BRISEBOIS, JON COOPER Coach Cooper has outlasted all but eight NHL GMs. BriseBois one of just four GMs hired after the team’s current coach.

COLORADO AVALANCHE

JOE SAKIC, JARED BEDNAR Sakic and Bednar were beleaguered early in their tenures before patience won out. Bednar now stands ﬁfth.

BOSTON BRUINS

DON SWEENEY, BRUCE CASSIDY Cassidy already sixth among active coaches after his fourth year. Sweeney sits in upper half of tenured GMs.

DETROIT RED WINGS

STEVE YZERMAN, JEFF BLASHILL Blashill showing good staying power entering seventh season as rebuild bench boss. Stevie ‘Y’ enters third year.

DALLAS STARS

JIM NILL, RICK BOWNESS Both Nill and Bowness were career assistants at their trade before moving into head-man positions.

JAMES CAREY LAUDER-USA TODAY SPORTS

HE ENGLISH WORD “OFFICE”

PAUL MAURICE

BUZZ MARC BERGEVIN

PETER DEBOER

WASHINGTON CAPITALS

BRIAN MACLELLAN, PETER LAVIOLETTE MacLellan won a Cup in Year 4 on the job. Laviolette moves into top 10 in alltime coaching wins early next season.

BERGEVIN: JEROME MIRON-USA TODAY SPORTS; DEBOER: JOHN LOCHER/POOL PHOTO-USA TODAY SPORTS; ADAMS: BUFFALO SABRES

CAROLINA HURRICANES

DON WADDELL, ROD BRIND’AMOUR Both started May 8, 2018. While Waddell ranks just 17th among GMs in tenure, Brind’Amour is eighth among coaches.

NEW YORK ISLANDERS

LOU LAMORIELLO, BARRY TROTZ Their middling placement belies their experience. Thousands of combined wins but just a small portion on Island.

PITTSBURGH PENGUINS

RON HEXTALL, MIKE SULLIVAN Just a half year on the Penguins job for Hextall, but Sullivan an impressive fourth among on-the-job coaches.

OTTAWA SENATORS

PIERRE DORION, D.J. SMITH Dorion’s scouting acumen showing teeth in impressive rebuild. Two encouraging growth years under Smith.

LOS ANGELES KINGS

ROB BLAKE, TODD MCLELLAN Four seasons already for Blake as GM. Half a league of coaches have been let go since McLellan was hired in 2019.

MONTREAL CANADIENS

MARC BERGEVIN, DOM DUCHARME Bergevin moving into his 10th season and ranks seventh among tenured GMs. Ducharme looks like a keeper early.

PHILADELPHIA FLYERS

CHUCK FLETCHER, ALAIN VIGNEAULT After a boffo 2019-20, Flyers took a step back this season under these seasoned stewards. Both mid-pack in tenure.

TORONTO MAPLE LEAFS

KYLE DUBAS, SHELDON KEEFE Is Dubas getting restless as he enters fourth season? Keefe’s third year is his ﬁrst true 82-game season, we assume.

CALGARY FLAMES

BRAD TRELIVING, DARRYL SUTTER Is Treliving ready to reshape his core as he enters eighth season on the job? Sutter in second stint with Flames.

COLUMBUS BLUE JACKETS

JARMO KEKALAINEN, BRAD LARSEN Now eighth among tenured GMs, Kekalainen hires new coach from within to replace John Tortorella.

BUFFALO SABRES

KEVYN ADAMS, DON GRANATO Big challenge for inexperienced men. Adams is starting his second season while Granato took over earlier this year.

EDMONTON OILERS

KEVYN ADAMS

KEN HOLLAND, DAVE TIPPETT Both men recently passed second-year anniversary with the Oilers. They each classiﬁed as NHL rookies in 1983-84.

FLORIDA PANTHERS

BILL ZITO, JOEL QUENNEVILLE Zito’s ﬁrst job as NHL GM came with a perk – Quenneville, who will reach 1,000 career wins behind bench next season.

MINNESOTA WILD

BILL GUERIN, DEAN EVASON A terriﬁc second season at helm for both men. They each had 44 points in 199394, one of four overlapping seasons.

VEGAS

GOLDEN KNIGHTS

KELLY MCCRIMMON, PETER DEBOER McCrimmon approaching his second anniversary as GM. He hired DeBoer ﬁve weeks after his ﬁring in San Jose.

NEW JERSEY DEVILS

TOM FITZGERALD, LINDY RUFF Rookie Fitzgerald turned to an old hand behind bench. Ruff will soon pass Al Arbour for sixth in career coaching wins.

ARIZONA COYOTES

BILL ARMSTRONG, ANDRE TOURIGNY Armstrong is ﬁnishing his ﬁrst year at the helm. He hand-picked Tourigny after parting ways with Rick Tocchet.

NEW YORK RANGERS

CHRIS DRURY, GERARD GALLANT Drury was a 30-goal scorer for Buffalo when Gallant was a ﬁrst-time head coach. This is Gallant’s fourth gig.

C HAM P IO NS 2 0 21

THE HO CK E Y N EW S | 13 |

BUZZ

Puck CULTURE

FIVE HOCKEY COLLECTIBLES THAT DIDN’T CATCH ON

HOCKEY TRADING CARDS BECAME a lucrative business during the 1980s and 1990s, and as a result, several companies tried to cash in with other hockey-related collectibles. Here are ﬁve that didn’t gain traction BY SAL BARRY

Trading card company Action Packed made popular football card sets in the early 1990s but couldn’t get a license to do the same for hockey. So, Action Packed attempted to release several other hockey collectibles for the 1994-95 season, including a series of coasters picturing NHL stars appropriately called “CoaStars.” The front of each CoaStar pictured a player in his home uniform and listed his home stats; the ﬂip side pictured the same player in his road uniform and listed his away stats. Unfortunately, the 1994 NHL lockout quashed CoaStars before they could see the light of day, though six promotional samples were given to retailers.

> KEY TAGS

During the 1983-84 season, Quebecbased company Souhaits Renaissance released a colorful set of 140 plastic “key tags.” Measuring just 1-1/4” wide by 2-1/8” tall, these card-like collectibles pictured players from 20 of the 21 NHL teams. The Blues were omitted because the ownership group had ﬁred most of its staff and boycotted the 1983 draft, so the team’s demise appeared imminent. New owners stepped in to save the Blues that July, but Souhaits Renaissance wasn’t so lucky. The key tags were not strong sellers, and the company eventually folded.

> PRO PADS

Chris Martin Enterprises, which specialized in sports and superhero ephemera such as magnets and stickers, attempted to release collectible mouse pads depicting NHL players and team logos called “Pro Pads” for the 1995-96 season. Samples were sent to retailers to create buzz for the product, but the company couldn’t secure the necessary licensing and went out of business soon after.

> ACTION PLAYER PATCHES

By 1992, the market was so saturated with hockey cards that Chicagobased company Seasons tried something a little different to stand apart, releasing a set of 70 collectible “Action Player Patches” in 1992-93. The patches were a bit larger than cards and featured embroidered borders and screenprinted player photos. Seasons downsized its offering to just 20 in 1993-94 before leaving the collectibles industry entirely.

| 14 | TH E HO CK EY N E WS

> COASTARS

> GRANDEUR COINS

When trading card giant Upper Deck tried its hand at making a set of collectible hockey coins called “Grandeur” in 2017, the response was anything but grand. Coins picturing 20 different current and former NHL stars were minted and sold blind-boxed for $100 per coin. Grandeur coins were legal tender in the Cook Islands, an associated state of New Zealand, and were made of silver, though gold coins could be found once in about every 66 boxes. Grandeur was a ﬂop with card collectors and coin collectors alike and only lasted a season.

CH AM PI ON S 2 02 1

*FROM

$99 USD

%DVHG RQ D SDFN RI VL[

WAYNE GRETZKY AWARD

SAKU KOIVU AWARD

(Most valuable player)

(Comeback player)

WITH MCDAVID ON THE ice at

WHEN PAVELSKI TUMBLED

5-on-5, the Oilers outscored opponents 64-48 and outchanced opponents 524-418. With him off the ice, the Oilers were outscored 68-51 and outchanced 711-602. It doesn’t do him justice to merely say he was the MVP to his team. McDavid was the team in 2020-21.

from 38 goals in 2018-19 to 14 in 2019-20, it looked like natural aging for a guy wrapping up his age-35 season. But he found a spark for a great 2020 playoffs and carried the momentum into a tremendous 2020-21 in which he buried 25 goals in 56 games at 36. Amazing.

RUNNERS-UP 2. A. Matthews, Tor 3. S. Crosby, Pit 4. N. MacKinnon, Col 5. P. Kane, Chi

RUNNERS-UP 2. T. Barrie, Edm 3. O. Lindblom, Phi 4. M-A Fleury, Veg 5. M. Smith, Edm

CONNOR JOE MCDAVID EDM PAVELSKI DAL

MARIO LEMIEUX AWARD

(Best player)

CONNOR MCDAVID EDM

IT’S CUTE IN RETROSPECT that “100 points in 56 games” was tabled by pundits only half-seriously as a dream target for McDavid. He hit 100 in Game 53, making him the fastest to 100 points in 25 years. His 105 points in 56 games translated to 1.88 points per game, the most since Mario Lemieux’s 2.30 in 1995-96. RUNNERS-UP 2. A. Matthews, Tor 3. N. MacKinnon, Col 4. B. Marchand, Bos 5. S. Crosby, Pit

BOBBY ORR AWARD

(Best defenseman)

CALE MAKAR COL

| 16 | TH E HOC KEY NE W S

PATRICK ROY AWARD

(Best goalie)

ANDREI VASILEVSKIY TB

LOGGING JUST 44 OF 56 GAMES, Makar missed 21 percent of the

WHAT VASILEVSKIY HAS DONE by 26 puts his career trajectory in the

season but it didn’t stop him from edging Adam Fox for the award. When in the Avs’ lineup, Makar was the most dominant player in the league at his position. He’s one of six D-men this millennium to record a point-per-game season. And he’s only 22.

“legend” tier alongside goaltenders such as Terry Sawchuk, Patrick Roy and Grant Fuhr. Even if wins are overrated as a stat, it’s notable that Vasilevskiy has led the NHL for four straight years. He’s the ﬁfth goalie to accomplish that feat. The other four are Hall of Famers.

RUNNERS-UP 2. A. Fox, NYR 3. V. Hedman, TB 4. D. Hamilton, Car 5. C. McAvoy, Bos

RUNNERS-UP 2. M-A Fleury, Veg 3. P. Grubauer, Col 4. C. Hellebuyck, Wpg 5. J. Saros, Nsh

CH AMPI ON S 20 21

MCDAVID 1: PERRY NELSON-USA TODAY SPORTS; MCDAVID 2: ERIC BOLTE-USA TODAY SPORTS; PAVELSKI: JEROME MIRON-USA TODAY SPORTS; MAKAR: ISAIAH J. DOWNING-USA TODAY SPORTS; VASILEVSKIY: KIM KLEMENT-USA TODAY SPORTS

BUZZ

BUZZ CAM NEELY AWARD

(Breakout player)

CARTER VERHAEGHE FLA

A GREAT AHL PLAYER with no room to climb Tampa Bay’s loaded depth chart ends up with Florida and busts out. First it was Jonathan Marchessault. Now Verhaeghe is following a seemingly identical path. The Panthers almost doubled his average ice time – from 9:22 to 17:44. He rewarded their faith with a 34-goal, 69-point pace. RUNNERS-UP 2. J. Campbell, Tor 3. M. Weegar, Fla 4. J. Chychrun, Ari 5. R. Hintz, Dal

KAPRIZOV: NICK WOSIKA-USA TODAY SPORTS; VERHAEGHE: JASEN VINLOVE-USA TODAY SPORTS; REAVES: DAVID BERDING-USA TODAY SPORTS; MARCHAND: BOB DECHIARA-USA TODAY SPORTS; WEEGAR: KIM KLEMENT-USA TODAY SPORTS; TROTZ: JOHN E. SOKOLOWSKI-USA TODAY SPORTS; SAKIC: RON CHENOY-USA TODAY SPORTS

BOB PROBERT AWARD

(Toughest player)

RYAN REAVES VEG

REAVES IS PAINFUL TO play against, whether he’s throwing heavy hits or dropping his mitts, and he backs up his belligerence with trash talk. Among 599 skaters who played 300-plus minutes at 5-on-5, nobody threw more hits per 60 minutes than Reaves. He only fought three times. Few are willing to challenge him anymore. RUNNERS-UP 2. T. Wilson, Wsh 3. B. Tkachuk, Ott 4. R. Gudas, Fla 5. A. Martinez, Veg

TEEMU SELANNE AWARD

(Best rookie)

KIRILL KAPRIZOV MIN

KAPRIZOV WAS HYPED AS a ﬁnished product, a 23-year-old super rookie who had set KHL records and would transition seamlessly to the NHL – and the prognostications were spot-on. He didn’t have top-tier linemates in Victor Rask and Mats Zuccarello, but Kaprizov still led freshmen in goals (27) and points (51). RUNNERS-UP 2. J. Robertson, Dal 3. A. Nedeljkovic, Car 4. J. Norris, Ott 5. V. Vanecek, Wsh

GUY CARBONNEAU AWARD (Top penalty-killer)

ROD LANGWAY AWARD (Best defensive defenseman)

BRAD MACKENZIE MARCHAND BOS WEEGAR YOU HAVE TO PAY attention

THE PANTHERS SURVIVED

when the ‘Nose Face Killah’ is on the PK. The disruptive Marchand managed four shorthanded goals. With him on the ice during penalty kills, Boston’s goal differential was even at 7-7. So, essentially, opposing power plays amounted to net zero when Marchand was defending.

Aaron Ekblad’s injury because Weegar emerged as a shutdown virtuoso. He ranked among the league leaders in every chance-thwarting metric and led D-men in takeaways per 60 at 5-on-5 despite facing elite competition – most commonly the Patrick Kane line and the Brayden Point line.

RUNNERS-UP 2. C. McAvoy, Bos 3. B. Pesce, Car 4. C. Brown, Ott 5. P. Bergeron, Bos

RUNNERS-UP 2. J. Slavin, Car 3. C. McAvoy, Bos 4. B. Pesce, Car 5. R. Pulock, NYI

SCOTTY BOWMAN AWARD

SAM POLLOCK AWARD

(Best coach)

(Best GM)

BARRY TROTZ NYI

JOE SAKIC COL

MORE THAN ANY OTHER

SAKIC STOLE DEVON TOEWS

team, the Isles’ identity is built around their coach. Under Trotz, they play consistently smothering hockey. They ranked among the elite teams at suppressing high-danger chances and blocking shots while also averaging more hits than all but two clubs. It’s just a chore to play against them.

from the cap-crunched Islanders for two secondrounders before the season. Toews became a Norris Trophy candidate, playing almost 25 minutes a night on an Avs team that won the Presidents’ Trophy. Sakic’s painstakingly patient approach since taking over as GM in 2014 has paid off.

RUNNERS-UP 2. R. Brind’Amour, Car 3. J. Quenneville, Fla 4. D. Evason, Min 5. J. Bednar, Col

RUNNERS-UP 2. B. Zito, Fla 3. J. BriseBois, TB 4. K. McCrimmon, Veg 5. K. Dubas, Tor

C HAMP IO NS 2 02 1

T HE HO CK EY NE WS | 17 |

MALARKEY

@THNMATTLARKIN

ALEX OVECHKIN

STANLEY CUP STEW: THE SECRET RECIPE S A seasoning of proven veterans is often the special ingredient. But recent champs have shown you just have to let it marinate

OME TEAMS THRIVE UNDER the crush-

ing pressure of playoff hockey. Others, no matter how dominant they look in the regular season, don’t. We ϐ ing, which changes to, ahem, non-existent in the post-season and alters the game so that it favors grittier teams. But the “killer instinct” conundrum goes deeper than that. There are two schools of thought on what synthesizes a clutch NHL team that perseveres when the stakes are highest. One suggests every team needs veterans, the guys “who’ve done it before” and can show the younger players how to win. The other suggests no one is a winner until he… wins. Every big-game player in hockey history was once a player who hadn’t yet won a big game, so the path to glory consists of putting in your time and transitioning from inexperienced to experienced. How strong is the correlation between championships and those teams having players who’d won before? Let’s look at the ǲϐ Ǧ ǳ Ǧ ǡ a list that excludes second- and third-time

| 18 | T HE HO CKE Y NE W S

CHAM PIO NS 2 021

champs over the past 15 years from Pittsburgh, Chicago and Los Angeles. That gives us 10 teams. All 10 had at least one player who owned a Stanley Cup ring from earlier in his career. The average for the 10 championship teams at the start of their post ʹǤͻ Ǥ ϐ en teams in the sample, each had at least two players with previous championships.

or without 37-year-old Brooks Orpik on the third defense pairing and that the loaded 2020 Lightning could’ve managed with or without the checking efforts of left winger Patrick Maroon, who scored one goal in 25 playoff games. The past three champs have essentially done it with blank slates and cores of players who hadn’t won it before. So is experience overrated or not? It’s a question the teams that can’t get over the hump struggle to answer. A prime example ǡ ϐ ϐ Ǥ had two players with rings on the 2020-21 roster in Jake Muzzin and Zach Bogosian, but the team’s result was the same. So what ǫ ǫ ǲ you go back to the previous couple of winners, they didn’t really have players that had ǡǳ Ǥ ǲ ǡ they had groups of guys who had major disappointment. So I bounce back and forth in ǡ Ǯ ǡ ϐ ǫǯ ǡ Ǯ are desperate to win that can instill that extra bit of push in bigger games?’ ” ǡ dent Brendan Shanahan, understands the other side of the debate, the notion that underachievers can grow into winners over time. He lived that as a Hall of Fame player. ǲ ǯ ϐ ͳͲ in the NHL,” he said. “It’s something that can develop. There are players throughout the history of our game that are elite, elite players that took years and years and years to get that closing ability. The one good thing I ǡ ϐ ǡ it’s something you don’t forget how to do.” It’s sage advice for a team on the cusp like ǡ innon lamented after this season that he “hasn’t won s---” through his eight years. Sometimes icons of the game break through with the help of seasoned vets, like the 2007 or the 2011 Boston Bruins did with Mark Recchi, but other times winning grows from

THERE ARE PLAYERS THROUGHOUT THE HISTORY OF OUR GAME THAT TOOK YEARS AND YEARS TO GET THAT CLOSING ABILITY – Maple Leafs president Brendan Shanahan In 2018, 2019 and 2020, however? Just one player apiece on Washington, St. Louis and Tampa Bay who’d already won a Cup, and even those numbers are generous given St. Louis’ Oskar Sundqvist had a ring from playing two games for the Pens in the 2016 playoffs. There’s at least a decent chance the 2018 Capitals would’ve won the Cup with

within. The quintessential example is living legend Alex Ovechkin, who hoisted the Cup in Season 13 of his career after never escap ʹ ϐ Ǥ So while a pinch of Cup rings can season ǡ might be just as wise to let the pot simmer as is. Time teaches players how to win.

STEPHEN R. SYLVANIE-USA TODAY SPORTS

WITH MATT LARKIN |

FOR ALL THE LATEST NEWS

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NEWS | PODCASTS | ANALYSIS | PROSPECT REPORTS | AND MUCH MORE!

MATISS KIVLENIEKS: 1996-2021

‘GREETED EVERYONE WITH A SMILE’ The Blue Jackets goalie lost his life in a tragic accident. He’s remembered as a gutsy underdog in the crease – and an affable young man away from the ice BY RYAN KENNEDY

ATISS KIVLENIEKS WAS

the ultimate underdog, a goaltender who took one of the hardest roads possible just to get a shot at the pros and, amazingly, saw his NHL dream come true as a member of the Blue Jackets. That dream ended tragically on the July 4th weekend in Michigan when Kivlenieks was fatally struck in ϐ Ǥ “We are shocked and saddened by the loss of Matiss Kivlenieks, and we extend our deepest sympathies to his mother, Astrida, his family and friends during this devastating time,” said John Davidson, Columbus’ president of hockey operations. “Kivi was an outstanding young man who greeted every day and

| 20 | TH E HO CKE Y N EW S

everyone with a smile, and the impact he had during his four years with our organization will not be forgotten.” Born and raised in Latvia, Kivlenieks came to North America as a teenager with a passion for the game and a lot to prove. ϐ Lakers, a Tier III team in the Minnesota Jr. League. He spent two years in the MNJHL before catching on with the Coulee Region Chill of Wisconsin in the NAHL. In 2016, he was drafted into the USHL by the Sioux City Musketeers, and that’s when things really took hold. Jamie Huffman was the assistant GM of the Musketeers at the time and had previously seen Kivlenieks in the MNJHL when Huffman was coaching in the NAHL, but he couldn’t get over the kid’s wide stance

CHA MPION S 2 02 1

in net. But Sioux City really needed a netminder, and Kivlenieks had believers that Huffman trusted, like Erik Largen (now coach at the University of Alaska-Fairbanks). Huffman watched Kivlenieks live again, while the rest of Sioux City’s staff, including coach and director of hockey operations Jay Varady, watched on video. “As we were cutting it up, we just kept coming back to Matiss,” Huffman said. “I give Jay Varady all the credit, he made a trade Ǧϐ made the agreement we were going for it.” Kivlenieks was a smash hit in Sioux City, thanks to his play on the ice and his sunny personality. “He was always smiling and alarmingly skinny,” Huffman said. “He would drink Coca-Cola and eat candy like it was his job. The guys loved him, he was always part of things, willing to make fun of himself to have fun. He could give and take, he was a good kid.” Kivlenieks was instrumental in getting the Musketeers to ϐ

Ǥ ǲ ϐ in Game 5 in overtime,” said Huffman, now a scout with the Pittsburgh Penguins. “No one player makes the hockey team, obviously, but we don’t get there without Matiss.” Undrafted, Kivlenieks signed with Columbus and got a crash course in pro hockey when an injury to starter Brad Thiessen forced him into a heavy workload as a rookie with AHL Cleveland. But the youngster learned a lot that year, and after one more season in the minors, he made his NHL debut, playing six games in 2019-20. He played two more NHL contests this season and was slated to have even more of an impact next year. In the interim, Kivlenieks made a remarkable impact on the international stage. A consistent member of Latvia’s national teams since he was a teenager, Kivlenieks put his stamp on the 2021 World Championship when he made 38 saves to shut out Canada 2-0 in Riga. Years prior, he told The Hockey News about his mindset as an underdog in such situations. “It’s really nice to play against the best in the world, but you can’t get onto the ice and admire them,” Kivlenieks said. “You try to beat them.” The future was bright for Kivlenieks, and in the ensuing days of the terrible accident that took his life, all those who knew him were still trying to make sense of what happened. But he made a lasting impression on the hockey world. “It’s a remarkable story,” Huffman said. “Where he was, in Tier III, (NHL) players just don’t come out of that league. It’s unheard of. What he did, coming over here and willing to go to that level for two years, then the NAHL and USHL, it’s impressive and takes a lot of guts.” Matiss Kivlenieks was 24.

AARON DOSTER-USA TODAY SPORTS

IN MEMORIAM

IN MEMORIAM TOM KURVERS: 1962-2021

A HOCKEY MAN TO THE END T Kurvers started out as a student of the game, but he was also a student of life BY ERIK ERLENDSSON

OM KURVERS WAS A hock-

ey lifer whose life was taken too soon. Lung cancer claimed Kurvers on June 21 following a two-year battle with the disease. He was 58. “ ‘TK’ was the same guy to me as a player as he was when he was an executive, and that doesn’t happen,” said hockey analyst and former NHLer Eddie Olczyk. “A lot of guys go from player to executive, and they don’t want to have the same re-

A dynamic defenseman, Kurvers was a seventh-round draft pick by Montreal in 1981 and won the Hobey Baker Award as the NCAA’s top player ϐ scoring 18 goals and 76 points in 43 games. The journey continued in the NHL straight out of college when he joined the Canadiens to start the 1984-85 season. ǲ ϐ ǡǳ Jacques Lemaire, who coached

RIGHT: CLUB DE HOCKEY CANADIEN INC; LEFT: THE KURVERS FAMILY

Kurvers jumped right from college to the NHL thanks in large part to his “great knowledge of the game.”

lationship with guys they played with or somebody like myself in the media. ‘TK’ was the same guy, same love for hockey, same passion for his family.’’ A three-sport star at Bloomington Jefferson High School in Minnesota, Kurvers led the ϐ tournament appearance in 1980 before going on to a fouryear NCAA career at MinnesotaDuluth. In his senior year of college, Kurvers captained the Bulldogs to the NCAA title game, where UMD lost in quadruple overtime to Bowling Green.

Montreal when Kurvers broke into the league. “What I was impressed with was the way he approached the game. He had a great knowledge of the game. I remember playing him on the power play because of that. He knew where to send the puck to and what to do with it. He was not the type that got nervous or shaken in the game. He was the type of guy that played the game no matter what the score, no matter how they played against him. He was always a steady player.” Kurvers won a Stanley Cup

with the Canadiens in 1986 during an NHL career that spanned 11 years and 659 games with Montreal, Buffalo, New Jersey, Toronto, Vancouver and the Is ϐ heim in 1994-95. After playing a year professionally in Japan, he returned to the NHL with the Phoenix Coyotes organization, starting out in the broadcast booth as a radio analyst and a year later as a pro scout. In 2005, the Coyotes named Kurvers director of player personnel, where he served until 2008 when he moved to the Tampa Bay Lightning as assistant GM. He spent 10 years with the Lightning, serving as interim GM following 2009-10, before Steve Yzerman was hired. He moved into a senior advisor role from 2011 to 2018 before he was named assistant GM of the Minnesota Wild. The fervor Kurvers showed for hockey was only surpassed by his passion for life. “He was passionate for the game, but he

was also passionate for other sports, especially baseball,” said Lightning GM Julien BriseBois. “He would send me stories about the Montreal Expos ϐ ries about the Canadiens…and he lived in Montreal for those two years (1985 to ’87) and had stories about Montreal. “He also read a lot, so we would exchange ideas on books. So yes, he was a hockey lifer but he also had a bunch of other interests. We had a lot to talk about and exchange texts. Sometimes we would exchange thoughts on workouts, especially as we got older. He would talk to me about the importance of stretching, so every time I stretch now, I think of Tom. He was just so smart and thoughtful and kind. Just a pleasant, pleasant guy to be around.’’ Kurvers is survived by his wife, Heather, as well as four children, daughters Madison and Rose and sons Weston and Roman.

C HA MP ION S 2 0 21

THE HO CK EY NE W S | 21 |

BY RYAN KENNEDY

XXXXX

Tampa Bay’s two-peat takes the top spot in an NHL season like no other. But there were plenty more compelling storylines in 2020-21, like Marleau vs. Mr. Hockey, McDavid’s point parade and Montreal’s playoff magic. Playing through the COVID-19 pandemic, here are 10 hockey happenings to remember

| 22 | TH E HO C KE Y N EW S

CH AM PI ONS 2 02 1

Top 10

MOMENTS of 2020-21

HERE WAS SO MUCH to be thankful for this season,

XXXXX

ϐ Ǥ ǡ Ǧ ϐ Ǥ ǡ Ǧͳͻ ǡ ȋ ǡ ȌǤ ǡ ǣ ǡ Ǥ ̵ ʹͲʹͲǦʹͳǤ

Top 10

MOMENTS of 2020-21

| 24 | TH E H OC K E Y N E WS

CH AM PIO NS 2 02 1

XXXXX

PATRIK LAINE

PIERRE-LUC DUBOIS

CHA M P ION S 2 0 21

THE HO CKE Y NE W S | 2 5 |

FAN: BRAD PENNER-USA TODAY SPORTS; LAINE: AARON DOSTER-USA TODAY SPORTS; DUBOIS: SERGEI BELSKI-USA TODAY SPORTS

DANIEL WALCOTT

GEMEL SMITH

| 26 | TH E HO CKE Y NE WS

CH AM PION S 202 1

FLEURY: BRAD REMPEL-USA TODAY SPORTS; SUZUKI: DAN HAMILTON-USA TODAY SPORTS; KRUEGER: TIMOTHY T. LUDWIG-USA TODAY SPORTS

NO. 8 MARC-ANDRE FLEURY THIRD IN GOALIE WINS BEHIND ROY AND BRODEUR

RALPH KRUEGER

WAY BACK WHEN IT was still OK to draft a goalie first overall, Marc-Andre Fleury was taken with the No. 1 selection in 2003 by Pittsburgh. The very next season, he recorded his first four NHL wins. Since then, Fleury has been on a rollercoaster with more highs than lows, and as the first face of the Golden Knights, he has continued to rack up victories. On May 5, the Vegas star hit a milestone when he passed Roberto Luongo for third all-time in wins, beating Minnesota for his 490th career victory. Fleury stands at 492 wins and second place is within sight, that being Patrick Roy’s mark of 551. The Golden Knights star has one more year on his contract, but at 36 he still seems to have a lot of hockey left in him. Martin Brodeur’s NHL record of 691 wins is safe, but look out, St. Patrick.

NO. 9 MONTREAL PLAYOFF COMEBACK ON TORONTO THE FIRST PLAYOFF MEETING since 1979 between the two

iconic franchises did not go the way many anticipated. After Toronto finished 18 points ahead of the Habs in the regular season, the Leafs were dealt a horrifying setback in Game 1 when captain John Tavares was felled by an accidental knee to the head by Montreal’s Corey Perry. But Toronto still built up a 3-1 series lead. Game 5 went to overtime, and an Alex Galchenyuk turnover led to a 2-on-0 for Nick Suzuki and Cole Caufield. Suzuki completed the nifty give-and-go for the winner, and Montreal never looked back, stunning Toronto in seven games. From there, the Habs swept the Jets and beat the Golden Knights in six to become the first Canadian team to reach the final since 2011.

NICK SUZUKI & COLE CAUFIELD

NO. 10 BUFFALO SABRES GO WINLESS IN 18 STRAIGHT IT’S BEEN A ROUGH ride for the Sabres and their fans for quite

some time and this year was more of the same. Heck, it might have been worse than usual. The nadir came with an 18-game winless streak that began with an overtime loss to New Jersey Feb. 25 and stretched until March 31 with a victory over Philadelphia (because of overtime and shootouts, the NHL did not call it a “losing streak,” though it very much was in reality). During the stretch, the Sabres ﬁred coach Ralph Krueger and lost captain Jack Eichel to a season-ending neck injury. A campaign that started out with hope thanks to the additions of Taylor Hall and Eric Staal quickly went into the dustbin, and Buffalo heads into the off-season with Hall in Boston, Staal in Montreal and Eichel on the trading block.

CH AMP IO NS 2 021

T HE HOC K EY NEW S | 27 |

BRAYDEN

POINT

XXXXX

No one critiques Point’s skating stride anymore. Not when he’s lugging around a 35-pound trophy.

| 28 | T HE HO CK EY NEW S

CH AMP ION S 2021

GAME 1

TAMPA BAY LIG HT NI NG

FROM

POINT A TO POINT B THERE WAS A TIME WHEN A KID NAMED BRAYDEN POINT WASN’T QUITE GOOD ENOUGH AND NOT QUITE FAST ENOUGH TO BE CONSIDERED A TOP PROSPECT. THE FACT THAT RUBBED HIM THE WRONG WAY TELLS YOU EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THE ROAD IN BETWEEN BY MATT LARKIN

XXXXX

DOUGLAS DEFELICE-USA TODAY SPORTS

HE KID WASN’T EVEN supposed to be there. He’d missed the cut when the 2014 CHL/NHL Top Prospects Game unveiled its initial rosters. An injury to a promising young man named Sam Bennett unexpectedly opened up a spot, however, and Brayden Point wasn’t going to waste his opportunity. Former NHL enforcer and assistant coach Tim Hunter was tasked with coaching Team Orr for the game. He was going over his squad with NHL Central Scouting director Dan Marr, who explained the late addition of Point, an undersized 17-year-old center in the midst of breaking out in his second full season with the WHL’s Moose Jaw Warriors. Marr dropped a warning: Point had a bit of a chip on his shoulder because he felt he should’ve made the original roster. “Oh,” Hunter said. “That’s good.” ϐ than anyone else that night. It was a good hunch. Point beat the other top prospects to pucks, played with a notable urgency and won faceoff after faceoff. He was treating the showcase like a playoff game. Point won Hunter over so quickly that, with Team Orr leading late in the third period, Hunter trusted his last-minute replacement prospect to take the key defensive-zone draws. Assistant coach Doug MacLean second-guessed the idea, but Hunter put his foot down. Point was his guy. Team Orr won the game by a goal. CHA MP IO N S 2 0 21

AMALIE ARENA JUNE 28, 2021

1V5 THE PLUCKY CANADIENS UPSET teams favored to beat them in three straight rounds to reach the final. But sometimes, the team with the 18th-best record visits the defending champion… and things play out how they’re supposed to on paper. The 5-1 score actually didn’t do justice to Tampa Bay’s dominance in Game 1. Montreal’s lone goal came on a seeing-eye point shot from stay-at-home blueliner Ben Chiarot that pinballed off two Lightning players. Given superstar Habs netminder Carey Price also denied a Steven Stamkos wrister at point-blank range and extended a pad to rob Tyler Johnson in the second, the score easily could’ve finished 7-0. The Lightning even halted Montreal’s record-breaking playoff penaltykilling streak at 13 games and 32 kills when Stamkos buried a one-timer late in the third. Coach Jon Cooper masterminded his line matching, keeping Ondrej Palat, Brayden Point and Nikita Kucherov away from the Phillip Danault shutdown unit all game, velcroing Tampa’s top trio to Montreal’s dynamic but green second line of Tyler Toffoli, sophomore Nick Suzuki and rookie Cole Caufield. The Point line beat the Suzuki line for three 5-on-5 goals. The resilient Habs didn’t panic. They dropped three of their first four to Toronto and lost Game 1 of the semis to Vegas. But would an opponent as battletested as Tampa Bay let Montreal off the mat? The Bolts knew how to close games and had the maturity to understand it wouldn’t always be as easy as Game 1. “You have your plan, you stick with it, and you consistently rock it,” Cooper said. “And if you do that, we like our chances in games, but it doesn’t guarantee results. We’ve found something that works for us. It doesn’t mean you’re going to win every single night, but it’s sticking to that process.” – MATT LARKIN

T HE HO CKE Y NEW S | 2 9 |

BRAYDEN

POINT

GAME 2 AMALIE ARENA JUNE 30, 2021

Seven years later, the backto-back Stanley Cup-champion Tampa Bay Lightning regularly count on Point to do the same kinds of things. The higher the stakes, the harder he bites down on his mouthguard. His points per game jumps from 0.88 in the regular season to 1.09 in the playoffs. His faceoff percentage jumps from 48.8 in the regular season to 53.9 in the playoffs. No player has scored more goals than Point’s 28 over the past two post-seasons. Among players with 65 or more career playoff games, ϐ per game than Point: Mario Lemieux, Mike Bossy, Maurice Richard, Cam Neely and Wayne Gretzky. Delivering six gamewinning goals over the past two playoffs as well, Point has

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established himself as arguably the best clutch player in the NHL. With him on the ice at 5-on-5 across the Lightning’s Cup runs in 2020 and 2021, they hold a plus-21 goal differential and plus-49 differential in high-danger attempts. Yet it wasn’t as simple as the uber-competitive kid from the 2014 Top Prospects Game parachuting into the NHL as ϐ Ǥ Ǥ ǯ translate to NHL-grade elite, he needed serious work. A lot of it took place in Moose Jaw, starting in the 2014 off-season in the months after the Lightning drafted him 79th overall. The knock wasn’t his size in particular. It was the idea that, if you were 5-foot-10 and 160 pounds in 2014, you’d bet-

CHAM PI ON S 202 1

PERSISTENT PUCK PURSUIT Point’s dogged determination on every shift – heck, every practice – separates him from other players. ter be the fastest guy on the ice or close to it. Point wasn’t. ϐ improvement. Luckily, he was about as moldable a player as you could ϐ ǡ get better. As fate would have it, the Warriors hired Hunter as their coach that off-season, and he was thrilled. Hunter had his go-to pivot, and he knew Point had the potential to improve drastically, because nobody worked harder. It all stemmed from practices. Across his many decades in the game, Hunter had only

NICK SUZUKI GOT THE kind of separation he couldn’t find in Game 1. He swooped in on Andrei Vasilevskiy for a clean breakaway chance, deked to his backhand and…Vasilevskiy simply wouldn’t allow it. The Lightning netminder thwarted the attack with a deft pokecheck. That first-period moment was a microcosm of Game 2. The Canadiens did everything right. They came out more prepared than they were in Game 1. They badly outshot and outchanced the Lightning. They showed a level of urgency and sacrifice that was previously missing, blocking more shots in the first period than they did in all of Game 1. But it still didn’t matter, because it was Vasilevskiy’s night. He turned aside 42 of 43 shots including eight of nine from Suzuki in Tampa Bay’s 3-1 victory, punctuated by an incredible diving go-ahead goal from Blake Coleman with just two seconds left in the second period. Only once in 78 career playoff games had Vasilevskiy made more saves in a non-overtime game. Game 2 was a statement for a star netminder who doesn’t get the same attention as his counterpart Carey Price – despite the fact Vasilevskiy’s accomplishments by 26 exceed Price’s. On top of two Cup rings, a Vezina Trophy and four straight finishes as a finalist in the vote, Vasilevskiy has led the NHL in wins four consecutive seasons. Only four other goalies have done that, and they’re all Hall of Famers. “He was the absolute competitive gamer that we know he is, night in and night out, backbone of this team, can’t say enough good things about him,” said Lightning defenseman Ryan McDonagh. “We certainly want to make it a little bit easier of a night than we had to for him, but, man, he’s an absolute warrior and competitor, and he’s the biggest piece of our win here tonight.” – ML

ERIC BOLTE-USA TODAY SPORTS

1V3

seen one other player practise with the same ferocity as Point: Patrick Marleau, who Hunter coached in San Jose for several seasons. “Every drill Marleau did 100 miles an hour, and Point’s the same,” Hunter said. “He does every drill full speed. He doesn’t go through the motions, he doesn’t coast, he does everything hard. He goes into the corner, he can turn on a dime, he goes 100 miles an hour, turns, goes the other way, turns. He’s just got such a great ability to do that.”

Barb Underhill to Moose Jaw to begin working with him. It wasn’t as simple as watching him skate, reviewing some video and doling out some tips about his posture. Her work was far more complicated than that, perhaps best described as forensic. ǯ ϐ ǣ ϐ skates. Typically, the blades on players’ skates are sharp ϐ ǲ ϐ Ǥǳ ǯ ϐ be sharpened so the balance is

in the back of his skate also ϐ Ǥ ǲ skate that he was using wasn’t allowing him to lean further forward to get that full stride and extension,” Hunter said. “So she changed the skates he was wearing. That’s just the beauty of what is available, the technology, and Barb’s one of the best. Watching her work was incredible to experience.”

Point underwent the physical transformations needed to optimize his skating, too. Underhill crafted him a detailed stretching program designed to ϐ and Achilles tendons. Point was always the last Warriors player in the gym, Hunter remembers, because Point was constantly working on his stretching exercises. It was an eye-opening

HE DOES EVERY DRILL FULL SPEED. HE DOESN’T GO THROUGH THE MOTIONS, HE DOESN’T COAST, HE DOES EVERYTHING HARD – Tim Hunter Hunter’s theory was that, for Marleau and Point, never taking a drill off baked in the mentality of never taking a shift off. Point would “empty the tank,” Hunter said, in every game. There was just one problem: Point was a gas-guzzling Ǥ ϐ cient. He was burning a lot of energy and not getting to where he wanted to go as fast as he should. That’s why the Lightning intervened. They felt they could turn their third-round ϐ Ǧ by overhauling his skating, so they summoned renowned consultant and 1984 pairs ϐ Ǧ

more on the back of the blade, allowing for easier backward skating. Some two-way players prefer a mid-balanced blade for quick turning and transitioning to skate in any direction. A forward may want a forwardleaning blade that allows for more speed and leaning on one’s toes. What Underhill learned was that Point’s blades had no proϐ Ǥ ǡ the Warriors worked to bring ϐ ment and customize blades that could maximize Point’s speed by shifting his balance point off his heels so he would lean forward more. Adjusting a hinge

KIM KLEMENT-USA TODAY SPORTS

KUCHEROV: CAP CRUNCH OR CUP CRUNCH?

NIKITA KUCHEROV

HATERS GONNA HATE. VIRTUALLY everyone not cheering for the Tampa Bay Lightning cried foul over Nikita Kucherov’s surgically repaired hip healing exactly in time for Game 1 of the playoffs, when his $9.5-million cap hit no longer counted. But that wasn’t his fault. And, regardless of how murky his recovery timeline was, he did come back from hip surgery and deliver one of the greatest post-seasons in recent memory, a dizzying ﬂurry of snipes, slap passes and feints calling to mind the best years of Mario Lemieux. Kucherov’s 32 points gave him the playoff scoring title for a second straight year, and he became the ﬁfth player in NHL history to reach 30 points in multiple post-seasons. The 2019-20 and 2020-21 regular seasons belonged to

Edmonton Oilers superstars Leon Draisaitl and Connor McDavid. As recently as 2018-19, however, it was Kucherov exploding for 128 points, the most of the salary-cap era, and he’s since added consecutive Stanley Cups. McDavid is the best player in the world, but Kucherov showed in the 2021 playoffs that he has as strong a claim as anyone to the No. 2 spot. “The guy’s just a special, special player, a big reason why we’re here celebrating, a big part of this team,” said left winger Blake Coleman. “He’s on another level. I don’t know anybody else that could miss the entire regular season, come back and do what he did. He deserves a ton of credit. He’s a great player, great teammate, great friend, just a great guy to have in the room.”

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POINT

GAME 3 BELL CENTRE JULY 2, 2021

6V3

GENERATIONAL GOALTENDING THE LIST OF GOALIES with two Stanley Cups, two first-team all-star selections and a Vezina Trophy by 27: Terry Sawchuk, Patrick Roy, Andrei Vasilevskiy. End of list. Oh, and if you add the Conn Smythe Trophy to the resume, the list shrinks to just Roy and Vasilevskiy. Vasilevskiy’s trademark wide eyes between whistles belied his calm under pressure in the 2021 playoffs. He ANDREI VASILEVSKIY recorded a shutout in each of Tampa Bay’s series-clinching wins. He recorded a .943 save percentage during the Cup final. His record following a loss over the past two post-seasons: 14-0 with a 1.20 goals-against average, .952 save percentage and five shutouts. Vasilevskiy is in rare company having been the goalie of record in each one of Tampa Bay’s wins during their back-to-back Cup journeys. The last netminder to earn every win for his team during consecutive Cup runs was Ken Dryden in the late 1970s. So while Vasilevskiy’s 2021 playoff performance was elite by any standard, it looks even more special when placed in the context of all-time greatness. “You look at Carey Price, the guy he was going against, let’s be honest, the best goalie in my era, we just played against,” Cooper said. “And the best goalie now in this next era is the goalie that just won the Stanley Cup. Hockey fans were privileged to watch two generational goalies play, and the torch has been passed.” | 32 | TH E H O CK E Y NE WS

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IT SHOULD’VE BEEN EASY to predict the hungrier team in Game 3. Wouldn’t it be the one trailing 2-0 in the series, arriving back in its home rink to host its first Stanley Cup final game in 28 years, with its coach returning after his 14-day COVID-19 quarantine? No. The Canadiens came out flatter than a flapjack in front of 3,500 fans at the Bell Centre, while the Lightning, whose Stanley Cup drought was a mere nine months, brought the urgency. Blueliners Jan Rutta and Victor Hedman found holes in Carey Price’s armor with point shots through traffic, the Lightning led 2-0 before the game was four minutes old, and they never looked back. Every time the Habs showed some spark, such as when center Phillip Danault beat Andrei Vasilevskiy with a wrister in the first period, the Bolts snuffed out the fire. More than any other Lightning player, it was veteran center Tyler Johnson embodying the dogged spirit that Tampa Bay showed on the road in Game 3, coming up with two goals including the game-winner. Not bad for a guy deemed so undesirable at $5 million that he passed through waivers unclaimed before the season. Pride didn’t get in the way of Johnson playing whatever role Tampa needed of him in the post-season. Sometimes it was fourth-line center. When Alex Killorn got knocked out of the final after blocking a shot in Game 1, it was second-line duty on the left wing for Johnson. “There’s a reason Tyler Johnson’s trophy case is fairly full, and it’s because he’s an ultimate team player,” said Lightning coach Jon Cooper. “He’s selfless, and there was a time in this organization when we needed to take another step, and Tyler Johnson was one of the leaders of that. He’s just carried that on for years now.” – ML

experience for Point, who had caught wind that his draft stock fell because of his skating. “I ǯ ϐ what was wrong with it,” Point said. “I thought I was doing all right (laughs). But (Underhill’s) able to see things that I would never think about and help you get that next level and next gear and speed. She was very instrumental in helping me get better at skating.” The resulting changes in Point’s game were dramatic. By 2015-16, he averaged almost two points per game in major junior and captained Canada’s WJC squad. He made the Lightning in 2016-17, scored 18 goals as a rookie and was on the path to stardom. His motor and hockey sense were never in question, but adding the dynamic skating element rapidly changed Point from a plucky underdog to one of the best players in the NHL. By his third season in the league, he was 12th in scoring with 92 points. “It comes down to the character of the person we drafted,” said Lightning GM Julien BriseBois, who was the assistant GM when Tampa Bay selected Point. “We put a lot of emphasis on the character of the players that we bring into our organization. ϐ ǫ going to be the type of competitors that are going to continual ǫ I’m obviously very impressed by the player he is today, the man he is today, the competitor he is today. It’s funny to say today that his skating is why he slipped to the third round when he’s arguably one of the best skaters in the world today.” Hunter, who still watches Point’s games, describes him ϐ ing into corners against big, hard-hitting defensemen. A big reason why he’s able to attack at such breakneck speed is the improved ability to turn quickly and avoid absorbing heavy contact from opposing defenders. Over the past three seasons, among 402 forwards with at least 1,000 minutes played, 65.9

BRAD PENNER-USA TODAY SPORTS

BRAYDEN

HE CAN MAKE YOU LOOK SILLY IF YOU’RE NOT ON YOUR GAME AND HAVE GOOD GAPS. HE’S ONE TOUGH CUSTOMER WHEN IT COMES TO DEFENDING – Victor Hedman

BRAD PENNER-USA TODAY SPORTS

percent take more hits per 60 minutes than Point. Though he plays too much in the dirty areas ϐ in that stat, he’s still extremely tough to square up. “When I go up against him in practice, he ǯ not on your game and don’t have good gaps,” said star Light Ǥ ǲ ǯ Ǥǳ

GAME 4 BELL CENTRE JULY 5, 2021

2V3 (OT)

ϐ Ǧ climbed Tampa Bay’s depth chart to become its unques Ǥ ͳ Ǥ ǯ other elite players, such as right winger Nikita Kucherov, who

SMOOTH EFFICIENCY The proﬁle on Point’s skate blade wasn’t set properly to his stride. When it was adjusted, he took off.

ARE THE CANADIENS, HOCKEY’S most storied franchise, protected by a mystical juju? How else could we explain the fact that, going into Game 4, only one opposing team had ever clinched a championship on the road in Montreal against the Canadiens? How else did Montreal survive a Game 4 in which overtime began with captain Shea Weber in the middle of serving a fourminute penalty against a team with an epically elite power play? Weber’s botched attempt at a stick lift cut left winger Ondrej Palat with 1:01 left in the third. With Weber watching helplessly in the box to open overtime, the Habs’ penalty killers harassed the Lightning power play, or the Lightning felt the sweaty-palmed jitters of knowing they were one goal away from the Cup, or a bit of both. They uncharacteristically struggled to get set up, and Montreal killed the penalty. Tampa Bay ﬁnished the game 0-for-5 on the power play. At 3:57 of overtime, Habs right winger Josh Anderson stripped Lightning center Yanni Gourde to start a rush, beat defenseman Jan Rutta to the net and centered the puck to right winger Cole Cauﬁeld. Anderson didn’t quit on the play, crept back toward the net and buried a rebound. Voila, game over, 3-2 Montreal victory, series extended, and Weber absolved. “He’s our leader,” said Habs right winger Brendan Gallagher. “You can’t ask for a better teammate, so the guys wanted to bear down, especially for him. We understand the situation we’re in, I think we would’ve killed it for anyone, but he’s been a rock for us since he’s come to our team. The physicality that he brings… that’s just what you expect from him every single night. He’s hard to play against, especially as these series go along. He’s a pain, so we’re happy to have him on our side.” – ML

trails only Edmonton Oilers superstar Connor McDavid in points per game over the past ϐ straight year despite missing the entire regular season recov Ǥ Kucherov and Point have ǯ dynamic, leg-pumping creativ Ǥ ͳ ʹͲʹͳ ϐ ǡ assists in a 5-1 win, a typically reserved Kucherov raved about Ǥ Their teammates simply en day. “Point is the straw that stirs the drink on this team, and those two guys are magic on ice together,” said Lightning coach Jon Cooper. “They’ve ǡ post-seasons they’ve shown what they can do, especially with Kucherov not being able to ͷ͸ ǡ to have the chemistry those guys have had throughout… special players, special time and a big reason why we (won the Stanley Cup).”

ǡ ing and holding opened up the Ǥ Mitch Marner started posting ʹͲͳͺǦͳͻǡ Ǥ Ǧ ϐ mysteriously misplace their Ǥ Ǥ ǯ the rare undersized player who does his best damage as the stakes get higher. The only players this millennium to score more goals in one post-season are Alex Ovechkin and Sidney Crosby, who each got 15 once, while Point has scored 14 twice. A player has scored 14 or more goals in an Ǧ ͵ͻ ǡ ϐ ǣ ǡ ǡ Bossy, Jari Kurri and Point. In one stretch between ͳ ͵ -

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T HE HO CK E Y NE WS | 33 |

BRAYDEN

POINT

GAME 5

ONDREJ PALAT & BRAYDEN POINT

AMALIE ARENA JULY 7, 2021

0V1 THE BEST AND THE deepest,

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CH AM PI ON S 2 021

DIFFERENT JOURNEYS

STEVEN STAMKOS

REPORTERS REPEATEDLY ASKED THE throwaway question during Stanley Cup media day and got predictably diplomatic answers. Would a Cup this season feel different for Steven Stamkos after an abdominal injury limited him to playing 2:47 in just one game during last year’s run? Of course last year felt special, he’d say, not taking the bait. No matter what Stamkos claimed about 2020’s championship run, 2021 was different. Anyone would feel the same way. He skated in all 23 games. He contributed eight goals and 18 points. Teammates such as left winger Alex Killorn insisted Stamkos was instrumental to the 2020 Cup run, particularly because he had the ability to watch the games from afar and report his observations. But in 2021, Stamkos ground through two months of attrition on the ice to win the most iconic trophy in sports. What a feeling. “For me, last year, my whole career, going through those different adverse moments, and then you get rewarded with back-to-back Stanley Cups...that’s life,” he said. “It kicks you down, and you get back up, and you have a support staff and you’re so thankful for those people. Obviously it was amazing to be part of every single game this year and to help out and do everything I can. “Last year was pretty special, the two minutes and 47 seconds. This year, even more special. We’re back-to-back Cup champions. That doesn’t happen very often. It was a hell of a ride, a hell of a team, and I just appreciated every second I was on the ice.”

DENNIS SCHNEIDLER-USA TODAY SPORTS

ida Panthers, Carolina Hurricanes and New York Islanders this post-season, Point ripped off 11 goals in a 12-game span… with no multi-goal games. In that 12-game run, he scored in 11 different games, including nine straight, one short of the NHL playoff record Reggie Leach set in 1976 with the Philadelphia Flyers. How does Point step up in high-pressure situations with such frequency? He doesn’t feel it happens consciously. “You just try to play the same way, and pucks have found ways into the net as of late,” Point said. “I don’t think you’re thinking too much about it. Obviously the stakes are higher, and you’re making sure you compete every shift, but I’m just trying to play the same way and be responsible and just work for my chances.” Point will always be known as a player who works – on every shift, for every puck, for every second. But the work he put in to get his body moving at ϐ good things happen on the ice without having to work as hard to move fast. Maybe that’s why, during the Lightning’s backto-back championship postseasons, nobody has put the puck in the net more than the angry young kid deemed too forgettable to make the 2014 ǯ ϐ Ǥ

rolled into one. That’s what makes the Lightning back-toback Cup champions. In their series-clinching victory over the Canadiens in Game 5, it was the sum of Tampa’s parts carrying it to glory rather than its shiny superstars. Well, that and superb goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy. Rope-a-doping the Lightning for the first 30 minutes, the Habs relied on the elements that fuelled their improbable run: historically elite penaltykilling and the calm, efficient, puck-engulfing goaltending of Carey Price. But a lunchpail trio broke the game open at 13:27 of the second period when defenseman Ryan McDonagh threaded the puck to bruising blueliner David Savard, who drove to the net and made the pass of his life through the slot, giving Ross Colton a tap-in. It ended up being the game’s only goal, the Cup-capturer. Colton was a nine-goal scorer as a fourth-liner during the season. Despite the Bolts’ enviable list of big-name stars, their four gamewinning goals in the series went to Yanni Gourde, Blake Coleman, Tyler Johnson and Colton. Tampa had 13 different players score in the final. It was Tampa’s depth making the difference. No matter how special it felt to hoist the Cup in a vacant Rogers Place last September in the Edmonton bubble, the 2021 Cup hit home differently for a Lightning team that dressed 14 players in Game 5 who were on the ice when they won last season. “You never forget your first, but we were missing this,” said coach Jon Cooper. “Watching the fans be able to come back in the building, even in Montreal, that’s why we play. It’s like we’ve won two different Cups, and that’s what makes it special for us. You do one without fans and then you do one in your home building, and we couldn’t have written the script any better.” – ML

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LIGHTNING

TA MPA BAY L IG HT NIN G

RIDE THE

LIGHTNING FROM SUN BELT HOCKEY NEWBIE TO THE NHL’S MODEL FRANCHISE, IT’S BEEN A REMARKABLE 30-YEAR JOURNEY IN TAMPA BAY BY RYAN HUNT |

AMPA BAY HAS COME

long Ǥ

Ǧ ǡ ǯ Ǧ Ǥ

| 36 | TH E HO CKE Y N E WS

ǫ ǯ ϐ Ȃ Ȃ ǣ ̈́ͻͻ Ǧ Ǥ Ǧ ǡ

CHA MPI ON S 20 2 1

ǡ ͳͻͻ͵ǦͻͶ Ǥ Ǧ Ǧ Ǥ ͵ͲǡͲͲͲ Ǧ Ǧ ǯ ǡ ͻͻͻ ̈́ʹǤ͸ͺ Ǥ ǡ ǡ Ǥ Ǥ ǯ ϐ

ǡ Ǥ Ǧ ǡ Ǧ Ǥ ͵Ͳͻǡ ǡ ǡ Ǥ

HIGH BOLTAGE With likeable coach Cooper and his band of reliable stars, the Lightning have become the cream of the NHL. ϐ Ǥ ǯ Ǧ ǡ Ȃ Ȃ Ǥ ǡ ǡ ǤǤǤ ǯ Ǧ Ǥ

ǡ ǡ ǡ ǤǤǤ ȋ ǡ ȌǤ ǡ ȋ Ȍ ǡ ȋ Ǧ

DOUGLAS DEFELICE-USA TODAY SPORTS

TAMPA BAY

rlik) and Rudy (Poeschek). Yet ϐ number of transplants, many of the sweaters you saw in the stands night after night were for the Red Wings, Blackhawks, Canadiens, Penguins or whatever historic NHL franchise that happened to be in town. The signs of the hockey town that Tampa Bay could become, however, were there. When the Lightning made the playoffs for ϐ ͳͻͻ͸ Ȃ the few moments of on-ice suc ǯ ϐ Ȃ Ǧ ʹͺǡͳͺ͵ to the ThunderDome. It’s a mark that still stands today. That’s where the seeds were ϐ Ǥ ͵Ͳ ǡ ǯ model franchise resides in, yes, ǡ Ǥ It seems hard to fathom given the state of the franchise in those early years, when it was at one point even teetering on the edge of bankruptcy. But ϐ capture their second consecu Ȃ Ȃ Lightning have now cemented their place in hockey lore, one of only nine franchises to accomplish the back-to-back feat. This latest Cup run puts a bow on an incredible sevenseason stretch that is one of the most dominant of the sal-

Ȍǡ shrewd salary-cap management (save your over-the-cap jokes, the Bolts broke no rules) and some aggressive trades to put them over the top, the Lightning built a juggernaut. Off the ice, the impact was just as sig ϐ Ǥ large part to owner Jeff Vinik, who bought and revitalized the ʹͲͳͲǡ Lightning have captured the attention and imagination of the entire Tampa Bay area. The Channelside waterfront district around Amalie Arena has been completely transformed. Light ϐ are now everywhere around town. The most notable difference, according to coach Jon Cooper? “I’ve watched other teams’ jerseys be fairly prominent in our arena and now, you really have to look to ϐ ǡǳ per, who was hired by ʹͲͳ͵ and is the NHL’s longest-tenured coach.

PHOTO COURTESY OF RYAN HUNT

IT ALWAYS FELT LIKE TAMPA WAS EVERYBODY’S SECOND-FAVORITE TEAM. NOW IT FEELS LIKE WE’RE EVERYBODY’S FAVORITE TEAM – Jon Cooper ary-cap era: two Stanley Cup championships, three trips to ϐ ǡ ϐ ϐ nal and a Presidents’ Trophy. ǯ ͹Ͳ ʹͲͳͷ most in the NHL, miles ahead of runners-up Pittsburgh and Washington (42). Through incredible scouting and drafting (a tip of the cap to

ǲ ϐ felt like Tampa was everybody’s second-favorite team. Now it feels like we’re everybody’s fa Ǥǳ Sure, winning three championships has helped. But the arrival of this hockey town was years in the making, contrary to what people outside of the Sun Belt may think. Prior to the pandemic, the

ʹ͵Ͷ games at Amalie Arena. They have been consistently among the league’s best in NHL attendance for the past decade. Tampa Bay loves its Light Ǥ ϐ able to celebrate this latest Stanley Cup at home, in front of a packed Amalie crowd, after winning the title last year in the bubble in an empty arena in Edmonton. “To do it in front of our fans, our families, our friends, that’s what means the ǡǳ tain Steven Stamkos moments after winning the Cup. “This is redemption for them, to be able to spend this time with us. We wanted to win in Game 4, it ǯ Ǥ

REMEMBERING THE EARLY YEARS Tampa’s ﬁrst season in the cavernous ThunderDome included some tickets that cost less than a few bucks each. a blessing in disguise because we got to do this in front of our amazing fans and families who have been there supporting us ͳǤǳ ǡ an incredible journey. Tampa Bay’s journey as a hockey town has been just as rewarding. And for those lucky few, like ǡ ̈́ͻͻǡ Ǧ level season tickets and priceless memories. Ryan Hunt is the co-editorin-chief for SI. Follow him on Twitter at @rynhnt.

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IN PHOTOS GAME 1 1. A crowd of 15,911 in Tampa Bay awaits the puck drop between the defending champions and Montreal. 2. ‘Murphy’ was one of the more popular fans who set up camp outside Amalie for the Game 1 viewing party. 3. Shea Weber lets Ondrej Palat know that it won’t be a smooth path to glory for the heavily favored Lightning. 4. Ben Chiarot gives the Canadiens their lone chance to celebrate after his point shot ﬁnds the back of the net. 5. Despite a barrage from Tampa Bay, Carey Price continues to come up big, stonewalling Tyler Johnson’s attempt. 6. It wouldn’t be playoff hockey without a plethora of jabs and facewashing in post-whistle scrums. 7. Brendan Gallagher is left seeing red, literally, after he has his helmetless head slammed to the ice. 8. Nikita Kucherov celebrates the second of his two third-period goals as the Bolts cruise to a 5-1 victory.

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CHA MPIONS 2 021

1+3: DOUGLAS DEFELICE-USA TODAY SPORTS; 2+4: KIM KLEMENT-USA TODAY SPORTS

5+7+8: DOUGLAS DEFELICE-USA TODAY SPORTS; 6: KIM KLEMENT-USA TODAY SPORTS

CHA MP I ONS 20 2 1

TH E HO CK E Y NE WS | 39 |

IN PHOTOS 1. Wednesday Night Fever! John Travolta is one of 17,166 raucous fans in the house for Game 2 in Tampa Bay. 2. Eric Staal is on his knees, but his Habs refuse to kneel as they outshoot the Bolts 29-13 through two periods. 3. As Montreal’s troops pepper Andrei Vasilevskiy, he continues to turn them away – even with his eyes closed. 4. The Canadiens ﬁnally break through after Nick Suzuki scores to even the game 1-1 and give Montreal hope. 5. That hope is crushed, however, after Blake Coleman’s diving goal with just two seconds left in the second period. 6. The importance of the tally, giving Tampa Bay a 2-1 edge, isn’t lost on Coleman’s mates, who swarm him. 7. It’s message-sending time again in the third period as Phillip Danault and Mikhail Sergachev tussle.

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CHAM PIO NS 2 02 1

1+2+4: DOUGLAS DEFELICE-USA TODAY SPORTS; 3: KIM KLEMENT-USA TODAY SPORTS

GAME 2

5+7: DOUGLAS DEFELICE-USA TODAY SPORTS; 6: KIM KLEMENT-USA TODAY SPORTS

CHA MP I ON S 20 21

TH E HO CK EY NE WS | 41 |

IN PHOTOS GAME 3 1. Canadiens fans show up in droves to support the team in the first Stanley Cup final game in Montreal since 1993. 2. And while only 3,500 are allowed inside the Bell Centre, the streets are awash in bleu, blanc et rouge. 3. The party mood is halted, as Jan Rutta scores just 1:52 into the game, the first of two early Tampa goals. 4. Danault gets things back on track for the Canadiens, beating Vasilevskiy for just the third time in the series.

5. Price keeps the Habs in it by denying Coleman as he tries to stuff the puck in during the second period. 6. Sergachev and Habs rookie Cole Cauﬁeld battle for the puck despite a severe size mismatch. 7. Any hopes for a Montreal comeback are snuffed out when Johnson makes it 5-2 with under ﬁve minutes to go.

4 | 42 | TH E HO CK EY NEW S

C HA MPI ONS 2021

1-3: JEAN-YVES AHERN-USA TODAY SPORTS; 4: ERIC BOLTE-USA TODAY SPORTS

8. Tampa Bay’s elation, and Montreal’s dejection, is evident in the duelling post-goal processions.

5+6+8: ERIC BOLTE-USA TODAY SPORTS; 7: JEAN-YVES AHERN-USA TODAY SPORTS

CHA MPI ONS 20 21

T HE H OCK E Y NE WS | 43 |

| 44 | THE H OC KE Y NE W S

C HA M PIONS 2021

1+2: JEAN-YVES AHERN-USA TODAY SPORTS; 3+4: ERIC BOLTE-USA TODAY SPORTS

IN PHOTOS GAME 4 1. The sights and sounds from inside the Bell Centre make it seem like there are a lot more than 3,500 fans. 2. Three of those on hand are Habs legends and HHOFers Yvan Cournoyer, Guy Lafleur and Patrick Roy. 3. Every loose puck is contested as Jake Evans and Brayden Point set the tone early in the tight-checking affair. 4. Price turns away all 12 Tampa shots in the first period, helping Montreal secure its first lead of the series.

ERIC BOLTE-USA TODAY SPORTS

5. Danault ﬁgures the best way to keep Anthony Cirelli at bay is to have him take a seat on the ice. 6. Patrick Maroon, hunting his third Stanley Cup in three years, ties it up late – and we’re headed for overtime. 7. Josh Anderson scored Montreal’s ﬁrst goal, and he bookends his night by slamming home the OT winner. 8. It’s elation for the Habs and their fans as the Canadiens avoid the sweep and force a Game 5 in Tampa Bay.

8 CH AMP IO NS 2 021

T HE HO CK EY NE WS | 45 |

IN PHOTOS GAME 5 1. Vasilevskiy readies himself for another chance to clinch the Cup, this time on home ice. 2. Neither team can cook up an early goal, but Cirelli and Victor Hedman make Evans a Hab sandwich. 3. The hard hitting continues as Coleman tries to deposit Jeff Petry into Tampa Bay’s bench. 4. At 13:27 of the middle frame, we finally get a goal as rookie Ross Colton deposits a tap-in past a helpless Price. 5. Colton’s fourth playoff goal is easily his biggest, as it ends up the winner and gives his Lightning the Cup. 6. Ryan McDonagh is the first one to reach Vasilevskiy, who posts his fifth shutout to secure the Conn Smythe. 7. Players and fans celebrate in unison. It’s a special moment after winning in an empty building last year. 8. Throw up those deuces! Tampa Bay becomes just the second team to go back-to-back in the salary-cap era.

2 | 46 | T H E H O CK EY N EW S

4 CHAM PIO N S 2 02 1

1+2: KIM KLEMENT-USA TODAY SPORTS; 3+4: DOUGLAS DEFELICE-USA TODAY SPORTS

5+6: KIM KLEMENT-USA TODAY SPORTS; 7: DOUGLAS DEFELICE-USA TODAY SPORTS; 8: BRUCE BENNETT/POOL PHOTO-USA TODAY SPORTS

CHAM P IO NS 20 21

TH E H O CK EY NE WS | 47 |

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THE CHAM ISSUE | 50 | T H E HO CKEY NEW S

CH AM PI ONS 202 1

PIONS 52 IIHF WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP / 54 KHL / 55 VHL / 56 SHL / 57 HOCKEYALLSVENSKAN / 58 LIIGA 59 MESTIS / 60 NWHL / 62 QMJHL / 64 NCAA / 66 USHL / 66 NAHL / 67 ECHL / 67 SPHL

COVID CREATED THE STRANGEST TIME IN HOCKEY HISTORY AND MADE IT A CHALLENGE AROUND THE GLOBE TO GET PLAYERS ON THE ICE. BUT MANY LEAGUES STILL MANAGED TO CROWN A VICTOR – SO WE CELEBRATE THOSE ACCOMPLISHMENTS AND THE MEN AND WOMEN WHO GAVE FANS OF THE GAME A MUCH-NEEDED DISTRACTION CHA MP I ONS 20 21

THE H O CK EY NEW S | 51 |

IIHF: MEN’S WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP

dangled two defenders, then slid the puck giapane for the gamewinner. “I’d like to say we talked about our defensemen joining the rush and doing that, but ϐ ǯ about that,” chuckled after the game. “Stecher made an incredible play, a great individual play. And if we wouldn’t have put it in the net, they probably would have had a 2-on-0 breakaway the other way.” By the playoff round, Canada was catching some breaks. But the tournament didn’t start out that way. After chartering over to the host city of Riga, Latvia, ϐ ǡ put its chances of advancing out of the group stage in jeopardy by opening with three straight regulation defeats. No team had ever come back to win gold after an 0-3 start, and Canada scored just two goals in total in the losses to Latvia, Ǥ ǲ antine, we only had three practices before they played ϐ ǡǳ Ǥ ǲ was no exhibition game, there was no period to get ac Ǥ ϐ of the gate and be playing the good brand of hockey that we wanted to be playing.” The 24-player Canadian roster was the youngest in

TEAM CANADA’S

COMEBACK KIDS W

HEN NICK PAUL CONVERTED a 2-on-1 with Connor Brown to clinch gold

at the 2021 World Championship, the goal capped off a stunning rally for Team Canada. “You get ‘Brownie’ the puck, good things happen,” said Paul of his Ottawa Senators teammate. “I threw it over to him, not a great pass. But he gave it back and I put it in the net and it was unbelievable.” The play started with a defensive-zone faceoff – a dangerous situation in 3-on-3 overtime. “Nick Paul loses the faceoff clean, and he goes around the centerman to intercept the pass to the D-man to spring himself on a 2-on-1,” marvelled Roberto ǡ ϐ Ǧ Ǥ ǲ ǯ ǡ doesn’t get talked about enough. That really created that chance and was able to seal it for us.” The goal gave Canada a 3-2 win over Finland, the defending champions from 2019. Canada settled for silver that year, and two players from that squad returned in 2021: Adam Henrique, who served as captain, and Troy Stecher, who wore an ‘A’. And Stecher wound up making the play of the tournament. In ǯ ϐ Ǧ ϐ ϐ ǡ ǡ

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C HAM PI O NS 2 021

CHRIS TANOUYE/HHOF-IIHF IMAGES

THE YOUNGEST TEAM IN THE TOURNAMENT GOT OFF TO A ROUGH START, AND IT DIDN’T EVEN LOOK LIKE THEY’D GET INTO THE PLAYOFF ROUND. THEN THEY CAUGHT FIRE TO BECOME THE FIRST TEAM IN HISTORY TO WIN GOLD AFTER STARTING 0-3 BY CAROL SCHRAM

CHAMPIONS

ISSUE

LEAP OF FAITH

OWEN POWER

ANDRÉ RINGUETTE/HHOF-IIHF IMAGES

Paul and Brown celebrate after combining on the OT winner in the gold-medal game against Finland. the tournament, with an average age of 24. Thirteen of those players were suiting up for their ϐ time at an IIHF event, including two-thirds of the top line and a toppairing defenseman. One was Brown. He ϐ ment’s leading scorer, with 16 points in 10 games, and was named to the media all-star team. Another was the late arrival Mangiapane, also an all-star as well as the tournament MVP. In seven games, Mangiapane scored seven goals, including four winners. Teaming up with Brown and Henrique, he immediately ignited Canada’s offense. That scoring, plus a couple of Ǧϐ ǡ squeak into the last playoff spot in Group B, with a chance to play for gold. ǡ ʹͲʹͳ ǡ ϐ Ǧ Canada. At 6-foot-5 and 214 pounds, the physical tools of the 18-year-old were never in doubt. And he quickly showed he had the skill set to thrive at the men’s level, Ǥ ǲ ǡǳ Ǥ ǲ ϐ ǡ Ǯ ǯ ǡ he wasn’t getting much ice time. By the middle of that game, he was already playing regular shifts. And then midway through the tournament, he was on our top pair with Stecher.” Gallant also praised Power after he led Canada in ice time and was named the ǯ ǣ ǲ ǡ ǯ ϐ Ǥ ǯ going to be a superstar hockey player.” The tournament marked Gallant’s return to coaching, 16 months after he was dismissed by the Vegas Golden Knights. Ten days after the gold-medal game, he was named coach of the New York Rangers. Ǧ ǡ ϐ had the right man to inspire commitment from the players. “Gerard, one of his best attributes is he’s able to get guys to play the way he wants, all the time,” Luongo said. “He got the boys believing. Even though we weren’t having success early on, they believed in what they were doing. We never changed the way we played.”

ǯ ϐ Ǧ Ǯ ϐ ǡǯ Canadians played with a chip on their shoulder, a result of their rare underdog status at an international tournament. “They weren’t giving us a chance,” said left winger Maxime Comtois. “People were unhappy with the decisions that Hockey Canada made for the roster, and we proved everybody wrong. At the end of the day, we have a gold medal.” Added Luongo: “I said this to the guys before the tournament started. There’s always a point in time in a tournament where you’re going to feel like it’s a moment that could go either way, that you could be out or you could be in. We had that in the Olympics when I played in Vancouver. The key is to remain composed and keep your eye on the prize. This time around, it was a little bit different circumstances, where the odds were stacked against us and maybe it was a little bit out of our hands. But we stayed focused and we never gave up. “It was a bit hairy at the beginning, but with a little luck we snuck in, and I think we found our groove at the right time. It wasn’t the way we drew it up, but at the end of the day, it’s still world champions.”

IIHF: WOMEN’S WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP

LONG-AWAITED RETURN MORE THAN 850 DAYS will have passed between top-level competitions, but after COVID-19 nixed the 2020 tournament, and the 2021 event was faced with a short-term delay and eleventh-hour cancellation, the top women’s players on the planet will once again compete for World Championship glory. The 2021 Women’s World Championship will begin Aug. 20 in Calgary, with all 31 games contested at WinSport Arena at Canada Olympic Park. The change in venue – the tournament was originally slated to take place in Halifax and Truro, N.S. – was forced because Nova Scotia’s government barred the tournament from taking place in May amid rising public-health restrictions in the province. Players from each of the 10 competing nations are expected to arrive in Calgary by Aug. 10, at which point they will undergo a quarantine period in keeping with health guidelines. Team USA will seek to defend its crown, while reigning runnerup Finland will look to reprise its role as fly in the ointment for those who’ve long held the belief this is a two-team tournament. Finland’s stunning upset of Canada in 2019 resulted in Canada, the No. 2-ranked national team, missing out on the final for the first time in tournament history. – JARED CLINTON CH A MP I ONS 2 0 21

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HARTLEY’S

HAWKS

ILYA KOVALCHUK GUIDES THE WAY TO GAGARIN CUP AS INSPIRATIONAL LEADER AND OMSK TEAM WORKHORSE BY SLAVA MALAMUD

IKE THIS IF YOU are still alive!” said the Twitter account of Avangard Ͷ ϐ Moscow. The seesaw battle saw the Hawks come back from a 2-0 ϐ ǡ ǡ Ǥ ǡ ͸Ͳ ǡ ǯ Ǥ ǲ ϐ ǡǳ Ǥ ʹǦʹǡ Ǥ Ǥ ǡ Ǧ ǲ ǳ ǡ Ǥ ϐ ǲ Ǥǳ ǡ ǯ Ȃ Ǥ ǡ Ǥ ǡ ǲ Ǥǳ ǡ ϐ Ǥ Ǧ ǡ | 54 | T HE H OC KE Y NE W S

CHA MP IO NS 2 021

ǡ ͵ͺǦ Ǧ ǡ squad and the difference between a contender and Ǥ ǡ Ǥ Another factor was the surprise Ǥ ǯ ǡ ǡ Ǧ Ǥ ǡ ǡ ǡ ǡ ϐ Ǧ two shutouts. The hero goalie attributed much of the ǯ Ǥ ǲ ǡǳ Ǥ Ǥ ǲ ǡ ǡ ǡ Ǥ Ǥǳ

ǡ ǡ Ǥ ǣ ǡ Ǥ ǯ Ǧ ǡ Ǧ ȋ ǲ Ǧ ǳ ǲ ǤǳȌǡ ǡ worked to perfection. ǲ ǡǳ ǡ

YURY KUZMIN/KHL PHOTO

KH L: GAG AR IN CU P

CHAMPIONS

ISSUE

IVAN LEKOMTSEV

VH L: PE TRO V CUP

REUNION TITLE TOUR

KOVALCHUK: YURY KUZMIN/KHL PHOTO; UGRA: EVGENIY LISTYUK/HC UGRA

Kovalchuk was 19 when Hartley took over the Atlanta bench in 2003. Almost 20 years later, they won it all. at Hartley. “He has only taken one day off all year long, and he and his assistants have really f---ed us up during the season, but he has deserved this big fat exclamation point.” And a big fat exclamation point it was, because the bills came due, and the proverbial window began shutting literally two days after the championship parade. With the KHL freeILYA agent season beginning KOVALCHUK May 1, Avangard had shed much of its championship roster before it had a chance to sober up. Gone is Kovalchuk, who appears ready to give the NHL yet another try. Bobkov’s huge contract was bought out in a salary-cap move. Klim Kostin is hoping to parlay his title into another crack at the St. Louis Blues’ roster. Reid Boucher, the Hawks’ scoring leader, is also hoping to revive his NHL career. ǡ ǯ ϐ Ǧ ʹͲʹͲǡ in the world’s top league, too. ʹͲʹͳǦʹʹǡ again, as the team is in the midst of its four-year exile to the Moscow area (the new ǯ ʹͲʹʹȌǤ ǯ staying among the elite appear to be dwindling, Hartley will remain at the helm for at least one more year, and with him behind the bench, there is always hope. ǲ ǡǳ ǡ ǡ following Mike Keenan, to hoist the Gagarin Cup. “For me, it’s just a special ǡ ϐ ǡ and now, I have won a title with Kovy.”

UGRA SURVIVES SIBERIAN SHOWDOWN Post-season fundraisers keep Metallurg alive off ice while on-ice overtime setbacks lead to their demise

THE PETROV CUP, AWARDED to the champion of the VHL, the KHL’s farm league, went to Ugra KhantyMansiysk, who defeated Metallurg Novokuznetsk in the battle of two Siberian ex-KHL squads, also known as ‘The Names Most Likely To Twist A Western Journalist’s Tongue Derby.’ Ugra’s title came as no surprise, but Metallurg, the team that gave the NHL Sergei Bobrovsky and Kirill Kaprizov, became the real feel-good story. Mired in financial chaos and an organizational nightmare, Metallurg had to battle through unimaginable difficulties to even complete the season. The team’s antiquated Soviet-era arena had to shut down for renovations, and the project stalled amid allegations of corruption. This forced the team into a 300-seat local private rink, not coincidentally owned by the same person who heads the company contracted to renovate the arena. He reportedly charged the team exorbitant rates for ice time, and as the team and the city didn’t budget for a long playoff run, this led to Metallurg’s funds drying up in the playoffs. The team had to literally raise money for each new playoff game. Metallurg ran out of magic in the final, succumbing to the wellstocked Ugra in five games, including two overtime losses. There is little chance Novokuznetsk will be permitted to host VHL games next season. – SLAVA MALAMUD

CHA MP IO NS 2 021

T HE HO CKE Y NE WS | 55 |

CHAMPIONS

ISSUE

SW E DI S H HOCKEY LEA G UE

THIRD TIME

CHARM

A MAGICAL COACH-GM DUO, A SURPRISE PROSPECT FROM HARVARD AND A HOT 1B GOALIE ALL ADDED UP TO VAXJO CELEBRATING ITS ANNIVERSARY IN STYLE BY CLAIMING TITLE NO. 3 IN 10 YEARS BY UFFE BODIN

team. It also happened to be the same year they claimed their third Swedish championship title. ϐ ʹͲͳͷ ʹͲͳͺ Ȃ Ǧ Ȃ Ǥ ͳ Ǥ ϐ ǡ ϐ ǯ Ǥ ǯ

Ǥ ǡ ϐ ǯ ǲ Ǥ Ǥ Ǥǳ ǡ Ǥ ͳͻǦ Ǧ Ǧ ʹͲͳͺǡ ȋͳͷ͸ ȌǤ ϐ Ǧ Ǧ Ǧ ǡ Ǥ Ǧ ǡ with 14 points in 14 games earned him the Stefan Liv Memorial Trophy as play Ȃ Ǥ ǲ ǯ ǡ ǯ ǡ ǡǳ said Holmberg after receiving the award. ǡ Ǥ ǲ ǡ ǯ ǡǳ Ǥ ǲ Ǥǳ Another player who was signed by the Leafs shortly after the SHL playoffs Ǥ ʹͶǦ Ǧ ǡ ʹͲͳͷ ʹͲͳͻǦʹͲ ǡ ͳ ϐ Ǥ ͳͲ ϐ Ǥͻ͵Ͳ Ǥ ǲ ǯ ǡ ǡǳ Ǧ Ǥ ǲ Ǥ ǯ ǡ Ǥǳ ǡ Ǥ Ǧ Ǥ Ǥ pionship center was set to play another season of college hockey with Harvard ϐ Ǥ ʹͳǦ Ǧ ǡ ͵Ͳ ͳͳ ͳͶ Ǥ ǲ ǯ ǡǳ Ǥ ǲ ǡ ǯ Ǥ ǯ

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CH AM PIO N S 202 1

THE SHL IS A PHENOMENAL LEAGUE, AND I’M GRATEFUL TO HAVE GOTTEN THIS OPPORTUNITY. IT’S BEEN AN AWESOME EXPERIENCE – Vaxjo center and Carolina Hurricanes prospect Jack Drury Ǥ ǡ Ǥǳ ǯ Ǥ ǡ Ǥ Ǥ Ǥ time in Sweden was the atmosphere the fans are fa Ǥ ǡ ʹͲʹͲǦʹͳ

VAXJO: JOEL MARKLUND / BILDBYRÅN

HIS YEAR MARKED THE 10-year anniversary for the Vaxjo Lakers as an SHL

buildings. The government allowed 50 spectators at each game at the start of the season, but when the second wave hit the country at the end October, the number was reduced to eight. The lack of fans was never as apparent as when Vaxjo received the Le Mat Trophy in front of a handful of people. “You just

wish you could have shared this moment with the 5,800 fans we usually have in here,” Fasth said. “The few that were here did their best to make this night special. It’s great that we could share this with someone, but it’s a very different year in that regard. I hope we never have to experience this again.”

LAND O’ LAKERS PAVED WITH GOLD The key to Vaxjo’s road to the SHL crown? No opponent could crack the squad’s rock-solid defense.

HOCKEYALLSVENSKAN

UNFINISHED BUSINESS GETS FINISHED Dahlen makes good on his goal of earning Timra another promotion to the SHL

TIMRA: PÄR OLERT / BILDBYRÅN

JONATHAN DAHLEN HELPED TIMRA reach the SHL in 2018. One year later, when the club

JEREMY BOYCE-ROTEVALL & JONATHAN DAHLEN

had been relegated back to the HockeyAllsvenskan, the winger made a surprise return after a rough season in North America. The obvious goal was to lift the team back up once more. After putting up 77 points in 51 games during 2019-20, the 23-year-old, a 2016 secondround pick (42nd overall) of the Ottawa Senators, was denied the chance when the pandemic forced the league to cancel the playoffs. But instead of taking his game to greener pastures, Dahlen re-signed to see his goal through. He put up another 71 points in 45 games before adding 22 in 15 playoff games to help Timra make the jump. He will not, however, follow his team to the SHL this time, either. After much consideration, Dahlen signed a one-year contract with the San Jose Sharks in June. In the HockeyAllsvenskan ﬁnal against Bjorkloven, Timra lost Game 1 before winning the next four in a row to clinch their spot in the SHL. It was an odd ﬁnal, with the series shut down for 19 days after an outbreak of COVID-19 on both teams after Game 2. – UFFE BODIN

C HAM P I O NS 20 2 1

THE HO C KE Y NE W S | 57 |

PATIENCE IS

A VIRTA

IT TOOK A LONG, LONG TIME – AND THE COACH FELL SICK DURING THE PANDEMIC – BUT RAUMA LUKKO CAME OUT ON TOP BY RISTO PAKARINEN

HE LAST TIME THAT ǡ -

ǡ ͳͻ͹ͷǤ Ǥ ǯ Ǥ ǡ ϐ ǡ ͳͻͺͺǡ Ǥ ʹͲʹͳ ǡ ǡ Ǥ Ǥ ǡ ǡ ǡ ͳͻ͹Ͳ Ǥ ǡ ǡ Ǧ Ǥ ǡ Ǥ ϐ Ǥ

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CHA M PI ONS 2021

CHAMPIONS OF FINLAND

This season, the ϐ did everything in their Rauma Lukko’s road to a ϐ league championship had ish the season. Early on, more than a few speed bumps along the way. event that not all teams ͸Ͳ ǡ Ǥ Ǧ Ǧ ǡ but then got the green light to play in front of limited Ǥ ǯ rolled over Finland, however, the league Ǧ ǡ and when it returned, all players wore Ǧ the virus. Postponements and quarantines made for a ǡ ͸ͲǦ Ǥ ȋ ǯ ͳͶ ͷͲ ͷͻ ǤȌ Ǧͳͻ ǡ ǡ Ǥ January and spent all February in hospital. In the end, ͷͲ ǡ ͵Ͳ of them in the ICU, with assistants Erik Hamalainen and Jarkko Kauvosaari taking over the team, guiding Ǧ Ǥ Ǧ Ǧϐ Ǥ ϐ ǡ ͵Ǧͳ ϐ Ǥ

LUKKO: PHOTO BY TEEMU SAARINEN

LII G A

CHAMPIONS

ISSUE

Ǥ ϐ ǡ ǡ ϐ ǡ ǡ Ǥ

Ͷ ϐ ǡ ʹǦͲ ǡ ͻͲ Ǥ ͶǦʹ ͻͲ ǯ ǡ Ǥ Ǧ ϐ ͸ǦʹǤ ǲ ǡ ǯ ǡǳ Ǥ ǲ ǯ ǡ ǯ Ǥǳ ǡ ϐ Ǧ ǡ Ǧ Ǥ ǲ ǯ ǯ ǯ ǡǳ Ǥ ǲ ǯ ǡ ǡ Ǧ Ǧ Ǧ Ǥǳ Ȃ ͵ͻǡͲͲͲ Ȃ ǡ ǡ Ǥ

ROOPE MAKITALO

MEST IS

KETTERA? THAT’S ‘NIMBLE’ IN FINNISH Imatra Kettera has come a long way from the third division. Now they’re repeat champions in second-tier Mestis

THE PANDEMIC CREATED A lot more havoc in Mestis,

VIRTA: RAUMAN LUKKO

the ﬁnancially challenged second-tier professional league in Finland. Since no promotion/relegation games were played in 2020 due to COVID, Mestis was expanded by two teams for 2021. But when the second wave hit, the league was shut down twice, for two months in total. Two teams dropped out mid-season. All in all, teams played only 28 to 31 games, instead of the scheduled 50. Imatra Kettera spent most of the 21st century in the Finnish third division and only earned a promotion to Mestis in 2017 when another team went bankrupt and Kettera was offered the spot. However, they entered this season as reigning champions, having won Mestis in 2019. After beating Kokkola Hermes 3-2 in a best-of-ﬁve series, Kettera remains the reigning champions, a feat that makes their previous claim to fame – that Keith Gretzky is an alum – pale in comparison. Kettera’s captain, Marlo Koponen, was named playoff MVP. The 34-year-old defenseman averaged 23 minutes a game, most among Kettera skaters. It was the third Mestis title for him. – RISTO PAKARINEN

ͳͻ͹Ͳ ǯͺͲ ǡ Ǧ FABULOUS Ǧ ǡ ϐ FINNISH Ǥ ǡ Virta spent a month in the ͳͲǦ ǡ ICU battling the effects of Ǧ Ǥ COVID-19, but returned to ͳͻ͹ʹǡ the team in time for the ﬁnal. ϐ Ǧ ͳͻ͹Ͷǡ ͳͻ͹͹ǡ ͳͻ͹ͺǡ ͳͻͺͳǡ ͳͻͺʹ ͳͻͺ͵ǡ Ǥ Ȃ ǲ ǳ ǡ Ǥ ǡ ϐ Ǧ Ǥ ǡ ͵ǡͲͲͲ ͳͳͷ ǡ ϐ ǯ ͳͲǦ Ǧ Ǧ Ǥ ǲ ϐ ǡ Ǥǳ ǡ ǡ ǡ ǡ Ǥ

CH AMP I ONS 202 1

TH E HOCK EY N E WS | 59 |

TAKING ISOBEL

WITH PRIDE BOSTON CLAIMS NWHL SUPREMACY, AND ALL OF A SUDDEN THE QUEST BEGINS TO CREATE THE LEAGUE’S FIRST DYNASTY BY JARED CLINTON

N THE MIDST OF Ǧ ǡ -

ǯ Ǥ ͳͻ͹Ͳ ǡ Ǧ ͳͻͺͲ ϐ ǣ ǡ ǡ ǡ ǦͳͻͻͲ Ǥ ǡ ǡ ǯ ʹͲʹͲǦʹͳ ǡ ǯ ϐ Ǥ ǲ ǡ ǯ ǡ ǯ ǡǳ Ǥ ǲ ǡ ǯ Ǥǳ

ǡ Ǥ ǡ Ǧͳͻ ǯ ʹͲͳͻǦʹͲ ϐ Ǥ ǡ ǡ

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CH AM PI ON S 2021

have to learn to lose bePRIDE fore you learn to win. If AND GLORY losing the opportunity Five years after winning to play for the Isobel their ﬁrst NWHL title in 2016, Cup was the Pride’s Boston beat Minnesota to ϐ ǡ win it all again this year. ǯ ǡ Ǥ Ǥ ϐ ǡ Ǧ Ǥ ϐ ϐ ǡ ǡ Ǥ Ȃ ʹͲͳͻǦʹͲ Ȃ Ǥ ǲ ǯ Ǧ ǡǳ Ǥ ǲ ǯ Ǥ ǡ ǡ Ǥ ǡ Ǥǳ Ǥ Ǧ ǡ Ǧ Ǧ ǡ ϐ ͶǦ͵ Ǧ Ǧ Ǥ ǡ ϐ Ǥ

MICHELLE JAY/NWHL

NWHL: ISOBEL CUP

CHAMPIONS

ISSUE

JILLIAN DEMPSEY

BRAND AWARENESS Brand joined Dempsey and Putigna on Boston’s top scoring line. They’ll pace the Pride again next season.

Among the obstacles in the Pride’s way will be handling the pressure of expectations and the everpresent bullseye on their backs. Coach Paul Mara noted the Pride learned from the feeling of seeing opposing teams celebrate as though they had won the Isobel Cup upon defeating Boston in Lake Placid, an important experience given the target has only grown after a championship season. “We have to come back and improve this summer,” Mara said. “Everyone has to get better in every aspect of the game, off-the-ice training is important, and we need to come in September with guns blazing knowing that every team is going to want to beat the Boston Pride.” Incorporating up-and-comers such as Davis is one way for the already offensively dynamic Pride – Boston has scored an NWHL-best 157 goals over the past two Ȃ Ǥ ǯ ϐ during her rookie season was proof positive she can be an impact player, giving Boston an additional weapon alongside the top trio of Jillian Dempsey, Christina Putigna and McKenna Brand. Mara also has high hopes for Meghara McManus, who ϐ Ǥ ǲ ϐ ϐ ϐ ǡ step,” Mara said. “I expect those two to make bigger contributions and play huge roles on our team this coming season.” More than any one position, though, what Mara wants to see is his group take steady strides and avoid stagnation. One message he drills into his team is to come to the rink and, one way or another, improve every day. He acknowledges there will be changes as the roster takes shape ahead of next season, but the goal ϐ Mara calls “high-character players” into the fold, those whose desire to win and compete is every bit as evident as their on-ice skill. It’s a trait the leadership ϐ down throughout the Pride room. Fratkin, who has worn an ‘A’ in Boston the past two seasons, is quick to echo that sentiment. Even after a ǡ ϐ ǯ collective belly burns as bright as ever. “The mentality from all the players, top to bottom, is everyone is super competitive,” she said. “We just have a very competitive group…I don’t think complacency is a word in a lot of our vocabularies.” If Boston is to repeat as champions, it can’t be done sleepwalking. As the league has grown, so has the skill level across each club. Though the Pride’s plus-96 goal differential since the start of 2019-20 belies any suggestion of increased parity, that Boston

WE NEED TO COME IN SEPTEMBER WITH GUNS BLAZING KNOWING EVERY TEAM IS GOING TO WANT TO BEAT THE BOSTON PRIDE – Pride coach Paul Mara struggled to such a degree in Lake Placid is indicative of the no-games-off mentality required to succeed as the league continues to evolve. But in attempting to go back to back, the Pride will not lack for motivation. No championship team wants to surrender the throne, and the opportunity to make history will provide all the more incentive. “You see how tough it is but how special it was for those franchises, how dominant those franchises were, when they won multiple Cups back to back,” Fratkin said. “It would be amazing for the Boston Pride, our organization, to be the leaders of that.”

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TIGRE

KINGS

UNDERRATED BUT UNDAUNTED, VICTORIAVILLE CLAIMED ITS FIRST QMJHL TITLE IN 19 YEARS AFTER A SERIES OF TRADES THAT ENDED UP PAYING HUGE DIVIDENDS BY WILL MACLAREN

HE LAST TIME CARL Mallette hoisted the Presi-

dent’s Cup, the year was 2002 and he was Ǯ ǯ ϐ ϐ with a Victoriaville Tigres club that was not ǯ Ǥ ǡ ǡ Ǥ ǲ ʹͲͲʹǡ ǡǳ Ǥ ǲ ǡ Ǥ people expected us to win the Cup, obviously, but we ϐ Ǥǳ

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The Tigres wrapped up their second league title in ENCORE ͵Ǧʹ Ǧ PERFORMANCE Ǧ ǯ ͷǡ Nearly two decades after Ǧ Ǧ Ǥ their ﬁrst league title, the Tigres claimed a second ǡ ϐ QMJHL championship. Ǥ ǡ Ǥ Ǧ Ǥ Ǧ ǡ ǡ ǡ Ǥ ǡ ǡ Ǧ ǡ Ǥ ǡ ͳ͸ ʹ͸ Ǧ Ǥ ǡ both a regular season and post-season, ensured that everything possible would be ǡ Ǥ ǲ ȋ Ȍ ǡǳ Ǥ ǲ ͳͲ Ǥ ǡ Ǯ ǡǯ Ǥǳ ǡ ǡ Ǥ Ǥ ǡ Ǧ ǡ ǡ ʹͲͳͻǤ ǡ ǡ Ǥ ͵ͳ ͸͸

VICTORIAVILLE TIGRES

QMJHL: PRESIDENT CUP

CHAMPIONS

ISSUE

games, down the Blainville-Boisbriand Armada in the ϐ

ǡ ϐ ǡ ϐ Ǧ ǯ Ǥ ǲ ǡǳ Ǥ ǲ Ǧ Ǥ ǡ Ǥǳ ǡ ϐ Ǧ ǡ ʹͲʹͲ Ǧ Ǧͳͻ ϐ Ǧ Ǥ ǲ ǡ ǡǳ Ǥ ǲ ǡ ǡ Ǥ Ǥǳ ǡ ʹʹ ϐ Ǧ ǡ Ǥ ʹ ͵ Ǥ ǡ ǡ ǡ Ǥ ǲ ǡǳ Ǥ ǲ ǡ ǡ ǯ Ǥ ǯ Ǥ Ǥǳ ǣ ǲ CONOR FRENETTE Ǥ ǡ those (mid-season) trades, it made it tough Ǥ Ǥǳ times during the regu ǡ Ǥ ͳͻ ʹͻ ǡ ʹ ͵ ϐ ǡ Ǥ ǲ ǯ ǡǳ Ǥ ǲ ǡ ǯ Ǥ Ǥ ǡ ǯ ǡ ǡ Ǧ ǡ Ǥǳ ϐ Ǥ ϐ ͵ǡ ͵ǦͲ Ǧ ϐ ͶǦ͵ ʹǦͳ Ǥ Ǥ ǲ Ͷ ǡǳ Ǥ ǲ ǯ ǡ Ǥ ǡ ͳͺ Ǥ ǡ ǡ Ǥǳ ǡ ǡ ʹǡͷͲͲ ǡ ϐ

ǡ Ǧ Ǧ Ǧ Ǥ ǲ ʹ ȋ ϐ Ȍǡ ǡǳ ǡ ǯ Ǥ ǲ ǡ Ǥ Ǥǳ ǡ ʹͲʹͲǦʹͳǤ ǡ ǡ ǡ ǡ Ǥ ǲ Ǧ ǯ ǡ ǡǳ Ǥ ǲ ͸ǡ ǡ Ǯ Ǩǯ ϐ Ǧ ǡ Ǥ Ǥǳ

CARL MALLETTE

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‘HIGH TRUST,

ZERO B.S.'

UMASS HAS BUILT A CULTURE BASED ON ACCOUNTABILITY FROM BOTH PLAYERS AND COACHES, AND THAT’S LED TO DEVELOPING HIGH-LEVEL TALENT AND THE PROGRAM’S FIRST NCAA TITLE BY RYAN KENNEDY

F YOU’RE GOING TO play for coach Greg Carvel, expect some frank discussions. Embrace it, and you just might end up a national champion. Carvel and his staff at the University of Massachusetts have forged an identity that led to the Min ǯ ϐ ǡ ǡ Ǧ Ǥ

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CHARLES LECLAIRE-USA TODAY SPORTS

NCAA: MEN’S FROZEN FOUR

Cale Makar, Mario Ferraro and Zac Jones have all gone through Carvel’s system, and though San Jose ǯ D-man to be a hit, it’s no coincidence the program has thrived with blueliners. While all those alums are talented, mobile and offensively capable, those aren’t necessarily the traits the coach looks for in a defense recruit. “They have to be able to compete,” Carvel said. “I don’t care how well you skate or how good you are offensively, if you’re not willing to compete, you’re not for us. Mario Ferraro was the ultimate competitor. Zac Jones, we knew he would be a good offensive player, but we really pushed him with his play without the puck. I don’t know if anyone would have expected him after two years being ǯ ǡ ǡ ment he was outstanding offensively but just as good defensively.” ȋ Ȍ ȋ Ǥ Ȍ ǡ deep. In the Frozen Four title game against St. Cloud ǡ the 5-0 rout with a fantastic goal on the rush. The unheralded 5-foot-9, 165-pounder credits his coaches and the system for team success. “They allow for creativity and they want us to be involved in the play,” Ǥ ǲ ǡ a lot of people looking for bigger defensemen, but ‘Carvy’ takes pride in developing defensemen, and it all comes back to the culture and communication. We build from our defense out, good defense leads to offense, and up front we’ve got plenty of talented guys. It makes us a little more well-rounded.” ǡ ǯ freshing. “One way we sum it up is, ‘high trust, zero Ǥ Ǥǡǯ ǳ Ǥ ǲ ǯ players, coaches and staff and because of that trust, Ǥ Ǥ munication, but it’s hard to do that if you don’t have a Ǥ know you’re doing something in their best interest and they don’t take things personally, that’s when you become a high-functioning program. It’s not easy to get to, it’s not easy to maintain, but it’s about having ϐ ǡ holding everybody accountable to it.” Ǥ 2016, and the Minutemen were not in a good place Ǥ ϐ ǡ his coaching staff had to hold the players’ hands when it came to instilling the culture, but now the players themselves uphold the standards and demand it from recruits. “You can hold high-character kids to high standards because high-character people like to be challenged,” Carvel said. “When you come to our program, you’re going to feel a squeeze. If that squeeze feels like a hug, you’re in the right spot. If it feels like it’s suffocating you, you’re not in the right spot.”

ǡ Ǧ Ǧ radar junior player until a sensational performance Ǥ ǡ

CHAMPIONS

ISSUE

NCAA: WOMEN’S FROZEN FOUR

WISCONSIN GRABS SIXTH NATIONAL TITLE High-Wattage overtime ﬁnish in championship ﬁnal gives Badgers their third crown in the past decade

CARVEL’S CAVALRY

IT’S SAID YOU’VE GOT to be good to be lucky and

CARVEL: CHARLES LECLAIRE-USA TODAY SPORTS; LINDBERG: PHILIP G. PAVELY-USA TODAY SPORTS; BADGERS: WISCONSIN ATHLETICS

Thanks in large part to the leadership of their coach, the Minutemen bagged their ﬁrst NCAA title in 2021. ϐ Ǥ “Whenever we had a ǡǳ Ǥ ǲ

Ǥ Ǥǳ -

FILIP LINDBERG

I DON’T CARE HOW WELL YOU SKATE OR HOW GOOD YOU ARE OFFENSIVELY, IF YOU’RE NOT WILLING TO COMPETE, YOU’RE NOT FOR US

lucky to be good, and Wisconsin’s Daryl Watts’ titlewinning overtime goal checked both boxes. Watts is one of the NCAA’s most elite talents, the second-highest scorer in the pandemic-shortened year and a threetime finalist for and one-time winner of the Patty Kazmaier Award as top women’s player in the nation. But not even she could have calculated just how she’d lead Wisconsin to its second consecutive crown. The goal itself, which eluded goalie and 2021 ‘Patty Kaz’ winner Aerin Frankel, was the result of a friendly ricochet that sent Watts’ attempt from behind the net past the Northeastern keeper mere minutes into OT, giving the Badgers a 2-1 win. By capturing the 2019 and 2021 crowns – which constitutes backto-back victories following the cancellation of the 2020 tournament – Wisconsin moved into a tie as the winningest program in women’s hockey history. The Badgers’ six titles, three in the past decade, tie them with Minnesota as the gold standard in the collegiate game. Defeating Northeastern may have been Wisconsin’s toughest test, too. The top-ranked Huskies entered the final having lost just once all season and boasting three of the top-six highest-scoring players. For the Huskies, the heartbreak has a silver lining. It was Northeastern’s first trip to the Frozen Four, and with extended college eligibilities providing the opportunity for many players to return, the Huskies will be hungrier than ever next season. – JARED CLINTON

– Massachusetts coach Greg Carvel ϐ ǡ Ǧ Ǧͳͻ Ǥ ǡ ǡ Ǧ Ǥ ǲ ǡǳ Ǥ ǲ Ǥ ǡ Ǥ ǡ ǯ Ǥǳ ǡ Ǥ

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BOY OF

STEEL

CHAMPIONSHIP METTLE

A CHICAGO SQUAD CHOCK-FULL OF TALENT GETS ITS BIGGEST CONTRIBUTION FROM ITS YOUNGEST TROOP BY RYAN KENNEDY

HE CHICAGO STEEL STEAMROLLED

through the USHL regular season and playoffs with a loaded roster that was extra-stuffed thanks to players who needed a team when their leagues were cancelled or delayed. Montreal prospect Sean Farrell returned to the team when Harvard cancelled, while 2021 NHL draft prospect Jack Bar jumped over from the BCHL. And Chicago was already going to be great thanks to 2021 prospects such as Mackie Samoskevich and Matt Coronato. So, of course, in a year when the unexpected was the norm, it was the youngest player on the team who led the Steel to the Clark Cup. Center Adam Fantilli, the star 2023 draft prospect from Toronto, was named playoff MVP with eight goals and nine points in eight games, as Chicago swept Dubuque and Muskegon before defeating Fargo in the ϐ Ǥ ǡ ϐ Ǧ round draft pick but had to guarantee he would play at least 55 percent of the team’s games. As it turned out,

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The youngest player on Chicago’s roster, Fantilli was named playoff MVP. us,” Fantilli said. “We had a lot of great players who, when you put them into that system, it worked against pretty much anybody in the league.” Fantilli will return to the Steel next season but after that, his destination is unknown. He’s visited NCAA campuses such as Michigan and North Dakota, but he hasn’t shut the door on the OHL, either (Saginaw owns his rights). One thing we do know: wherever he goes, he’s going to put up numbers.

N AHL : ROBERT SON CUP

CRAZY-GOOD COLE GIVEN EVERYTHING THE WORLD has gone through in the past year-and-a-half, hockey players who got a chance to play this season were extra-grateful for COLE the opportunity. To win a title on top of it all? That’s HUDSON just plain exhilarating, a reward for all the hard work that goes into a championship campaign like the one put together by the NAHL’s Shreveport Mudbugs. “We deﬁnitely believed it, starting a couple of months ago,” said goalie Cole Hudson. “But if you told me in August, during COVID, that I’d be lifting the Robertson Cup, I’d call you crazy.” What’s crazy is how good Hudson was for the Mudbugs. The NCAA Vermont commit was playoff MVP after going 9-0 in the post-season with a 1.54 GAA and .941 save percentage. Shreveport beat a tough Aberdeen Wings team in the ﬁnal in a match-up between the two previous NAHL winners. – RYAN KENNEDY

FANTILLI: CHICAGO STEEL; HUDSON: SHREVEPORT MUDBUGS

U SHL : CL A RK CU P

he skated in nearly every game. But getting a chance to start the season in the press box gave him some good Ǥ ǲ ϐ ǡ got to see how connected our forwards and defense were in all three zones,” Fantilli said. “That was big, how we were able to work off each other in the neutral zone and transition into offensive-zone possession.” Fantilli, 16, made sure to watch the veteran Farrell in practice, and playing on a line with him and Josh Doan put Fantilli in great spots for offense. With a 6-foot-2, 190-pound frame, amazing wheels and sick hands, Fantilli had no problem cashing in those chances. And to think, he’ll have a bigger role on the Steel Ǥ ǯ Steel machine that’s running like the OHL’s successful London Knights system. “The way we approach things is development is the most important thing, especially the individual development of players,” said coach Brock Sheahan. “There were times where we’d play our roster a little differently than you would tradition Ǥ ǡ ǡ which helps the team get better.” An explosive offense helped, too. The Steel averaged 4.9 goals per game and had the top four scorers in the league with Farrell, Coronato, Doan and veteran Erik Middendorf. Early on, some teams tried to play trap hockey against Chicago, but the dam always eventually burst. “Our entire team bought into what the coaches were putting down for

CHAMPIONS

ISSUE

EC H L: K ELLY C UP

10 CUP FOR TH

KOMETS

FORT WAYNE WON ITS PREVIOUS NINE TITLES IN OTHER LEAGUES. SO THIS KELLY CUP TAKES ON EXTRA-SPECIAL MEANING BY JUSTIN COHN

SPHL: PENSACOLA ICE FLYERS; ECHL: FORT WAYNE KOMETS

HE ENDURING PICTURE OF the Fort Wayne Komets’ post-game celebration on July 2 was Shawn Szydlowski, long considered one of the ECHL’s best ǡ ϐ Ǥ ǲ ǯ ǡǳ ǡ ͵Ͳǡ Ǥ ǲ ǯ Ǥ Ǥǳ ǯ ʹǦͳ ǡ ͳͲǡͶ͹͹ ǡ ͵Ǧͳ Ǥ Ǥ Ǥ ǡ Ǥ ǲ ǯ ǡǳ Ǥ ǲ Ǥ ǡ Ǥ ͳͲ ǡ ϐ ǡ ǯ Ǥǳ ǡ ǡ ͳʹ Ǥ ͸ͻǦ Ǧ ǡ ʹͲͳʹǡ ǡ Ǥ ǡ ǡ ǡ ͳ͵ ǡ ϐ Ǥ ͹͹Ͳ Ǧͳͻ ǡ Ǥ ϐ ͵͸ ǡ ͳͻ ϐ ǡ ͺǡ͵ͷͷ Ȃ Ͷǡ͸ʹͷ ͵ǡ͹͵Ͳ Ȃ ǡ ǯ Ǥ ǡ ǡ ͳ͵ ͳʹ ǡ Ǥ ϐ ϐ Ǧ Ǧ ǣ

ǡ ǡ ǡ Ǥ Ǧ ǡ ͺǦͶǤ ǲ ǡǳ Ǥ ǲ ǯ ǡ Ǥ ǯ Ǥ Ǥ ǯ Ǥǳ ǡ ǡ ǡ ϐ Ǥ ǲ ǡǳ Ǥ

GARRETT MILAN & DOUG PRICE

SPHL: PRESIDENT’S CUP

STONE-COLD ICE FLYERS Only half the league could play due to COVID, but the SPHL managed to ﬁnish its season – with a surprise champion

THE PENSACOLA ICE FLYERS won a fourth President’s Cup title in the Southern Professional League, but this one occurred from their most improbable path. They went two months without a home win. They fell into a battle for fourth place and the league’s final playoff spot. And in mid-April, the Ice Flyers lost six of eight games. Like the flip of a light switch, however, everything quickly changed. They won four of their last five games to end the regular season, then swept through both best-of-three rounds in the playoffs by beating No. 2 seed Knoxville and regular-season winner Macon to claim another championship. “They’re all sweet,” said Ice Flyers coach Rod Aldoff, who has led the club to three of its four titles. “Winning is difficult by itself. Then you throw in everything connected with the pandemic. But everybody in the league had to go through the same things. That part was difficult.” The SPHL owners agreed in October to play a reduced schedule of 42 games, down from the normal 56 games. Only the five South Division teams – Pensacola, Birmingham, Macon, Huntsville and Knoxville – were able to play due to more relaxed arena policies in their locales. The road had some bumps – some teams were forced to cancel games or switch opponents on the fly – but the SPHL managed to navigate its way from its opening night on Dec. 26 through the year. “The main thing was we got through the season,” said Ice Flyers owner Greg Harris. “For everyone, that was the biggest win of all.” Next year, the SPHL will add an 11th team, the Vermilion County Bobcats in Danville, Ill., and the other five North Division teams will be back. It will be a business as normal when the season starts in mid-October. – BILL VILONA

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BACK IN

BUSINESS

THE AHL COULD HAVE CLOSED UP SHOP ENTIRELY IN 2020-21, BUT THAT WOULD’VE LEFT PROSPECTS WITHOUT A PLACE TO DEVELOP AND VETERAN MINOR-LEAGUERS WITHOUT A JOB FOR A FULL YEAR. NOW, AFTER BEING ON PACE TO SET RECORD REVENUES BEFORE THE PANDEMIC STRUCK, THE LEAGUE IS HOPING A FEW NEW WRINKLES WILL BRING FANS BACK TO THE RINK BY KEN CAMPBELL

HEN MINOR LEAGUE BASEBALL scrapped its 2020 season because of COVID-19, it left more than 8,000 prospects with no choice but to take Ǥ ϐ with MLB teams, it left them with no way to make a living. When faced with the same prospect this season, the AHL was home to 914 skaters

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and another 135 goalies. Of those players, 440 skaters played at least 20 games, while 44 goalies played 10 or more. That group of 484 players didn’t make a fortune, though, since they all took pay cuts. Many of the 1,049 total players to skate in the ‘A’ this season were veterans who rely on their minor-pro hockey career to put food on their family’s table. Forty-seven of those players were kids drafted in 2020, and 411 were AHL rookies. One of those freshmen was Phil Tomasino, a Nashville Predators prospect who would’ve had nowhere to play beyond the World Junior Championship had the AHL decided against starting up. Instead, at 19, he played in the best development league in the world, one where the hits are harder, the players faster, the games more rigorous and pucks far more challenging to put into the back of the net. ǲ ϐ ϐ ǡ ǡ Ǯ ǡ these guys are strong,’ ” Tomasino said. “It’s a lot different than junior in that the guys take it way more seriously. I found that even in battle drills in practice. In a normal year I would’ve had to wait until I was 20 Ǥ Ǧ Ǥǳ Let’s establish one thing here. The past year-and-ahalf has been a terrible time for everyone. But when Tomasino refers to it as a best-case scenario, like the AHL itself, it was simply a matter of making the best

LEFT: ERIC KRUSZYNSKI

AME RI C AN HO CKE Y LE A GU E

SEASON

IN REVIEW

of a bad situation. He played 29 games this season for the Chicago Wolves and tied for the team lead in scoring, averaging more than a point per game. Even though Tomasino didn’t play in the NHL in 2020-21, he was up with the Predators’ taxi squad and was a black ace in the playoffs. There’s no way he would have received that kind of development playing a fourth season in major junior. And now he’s that much closer to being a full-time Predators player next season because of the experience. “The primary reason we played this year was be ǡǳ ϐ Ǧ year AHL president Scott Howson. “(The NHL) didn’t want their players missing out on a year of develop-

ment. In baseball, thousands of players missed out on an entire year of development, and the NHL didn’t want that happening to their prospects this year. If you don’t develop players, it’s hard to sustain any type of success in the NHL.” So, you have to go searching for the silver linings in the cloud that has followed everyone around since March 2020, but they’re out there. And now, after two years of not awarding the Calder Cup, and with a new ϐ 30 years, the AHL is coming out the other side of the pandemic with a vision that includes an expanded ϐ fully supported the league since 1936 will make their

TRAINING GROUND

RIGHT: LINDSEY WILLHITE; BOTTOM: SHANE ABBITT

In peril of missing an entire year, Tomasino instead honed his game in the world’s top developmental league.

way back. It certainly helps that 19 of the league’s 31 teams – and 20 of 32 when the Seattle-owned Palm Springs team joins in 2022-23 – are owned by their NHL parent organization. But when you’re even more gate-driven than the NHL, playing in front of no fans requires a unique commitment, one the Milwaukee ǡ ϐ derbirds were not prepared to make. “We were on pace, when the pandemic hit, to set record levels on ticket sales and corporate sales, ǡǳ ǡ ϐ over from David Andrews in July 2020. “It was really hard for everybody to get this (season) in, but I’m really proud of the fact we got it in. And I thought it was a huge accomplishment for everyone involved in our league. I don’t get any sense that it’s going to affect anything we do going forward.” So, the AHL will pick up in 2021-22, but things will still be surrounded by uncertainty. Nobody knows what the Canada-U.S. border situation will look like in the fall and whether the NHL will continue using taxi squads, which would put a strain on the talent level in the AHL. And with Canada’s three major junior leagues presumably up and running, the likes ϐ ǡ ǡ

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who played in the AHL as teenagers this season, will either be in the NHL or back with their junior teams in 2021-22. But there will be some interesting wrinkles beginning next season. Let’s take a look at what’s coming:

EXPANDED PLAYOFFS ϐ from 16 will likely be disappointed for the foreseeable future, since there seems to be no desire to grant any additional post-season spots. But there might be a glimmer of hope. The AHL will increase its playoff participation beyond the top four teams in each division. And with the AHL being the NHL’s Petri dish when it comes to innovation, the big league will at least be watching. Howson still doesn’t know how the AHL playoffs will look yet, but the league will expand to at least 20 teams, possibly more. It could even go as high as 24, the way the NHL did during the bubble playoffs in 2020, with the top four teams in each conference receiving a bye while the next eight play a seeding round ͳ͸ ϐ Ǥ “There will be best-of-3 rounds at the beginning of the playoffs to get down to 16 teams,” Howson said. “It will be at least 20 teams, probably be in excess of that, but we’re still working through all of that.” Those who would like to see the NHL follow suit can take some encouragement in the fact the big league is completely onboard with the concept. Even

WE WERE ON PACE, WHEN THE PANDEMIC HIT, TO SET RECORD LEVELS ON TICKET SALES AND CORPORATE SALES, RECORD REVENUES

CALDER CUP CROWD The AHL is looking to expand its playoff format, including increasing the number of teams from 16 to 20 or more.

ϐ Ǥ Ǧͳͻ tiations have forced them to push their debut to the 2022-23 season and move their building to just north Ǥ ken on the new rink and it’s expected to be ready in the fall of 2022, so the team may have to play road ϐ Ǥ The Kraken, meanwhile, reached an agreement with the Florida Panthers to use the AHL Charlotte Checkers as a temporary home for their prospects. “Everybody goes through cycles and maybe your

SCOTT HOWSON

if it doesn’t want to open its own playoffs up to more teams at the moment, the NHL does want to see its prospects playing in more meaningful games, something that will materialize with expanded AHL playoff races and more teams in the post-season. “And there’s a business aspect to it, too,” Howson said. “For our teams, it’s a positive thing to make the playoffs. It helps your fan base and gives you a more positive outlook on the season.”

WHITHER SEATTLE?

In a perfect world for the AHL, there would be perfect symmetry with the NHL in terms of the number of teams, with each big ϐ ate. That was supposed to be the case in 2021-22 with the Seattle Kraken. The plan was for the Kraken’s farm team to take up residence in its new arena in Palm Springs, Calif., and join the AHL’s

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CALDER CUP: THOMAS SKRLJ/MLSE; HOWSON: PHOTO COURTESY OF THE AHL

– Scott Howson, AHL president

SEASON

IN REVIEW

THERE’S A BUSINESS ASPECT TO IT, TOO. FOR OUR TEAMS, IT’S A POSITIVE THING TO MAKE THE PLAYOFFS. IT HELPS YOUR FAN BASE AND GIVES YOU A MORE POSITIVE OUTLOOK ON THE SEASON – Howson on expanded playoffs

three divisions playing 72 or 76. In fact, teams in the same divisions will be playing a disparate number of games. So for next season, placings in each division and league-wide will be based on points percentage. “We just said, ‘This year is a transition year, you can do whatever you want,’ ” Howson said. “It’s not ideal, but it wasn’t fair to force everybody into the same number of games this year. Some teams wanted to go to 72 right away because they think that’s better for a number of reasons. But some of our teams said, ‘Look, we’ve already gone out to our season-ticket holders and we’re selling (38 home games) and we can’t drag that back now.”

ON THE MOVE

The Vancouver Canucks owned the Utica Comets and have relocated the franchise to Abbotsford, B.C., ϐ Ǧ and brings the organization’s prospects to within an hour of Vancouver. It should be a massive boon to the Canucks in terms of both managing the salary cap and accessing its prospects. They will now be able to call up a player in the morning and have him in the lineup at home that night if needed. The Canucks have not had that luxury since 1975, when they were using Ǧ ϐ Ǥ Canucks stars Henrik and Daniel Sedin joining the hockey-operations department, they’ll be on hand to follow the progress of the team’s prospects. The New Jersey Devils, owners of the Binghamton Devils, will take the place of the Canucks in Utica and put their prospects there. All the other NHL-AHL ϐ Ǥ

NO MAJOR RULE CHANGES

prospects are already on the team or in college, so ǯ ϐ League roster and you have to go out and sign them,” Howson said. While the agreement wasn’t in place at ǡ ϐ ϐ ǡ ϐ rebuilding its prospect pool. They found that partnership with the Panthers and AHL Charlotte.

MOORE: MICHELLE JAY/NWHL

ONE MORE UNBALANCED SEASON in 2015 until 2018-19, three divisions played 76 ǡ ϐ playing 68. The league is striving for each team to play ϐ ͹ʹǦ ʹͲʹʹǦʹ͵Ǥ ǡ ʹͲʹͳǦʹʹ season will be a complete hodgepodge, with teams in ϐ ͸ͺǡ

NEW FACE IN PLACE Coming over from the NWHL, Moore joins the AHL’s front office as vice-president of hockey operations.

When it comes to the on-ice product, the AHL almost always takes its cue from the NHL, so any rule changes would almost certainly be implemented at ϐ Ǥ ǡ prior to the 2020-21 season Howson hired Hayley Moore from the National Women’s League as the AHL’s vice-president of hockey operations. She replaced Michael Murray, who left to join the Minnesota Wild. As chief disciplinarian, Moore kept up the same standard Murray had established, handing out about the same number of suspensions on a prorated basis. “I was surprised that players knew we weren’t playing for a Calder Cup this year, but we had a lot of discipline requests and automatic reviews,” Howson said. “Hayley was dealing with it almost…I don’t want to say daily, but there were a lot more than we were anticipating.” ϐ ǡ during the NHL playoffs was the inconsistency in calls and the number of infractions missed or ignored. And earlier in the season, the Tim Peel controversy brought to light the issue of game management at the NHL level. It remains to be seen whether there will be Ǧ ϐ Ǥ son said that from what he has seen, the league that ǯ ϐ endure the same negative scrutiny. ǲ ϐ ated,” Howson said. “It certainly didn’t get the attention in our league (that it got in the NHL).”

CHA MP I ONS 20 21

T HE HO CKE Y NEW S | 7 1 |

W EST ER N HOCKEY LEA GU E

PREPPED FOR

SUCCESS

VEGAS PROSPECT PEYTON KREBS IS AMONG THE WHL STAR PLAYERS WHO SHONE DURING THE LEAGUE’S PANDEMIC-SHORTENED SCHEDULE. THAT’S NO COINCIDENCE. THE BASE WAS LAID ALMOST A YEAR AGO – AND THE BUBBLES NEVER BURST BY RYAN KENNEDY

SUALLY, A REGULAR SEASON ǡ

ʹͶǦ ǡ ϐ Ǥ ǡ ǡ Ǯ ǯ Ǥ Ǥ Ͷ͵ ʹͶ ǡ Ǥ Ǧ ϐ ȋ Ǧ Ȍ ǡ Ǥ ǡ Ǥ ǡ Ǥ

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CH AM PION S 20 2 1

ǡ ʹͲͳͻ ϐ Ǧ ǡ Ǥ ǡ ǯ ʹͲʹͳ Ǥ ǲ ǡǳ Ǥ ǲ ǡ Ǧ Ǥ ǡ Ǥ ǡ ǡ ǯ Ǥǳ ǡ Ȃ Ȃ ϐ ʹͲʹͲǤ ǡ ǡ ǯ Ǧ Ǥ ǡ Ǥ Ǣ ǯ ͳ͸ Ǥ ǡ ǡ ǯ ϐ ǡ ϐ Ǥ ǡ ǡ ǡ Ǥ ʹͲ ǡ ǡ ϐ ϐ Ǥ

ǡ Ǥ Ǧ

KREBS: WINNIPEG ICE

The 2020-21 WHL season was Krebs’ third hockey bubble in the past year, after the NHL and WJC.

SEASON

IN REVIEW

SHANE WRIGHT

ON TARIO H OCKEY L EAGU E

NO HOCKEY AT HOME? MAY AS WELL TRAVEL

WRIGHT: TERRY WILSON / OHL IMAGES; MUSTY: STEVEN ELLIS/THE HOCKEY NEWS; WOLF: CHRIS MAST/EVERETT SILVERTIPS

LONE WOLF TIMES TWO

rable to the AHL’s pace, but going back to the ‘Dub’ initially presented a challenge. “Actually, going down a level from the AHL to the WHL was the Everett netminder Wolf hardest for me,” he said. “It’s easier to speed up, and claimed the WHL’s it’s harder to slow down, you have slower and youngtop-goalie honors for the er guys in the WHL. So, it was easier for me to go up second straight season. a level than down a level, which was an interesting takeaway for me. But once I got used to the WHL again, I was sailing.” No kidding. Krebs had the same linemates in Winnipeg as he did last season, in Philadelphia Flyers prospect Connor McClennon and big left winger Owen Peder Ȃ ϐ ͳǦʹǦ͵ Ǥ Krebs wasn’t the only marquee star who lived up to his billing. For the second straight season, Everett’s Dustin Wolf was named WHL goalie of the year, ϐ to a Silvertips netminder (Carter Hart won it three times). Wolf, a Calgary Flames ǡ ͳͺǦ͵ǦͲ ǤͻͶͲ ͳǤͺͲ Ǧ for Everett, as the team won the U.S. Division. And, of course, there was Connor Bedard, the phenom center with the Regina Ǥ ǡ ϐ ǡ ǡ ʹͺ ͳͷ ǯ Ǧͳͺ team (where he was named to the tournament’s all-star team and helped Canada win gold). Had Bedard not departed for international duty, he would have challenged Krebs for MVP honors.

BEING MY THIRD BUBBLE, I KNEW WHAT TO EXPECT. IT IS A MENTAL GRIND FOR SURE, BUT ONCE YOU GET ON THE ICE, IT’S GREAT – Peyton Krebs

The COVID-19 pandemic wiped out the season entirely, but several OHLers made noise on the international stage

SINCE THE OHL HAD no season, we can only look to the future when discussing the 2020-21 campaign. Shane Wright, the Kingston Frontenacs phenom, captained Canada to gold at the world under-18s, with Sarnia Sting ace Benjamin Gaudreau between the pipes and a host of other OHLers making valuable contributions. A number of Gaudreau’s 2021 NHL draft class peers headed to Europe to get games in, from Brennan Othmann and Mason McTavish in Switzerland to Brandt Clarke in Slovakia and Francesco Pinelli in Slovenia (all four were on the world under-18 squad, too). The most intriguing OHL news was the league draft, where the Sudbury Wolves won an open lottery to pick first overall. The franchise that took Quinton Byfield first overall in 2018 went with another ‘Q’ three years later, taking Buffalo product Quentin Musty, most recently of the national champion North Jersey Avalanche. While the talented left winger could have gone to the U.S. NTDP, he liked what the OHL had to offer. “For me it was being able to practise and play against older competition every day,” Musty said. “It’s hockey first, and you’re around the rink all the time.” Already 6-foot-3 and 181 pounds, Musty has some serious beast potential – and he doesn’t mind sharing. “I really like generating chances for my teammates,” he said. “I like to make plays and facilitate the puck. My linemates had the same mindset so we all got our share of points this year.” The OHL has released plans to have Musty’s Wolves and the rest of the league return to a standard schedule for 2021-22. – RYAN KENNEDY

QUENTIN MUSTY

Perhaps most impressive about Bedard’s offensive output is how much he cre Ǥ ǡ ǯ on sublime individual efforts where he weaved through – or blew past – opponents.

ǡ Ǥ ʹͲǦʹǦͳ ʹͲʹͳ ǣ ǤͻͶͳ ǡ

ǯ Ǧͳͺ Ǥ Ǥ ϐ Ǧ ǡ ͵͵ ͳͻ Ǥ ʹͲʹͳǦʹʹǤ

CHA MPI ON S 20 21

THE HOCK E Y NE W S | 73 |

NHL

FOR UP-TO-THE-MINUTE COVERAGE, VISIT THEHOCKEYNEWS.COM

MONTREAL CANADIENS

FORTUNE SMILES IN MONTREAL M

Cauﬁeld’s sunny disposition is undampened by his critics – and his future is as bright as his Cheshire-cat grin BY KEN CAMPBELL

ORE

THAN

FOUR

decades ago, Magic Johnson played his ϐ Ǧ Ǥ Ǥ ʹ͸ Ǧ ǡ Ǧ Ǧ ͳͲ͵ǦͳͲʹ ǡ

| 74 | THE H OC KE Y N EWS

Ǧ Ǥ ȋ ǡ ǡ ǤȌ Ǧ Ǧ and jumping up and down and ǡ ǡ ͺͳ Ǥ ǫ ǡ ǯ ϐ ʹͲǦ Ǧ ǯ ϐ

C HA MPI ON S 2 021

Ǧ Ǥ ǡ ǡ Ǥ Ǧ ϐ joie de vivre Ǧ Ǥ ǲ ǥ ǯ ǡǳ Ǧ Ǥ ǲ ǯ ǡ ǯ Ǧ Ǥǳ ǣ ǲ ǡ ǯ ϐ Ǥ ǯ Ǥ Ǧ ǡ ǯ jumping up and down and sayǦ ǡ Ǯ ǡ Ǥǯ ǳ ǡ Ǥ ϐ ǡ ϐ

ǡ Ǧ Ǥ Ǧ ǯ ǯ Ǥ ǯ ǯ Ǥ ǯ Ǥ Ǧ Ǥ ǡ ǯ Ǧ ǡ ǯ Ǧ Ǥ ǲ ǡǳ Ǧ ϐ ǡ ǯ Ǥ ǲ ǯ Ǥ ǡ ǡ Ǥ Ǥǳ ϐ ǡ Ǧ ǯ Ǧ ǡ ǡ ͳͻͺͲǡ Ǧ Ǥ

NICK TURCHIARO-USA TODAY SPORTS

76 CENTRAL: KUNIN COMES UP BIG 78 PACIFIC: BOUCHARD’S BIG SHOT 80 METRO: RISE OF ROSLOVIC 82 ATLANTIC: BENNETT LOVING THE SUN

ERIC BOLTE-USA TODAY SPORTS

NHL he did so, he talked about how he was ready to take his next career step and how he’s always adapted to his competition. And he was right. After scoring three goals and four points in just two games with ǡ ϐ opportunity in Montreal with gusto. He was scratched for ϐ ǡ then drew in and almost immediately became a differencemaker – going from healthy scratch to go-to offensive threat and playing the right point on ϐ Ǧ Ǥ ability to adapt goes back to the days when – in order to play with 1999-born brother Brock – he played two years ahead with the Stevens Point

ǡ ϐ Ǥ ϐ sin. But in seventh grade, and in search of the better competition that accompanies joining a Ǧ ǡ Illinois, making three-hour weekend trips from Stevens ǡ Ǥǡ ǡ Ǥ him, they didn’t mind that he couldn’t practise with them, and would instead practise ǯ consin on weekdays. It was in those years Cauϐ ǯ Ǥ ǡ Ǥ As everyone knows, ‘Goal’ Cauϐ Ǧ scorer-in-waiting, a player who ϐ Ǥ be the case when you outscore Auston Matthews by almost 50 ǯ set the all-time program record. And then you score another 49 goals in 67 games at the college level, picking up a Hobey Baker Award along the way. But what must have the Canadiens so ϐ ability he showed – albeit in a small body of work – to add Ǥ ǡ ϐ to be as good, or perhaps better, of a set-up man than a goal Ǥ ǡ

Kessel, a goal hound whose ability to distribute the puck is hugely underrated and underappreciated. “Some people put some labels on me early on that I was a goal-scorer, and there’s a lot more to my game than that,” ϐ Ǥ ǲ proving people wrong is something that I continue to do.” One person who didn’t need to see any proof was Paul Cauϐ ǡ Ǧ scorer in his own right. Paul is ϐ ǡ in Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., with ǡ sin and worked as an electrician after his career in minor

QUICK PAYOFF Cauﬁeld drew into Montreal’s lineup three games into the playoffs. His impact was profound and immediate.

ǡ were well-established. But with Jack Hughes on the team, coach ϐ ϐ and develop into a triggerman. Growing up playing for a small town with no more than a ǡ ϐ help make his teammates better. Since most of them lacked ǡ ϐ -

YEAH, HE’S SMALL. SO WHAT? HE’S STRONGER ON HIS SKATES THAN MOST PLAYERS – Wisconsin coach Tony Granato and semi-pro hockey. Paul – the all-time leading scorer for Ǧ Stevens Point, where he won Ǥ

onships – has seen the other side of his son since he started playing. In fact, Paul maintained ϐ

self controlling the puck and trying to set them up to make Ǥ he went to Ann Arbor, Mich., and played with the best group Ǥ ǲ ǡ goodness, those guys have eyes

in the back of their heads,” Paul ϐ Ǥ ǲ ǡ Ǯ ǡ he’s not the set-up guy, he’s the triggerman,’ and that’s the role he played. A lot of that can be ǡ I don’t think he gets enough credit for Cole’s development.” ϐ we saw in this year’s playoffs is what we can expect to see for a long time. “I don’t think he wins the Cy Young Award, but I don’t think he goes the other way, either,” Paul said. “I think it’s probably a 50-50 split. ǡ Cy Young guy (126 goals, 54 assists over two seasons). He ϐ Ǥǳ ǡ ǡ is concerned, the hockey world ϐ Ǥ ǲ head is working, his skating ability is underrated,” Granato said. “I think his strength is underrated. Yeah, he’s small. So ǫ ǫ ǫ ǡ better than most other players. He’s stronger on his skates than most other players, and he’s quicker in getting out of ϐ Ǥǳ ϐ ǡ along with Jesperi Kotkaniemi, the sense of despair palpable in Montreal early in the playoffs was replaced by an abundance of optimism and hope. ered and given some real juice to the veterans, with each of them contributing in one way Ǥ ϐ the lineup three games into the playoffs, and that’s when things started to turn for the Ǥ Maple Leafs coach Sheldon Keefe acknowledged that. Canadiens, even if they overachieved in the 2021 playoffs, are on the cusp of something Ǥ ǲ ǡǳ ϐ ǡ ǲ ǯ not focused on what’s going on for the next 10 years.”

C HA MPI O NS 20 21

TH E HO C K EY N EW S | 75 |

NHL STRETCH RUN Kunin found his scoring touch late in the season, including a hot streak that helped send Nashville to the playoffs.

IT TOOK ME A LITTLE LONGER TO FIND WHAT I NEEDED TO DO TO FIT IN AND HELP THIS TEAM HAVE SUCCESS

NASHVILLE PREDATORS

A SPECIAL KIND OF PLAYER I Kunin has always been a little slow out of the gate, but he’s made a habit of catching up on the back stretch

F YOU DID NOT

ǯ ǡ ʹͲʹͲǦʹͳ Ȃ ϐ Ȃ out as sort of a Cliff’s Notes version. Ǧͳͻ ǡ -

| 76 | THE H OCKE Y NE W S

Ǥ ǡ former. And the hopes for what ǡ ǡ Ǥ ǡ

C HA M PI ONS 2021

the Predators invested heavily in forwards who helped them reach the 2017 Stanley Cup ϐ ȋ ǡ tor Arvidsson) or were perceived as ȋ Ȍǡ ϐ desired return on the millions they have paid out to this point. season that did not last past the ϐ ǡ ǣ sional resumes and contracts Ǥ ǲ ͳͲ ǡǳ vid Poile at the start of the off Ǥ ǲȋ Ȍ ͵Ͳ

ǡ ǡ Ǥǳ ǡ ʹ͵Ǧ Ǧ ϐ ǡ Ǥǡ Ǥ ͳͲ ǡ ͳͲ ϐ ͳ͹ ǡ ǯ ϐ Ǥ capped that stretch with two ǡ ǡ a victory over Carolina that as Ǧ Ǥ ǯ immediately after he missed a Ǥ ϐ ϐ ǡ ǡ Nashville was 14-6-1 with him Ǥ ǡ ͳǡ Ͷ ǡ Ǧ Ǥ ǲ ǡ ǡ ǯ ϐ ϐ in and help this team have suc ǡǳ Ǥ ǲ with some pretty special play Ǥ ǡ Ǥǳ ǯ ͳͲ Ǧ ǡ ʹͷǤ Ǥ ǡ

CHRISTOPHER HANEWINCKEL-USA TODAY SPORTS

– Luke Kunin

CENTRAL DIVISION example, has not scored more than 15 goals since 2014-15. Duchene’s goals-per-game average in two seasons with Nashville is two-thirds his career average, and Forsberg’s shooting percentage has decreased steadily and dramatically the past three seasons. Plus, Kunin, who can play center or the wing, has a background that gives him an appreciation for whatever chances come his way that is unique compared to most others who pursue NHL careers.

it won gold at the 2017 world juniors, captain in just his second (and last) year at Wiscon ϐ Ǧ ȋͳͷ overall) by Minnesota in 2016. The Predators acquired him in a trade with the Wild during the 2020 draft as part of an attempt to get younger and more physically challenging in ǯ ϐ coach. Nashville signed Kunin to a two-year, $4.6-million contract in January, which makes the 2021-22 season an important one for him.

READY TO BREAK OUT

Left winger BRANDON HAGEL cemented himself a spot in the middle of the Blackhawks’ lineup this season with nine goals and 24 points in 52 games. That caught the eye of Team Canada’s brass for the World Championship and he went on to win a gold medal in Latvia. Across Chicago’s final 15 games, Hagel saw second-line minutes, played the power play and penalty kill and earned overtime duty, where he responded with two game-winners. The Blackhawks have shown a knack for uncovering gems, and Hagel looks to be the latest who can help Chicago take a step forward. Colorado’s salary-cap math has shifted from basic addition to advanced calculus, and GM Joe Sakic will have to rely on costeffectiveness in the coming years. Enter center ALEX NEWHOOK. The 20-year-old set the AHL on fire – five goals and nine points in eight games – after departing Boston College, and got his feet wet with the Avalanche, skating in six regular-season games and then notching a goal and two points in eight playoff games. Newhook playing steady middle-six minutes next season isn’t farfetched, and he can be the Avalanche’s next big weapon. Jason Robertson’s rookie season overshadowed DENIS GURIANOV’S stellar sophomore campaign, but the 24-year-old right winger looks ready to prove he’s among Dallas’ key drivers. He was already one of the Stars’ most active shooters, second only to Joe Pavelski in shots this season (139-130), and Gurianov is only beginning to round into his final goal-scoring form. Further settling into his power-play role will lead to increased production, and if he lines up alongside a healthy Tyler Seguin next season, Gurianov stands to shatter his previous career bests of 20 goals and 30 points. JOEL ERIKSSON EK is no secret in Minnesota, but the Wild pivot is on the cusp of becoming one of the league’s most lauded two-way centers. His six-year journey since being drafted in the first round of 2015 has been meandering, marked by fits, starts and chatter last season that he needed a change of scenery. Today, his place is no longer in question. He posted career-best offensive totals this season, but the 24-year-old’s work without the puck drew the most praise. He’s found his game, and next season – armed with a new eight-year, $42-million contract – he’s primed to enter the Selke Trophy race.

LUKE KUNIN & ERIK HAULA

I DEFINITELY THINK I HAVE THE TALENT TO PLAY WITH SOME VERY SKILLED PLAYERS – Luke Kunin He was only 12 when physical issues created doubt about whether he would get this far, or even come close. It took time, ϐ he had Type 1 diabetes. He not only learned to live with the condition, he thrived in the face of it and did so with a passion and perspective that has been recognized virtually every step of the way. As a teenager, he was captain for the U.S. when

Kunin can become an RFA next summer, when four forwards currently under contract, including Forsberg, are scheduled to become UFAs. “Whatever they think that

ϐ ǡ ǯ do that,” Kunin said. “But I ϐ ent to play with some very skilled players like they have and help them have success offensively.” – DAVID BOCLAIR

EELI TOLVANEN was a victim of expectations. The right winger was the No. 7-ranked prospect league-wide in Future Watch 2018. His KHL and Olympic performances created a runaway hype train that derailed upon arrival in Nashville. Given consistent NHL minutes this season, however, Tolvanen hit his stride. He weaponized his rocket of a shot, finishing the campaign with 11 goals and 22 points, and the goal-starved Predators finally found a way to embrace his strengths. Though Tolvanen, 22, still has plenty of room to develop, he appears all set to get the hype train back on its tracks. First it was Robert Thomas, then Jordan Kyrou, and now it’s SAMMY BLAIS’ turn to take the next step. Though the 25-year-old’s point totals were buoyed by an unsustainable 25.8 shooting percentage, it should be said he generated plenty of offensive opportunities for St. Louis. At even strength, he was among the club’s best players at individual scoring chances and generating high-danger chances. Blais is unlikely to become an elite, top-line talent, but transforming into a full-fledged second- or thirdline scoring threat is well within the realm of possibility as soon as next season. Though he spent much of the season in a bit role in Winnipeg, right winger MASON APPLETON had moments in which astute observers saw potential for greater heights. Appleton became an integral part of the Jets’ arsenal, and the 25-year-old’s output of 12 goals and 25 points in 56 games was eye-opening for those waiting to see if the offensive upside evident during his college (Michigan State) and AHL (Manitoba) days would translate to the NHL. Much like Andrew Copp this season, Appleton has the tools to take an expanded role in the middle-six and run with it.

CHA MP ION S 20 21

THE HOCK E Y N EW S | 77 |

NHL THE METER IS RUNNING Bouchard spent the NHL season with Edmonton, but managed to play just 14 games during taxi-squad duty.

HE HAS A GREAT FUTURE WITH OUR TEAM. WE HAVE TO CONTINUE TO DEVELOP HIS GAME

EDMONTON OILERS

SLOW-COOK METHOD T

The Oilers want Bouchard to force them to play him more rather than simply gifting him a top-four job on the blueline

HE EDMONTON OILERS ARE

ϐ there are no guarantees when it comes to prospect defensemen reaching their full potential. Defense is the hardest position in the game, and it takes years to fully master. But they are convinced it’s not a matter of if Evan Bouchard blossoms into a top-four, puck-moving, right-shot blue-

| 78 | T H E HO C KE Y NEW S

liner who can quarterback the league’s best power play, but when. That time is not far off given the 21-year-old is expected to be a regular next season, and he’ll be given every opportunity to promote himself from rookie to impact player. “He has a great future with our team,” said coach Dave Tippett. “We have to continue to grow and develop his game. We’re

CH AM PIO NS 2 02 1

fortunate to have a good development system.” There seems no doubt Bouchard is on the verge of a breakthrough. The only thing up for debate is how the path should be laid out – throw him into the deep end and allow his natural talent to take it from there, or pull on the reins a little until he leaves the organization no choice but to let him run. The Oilers have been taking it slow – this is not the same regime that bungled the development of D-man Justin Schultz when he was 22 and wound up losing a valuable asset – but Tippett and GM Ken Holland both feel Bouchard’s trajectory is on track for 2021-22. From there, it will depend on what the rest of the blueline looks like. If the Oilers re-sign

Tyson Barrie or add another top-pairing puck-mover, or Ethan Bear takes a step forward offensively, Bouchard could be eased into softer minutes and less responsibility, which is a good thing for a young D-man.

ǯ ϐ Ǧ end, right-shot puck-mover, then the 10th overall pick in ʹͲͳͺ ϐ those needs. And there aren’t many who don’t think he can. In terms of offense, Bouchard is more than NHL-ready. He sees the ice like an seasoned pro, he skates well, has an excellent passing game and a unique knack for getting his point shot through to the net. Throw in a poise and maturity, on the ice and off, that belies his age and it’s easy to see why the Oilers have such high hopes for him. He put up 36 points in 54 games as an AHL rookie in 2019-20, and had 17 points in 23 games this season while on loan to Sodertalje in Sweden during the COVID-19 shutdown. Not to mention, he ϐ points in 14 NHL appearances. Bouchard knows how to generate offense wherever he plays, so that part of his game is not a concern and will only get better ϐ Ǥ Where he needs to improve is

BOB FRID-USA TODAY SPORTS

– Oilers coach Dave Tippett

PACIFIC DIVISION on the defensive side. He has enough offensive skill that some defensive shortcomings can be overlooked, but being a top-four D-man also means being able to shut down top-six forwards on the other team. ϐ Ǧ playoff exits, the Oilers are due for a longer playoff run and that’s where a young defenseman, if he isn’t solid in his own end, can be a weak link. So, ideally, Edmonton wants to

it in purgatory. The Oilers were good down the right side with Barrie, Adam Larsson and Bear, so they didn’t need Bouchard. And with mandatory international quarantines and border closures, sending him to the AHL wasn’t appealing, either. So, after starting the season on loan to Sweden, he spent most of the year on the Oilers’ taxi squad. It wasn’t a perfect situation, but the taxi-squad practice sessions kept him

READY TO BREAK OUT

The school of thought that 20-year-old TREVOR ZEGRAS will be broken in slowly over the next couple years and get sheltered minutes in Anaheim’s middle-six is about to be blown out of the water. The No. 1 prospect in Future Watch 2021 is ready for prime time. He’s coming off a 24-game NHL trial in which he averaged just over 15 minutes and scored three goals. Anything less than 18 minutes a game and top-line duty next season will be a surprise. If he’s not your favorite for the Calder Trophy, he should be. Is left winger MICHAEL BUNTING the real deal, or is he a career minorleaguer who hit a hot patch? Look for the Coyotes to make every attempt to re-sign the pending UFA in the hopes of finding out. The 25-year-old scored at nearly a 40-goal pace in 21 games this season. Bunting only topped 20 goals once in five AHL seasons, but – assuming he returns – his excellent shot and the lack of forward depth in Arizona will keep the door open for him to earn a regular shift and thrive on the second power-play unit. You could easily make the case ANDREW MANGIAPANE has broken out already. He finished this season strong and was named the top player at the World Championship in Latvia after leading Canada to the gold medal. But there’s another level, and Mangiapane is on the cusp of it. It wouldn’t surprise anyone if consecutive seasons of 17 and 18 goals gave way to something in the 25-30 neighborhood. Mangiapane is a superb 5-on-5 player who will surely command regular duty on the power play as well. JESSE PULJUJARVI made tremendous headway this season, finally living up to the grandiose expectations of being selected fourth overall in 2016. The 23-year-old power forward played with purpose and poise, and the productivity followed after a few seasons of frustration. His 13 even-strength goals in 55 games ranked fourth on the team, just two behind kingpin Leon Draisaitl. When Puljujarvi is able to iron out some cold stretches and add a level of consistency, there’s a whole new threshold within reach. The way GABE VILARDI ended the year has Kings fans wishing the new season started sooner rather than later. The 21-year-old center finished his rookie NHL term with a flourish, scoring three goals and five points in his final six games, then playing all 10 games for Canada in its gold-medal run at the World Championship. So that was a lot of hockey for a player who has missed more than 100 games due to injuries over the past four years. Vilardi will work on his faceoff skills and consistency next season.

EVAN BOUCHARD

MARC DESROSIERS-USA TODAY SPORTS

I HAD A LOT OF TIME TO WORK ON THE THINGS I WANTED TO, SPECIFICALLY MY SKATING – Evan Bouchard keep him on the third pairing, cherry-pick his spots, get him some power-play time, and let him deserve more than he’s getting rather than giving him more than he can handle and then being frustrated by costly mistakes. Then, if he begins to ϐ ǡ ed, he makes an Oilers’ position of strength even stronger. In terms of development this season, Bouchard spent most of

sharp and hungry, and the post-practice workouts with Oilers skating coach David Pelletier strengthened his power and agility. “It’s tough, everyone wants to play, but you have to take advantage of what’s given to you,” Bouchard said. “I had a lot of time to work on the things I ǡ ϐ ing. It was good to take advantage of that.” – ROB TYCHKOWSKI

RUDOLFS BALCERS waited too long to make a signiﬁcant impact with the Sharks to have a promising second debut evaporate on him. The 24-year-old left winger was one of the top offensive prospects in the San Jose system when he was dealt to Ottawa in the Erik Karlsson trade of 2018. After a couple of good growth years with the Senators, Balcers was claimed on waivers by the Sharks and made a lasting impact in 41 games this season. His biggest strength is a good release and touch around the net. The Canucks need to get smarter on defense, and they’ll move in that direction when Harvard alum JACK RATHBONE works his way up the rotation and starts making a difference on Vancouver’s power-play unit. The crafty, ﬂeet-footed blueliner plays with poise and assertiveness, especially with the puck in tow. He made a solid impression in eight games this season and will surely break out as a special-teams contributor in 2021-22. Rathbone will be a nice complement to Quinn Hughes. NICOLAS ROY and Keegan Kolesar both punched their ticket in the NHL this season with physical, power-forward traits that make a difference in all three zones. They’re both on near league-minimum deals so affordability on a cap-crunched team is another important attribute. Their blue-collar styles have won them playing opportunity on any line, and they’ve shown the ability to rise up the lineup when the competition gets tougher. And they’ve also both shown they can have success around the net as well.

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NHL FEELING AT HOME, FINALLY

COLUMBUS BLUE JACKETS

BUCKEYE STATE BREAKOUT S

Roslovic has emerged as the unexpected shining star of the NHL’s biggest blockbuster trade of the 2020-21 season

OMETIMES, YOU TAKE A

Ǥ ǡ Jack Roslovic returns ϐ one of his legendary off-season workouts, you decide to open the conversation with, “Hi, I was hoping to speak to the best player in the Pierre-Luc DuboisPatrik Laine trade.” Then you wait. And gulp. “And that would

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be…?” is the received response. “Just so I know who we’re talking about.” Well played, Mr. Roslovic. Well played. ǡ those words also describe Roslovic’s season. Far better, in fact, than they do the principal components of the season’s foremost blockbuster trade. When Columbus Blue Jackets

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GM Jarmo Kekalainen decided to deal Dubois to the Winnipeg Jets, he wanted Laine in return, to be sure. But he also insisted on the inclusion of the son of John and Jane Roslovic, original seasonticket holders of the Blue Jackets. There haven’t been many seminal moments in Blue Jackets history, but Jack Roslovic has been there for some of the bigger ones. The most prominent came when he was 17 and watched Brandon Dubinsky tie Game 4 of Colum ǯ ʹͲͳͶ ϐ Ǧ against the Pittsburgh Penguins with just 22.5 seconds remaining. Dubinsky had an all-time great goal celebration and, sit ϐ 104, right behind the visitors’ bench at Nationwide Arena, Roslovic celebrated right along.

That Roslovic, of all players involved, would have the most productive season was almost inconceivable when Columbus and Winnipeg agreed to the swap. After all, Dubois was coming off a monster playoff in which he established himself as a legitimate No. 1 center, and Laine was, well, Laine. Roslovic, ǡ ϐ into Winnipeg’s jammed depth chart and was in the midst of a contract dispute with the team that held him out of camp. But lo and behold, both Dubois and Laine underachieved, and Roslovic achieved. “I knew that for myself, I was not just a throw-in, at least for Columbus,” Roslovic said. “And I knew they were going to give me the opportunity that Winnipeg never gave me. And that was to play center and a legitimate chance to play center. No one had ever seen me at what I call (my) natural position.” It really should have worked out better for both sides in Winnipeg. After acquiring the ǯ ϐ Ǧ pick in the massive Evander Kane trade in 2015, the Jets took Roslovic 25th overall from ǯ Development Program, where he starred on the top line with Auston Matthews and Matthew Tkachuk. (Look Ma, no Michigan, Massachusetts or Minnesota!) He came to Winnipeg as a skilled player in an organization that puts a premium on that dimension. Even though Roslovic would blow his teammates away an Ǧ ϐ testing, the combination of inconsistent play and the Jets’ embarrassment of riches at forward seemed to continually push him down the depth chart. He thought of himself as a natural center, but the Jets had him play primarily on the wing. When he did get a chance to show his stuff, he would display

AARON DOSTER-USA TODAY SPORTS

Roslovic, a Columbus native, says the Blue Jackets gave him his ﬁrst true shot at his natural center position.

METRO DIVISION spurts of the untapped poten ǡ Ǥ

Ǧ conundrum. The player main ǡ Ǥ ǡ ǡ ed the player had to play both better and more consistently to earn more ice time. “It could ϐ ǡǳ Ǥ ǲ ǯ

marker. But there’s no doubt Roslovic could be on the verge of breaking out offensively. The pressure of playing in a Canadi ϐ by performing in his home ǡ Ǥ ǯ ϐ use his 2020-21 success as a springboard. He is heartened by the on- and off-ice chemistry -

READY TO BREAK OUT

With the WHL season starting late, SETH JARVIS got a chance to strut his stuff with the pros in the AHL, and the 19-year-old did not disappoint. Jarvis was a terror for Chicago, using his skill and hockey sense to post seven goals and 11 points in nine games. It seems like a crime to return him to junior next season, and with his ability to play center or right wing, he’d give the Canes options up front. Carolina has a lot of free-agent forwards and the expansion draft to consider, so Jarvis has a chance to make it. With Seth Jones likely gone via trade soon, an already thin Blue Jackets blueline is looking even more threadbare. Luckily, ANDREW PEEKE has been slowly growing his game, and the big Notre Dame product is ready to accelerate. Known more for his defensive play at the beginning of his career, Peeke showed nice offensive chops with AHL Cleveland and chipped in three assists during 11 games with Columbus. Peeke’s value increases further thanks to the fact he’s a right-handed shot, just like Jones. The Devils are starting to form an intriguing blueline and rookie Ty Smith showed off his offense this season, but for a totally different look, KEVIN BAHL is one to watch. At 6-foot-6 and 230 pounds, Bahl is basically a Smith-and-a-half, though Bahl’s game is different. With incredible reach and great strength, he’s the type of defender who can help a team’s penalty-killing unit. He saw his first NHL action this season, playing seven games. The Devils don’t have a lot of stoppers on the blueline, so there’s a lane for Bahl. If you’re going to play for the Isles, you have to fit in – even if you’re a high draft pick. NOAH DOBSON, a first-rounder in 2018, has done his part so far on the blueline, playing around 14 minutes per game in the post-season. But despite playing the least of any regular D-man, the youngster was leading New York’s blueline in playoff scoring. That’s no surprise since Dobson has a tantalizing combination of high-end skating, puck skills and size. He’ll get a bigger role next season, and that will lead to even more points.

JACK ROSLOVIC

JEROME MIRON-USA TODAY SPORTS

THEY WERE GOING TO GIVE ME THE OPPORTUNITY WINNIPEG NEVER (DID). A CHANCE TO PLAY CENTER – Jack Roslovic to get the player you drafted.

ǯ ǡ ǯ Ǥ Ǥǳ With the opportunity to play Ǧ ǡ ǡ ͳʹ ͵Ͷ Ͷͺ Ǥ ʹͲ ǡ ǯ ϐ Ǧ Ǥ ǡ

ǡ ʹͲͳͶ Ǥ “My job is to be the best I ǡǳ Ǥ ǲ ǯ couple teammates that live in ǡ ǡ Ǥ ϐ ǡ and help the team and carry the team along and be good Ǥǳ – KEN CAMPBELL

Nothing was easy at the start of the season for the Rangers, but as time went on, the future began to crystallize. ALEXIS LAFRENIERE, the first overall pick in the 2020 draft, was an example of that. Initially the 19-year-old struggled to find his footing, but as the season wore on, his confidence grew, and Lafreniere put up seven of his 21 points in the final nine games. Based on his compete level and skill demonstrated in junior, a sophomore jump is inevitable for Lafreniere, especially with a great cast surrounding him. After an exemplary two years at NCAA Michigan, defenseman CAM YORK made his pro debut this season and he was an instant hit. The Anaheim native put up five points in eight games for AHL Lehigh Valley, then got into some NHL action at the end of the year, averaging nearly 20 minutes of ice time in three contests. York has great mobility and poise with the puck. Philadelphia’s blueline has been a problem area for a couple years, so there’s room for York’s skill set – especially with Shayne Gostisbehere struggling. Pittsburgh has survived in recent years thanks to Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and a host of underdogs who have meshed with the two superstars. But the time has long passed for some true elite talent to come up to the big squad and SAMUEL POULIN is on his way. The rare Penguins first-rounder who still belongs to the team, Poulin has the compete level, hockey sense and pro shot to be a difference-maker – especially if he’s given talented linemates to play off. Poulin can make an impact right away. Yet another junior prospect who benefitted from AHL experience this year, CONNOR MCMICHAEL was lights-out for the Hershey Bears, leading the team with 27 points in 33 games. And he was only there because there was no OHL season to play. McMichael has the skills and versatility to thrive against men. With uncertainty surrounding Evgeny Kuznetsov in Washington, McMichael is in a good position to make an impact as a rookie. At worst, the center would be an offensive upgrade over Lars Eller or Nic Dowd.

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NHL THE FLORIDA EFFECT Bennett’s ice time increased by ﬁve minutes per game and he saw action on both special teams.

SOMETIMES THAT’S ALL IT TAKES, A LITTLE BIT OF A CHANGE, A GM AND A COACH THAT BELIEVE IN YOU

FLORIDA PANTHERS

SUNNY DAYS AHEAD FOR SAM B Bennett’s newfound conﬁdence under coach Quenneville translates to the scoresheet in Florida as well

EFORE GOING TO TORONTO

for the summer, Sam Bennett spent his last days in South Florida soaking up what it had to offer. Trips to the beach for sun and a deep-sea ϐ Panthers teammates Aaron Ekblad and Jonathan Huberdeau left the relative newcomer feeling positive about making the tropical locale his new home.

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Outside of getting to enjoy ϐ ǡ ϐ ǡ again excited about his future on the ice. “A lot of people talked to me about how a change of scenery can really revitalize a career and change the way things go,” Bennett said. “I knew I still had a lot more to give and more to show as a player. I thought I could do a lot

CHAM PI ONS 2 021

more than what I was doing in Calgary. Sometimes that’s all it takes, a little bit of a change, a GM and a coach that believe in you and that’s ϐ got in Florida.” Traded by the Flames with a sixth-round pick in 2022 to Florida for prospect Emil Heineman and a 2022 secondround choice moments before the April trade deadline, the 25-year-old struggled to meet expectations in Calgary. The fourth overall pick in 2014 and highest selection in Flames history, Bennett impressed with ͵͸ ϐ ǡ ϐ ͳͳ scorers in a class which included Connor McDavid, Artemi Panarin and Jack Eichel. But Bennett’s production and ice time declined amidst numerous role changes with the Flames.

Bennett’s stint in Calgary may not have produced the results he hoped for, but the experience primed him for joining the Panthers. He supplanted Alex Wennberg as Florida’s No. 2 center upon arriving. The infusion of high-energy ϐ mix among Huberdeau, Anthony Duclair and, later, rookie Owen Tippett. “I got to play with some great players,” Bennett said. “They helped me as well. All that, put together with ϐ ǡ think that was the recipe to have success early.” After joining Florida, Bennett appeared on the scoresheet in Ǥ ϐ with six goals – half of them winners – and 15 points in 10 regular-season games. The Holland Landing, Ont., native also maintained his reputation as ϐ ϐ ϐ Ǧ round loss to Tampa Bay. ϐ in all areas. Averaging slightly more than 18 minutes per game, up from his 13:28 while in Calgary, Bennett’s duties also ǯ ϐ power-play unit and on the penalty kill. “The opportunity alone was a ton,” Bennett said. ϐ

KIM KLEMENT-USA TODAY SPORTS

– Sam Bennett

ATLANTIC DIVISION ϐ ǯ end, cementing the Cats up the middle with Aleksander Barkov, Noel Acciari and prospect Anton Lundell. Should Florida ϐ or in a pinch on the wing, Bennett is “comfortable” with skating to the outside as well. ϐ ǯ is when his intensity crosses a line. Though Bennett is not a habitual offender, his absence can be glaring. During Florida’s ϐ Ǧ ǡ pended for the Game 2 loss af-

has had a transformative effect on his play. “He’s a coach that once he trusts you and believes in you, he’ll put you in situations to succeed,” Bennett said. “He gives pointers here and there and advice. But he’ll let you play hockey, too. It’s been unbelievable and I couldn’t be happier with my time under ‘Q.’ ” Florida still needs to get Bennett, a restricted free agent, under contract. The center’s seamless transition and success in Florida suggests GM Bill Zito will have that sorted out soon.

SAM BENNETT

READY TO BREAK OUT

When Tuukka Rask got injured, Jaroslav Halak got COVID-19 and Dan Vladar scuffled, the Bruins turned to JEREMY SWAYMAN. Carrying the pedigree of a tremendous NCAA career with Maine, which included winning the Mike Richter Award in 2019-20, Swayman made the NHL look easy. He won his debut, stopping 40 of 42 shots, and went 7-3-0 with a .945 SP. With Halak a UFA and Rask a UFA whose hip surgery will keep him out until 2022, Swayman has an excellent chance to open 2021-22 as Boston’s starter. CASEY MITTELSTADT began his NHL career as a bust relative to the expectations. But he enjoyed a post-hype surge with the pressure off on a terrible Sabres team this season. Operating as Buffalo’s secondline center, Mittelstadt managed nine goals and 17 points in his ﬁnal 22 games – a 34-goal, 63-point pace. He’s just 22, and his raw offensive skill is undeniable. His advanced scoring metrics didn’t actually improve much, but his ice time spiked signiﬁcantly. More minutes will yield more output. Didn’t JAKUB VRANA already break out? He was a top-six forward in Washington, after all. But he may have a bigger breakout coming, as suggested by eight goals in 11 games with the Red Wings. In his three seasons with the Caps before the trade, he ranked sixth in goals per game among NHL forwards with 1,000-plus minutes at 5-on-5, but he was 257th in ice time. In Detroit, Vrana’s ice time jumped by almost three minutes. He was already one of the league’s most efficient scorers. Now he has volume on his side. When the Panthers fell behind 3-1 in Round 1 against Tampa Bay, they felt comfortable handing the keys in an elimination game to a rookie who’d started three career NHL regular-season games. That’s how much the organization trusts SPENCER KNIGHT already, and he delivered by stopping 36 of 37 shots in his playoff debut. With Chris Driedger’s contract up and Sergei Bobrovsky looking inconsistent at best, Knight will at minimum become the 1B stopper, with the upside to become a star-caliber No. 1. Despite debuting in the NHL in 2018-19, JESPERI KOTKANIEMI is exactly six months younger than Alexander Romanov, who debuted on Montreal’s blueline this season. The point being: while the Habs still look bad for passing on Brady Tkachuk to select Kotkaniemi third overall in 2018, there’s still time for him, as indicated by his 25-goal pace in the past two post-seasons. There’s a good chance the door opens for Kotkaniemi to play more next season due to the likelihood of Montreal losing key UFA forwards.

SAM NAVARRO-USA TODAY SPORTS

THE BENEFIT OF THE LIFESTYLE IN FLORIDA IS ALWAYS GOOD. IT’S GOOD FOR YOUR MOOD – Sam Bennett ter boarding Tampa Bay’s Blake Coleman. When Bennett was in the lineup, he had four trips to the penalty box and the Bolts’ deadly power play capitalized three times. If the Panthers have learned anything in two seasons under coach Joel Quenneville, though, ϐ effect on players erasing blemishes. Bennett notes playing under the three-time Cup winner

Bennett will return to Florida in September, with time for a ϐ tuna in the Atlantic Ocean before players gather for training camp. Thankful for the change of scenery, Bennett is hopeful this environment will last. ǲ ϐ Florida is always good,” he said. “It’s good for your mood. It’s good for everything. I’m excited about that.” – ERIN BROWN

Youngsters Josh Norris and Drake Batherson took huge steps this season. The next breakout? Tim Stutzle is the easy pick, but don’t overlook slick puck-moving blueliner ERIK BRANNSTROM, acquired from Vegas in the Mark Stone trade in 2019. Brannstrom struggled with his confidence and was mothballed on the taxi squad at times early in the season, but he earned second-pair work after Mike Reilly was dealt. Brannstrom was a different player over the season’s final month and, at 21, has elite upside. Time and again, the Lightning develop marginal prospects into viable NHLers. ROSS COLTON is the latest. He joined Tampa Bay as a mature rookie at 24 and delivered nine goals in 30 games despite just 10:34 of ice time per game. Among forwards who played 200-plus minutes at 5-on-5, only four players averaged more goals per 60 than Colton. Yes, he had the luxury of insulated matchups, but, on a loaded Bolts team, he’ll continue to face other teams’ weaker competition. A 20-goal campaign is within reach in 2021-22. If you woke up from a year-long coma and someone said, “Robertson was a Calder Trophy finalist this season,” you’d assume it was NICK ROBERTSON, not brother Jason. Don’t forget about Nick, though. As the Leafs’ maxed-out payroll continues to squeeze middle-tier contributors out, GM Kyle Dubas increasingly must rely on players with entry-level AAVs to step up. Robertson, a gifted goal-scorer with a lethal shot, will get every opportunity to crack Toronto’s top six. He’s a 2021-22 Calder sleeper.

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WOMEN’S

SECRET TO SUCCESS T

HE ACCOUTREMENTS

accompanying MariePhilip Poulin to the postgame podium were usual championship-celebration fare. The swim goggles, the halfempty champagne bottles, the beer, it was all standard issue. Beyond Poulin and the rest of Montreal-based Team Bauer’s standard-issue basking in the aftermath of their Secret Cup title, as winners of the Canadian leg of the PWHPA’s 2021 Dream Gap Tour, there was also uniqueness in their revelry. All involved were celebrating the PWHPA’s massive accomplishment and the fact they had, at long last, played meaningful games. For a long while, that was no guarantee. The COVID-19 pandemic threw into disarray any plans the PWHPA had fashioned

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for 2021. Players still practised when they could – and prepared however possible – but ever-evolving health guidelines and protocols made scheduling Dream Gap Tour games remarkably challenging. It wasn’t until active cases declined and vaccinations increased that a partnership with the New York Rangers, announced in February, placed game days on the ϐ time in nearly a year. Still, Hockey Hall of Famer and PWHPA operations consultant Jayna Hefford held her breath. But through quarantines, protocols and testing, all was clear. Events in New York and Chicago went off without a hitch. A potential COVID exposure postponed two games in St. Louis, but the rescheduled contests were played without incident. The same went for the entirety of the Calgary-based

CHAM PION S 20 21

Canadian tournament. “Until ϐ of testing, you’re always kind of on edge,” Hefford said. “Thankfully, we got through it all in the Canadian event and our U.S. events without positive tests, and that’s how we measure success at this point.” Beyond the actual on-ice action, the biggest success for the PWHPA may well have

GAME ON Under Hefford’s stewardship as operations consultant, the PWHPA is in good shape despite the pandemic.

come on the balance sheet. Throughout the PWHPA’s twoyear history, the organization has been able to pride itself on garnering levels of sponsorship

TOP: DAVE HOLLAND/PWHPA; HEFFORD: HEATHER POLLOCK/PWHPA

The PWHPA’s inaugural season hit a snag with COVID, but its mission to change the hockey landscape is intact BY JARED CLINTON

WOMEN’S TEAM BAUER BASKS A “standard” celebration provided the PWHPA champs with a sense of normalcy after an uncertain year.

support previously unseen in women’s hockey. Big-name brands such as Secret, Bauer and Budweiser were on board early, and though the pandemic could have given cause ϐ cially, those sponsors continued to step up while still others hopped on board.

“Of course, every partner wants to see the bottom line and value for their money, so we try to be creative in how we provide that value,” Hefford said. “At the end of the day, the partners we work with on a consistent basis are so amazing to work with, and that commitment to what we’re trying to accomplish here hasn’t wavered at all. That’s pretty impressive in these challenging times.” The question now, however, is what the PWHPA will look like next season when, with any luck, the pandemic subsides

MARIE-PHILIP POULIN

DAVE HOLLAND/PWHPA

ANN-RENEE DESBIENS & JAIME BOURBONNAIS

and reopenings allow for fans to, once again, pack the stands at tour stops. One of Hefford’s hopes is the PWHPA Dream Gap Tour will have a return to normalcy. In its inaugural touring season, four-team events were spread across weekend schedules in select cities. But even if that’s again the case, the PWHPA will have to contend with the challenges presented by the buildup to an Olympic year. By Hefford’s count, more than 40 PWHPA players – including all its brightest stars, such as Poulin, Hilary Knight, Brianna Decker and Rebecca Johnston – will head to nationalteam centralization camps ahead of the 2022 Beijing Winter Games. Depending on the ϐ ǡ or more than one-third of the entire PWHPA player base, which Hefford said was 125 this season. But despite the lack of Canadian and American superstar-caliber talents, Hefford ϐ continue to draw fan support and corporate backing. Her assurance stems from the association’s depth and the fact that, historically, it has been the seasons in which nationalteam players have been absent

that have led to breakthroughs and star-making opportunities. “If we want to move the game forward and create something truly professional, it can’t just be about 20 Canadians and 20 Americans,” she said. “It’s beyond that, and we want to show that talent exists and there will be great hockey to play.” Showcasing the depth of the organization, and, in turn, the depth of the game’s talent, will serve the PWHPA well in its attempt to capitalize on the Olympic-driven buzz for women’s hockey seen every four years. And it gives Hefford hope an organization still in its infan ǡ ϐ the women’s hockey landscape, can continue taking those steps. “When you look at the sponsorship support, the way we’ve evolved from a players’ association that was just a bunch of players who came together and wanted to have a voice, to getting to where we got to this season, even with COVID, where players are earning money at every single event, we’ve come a long way in a short period of time, with very little infrastruc ǡǳ Ǥ ǲ ǯ ϐ nitely happy with the success we’ve had, but there’s so much further we want to go.”

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TH E HO CK E Y NE W S | 85 |

REWIND POCKET ACES Carnegie starred for the Quebec Aces in the early 1950s, and was a teammate of Jean Beliveau for two years.

side the greatest names in the history of the game. To that long overdue end, Rane and his family have put together a petition that now boasts more than 9,000 signatures. At the same time, they’re creating a proposal highlighting Carnegie’s Hall of Fame credentials that they intend to submit to the organization’s board of directors by March 2022 in advance of next year’s candidate vote. Rane feels the petition promotes a dual purpose. “In a way, people can show support for the triumph for equality while also supporting putting my grandfather in the Hall of Fame where he belongs,” he said. “(Some people) may not be comfortable with certain displays of solidarity…but everyone loves Grandpa!”

will secure what I feel should be an eventuality.” Rane’s evaluation of his grandfather is accurate. On three occasions (1946, 1947 and 1949), Carnegie was named MVP of the Quebec Provincial League/Quebec Senior League, the senior circuit that Maurice Richard played in before jumping to the Montreal Canadiens. There, Carnegie not only turned heads but earned the respect of fans, foes and teammates alike. One of his teammates at that level was Jean Beliveau. Before embarking on his legendary career with the Canadiens, Beliveau skated alongside Carnegie with the Quebec Aces during the early 1950s. In his book, Jean Beliveau: My Life in Hockey, written with Chrys Goyens and Allan Turowetz, Beliveau knew why his fellow Ace would not follow him into the NHL. “It is my belief that Herbie was excluded from the NHL because of his color,” Beliveau said. “He certainly had the talent and was very popular

HELPING HERB TO THE HALL

Carnegie never got the chance to face the best. But a movement is afoot to open the door to the Hall of Fame, where many feel he belongs BY WILL MACLAREN reaching the NHL was, in many cases, one part skill, one part luck. In this time before the streamlined scouting services ϐ in the 21st century, the right person needed to come along at the right time and place a contract under a player’s nose to set their professional course. At the time, the phrase “hidden talent” held something of a double meaning. Then there was Herb Carnegie, the player who not so much hid in plain sight but, because

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of the color of his skin, had the persona of the Invisible Man placed on his head like a laurel of poison ivy. “My grandfather knew he was one of the best,” said Carnegie’s grandson Rane. “He felt he deserved an opportunity to try and see how he’d compete against the best of the world and unfortunately never got that. There was a lot of disappointment there.” Herb Carnegie may not have been allowed to test himself against the very best in the world. But if Rane has anything to say about it, his grandfather ϐ -

CH AM PIO NS 2 02 1

MANNY MCINTYRE, HERB CARNEGIE & OSSIE CARNEGIE

Recent developments have also been put in place to further engrain Carnegie’s legacy as a philanthropist. In early ǡ Ǧ Ǧ ϐ zation The Carnegie Initiative was launched to promote opportunity, inclusion and equality at all levels of the game. “We feel this announcement will help make an ironclad case for his induction,” Rane said. “It

with the fans, who would reward his great playmaking with prolonged standing ovations, both at home and on the road. Perhaps they suspected his color was an issue with the NHL, but it wasn’t with them.” Regarded by many as the best Black player never to play in the NHL during the Original Six era, Carnegie was offered ϐ

HHOF IMAGES

ANY DECADES AGO,

REWIND

HERB’S VARSITY TEAM

TOP: LE STUDIO DU HOCKEY/HHOF IMAGES; MIDDLE: PHOTOS COURTESY OF BERNICE CARNEGIE

Carnegie was born in Toronto and played as a teenager for Northern Vocational School in the late 1930s.

projects and dialogues were started, and I was getting a lot of calls from my Caucasian friends, who wanted to show their support and allyship, if there was anything they could do to let them know.” ϐ of support and awareness that ϐ the game at more than a cursory trickle. But the plight – or slight, if you will – of his family causes these statements and sentiments to ring somewhat hollow. “You’re talking about Hockey is for Everyone and eradicating racism,” he said. “Well, if you’re really serious about it, give my grandfather his roses. Until we do that, I have to question why everyone who’s trying to eradicate racism is not doing what they need to do to get my grandfather into the Hall of Fame. He endured all of it. I’m hoping the allyship we’re seeing is going to bring this change along.” At day’s end, Rane’s singular goal is to prevent his grandfather from becoming the Invisible Man yet again. “Just based on the resume, how do you say no?” Rane said. “He was a great man who had no personal issues at all. In fact, the only controversy he generated was by being Black. Here’s a guy who was Black, blind in one eye, playing hockey during an apartheid era yet made himself the most vulnerable person by trying to help others.

RANE CARNEGIE

minor-league deal with the New York Rangers in 1948 when he was 28. It was reportedly for less money than he was earning in the Quebec League. But that was the closest he ever came to the NHL. Instead, he spent nine years in Quebec’s top senior league and another in Ontario’s before retiring from the game.

HERB & RANE CARNEGIE

MY GRANDFATHER KNEW HE WAS ONE OF THE BEST. HE FELT HE DESERVED AN OPPORTUNITY TO TRY AND SEE HOW HE’D COMPETE AGAINST THE BEST OF THE WORLD AND UNFORTUNATELY NEVER GOT THAT – Rane Carnegie, Herb’s grandson Though frustrated, Carnegie turned those setbacks into positives. Following his playing days, he became a successful businessman with Investors Group and, in 1955, created ǡ ϐ hockey school in Canada. As the years piled on, so did the recognition: the Orders

of both Ontario and Canada and induction into the Canadian and Ontario Sports Hall of Fame. By the time he died at 92 in 2012, Carnegie was nothing short of a legend. In an effort to gain recognition from the Hockey Halls of Fame, Rane, a talented player in his own right as a star with

the QMJHL Halifax Mooseh ϐ the pro ranks, has taken recent tragedies and turned them into linchpins of awareness for the ϐ ǯ cause. “When George Floyd was murdered, it really woke something up in me,” Rane said. “A lot of great initiatives and

“I’m hoping for a surprise call from the Hall saying we’re going to induct your grandfather this November,” he said. “We need to come together more than ever. This is a chance for the Hall to step outside the norm and include just one more person, because it’s the right thing to do.”

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BUSINESS

DYLAN, ADAM & LARRY ROBBINS

PEER-TO-PEER

brought the kids to your home, you’ve brought the kids to your rink, you not only build their skills and provide them with the opportunity to build their skills on the ice, but you’re actually mentoring them off the ice as well. LR: The best coach I’ve ever met is the one who gets off the bus with the best 20 players. But there’s a process to making them the best 20 players, and so knowing that hockey is a people ǡ ϐ happened is the North Jersey Avalanche opened their Rolodex to me and we found Dan ϐ Ǥ was almost a one-man band in

Robbins’ ﬁngerprints can be found all over the success of the USHL-champion Chicago Steel. It all starts with his commitment to the team and the program WITH W. GRAEME ROUSTAN

S PART OF HIS Peer-toPeer series, THN owner and publisher W. Graeme Roustan spoke to Chicago Steel owner Larry Robbins. W. GRAEME ROUSTAN: People who know you behind the scenes know that you’re a Mr. Hockey guy, you’re a total hockey guy, you grew up playing hockey, hockey runs in your veins. Do you want to talk a little bit about your ϐ ϐ of hockey? LARRY ROBBINS: I was fortunate enough to grow up in the Chicago suburbs and started playing hockey in Glenview, Ill. My company, Glenview Capital, was named after my ϐ that every success that people have in business, or in life, is in large part based upon the lessons they learn as children in new sports and group activities. And like many kids, I was dragged to the rink because my ǡ ǡ ϐ

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skater. So I showed up at the ice ϐ saw some kids playing hockey, and I said, “Hey, I want to do that.” My father was a wrestler and a basketball player in college but never really stepped foot on the ice. But both my parents, Barbara and Sheldon, were very supportive of us trying to do anything new. And thus began a lifelong love of the ǡ ϐ Ǥ WGR: Larry, you’re a team guy. Total community, your employees love you, the hockey community just thinks the world of you. So the next step for you was to buy a team and build a winner. Talk to me about the thought process about buying the Chicago Steel? What were you excited about getting into the ownership space? LR: I was presented, quite a while ago, some opportunities to buy into NHL franchises. But given my commitments to both work and family, I didn’t think I had the time to be a full-time CEO of Glenview, a committed father, and to take on the chal-

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lenges that it would take to be an NHL owner. I’m a big believer in the apprenticeship model, and that we all should learn and develop from those who know more than us. And I thought, frankly, it would be the height of arrogance for me to have never owned a sports-related business of any kind, to try to sit next to a community of owners, which are so sophisticated, and so knowledgeable and experienced in the NHL boardrooms. And so just like I went to the University of Pennsylvania to learn about accounting and ϐ my craft, I thought the USHL as the Tier I junior league, the ϐ Ǥ Ǥǡ I thought that would be a great place for me to learn from my fellow USHL owners, to learn about the business, but most importantly, to learn about how you develop talent. So I bought the Chicago Steel six years ago, and it’s been a passion project ever since, and, like most endeavors I’ve done, I’ve learned far more from it than I’ve contributed to it. And I’m grateful for the experience. WGR: You’ve built a culture there, a winning culture. We’ve heard stories that you’ve

terms of going in and establishing that winning culture, he had won a national championship as an assistant at Yale, I had known him from his recruiting trips with one of my own sons, who went to visit him. And so, Dan Muse, who after two years went on to join the bench of the Nashville Predators, did a phenomenal job of establishing the honest competitiveness but also the culture and the pride. What I would say is that from Day 1, we sent out a note to all the kids and families and adults that are involved with the Steel. And we made two commitments to them. No. 1 is we were committed to being a development organization. And that’s true, not only of the kids that come here and play, to elevate their games to get to college and pro hockey, but also, as you mentioned, success beyond that, in life. And also with the adults in hockey operations and the coaching staff. And I’m super proud of the fact that we’ve not only put one but now two coaches in the pros. Greg Moore is coach of the (AHL Toronto) Marlies, and I think he’ll be doing a phenomenal job in pro hockey for a long period of time. Our GM, Ryan Hardy, is being

PHOTOS COURTESY OF CHICAGO STEEL

1-On-1 with LARRY ROBBINS

BUSINESS heavily coveted by a number of Ǥ sure we were committed to be a development culture and that we understand that it’s actually an honor and a privilege to have relationships with people for a couple of years and help them Ǥ the second thing is, we said that we’re going to relentlessly Ǥ everything I know about team competition, whether it be in business, or supporting schools that want to grow, or whether it be on the ice, it’s got to be some combination of skill development, but also a fundamental desire to compete, and compete Ǥ the most fun thing about the ǯ ȋ Ȍ draft or that we’ve had team Ǥ ǡ you should see the practices, you should see the intensity of the practices, the small-ice

ed giving out hammers, it’s a Ǥ six years of passion and purpose, that leadership team has Ǥ WGR: Every owner at every Ǥ Ǥ feel when you did that?

New York, that’s the people on the ground in Chicago doing the day-to-day work that deserve ϐ Ǥ what I would say is that when we won the Clark Cup this year, it did feel personal, it felt personal because two of my sons were on the team, because my

competition, three of my own ǡ ǡ ǯ ǡ ǡ are forwards, have had the op ǡ as well as to be part of that culture and to compete as athletes Ǥ ǡ ǡ ǡ to love what you do and have day, that’s really what comes Ǥ ǡ -

LR: We won the Clark Cup Ǥ ǫ Ǥ ǡ Ǥ the boys, and I was elated for Ǥ ǡ in and completely changed the Ǥ elated for really everybody in Ǥ ǯ Ǥ ǡ ǡ ǯ from a distance, I’m out here in

son Adam had a game-winner in Game 2 and had the apple on ͶǤ I could share that with family, that I could see them have their moment up close, that Ǥ ϐ ǡ especially proud for our coach Ǥ in the middle of last season, after Greg went on to coach the

LARRY & JUSTIN ROBBINS

Ǥ there were questions about what happens when you lose a coach in the middle of the sea Ǥ been the winningest coach in Ǥ ϐ Ǥ ǡ Ǥ still award the Anderson Cup ǯ Ǥ ary team a season-and-a-half ago, and I felt so badly those ǯ ϐ Ǥ incredible building in Fargo with an incredible atmosphere, what they’ve done with that program is amazing, and I’m Ǥ able to stand there and see and Mike Garman and Ryan trophy, which is really a multi ǡ Ǥ WGR: now interest you a little bit more than it did before because now you have the experience? LR: ǡ ǡ ǯ Ǥ ǯ Ǥ look much older, I’m only 51, and when I started Glenview, I said it was going to be a 30 Ǥ ǯ ʹͳ Ǥ ǡ people have entrusted us with Ǥ Whether for retirees and pensioners, whether it’s for charitable endowments, or whether it’s for their own families or institutions, and that business deserves my full and undi Ǥ ǡ mentioned, I have two young Ǥ ǡ ǡ ǯ ϐ work-life balance that allows us to both feed the soul but also Ǥ don’t think that I’m right now in a position where I could really Ǥ

> Watch the full Q&A with Larry Robbins at TheHockeyNews.com/P2P C HA MP I ONS 2 02 1

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BUSINESS

PEER-TO-PEER

1-On-1 with

DAN LEHV

The president of the USHL’s title-winning Steel discusses his life in hockey and the pandemic’s impact WITH W. GRAEME ROUSTAN

S PART OF HIS Peer-toPeer series, THN owner and publisher W. Graeme Roustan spoke to Dan Lehv, the president of the USHL’s Chicago Steel. W. GRAEME ROUSTAN: Tell us about your background and what got you into sports. DAN LEHV: It actually started in basketball. I grew up in White Plains, N.Y., just north of New York City. I was playing JV basketball, I was a sophomore at White Plains High School. The year before, the varsity team won the state championship, and here I am, 5-foot-8, averaging maybe four minutes a game on JV and maybe two points a game. Midway through the season, the varsity ϐ ǡ and I’m thinking, “This is the end of my basketball career.” He sits me down and says, “Dan,

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we’d like to move you up to varsity, we think this is the time to move you up.” And I’m saying, “Coach, I actually thought if there was a spot on the freshman team and I could get some more time, that that would be a ϐ Ǥ ǯ stand why you want to move me up to varsity.” And he says, “We’ve been doing the math, and if we move you up right now, the average grade-point average for the team is going to rise just enough that you’ll be eligible for sectionals and the entire team will be.” So from that point on, I knew my career in sports wouldn’t be on the hard court or the ice or the diamond. And that’s when I dove into the business side full time. WGR: You won the USHL’s executive of the year award. What was that like for you? DL: It was really rewarding, because it’s voted on by your peers. And I take a lot of pride

CHA M PIO NS 2021

not only in my work as president of the Chicago Steel but in my work as a member of the executive committee for the USHL. It’s really been important since I entered the league in Dubuque to be a part of the greater conversation and help this league move forward. To be honored as executive of the year was incredibly rewarding, even more rewarding because it was the second time I had been honored with the award, also back in 2012-13 in Dubuque. So that sense of accomplishment that, hey, I’ve been recognized not only for my work with one franchise, but with two, was really special. WGR: What were the some of the challenges you faced as an executive during the pandemic? DL: First and foremost, it was whether or not we would have the opportunity to play this season, both from a league standpoint and a team standpoint. From a league standpoint, in February 2020, our commissioner, Tom Garrity, called me and said, “Dan, I want you to come into the bunker ǡ ǯ ϐ out a way that we can make it through COVID, I’m not sure you know, we’re hearing all of the news. At some point, our season may stop, we’re go ϐ to get back on the ice.” Then from a team standpoint, we

began working with the local health department in Kane County, reaching out to them and starting to develop a plan and protocol to get us back on the ice, assuming again that the season was at some point probably going to be halted. Then, in March 2020, obviously, it happened. Incredibly demoralizing from a team perspective, because our season in 201920 was unlike any other in the history of the USHL, we were on pace to set virtually every offensive record. We had won 41 of 49 games. It seemed like we were going to break every USHL record when the season was halted and the players that were there, particularly the ones that would be moving on, didn’t have an opportunity ϐ Ǥ then the challenge became how do we get back on the ice for the 2020-21 season, and from a league perspective that meant working with 16 different teams in 16 different markets across eight different states. So, like the NHL teams that dealt with this, we transitioned a lot of our assets to digital and ϐ fans. We held a fan connection series in which we did pretty much everything that we do during the course of the year, over Zoom. We targeted new fans and existing fans, we had our coaches record videos that were targeted towards youth hockey players and coaches. And we did something for our corporate partners, setting them up with ways that they could reach our fan base. It was full steam ahead, we’re going to ϐ can to make sure to maintain that connection with our fans. Beyond the Clark Cup championship, winning the regularseason title, all those things, the most rewarding thing this season was the fact that our players have the opportunity to look back and say, “This was the best year of my life.” And how many people are going to say that about 2020?

> Watch the full Q&A with Dan Lehv at TheHockeyNews.com/P2P

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BUSINESS

PEER-TO-PEER

looking at the Saint Paul Hotel, and in that hotel are the Vegas Golden Knights. In fact, the referees are starting to walk over ǡ ǯ ϐ a half game out of the top eight in our conference. I’m just like, “Oh my god, there’s so many things going through my mind, can’t we wait until tomorrow? At least let us play the game, we’re all here, everything’s happening, we bought the food, it’s all going.” So, there were so many things happening. And it took me a while to come to grips with all of that, and the suddenness of that moment made me think, “What is going to happen in the future, what ǯ ϐ ǫǳ It was a terrible, sad day. And then, of course, I had to make a ton of phone calls, and everyone’s asking me the same questions that I was asking Gary. It was not one of the happy moments of my life. It was one of

time, we weren’t even using the word “pandemic”…but once ǲ ϐ ǳ ǡ be ready to go. So that’s all I was hoping, the pause to me was a week or two, my sincere hope was to get past that and reopen the season and add another week or two onto the season. WGR: So you had to switch gears and get your executive ϐ Ǥ ϐ with your business team like? CL: My assistant was in the ϐ ǡ ǯ last times she’s been in the ofϐ Ǥ ǡ ǲ you call Matt and Jeff and Billy and Leah, and get everybody, ǯ ϐ Ǥǳ then I told them what was happening. We had Levy Restaurants come in because they had all the concession food, so everybody quickly left and got on the phones and they started to have their meetings. The domi-

those times where I hung up the phone and I’m going, “My god, what is going to happen to the future of hockey? And how ϐ ǫǳ WGR: When you got that call, and it was a pause, the reason it was a pause was because no one knew whether it would be a week, two weeks, a month, it was really an unknown. Did you have any thought about how long the NHL would be off? CL: That’s all I was thinking.

ϐ ing to use the term “pause,” nothings cancelled, we expect to replay these games, we just don’t know when. So use the word “pause” and we’ll do everything we can once...at the

noes started to go down, and an hour later, everything was cancelled. It was done. WGR: So you’re sitting there, you’re the owner of an NHL team, and now there’s a pandemic and there’s a pause. How do you plan the next three months or six months when you have no visibility what’s going to happen next? CL: At that moment, it never even crossed my mind, that we wouldn’t be playing in three months. I’m thinking this can’t go on that long, we’ll get it done. I would’ve been in a very depressed state had I thought we wouldn’t be playing another game until Edmonton in the bubble. It was a hard time. It affects so many people, you realize how bad this could be to our

The owner of the Minnesota Wild looks back at the past year and the impact of COVID on the NHL, and what the future holds for the league going forward WITH W. GRAEME ROUSTAN

S THE 2020-21 SEASON

has come to an end with the crowning of a Stanley Cup champion, Craig ϐ his experiences on the past 16 months, a time unlike any other in the history of the NHL. In this candid Peerto-Peer conversation with W. Graeme Roustan, the owner and publisher of The Hockey News, we learn what was going on behind the scenes from Leipold, ϐ ǡ ǡ and owner and No. 1 fan of the Minnesota Wild. W. GRAEME ROUSTAN: How have you been? CRAIG LEIPOLD: I’ve been great. Other than the last 16 months have been a little hard,

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being an owner, and even more importantly a hockey fanatic, it’s been tough to live through all of this. Shutting the league down for as long as we did, and playing without fans. But the best news is there’s light at the end of this tunnel. We’re expecting we’re going to be at 100 percent come October. WGR: Let’s go back in time to March 12 when Gary Bettman made the announcement that the NHL was going to pause the season. What was ϐ ǫ CL: I can remember as if it Ǥ ǯ ϐ in Saint Paul, Minn., I’m looking out the window, it’s a pretty day, and I get a call from Gary, and he says, “We’re shutting it down as of right now.” And I go, “Gary, are you serious?” I’m

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> For more insider info on the business of hockey, pick up our Money & Power 2021 special edition, available at TheHockeyNews.com/store

PHOTOS COURTESY OF THE MINNESOTA WILD

1-On-1 with CRAIG LEIPOLD

BUSINESS

business, to our city and our market. As I said, the domino effect really affects a lot of people. WGR: It’s no secret that NHL owners, pretty much all of them, had to reach into their pocket to fund operations because the revenues pretty much stopped. No TV revenue, no ticket revenue, you also have a big business, which is concerts, events, which was also shut down. What’s it like to sit there and say, “I have no revenues coming in, and I’ve only got expenses.” CL: It took us a while to get to that point, but we had to get there. The realization was very humbling, “How is this going to work?” No revenue, the arena business is gone. We have a convention center that we manage, that’s gone. Obviously our NHL team, our AHL team. We had zero revenue overnight, and we’re still paying hundreds and hundreds of ϐ what was needed, which took months. I would say that it really helped us when the NHL, as other leagues did, they lined up loans that the league could make and loan money to the teams at low interest rates. When (the pause) started, we’re thinking, “How are we going to fund this cash loss?” And the cash loss was going to be in the $50- to $60-million range. Fortunately, we had the Seattle money that was coming in as an expansion franchise. That was around $20 million. We had access to a $30-million loan that

the league had set up. So immediately you can say, “All right, I understand how we’re going to survive this.” Then we just ǯ ϐ this out last year, surely we’ll be playing by January, February or March. So, our budget had no

people in the arena starting in October, but by later in the season, in February, March, April, we we’re budgeting for 100 percent, and that turned out to be wrong, and that was still zero. The good news is that we survived, the best news is that we love our team, and we’re going to be playing at 100-percent capacity come October. WGR: Let’s talk about the future. We all know what’s gone on with the pandemic and where we are today, the talk right now is coming back, next

season we’re going to be back, the arenas will be open, full audiences. What are you doing now to prepare for getting back to normal? CL: It’ll never be back to the way it was. We know that. We also know that through questionnaires and polls that we do with our customers, that now, security and safety is very high on their list. We aren’t going to stop having all the hand sanitizers available, the seat sanitizers. We’re going to have full arenas, but they’re going to see different things that we’re going to continue to do that we now think is not only safe, but good business. And we want our customers to physically see that we are doing everything we can to stay away from any pandemic issue that could come in the future. We need to make sure our fans are secure and safe all the time and we want to make sure they feel that way.

CL: You’re describing me really well. I’m at a game, not as an owner, but as a fan. I don’t really do work, so the people who are in my suite like you are my friends and my buddies, not my customers. I’m not good at talking to customers. If we hap ͹ǦͲǡ ϐ ǡ I’ll be the best guy, “Customers are great, come on in.” But I just love watching the games. I do have my idiosyncrasies when it comes to exactly where I sit, the same seat all the time, nobody to my left, nobody to my right, nobody in front of me, I’ve got a little TV there. It seems like it’s been forever since I’ve been able to experience that. We’re all so anxious to get it going. WGR: I have to say that out of all the times that I’ve been in your suite with you, I’ve never been to a game where the Wild have lost. Every game I’ve gone to, there’s been a win. I know that’s why you keep inviting

WGR: You must be excited about getting back to the arena yourself. You’ve been kind enough over the years to invite me to watch games with you. I’ve watched games with a lot of owners, but you’re the only one I won’t sit beside during the game because your elbows are ϐ ϐ all over the place. You’re a passionate owner, am I describing you accurately?

me back because I deliver wins. I don’t want to be there when you lose, I really don’t. I know this very happy-go-lucky Craig guy, but I don’t want to see you in a losing situation. CL: It’s not a pretty thing. It’s not the nice Craig that comes out. It’s the fan committed to winning in everything. Fortunately, our record at home is fantastic, so I’m usually in a good mood when we’re done.

> Watch the full Q&A with Craig Leipold at TheHockeyNews.com/P2P C HA MP I O NS 20 2 1

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1-On-1 with

MATT MAJKA The Wild had a great year on the ice, but like other franchises they faced business challenges WITH W. GRAEME ROUSTAN

S PART OF HIS Peerto-Peer series, THN owner and publisher W. Graeme Roustan spoke with Minnesota Wild president Matt Majka. W. GRAEME ROUSTAN: What can you tell us about the past 18 months? MATT MAJKA: Where to start, even? There’s been incredible personal hardship for a lot of people. It doesn’t feel right to say that, given all the tragedy, but the pandemic has forced us to consider business in new ways, and it has probably accelerated some things we knew we had to do. And now we’ve done it, because we had to. WGR: How does that change the way you look at planning for the next 18 months? MM: I think one thing we human beings have gotten really good at in the past 16 months | 94 | T H E HO CKEY NEW S

ϐ Ǥ We’ve had to, all of us have had to because we’ve been dealing with imperfect information changing daily. And we’ve had to adjust, and I’m really proud of our organization. We need to be more agile going forward, because our business world is changing in an accelerated way. We’re more agile than we’ve ever been. WGR: Your staff has been working from home during this period, but you’re in the entertainment business, you’re in the events business. What’s the balance going forward? MM: We need people who are willing to be back on campus and help us to execute those great events that we have, whether it be Wild games or concerts or other meetings on our campus. There are employees that miss the social interaction and the opportunities that occur, because we are together,

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in the ideation and creativity that I think doesn’t occur when you’re in your homes, and you’re in your living room on some kind of virtual platform. So, I know, there are also people that are quite comfortable working from home. But we generally feel we’ve got to get back to business. Other businesses can probably be more remote than we can. And I’m not saying we won’t be remote at all, but we’ve got to have some kind of a balance, as you just said, and we’re still sorting it through here. WGR: ϐ season on the ice, how did the business of that transfer to the revenues and expenses? MM: We have a great owner who has persevered and has the stability to work through this. So Craig Leipold has been incredibly generous and patient and persevered through this, despite the ticket loss. The second one is our corporate sponsors, we have been able to maintain a larger portion of our corporate sponsors than I expected. Our TV ratings were spectacular. So it’s a mixed bag. It wasn’t all bad, but it wasn’t all good either. WGR: We’re not out of the pandemic yet. But the hope is that we’ll all be back for a regular season that starts in October, and the arenas will be full. How are you shifting gears?

MM: We are trying really hard. We’re back, we’re quasi ϐ Ǥ ǯ creating that sort of optimism and energy to get back to it. And it’s not that hard with the employees that we have. And I bet that’s true for a lot of teams, they’re in this industry because they love it. And they love the energy of the industry and the social aspect of it and the crowds that we all enjoy and the roar of the crowd. And so I don’t know that it will be that hard. I think everybody’s missed it so much. Those games we had last year, those great games we had with 250 fans in the building. That’s not our industry. That’s not what we’re about. So, I think it won’t be hard to create that energy, and then we’re going to have a heck of a time come October when we have that ϐ that big crowd and we score that big goal and we hear the roar of the crowd again, that’s what I miss the most is the roar of the crowd. WGR: Everybody’s also talking about how there’s such a pent-up demand for entertainment, for concerts, to come back. Are you seeing that groundswell not only from performers but from the people that are your customers? MM: We are. I occasionally run into people who, despite the progress we’ve all made, like you said, we’re not really out of it entirely yet. So there are still people that are cautious right now, so I want to respect those people, but I am sensing what you just said, the groundswell, the pent-up demand to be out and about and among people again, and we’re starting to see it as an industry. I’m just imagining that we’re going to get back there. And there is a lot of demand for that, even bars and restaurants here in the Twin Cities, which ϐ Ǥ ǯ Ǧ packed on the weekends now, and it’s great. I believe we’re headed in the right direction.

> Watch the full Q&A with Matt Majka at TheHockeyNews.com/P2P

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> BEGINNER: Plenty of players have won Stanley Cups with multiple teams, but only one has done it as the captain of multiple franchises. Name him.

DOWN 16

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Can your hockey brain bring its A-game? The challenge is on!

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BRAYDEN MCNABB & NICK SUZUKI

Nobody wants to see the refs decide a hockey game. But that means calling the rules as they’re written and sticking to a consistent standard from Day 1 to the Cup ﬁnal

had the talent to be an NHL player. Because everything that we’ve seen in terms of how the game is called speaks to an undeniable truth: you can get away with pretty much anything, as long as it’s in the playoffs. ϐ ǲ ǳ been on the hot seat all year long, with the ϐ what the role of referees should be in an NHL game: are they on the ice to strictly enforce the rulebook, or do they have a license ϐ ϐ ǫ

ǯ ϐ guage here, so let’s just strip it down to that ±ǣ ǲ ǡ Ǥǳ I have never bought into this sentiment, however, because for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction (pretty sure some scientist said that back in the day). If the referees strictly call the rulebook, you will, undoubtedly, have a lot more power plays in the short term as players adjust to the new standard. But as it is now, the referees are deciding the game when they do not strictly enforce the rulebook because players know they can take liberties and get away with it. Which brings me back to my NHL career from a parallel universe: if I played in today’s NHL, I would do anything over, under and through the line if it meant helping my team win a Stanley Cup. Why else ǫ dreamed about an NHL championship since they were little kids, and they made count ϐ at lifting that holiest of sporting grails into the air. Heck, I’m a little dubious of someone who wouldn’t do everything in their power to win the Cup. The laissez-faire ϐ in the playoffs has certainly been preyed ǡ ϐ ent in this year’s tournament as well. From

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Brad Marchand punching Daniel Sedin six ʹͲͳͳ ϐ to Corey Perry getting his nose opened up by a Jonathan Marchessault high stick this year, I’m sure nearly every fan base can remember an instance when one of their players was left blatantly bloodied or bruised with no penalty called on the play. It is not just how many calls are made, though, it’s also how many calls are made Ǥ ǲ ǳ ǡ the idea of referees evening up penalty calls so one team doesn’t get an advantage in a contest was at the center of Peel’s ousting (the infamous hot mic catching him saying that he wanted to make a penalty call on Nashville in a game against Detroit). What was fascinating to see in the aftermath of the controversy was how coaches reacted in the post-season: several openly wondered about the disparities in penalties ϐ ǡ

Boston took more penalties than it drew. Every other season the Bruins were top ͳͲǡ ϐ ϐ drawn and always had more power plays than they surrendered. So I guess I can see where he’s coming from – but nobody likes a tattletale, either. What the coaching outbursts did indicate was that the standard was unknown in the playoffs, and that became so apparent that even national broadcasters were comment ϐ Ǥ Hockey Night in Canada’s ϐ Ͷ ǲ ǳ in what appeared to be a very physical and nasty contest. And I understand the consternation the refs have for truly cracking down on hockey crime. The fans aren’t there to see them, true, but I would argue that the role of ofϐ ǡ games that matter most.

THE FANS AREN’T THERE TO SEE THE REFS, BUT THE ROLE OF OFFICIALS SHOULD HAVE TEETH, ESPECIALLY IN THE GAMES THAT MATTER MOST which end of the stick their team got stuck with on those nights. The situation came to a head when Boston Bruins coach Bruce ϐ ̈́ʹͷǡͲͲͲ his comments after a loss to the New York Islanders in Round 2. It was a little rich to hear the head of ϐ ating, but perhaps Cassidy was exasper ϐ season since he took over as coach that

Players are going to push the boundaries as far as they can to help their team win, even if the tactics are underhanded. The refs can nip that in the bud real quick with just one or two extra calls per game – and if they ϐ ǡ Ǥ The players will adjust to the standard very quickly, and what you will be left with is a battle to see who has the most skill, structure and execution as a team. You know, letting the players decide the game.

ERIC BOLTE-USA TODAY SPORTS

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