Category: Hockey

Jason Spezza is following Kyle Dubas to Pittsburgh.

The Penguins named Spezza assistant general manager on Wednesday, the same role he had in Toronto under Dubas following his retirement in May 2022.

“After a decorated playing career, Jason fully immersed himself on the management side of the game learning all facets of hockey operations this past season while with Toronto,” Dubas said in a statement. “He showed tremendous work ethic, curiosity, and ability to build relationships throughout all departments at the team facility. His move from the roster to the front office staff also helped make the hockey operations department, coaching staff and playing roster a more cohesive and collaborative unit.”

Spezza, 40, retired after 19 seasons as a player last year.

Spezza was the No. 2 overall pick by Ottawa in the 2001 NHL Draft. He spent 11 seasons with the Senators (2002-14), five with the Dallas Stars (2014-19) and the last three with the Maple Leafs.

Spezza played in 1,248 regular-season games and scored 995 points (363 goals, 632 assists). In 97 playoff games, he added 76 points (28 goals, 48 assists).

–Field Level Media

Where are the Stanley Cup champion Vegas Golden Knights going from here?

Yes, they benefited from extremely favorable expansion draft rules when they joined the league in 2017.

Yes, the Golden Knights maneuvered the salary cap this season by using long-term injury relief, notably with captain Mark Stone, to ice a team that ended up nearly $14 million above the $82.5 million salary cap. It is worth noting that $5 million of that money went to goaltender Robin Lehner, who missed the entire season due to surgeries.

Along the way to winning the Stanley Cup in just their sixth season of existence, the Golden Knights succeeded because of another factor: no team was more ruthlessly business-like in its decisions.

How many other teams are willing to follow similar moves will be worth watching.

En route to their title, the Golden Knights had no qualms about making tough calls on players. They traded the extremely popular Nate Schmidt in October 2020 to free up the money to sign Alex Pietrangelo.

Face-of-the-franchise goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury was dealt to the Chicago Blackhawks after the 2020-21 season to give the net to Lehner. Max Pacioretty, who was acquired from the Montreal Canadiens in 2018 for Nick Suzuki — arguably the best draft pick made by the Golden Knights and now a cornerstone player for the Canadiens — essentially was given to the Carolina Hurricanes to keep them under the cap.

They also have not been afraid to make coaches walk the plank. Bruce Cassidy is already their third bench boss.

Curiously, the Golden Knights will be able to go into next season with essentially the same roster. With or without Lehner returning, Vegas also has enough salary cap space to have no concerns about the bottom line.

Beyond the next couple of seasons, the Golden Knights are facing more tough calls.

This is a veteran-heavy team, especially in key positions, and the franchise has a dubious draft record. Only one player selected by Vegas in the draft played any games for the team in this year’s playoffs.

How they rebuild will be fantastic theater down the road. To their credit, the Golden Knights’ braintrust has shown no fear facing down roster challenges.

–By Randy Sportak, Field Level Media

Hockey Hall of Fame member Henri Richard had stage 3 chronic traumatic encephalopathy at the time of his death in 2020, the Concussion Legacy Foundation Canada announced Wednesday.

Denis Richard, Henri’s son, publicly released the findings of the posthumous brain study through the foundation in an effort to help raise awareness about the risks of head impacts in hockey.

“I hope my father’s brain donation and diagnosis will lead to more prevention efforts, research, and eventually a CTE treatment,” Denis Richard said. “I want people to understand this is a disease that impacts athletes far beyond football.”

According to the foundation, 16 of 17 NHL players whose brains have been studied have been diagnosed with CTE, including Stan Mikita, another Hall of Fame member.

Richard played for the Montreal Canadiens from 1955-75 and won 11 Stanley Cup titles — the most by one player in NHL history. He was 84 when he died.

“Henri Richard was not an enforcer and CTE still ravaged his brain. It is far past time for all of us in the Canadian sports community to acknowledge the long-term effects of repetitive impacts on the brain,” said Tim Fleiszer, executive director of the foundation and a former football player who won four Grey Cup titles. “We are grateful to the Richard family for their decision to share Henri’s diagnosis publicly to help others and are hopeful it will inspire change.”

Richard, a 5-foot-7 forward, tallied 1,046 points (358 goals, 688 assists) and was the younger brother of Hall of Famer Maurice Richard. They played five seasons together with the Canadiens.

The NHL did not make helmets mandatory until 1979.

–Field Level Media

The upper-body injury that kept Florida Panthers star Matthew Tkachuk out of Tuesday night’s Stanley Cup finale in Las Vegas is a fractured sternum.

The 25-year-old forward sustained the injury in Game 3, powered through it in Game 4 but was not available for Game 5 as the Panthers finished the best-of-seven series with a 9-3 loss to the Vegas Golden Knights.

Florida coach Paul Maurice provided the update following Tuesday night’s season-ending loss.

“He’ll heal fine from it,” Maurice said. “He got into the next game because he is so smart and can find a way around the ice. I think he had three of our best chances in that game when he couldn’t do things he could do to finish. …

“The next day (after Game 4) when he came in, he was in significant pain. So, there wasn’t really a question of whether he would be able to play or not. The idea was if we let it calm, maybe we could get him to Game 7.”

Tkachuk, who recorded a team-leading 24 points (11 goals, 13 assists) in 20 playoff games, likely sustained the injury on a big hit by Vegas forward Keegan Kolesar in Game 3.

A fractured sternum, or breastbone, typically takes eight to 12 weeks to heal, usually without surgery.

Tkachuk posted career-high totals in assists (69) and points (109) in his first season with Florida after he was acquired in an offseason trade that sent Jonathan Huberdeau to the Calgary Flames.

Tkachuk has 491 points (192 goals, 299 assists) in 510 career games with the Panthers and Flames, who drafted him with the No. 6 overall pick in 2016.

–Field Level Media

The Vegas Golden Knights are NHL champions after their sixth season, the fastest expansion team ever to lift the Stanley Cup.

Oddsmakers aren’t convinced they can hoist the trophy again next year.

In early odds posted for the 2024 Stanley Cup champion, the Golden Knights aren’t among the four or five favorites.

The team Vegas defeated in five games in the Stanley Cup Final, the Florida Panthers, are even lower down the list of 2024 favorites, while the 2022 champion Colorado Avalanche are listed atop the board.

The Avalanche failed to get out of the first round of this year’s playoffs.

BetMGM and FanDuel both list Colorado as the sole favorite at +800. DraftKings also has the same odds for the Avalanche, but it also lists the Boston Bruins at +800.

The Bruins set NHL regular-season records for most points (135) and most wins (65) before they were eliminated by Florida in seven games during the first round of the Eastern Conference playoffs.

The Seattle Kraken knocked out the Avalanche in Game 7 of a Western Conference opening-round series.

BetMGM lists the Edmonton Oilers and the Toronto Maple Leafs as the co-second choices at +1000, followed by the Bruins at +1100. The Golden Knights are posted at +1200 at BetMGM, while FanDuel and DraftKings both have Vegas at +1300.

DraftKings, after Colorado and Boston, has Toronto at +900 and the New Jersey Devils and Carolina Hurricanes both at +1200.

FanDuel’s list is topped by the Avalanche, then the Maple Leafs and Oilers (both +1100) and the Golden Knights, Bruins, Devils, Hurricanes and Tampa Bay Lightning (all at +1300).

The Anaheim Ducks are the biggest longshot at both FanDuel (+15000) and BetMGM (+20000). DraftKings has five teams tied for the longest odds, +25000: the Ducks, Montreal Canadiens, San Jose Sharks, Chicago Blackhawks and Arizona Coyotes.

In the immediate aftermath of last year’s finals, the Avalanche were installed as +450 favorites by BetMGM. The Panthers were the fourth favorite at +1000, and the Golden Knights were sixth favorite at +1400.

–Field Level Media

The city that never sleeps has another reason to stay up all night.

The Vegas Golden Knights won the first Stanley Cup Final in team history on Tuesday night in Las Vegas, getting three goals from Mark Stone en route to a 9-3 victory against the Florida Panthers in the deciding Game 5.

Stone produced the first hat trick in the finals since Peter Forsberg accomplished the feat for the Colorado Avalanche in 1996.

The Golden Knights lifted the Cup in just their sixth season of existence to become the fastest expansion team in NHL history to claim a title.

“I can’t even describe the feelings in my stomach right now,” Stone said while still celebrating on the ice. “Everything you can imagine. The grind of an 82-game season, four playoff rounds. …. You grind and you grind and you grind. At the end of the day, the last team standing, it’s incredible.”

Six other players scored goals for Vegas, Jack Eichel and Shea Theodore each contributed three assists and Adin Hill made 32 saves in another steady performance for Vegas, which outscored the Panthers 26-12 in the best-of-seven series.

The Knights’ Jonathan Marchessault won the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP. He tallied an assist in Game 5, giving him 12 for the playoffs to go with 13 goals. He tied for the league lead in postseason goals this year and finished one point behind Eichel’s league-leading playoff point total.

“One night it’s one guy, one night it’s another guy,” Marchessault said. “That’s the mentality we have this year, just next man in has to do the job. We’re a bunch of good teammates in that locker room and we’re always happy for each other and everybody stepped up at different times. That’s why, today, we’re winners.”

Sam Bennett and Sam Reinhart each had a goal and an assist, Aaron Ekblad also scored and Sergei Bobrovsky made 23 saves for Florida, which was outscored 21-7 in the three games at Las Vegas.

“Appropriate congratulations to Vegas,” Panthers coach Paul Maurice said. “They earned it. They were outstanding. We didn’t have an answer for them.”

The Panthers played without leading scorer Matthew Tkachuk in Game 5 because of a broken bone in his sternum/clavicle area. The injury occurred in Game 3, but he played through the pain in Game 4 at Sunrise, Fla., a 3-2 loss that put Florida on the brink of elimination.

Maurice said after Game 5 that three others were playing with broken bones, including Ekblad, who competed with a broken foot since the opening-round series against the Boston Bruins.

Maurice said some of the injuries could take four to six months to heal.

“We’re going to have a hell of a time making the playoffs next year,” he said.

Stone scored short-handed off a two-on-one breakaway to give the Golden Knights a 1-0 lead at 11:52 of the first period.

Bobrovsky made a save on Eichel’s backhand try and then tried to lay on the puck in the crease, but it was poked out to Nicolas Hague, and Hague shot it into the net for a 2-0 lead at 13:41 of the first.

Ekblad cut it to 2-1 with a wrist shot from just inside the blue line at 2:15 of the second, but the Golden Knights answered with four straight goals before the end of the period.

Alec Martinez scored off the rush to make it 3-1 at 10:28, and Smith put away a between-the-legs pass from William Karlsson for a 4-1 lead at 12:13.

Stone scored his 10th goal of the postseason to extend the lead to 5-1 at 17:15, and Michael Amadio capped the barrage by scoring with two seconds left in the period to make it 6-1.

Ivan Barbashev scored at 8:22 of the third period before Reinhart scored 25 seconds later to trim Florida’s deficit to 7-2.

Bennett gave Florida three goals in regulation for the first time in the series when he scored at 11:39 to pull the visitors within 7-3.

Stone secured the hat trick when he scored into an empty net with 5:54 left to make it 8-3.

Nicolas Roy finished off the scoring with 1:02 remaining.

“I couldn’t be more proud of our team, our organization,” Marchessault said. “We’ve grinded for a few years, and it’s just unbelievable getting here.”

Florida finished 0-for-14 on the power play in the series to become the first team without a power-play goal in the finals since the Detroit Red Wings in 1948.

–Field Level Media

The Edmonton Oilers signed forward Derek Ryan to a two-year contract extension worth $1.8 million on Tuesday.

Ryan, 36, could have been an unrestricted free agent on July 1.

He recorded 20 points (13 goals, seven assists) in 80 games this season. He added three points (one goal, two assists) in 11 playoff games for the Oilers, who were eliminated in the second round by the Vegas Golden Knights.

An undrafted player, Ryan totaled 191 points (76 goals, 115 assists) in 500 career games with the Carolina Hurricanes, Calgary Flames and Oilers.

–Field Level Media

The Florida Panthers were without star forward Matthew Tkachuk for Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Final against the Vegas Golden Knights on Tuesday night in Las Vegas.

The Panthers are in a do-or-die situation Tuesday, down three games to one in the best-of-seven finals.

Tkachuk is dealing with an apparent upper-body injury and missed much of the third period of Game 4 on Saturday in Sunrise, Fla. Tkachuk also was sidelined for part of Game 3 due to a possible head injury.

He didn’t practice on Monday, and come Tuesday’s morning skate, Panthers coach Paul Maurice told reporters that he knew Tkachuk’s status but wouldn’t share it until game time.

Tkachuk, 25, has recorded a team-leading 24 points (11 goals, 13 assists) in 20 playoff games.

He also posted career-high totals in assists (69) and points (109) in his first season with Florida after he was acquired in an offseason trade that sent Jonathan Huberdeau to Calgary.

“He’s a huge player for our team,” Florida captain Aleksander Barkov said of Tkachuk, a finalist for the Hart Trophy. “No matter what, everyone has to step up a little bit and play a little better than we’ve been. It doesn’t matter what happens. As a whole group, we’ve just got to play a little better. (We have to) shoot more pucks, be more aggressive offensively, do better defensively, all that kind of stuff.”

–Field Level Media

Peter Laviolette was hired as head coach of the New York Rangers on Tuesday, ending a lengthy search for Gerard Gallant’s replacement.

Laviolette has coached four other Metropolitan Division teams and last season coached the Washington Capitals, who missed the playoffs for the first time in his tenure that began in 2020. The club opted not to renew his contract.

Officially official.

Welcome (back) to Broadway, Coach! https://t.co/KxNbgd6q47 pic.twitter.com/gwCSIMXY4X

— New York Rangers (@NYRangers) June 13, 2023

Terms were not released by the Rangers. ESPN reports it’s a three-year deal.

Laviolette, 58, has a career record of 752-503-25 as an NHL head coach. He ranks eighth all-time in NHL history in wins, first among U.S. born head coaches.

He played 12 career games in the NHL, all coming with the Rangers during the 1988-89 season.

He stepped out of the frying pan and into the fryer in many ways with Cup expectations brimming around the Rangers and general manager Chris Drury, who makes Laviolette his second coaching hire. Gallant was swiftly shown the door after the Rangers were ousted from the playoffs.

“We are thrilled that Peter will be the next Head Coach of the New York Rangers,” Drury said. “With Peter’s extensive experience as a Head Coach in the National Hockey League, as well as the success his teams have had at several levels throughout his career, we are excited about what the future holds with him leading our team.”

Laviolette has taken three teams to the Stanley Cup Final and won with the Carolina Hurricanes in the 2005-06 season. He also went to the Final in 2009-10 with the Flyers and the Predators (2016-17). He has 13 total postseason appearances and a 76-72 record in the playoffs, per the Rangers’ release.

MSG executive chairman James Dolan said Cup experience helped push the Rangers to Laviolette.

“As we move forward in our goal to consistently contend for the Stanley Cup, I am confident that Peter is the right head coach to lead our team,” he said in a statement.

–Field Level Media

Michael Andlauer won the bidding for the Ottawa Senators, reaching agreement to purchase the NHL franchise.

While the club announced the agreement on Tuesday, no sale price was released. Multiple reports said Andlauer will pay nearly $1 billion for the Senators after agreeing to terms of the sale, which prohibited moving the team from Ottawa. He shared plans for a new arena as part of his bid.

Under terms of the sale, Andlauer will own 90 percent of the team and take control of its operations. The remaining 10 percent will be owned by Anna and Olivia Melnyk, the daughters of Eugene Melnyk, the late owner.

The transaction next goes before the NHL’s Board of Governors, to whom Andlauer is familiar. He owns a 10 percent stake in the Montreal Canadiens and is an alternate governor.

Andlauer, 57, would divest his stake in the Montreal franchise before being fully approved to take over the Senators.

“We are very pleased to announce that we have entered into an agreement to sell controlling interest of the Senators to Michael Andlauer,” said Sheldon Plener, the chairman and governor of the Senators, in a statement. “Michael represents everything we could have hoped to find coming into this process — a passionate owner who is committed to Ottawa.”

Andlauer sounded eager to get to work.

“The Senators’ fanbase is one of the most passionate in the league and I’m excited to take the franchise’s success both on and off the ice to the next level,” he said. “The short and long-term future of the team is incredibly bright, and I look forward to getting to know the team, the fanbase and the community.”

Andlauer’s offer edged a joint effort by Jeffrey and Michael Kimel of Harlo Capital to purchase the Senators. The Ottawa Sun reported the bid submitted by Los Angeles-based producer Neko Sparks was “underfunded” and Toronto-based billionaire Steve Apostolopoulos, who dropped out of the bidding.

Eugene Melnyk purchased the team out of bankruptcy in 2003. He died in March 2022, and his daughters inherited the franchise. In November, a process for the team’s sale was initiated.

Andlauer is the CEO of the Andlauer Healthcare Group Inc. and also has 35 years of experience in the transportation industry in Canada. He also founded Bulldog Capital Partners, a merchant bank based in Toronto.

–Field Level Media