Nine NHL players have tested positive for COVID-19 in the past seven days, the league announced Monday.Eight players who reported for voluntary workouts in Phase 2 of the league's return-to-play plan have had results come back positive, as has one player who did not report.A total of 35 players have tested positive since Phase 2 began on June 8. There have been 23 positive results from over 2,900 tests administered to players who reported for workouts after 15 players tested positive last week. Twelve players who did not report have also tested positive.Copyright © 2020 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

The NHL and players' association have finalized a tentative agreement on return-to-play protocols for Phases 3 and 4, according to TSN's Bob McKenzie.The two sides continue to work on the details of a new collective bargaining agreement. It was reported Saturday that the new CBA will run for six years.Both the return-to-play and CBA agreements will need to be ratified by the league's board of governors and the entire NHLPA, McKenzie reports. Players will have 72 hours to vote.Some of the details in the tentative agreement include a limit of 30 skaters in Phase 3 (training camps) with an unlimited number of goalies. Only players eligible to play in the resumption of the 2019-20 campaign will be permitted to skate in Phase 3, according to McKenzie.Players who wish to opt out may do so without penalty but must notify their club within three days of the ratification vote being completed, McKenzie adds.Players must undergo a pre-participation medical exam, and if both the doctor administering the exam and the team's infectious disease expert determine that a player is at "substantial risk of developing a serious illness," the player will be deemed unfit to play but will be able to seek a second opinion, according to McKenzie.All players and team personnel must be tested for the coronavirus 48 hours prior to returning to the club's training facilities and every second day after that, according to McKenzie. If the results aren't available within 24 hours, the individual won't be permitted to remain in club training facilities until they receive a negative test result.Failing to comply with return-to-play protocols in the bubble "could lead to significant financial penalties and potentially the loss of draft picks," according to TSN's Frank Seravalli.Personnel who are authorized to leave the bubble - either for medical reasons or personal circumstances - will be required to quarantine upon their return pending four negative tests over a four-day span, Seravalli adds. That time frame could be increased depending on location or circumstances outside the bubble.Training camps are reportedly slated to open July 13, with teams traveling to their respective hubs by July 26 before qualifying-round games begin Aug. 1. The Stanley Cup is to be awarded in early October.Edmonton and Toronto are reportedly the two locations that have been selected as hub cities to host the remaining games. The conference finals and Stanley Cup Final will reportedly be held in Edmonton, and family members will be permitted to enter the bubble at that point, according to Seravalli.Copyright © 2020 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

Chicago Blackhawks defenseman Brent Seabrook isn't ready to call it quits this season.The veteran blue-liner, who's undergone three separate surgeries since he last played in December, will try to rejoin the Blackhawks' lineup if play continues this summer, a source told The Athletic's Scott Powers.Seabrook, 35, underwent surgery on his right shoulder in December, his left hip in January, and his right hip in February. He was initially ruled out for the season, but the pause in play combined with his progress in rehab has apparently made Seabrook's return a possibility.The three-time Stanley Cup champion hasn't been cleared for contact, but he has been skating and is on track to join the club for training camp, according to Powers. Camp is reportedly expected to open July 13.Seabrook was limited to 32 games this season and contributed four points while averaging 18:09 of ice time per contest.Copyright © 2020 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

Four players on the St. Louis Blues and one member of the coaching staff tested positive for COVID-19 over the last couple of weeks, a source told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch's Jim Thomas.The players may have been exposed to the coronavirus at a bar in Clayton, Missouri, where several members of the team congregated over a week ago, according to Thomas. One player reportedly tested positive just days after that gathering.It is not known whether those who tested positive were experiencing symptoms.The team reportedly canceled practice on Friday and shuttered its training facility for the weekend due to the test results. The Blues are expected to practice Monday.Fifteen of the 250 NHL players who reported to team facilities for Phase 2 tested positive for the virus as of Monday. An additional 11 players who did not report for voluntary workouts have also tested positive since June 8, when Phase 2 commenced.Phase 3 of the NHL's return plan, which signifies the start of training camp, is slated to begin July 10. The NHL and the players' association are reportedly closing in on a new six-year collective bargaining agreement, as well as an agreement on the details of the league's return-to-play plan.Copyright © 2020 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

Don't count Montreal Canadiens head coach Claude Julien among those fantasizing about landing Quebec native and presumptive No. 1 overall pick Alexis Lafreniere in the 2020 draft.The veteran head coach confirmed as much recently, saying the club's focus is solely on beating the Pittsburgh Penguins in the qualifying round of the playoffs rather than entering the lottery for a chance to draft the hometown phenom."Everybody's got their opinions and they're entitled to them," Julien told NHL.com's Dave Stubbs. "Some fans, rightfully so, get excited about seeing the possibility of seeing that guy (Lafreniere). But imagine if we didn't win the first round and we don't get Lafreniere? How are the fans going to react then?"He continued: "I know there are a lot of comments going around that say, my gosh, we should lose in the first round so we have a chance at the first pick overall and have a chance at a local boy, Lafreniere. Trust me, I'd love to have this player on my team. But there's no guarantee even if we go out in the first round that we would have that player."The Canadiens are the 12th seed in the Eastern Conference playoff picture. After a place-holder team won the No. 1 overall pick in last month's draft lottery, it was determined each team eliminated from the play-in round will enter the next stage of the lottery and own a 12.5% chance at winning the top selection."If we win (against the Penguins), we're getting better as a team," Julien said. "If circumstances go the other way, then maybe we do get a shot at him. But at the end of the day we're built to win. We're professional athletes, we're competitive. There's no reason in the world to think otherwise. That's the direction we're going."Montreal went 1-1-1 against Pittsburgh this season, with the Penguins outscoring the Canadiens 8-7.Copyright © 2020 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

The NHL and its players' association are closing in on a new six-year collective bargaining agreement, as well as the key details involved in facilitating the league's return-to-play plan, reports TSN's Frank Seravalli.There are more steps to be taken before a formal announcement, but the deal appears to be imminent, Seravalli adds. The agreement would still need to be ratified by the league's board of governors and the entire NHLPA. Players will have 72 hours to vote.Some of the details in the new deal include training camps opening July 13, with teams reporting to their respective hubs by July 26. Qualifying-round games are scheduled to begin Aug. 1, and the Stanley Cup is to be awarded in early October.The second phase of the NHL Draft Lottery will be held Aug. 10, with the draft itself taking place in mid-October. Free agency will kick off Nov. 1.Aside from important dates, Seravalli's report outlines several other critical factors:

theScore is counting down the 100 best fictional characters in sports movie history, with a new post every weekday until July 3.100-91 | 90-81 | 80-71 | 70-61 | 60-51

theScore is counting down the 100 best fictional characters in sports movie history, with a new post every weekday until July 3.100-91 | 90-81 | 80-71 | 70-61 | 60-51

The St. Louis Blues canceled practice at the team's facility Friday due to multiple positive test results for COVID-19, according to The Athletic's Jeremy Rutherford.The facility will now be closed to players who were looking to train there over the weekend, but the team expects to resume practices Monday, Rutherford adds. The infected players were not identified.Under Phase 2 of the NHL's return-to-play plan, players were permitted to begin working out in small groups at team facilities starting June 8, but the Blues waited until June 22.The Tampa Bay Lightning were forced to shutter their training facility June 19 after three players tested positive. The venue was cleaned and re-opened five days later.Fifteen of the 250 players who reported to training facilities for Phase 2 tested positive for the virus as of Monday. Another 11 players who did not report for voluntary workouts have also tested positive since the start of Phase 2.Phase 3 of the NHL's return plan, which signifies the start of training camp, is set to begin July 10. However, the players have not yet voted to approve Phase 3 and Phase 4.Copyright © 2020 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

Toronto mayor John Tory addressed reports that the city will be one of the NHL's hub locations, saying the league has provided a thorough plan outlining safety measures."They had incredibly detailed disinfection and health protection measures that were in place even within the bubble to make sure they covered every angle they possibly could from the standpoint of making sure they met our public-health objectives. At least it would appear that way from what I saw," Tory said during a Thursday press conference, according to The Canadian Press.Toronto and Edmonton have reportedly been chosen as the NHL's two hub destinations for the expanded playoffs "barring any last-minute complications," according to TSN's Bob McKenzie.The league was originally working with a list of 10 potential cities, but a spike in COVID-19 cases across the United States appears to have shifted the NHL's focus to Canada. There were 794 active cases as of July 1 in Toronto, according to the city's data.Teams will be split into groups of 12 during the potential restart. The Western Conference teams will play in Edmonton, and the Eastern Conference clubs will gather in Toronto.In Toronto's plan, players would stay in a 40-acre campus-like village on the Exhibition Place grounds, which includes Toronto FC's BMO Field, the Toronto Raptors' OVO Athletic Centre, the Toronto Marlies' Coca-Cola Coliseum, and the 404-room Hotel X.Before anything is made official, the NHL and NHLPA need to agree upon and ratify a new collective bargaining agreement, which both sides are working on as the league pushes to begin Phase 3 (the opening of training camps) on July 10.Copyright © 2020 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

theScore is counting down the 100 best fictional characters in sports movie history.100-91 | 90-81 | 80-71 | 70-61 | 60-51

Elias Pettersson's first two seasons in the NHL have been nothing short of spectacular, but he believes he has the potential to take his talent to the next level."My second season I am very happy with, but I still think - or I know - I can play better," the Vancouver Canucks star said Thursday, according to NHL.com's David Satriano. "First season (2018-19) was very good. I think the end of the last 20-30 games my first season wasn't that good, but it was a good learning point for me."The 21-year-old was selected by the Canucks fifth overall in the 2017 NHL Draft. He led all rookies in goals (28) and points (66) last campaign, taking home the Calder Trophy in the process.This season, Pettersson was on pace to improve on his rookie year significantly. At the time of the season's pause on March 12, he had 27 goals and 66 points with a number of games left.He reflected on what he can do to improve, and ultimately believes it's working on the little things that can help him develop."Maturing in the game, like never losing puck battles, never lose (the puck) if I'm going to try and dangle someone," Pettersson said. "Small areas, small details that I can work on to become better."Copyright © 2020 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

With three capable goalies at his disposal, New York Rangers head coach David Quinn isn't sure who he'll start in net if the NHL proceeds with its 24-team postseason.Igor Shesterkin, Alexandar Georgiev, and Henrik Lundqvist split goaltending duties in New York this season, leaving Quinn with a tough choice."You can make a case for all three guys," Quinn said, according to NHL.com's Dan Rosen. "There's a lot of reasons to take Shesty, there's a lot of reasons to start Hank, and there's reasons to start Georgie. This is such an uncertain time that that will play out over the course of the two-and-a-half weeks that we're going to have before we drop the puck."Phase 3 of the NHL's return-to-play plan is expected to begin on July 10 and includes full training camps for teams. The Rangers are set to take on the Carolina Hurricanes in a best-of-five play-in round once the league resumes its season.Lundqvist had a subpar campaign overall but was tremendous against the Hurricanes. He logged a 3-0-0 record with a 2.33 goals-against average and .947 save percentage versus Carolina in 2019-20. By contrast, he posted a 3.16 goals-against average and .905 save percentage on the season while playing in a career-low 30 games.Shesterkin, meanwhile, seemed well on his way to taking over as the Rangers' starter after making his NHL debut in January. The 24-year-old went 10-2-0 with a .932 save percentage and 2.52 goals-against average before the league halted play.Georgiev, also 24, finished the season with a 17-14-2 record alongside a 3.04 goals-against average and .910 save percentage."Hank's history factors in, Shesty's season factors in," Quinn said. "Everything factors in. We're going to consider everything when we make that decision. For every player, the time that we have between when we start practicing and the start of the games is going to be pivotal, but none more so than our goalies."Though Quinn hasn't anointed a starter, Lundqvist has a decided edge over his fellow netminders when it comes to postseason experience. The 38-year-old is a veteran of 128 playoff games, helping lead the Rangers to the Eastern Conference Final on two occasions and the Stanley Cup Final once. Neither Shesterkin nor Georgiev has appeared in a single NHL playoff game.Copyright © 2020 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

Philadelphia Flyers forward Oskar Lindblom is celebrating his road to recovery.Lindblom rang the bell at Penn Medical Center on Thursday to signal the end of his cancer treatments. The 23-year-old winger was diagnosed with Ewing's sarcoma in December, which is a rare form of bone cancer.

Edmonton has been selected to host both the conference finals and Stanley Cup Final this summer, TSN's Bob McKenzie reported Thursday.Though the NHL has yet to make an official announcement, Edmonton and Toronto have reportedly been tabbed as the two hub cities that will host the 24-team playoff if the league returns this summer.The NHL and the players' association are working toward a new collective bargaining agreement that includes the return-to-play protocols and remedies for lost revenue due to the league's shutdown. The hub cities are expected to be made official once that agreement is pending player approval.Edmonton's hub-city plan involves a bubble spanning multiple blocks that includes the JW Marriott hotel, the Sutton Place Hotel, and Rogers Arena and its practice facility. A wall will be built around the bubble to help maintain player and public safety, according to The Athletic's Michael Russo.Training camps are scheduled to begin July 10 under Phase 3 of the league's return-to-play plan.

theScore is counting down the 100 best fictional characters in sports movie history, with a new post every weekday until July 3.100-91 | 90-81 | 80-71 | 70-61 | 60-51

Each of our six hockey editors at theScore selected a winner and two runners-up for the NHL's most hotly debated individual honors.Those votes were then assigned values - three points for a first-place vote, two points for second, and a single point for third - and the totals were added up to determine the results.Here's who we believe should claim the hardware, and who deserves honorable mentions for their efforts:Hart Trophy Bill Smith / National Hockey League / GettyWinner: Nathan MacKinnon

The Stanley Cup Playoffs could be held entirely north of the border this year.Toronto and Edmonton will serve as the NHL's two hub cities "barring any last-minute complications," TSN's Bob McKenzie reported Wednesday.As McKenzie notes, complications are not uncommon in this process. Vancouver, one of the final six teams in the running, bowed out last week. Las Vegas had also long been thought to be a front-runner. However, NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly said recently that the league will weigh "every relevant consideration" before deciding where to resume its season following a recent spike in COVID-19 cases across the U.S.If it's made official, the Eastern Conference would play in Toronto and the Western Conference would go to Edmonton, according to The Athletic's Michael Russo. At one point, the league reportedly didn't want a team playing in its own hub city to avoid giving that club any advantage.In Toronto, all players would stay in a 40-acre campus-like village on the grounds of Exhibition Place, which includes Toronto FC's BMO Field, the Toronto Raptors' OVO Athletic Centre, the Toronto Marlies' Coca-Cola Coliseum, and the 404-room Hotel X. Russo notes the hotel is not big enough to hold all 12 teams and their support staff, so the bubble may extend into a downtown hotel.In Edmonton, there would be a multiple-block bubble that includes the JW Marriott hotel, the Sutton Place Hotel, Rogers Arena, and its accompanying practice facility. A wall would literally be built around the bubble, sources told Russo.There are still many details to sort out before the league reveals its hub cities."Right now, the National Hockey League and National Hockey League Players' Association do not look as though they are going to announce the identity of the hub cities until they've got the entire return-to-play protocol and a new CBA all agreed to, at least pending player approval," McKenzie said on Tuesday's edition of "Insider Trading."It was reported last week that the NHL and NHLPA are nearing an agreement on a new collective bargaining agreement to address the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.Copyright © 2020 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

The trials and tribulations of the sporting world over the past few months can be bookended fairly neatly by two incidents. The first helped trigger the shutdown of pro sports, and the second demonstrated the folly of trying to bring them back as we once knew them.On March 11, two days after he made a ridiculous show of touching every voice recorder and microphone in his vicinity following a press scrum, Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert tested positive for the coronavirus. The NBA suspended its season minutes after Gobert's positive test was announced, and the rest of Western society soon followed suit.Three months later, Novak Djokovic, the world's top-ranked men's tennis player, organized the Adria Tour, a charity exhibition series scheduled to be played in cities across four Balkan countries. In Djokovic's words, the tour was designed "to help both established and up-and-coming tennis players from southeastern Europe to gain access to some competitive tennis while the various tours are on hold due to the COVID-19 situation." While the event was perhaps conceived with what Djokovic called "a pure heart and sincere intentions," it was staged in an alarmingly irresponsible manner.The first legs of the exhibition were played in relatively unafflicted Serbia and Croatia, with none of the now-familiar distancing regulations in place: No testing was required of the participants when they arrived, unmasked fans packed stadiums, players hugged and shook hands with each other and the umpires, ball kids handled towels. Anadolu Agency / Getty ImagesOff the court, the players played pickup basketball, posed for photographs with tournament staff and fans, and partied with their shirts off at a club in Belgrade. The second half of the tour was canceled after Djokovic, his wife Jelena, his coach Goran Ivanisevic, two trainers, three other players (Grigor Dimitrov, Borna Coric, and Viktor Troicki), and Troicki's pregnant wife tested positive for COVID-19. Lord knows how many spectators were also exposed to the virus.In the wake of their public embarrassments, both Gobert and Djokovic tried to wipe the egg off their faces by encouraging the public to follow the appropriate guidelines and take the pandemic more seriously than they had. In his apologetic statement, Djokovic vaguely committed to "sharing health resources" with Belgrade and Zadar.Gobert's antics didn't rise to nearly the level of Djokovic's brazen idiocy (especially given Djokovic's belief in pseudoscience), but it's easy to see the parallels, both in the karmic retribution experienced by those who scoffed in the face of a public health crisis and in the opportunity for those incidents to turn into teaching moments.Pro athletes - most of them fit, healthy, young, and rich, with access to the best health care resources their wealth affords them - represent about the least vulnerable population imaginable when it comes to the coronavirus. But this moment isn't just about personal responsibility, it's about social responsibility: a commitment to making sacrifices for the good of everyone around us. Athletes feeling invulnerable is actually a big part of the problem. Alex Goodlett / Getty ImagesThe Orlando Pride were forced to withdraw from the NWSL Challenge Cup after a slew of players reportedly contracted the virus at a bar. Tom Brady practiced with his new Tampa Bay Buccaneers teammates against the advice of the NFL players' union. He responded to the backlash by Instagramming, "Only thing we have to fear, is fear itself" - proof that some people still don't get it, and refuse to even try. As Andy Slavitt, the chief of Medicare and Medicaid at the end of President Barack Obama's second term, succinctly put it: "Science is not our missing ingredient in beating this virus. Empathy is."That reality leaves pro sports in a strange place. It's unclear what they have to offer a world in which an airborne illness has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives in a matter of months and shows no signs of slowing down.As much as anything, this pandemic has forced us to consider to whom and to what we are responsible. With so many elected representatives abdicating their leadership responsibilities, it's been left to the people to make sense of the missteps and misinformation, the disregard for the advice and warnings of the scientific community, and the mandate to Open Up the Economy and Get Back To Work at all costs. Everyone's basically been told to fend for themselves. There's been a dispiriting lack of common cause.That's the context in which Djokovic took it upon himself to treat the people of his country to his "philanthropic idea." While he wound up completely undercutting his purpose, and has deservedly shouldered the brunt of the blame, it's worth pointing out that neither the tournament organizers he worked with nor government officials in Serbia or Croatia made any attempt to mitigate the risk. Even after the fact, all the president of the Croatian Tennis Federation could say for himself was: "Some minor mistakes may have been made, but the idea was a good one. In Zadar, we had players for whom we usually have to pay 10 million euros to bring them, it was an opportunity that may never come to us again." Priorities, people.We talk a lot about athletes' platforms, and the type of messaging those platforms can and should be used for. But the message people need to be receiving right now is that in spite of what various corporate entities or government officials might have us believe, we're still dealing with a deadly virus that is spreading undetected, ravaging marginalized populations, and may cause lasting damage in even asymptomatic carriers. (Gobert, by the way, says he still hasn't fully recovered his sense of smell.) It's unclear how the return of sports helps convey that message. Joe Murphy / NBA / Getty ImagesWhile Djokovic and his infected peers self-isolate, the NBA is forging ahead with a return to games a month from now in Orlando, even though case counts, hospitalizations, and positive test rates in Florida are exploding, and some Disney World employees began a petition to keep the theme park closed. NBA commissioner Adam Silver suggested that despite the spike of infections in surrounding Orange County, players will be safer inside the NBA’s carefully managed Disney site than they'd be in their home cities.That may be true, but if the virus gets in - which seems eminently possible given that Disney staffers won't be staying on site or be subject to coronavirus testing - it will have the potential to spread quickly among a group of people playing a contact sport indoors. And on top of concern for player safety, there should be concern for the potential collateral damage involving non-players inside the bubble. (Consider, for example, the NBA cameraman who had to be placed in a medically induced coma after contracting the virus in March.)Just getting league personnel into the bubble virus-free is going to be a huge challenge. Sixteen NBA players slated to travel to Orlando tested positive for the virus last week, including Djokovic's countryman Nikola Jokic, who recently spent time with the tennis star in Serbia. Jokic's Denver Nuggets had to close their practice facility because of a separate spate of infections. The already shorthanded Brooklyn Nets are dealing with their own cluster of cases.And all of that is to say nothing of the worldwide marches for racial justice. For a league in which three-quarters of the players are African American, there's a particularly urgent sense of responsibility to be a visible part of the Black Lives Matter movement in its fight to, among other things, dismantle the criminal justice system that is disproportionately killing and incarcerating Black people.The National Basketball Players Association announced that "the goal of the season restart in Orlando will be to take collective action to combat systemic racism and promote social justice," and the NBA and WNBA are reportedly planning to paint "Black Lives Matter" on all the courts the leagues will use at Disney and the IMG Academy. A handful of WNBA stars have opted out of their season in order to focus on furthering the cause. Ned Dishman / NBA / Getty ImagesThe extent of the players' responsibility to each other has also been a subject of some debate within the union. Athletes' careers are short, and not all of them are multi-millionaires who can withstand a year of missed paychecks. There's a huge incentive for them to not only get paid for the rest of this season but to prevent the league's owners from tearing up the current collective bargaining agreement.Some players in the league's middle class have even argued that it's important they get paid specifically because of the systemic racial inequities fueling protests, inequities that have prevented Black people from creating generational wealth. That can't happen without the majority of players, particularly the high-profile ones, being on board."The financial stuff that's coming in is so heavy, and I think everybody has to share in that responsibility," one general manager told The Athletic's Sam Amick in an anonymous survey. "If you don’t at least try and see how this goes … the NBA could be impacted easily in the next five to 10 years in a way that it'd be very similar to what (the media) industry is going through as well. There's just going to be mass layoffs, and it could really change."Other sports leagues have run into their own complications with their attempts to resume. MLB and NHL training camps in Florida were shut down following outbreaks. The PGA Tour, which resumed its schedule in mid-June, saw numerous positive tests last week, despite the fact golf is as conducive to physical distancing as any sport. Several MLB (and NBA) players have opted out in order to be with their families.It's easy to understand why sports are trying so hard to come back in spite of all the challenges, and why so many people want them to. Apart from being billion-dollar enterprises with a ton of employees, professional sport is one of the closest things we have to a global cultural imperative. Part of the reason sports have become such a gigantic industry is that they've been successfully sold as a social good, perhaps even a social necessity. Juan Ocampo / NBA / Getty ImagesThat same logic is what's led franchise owners to extort public funds in order to build new stadiums, preying on the illusion that these privately owned businesses actually belong to all of us. Perhaps that's also the logic that made the Los Angeles Lakers, a franchise valued at $4.4 billion, feel entitled to a $4.6-million government loan that was intended as a bailout for struggling small businesses amid the shutdown.The message that's been peddled to us is that the return of sports will correlate to a return to some semblance of normalcy and that this correlation is in the public interest; that sports can help spiritually bring people together at a time when it's important that they remain physically apart."We’re coming back because sports matter in our society," Silver told reporters on a conference call last week. "They bring people together when they need it the most."Sports are amazing, and plenty of people believe in their unifying power (myself very much included), but it feels awfully disingenuous to paint that as the reason the NBA is trying to return. "You know and I know why we are playing - for the money," another GM told Amick. "If not that, do you really think we would be playing?"Which is a perfectly understandable reason to want to play. There's no need to pretend sports are going to save us right now. In March, Silver's decision to halt the season had a domino effect with other sports and the cumulative move may have forced society at large to realize the scope of the problem. Returning to play is a different calculus. Maybe they'll momentarily distract from the natural and man-made forces currently ravaging the globe, for anyone who wants the distraction. But at the end of the day, athletes live in the same world we live in, and they aren't impervious to those forces. If anything, sport's central function right now seems to be serving as a visible example of how profit-driven businesses behave in a global disaster.There are, of course, more responsible ways to resume sports than the way Djokovic and the Adria Tour organizers did - as leagues like the Bundesliga, English Premier League, and the Korean Baseball Organization have shown - but that doesn't mean it will do much good for anybody other than the people who will be getting paid (or even much good for some of those who will).It may be that pro sports in North America come back and stay back, that those returns result in minimal additional infections, and that a wide spectrum of viewers takes great joy and comfort in the spectacle. But that scenario, should it come to pass, will be less a triumph of sporting institutions and their healing power than an illustration of how a population can be kept safe so long as it has enough resources, will power, and financial incentive.One way or another, sports is not our missing ingredient in beating this virus, empathy is. And the former won't amount to anything without the latter.Joe Wolfond is a features writer for theScore.Copyright © 2020 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

Arizona Coyotes forward Phil Kessel kept his 844-game ironman streak intact this season, but it wasn't without a few bumps and bruises along the way.Kessel told reporters during a video call Tuesday that he probably endured more injuries this season than any other campaign in his career, according to The Athletic's Craig Morgan.The 32-year-old had his worst season since his rookie campaign in 2006-07. Acquired by the Coyotes in an offseason blockbuster trade with the Pittsburgh Penguins, Kessel tallied just 14 goals and 38 points in 70 games.The NHL's hiatus during the COVID-19 pandemic has given Kessel time to recuperate ahead of Arizona's tentative qualifying-round matchup against the Nashville Predators.Kessel's streak of consecutive games played ranks sixth on the all-time list.Copyright © 2020 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

NHL players will return to the Olympics if the league's modified CBA is finalized, pending an agreement with the IOC, Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman reports.TSN's Pierre LeBrun reported that the proposed CBA extension could include participation in the 2022 and 2026 Winter Games.The NHL didn't partake in the most recent Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea in 2018. It was the first time since 1994 that NHLers didn't participate.Canada has won back-to-back gold medals in Olympics that featured NHL players.Copyright © 2020 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

The NHL and the players' union agreed on an interim extension for all contracts that would've expired at midnight on Wednesday, according to TSN's Frank Seravalli, and the agreement also allows players to opt out of the league's return-to-play plan.The pact is pending completion of the new collective bargaining agreement and agreements on Phase 3 (training camp) and Phase 4 (games).NHL players aren't paid for the postseason, so there are no financial repercussions for those who decide to opt out.However, players will reportedly receive their 2020-21 signing bonuses as scheduled on Wednesday.Montreal Canadiens goaltender Carey Price and New York Rangers forward Artemi Panarin have voiced concerns about resuming action.Copyright © 2020 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

NHL teams are expected to pay players' signing bonuses for the 2020-21 season as scheduled on July 1, TSN's Bob McKenzie reports.Funds may not actually reach players until next week due to Canada Day on July 1 and Independence Day on July 4, McKenzie notes. He adds that players league-wide are owed more than $300 million in bonus money.July 1 is the traditional opening of free agency, but the NHL and NHL Players' Association reportedly agreed earlier in June to extend all contracts expiring at the end of the 2019-20 season until Oct. 31 due to the hiatus caused by the coronavirus pandemic.Some players are set to collect massive bonuses, the most lucrative of which will go a triumvirate of Toronto Maple Leafs stars. Auston Matthews, John Tavares, and Mitch Marner are each owed approximately $15 million.Other notable players set to cash in are Carey Price ($13 million), Connor McDavid ($13 million), Artemi Panarin ($12 million), and Erik Karlsson ($10 million).Copyright © 2020 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

Vancouver Canucks defenseman Quinn Hughes believes his brother Jack, a New Jersey Devils forward and the 2019 No. 1 overall pick, will benefit from the lengthy layoff.The Devils were one of the league's seven teams that didn't qualify for the expanded 24-team playoff field. Their last game was in March, and with no start date for the 2020-21 season set in stone, they're going to go several months without playing any games."I think this is maybe the best thing that could ever happen for my brother if I'm being completely honest," Quinn said in a Zoom call on Monday. "I think that he's an unbelievable player and the only thing that was holding him back was how young he was."As an 18-year-old kid you're just not as strong. I think there's a huge difference between 18 and 20. There's still a lot of developing to do."Jack was the consensus No. 1 overall pick his entire draft year and had tremendous hype surrounding him as he entered his rookie season. However, he struggled to adjust to life at the NHL level and produced just seven goals and 14 assists in 61 contests.Quinn, on the other hand, made an immediate impact with the Canucks in his first full NHL season this year. The swift-skating blue-liner registered 53 points in 68 games while averaging over 21 minutes per night, making him a virtual lock to be a Calder Trophy finalist.Copyright © 2020 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

Legendary defenseman Bobby Orr believes Sidney Crosby is one of the top five players to ever lace up the skates.Orr himself is almost unanimously considered one of the top five players of all time, usually sharing the distinction with Wayne Gretzky, Mario Lemieux, and Gordie Howe. According to Orr, Crosby belongs right beside them."Please, please," Orr told The Athletic's Josh Yohe. "I want you to be very comfortable putting Sidney Crosby's name with the rest of us. Just trust me on that one. He's so, so special."He continued: "First of all, if you ask those other guys on the list, I know that they'll tell you the same thing I'm about to tell you. Sid belongs on that list. Sure, there's the talent that he has and the drive. But look at what he's been through. That tells me something. Look at the injuries he's dealt with, especially earlier in his career. He's been beat up, hurt, been through so, so much. And through it all, look at what he's accomplished."He's won all of those Cups. He's won the Olympics. Scored the goal to win it, in fact. The World Cups he's won. The numbers he's put up. Everything he's done. He's one of the greatest hockey players of all time."Concussions limited Crosby to a combined 63 games in his age-23 and age-24 seasons, but the Pittsburgh Penguins captain has still produced one of the greatest resumes the NHL has ever seen. With 1,263 points in 984 regular-season contests, Crosby ranks sixth in league history with 1.28 points per game. He owns three Stanley Cups, two Conn Smythe Trophies, two Olympic gold medals, two Hart Trophies, two Art Ross Trophies, and two Maurice "Rocket" Richard Trophies.Crosby, who turns 33 in August, has cemented his status as one of the best in the eyes of Orr, but he's not the only modern star to receive praise from the eight-time Norris Trophy winner. Orr declared in May that Edmonton Oilers dynamo Connor McDavid has the potential to become the best player of all time.Copyright © 2020 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

Toronto Maple Leafs goaltender Frederik Andersen isn't certain that NHL hockey will be played this summer.Andersen told reporters during a conference call Tuesday that he's "not 100 percent confident" in the league's ability to return to action, according to The Athletic's Joshua Kloke."We don't have enough information yet," Andersen added. "The league and (players' association) are still ironing things out. The 11th hour is coming up here."Though he's not convinced it will happen, Andersen was adamant about his desire to return."I want to play," he said, according to The Athletic's Jonas Siegel. "I don't want to just sit and waste the summer and the season."Andersen had been isolating in Arizona with Auston Matthews, who reportedly tested positive for COVID-19. He added that he left the state before its virus spike to train in California and is now quarantining in Toronto, according to the Canadian Press' Joshua Clipperton.The 30-year-old is coming off his worst regular season with the Maple Leafs. He went 29-13-7 with a .909 save percentage, a 2.85 goals-against average, and three shutouts.Copyright © 2020 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

San Jose Sharks forward and Hockey Diversity Alliance co-head Evander Kane believes the league does a poor job of promoting diversity."As minorities in the NHL and coming through hockey, we've been undervalued and we've been overlooked," he said Monday during a video call with the committee, per UNINTERRUPTED. "It's baffling to me that that's still going on. And it's gone on ever since I've been in the league."Joining Kane on the call was fellow co-head and former NHLer Akim Aliu, filmmaker Charles Officer, and members of the executive board: Wayne Simmonds, Trevor Daley, Matt Dumba, Nazem Kadri, Chris Stewart, Anthony Duclair, and Joel Ward."I look at the group that we have here on the screen, and it's concerning," Kane continued. "You would think that you would want to use us and present us as minorities in such a white sport in a great light and use it to your advantage to create a more diverse game because that, at the end of the day, is what is going to sell."Kane thinks the NHL's lack of diversity is part of the reason why its the least profitable league among the four major sports."You look at other leagues like the NBA and the NFL and how diverse they are and why they are generating significantly more revenue than our league. Because I'll be the first person to tell you hockey is by far the greatest game. It's the hardest sport. I think we as athletes deserve to get paid the most. And why is it that we aren't? Part of that issue, and a big part of it, is because we are not a diverse sport."NHL players made an average of $2.69 million in 2019-20, according to Statista, trailing behind the NBA ($8.32 million), MLB ($4.03 million), and NFL ($3.26 million).The greatest discrepancy is seen among each sport's highest-paid athletes.SportPlayerAAVNBAJohn Wall$42.8MMLBGerrit Cole$36MNFLRussell Wilson$35MNHLConnor McDavid$12.5M(Salary source: Spotrac)The Hockey Diversity Alliance was created on June 8 to help combat racism in hockey and in society as a whole.Copyright © 2020 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

With the abundance of talent in today's game, there's no shortage of highlight-reel goals. Players continue to get more creative, finding new ways to bring fans out of their seats.Now that the 2019-20 regular season is officially behind us, let's look back at the five best goals of the campaign. Vote on your favorite below.5. Blake Coleman's one-handed wonderColeman's outstanding individual effort is a perfect example of why you should never give up on a play.The Devils' crafty winger outworks Winnipeg Jets defenseman Dmitry Kulikov before catching an unsuspecting Laurent Brossoit deep in his net with a one-handed shovel shot while falling to the ice.4. Sonny Milano torches StarsMilano netted only seven goals in 2019-20, but his dazzling marker against the Dallas Stars was one of the filthiest of the season.The winger walks around a helpless Roope Hintz - a forward who's completely exposed while covering for a defenseman - before going between his legs at high speed with two Stars on his tail. The degree of difficulty here is simply off the charts.3. Matthew Tkachuk beats the buzzer in style The timeliness and spontaneity of Tkachuk's incredible last-ditch effort gives him a slight edge over Milano in the between-the-legs-trickery department.Not only does Tkachuk have the presence of mind to change his shot angle while flying through the slot at full speed, but he places the puck perfectly upstairs with only 1.4 seconds remaining in overtime. The 22-year-old was remarkably clutch that night, as Tkachuk also tied the game in the final minute of regulation.2. Andrei Svechnikov does it again Svechnikov's encore after becoming the first player to pull off "The Michigan" in an NHL game was an even better lacrosse-style tally.Unlike the first time he executed the move, Svechnikov was in motion against the Jets. His ability to scoop the puck while traveling around the net at a high speed and tuck it past the 6-foot-4 Connor Hellebuyck took the awe-inspiring maneuver to another level.1. McDavid leaves Rielly in the dustMcDavid's first goal in Toronto was one of his finest yet. Burning a player one-on-one in the fashion McDavid did shouldn't be possible at the highest level of hockey.The Oilers captain hesitates just slightly before turning on the jets, completely duping Morgan Rielly prior to going top shelf for the finish. Being able to shift gears in a split second and put a skilled defenseman like Rielly on his heels is one of many reasons McDavid is the world's top talent.Honorable mention: Pekka Rinne's 200-foot prayerScoring into an empty net is rarely a memorable feat. Unless you're a goalie, of course.With the Predators up two goals late in the third period against the Chicago Blackhawks, Rinne found some space to shoot his shot. The Finnish puck-stopper fired a perfect 200-foot strike to become the first netminder since 2013-14 to score an NHL goal.Copyright © 2020 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

theScore is counting down the 100 best fictional characters in sports movie history, with a new post every weekday until July 3.100-91 | 90-81 | 80-71 | 70-61 | 60-51

Ryan O'Reilly knows what it takes to win a Stanley Cup. He took home the Conn Smythe Trophy last season after leading the St. Louis Blues on a miracle run to the title. And if the NHL proceeds with its 24-team postseason, he believes it will be a grueling tournament like nothing seen before."Every team is starting from scratch. Every team that's involved in this right now is looking that they have an opportunity to win a Stanley Cup, so it's going to be one of the toughest stretches of hockey that any of us will ever be in and the toughest tournament that any of us - it's like nothing else," O'Reilly said Monday."It's going to be extremely difficult - I think as a group we know that. We know it's going to be completely different from last year. We're not coming in finishing a season playing very well and having momentum and coming in. We're all starting at the same point."The Blues looked to have a good chance to repeat as Stanley Cup champions this season, entering the shutdown on March 12 sitting first in the Western Conference. As a result, St. Louis is guaranteed a berth in the 16-team postseason and will play a round-robin tournament against the conference's other top three teams to determine playoff seeding.O'Reilly, 29, is eager to finish the campaign and ensure the work players have put in to this point doesn't go to waste, though he knows that's easier said than done."There's so many things that will be unfortunate - being away from our families, being confined in these small spaces. But I think it's important for our game - the growth of it - to be able to salvage this season and have a winner, not let the whole thing go to waste," he said. "But again, the priority is the safety and the safety of our families, the guys, whether they've had young kids or have kids ... that's definitely the priority."But I think the NHL's doing a good job putting in good practices to help us make sure nothing happens. But again, there's still a lot of uncertainty."O'Reilly was enjoying another strong season before the coronavirus pandemic disrupted his second year with the Blues. He recorded 12 goals and 49 assists in 71 games.Copyright © 2020 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

Carolina Hurricanes head coach Rod Brind'Amour will have some tough decisions to make about his lineup if play resumes.When the season was paused March 12, the Hurricanes had a handful of injuries - namely within their defensive group. Blue-liners Dougie Hamilton, Sami Vatanen, and Brett Pesce were all on the shelf, and now all three have a chance to return."There's going to be definitely a feeling-out process to see how everyone meshes, but those are pretty good options to be thrown into your team," Brind'Amour said, according to NHL.com's Dan Rosen.He added, "If everybody is healthy then we have extras, so I think it's going to be a question of, really, how do they look by the time this camp is done? It's not like you get too long of a warmup period. When we start, every game counts, so we've got to go with whoever is ready."Hamilton suffered a fractured fibula in January and is now expected to be ready for training camp. Vatanen - who was acquired at the trade deadline to fill the gap on the blue line - hasn't suited up in a game for the Hurricanes but is also expected to be available.Meanwhile, Pesce - who had surgery in March - was expected to miss four-to-six months, but Brind'Amour now says that he's a "long shot" to return.The coach noted that part of the difficulty in making lineup decisions is because he doesn't know how players have been training since the season was paused."It's not like we just picked up where we left off," Brind'Amour said. "I know guys are telling me they're doing OK, but I don't know how much training they're doing and where they're going to be at when we get started."Training camps for all teams are expected to begin July 10.Copyright © 2020 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

Fifteen of the 250 players who reported to training facilities for Phase 2 of the NHL's return-to-play plan have tested positive for COVID-19, the league announced Monday.An additional 11 players who didn't report for voluntary workouts have tested positive since the opening of Phase 2 on June 8.All players who tested positive have self-isolated and followed CDC and Health Canada protocols.Training camps (Phase 3) are scheduled to open July 10, and the NHL does not plan to quarantine teams in "bubbles" during that time.Copyright © 2020 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

Boston Bruins head coach Bruce Cassidy wouldn't mind if Toronto serves as one of the NHL's two hub cities."We've played well in that rink in the playoffs, for the most part," he said, according to WEEI's Scott McLaughlin.The Bruins defeated the Toronto Maple Leafs in the first round of the past two postseasons, clinching each in a Game 7. Three of Toronto's last four playoff appearances ended in a Game 7 loss to the Bruins in the opening round, including the 2013 contest in which the Maples Leafs were up 4-1.Cassidy became the Bruins' head coach in 2017, and the team owns a 3-3 playoff record at Scotiabank Arena since his hiring.The NHL's hub cities are expected to be announced sometime this week, according to TSN's Bob McKenzie. He adds that Las Vegas and Toronto appear to be the front-runners, though it's still a "fluid process."Toronto's latest proposal reportedly featured players and team personnel living in a 40-acre bubble on the grounds of the Canadian National Exhibition just outside the downtown core.The Eastern Conference's No. 1-seeded Bruins received a bye to the first round of the playoffs and will jostle with the conference's other top-three teams for seeding while clubs ranked fifth through 12th partake in the qualifying round.Copyright © 2020 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

Only production staff for television and radio broadcasts are expected to be allowed inside the two hub-city bubbles if the NHL resumes play, which means play-by-play commentators and color analysts will likely work remotely."It's different," vice president of Sportsnet and NHL Production Rob Corte told CBC's Jim Morris. "A lot of the energy they draw is from within a building and the crowd. When you're in an arena you see everything. There's going to be things that will be missed or not seen just because it's not available to their eyesight."Corte added that one feed will likely be produced for each game and supplied to all NHL rights-holders. Sportsnet will have its commentators watch games on monitors in Toronto, where a score bug and graphics will be added.Many media-related details have yet to be finalized, though."Part of the challenge is, there's been so many different ideas and potential ways to do this," Corte said. "We've been having so many discussions, and when you think you're moving in a certain direction, then about 10 more questions come up that actually disqualify everything you have been thinking before."That's probably been the frustrating part."Copyright © 2020 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

Welcome to Puck Pursuit, an interview-style podcast hosted by John Matisz, theScore's national hockey writer.Subscribe to the show on iTunes, SoundCloud, Stitcher, and Spotify.Puck Pursuit · Former NHLer and author Ken DrydenHockey Hall of Famer Ken Dryden - who's also an author, a lawyer, and, formerly, a politician - joins the show to discuss a variety of topics, including:

The NHL draft lottery was flipped upside down after a placeholder team won the right to the first overall pick. Each team that's eliminated from the upcoming play-in round will now own an equal 12.5% chance of drafting QMJHL phenom Alexis Lafreniere.Let's take a look at what each Eastern Conference team stands to gain should it win the unprecedented draft lottery.Eastern Conference l Western Conference(No. 5) Pittsburgh Penguins Icon Sportswire / Icon Sportswire / Getty2019-20 record: 40-23-6 (.623)

The NHL draft lottery was flipped upside down when a placeholder team won the right to the first overall pick. Every team that's eliminated from the upcoming play-in round will now own an equal 12.5% chance at drafting QMJHL phenom Alexis Lafreniere.Let's take a look at what each Western Conference team stands to gain should it win the unprecedented draft lottery.Eastern Conference l Western Conference(No. 5) Edmonton Oilers Andy Devlin / National Hockey League / Getty2019-20 record: 37-25-9 (.585)

The No. 1 overall pick of the 2020 NHL Draft is up for grabs, but Edmonton Oilers general manager Ken Holland has his sights completely set on winning in the playoffs."I don't think anybody's thinking of the No. 1 selection now," Holland said, according to the Edmonton Sun's Jim Matheson. "The eight losers will readjust after (the play-in). I want our team to make some noise, go on a playoff run."Friday's draft lottery awarded the No. 1 selection in the 2020 NHL Draft to a placeholder team. The eight clubs that lose in the play-in round of the league's 24-team postseason will all have a 12.5% chance at securing the top pick in a second lottery at a later date.The Oilers - who finished the abbreviated 2019-20 regular season in second place in the Pacific Division - are set to take on the Chicago Blackhawks in the best-of-five play-in round."Anytime you're playing hockey, you're playing to win … we want the Edmonton Oilers to be the last team standing, and if not, we want the playoff experience as far as we go," Holland said. "End of the day, only one play-in loser gets the No. 1 pick, the others are picking later."I look at this tournament as being relatively wide-open. Regular season ended about four months ago if we start in August. If a play-in team wins the Stanley Cup, they will have to have won five series - even more difficult than usual. But everybody's dream is to have your name on the Stanley Cup.The Oilers have had their fair share of top picks over the last several years. They held the No. 1 selection in 2010, 2011, 2012, and 2015.Copyright © 2020 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

Friday's draft lottery may not have gone as planned for the Detroit Red Wings, but general manager Steve Yzerman isn't fazed by the outcome."We're going to get a great prospect, and how good of a player he becomes, time will tell. So we can sit here today and feel sorry for ourselves if we want, it doesn't matter," Yzerman said Friday. "The system is what it is, and it's the same for all the teams. We're going to get a great prospect, we're going to do everything that we can to develop him, and maybe we will get lucky."Detroit finished the abbreviated 2019-20 regular season with the worst record in the league and owned the best individual odds to win the top pick as a result. This year's lottery format was slightly altered, however, and included eight placeholder teams that will be determined by the results of the play-in round of the league's planned 24-team postseason.After one of those placeholder teams won the first overall pick of the 2020 draft in Friday's lottery, each of the eight losing play-in clubs will have a 12.5% chance at winning the No. 1 pick in another draw.Despite entering the lottery with high hopes, Yzerman said the math suggested a placeholder team would come away with the top pick."I'm not surprised. Again, we had an 18.5% chance of winning the first pick. So realistically, I'm prepared to be sitting here today not talking about the first pick," Yzerman said. "I'm not really surprised ... the eight playoff teams had a 24.5% chance combined of getting the pick, so the odds were better that the first pick went to the bottom eight than it did to us."Yzerman then pointed to the Colorado Avalanche as a reason to be optimistic. Like the Red Wings, the Avalanche slid to No. 4 in 2017 despite owning the best individual odds to win the first overall selection. Colorado wound up using the No. 4 pick to select defenseman Cale Makar, who has quickly developed into a premier player.Alexis Lafreniere is the consensus No. 1 pick heading into the 2020 NHL Draft, with forwards Quinton Byfield and Tim Stuetzle expected to follow. With the top three seemingly set, Yzerman and the Red Wings will face a tough choice with a talented pack of prospects available at No. 4.Copyright © 2020 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

Bill Daly won't say whether the spike in coronavirus cases in the United States has affected the NHL's decision-making process regarding where games will be played if the season resumes.“Every relevant consideration will be fairly evaluated before decisions are made and announced," the league's deputy commissioner told TSN's Ryan Rishaug when asked if the rising virus numbers are causing the NHL to re-evaluate having an American hub city.Chicago, Las Vegas, and Los Angeles are reportedly the three American locations among the five remaining candidates to host games. Edmonton and Toronto are the others.Coronavirus cases have been surging in many U.S. states, with the country setting a new single-day national record on Friday with 45,942 cases, according to NBC News' Nicole Acevedo, Joe Murphy, and Josh Lederman. That number reportedly included more than 8,000 new cases in Florida, along with four-digit figures in Arizona, California, and Texas.The NHL initially listed 10 potential hubs when the league unveiled its 24-team return-to-play plan in late May. Of those 10, seven were American locations, but Columbus, Dallas, Minneapolis-St. Paul, and Pittsburgh are no longer being considered.Copyright © 2020 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

The NHL and NHLPA are close to a new collective bargaining agreement that would include solutions for the league's revenue losses the COVID-19 shutdown has caused, according to ESPN's Greg Wyshynski.The framework discussed would extend the CBA for "around six years," Wyshynski adds.All 700-plus players are expected to vote on a new CBA, and the return-to-play protocols to restart the league with an expanded 24-team playoff this summer. The league has yet to announce the two hub city locations where the games will be played.As part of the potential agreement, the salary cap would reportedly remain stagnant at $81.5 million over the next three seasons.One major point of contention has been escrow, which is a system that withholds a percentage of the players' salaries to ensure all hockey-related revenue is split equally between the NHL and the players. A huge loss in hockey-related revenue due to the hiatus has drastically altered the league's finances.New York Rangers star Artemi Panarin and Anaheim Ducks veteran Ryan Kesler voiced their dissatisfaction about the high escrow levels, with the former saying the system has "protected the owners' income."Due to the steep revenue losses, there was speculation escrow could rise as high as 35% for the players, according to Wyshynski. Under the current CBA structure being discussed, however, escrow has reportedly been capped at 20% for the first two seasons of the deal.Both sides also reportedly support a 10% salary deferral for the players. That money would be paid to the players in two years under what is expected to be a lower escrow rate, which would help the owners' cash flow in the coming seasons.Copyright © 2020 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

The winner of the 2020 Draft Lottery has yet to be determined.One of the placeholder teams participating in the best-of-five qualifying round of the expanded 24-team playoff format will make the first overall selection at the 2020 NHL Draft.Here's a look at the complete draft order from picks one through eight:PickTeam1Placeholder team2Los Angeles Kings3Ottawa Senators4Detroit Red Wings5Ottawa Senators6Anaheim Ducks7New Jersey Devils8Buffalo SabresWith a placeholder team winning the top selection, a second lottery will be conducted at some point between the end of the qualifiers and the first round of the 16-team playoffs to determine the final draft order.If the play-in round cannot be completed, the remaining bottom eight teams will have a one-in-eight shot at the top selection, according to Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman.The Ottawa Senators, who owned a combined 25% chance of landing the first overall selection between their two picks, will pick third and fifth.The Los Angeles Kings will select second for the first time since 2008, when they drafted blue-chip defenseman Drew Doughty.Copyright © 2020 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

Jesperi Kotkaniemi will take part in Montreal Canadiens training camp as a full participant and will be available to play if and when the campaign resumes, a team source told The Athletic's Arpon Basu.The 19-year-old prospect was hospitalized after injuring his spleen during a game with AHL's Laval Rocket on March 6. He remained in hospital overnight for observation and sat out the club's final game on March 11 before the AHL season was postponed and ultimately canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic.Earlier in June, Kotkaniemi underwent a scan in Finland that showed his spleen was fully healed, according to Basu. Kotkaniemi was cleared to participate in off-ice workouts in April, but he had yet to be given the green light to take contact.Kotkaniemi collected six goals and two assists in 36 NHL games during the 2019-20 campaign before the Canadiens assigned him to Laval on Feb. 1. He registered 11 goals and 34 points in 79 contests during his rookie season in 2018-19.The Canadiens drafted Kotkaniemi third overall in 2018.Montreal will face the Pittsburgh Penguins in the play-in round as part of the league's 24-team return-to-play plan.Copyright © 2020 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

2020 NHL Draft Lottery

The NHL could have its teams play daily tripleheaders in an attempt to accelerate the season upon its possible return."I was always told to prepare for tripleheaders - that that's the kind of thing we would be looking at, tripleheaders on a daily basis," Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman said Thursday on NHL Network.He added: "I've been told that as it stands right now, the last possible day of the Stanley Cup Final is Oct. 5. So you can pretty much do the math, that's something like 66 days (from the end of July.)"Friedman added that timing multiple games a day at the same rink may be complicated, especially if both hub cities are on the west coast.It isn't yet known how the league will sanitize everything between games. Other potential hurdles include extended overtimes delaying other games."If we do go two western cities, that's going to be very interesting for TV how they do that," Friedman said. "In theory, you can play at 1:00, 4:00, and 7:00 every day locally, which is 4:00, 7:00, and 10:00 ET. But these are playoff games, what if we go to overtime? We talked about the cleaning that needs to be done between games, maybe that's not long enough a time between games."I was told to expect tripleheaders, I don't have any reason to believe that's different, but I'm not sure how much time they need in between all of these particular games."The league is expected to initiate Phase 3 of its return-to-play plan on July 10, which would allow teams to begin full training camps. There is no date set yet for when the 24-team playoff will kick off.Copyright © 2020 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

Every draft produces selections and storylines that, given time, become generational talking points or fade from view. Our writers are throwing it back a decade to tell some tales about the classes of 2010. The five-part series began with the NHL, detoured to MLB, the NBA, and the NFL, and now is back to the NHL for its finale.It dawned on Brendan Gallagher at an early age - in Grade 1 or Grade 2, he's not exactly sure - that he might one day make the NHL. His school pals told him so, and he would relay those lofty dreams to his teacher.At the same time, Gallagher says it didn't fully register that playing in the NHL was attainable until he took his first shift for the Montreal Canadiens in 2012. He'd never aspired to be the best player in his minor hockey loop, junior hockey league, or the AHL. He just put his head down and played."I've always had a short-term mentality," Gallagher, now 28 and more than 500 games into his NHL career, said in an interview."There was never a moment of comfort, I'll put it that way," he added. "It was always about what I had to do to improve." Icon Sportswire / Getty ImagesThis restless approach to playing hockey aligns with how June 26, 2010 - the second day of the NHL draft - unfolded inside the Gallagher household.There was a solid chance Gallagher would get picked at some point, so he tuned in to the NHL Network broadcast. His mom Della and one of his two sisters were around, but there was no draft party in Tsawwassen, British Columbia. Gallagher's dad and brother were out of town for a hockey tournament, and Gallagher himself had a community event to attend with his teammates later.Around lunchtime, the TV commentators stopped offering instant analysis as the late-round selections streamed in at a rapid pace. Instead, they began recapping the top 60 picks, which, for a draft hopeful, was poor programming. Luckily, a giant board in the background of the shot listed all the recent picks.One name on the board looked awfully familiar from afar."Brendan! Did you get drafted by Florida!?" Della asked."I don't think so, Mom. I feel like I would know by now ..." her son replied.Benjamin Gallacher had been picked by the Panthers in the fourth round, 93rd overall. Close, but not quite.Mom and son shared a laugh, and Gallagher went back to scarfing down his lunch. That afternoon commitment - road hockey with excited local fans of the WHL's Vancouver Giants - wouldn't be waiting for the draft to end. Then the phone rang."I had a mouthful of Kraft Dinner when my agent called and told me I was about to get drafted to Montreal," Gallagher said. Minutes later, he was accepting congratulations from Canadiens brass after being selected in Round 5, 147th overall.––––––––––Ten years on, Gallagher's arguably the biggest steal of the 2010 draft class.Among the 210 picks, Gallagher, ranks fifth in goals (173), 10th in points (334), and 10th in games (547). A feisty right winger with gaudy puck-possession numbers and an 'A' on his jersey, Gallagher's a two-time 30-goal scorer who consistently hovers around the 50-point mark. He's become one of the NHL's most reliable and effective players. Codie McLachlan / Getty ImagesIn theScore's recent redraft of the 2010 class, Gallagher went ninth overall, right after Ryan Johansen and right before Cam Fowler, who in the actual draft were chosen fourth and 12th, respectively. The Athletic earlier this week pegged Gallagher as the 14th-best pick of the salary-cap era (2005 to 2016, anyway) by using the advanced statistic Game Score Value Added as a performance measure. Vladimir Tarasenko, the 16th pick in 2010, was slotted ninth on The Athletic's list, while John Klingberg and Mark Stone - two other late-round gems at 131st and 178th overall - ranked 15th and 18th."Gally: Low maintenance, high return," Canadiens general manager Marc Bergevin told reporters in late 2019. "Every night, every shift, you know what you're getting, and it's 150% every night, every shift. There's an expression that we use: He drags his teammates to the fight."Gallagher doesn't play the game any differently now as a 5-foot-9 NHLer than he did as the 5-foot-3 teen drafted by the Giants in the ninth round of the 2007 WHL bantam draft. One of the shortest players on the ice his entire life, a first taste of success came as a tiny net-crasher who led his peewee squad to a provincial championship."I went up to get my gold medal and I got booed by the other team's crowd," Gallagher said, chuckling at the memory of accidentally injuring an opposing goalie en route to a B.C. title. "That was the first time I ever got booed, at 13, I think. It started early."Gallagher notes he's had that edge, that trademark bite in his game, since the very beginning. You've surely seen it countless times, when he swarms the crease in an effort to will the puck past the goal line. The video footage below, taken at the 2002 Brick Invitational hockey tournament, provides historical evidence:Scan yearly scouting reports on Gallagher and three things show up in every submission: He's a small guy who plays a big guy's game, he's determined to leave all of himself on the ice all the time, and he's coachable. The common threads aren't happy accidents, either. For as long as he can remember, Gallagher's been focused on accentuating his strengths.If Gallagher devotes most of his time and energy on improving what he does well, the thinking goes, he'll never be bogged down by his limitations."When you talk about skill sets, I'm nowhere near the top of any category," Gallagher said. "I'm not the fastest guy, I don't have the best shot, none of that. But you can look back at my conditioning - how I've worked in the gym and off the ice - and point to the power I've developed. I can go up against anyone in the world, and that comes from work.""I don't work on the things that Connor McDavid works on, because Connor McDavid is a more talented player than me," he added about his on-ice training. "I work on things that I'm going to be able to use on a nightly basis, whether it's puck protection or little skills in front of the net or quick little movements that create a little bit more time and space."Producing offense has never been an issue for Gallagher. It was the eye test that failed him as a younger player. He was picked so late in the WHL draft because he was small and didn't skate or shoot particularly well. By 2009-10, his NHL draft year, he wasn't much bigger and was still scoring the bulk of his goals - 41 in 72 games to lead the Giants - through sheer will and determination versus skill.According to Gallagher, the Canadiens were the lone club to express strong interest in him as the NHL draft neared. There were no guarantees. He was 63 picks away from going undrafted and heading to a development camp as a free agent."He's such a driven young man," Don Hay, Gallagher's junior coach, said. "I knew he'd find a way - whether it was in the weight room or on the ice - to work at his game so that he could one day have the opportunity to play in the National Hockey League." Over the course of the past 10 years, including eight in the NHL, Gallagher's won over any and all naysayers."Small size can be a disadvantage," Jaroslav (Yogi) Svejkovsky, Gallagher's longtime skills coach, said. "But I do believe, from Brendan's point of view, he's learned how to make it an advantage." Marissa Baecker / Getty ImagesGallagher's honed a low center of gravity through decades of customized off-ice training with his dad Ian, a renowned strength and conditioning coach who runs Delta Hockey Academy. Similar to Hall of Famer and childhood idol Martin St. Louis, Gallagher's robust lower body more or less eliminates any size discrepancies. For context, only three of the 20 NHL forwards currently listed at 69 inches are heavier than Gallagher. He's a truck at 184 pounds.Combine that physical stability with a fearlessness that's become second nature, an uncanny grasp of the difference between being a pain in the ass and being a frequent visitor to the penalty box, and drastically improved wrist and snap shots, and you have an irritant who keeps defenders honest.Hay and Svejkovsky relayed important advice to Gallagher during an end-of-season evaluation midway through his time with the Giants. "If you can add a shot that can be a threat from the outside, people have to start playing you tighter," Svejkovsky recalled saying. "Which is actually really good for you, Brendan, because you can expose them."Of his student now, Svejkovsky said: "His understanding and awareness in small areas, and his determination, makes him so hard to play against. If you don't really know, as a defender, what to do - should I play him super hard and tight, or should I give him space? - that's valuable."Gallagher's development is evident on a nightly basis. Montreal was a nightmare to contain when he was on the ice during the 2019-20 regular season. The heat maps below - the left shows the Habs' offense with Gallagher, the right without him - illustrate how comically impactful he was in 5-on-5 situations playing alongside Phillip Danault and Tomas Tatar.Montreal's 5-on-5 offence with Gallagher on the ice (left) and without Gallagher. HockeyViz.comA total of 390 NHL skaters logged 750 or more minutes at even strength in the regular season, according to Natural Stat Trick. Gallagher ranked second overall in both shot attempts for per 60 minutes and shots for per 60, sandwiched between linemates Tatar and Danault in both categories. He ranked second, again, this time behind draft classmate Stone, in scoring chances for per 60. And he sat atop the leaderboard in high-danger shot attempts for per 60.The numbers show Gallagher and his linemates were relentless in the attacking zone. Despite often lining up against the opposition's most dangerous offensive players, they found a way to throw puck after puck towards the goalie."You want to make sure that these top guys are playing defense and playing in the defensive zone," Gallagher said of the trio's game plan. "You don't want them to have confidence and time with the puck. We'll know pretty quickly if we're having a good game by how much we're skating and how much possession time that we have. We try to simplify the game, and when we do that we know we're helping our team and improving our chances to win." Francois Lacasse / Getty ImagesGallagher, a 56% possession player over his career, finished seventh in the NHL in shots on goal per game (3.83). The six players ahead of him were Nathan MacKinnon, Alex Ovechkin, Max Pacioretty, Auston Matthews, David Pastrnak, and Patrick Kane. Gallagher's shot's come a long way, but it can't compete over a full year with that group of all-world snipers.So Gallagher contributes to Montreal's success by gaining the inside track on defenders, keeping his stick on the ice, finding the soft spots in hard areas, and taking abuse from whoever's between him and the net."When he goes to the net, he stays to the net. He goes to the hard places and he doesn't move," Gerry Johannson, Gallagher's agent and president of The Sports Corporation, said. "A lot of guys go to the net and then drift away from it. But he'll go to the net and he'll stay there, and stay there, and stay there."Montreal's drawn the Pittsburgh Penguins in the play-in round for the NHL's 24-team tournament aimed at completing the season this fall. Expect the same Gallagher you saw before competition stopped in March: self-aware, fearless, smart, and - above all - a pounding headache for defenders."If you can show up every night and do your job," Gallagher said, "it's 15 to 20 minutes of work. It's hard work, but if you're able to do that on a consistent, nightly basis, having the trust of your teammates goes a long way in feeling important to the team."John Matisz is theScore's national hockey writer.Copyright © 2020 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

The NHL is not planning on putting teams in quarantined "bubbles" when training camps open July 10, deputy commissioner Bill Daly confirmed Thursday, according to The Canadian Press.Players are instead being told to stay home when not at their respective rinks. The hope is adequate testing and health protocols will prevent any outbreaks before players travel to the league's two hub cities for the resumption of play in late July.The NHL hasn't determined its two hub cities yet, but a decision could come as soon as Friday, TSN's Pierre LeBrun reports.The opening of training camps represents Phase 3 of the league's return-to-play plan. Phase 2 - which allows for voluntary on- and off-ice workouts at team facilities for groups of up to six players - is ongoing. Groups were recently expanded from a maximum of six on-ice skaters to 12.The Tampa Bay Lightning temporarily shut down their facilities amid Phase 2 last week after three unnamed players and two staff members tested positive for COVID-19. Shortly after, the NHL announced that 11 players had tested positive since the voluntary workouts began.Copyright © 2020 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

The NHL salary cap could remain stagnant over the coming seasons as the league and players' association continue to work toward a potential agreement to extend the CBA."As part of the agreement, the salary cap will be kept close to the current $81.5 million for the next three seasons," Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman reported Thursday, adding that there's potential for it to go up $1 million in 2022-23.The 700-plus players in the league will individually vote either for or against the extension.Other major points of discussion include an escrow cap and salary deferrals for players. According to Friedman, the potential agreement between the two sides caps escrow at 20% for the 2020-21 campaign after original estimates had escrow at 35% if this season was not completed, and 27%-28% if it was.In order to ensure teams and players split all hockey-related revenue, the NHL and NHLPA retain a percentage of players' salary, known as escrow, during the season.Another element of the potential deal involves a 10% salary deferral by every player for one season only. That money will be returned to players in the future and the escrow on it would be lower.Several players, including New York Rangers star Artemi Panarin and Anaheim Ducks veteran Ryan Kesler, voiced their frustrations with high escrow levels that have "protected the owners' income."Negotiations to extend the CBA have reportedly been linked to the return-to-play talks. Panarin said the players cannot report to training camp, which is set to open July 10, until an agreement is in place.Montreal Canadiens netminder Carey Price said Thursday he "wouldn't feel comfortable voting at this particular time" with many uncertainties remaining around the league's return-to-play plan.Copyright © 2020 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

Ryan Kesler didn't mince words when echoing New York Rangers star Artemi Panarin's concerns over the ongoing escrow battle between the NHL and the players' association.Panarin said Thursday that "the players have protected the owners' income with escrow" for nearly two decades, prompting the Anaheim Ducks veteran to call for the owners to take on more accountability."It’s about time ... the owners need to understand we’re done paying their debts," Kesler said. "You run your team into the ground it’s on you .... if there’s a pandemic it's on the owners ... figure it out it's not a free ride."In order to ensure teams and players split all hockey-related revenue, the NHL and NHLPA retain a percentage of players' salary, known as escrow, during the season.Negotiations to extend the CBA have reportedly been tethered to the return-to-play talks, and Panarin said the players cannot report to training camp, which is set to open July 10, until an agreement is in place.Kesler did not play in 2019-20 after being placed on long-term injured reserve with a hip injury in September. He has two years remaining on his current deal, which carries an average annual value of $6.875 million.Copyright © 2020 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

Vancouver will not serve as one of two hub cities in the NHL's return-to-play plan, the Canucks announced Thursday.Vancouver's bid reportedly suffered a setback following talks with health authorities.Chicago, Edmonton, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, and Toronto are the five remaining candidates after the NHL tabbed 10 cities as finalists when it unveiled its 24-team playoff plan in May.It was reported Saturday that the league had trimmed its list to six candidates, with all three Canadian cities still in the mix.Vancouver had appeared to be one of the leading contenders over the last couple of months. British Columbia's provincial health officer, Dr. Bonnie Henry, implied in early May that she was open to the city serving as a hub for NHL games.B.C. Premier John Horgan said less than two weeks later that he'd had "a wide-ranging call" with NHL commissioner Gary Bettman about the possibility of Vancouver hosting games upon the league's return.Copyright © 2020 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.