4:37 PM ET Associated Press RALEIGH, N.C. — The Carolina Hurricanes have hired retired captain and three-time Stanley Cup winner Justin Williams as special adviser to the general manager. “The knowledge that he brings just getting off the ice a short time ago is going to be very valuable for us,” team president and general
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9:54 PM ET Associated Press The NHL has postponed the Colorado Avalanche‘s games through Feb. 11. Colorado becomes the fifth team shut down, joining Vegas, New Jersey, Buffalo and Minnesota. Dallas and Carolina were put on pause in January because of outbreaks. The Avalanche currently have two players on the league’s COVID-19 list: captain Gabriel
2:15 PM ET Associated Press COLUMBUS, Ohio — The Blue Jackets placed goaltender Elvis Merzlikins on injured reserve after he was injured during practice. The move came hours before Merzlikins was scheduled to start Thursday night’s game against the Dallas Stars. Joonas Korpisalo likely will start in his place. The Blue Jackets said Merzlikins, who
8:00 AM ET If the offer is “all or nothing,” the Toronto Maple Leafs have inevitably settled for the latter. They haven’t won the Stanley Cup since 1967, which also was their most recent appearance in the Stanley Cup Final. Their seasons either end with the muted disappointment of air slowly seeping out of their
7:30 AM ET The most important word when it comes to young NHL players is one that long-suffering fan bases don’t want to hear: patience. Expectations have undoubtedly been skewed for highly drafted players of late in part because Connor McDavid and Auston Matthews destroyed the development curve for everyone else. Young talents just aren’t
9:00 AM ET When the NHL Awards are handed out each year, there are accusations of geographic bias. Sometimes it’s due to the size of a market. More often it’s complaints about how one division or conference is covered by a larger press corps than another — the storied “East Coast bias” that always seems
7:00 AM ET The 2021 NHL season has officially begun to take form, as the February schedule gets rolling. For this week’s power rankings, we identified the biggest disappointment so far for every team. How we rank: The ESPN hockey editorial staff submits selections ranking teams 1 to 31 — taking into account past results
6:13 PM ET The Buffalo Sabres and New Jersey Devils played a game on Sunday in Buffalo. By Tuesday, the next week of games for both teams had been postponed, and 16 players were on the NHL’s COVID-19 protocol-related absences list. The Sabres were scheduled to fly to New York for a two-game series against
10:15 AM ET Jack Hughes was the 57th player in NHL history to be selected first overall in his draft year. Many of them made an immediate impact on their teams. Some, like Jack Hughes, did not. Hughes lugged the baggage of expectations into his rookie season and was crushed under the weight of them.
6:34 PM ET Tony DeAngelo has played his last game with the New York Rangers, general manager Jeff Gorton told reporters on Monday. Gorton said the 25-year-old defenseman “wasn’t able to move on” from being benched for the second and third game of the season — a decision made by coach David Quinn after DeAngelo
7:20 AM ET It was inevitable that COVID-19 would impact the 2021 NHL season, but the Washington Capitals didn’t imagine it would impact them so early — or so hard. After their first road trip to Buffalo and Pittsburgh, goalie Ilya Samsonov tested positive for the coronavirus. The NHL’s contact tracing revealed the team’s four
6:02 PM ET ESPN News Services The Vegas Golden Knights have postponed two more games next week as four members of the team — including three coaches — are in isolation with the league’s COVID-19 protocol, it was announced Friday. Games against the San Jose Sharks on Monday and Wednesday will be rescheduled for later
2:44 PM ET The New York Rangers placed defenseman Tony DeAngelo on waivers Sunday. It was a surprising move considering New York signed the 25-year-old DeAngelo to a two-year, $9.6 million extension this past October. “This isn’t about one incident, it’s not about one thing,” Rangers coach David Quinn told reporters on Sunday. “This is
7:12 PM ET Alex Ovechkin returned to the Washington Capitals lineup on Saturday against the Boston Bruins, after missing four games following a violation of the NHL’s COVID-19 protocols. “It sucks, obviously,” Ovechkin told reporters earlier on Saturday. “No one wants to be suspended. No one wants to put yourself in that position. It’s over.
7:00 AM ET MSG analyst Dave Maloney received a text from his daughter this week: “What is wrong with the Rangers?” It’s the same question most Blueshirts fans are asking after the team kicked off the season with a 2-4-1 record. Such is the nature of the NHL’s unforgiving 56-game schedule, where a slow start
7:00 AM ET During Disney’s Investor Day presentation in December, it was revealed, among many other content announcements, that a series based on the “Mighty Ducks” franchise will be coming to Disney+ (“The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers”). The beloved hockey movie trilogy from the 1990s, often placed on the Mount Rushmore of hockey films by
7:00 AM ET NHL Insiders With two weeks of the 2021 NHL season in the books, some early trends have started to take shape. Some are expected, others are quite shocking. Here’s a 12-pack of takes based on the January action — from potential trades, to the first coach fired, to who we like as
9:30 AM ET Jim Rutherford resigned as Pittsburgh Penguins general manager just seven games into a 56-game season. It was stunning, unanticipated and, given the circumstances, unheard of in the National Hockey League, especially given the work Rutherford did to retool this team. His motivations are a mystery. His future is as unpredictable as it