NHL News

7:15 AM ET ESPN staff Believe it or not, the 2020 NHL draft is finally here. After being delayed and rescheduled from June, all 217 picks over seven rounds will take place on Tuesday and Wednesday, starting with the New York Rangers atop the board. Whether you are a draft enthusiast who has followed this

7:15 AM ET You’ve been hearing about the 2020 NHL draft class for more than a year. But now teams will finally get to make their first-round picks on Tuesday night. And that means one final mock draft projecting all 31 selections of Round 1. The class features an excellent No. 1 prospect and a

2:04 PM ET Faced with another salary cap crunch, the Chicago Blackhawks have traded defenseman Olli Maatta to the Los Angeles Kings for a prospect. Chicago needs to make deals for forwards Dominik Kubalik, who finished third in Calder Trophy voting, and Dylan Strome, and they do not have a frontline goalie under contract. Two-time

5:42 PM ET Associated Press PITTSBURGH — The Pittsburgh Penguins are putting their faith and their money in goalie Tristan Jarry. The Penguins awarded the first-time All-Star a three-year contract Saturday. The deal, which carries an average annual value of $3.5 million, likely means Pittsburgh is ready to move on from two-time Stanley Cup-winning netminder

11:00 AM ET The first thing one notices about Bill Armstrong is the ring. The one with 282 diamonds and 51 sapphires, for a total weight of 10.6 carats. The one with the St. Louis Blues logo resting on the Stanley Cup, with each round of their 2019 championship journey etched inside the band. The

8:00 AM ET NHL Insiders The 2020 NHL draft is set to take place Tuesday and Wednesday. While the event is always exciting because we get to see where hundreds of young players will continue their development as hockey players, it’s also usually the setting for massive trades. With the event taking place virtually this

9:00 AM ET In the hectic world of NHL free agency, I’ve found there’s really only one reliable imperative: Players don’t want to move their stuff. Alex Pietrangelo, 30, is the belle of the free-agent ball this offseason, the kind of top-pairing defenseman in his prime who could complete a Stanley Cup puzzle for several

7:00 AM ET For his entire 11-year career in the NHL, Anton Khudobin has been a backup goaltender. Then, this summer, he got his chance to shine. With the oft-injured Ben Bishop ruled “unfit to play” for most of the 2020 Stanley Cup playoffs, Khudobin took over the No. 1 role for the Dallas Stars.

9:00 AM ET Hours before the Tampa Bay Lightning popped the 2020 NHL playoff bubble by winning the Stanley Cup, coach Jon Cooper was asked about what he’d miss about the quarantine experience. Cooper looked to his right and gave his eyes a roll. He took a deep sigh through a smile, which was an

7:15 AM ET The 2020 NHL draft is just days away, so it’s time to lock in my final prospect rankings for this year’s class. The Tampa Bay Lightning just wrapped up their Stanley Cup championship, but attention now turns to the draft, which will be held virtually on Oct. 6-7. I’ve poured through game

8:00 AM ET The 2020 Stanley Cup playoffs took 65 days, 24 teams, five playoff rounds, two “bubbles” and, most important, 33,394 COVID-19 tests that returned zero positive results, according to the NHL — and that’s not even mentioning the 20,000 or so iced cappuccinos handed out by Tim Hortons. However you want to calculate

7:00 AM ET When Tyler Motte arrived in Vancouver last year for Canucks training camp, he underwent a physical with team doctors. They took Motte’s vitals, conducted measurements, made sure all of his limbs worked correctly. Everything looked fine. Then the doctor asked: “Is there anything else you have going on, anything else we should

9:00 AM ET During the past few months, the phrase “in these uncertain times” has entered the zeitgeist or at the very least entered the lexicon of advertising copy. The phrase also is applicable to what the National Hockey League’s newest free-agent class will experience when the horn sounds at noon ET on Oct. 9.

10:58 PM ET The 2019-20 NHL season will be remembered for quite some time, thanks to a pause because of the coronavirus pandemic that kept players off the ice for months and ended seven teams’ seasons. As we bear witness to the first 24-team postseason tournament, we continue to look ahead to what’s next. As

11:20 PM ET The Tampa Bay Lightning eschewed tradition after Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Final, surrounding NHL commissioner Gary Bettman and hockey’s Holy Grail as a team rather than having it handed off to captain Steven Stamkos alone. The result resembled a jubilant class portrait on the last day of school. The last

7:00 AM ET The Tampa Bay Lightning had a chance to clinch the Stanley Cup in Game 5 on Saturday night, but they blew a late third-period lead, and then the Dallas Stars won in double overtime. And just like that, we have ourselves a series again. Can the Stars keep this alive, or is

2:40 PM ET Tampa Bay Lightning captain Steven Stamkos will not play again in the Stanley Cup Final, coach Jon Cooper told reporters Sunday. “Hopefully the next time we see him on the ice is for a trophy presentation,” the coach said. “He did everything he could to get back. And he did get back,

12:41 AM ET There will be at least one more game in the 2020 Stanley Cup Final. The Dallas Stars survived a furious onslaught from the Tampa Bay Lightning, and Corey Perry scored the game-winning goal in double overtime to earn the 3-2 victory in Game 5. Miss any of the game? We’re here with