The 4 Nations Face-Off has hit the halfway mark and with there being no NHL games on the slate, it was a relatively quiet week around the hockey world aside from the four tournament games. Nonetheless, there was still some news of note which is recapped in our key stories.
More International Hockey: We saw the return of best-on-best hockey (at least for four countries) with the 4 Nations tournament and there will be another event next year with the Olympics. Another tournament has been added to the calendar as the World Cup of Hockey will make its return in 2028. The last time this was played was back in 2016 with Canada taking the best-of-three series over Team Europe to win the title. As is the case with the 4 Nations Face-Off, this event will not fall under the IIHF’s umbrella while it remains to be seen if Russia, who has been excluded from international events in recent years, will be allowed to participate in this one.
Extension For Steel: While transaction activity has been extremely limited over the past week, the Stars took care of one of their pending unrestricted free agents, signing center Sam Steel to a two-year, $4.2MM extension. The 27-year-old is in his second season in Dallas, returning despite being non-tendered last summer. Steel hasn’t been able to come close to replicating the type of offensive success that he had at the junior level but he has turned into a reliable checker; he leads all Stars forwards in ATOI shorthanded. The deal represents a nice raise for the 27-year-old as he will go from making $1.2MM this season to an AAV of $2.1MM for next year.
Theodore Exits 4 Nations: Golden Knights defenseman Shea Theodore was pegged to play a significant role for Canada at the 4 Nations Face-Off. However, his tournament lasted only a handful of shifts as he suffered an upper-body injury in the opener and was quickly ruled out for the rest of the event. Subsequently, Vegas announced that the blueliner is expected to be out on a week-to-week basis. The 29-year-old sits fourth among all NHL rearguards in scoring with 48 points in 55 games while averaging over 22 minutes. His exit comes on the heels of Vegas teammate Alex Pietrangelo withdrawing from the tournament to nurse a nagging injury as the Golden Knights will be dealing with a banged-up back end when the season resumes this coming weekend. Theodore’s absence resulted in Dallas defender Thomas Harley being put on standby to join the team, something that has since happened with Cale Makar battling an illness.
Calling It A Career: Long-time NHL winger Loui Eriksson has called it a career, announcing his retirement at the age of 39. Eriksson played in 16 seasons at the top level with four different organizations, spanning 1,050 games altogether. He picked up 253 goals and 360 assists over that time with his best years coming between 2009-10 and 2011-12 with Dallas where he notched at least 71 points in each of those three seasons. Eriksson also finished in the top five in Lady Byng Trophy voting three times. After his final NHL campaign in 2021-22, he wrapped up his playing career with Frolunda in the SHL, returning to the program he came up with in his junior days.
Dobson Changes Agents: Islanders defenseman Noah Dobson has been talked about a lot lately. There was recent trade speculation which was quickly refuted but not long after that, he changed agencies, moving to Wasserman. Speculatively, the change likely doesn’t relate to the trade speculation but rather to the fact he has a contract negotiation on the horizon. The 25-year-old had a breakout year last season, tallying 70 points in 79 games while logging 24:31 per night. He hasn’t been producing at quite the same pace this year though but either way, he’s in for a substantial raise from the $4MM he’s receiving this season. With arbitration rights, Dobson is in line to more than double that on his next deal, one that will have a new agent working on it.
Photo courtesy of Imagn Images.
Four nations is kind of best on best, But not completely, Czechia, And Russia would certainly have to be involved, Two vital hockey countries.
I think 4 Nations got an unforeseen boost / Word of Mouth marketing for this year given the Canadian elections/ tariff stuff that I am not sure is replicable in other years.
Need a format to show Kucherov/Kaprisov/Ovechkin/Vasielesky/Bobrosky/ Sherserkin as well as Draisaital/ Pasternak and other stars.
Canadian elections? There are no Canadian elections called. It’s getting a political boost by the Oompa Loompa running things on the southern side of the border. Otherwise this tournament is a JOKE. The current best player in the game can’t even participate in this year’s “all-star event” because the NHL has restricted it to players from 4 countries.
Hockey is a fun sport and great entertainment. How it continues to make you bitter and angry is a bit of a mystery yet also entertaining.