Kraken Recall Shane Wright
The Kraken have recalled top forward prospect Shane Wright from AHL Coachella Valley, per a team announcement Sunday.
Wright’s recall gives Seattle a crowded roster up front. Another pair of youngsters, Logan Morrison and Ryan Winterton, were recalled from Coachella Valley last week and have both factored into the Kraken’s last three games. Seattle GM Ron Francis certainly seems intent on giving the future of his organization a chance in the majors down the stretch with playoff hockey no longer in the conversation, Wright included.
The 20-year-old Wright was the consensus top prospect in the 2022 draft class for quite some time, but a slightly underwhelming draft year and some impressive performances from his peers allowed him to slip to the Kraken, who held the fourth overall pick. His post-draft season was rocky, too. He made Seattle out of camp after signing his entry-level contract in 2022 but played sparingly over the first few weeks of the season. His consistent healthy scratches allowed Seattle to take advantage of a loophole in the NHL/CHL transfer agreement and give Wright his first taste of AHL hockey, assigning him to Coachella Valley on a conditioning loan for a two-week stretch. The Kraken then loaned him out to the Canadian national junior team, with whom he recorded seven points in seven games while serving as team captain en route to a gold medal, before returning him to OHL Windsor to close out the season in major junior play.
While Wright would have been ineligible for full-time AHL assignment this season as well, as his 20th birthday fell after Jan. 1, he was awarded an exception by the CHL and reported to Coachella Valley to kick off the 2023-24 season. That’s where he’s remained outside of two brief recalls to Seattle in November and December, ranking fifth among a deep offense with 20 goals, 23 assists and 43 points in 56 games. It’s been a solid but not overly impressive showing for the former OHL rookie of the year, who was also held without a point in three games of major league action with the Kraken earlier this season.
It’s unclear if the Kraken intend on keeping Wright in the NHL for the remainder of the stretch run, although there’s nothing stopping them with ample cap space and no roster limit. He’s still in the first season of his entry-level contract, which didn’t take effect last season because he played less than 10 NHL games. That could repeat again this year if he fails to hit the double-digit mark, something the Kraken would like to do to extend his value. Thus, don’t expect him to play more than six of Seattle’s nine remaining games. If his ELC defers again, he’ll reach restricted free agency in 2027.
Ivan Fedotov To Occupy Flyers’ Backup Role, Extension Talks Underway
The Flyers have assigned goaltender Felix Sandström to AHL Lehigh Valley, GM Daniel Brière told reporters Friday (including Charlie O’Connor of PHLY Sports). The move indicates that netminder Ivan Fedotov, who arrived in Philadelphia and spoke to reporters alongside Brière this morning, will be reinstated to the NHL roster and will be the team’s backup netminder behind Samuel Ersson to close out the regular season. The Athletic’s Kevin Kurz adds that extension talks between the Flyers and Fedotov, a pending UFA, have begun.
It’s unclear when Fedotov will make his NHL debut, but he is likely to dress for his first game on Saturday when the Flyers host the Blackhawks. Reports yesterday indicated that the 27-year-old, who had spent all of 2023-24 with CSKA Moscow of the Russian KHL, violating his valid NHL contract and an IIHF arbitration ruling, had his contract with CSKA terminated and was en route to join the Flyers.
Speaking on Friday’s “32 Thoughts” podcast, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman said Fedotov didn’t appear pleased with the chain of events that led him to remain in Russia this season. “The current situation was untenable; he didn’t want to be there, he wasn’t playing well, and the Flyers wanted him in North America,” Friedman said.
In his media availability today, Fedotov gave the following statement (via Kurz):
I’ve been here a long time ago, around eight years. It’s been a long time. So now I’m here and for sure I’m so excited and happy be here. Great feelings, because really difficult two years (it) was for me.
A tough season it was for Fedotov, whose .914 SV% and 2.37 GAA were remarkably the worst of his career since breaking into the KHL full-time in 2019-20. The seventh-round pick of the Flyers back in 2015 has long been one of the most talented netminders outside of North America, who firmly planted himself in the conversation with a 2021-22 campaign that included a Gagarin Cup championship with CSKA, KHL Best Goaltender, and First All-Star Team nods, and a silver medal with Russia at the 2022 Winter Olympics.
It was the following summer that the Flyers first attempted to bring Fedotov to the NHL, signing him to a one-year, entry-level contract with plans to have him start the season as the backup to then-starter Carter Hart. However, Fedotov was detained by Russian authorities when trying to leave the country and was accused of skipping out on required military service, missing the entire 2022-23 season as a result.
The NHL tolled his contract, making it valid for 2023-24. However, since Fedotov would be 27 at the end of the contract, not 26 as originally intended, he becomes a UFA upon expiry instead of an RFA. In the unlikely event he hits the open market in July, he’d be free to sign with any NHL club, but all indications point toward Fedotov remaining in Philadelphia through next season at least.
Fedotov hopes to provide some stability to the Flyers’ crease outside of Ersson, who’s largely held the fort after Hart left the team in January to face sexual assault charges. Sandström and Cal Petersen have received tryouts in the backup role but have put up unplayable numbers for a team in the playoff hunt. The former returns to the minors today after being recalled to replace Petersen on Feb. 29, posting a .823 SV% and 3.87 GAA in three starts and two relief appearances during his stint on the roster.
After similarly poor numbers during his time in the NHL last season (3-12-3, .880 SV%, 3.72 GAA in 20 appearances), time is running out for the 27-year-old Sandström. A UFA this summer upon completion of his two-year, $1.55MM extension, it seems highly unlikely he’ll be offered a contract to remain in Philadelphia. The Flyers selected him 70th overall in 2015, four rounds ahead of Fedotov.
Maple Leafs Sign Simon Benoit To Three-Year Extension
The Maple Leafs announced Friday that they’ve signed defenseman Simon Benoit to a three-year extension. The deal is worth $4.05MM, carrying an AAV and cap hit of $1.35MM. His salary is evenly distributed across all three seasons with no signing bonuses, Pierre LeBrun of TSN and The Athletic reports.
Benoit, 25, has played a larger role than expected in Toronto this season and has quickly become a fan favorite. Few expected the Quebec native to even make the NHL after he went undrafted and failed to secure an NHL deal when his time in major junior hockey with the QMJHL’s Shawinigan Cataractes ended in 2018. He began his professional career on a minor league contract with AHL San Diego in 2018-19, impressing with a defensively sound rookie season and earning an entry-level contract from the Ducks near the end of the season.
It was still a while before he’d make his NHL debut, receiving a couple of short recalls in 2019-20 that didn’t result in any major league action. His first shot came near the end of the 2020-21 campaign, where he impressed with a positive shot-attempt share at even strength in heavy defensive usage while logging 17:12 per game across six appearances.
Benoit didn’t make the Ducks out of camp in 2021 but wasn’t in the minors for long, breaking onto the NHL scene for most of the season and notching a goal and four assists in 53 showings. His possession numbers dragged slightly but were still above acceptable for a depth defender on a rebuilding and defensively challenged team. He then earned a qualifying offer from Anaheim, who re-signed him to a one-year, two-way deal for 2022-23.
Last season, injuries forced Benoit into a top-four role with the Ducks, who remain the worst defensive team of the salary cap era, allowing 4.09 goals per game. Unsurprisingly, Benoit’s boxcar stats read as some of the worst in the league, recording 10 points and a -29 rating in 78 games while playing over 19 minutes per game, often saddled with the defensive responsibility of covering for the rather one-dimensional John Klingberg at even strength as his partner. His possession metrics struggled as a result, although maybe not as much as expected. He logged a 41.4 CF% at even strength, which was only two points worse than his off-ice CF% despite 63.8% of his zone starts coming in the defensive end.
However, with Anaheim looking to make room for a deep group of young defense prospects like Jackson LaCombe, Pavel Mintyukov and Olen Zellweger, they opted to not qualify Benoit last summer and let him reach unrestricted free agency, where the Leafs picked him up on a one-year, league-minimum deal, also the first one-way contract of his career. Still, most expected Benoit to serve as the eighth or ninth option on the organization depth chart behind other depth defenders like Klingberg, who also signed a one-year deal with Toronto over the summer, veteran Mark Giordano, and Conor Timmins.
He did end up beginning the season with AHL Toronto, clearing waivers near the end of training camp. Just two days later, an early-season rash of injuries over the Toronto blue line forced Benoit’s first recall of the season. After bouncing up and down between leagues over the next two months, he was permanently recalled to the Leafs on Nov. 27 and hasn’t looked back.
With Klingberg’s season finishing prematurely due to a lingering hip injury and Giordano, Timmins and Timothy Liljegren all missing significant time, Benoit has made 54 appearances for the Leafs, scoring once and adding four assists. His even-strength CF% has rebounded to 49.3, and he’s controlled possession quality at the best rate of his career, posting a 50.3 xGF%. While a decrease in ice time and some easier matchups certainly help, he’s been on the ice for 0.54 expected goals against per game this year compared to 0.96 last season with Anaheim. He also leads Toronto with 205 hits.
Benoit has continued to factor in down the stretch with the Leafs still cycling through injuries on defense, even skating in a top-pairing role alongside Jake McCabe in last night’s 5-1 win over the Capitals. His role in the postseason once players Liljegren, Joel Edmundson and Morgan Rielly are ready to return from their injuries is less clear, though.
The physical 6’3″ blue-liner now gets legitimate stability for the first time in his professional career and will continue in a depth role for Toronto until his deal expires in 2027. He’ll be a UFA upon expiry.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports.
Marc-André Fleury Interested In Returning To Wild Next Season
Future Hall-of-Fame netminder Marc-André Fleury hasn’t decided he’s ready to hang up his skates and is open to returning to the Wild next season, he told NHL.com/fr Senior Reporter Jean-François Chaumont this week.
If Fleury returns for his 21st year in the NHL, it will only be in the Twin Cities. The pending UFA told Chaumont that he “wouldn’t want to move and take my three kids out of their environment” and that “it’s probably Minnesota or retirement.”
The 39-year-old has occupied the 1A role in Minnesota as the Wild try to claw their way into the final wild-card spot in the Western Conference. Fleury started eight of 12 games in March. He was excellent for most of that stretch, going 4-1-1 with a .936 SV% between March 2 and March 16, but he has now surrendered five goals in each of his last two starts.
It hasn’t been a season to write home about for either him or tandem partner Filip Gustavsson, who have both logged save percentages under .900 after serving as one of the league’s better goalie tandems a season ago. His .899 SV% is his lowest since his first two NHL seasons with the Penguins in 2003-04 and 2005-06 behind a team that was inarguably the league’s worst defensively. However, that didn’t stop him from overtaking Patrick Roy for second place on the league’s all-time wins list earlier this season, now nine ahead of his countryman with 560.
He’s still been serviceable as a backup and has bounced back from a highly disappointing 2021-22 campaign split between the Wild and the Blackhawks, where his -17.2 goals saved above expected was fourth-worst in the NHL, per MoneyPuck. He may not move the needle much if he returns for his age-40 season – his birthday is in November – but there’s reason to believe he can still keep pace with the NHL game.
Obviously, Fleury believes he can, citing his increased comfort level and “rediscovered joy” as the season progressed. The netminder said that while he never reached a final decision, he entered the 2023-24 campaign thinking “it was going to be my last season,” a feeling exacerbated by hip problems he said plagued him as Minnesota struggled out of the gate.
Those are in the rearview now, and he’s ready to return if he still has a place in the organization. He made it clear to Chaumont that he knows that’s not a guarantee, saying he’ll speak with Minnesota GM Bill Guerin about his vision for next season and if the team feels top goaltending prospect Jesper Wallstedt is ready for a full-time role alongside Gustavsson, who has two seasons remaining on his contract.
Wallstedt, the 20th overall pick in the 2021 draft, struggled in his NHL debut in January, conceding seven goals on 34 shots faced in a rout at the hands of the Stars. However, he’s had a strong second season in the minors with AHL Iowa, posting a .911 SV% and 20-17-3 record in 40 games behind a weaker squad. He was sent to the AHL All-Star Game after making it as a rookie last season, too.
Guerin told Chaumont that he’s “more than open to the possibility of seeing him coming back for another season” and “there’s still some gas left in his tank.” Fleury’s made it clear that money won’t be a major consideration on a one-year extension and could very well take as low as the league minimum salary as Minnesota continues to navigate a tough salary cap situation created by the buyouts of Zach Parise and Ryan Suter, which still combine for a $14.7MM dead cap charge next season.
It would be the second extension the Sorel, Quebec, native signs in Minnesota. After coming over from Chicago ahead of the 2022 trade deadline, he signed a two-year, $7MM deal with full no-move protection to close out his days of earning multi-year contracts.
Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.
Oskar Sundqvist To Undergo Knee Surgery, Out Six Months
Blues forward Oskar Sundqvist will miss the rest of the 2023-24 season after sustaining a torn ACL in his right knee in Monday’s game against the Golden Knights, the team announced. The tear requires surgery, which carries a minimum recovery time of six months.
If his recovery timetable holds, Sundqvist won’t be ready when training camps begin ahead of the 2024-25 season in September. However, he hasn’t been ruled out for the beginning of the regular season.
Sundqvist sustained the injury midway through the second period of the eventual 2-1 overtime loss. After he cycled the puck behind the goal line in the Vegas zone, Golden Knights defenseman Brayden McNabb attempted to cross-check him into the boards but approached Sundqvist at an indirect angle that caused both players to fall awkwardly. Sundqvist’s right leg buckled during the fall, and he could not get up without assistance from Blues Head Athletic Trainer Ray Barile. Officials did not assess McNabb a penalty on the play.
The 30-year-old had a middling season after returning to the Blues in free agency for his second stint with the club. He appeared in 71 of St. Louis’ 72 games, posting six goals, 15 assists, and 21 points while averaging 13:15 per game. It was his worst offensive showing on a per-game basis since 2017-18. After breaking into an everyday top-nine role the following season, Sundqvist recorded 48 goals, 66 assists and 114 points in 285 games for the Blues, Red Wings and Wild from 2018-19 to 2022-23.
He was never a particularly strong possession player at even strength but often did good work on the penalty kill for the Blues, whose 80.9% success rate with the man disadvantage was 10th in the league, with Sundqvist averaging regular minutes there across four seasons. A fan favorite who posted nine points in 25 playoff games en route to St. Louis’ first Stanley Cup in 2019, the Blues traded Sundqvist to the Red Wings at the 2022 deadline as part of the package that landed them defenseman Nick Leddy. He was traded again at last season’s deadline as a pending UFA with Detroit out of the playoff picture, heading to Minnesota for a fourth-round pick.
Despite Sundqvist’s decline in both the points and possession departments this season, Blues GM Doug Armstrong decided earlier this month that he wanted to keep him around through their pending retool, inking him to a two-year, $3MM extension. The Blues hope he can recover from surgery in time to start that $1.5MM AAV deal off on a high note next fall. He’ll be a UFA in 2026 after the extension expires.
Sabres To Activate Jack Quinn From Injured Reserve
The Sabres will activate winger Jack Quinn from injured reserve ahead of Wednesday’s game against the Senators, head coach Don Granato said. The 22-year-old is expected to draw in after a two-month absence due to a lower-body injury.
Quinn looks to end a difficult 2023-24 campaign on a high note. The 2020 eighth-overall pick has been severely limited by injuries dating back to an Achilles injury sustained during training last offseason. Recovery from that surgery landed him on IR to start the season and kept him out until mid-December, costing him the first 32 games of the season. This lower-body injury, which he sustained against the Sharks on Jan. 27, sidelined him for an additional 24.
When in the lineup, he looked like he hadn’t missed a beat from last year’s strong rookie campaign. The Ottawa native notched five goals, seven assists, and 12 points in 17 games between injuries, tied with JJ Peterka for sixth on the team in scoring during that time. He averaged 15:58 per game, up drastically from last season’s 13:51, and saw his points per game increase from 0.49 to 0.71. Along with improved possession numbers – his 53.1 CF% at even strength is fifth among active Sabres – his short stint in the lineup went a long way toward bookmarking him a spot in the team’s top six going forward.
A continued strong showing through the last 10 games of the season would surely secure a sustained increased role in 2024-25. After COVID and injuries cost him most of his post-draft campaign, Quinn has done nothing but score, posting 26 goals and 61 points as a rookie in 45 games with AHL Rochester in 2021-22. Unsurprisingly, he captured the league’s Rookie of the Year award as a result and cracked the Sabres’ opening night roster the following October.
Line rushes indicate Quinn will slot on a quite youthful second line alongside the 22-year-old Peterka and 23-year-old Dylan Cozens tonight against the Sens. He spent 123 minutes with that trio over 15 of his 17 games this year, controlling 56.2% of expected goals, per MoneyPuck. That’s the second-highest mark of any Sabres forward line with over 100 minutes together, trailing Zach Benson, Jordan Greenway, and Casey Mittelstadt (61.5%), the latter of whom was traded to the Avalanche earlier this month for defenseman Bowen Byram.
It may be a wasted season for the Sabres to sneak value out of Quinn’s entry-level contract, but he does have one season remaining at a cap hit of $863.3K. He’ll be due a sizable raise before his deal expires in 2025, and a strong finish this season could also sway Sabres GM Kevyn Adams to kick off extension talks sooner rather than later.
Coyotes Recall Josh Doan
10:48 a.m.: The Coyotes have also assigned Leonard to AHL Tucson, per a team statement. The move brings them to 11 healthy forwards on the active roster without Doan, meaning they can bring him up on an emergency loan and conserve a standard recall.
8:00 a.m.: The Coyotes have recalled winger Josh Doan from AHL Tucson, GM Bill Armstrong told Craig Morgan of PHNX Sports late Sunday night. It’s the first major league callup for the 22-year-old, who Morgan says will make his NHL debut Tuesday against the Blue Jackets.
Arizona has no apparent or suspected absences among their 12 healthy forwards for tomorrow’s game, so this recall is likely a standard one, not an emergency loan. If so, the Yotes have burned their second of four post-trade deadline recalls after papering defenseman Michael Kesselring between leagues on deadline day.
An early second-round pick by the Coyotes in 2021 after going undrafted in 2020, Doan spent the following two seasons at Arizona State University, where he averaged just over a point per game and was awarded the captaincy in his sophomore season. The son of longtime Coyotes captain Shane Doan then inked his entry-level contract in March 2023, joining AHL Tucson on a tryout for the last 14 games of the regular season and their first-round playoff loss to Coachella Valley.
Some viewed the 6’1″ forward as a reach when the Coyotes made him the first overage selection in 2021, but he’s quieted most doubts with a season that should earn him some rookie of the year consideration in the minors. Doan has posted 26 goals and 46 points, leading the Roadrunners in both categories. He is only one of two players to suit up in all 62 games this season, joining defenseman Maksymilian Szuber.
A truly homegrown talent, the Scottsdale-born Doan has only played outside the Phoenix area for two seasons. From 2019 to 2021, he played at the major junior level with the USHL’s Chicago Steel. He’s been a massive part of Tucson’s turnaround this year, as they sit second in the Pacific Division after finishing under .500 in each of the last three seasons.
It’s unclear where Doan will slot into the Yotes’ lineup or how long they plan on keeping him around. A cursory look at their depth chart suggests he may debut in a third-line role alongside Matias Maccelli and Jack McBain, replacing 25-year-old farmhand John Leonard. In a few weeks, though, he’ll play an essential part in helping Tucson win their first playoff series since their Pacific Division semifinal win over San Jose in 2018, which remains the franchise’s only series victory since relocating to Tucson from Springfield in 2016.
Tom Wilson Suspended Six Games For High-Sticking
Washington Capitals winger Tom Wilson has received a six-game suspension for high-sticking Noah Gregor of the Toronto Maple Leafs, per Sammi Silber of The Hockey News. Wilson earned a double-minor penalty on the play, which saw him one-handed swing his stick across his body and into Gregor’s face. He was offered an in-person hearing, making him eligible for a suspension longer than five games.
This marks the sixth suspension of Wilson’s career, placing him in elite company among the NHL’s most-suspended players – a list led by Chris Pronger (seven suspensions) and Brad Marchand (eight suspensions). Wilson will have spent a combined 36 games suspended once he’s done with this absence – including his preseason suspension in 2017 and the reduction of his 20-game suspension in 2018 to 14 games. He will forfeit $161,458.32 in salary for high-sticking Gregor, per The Athletic’s Chris Johnston, bringing him to $1.563MM in salary forfeited to suspensions in his career. That’s $100,000 more than Marchand has spent in his path to the most-suspended player in league history.
Despite his long history of punishment, and the fact that he’s spent all 746 games of his career in one place, Wilson hasn’t yet earned the title of most-penalized Washington Capital. That instead belongs to the infamous Dale Hunter, who managed 2,003 penalty minutes in 872 games with the Capitals, in addition to 1,562 penalty minutes in 535 games with other teams. Fellow DOPS-favorite Scott Stevens also ranks ahead of Wilson in all-time penalty minutes, earning 1,628 in just 601 games with the Capitals. Both Hunter (2) and Stevens (14) rank in the top-15 of all-time penalty minutes.
Dan Vladar To Undergo Season-Ending Hip Surgery
Flames netminder Daniel Vladař will undergo season-ending surgery on his hip next week, per the team. Vladař, who missed three games in February with what the team termed a lower-body injury, is expected to recover by the start of the 2024-25 season. No corresponding recall will be made as starter Jacob Markström, who missed the last four games with a lower-body injury, “has been cleared for full practice and game participation.”
Vladař, 26, had the worst season of his career in 2023-24, although today’s news offers a plausible explanation as Sportsnet’s Eric Francis reports the goalie “has needed hip surgery for a while.” His only IR stint this year came during February’s absence. With no roster limit in effect after the trade deadline, there’s little reason for the Flames to move Vladař to IR for the rest of the season to open up a roster spot. While LTIR is also an option given the length of his absence, that’s also unlikely as the team has over $10MM in cap space and likely won’t need the relief provided by Vladař’s $2.2MM cap hit.
He ends 2023-24 with 19 starts, an 8-9-2 record, a .882 SV%, and a 3.62 GAA — his worst numbers since the Flames acquired him from the Bruins in 2021. However, it likely won’t be his last chance to prove himself in Calgary. Markström is a likely candidate to get traded this summer after waiving his no-move clause before the deadline for a trade to the Devils that ultimately fell through, opening a spot for Vladař to remain on the roster alongside top prospect Dustin Wolf. 2024-25 is the second and final season of the extension he signed with the club in 2022, and he’s set to earn the same base salary as his cap hit implies.
Vladař’s injury means the Flames do not need to modify Wolf’s emergency loan, which they used to bring him up from AHL Calgary earlier this month when Markström got hurt. Without two other healthy goaltenders on the active roster, Wolf can remain with the Flames on an emergency loan for the remainder of the season and keep Calgary from burning one of their two remaining post-trade deadline standard recalls. Vladař wasn’t likely to get much action down the stretch anyway, having been pulled for Wolf in his last appearance on March 12 against the Avalanche. The 22-year-old Californian has a .931 SV% and 2-1-0 record since entering the Colorado game.
NHL GMs Propose Multiple Rule Changes, Tweaks
The NHL’s general managers have concluded their annual three-day meeting in mid-March, discussing the latest trends of the game and what new rules could prove impactful. Each of these rule changes is still in their infancy, still needing to be approved by the Competition Committee and the NHL Board of Governors before they’re enacted. We’re here to break down each of the new proposals, with all information courtesy of Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman (Twitter Link).
- Goaltenders will now join the list of players that can receive a penalty for intentionally dislodging the net – removing netminders’ ability to stop play on their own accord.
- Centermen will receive a warning before getting tossed from the dot in offensive-zone draws following an opponent’s icing. Previously, defensive centermen received a warning, while offensive centermen were tossed immediately.
- Backup goaltenders will receive a warmup if the starter is pulled out of the game due to injury or concussion.
- If a goalie’s mask is knocked off and play is blown dead, the offensive team will have a choice of which offensive-zone dot they want to take the faceoff at.
- Coaches will now have the ability to challenge a minor high-sticking call, in an attempt show that the infraction was the result of a teammate’s stick, not the offenders. This should clear up high-sticking calls from highly-congested scrums, where multiple players have their sticks up at once.
- Coaches will now have the ability to challenge a delay of game penalty for the puck going over the glass – attempting to show that the puck deflected off something. If they fail, the team immediately receives a 5-on-3 penalty kill – one penalty for the delay of game, and one for the failed review.
- If a player refuses to play the puck after a teammate’s high-stick or hand-pass, the opposing team will receive a faceoff one zone better than where the play occurred – meaning the faceoff will be in the non-offending team’s offensive zone, if the infraction occurs in the neutral zone.
- Players will no longer be able to have legs over the bench while play is ongoing. Teams will be assessed a warning, and then a bench minor, for the infraction. This rule change comes after an official was cut by a skate over the side of the bench.
- Notably, no changes to the league’s 3-on-3 overtime format were proposed. The NHL is on pace to have 70 percent of overtime games end before a shootout, which would be a league record.