Canadiens’ Nick Suzuki Wins Frank J. Selke Trophy
Montreal Canadiens captain Nick Suzuki has won the 2025-26 Frank J. Selke Trophy as the NHL forward who “best excels in the defensive aspects of the game,” the league announced today.
Suzuki beat out fellow finalists Brock Nelson of the Colorado Avalanche, and Anthony Cirelli of the Tampa Bay Lightning. Suzuki earned the trophy in a landslide, per the voting conducted by the Professional Hockey Writers Association. He earned 151 first-place votes and 1,726 total points. Cirelli, who placed second, received 10 first-place votes and 467 points.
The Canadiens captain is a first-time finalist for the Selke Trophy, but finished 13th in voting in each of the prior two campaigns.
The trophy was won by Florida Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov in both 2023-24 and 2024-25, though Barkov missed the 2025-26 season with an injury.
With today’s news, Suzuki has become just the third Canadiens player to take home the Selke Trophy. The other two Canadiens forwards to win the award – Bob Gainey and Guy Carbonneau – are both enshrined in the Hockey Hall of Fame.
Suzuki, 26, is one of the game’s most valuable all-around centers. For years, he has drawn comparisons to legendary Boston Bruins center Patrice Bergeron, who is himself a six-time Selke Trophy winner. This past season, Suzuki lived up to those comparisons.
He set a career-high in terms of offensive production, leading a young, ascendant Canadiens team in scoring with 29 goals, 72 assists, and 101 points. He became the first Canadiens forward to reach 100 points in a season since Mats Naslund had 110 points in 1985-86.
Suzuki was able to reach those new heights offensively while redoubling his commitment to the defensive side of the game. Centering the Canadiens’ first line alongside sniper Cole Caufield and blossoming star Juraj Slafkovsky, Suzuki often had to endure being matched up against the top lines of opposing teams. But despite that challenging environment, Suzuki was able to consistently win his minutes on the ice and lead the Canadiens to a stellar regular-season finish.
While it is somewhat unconventional for a player to win the Selke Trophy playing more of a reserve role on the penalty kill (Suzuki is not a leader in the Canadiens’ short-handed rotation), his lack of a leading role is more a credit to the number of specialist defensive centers the Canadiens have (Phillip Danault, Jake Evans) than any kind of statement on his defensive quality.
In fact, Suzuki’s defensive quality has not been a matter of intense debate. Dating back to the start of the season, Suzuki consistently polled as the favorite to win the Selke. He led in the polling for the award conducted by ESPN’s Greg Wyshynski for five straight months, suggesting that voters took to the spirit of the award, which is to recognize the whole of a player’s two-way contributions.
Canadiens Nearly Acquired Matthew Knies At Deadline
Around the trade deadline, it was reported that the Montreal Canadiens had completed a significant trade with an unidentified team; however, the other team was unable to file the trade by the 3 pm ET deadline. According to David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period, the trade partner is now known, with the outlet reporting the Canadiens and Maple Leafs had agreed to a trade for Matthew Knies back in March.
Pagnotta had the details on the proposed return package, too. The Canadiens were prepared to send Alexander Zharovsky, who recently won Rookie of the Year in the KHL, another top prospect, and two first-round selections to the Maple Leafs. It has been confirmed that neither Michael Hage nor David Reinbacher was the other prospect in the deal.
Had the trade been completed, it would have sent ripples around the league. For one, although he had been involved in trade rumors leading up to the deadline, it’s relatively shocking that the Maple Leafs would actually entertain trading Knies, and not building around him. He’s only 23 years old, is signed long-term, and has had two consecutive productive years with Toronto.
Furthermore, given Montreal’s lack of scoring depth became their Achilles heel in the Eastern Conference Final, Knies certainly would have changed their outlook. The Canadiens boast one of the best first lines in the league; however, their lack of a strong second line turned them into a one-dimensional team, and the Hurricanes dispatched them easily.
Having Knies, a young winger who has scored 52 goals and recorded 124 points in 157 games for the Maple Leafs over the past two years, would have provided Montreal with a significant asset to place alongside Ivan Demidov. Additionally, Knies was relatively productive in Toronto’s playoff run last year, scoring five goals and seven points in 13 games, while also delivering 31 hits.
While trade talks may potentially resume this summer, it is unlikely that they will do so. Brad Treliving, the Maple Leafs’ General Manager at the time, agreed to that trade. The Maple Leafs have since transitioned to a different regime under John Chayka.
Chayka has a mandate to keep captain Auston Matthews happy, or risk him asking for a trade out of town if Chayka can’t turn the team around. Trading Knies away for futures wouldn’t be conducive to that goal.
While it’s unlikely that the Canadiens will be able to pursue Knies this summer, it is clear that the team intends to be aggressive in reaching their next competitive stage. Given that they’re willing to trade with divisional opponents, Montreal may already be in touch with the Detroit Red Wings about their captain, Dylan Larkin, who requested a trade from the team earlier today.
Photo courtesy of John E. Sokolowski of Imagn Images.
Dylan Larkin Requests Trade From Red Wings
Detroit Red Wings captain and No. 1 center Dylan Larkin has requested to be traded from the team, reports Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet. Darren Dreger added that “this move has been in the works for a while.”
According to Friedman, that neither Red Wings GM Steve Yzerman nor Larkin’s agent Pat Brisson would comment on the report, but cited a “frosty relationship” between Larkin and Yzerman as potential factor that have contributed to Larkin’s decision, alongside the team’s inability to reach the postseason at any point beyond the center’s rookie campaign. 
Larkin made headlines at the end of the Red Wings’ season when he criticized Yzerman and the team’s hockey operations department for not adding enough talent at the trade deadline.
In his end-of-season media availability, Larkin told reporters “it was hard that we didn’t do anything,” and “we didn’t gain any momentum from the trade deadline. Guys were kind of down about it. So it would have been nice to add something and bring a little bit of a spark on the ice.”
The Red Wings traded first and second-round picks to the St. Louis Blues to acquire veteran Justin Faulk at the trade deadline. The club also traded a fourth-rounder to the Ottawa Senators for veteran forward David Perron. Those additions were not enough to halt the Red Wings’ second-half slide out of playoff position.
Per Emily Kaplan of ESPN, the issues between Larkin and the Red Wings’ front office “[date] back at least to testy contract negotiations in 2023,” meaning beyond just Larkin’s unhappiness with the team’s work at the trade deadline.
If his request is fulfilled, a Larkin trade would mark the end of the player’s decade-long tenure in Detroit. The Waterford, Michigan native has spent his entire hockey career in the state. He spent his amateur career at the U.S. National Team Development Program in Plymouth, Michigan, his collegiate career at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, his very brief minor-league career in Grand Rapids, and his NHL career in Detroit. That Larkin is not only willing to move on from the Red Wings, but is actively pursuing the move, suggests something in his relationship with the team has become fractured – though it is important to stress that is just speculation.
What’s clear is that this will not be an easy trade to complete. That is not because there will not be league-wide interest in Larkin, of course. Roster building in the NHL is defined by scarcity at the center position, and in-their-prime No. 1 centers are very rarely ever available on the trade market. Those factors alone will mean there is likely to be a massive amount of interest in Larkin from across the league. Rather, the path to an eventual Larkin trade will be a difficult one because of the two key parties involved at its outset, and the varying degrees of control and leverage each party has.
Larkin, 29, signed an eight-year contract extension with the Red Wings in March 2023. The deal carries an $8.7MM AAV (which may be below market-value for No. 1 centers at this point) and crucially carries a full no-trade clause through next season. That will allow Larkin to hand-pick what teams he is willing to be traded to.
In the past, players empowered by no-trade protections have been able to severely constrict how many teams their clubs are able to negotiate with, often dramatically reducing what the acquiring team needs to surrender in order to acquire the player. Notable examples of this include this past season’s Artemi Panarin deal, or the trade that brought Taylor Hall to the Boston Bruins from the Buffalo Sabres.
Although the no-trade clause gives Larkin the ability to exert a significant amount of control over the trade process, there are limits to his leverage. Larkin is under contract through the 2030-31 season, a factor that gives Yzerman and the Red Wings a considerable amount of their own leverage. Larkin has requested to be traded, but the Red Wings have zero obligation to acquiesce to his request. He is contracted to the team, and will remain so until his age-34 season. They are fully capable of retaining Larkin through what could be the end of his prime playing years.
That could limit the extent to which Larkin is able to wield his no-trade clause. If he wants to hand-pick his destination, leaving Detroit in a position where they would need to accept a sub-optimal return package for their No. 1 center, it’s likely the Red Wings would simply elect to keep Larkin. But if Larkin does want to be traded as his No. 1 priority, he may need to allow the Red Wings to open up the trade process and allow for as many bidders as possible. His best chance of securing a trade from Detroit could very well be Yzerman simply receiving an offer he can’t refuse – something that is unlikely to happen if he exercises his contractual right to severely restrict what teams he can be traded to.
There is also the chance that Detroit very simply will not entertain a Larkin trade, regardless of the player’s wishes. Teams typically only want to roster players who actually want to play there, but Larkin would not be the first player to make a trade request that goes unfulfilled. While Friedman called the relationship between Larkin and team management “frosty,” it may not be an irreparable fracture. For both Larkin and the Red Wings, the best course of action could very well be staying the course.
For the Red Wings, it’s difficult to imagine them winning a Larkin trade. As previously mentioned, finding a No. 1 center is extremely difficult in the NHL, let alone one who is under team control and within the prime years of his career. Larkin fits the bill there, having scored at just below a point-per-game rate over the last half-decade. The Red Wings are the owners of the league’s longest playoff drought, and are desperate to return to the playoffs after an extended rebuild.
For as much talent as the team has right now – like young stars Moritz Seider and Lucas Raymond – they lack a center at Larkin’s level. J.T. Compher and Andrew Copp are both middle-six types, and top prospects Marco Kasper and Nate Danielson are both considered by most public-facing scouts to have a No. 2 center ceiling. Unless the Red Wings can find a pivot with true No. 1 center upside as part of a return package for Larkin (and the odds of doing that seem long), a Larkin trade could set their franchise back at an extremely important time.
But without question, there will be a lot of interest from around the league to navigate. The Minnesota Wild stick out as a team likely to be proactive in pursuing Larkin. Wild GM Bill Guerin got to see Larkin up close in his position as GM of the U.S. Men’s National Team, and Larkin’s efforts helped the nation secure a gold medal at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milano-Cortina. The Wild believe they have a championship-level roster, just missing a top-line center to pair with No. 2 pivot Joel Eriksson Ek. Larkin immediately surpasses Vincent Trocheck as the top veteran center potentially available via trade, meaning he will be a key target for Guerin.
Other teams, such as the Montreal Canadiens (who need a No. 2 center behind Nick Suzuki) and Los Angeles Kings (who need help at the position in the wake of Anze Kopitar‘s retirement) stick out as potential bidders. But in the former’s case, the Red Wings may be loath to deal Larkin to a division rival. And in the latter’s, the Kings may not be willing to part with the high-end assets necessary to put together a winning offer for Larkin.
In any case, this is an absolutely seismic development, one that has franchise-altering potential for the Red Wings. If the Red Wings do end up seriously considering trading Larkin, his presence on the trade market will likely shape the course of the offseason.
Photos courtesy of Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images
Jon Cooper Wins 2026 Jack Adams Award
Tampa Bay Lightning head coach Jon Cooper has added another crowning achievement to a storied NHL career.
Cooper was announced Wednesday as the 2026 recipient of the Jack Adams Award, granted each season to the NHL coach “adjudged to have contributed the most to his team’s success.” Voted on by members of the NHL Broadcasters’ Association, Cooper becomes just the second coach in franchise history to capture the honor, joining John Tortorella (2004).
This marked Cooper’s third time as a finalist for the award. Voters ultimately selected the veteran bench boss over fellow 2026 finalists Dan Muse (PIT) and Lindy Ruff (BUF).
The league’s longest-tenured head coach guided the Lightning to a ninth consecutive playoff berth in 2025-26. Tampa Bay navigated an injury-filled campaign to finish with a 50-26-6 record, securing 106 standings points to tie for fifth overall in the NHL. It marks the organization’s first 50-win season since 2021-22.
Under Cooper’s stewardship this year, the Lightning finished among the NHL’s elite, ranking near the top of the league in wins, goals scored, goals against, goal differential, road wins, regulation wins, and comeback wins, as well as penalty kill percentage.
The award puts a bow on a milestone-heavy season for the prospective Hall of Fame coach. Cooper coached his 1,000th career NHL game, all with Tampa Bay, on December 31, and quickly followed that up on January 12 by becoming the second-fastest coach in league history to reach 600 wins with a 5-1 victory over the Philadelphia Flyers.
Predators Hire Chris MacFarland As President Of Hockey Ops
According to a team announcement, the Nashville Predators have hired Chris MacFarland to be the organization’s new President of Hockey Operations & General Manager.
The Predators had been permitted to speak to MacFarland regarding a front office role, as initially reported by Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic and Elliotte Friedman. Friedman also added that Predators owner Bill Haslam met face-to-face with MacFarland last night. The question had come down to what role and title MacFarland would be offered with Nashville, but it seems they’re going to ‘hand the keys‘ to him, and they closed this quickly.
MacFarland is one of three finalists voted in contention for this season’s Jim Gregory award, which is given to the league’s best general manager. He has been with the Avalanche since the 2015-16 season, being promoted to general manager in Colorado after Joe Sakic was elevated to president of hockey operations shortly after the team’s 2022 Stanley Cup victory. That move came from the Avalanche’s yearning to keep MacFarland from interviewing for the Anaheim Ducks open position, later filled by Pat Verbeek. The 56-year-old had previously been with the Columbus Blue Jackets as a director of hockey operations and assistant general manager from 2000 up until the 2014-15 season. He spent the final two years in Columbus as the GM of the Springfield Falcons, the AHL affiliate at the time.
Sakic, according to Elliotte Friedman, will return to the GM role along with his current position as Avalanche President of Hockey Operations.
In a previous 32 Thoughts podcast, it was said that the Predators were being patient in their search and were waiting to ask to converse with a top-tier candidate. The target that Friedman said was logical for Nashville, based on the length of their search, was MacFarland. Before this development, Friedman had spoken on Nashville’s radio show DMase, Vingan & Daunic on 102.5 The Game, saying that the Predators are standing pat for someone who they’re waiting to speak with, whether it be a member of a front office under contract or someone who is running a team that remains in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
This was a development when the Avalanche were down three games to none in the Western Conference Finals against the Vegas Golden Knights. Friedman said that MacFarland wouldn’t likely depart from Colorado unless it was a ‘huge step up’, and added that Nashville might not offer that. He believed that the Predators would ask permission to talk to MacFarland in the event they’re eliminated.
Now that Colorado is in offseason mode, the Predators are taking a swing at grabbing a big front office name that has helped one franchise in the West. Nashville could use that help to get back to its Cup-contending ways that they haven’t seen for nearly a decade. The Predators had been looking for their next leader in the front office after it was announced mid-season that Barry Trotz was stepping down. Before that, they had David Poile, who served as the team’s GM from 1997 to 2023.
The Predators ended up sixth in the Central Division, missing the playoffs by four points in the 2025-26 season. With MacFarland stepping in, he begins his tenure with 12 draft picks in the upcoming 2026 NHL draft, starting with 10th overall and around $27MM in cap space to work with this upcoming offseason. Free agents the Predators will need to assess include the likes of forwards Erik Haula, Tyson Jost, and defenseman Kevin Gravel, rounded out by restricted free agent Justin Barron.
Despite missing the postseason for the past two campaigns, whoever inherits this team has a mix of youth talent among veteran stars in Filip Forsberg, Roman Josi, and Juuse Saros that can be supported in their quest back into the dance while still under contract. The salary cap rising to $104MM benefits everyone, but after the Predators inked Jonathan Marchessault, Steven Stamkos, and Brady Skjei to major contracts, they need to capitalize on the window they have with these notable names.
Canucks Hire Manny Malhotra As Head Coach
According to a team announcement, the Vancouver Canucks have hired Manny Malhotra as their next head coach, as first reported by Frank Seravalli of Victory+.
Malhotra will be elevated from the coaching staff of the team’s AHL affiliate, the Abbotsford Canucks. This comes just shortly after the Canucks promoted Ryan Johnson to the position of GM. Johnson was previously GM in Abbotsford and an assistant GM in Vancouver.
Malhotra, 46, first became a member of the Canucks organization during his playing career. Malhotra played for Vancouver from 2010-11 to 2012-13, serving as a reliable bottom-six defensive specialist for the club.
He was a teammate of legendary Canucks duo Daniel Sedin and Henrik Sedin, individuals who will now oversee his work as head coach in their positions as co-presidents of hockey operations.
At the end of his playing career in 2015-16, Malhotra joined the coaching ranks in 2016-17 as a development coach in the Canucks organization.
Then, after just one season, he was promoted to the position of assistant coach, where he would remain for three seasons. Malhotra was an assistant on coach Travis Green’s 2019-20 Canucks team that made a run to the second round of the playoffs, the team’s first extended playoff run since reaching the Stanley Cup final in 2011.
Malhotra left Green’s staff to join the Toronto Maple Leafs as an assistant coach for the 2020-21 campaign, and he would go on to spend four seasons as an assistant on Sheldon Keefe’s staff. Prior to Malhotra’s arrival, the Maple Leafs had not won a playoff series since 2004. They finally broke that streak in Malhotra’s second season on Keefe’s staff, defeating the Tampa Bay Lightning in a hard-fought first-round series.
Keefe was fired as Maple Leafs head coach last summer, prompting Malhotra’s exit from Toronto. He returned to the Canucks organization, becoming head coach in Abbotsford. He was an instant success there. Led by some talented youngsters in Arshdeep Bains, Aatu Raty, and Arturs Silovs, as well as valuable veterans such as Sammy Blais and Christian Wolanin, the Canucks had a stellar 2024-25 season. They went 44-24-4, and won the Calder Cup for the first time in franchise history.
While Malhotra and the AHL Canucks took a step back this past season, it’s worth noting that the NHL Canucks’ plunge to the bottom of the league standings impacted the stability of the team’s AHL roster. Malhotra simply did not have the benefit of coaching a stable core group of players in 2025-26, the way he did in 2024-25.
In any case, Malhotra’s work as an assistant, and as a championship-winning minor-league head coach, clearly impressed the Canucks. He’ll take over a franchise that has undergone a significant amount of hockey operations change over the last year, and is expected to be in a rebuilding phase for the next few years.
Taking over a rebuilding Canucks team won’t be an easy task for a first-time NHL head coach (former head coach Adam Foote was fired after his rookie season behind the bench), but Malhotra’s player development background could pay real dividends for a team set to increasingly rely on young talent.
The Canucks are set to add a significant amount of youth as they rebuild over the next few years, an influx of promising, but inexperienced talent that could begin with the No. 3 pick in the draft later this month. The Athletic’s Corey Pronman wrote in his most recent mock draft that the “smart money is on” the Canucks selecting Brantford Bulldogs center Caleb Malhotra with the pick. Malhotra is the consensus top center in the upcoming draft, and is also, notably, Manny’s son. Whether this hire will in any way impact the Canucks’ draft plans is still unclear.
But looking beyond just the draft, the Canucks’ decision to promote Malhotra as their NHL head coach speaks to the organization’s desire to build a contending team from the ground up. The Johnson/Malhotra GM/head coach pairing already delivered championship results in the AHL, and the hope will be that they can do the same at the game’s highest level.
Photos courtesy of Jean-Yves Ahern-USA TODAY Sports
Devils Sign Anton Silayev
The New Jersey Devils will have one more first-round pick in their system next season. Defenseman Anton Silayev is has signed his entry-level contract following his third season in Russia’s KHL. The news was originally shared by Artur Khairullin of Russian news site Sport-Express. The 6-foot-7 defender was selected 10th-overall in the 2024 NHL Draft. He will be the last of 2024’s top 15 to sign his entry-level contract when he puts pen to paper.
Silayev has had a sure role with the KHL’s Torpedo Novgorod since the 2022-23 season, when he led the team’s junior affiliate to a junior league championship. Even in his age-17 season, Silayev’s size, smooth skating, and stick checks proved tough for opponents to beat. Those advantages earned him a full-time role in the KHL during his draft season in 2023-24. Silayev had ups-and-downs as a KHL rookie. Never the scorer, he racked up only 11 points in 63 regular season games. More glaring were the amount of times that Silayev got turned around by top-tier competition – though his aggression in board battles and ability to move the puck still warranted a top pick come draft day.
Silayev has spent the last two seasons ironing out the gaps from his age-18 season. He climbed to 12 points in 63 games of the 2024-25 season, then joined the Torpedo’s minor-league club for the postseason en route to a league championship. He contributed two points to 17 games of the 2025 VHL playoffs. Surprisingly, Silayev’s routinely-low offense turned downwards this year. He finished the 2025-26 KHL season with just three points in 61 games. Much of that diminished scoring came from Silayev’s struggles to spark the breakout in the same way he had in prior years – casting a shadow over his clear improvements on either end of the ice. Following their elimination from the Gagarin Cup playoffs, Torpedo finished Silayev’s season with a brief assignment to Russia’s junior-league playoffs, where he scored two points in four games while standing as one of only 20 defensemen age-20 or older in the junior postseason.
A down year in Russia will be followed by a major opportunity for one of New Jersey’s top prospects. Silayev will likely step into a top role in the AHL, where his big frame and puck-moving abilities could quickly stand out. He could also be a candidate to break camp with the Devils to begin the 2026-27 season – if the club finds a way to use his unique style and size in a depth role while he finds his stride. Either way, an entry-level contract will give Devils fans another player to watch close once training camp kicks off.
Maple Leafs Hire Judd Brackett, Freddie Hamilton
The Minnesota Wild will lose a core piece of their scouting room before the NHL Draft. Director of Amateur Scouting Judd Brackett has left the club for an assistant general manager position with the Toronto Maple Leafs. The news was originally reported by Michael Russo of The Athletic. Brackett was previously granted permission to speak with the Toronto Maple Leafs regarding an assistant general manager position per Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman.
Brackett has built a strong reputation across USA Hockey – one honed since his move to the Minnesota Wild in 2020. He holds a strong voice in the Wild’s draft and prospect development conversations and played a role in the team’s connection to promising draft picks like Zeev Buium, Charlie Stramel, and Adam Benak.
Before his time with the Wild, Brackett spent seven seasons as an amateur scout and five seasons as Director of Amateur Scouting with the Vancouver Canucks. He was, again, a strong voice in the rooms that drafted Elias Pettersson, Quinn Hughes, Brock Boeser, and Thatcher Demko. Brackett was also a strong advocate for the 2019 U.S. National Team Development Program that produced Jack Hughes, Cole Caufield, Matt Boldy, and Trevor Zegras – though none found a home in Vancouver.
His accolades with USA Hockey extend beyond recognizing strong, NTDP talent. He was a scout for Team USA’s 2024, 2025, and 2026 World Junior Championship rosters. The Americans won Gold in two of those tournaments but fell to Finland in the quarterfinals this year. He also won a QMJHL championship in 2008 and two USHL Clark Cups in 2009 and 2014.
A step up in the hierarchy seems well-timed on the other side of Brackett’s sixth year with the Wild. His insight could be the final push needed to encourage Toronto to draft perennial star Gavin McKenna, or begin honing in coverage of a loaded 2027 draft class.
The Maple Leafs have also hired Freddie Hamilton as their Chief of Staff. Hamilton, the brother of New Jersey Devils defenseman Dougie Hamilton, earned his MBA from Yale University and began a career in private equity following the end of his playing career in 2018. The former San Jose Sharks draft pick will now turn his focus back to hockey in a role that will support Toronto’s strategic initiatives and alignment within the hockey operations department. Hamilton totaled 75 games and six points in his NHL career, spanning tenures with the Sharks, Colorado Avalanche, Calgary Flames, and Arizona Coyotes.
IIHF To Decide On Russia Participation On Event-By-Event Basis
The IIHF announced an update this morning to Russia’s eligibility to compete in IIHF competitions for the 2026-27 season. The announcement came during the organization’s annual congress held in Zurich, Switzerland this week.
In its update, the IIHF wrote that the original decision made by the IIHF Council in January to rule out Russian participation in IIHF events for the 2026-27 season, which was appealed by the Russian Ice Hockey Federation, has been overturned by the IIHF’s Disciplinary Board.
The IIHF stressed that this does not mean that Russia has automatically been reintegrated. Instead, they said the decision has been sent back to the IIHF Council to be re-analyzed “based on safety, security, operational, and sporting plans.”
As a result, the IIHF says it will decide on Russian eligibility to participate in IIHF competitions “on an event-by-event basis.”
While the decision is by no means an indication that Russia will be able to quickly re-enter IIHF events, it does mark a notable development in Russia’s favor as the country looks to return to full international competition. That the country has no longer been fully ruled out for the upcoming season is an improvement from their position in the last few years. The move comes just one day after Belarus was reinstated for IIHF tournaments.
Russia and Belarus have not been allowed to participate in any major international competition since the former’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. As a result of the conflict, the IIHF cited security concerns in keeping the country out of competition.
Russia’s ice hockey federation issued a statement against the ban in February, which read in part: “the argument regarding the impossibility of ensuring the safety of participants in international tournaments involving Russian national teams is no longer relevant, lacks any basis, and is merely a formal pretext for denying our country’s participation.”
The key underlying issue with Russia’s participation is the stance of numerous European hockey federations, including superpowers Sweden, Finland, and Czechia.
Sweden’s federation has previously strongly backed the IIHF’s ban, calling it “absolutely necessary.” The Athletic’s Chris Johnston reported earlier this year that it was “highly unlikely Finland, Sweden or Czechia would agree to play in any tournament featuring a team from Russia with the war ongoing.” The source he cited “also questioned whether the Canadian government would allow its athletes to participate in such an event.”
Now that the IIHF will have to decide on Russian participation on an event-by-event basis, it appears the governing body’s disciplinary board has dealt a blow to the IIHF’s previous argument that cited safety concerns.
While this is by no means a guarantee Russia will return to international competition at any specific point, it does make that a more realistic possibility than it has been at any point since the country’s ban was originally imposed, though significant opposition from other federations remains.
Islanders Hire Jay McKee As AHL Head Coach
The New York Islanders announced that they have hired Jay McKee to serve as head coach of their newly-relocated AHL affiliate, the Hamilton Hammers. The organization’s previous AHL head coach, Rocky Thompson, was promoted to the position of assistant coach on Peter DeBoer’s NHL staff, creating the vacancy filled by this hire.
McKee is no stranger to the city of Hamilton. The 48-year-old has been head coach of the OHL’s Brantford Bulldogs since 2021-22, meaning the first two years of his coaching tenure came when the franchise was still located in Hamilton.
A former NHL defenseman who had an 802-game career playing for the Buffalo Sabres, St. Louis Blues, and Pittsburgh Penguins, McKee’s coaching career began in 2010-11, the very next season after he chose to retire.
His first job as a coach came at Niagara University, where he spent 2010-11 as an assistant coach on the staff of Dave Burkholder. The following year, he was an assistant for the AHL’s Rochester Americans, where he would coach future NHLers such as Marcus Foligno, Brayden McNabb, Zack Kassian, Alex Biega, and Brian Flynn.
After one year in Rochester, he left professional hockey and resumed his coaching career in 2014-15 as an assistant for the OHL’s Erie Otters. On the staff of future NHL coach Kris Knoblauch, he coached numerous future NHLers such as Connor McDavid, Dylan Strome, Alex DeBrincat, Darren Raddysh, Travis Dermott, Taylor Raddysh, Mason Marchment, and Kurtis MacDermid. He left Erie after one season to become an associate coach on the staff of Mike Van Ryn with the Kitchener Rangers.
McKee got his first chance as a head coach in 2016-17 with Kitchener. In year two of his tenure, he took the team to the OHL’s Conference Finals. His Rangers reached the OHL playoffs in every one of his full seasons as head coach, though he was fired after 21 games in 2019-20 after a 7-10-4 start.
In 2021-22, McKee was hired as head coach of the then-Hamilton Bulldogs. He was an instant success. In his first season in Hamilton, the Bulldogs had a 51-12-5 regular season, and steamrolled their way to the OHL Finals, sweeping each of their first three series. In the OHL Finals, the Bulldogs won in seven games against the Windsor Spitfires.
While McKee hasn’t won a title with the Bulldogs since then, he’s kept the franchise consistently among the OHL’s strongest teams. In total, he has gone 213-91-36 as head coach of the Bulldogs, with that championship run and another run to the Conference Finals this past season.
Beyond just that extremely impressive record, his program has also shown it can consistently develop NHL talent. His 2022 championship roster featured future NHLers such as Mason McTavish, Arber Xhekaj, and Ryan Winterton, as well as players who are currently on the NHL/AHL bubble, such as Avery Hayes, Logan Morrison, Jorian Donovan, and Jan Mysak.
His more recent Bulldogs teams have been led by some quality NHL prospects including Marek Vanacker, Florian Xhekaj, Nick Lardis, Jake O’Brien, Adam Jiricek, Ben Danford, Adam Benak, Jett Luchanko, and top 2026 draft prospect Caleb Malhotra.
That record of developing players is especially relevant for this new role. While McKee will certainly be tasked with turning the Hammers into a winning team, (something that has been a very real challenge for Islanders AHL coaches over the last half-decade) he will also be mandated with delivering as many Islanders prospects as possible to the NHL.
That’s something McKee appears prepared to do after nearly a decade as head coach of the OHL. As New York prepares for a season where some of its top prospects, such as first-rounders Cole Eiserman, Victor Eklund, and Kashawn Aitcheson, may begin the year in the AHL, they’ve decided to pull from the OHL to add a promising head coach to oversee their development.