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Leon Draisaitl

2020 King Clancy Trophy Nominees Announced

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The NHL has announced the 31 nominees for the King Clancy Memorial Trophy, annually presented to “the player who best exemplifies leadership qualities on and off the ice and has made a noteworthy humanitarian contribution in his community.” Last year’s winner was Jason Zucker of the Minnesota Wild.

Each team submits one nominee. This year’s are:

Anaheim: Cam Fowler

Arizona: Oliver Ekman-Larsson

Boston: Patrice Bergeron

Buffalo: Jack Eichel

Calgary: Travis Hamonic

Carolina: Jordan Staal

Chicago: Jonathan Toews

Colorado: Gabriel Landeskog

Columbus: Cam Atkinson

Dallas: Tyler Seguin

Detroit: Justin Abdelkader

Edmonton: Leon Draisaitl

Florida: Sergei Bobrovsky

Los Angeles: Trevor Lewis

Minnesota: Matt Dumba

Montreal: Carey Price

Nashville: Pekka Rinne

New Jersey: P.K. Subban

NY Islanders: Matt Martin

NY Rangers: Henrik Lundqvist

Ottawa: Brady Tkachuk

Philadelphia: Kevin Hayes

Pittsburgh: Sidney Crosby

San Jose: Evander Kane

St. Louis: Ryan O’Reilly

Tampa Bay: Alex Killorn

Toronto: Mitch Marner

Vancouver: Alexander Edler

Vegas: Marc-Andre Fleury

Washington: Garnet Hathaway

Winnipeg: Blake Wheeler

2020 Hart Trophy Finalists Announced

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It’s time for the big one. The NHL has announced the finalists for the Hart Trophy, given annually to the “player judged most valuable to his team.” Last year’s winner, Nikita Kucherov, took home the Ted Lindsay and Art Ross as well in an impressive trifecta after scoring 128 points.

This year’s finalists are Leon Draisaitl from the Edmonton Oilers, Nathan MacKinnon of the Colorado Avalanche, and Artemi Panarin of the New York Rangers, the same three that were nominated by their peers for the Lindsay earlier this month.

Like with the Lindsay, Draisaitl seems to be the odds-on favorite after his incredible offensive season. The Oilers forward led all players with 110 points in just 71 games, including a league-leading ten game-winning goals. He even eclipsed teammate Connor McDavid in the scoring race and proved he can carry a line away from his fellow superstar. It’s hard to really discount anything he did, though some voters may feel as though he wasn’t quite as “valuable” to the Oilers because of McDavid’s presence.

MacKinnon, on the other hand, had to carry the Avalanche all by himself for stretches this season. His 93 points were 43 more than the second-highest player on the Colorado roster—rookie defenseman Cale Makar—thanks to major injuries to his normal running mates like Gabriel Landeskog and Mikko Rantanen. Add that to the fact that MacKinnon has received Hart votes in each of the last two seasons (finishing 2nd in 2018 and 6th in 2019) and you could understand why he’s still a candidate to snatch the award from Draisaitl.

In Panarin’s case, you may not have even considered him in the running halfway through the season. Though he was still obviously one of the most skilled players in the league, his 34 points in 28 games weren’t enough to make the Rangers anything special. From that point in December on however, he put up 61 points in his last 41 games and formed a dynamic duo with Mika Zibanejad that made New York one of the most dangerous clubs in the Eastern Conference. At any point, they might put up a huge number of goals even if their overall team was still not quite polished enough to be a real Stanley Cup contender. With the expanded playoffs this summer they’re in, and Panarin’s game-breaking talent could change that contender assumption in an instant. There’s no question he is one of the most valuable players in the league, but will it be enough to take home the crown?

2019-20 Ted Lindsay Award Finalists Announced

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Now that the regular season is officially finished and we’re on our way towards the playoffs, the league and player’s association will be releasing the finalists for the major awards this week. First up is the Ted Lindsay Award, given to “the most outstanding player in the NHL” as voted on by members of the NHLPA.

The three finalists this year are Leon Draisaitl (EDM), Nathan MacKinnon (COL), and Artemi Panarin (NYR).

It’s hard to not see Draisaitl as the favorite in this vote, given his pure dominance at the offensive end of the rink this season. The 2019-20 Art Ross Trophy winner with 110 points in just 71 games, Draisaitl eclipsed even teammate Connor McDavid in Edmonton and proved that he could be a force of his own. With 43 goals he came fourth in the Rocket Richard race while logging nearly 23 minutes a night for the Oilers. Draisaitl now has exactly 422 points in his 422-game NHL career and is one of the premier talents in today’s game.

Not to be outdone is MacKinnon, who has been a finalist for the award in the past. The Colorado Avalanche powerhouse recorded his third-straight season with at least 90 points, this time tallying 93 in just 69 games. MacKinnon led the entire league in shots on goal with 318 and was once again the engine that drove the Avalanche to the playoffs. While some critiqued the 2013 first-overall pick for a slow start to his NHL career, the last three years have been proof that he is one of the elite offensive weapons in the league and will likely contend for awards such as these many more times.

Panarin’s story is a little bit different than those of Draisaitl and MacKinnon, though he is certainly their equal in terms of skill and offensive prowess. Some of the respect he has received from his peers today may come from his situation however, as Panarin’s New York Rangers were an afterthought for much of the season. With Mika Zibanejad as his only real star-powered help up front, Panarin managed to record 95 points in 69 games (36 more than the third-place Ranger) and drag New York to a playoff qualification round. Sure, the team may be a long-shot to win the Stanley Cup in the early years of their rebuild, but for the 20 minutes of ice time he logs each night the Rangers know they usually have the best player out there.

Poll: Who Do You Least Want To See Win The No. 1 Pick?

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If Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly’s face didn’t give it away during Friday night’s NHL Draft Lottery, this result was not what the league was expecting or hoping for. In a season when a decorated Original Six franchise, the Detroit Red Wings, had one of the worst campaigns of all-time and the league’s most downtrodden franchise, the Ottawa Senators, had not one but two high-percentage chances of winning the top pick, the No. 1 overall selection will instead go to a to-be-determined “playoff” team.

With the league expanding the postseason field to 24 teams this season as a result of COVID-19 cutting the regular season short, 16 teams will vie for a chance to move through a “knockout round” onto a more standard version of the NHL playoffs. However, now those same 16 teams, all of whom finished above .500 this season, will also be in the running to win the top overall pick and the right to select a generational talent in forward Alexis Lafreniere. All eight losers of the qualifying round will have even odds in a second running of the lottery and one lucky team will get playoff experience and an elite young player this season. No one is going to be truly happy with the result (apart from the lottery winner and their fans of course) but who would you least like to see win the top overall pick?

The Pittsburgh Penguins might be at the top of many peoples’ lists. The franchise has won three Stanley Cups in the last decade and no one would be surprised to see them win again this year, especially given the fact that they finished  the regular season in seventh league-wide in points percentage. The Penguins are the best team slated to play in the knockout round, but if by some chance they lose to the Montreal Canadiens, Lafreniere could potentially join Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, and company in a move that could extend the dynasty for years still to come. The thought of the talented young winger playing beside either of those superstars would be daunting to every other team in the league.

Finishing just behind Pittsburgh with the ninth-best points percentage in the league this year were the Carolina Hurricanes. The club has quietly accumulated a deep, talented roster including a number of elite young players. Carolina is set to contend for titles for many years to come, but Lafreniere would make them truly dangerous. Like the Penguins, the Hurricanes simply do not need the best player in the draft. Keep in mind  that they were also one of just two teams to vote against the expanded postseason model, making it especially twisted if they were to reap the benefits of this one-off lottery structure. As good as the Hurricanes were at times this season, they are a popular upset pick in the qualifying round against the New York Rangers and could wind up in the lottery.

The New York Islanders finished just outside the top-ten in points percentage this season and have a deep, experienced team. They also play a sound defensive system. While it works to win games, it isn’t the most exciting strategy and could limit the upside of an explosive offensive talent like Lafreniere. On top of that, the Isles don’t even know where they will be playing their home games next season and have suffered from poor attendance in recent years. It doesn’t exactly sound like an ideal landing spot for an exciting top prospect. Fortunately, the Islanders drew a plus matchup against the Florida Panthers and should advance past the knockout round if they can stick to their smothering defensive game.

Given their luck in the draft lottery over the past decade, it’s pretty gross to think about the Edmonton Oilers being in the running for another No. 1 pick. Likely soon to be the home of two MVP’s in Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl, the Oilers landing Lafreniere as their fifth first overall pick and ninth top-ten pick since 2010 would really be something. With an improved NHL roster and a strong pipeline of talent, the Oilers are finally starting to be self-sufficient and don’t need Lafreniere like they might have in recent year. However, if the team can’t hold off a poor Chicago Blackhawks club in the knockout round, maybe they do need the pick.

The Toronto Maple Leafs are another team that is chock full of young talent and it would be an embarrassment of riches (and embarrassing for the league) to see them land Lafreniere. While the team would be in prime shape to finally snap their Stanley Cup drought with the addition, the Leafs are already well on their way and will be contenders for years and years to come even without the top pick. Additionally, should Toronto win the lottery, there would certainly be those that would cry foul about the whole situation. The Maple Leafs face the Columbus Blue Jackets in the qualifying round in one of the more evenly matched of the upcoming series. Toronto is likely the slight favorite, but could just as easily wind up in the lottery.

The current iteration of the Chicago Blackhawks is not good. However, they are also the most dominant franchise of this decade with three Stanley Cups. It’s not east to find many outside of Chicago who have pity for the current Blackhawks given their sustained success of late. With some of those core players still in place and some exciting young pieces starting to build up, the Blackhawks may already be back on the rebound without the assistance of Lafreniere. If they make it a series with the star-studded Oilers, it will be even more evident that they don’t need a top pick to stay relevant. Like the Maple Leafs, some will also be outraged if the Blackhawks win the lottery due to the perceived favoritism shown by the league on a number of occasions in recent years.

If you really want to hear conspiracy theories though, look no further than the possibility of the Montreal Canadiens winding up with No. 1 overall. Yes, the Canadiens have no business in a playoff series and would have been in the standard draft lottery anyway, but there will be plenty who think that it is far too convenient if the Habs win the top pick when a Francophone and Quebec native is the best player on the board. It used to be that Montreal – who don’t forget have more Stanley Cups than any NHL franchise – was able to claim the best French Canadian players in the draft regardless of draft order. If that opportunity should inadvertently occur once again, plenty of people might get upset at the league despite the fact that Montreal technically is the most deserving (read: worst) of the qualifying round teams. The NHL does not want that drama right now and its most decorated club frankly does not need special treatment, perceived or otherwise.

As for the remaining teams, the Winnipeg Jets, New York Rangers, and Vancouver Canucks were all better than their records implied this season and already have elite young players, the Florida Panthers and Arizona Coyotes may not have the fan bases to support a young star like Lafreniere, and I’m sure there are reasons to root against the Nashville Predators, Calgary Flames, and Minnesota Wild as well. If you can think of a valid reason why the Columbus Blue Jackets, who have one playoff series win in franchise history, don’t deserve a stroke of good luck, that’s fine too.

What do you think? Which team do you absolutely not want to see Lafreniere go to, either because of existing talent or complaints of foul play or for any other reason? The reality is that one of these 16 will end up with the best player on the board, which in many ways is already a loss for the league, but it can get much worse from here.

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NHL Officially Announces Several Awards

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With the league announcing their return to play format, the regular season is now over. Though we don’t know exactly when the Stanley Cup will be handed out, we do know who has won several regular season awards. The league officially announced the winners of the Art Ross, Maurice “Rocket” Richard, William M. Jennings and Presidents’ Trophy today.

Leon Draisaitl is your 2019-2020 Art Ross winner, after recording 110 points in just 71 games. He was 13 points ahead of teammate Connor McDavid for the league lead and the only player to crack the 100-point threshold in the shortened season. Draisaitl now has 93 goals and 215 points over his last two seasons, truly proving himself to be a superstar talent even when anchoring his own line. The 24-year old is under contract through the 2024-25 season at an $8.5MM cap hit, a deal that now looks like a huge bargain.

Like most years since he entered the league, Alex Ovechkin will take home the goal-scoring title once again. The Washington Capitals superstar has now won the Rocket on nine different occasions, the most of any player in history. This year is a little different however, as he won’t win it alone. David Pastrnak of the Boston Bruins tied Ovechkin for the lead league, meaning they will both be given the award. Pastrnak becomes the first Bruin to lead the league in goals since Phil Esposito nearly a half-century ago.

It wasn’t just offense in Boston however, as Tuukka Rask and Jaroslav Halak take home the Jennings as the goaltending duo with the lowest goals-against-average. The team allowed just 174 goals in 70 games, with Rask and Halak combining for an eye-popping .921 overall save percentage.

That balanced performance is exactly why the Bruins take home the Presidents’ Trophy as the regular season’s best team. With a 44-14-12 record they had dominated the Eastern Conference right from the start of the year, following their Stanley Cup Finals appearance in 2019. Though anything can happen in the restarted playoff picture, the Bruins should still be considered one of the favorites.

Stretch Run Storylines: Edmonton Oilers

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As things stand, the NHL is planning to have games resume at some point over the coming weeks.  Assuming the regular season continues, there will be plenty of things to watch for over the stretch run.  Over the weeks ahead, PHR will examine the top stretch run storylines for each team.  We continue our look at the Pacific Division with Edmonton.

No one was quite sure what to make of the Edmonton Oilers coming into the 2019-20 season. Back in 2016-17, the team made a promising playoff run, suggested that Connor McDavid was set to take Edmonton to years of deep playoff runs. Instead, the team collapsed for two straight years, being bounced from the playoffs both years and struggling with a weak defense and a lack of top-six talent. Add a new general manager in Ken Holland and the team under new head coach Dave Tippett is back in the playoff race, beginning to look like that 2016-17 team.

Hart Trophy For Draisaitl?

McDavid may be the face of the franchise, but Leon Draisaitl has been grabbing many of the game-to-game headlines as the German center has finally moved from McDavid’s wing to center his own line and has found success. He has formed his own line with Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Kailer Yamamoto, which has had great success throughout much of the second half of the season. The 24-year-old who had 50 goals and 105 points a year ago, has already surpassed that point total in less games. He has 43 goals and 110 points through 71 games and is leading the league in scoring.

Could Draisaitl be joining McDavid as a Hart Trophy winner? He is 13 points ahead of McDavid who is second in the league in scoring. With the turnaround success of the Oilers, who are in second place in the Pacific Division, Draisaitl may just be the lead candidate for the trophy.

Trade-Deadline Acquisitions

The Edmonton Oilers picked up three players at the trade deadline in a hope to bolster their defense and their offense to another level. The team gave up two second-round picks in order to pick up the speedy Andreas Athanasiou, while also moving a future fifth-rounder for winger Tyler Ennis. They also moved Kyle Brodziak and a fourth-round pick to Detroit for veteran defender Mike Green.

However, the Oilers have yet to get much of a return on those investments as Athanasiou has appeared in just nine games with just one goal. Ennis has fared better with two goals and four points in nine games. Green has appeared in just two games due to injuries. The hope is all three can make significant strides when/if play resumes. However, if the season is cancelled, the Oilers will only have Athanasiou left as the other two will be unrestricted free agents and no guarantees that they will return next season.

With so few games under their belt, the learning curve for all three players could be significant as they have to learn a new coaching system and how to play with new linemates.

Loss Of A Teammate

With all the tragedy stemming from the COVID-19, the Oilers suffered a separate loss when forward Colby Cave passed away on Apr. 11 when he was placed into a medically-induced coma due to a brain bleed. The forward had appeared in 44 games with the Oilers over the past two years and he played in 11 games this year with Edmonton.

While he wasn’t a full-time player with the Oilers, he was a big part of the team and the Oilers will have to deal with that loss as a team. How the team handles it could have a big effect on how the team performs in the playoffs when/if the league gets the season re-started.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Snapshots: Three Stars, Fines, Wisconsin

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The NHL has released their Three Stars from last week, and the five-goal man is at the top once again. Mika Zibanejad was always going to be the first star after scoring five goals in a single game (including the OT winner). The New York Rangers center scored seven on the week, giving him a career-high 39 through just 55 games this season.

Second and third place go to two Western Conference stars in Gabriel Landeskog and Leon Draisaitl, who continued their scoring ways with nine and eight points respectively. That means Draisaitl is up to 110 on the season, an incredible feat given he has only played 69 games so far.

  • St. Louis Blues forward Oskar Sundqvist has been fined $5,000 for his roughing of Chicago Blackhawks defenseman Adam Boqvist, which resulted in a line brawl between the two teams. Sundqvist tried to lay a check along the boards, but when he missed his left hand (while clutching his stick) came around and hit Boqvist in the face. The amount is the maximum allowable under the CBA, and will affect other supplementary discipline in the future.
  • While other college players are starting to sign with teams in the NHL, a few names from the Wisconsin program have yet to make their decisions. Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic reports that the Montreal Canadiens will meet with Cole Caufield over the next week while his colleague Rick Carpiniello adds that the Rangers have been in contact with K’Andre Miller but the prospect defenseman has not yet made a decision.

Snapshots: Three Stars, Marino, Dumoulin, Kempny

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The NHL announced its Three Stars for the month of February and Edmonton Oilers center Leon Draisaitl was an obvious choice. The 24-year-old scored 10 goals and 23 points in February in 14 games and his two goals and three points on Saturday, pushed Draisaitl over the 100-point mark in just 65 games, the fastest Oilers to have accomplished that since the 1989-90 season when Mark Messier accomplished it in 62 games. Draisaitl has reached the 100-point mark once before, last season when he notched 105 points in 82 games.

New York Rangers Mika Zibanejad and Boston Bruins David Pastrnak round out the second and third stars of the month. Zibanejad has led the Rangers to 11 February victories by tallying 11 goals and 20 points. The 26-year-old has already tied his career-high in goals scored with 30 and looks to be headed for a career year. Pastrnak scored 10 goals of his own in the month of February, padding his NHL-leading 47 goals. The 23-year-old had four game-winning goals in helping Boston win 11 games throughout the month.

  • While not a true contender for the Calder Trophy, The Athletic’s Josh Yohe (subscription required) writes that the Pittsburgh Penguins are just 3-7-1 without rookie defenseman John Marino since the blueliner was hit in the face with a puck and required surgery. However, the scribe does add that Marino and teammate Brian Dumoulin (ankle) are both close to returning, possibly as early as Tuesday, which could be a big boost for the Penguins. Both players were full participants in practice on Thursday.
  • Just two years ago, the Washington Capitals traded for Michal Kempny and got an incredible boost from the blueliner for the stretch run. Unfortunately, his play two years later hasn’t been particularly impressive. The Washington Post’s Samantha Pell writes that Kempny and Capitals head coach Todd Reirden had a long conversation about the 29-year-old’s play. Since the Capitals picked up Brendan Dillon from San Jose at the trade deadline, Kempny has seen himself go from the first pairing to the third. “We were honest with each other, all the time — [even] when I [first] got here,” Kempny said. “I told him how I feel, how I felt, and so we had a pretty good discussion and conversation. And I believe it is going to help me be myself, to be Michal Kempny, you know? The one everybody knows. There is no excuses for me. We had a good conversation, and it is going to help me for sure.”

Snapshots: Three Stars, Samuelsson, Kreider

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The NHL has released their Three Stars for last week, and unsurprisingly Leon Draisaitl lands on top. The Edmonton Oilers superstar now leads the entire league in scoring and has actually been on fire since being separated from Connor McDavid. Draisaitl has 22 points in the 11 games away from McDavid, finally finding some wing help in the form of Kailer Yamamoto.

Second star Steven Stamkos won’t turn many heads after appearing in these spots many times before, but the same can’t be said about J.T. Miller who takes home the third star. Miller has found a new level of production with the Vancouver Canucks and is already just a few goals and points short of his career-highs.

  • Ulf Samuelsson had been serving as a pro scout for the Seattle expansion franchise, but will leave the organization to take a job as head coach of Leksands IF in the SHL. That’s the team Samuelsson played for before joining the NHL back in 1984 for a long, productive career.
  • Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic (subscription required) examined several potential trade scenarios for the deadline, giving his take on what it would take to acquire some of the top rentals. Chris Kreider is the first name he writes on, reporting that eight teams have told the New York Rangers that “they’ve got Kreider at the top of their wish list.” LeBrun’s speculative trade will turn a lot of heads, as he suggests a package similar to the one that New York received for Kevin Hayes last year.

Snapshots: Three Stars, Fabbri, Nesterov

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The NHL announced it’s three stars for the month of January and they happen to be three bona fide NHL superstars. The first star is Alex Ovechkin, the Washington Capitals’ cornerstone and captain, who recorded a whopping 13 goals as well as a pair of assists in just ten games. In doing so, Ovechkin passed Teemu Selanne, Mario Lemieux, Steve Yzerman, and Mark Messier to move into eight place on the NHL’s career goals list. At 695 career goals, Ovechkin is just five away from joining an elite group with 700 career goals and would need just nine more after that to pass Mike Gartner, the next name on the list. Career numbers aside, the 34-year-old is also tied for the league lead in goals this season with David Pastrnak and could be on his way to yet another Rocket Richard Trophy. The second star belongs to Leon Draisaitl, who has shown this season that he is far more than just Connor McDavid’s right-hand man. With 17 points in just nine games, Draisaitl led the league in per game scoring in January and overtook McDavid with a league-leading 79 points. Draisaitl and McDavid are currently on pace for 127 and 124 points respectively and have a chance at becoming just the fourth pair of teammates and the first since Lemieux and Jaromir Jagr in 1995-96 to each crack 130 points on the year. Finally, the third star went to Tampa Bay Lightning goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy. After a slow start to the season for both Vasilevskiy and the Bolts, January could not have gone much better. The team went 10-2-1 behind a 9-0-1 record from Vasilevskiy, who posted a stunning .948 save percentage and 1.58 GAA. All three marks from Vasilevskiy, as well as Tampa’s record, led the NHL this past month.

  • One other player who has been hot of late is Detroit Red Wings forward Robby Fabbri. Fabbri, whose career with the St. Louis Blues got off to a fast start but had been derailed by injury and inconsistency over the past two years, has found new life since being acquired by the Red Wings back in early November. Fabbri has recorded 25 points in 35 games, trailing only Anthony Mantha for the team lead in points per game. Fabbri is on pace to shatter his offensive career highs across the board in his first season with Detroit and understandably would like to stay. He tells Helene St. James of the Detroit Free Press that he sees the upside in the young, rebuilding club and would like to be a part of it for as long as possible. Fabbri will be a restricted free agent this summer and will look to sign on long-term with the Red Wings if he can.
  • Despite NHL interest, it does not sound as though KHL defenseman Nikita Nesterov is looking to return to the league just yet, if at all. The CSKA Moscow standout has been dominant both in the KHL and on the international stage since he last played in the NHL with the Tampa Bay Lightning and Montreal Canadiens in 2016-17, transforming into one of the top defensemen in Russia. With his current contract coming to a close, there had been some speculation that he would try to use his success in the KHL over the past three years as a platform to return to the NHL, but it seems his career aspirations lie elsewhere. CSKA has shared a recent Q&A in which Nesterov claims that he is hoping to stay in Moscow. He acknowledges that the NHL is the best league in the world and that he enjoyed his time there and has at least considered offers to return, but in the end he feels his KHL career has been more meaningful. That is why, as he notes, he has instructed his agent to begin negotiations on an extension with CSKA with hopes of signing on for another five years. That lengthy term, even for a 26-year-old, could mean that his NHL days are over, but at the very least it will likely be some time before he ever returns to action in North America.

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