from Eric Francis of Sportsnet On any given night, Connor McDavid alone can beat you. On Friday, the Calgary Flames got a grim reminder there’s another way to lose to the Edmonton Oilers – turn it into a skill contest. As in, reduce the number of skaters on the ice for either side to open things up. Both points were driven home in a 5-3 loss that saw Edmonton rebound from an early deficit to score four unanswered goals for the second game in a row to open this Western Conference semifinal. continued from Jim Matheson of the Edmonton Journal, Well, after dropping a 9-6 laugher to the Calgary Flames in Game 1 Wednesday, which tied the NHL record for most goals ever in a playoff game, the Oilers got the first part of the equation right Friday, and mostly importantly the second with another out-of-this-world performance from Connor McDavid and two late strikes by Zach Hyman (shorthanded) and Leon Draisaitl for a stirring comeback 5-3 victory to even the series at a game apiece. The Oilers, who gave up three in the first 6:05 in Game 1, driving Mike Smith to the bench, were down two again in Game 2 after six minutes but Smith hung in after goals by Michael Stone and Brett Ritchie. And the team, refusing to go quietly and madly into the cold Calgary night, overcame two disallowed goals by Hyman (quick whistle in a scrum) and Draisaitl (McDavid interference on Jacob Markstrom) and twice clawed back from two-goal deficits. Article content “Not an ideal start obviously but a huge battle back,” said Hyman. “We knew that we’re capable of it and we did it last game (tying it 6-6) but not the way we wanted to, I’d say. This time from Smitty onwards I think we shored up things defensively. We didn’t give them as much. I thought we earned our chances, got a couple called back, but still worked, earned our power plays and got back into the game, then won it.” read on Game highlights are below.

from Kevin Paul Dupont of the Boston Globe, This could be the summer Sweeney is forced to alter his approach and take some bold risks, with an eye focused on acquiring a needed top center — no matter Patrice Bergeron’s career decision. The need is acute even if Bergeron stays, all the more severe if he goes. Again, the June draft won’t deliver a fix for 2022-23. For the moment, the UFA market has three interesting centers in Nazem Kadri, Claude Giroux, and Evgeni Malkin. Their collective cap hit this season was just over $22 million. The best fit among those three could be Kadri, who posted a career season (28-59—87) with the high-flying Avalanche, but it is almost unfathomable that the fiery (combustible?) ex-Maple Leaf would be targeted as part of the fix for the Bruins’ issue at 1-2 center. But the need is great, meaning Kadri, 32 at next season’s start, cannot be dismissed out of hand. Sweeney has a ready-to-ship asset in Jake DeBrusk, the left winger’s trade request dating to November. The other name Sweeney could consider, though it would hurt from the front office suits down to the TD Garden suites, would be defenseman Brandon Carlo. Together, the 25-year-olds, each with proven NHL résumés, would enable Sweeney to enter the trade market in pursuit of a legit, young (maximum age 24-27), potentially primo center. more plus other hockey topics...

Trotz is a hot commodity.@FriedgeHNIC | @Jackie_Redmond | @EJHradek_NHL | #NHLNow pic.twitter.com/w6m2UJTiPb — NHL Network (@NHLNetwork) May 21, 2022

from Nate Brown of Detroit Hockey Now, Though he didn’t meet expectations, Erne is a solid and dependable forward for a team that needs some muscle up front. The caveat, of course, is that Erne is making just a hair over two million AAV, and with that comes the expectation that he’ll find his name on the scoresheet more. According to Evolving-Hockey, Erne’s Individual Expected Goals (ixG) clocked in at 10.27. It lends credence to Blashill’s comment that Erne was often on the wrong side of puck luck. His Goals/60 cratered from 1.04 to 0.34, while he saw a 32 second dip in his average time-on-ice. His lack of scoring certainly played into this, and as late as April 9th, Erne had a season low 10:22 of ice time. Erne is entering the final year of his contract and will have his chance to show last season was an anomaly following 2020-21. With Yzerman sure to add more talent both on the blueline and amongst his forwards, Erne stands to benefit. Though it will be crowded up front, Erne doesn’t seem like a forward Yzerman would flip to another team–yet. more

* After 23 goals in Calgary (the highest combined total through two games of a series in 35 years) – with each contest seeing the Flames hold multi-goal leads and the Oilers tie the score – the "Battle of Alberta" will shift to Edmonton tied 1-1 following an Oilers win in Game 2. * Connor McDavid recorded his NHL-leading 20th point of the 2022 Stanley Cup Playoffs and is producing at a pace last seen 30 years ago. * Sebastian Aho factored on each of Carolina’s goals and climbed multiple franchise lists in the process as the Hurricanes set a franchise record for longest home win streak and skated to a 2-0 series lead. * The Second Round series between the Avalanche and Blues will shift to St. Louis – the lone contest slated for Saturday. When a best-of-seven series is tied 1-1, the winner of Game 3 goes on to win 67% of the time.   

from Larry Brooks of the New York Post, Chris Kreider had a dreadful game. Mika Zibanejad battled, but was unable to generate. Artemi Panarin, who talked before the game about how he had adopted a risk-averse approach to the playoffs, tried to do more with the puck in open spaces than he had in Game 1, but couldn’t create. Adam Fox was monitored closely. Ryan Strome was defended well. The Rangers generated so little that Gallant juggled his combinations late in the second, breaking up the Kid Line so he could flip Alexis Lafreniere with Andrew Copp and get Lafreniere into the top six. Lafreniere battled, but the line changes, under which Frank Vatrano also was replaced by Kaapo Kakko on the right with Kreider and Zibanejad, yielded nothing. You might say that it is unfair that the Rangers will come out of these first two games with nothing and are just one home loss away from being shoved to the precipice. The Blueshirts defended well enough that Igor Shesterkin was never under undue pressure. On those shifts in which they were pinned in their own end, the Blueshirts defended the middle. They played strong playoff hockey. But they could not finish the deal because the marquee guys on their marquee power play could not even generate the opportunity to finish. The Rangers were not necessarily outplayed or outworked by the Hurricanes. You cannot say the same for their power play. more from Dan Rosen of NHL.om Antti Raanta knew that in order to give the Carolina Hurricanes a chance against the New York Rangers in the Eastern Conference Second Round he would have to play perfect, or at least close to it, because that's what Rangers' goalie Igor Shesterkin was going to do, too. "You get a little more on your toes when you know the other goalie is the tops in the league," Raanta said regarding Shesterkin, who is a finalist for the Vezina Trophy awarded to the NHL's top goaltender. Raanta was perfect in Game 2 with 21 saves in a 2-0 win at PNC Arena on Friday. Carolina's goalie has been perfect on 45 shots since allowing a goal early in the first period of Game 1. continued Game highlights are below.

Both home teams are 1-0 going into game 2 and would like to go on the road up 2-0. Will they?

FRISCO, Texas – Dallas Stars Head Coach Rick Bowness announced that he will be stepping away as Head Coach of the Dallas Stars effective immediately. Additionally, General Manager Jim Nill announced that assistant coaches John Stevens, Derek Laxdal and Todd Nelson will not return next season.    “After careful consideration with my wife Judy, we feel it’s best to step away and allow the organization the opportunity to pursue a different direction at the head coaching position,” said Bowness. “I’d like to thank all the passionate fans and the dedicated staff for their support and hard work in my time here. It has been an honor for me, and my family, to represent the Stars and the city of Dallas.”

NEW YORK (May 20, 2022) – Anaheim Ducks center Ryan Getzlaf, Edmonton Oilers defenseman Darnell Nurse and New Jersey Devils defenseman P.K. Subban are the three finalists for the 2021-22 King Clancy Memorial Trophy, which is presented “to the player who best exemplifies leadership qualities on and off the ice and has made a noteworthy humanitarian contribution in his community,” the National Hockey League announced today. Each NHL team nominated a player for the King Clancy Trophy, with the three finalists and winner chosen by a committee of senior NHL executives led by Commissioner Gary Bettman and Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly. The selection committee applies the following criteria in determining the finalists and winner:

from Kevin Allen of Detroit Hockey Now, What Does His Detroit Future Hold? Rasmussen is among the Detroit players who made the most progress this season. After his slow start, he started to grown more comfortable in his role as third line center. Over the course of the season, he became more physical. a better defensive forward and ultimately an improved scorer. “I think (the season) was positive overall,” Rasmussen said. “I took a lot of strides in the right direction, got better at some stuff I needed to get better at. Just gained more experience. Individually it was good for me.” The Red Wings would like to keep him at center, but haven’t ruled out playing him on wing. Rasmussen said he has no preference for wing or center. The expectation is still that he could become a valuable net-front presence on the power play. But if he stays at No. 3 center and contributes 16-20 goals and is difficult to play against the Red Wings would be satisfied. By the end of the year, Rasmussen was playing a Jordan Staal-style game. In the last month of his season, when he was playing his best hockey, it was fair to wonder whether he might be able to be a second line winger or even a middle six forward who slides between lines depending upon the competition or situation. With a new coach coming aboard, Rasmussen has a blank slate to expand his opportunity. more

from Mark Kiszla of the Denver Post, Is this series over? Far from it. But am I calling out Bednar for not having his team ready to play, allowing the Avs to whiff at the chance to grab this series by the throat? Abso-freakin-lutely. Bednar is blessed with by far the most talented roster of any professional team in Denver. But the Avs couldn’t have played with less passion or less sense of purpose if they were coached by Uncle Vic Fangio. If the Broncos came out flat for a big game, the uproar in this town might cause Mt. Evans to crumble. Is Bednar, who has never found a way to win more than one playoff series in any of his previous five seasons on the Colorado bench, coated in Teflon? From the jump of Game 2, Colorado had none. When the most star-studded team in the NHL is so uninspired that center Nathan MacKinnon and the fellas looked as if they were skating in a Slurpee, whose fault is that? read on

I am pickng the New York Rangers to defeat the Carolina Hurricanes at Betwqay in Raleigh tonight. As Larry Brooks of the New York Post wrote last night, the Rangers need to fix a few items, The Rangers have talked all season about the need to play a complete 60 minutes. Rarely have they been able to do it. Rarely has there been a steady trajectory from the first shift to the last. At times there have been slow starts. At other times there have been bad second periods. Sometimes there have been third periods in which the Rangers have gone into a shell. All teams face surges and momentum swings, even more so in the playoffs, when emotion becomes a constant companion. The Rangers seem to have an extremely difficult time identifying these quickly enough to cut them off quickly. Instead, it has been commonplace for them to go through stretches of 12, 15, 17 minutes or more in which they’re stuck in a ditch spinning their wheels. That has been as much of a mark of this team as its resilience has been. more We all know the Rangers are a young team and do not have much playoff experience.  Enter Gerard Gallant and his leadership.

When deciding what team to place a bet at Betway between Edmonton and Calgary, you have to think the best goaltending will win, especially after a 9-6 win by Calgary in their first game of the second round matchup. Woodcroft might be facing a goaltending crisis. So, like any National Hockey League coach, he did what he could to shine the spotlight as far from his own crease as possible. Two hundred feet away, where Markstrom was well below average in Game 1. But at least Markstrom lasted 60 minutes. And is anybody doubting that the Vezina candidate will regain his form in Game 2? Then there’s Mike Smith, the modern-day Gump Worsley at 40 years old. Smith whiffed on the first shot in Game 1, allowed a second goal at the 51-second mark, and by 6:05 of the first period he was pulling on a ball cap, yanked after allowing three goals on the Flames' first 10 shots. “It wasn’t an ideal start for our group,” said Smith. “We let each other down.” -Mark Spector of Sportnset I am rooting for the Oilers to win this series for one reason, the unbelievable post-season by Connor McDavid who has 18 points in 8 games and is +9.

“I would love to do some stupid shit at the blue line. But I can’t.” —Artemi Panarin on adjusting his style for the playoffs. — Larry Brooks (@NYP_Brooksie) May 20, 2022

from George Richards of Florida Hockey Now, History is repeating itself for the Florida Panthers. And we’re not going back to the 90s, either. Just 2021. For the second straight playoff, the Panthers find themselves down 2-0 to the defending Stanley Cup champion Tampa Bay Lightning after playing two games at home. The reasons why they are down in the series differ. At least a little bit. In 2021, the Panthers let a 4-3 lead slip away in the third period of Game 1. That lead to the benching of Sergei Bobrovsky in Game 2 where Chris Driedger allowed three goals on 29 shots in a 3-1 loss. This time around, it appears the Panthers are having an identity crisis. continued

KK 2.0 Update:  This project has taken way too long but I understand this was not a normal upgrade due to how KK was basically held together with patches and band aids. This from our developer-  We've finalized the updates so we can get all the content over correctly.  We're going to go through it now and finish importing content. I should be in touch with a few of the KK members who emailed to be beta testers soon. I know some of you don't enjoy the gambling ads which have boomed throughout the hockey world in the past year and I have turned down many of these types of ads. I recently received an offer that was just too hard to pass up.  These ads will appear in normal looking posts with one link to the advertisers sit.  Some days you will see one or two posts, some days there will be none.  This is a quick campaign and will be completed within two weeks. I will be away from my computer today from 10:45am until noon today for a scheduled appointment with my doctor.

* Ross Colton scored the go-ahead goal with 3.8 seconds remaining in regulation as the two-time defending champions stunned the Panthers at FLA Live Arena. * Jordan Binnington followed up his 51-save performance in Game 1 with 30 more Thursday to help the Blues snap the Avalanche’s winning streak at five contests. * Two more Second Round Game 2s go Friday at PNC Arena and Scotiabank Saddledome.  

from Mike Chsmbers of the Denver Post, Game 2 was a dud for the Avalanche on Thursday at Ball Arena. St. Louis was superior. “We were bad,” Avs superstar center Nathan MacKinnon said. “We were really bad tonight.” The Blues easily out-executed the Avalanche in a 4-1 victory to tie the Western Conference semifinal series at a game apiece. MacKinnon and the rest of the top-six forwards combined for just 14 shots and a minus-7 rating. And Colorado blocked just five shots, compared to 17 for the Blues. It was the Avs’ first loss of the postseason and ended a streak of eight consecutive postseason victories over St. Louis. “Our biggest issue was nobody wanted to skate with the puck,” Avs coach Jared Bednar said. “They did a nice job in the neutral zone, but we didn’t move. … Our execution was poor and that’s because we weren’t skating well.” continued Below, find the game highlights.

from Iain MacIntyre of Sportsnet, After all their wins, their Presidents’ Trophy season and record-breaking offence, their upgraded lineup and first playoff series victory in 26 years, the Florida Panthers are precisely where they were last year against the Tampa Bay Lightning: down 2-0 in the playoffs after getting swept on home ice. The only difference, after Tampa’s buzzer-beating 2-1 win Thursday in Sunrise, Fla., is that this is the second round of the National Hockey League playoffs, not the first. It looks like it will be as far as the Panthers get in the Stanley Cup tournament. In 82 regular-season games — 58 of them wins — the highest-scoring team in the NHL’s salary-cap era scored fewer than two goals only three times. They did it twice in three days against the Lightning, who don’t have the talent they boasted while winning the last two Stanley Cups but possess infinitely more playoff knowhow than the Panthers. “It's just amazing what this group can continue to fight through,” Lightning captain Steven Stamkos said. “Obviously, we knew they were going to push. And they pushed, they played a great game. But we bent, we didn't break. “You want to win every game and you come on the road with that mentality. You want to steal one for sure; that's definitely the mindset. But when you get that first one, we talked about, ‘Let's get greedy here.’ We did it last year — we came in and won the first two. There's no taking a breath now. We did our job here in an environment that is tough, obviously, to win in. (But) let's stay focused. Let's regroup, let's get some guys a little more healthy, but let's keep the foot on the gas.” continued Game highlights are below.

The NHL draft lottery is to take place on May 10, 2022 and the 60th NHL draft will take place on July 7 - 8, 2022 at the Bell Centre in Montreal, Quebec. The playoffs are being played right now and the last game will be either before or on June 30, 2022. 

from Travis Yost of TSN, Before the start of the Battle of Alberta, I had a few theories as to how the series would play out. Chief among them: Calgary is the better team, Edmonton has the best player, and, by extension, the best line. Barring a goaltending collapse from either club, these two forces would collide and ultimately decide the series. Game 1 checked all three of those boxes. The Flames were comfortably the better team. The Connor McDavid line was as lethal as usual. And, ironically, we saw goaltending capitulation from both sides. Edmonton’s Mike Smith (three goals conceded on seven shots faced) was horrific and yanked from the game early. Backup Mikko Koskinen (five goals conceded on 32 shots faced) wasn’t any better. The only difference between Smith and Calgary starter Jacob Markstrom (six goals conceded on 22 shots faced) was Darryl Sutter’s reticence to pull his besieged goaltender. It was bad. Let’s set the goaltending aside for a moment – after all, it’s exceptionally rare you see a single-game stop rate of 80 per cent. continued

Florida certainly does not want to head to Tampa down 0-2. Colorado has yet to lose in the playoffs, will that change tonight? Discuss if so inclined.

Five minutes to watch.  

Neely said he’s in the process of finishing a deal with Sweeney. Said Jacobs family is on board with that. Whether Cassidy returns or not will be Sweeney’s call. Thinks Cassidy is a great coach, but there needs to be stylistic changes — steve conroy (@conroyherald) May 19, 2022   Neely on Cassidy: "I think we have to look at making some changes as far as how we play. ... I think Bruce is a fantastic coach. He's brought a lot of success to this organization. I like him as a coach. So we'll see where it goes. I do think we need to make some changes." — Amalie Benjamin (@AmalieBenjamin) May 19, 2022

from Benjamin Hochman of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Wait, you’re telling me a team once beat the Avalanche not just in a playoff game but in an entire playoff series? After Colorado’s first-round sweeps of the Blues and Predators the past two years — and the Game 1 domination of the Blues this year in the second round — it’s sure hard to believe. But it happened. The Vegas Golden Knights ended the Avs’ postseason in the second round last season. So to win this year’s second-round series, the Blues must look to the Vegas series for clues. “Their forecheck really turned it around for them,” Blues coach Craig Berube said Wednesday of the 2021 Golden Knights. “They were good in the forecheck and didn’t give up odd-man rushes. They nullified (Colorado’s) attack. And it starts with the forecheck, 100%. “Our forecheck was not very good last night. We didn’t get numbers in there. We didn’t stall pucks. And when you don’t do that, they’re up the ice quickly. ... We were probably a little bit on our heels at times, you know? Too cautious. You’ve got to be smart, but you’ve got to be aggressive.” continued

via NHL.com, John Hynes signed a two-year contract to remain coach of the Nashville Predators on Thursday. The 47-year-old guided the Predators to a 45-30-7 record this season, earning the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Western Conference. They were swept by the Colorado Avalanche in the Western Conference First Round. "I think he's done a fantastic job -- and his staff," Predators general manager David Poile said. "... I am totally comfortable with John and his coaching staff to lead us to bigger and belter things moving forward." Hynes is 92-64-10 in three seasons with Nashville since replacing Peter Laviolette on Jan. 7, 2020. The Predators have clinched a playoff berth in each of those seasons but have not won a series. Prior to joining Nashville, Hynes coached the New Jersey Devils for five seasons, going 150-159-45 and guiding them to the playoffs in 2018, a five-game loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning in the first round.

* The “Battle of Alberta” lived up to the hype, with the teams combining for 15 goals including the fastest two from the start of a playoff game in NHL history, a tying tally from the Oilers who climbed back from a four-goal deficit and a hat trick. * Connor McDavid continued his scorching start to the 2022 Stanley Cup Playoffs, recording his seventh multi-point outing in Edmonton’s first eight games. * A tying goal by the Hurricanes in the final three minutes of regulation paved the way for Ian Cole to record his second career playoff tally. Cole became just the third defenseman in franchise history to score an overtime winner in the postseason and the third blueliner to do so in the 2022 Stanley Cup Playoffs. * All eyes shift to Sunrise and Denver for a pair of Game 2s where the two-time defending champion and the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference each look to pull ahead 2-0 in their respective series.  

NEW YORK (May 19, 2022) – Andrew Brunette of the Florida Panthers, Gerard Gallant of the New York Rangers and Darryl Sutter of the Calgary Flames are the three finalists for the 2021-22 Jack Adams Award, presented to the head coach who has “contributed the most to his team’s success,” the National Hockey League announced today. Members of the NHL Broadcasters’ Association submitted ballots for the Jack Adams Award after the conclusion of the regular season, with the top three vote-getters designated as finalists. The winners of the 2022 NHL Awards will be revealed during the Conference Finals and Stanley Cup Final, with exact dates, format and times to be announced. Following are the finalists for the Jack Adams Award, in alphabetical order:

from Eric Francis of Sportsnet, Count Darryl Sutter is one of the few folks in southern Alberta who wasn’t buzzing with excitement following his club’s tribute to the 80s. Yet, he still found a way to play along. “Missed the convert,” was the Jolly Rancher’s opening take on Wednesday’s reinstallment of the Battle of Alberta. “We were told it was a boring series last time, so I told the players yesterday, ‘we’ve got to score 7-10 goals today because they’d probably score 5-8 to win,’ so that’s what we did.” Coming off a series against Dallas that took five games for the Flames to score nine goals, the Flames opened the first provincial punch-up in 31 years with a memorable 9-6 win over an Oilers squad that heard chants of “We want 10” a mere seven minutes in. A classic in the eyes of almost everyone who wasn’t skating in the game, the Flames scored twice in the opening minute, gave up two four-goal leads and broke a 6-6 tie early in the third with three finishing touches. continued Game highlights are below.

from Larry Brooks of the New York Post, This was the goaltender who pushed Henrik Lundqvist to the bench for four straight games midway through the 2016-17 season, when such a thing had never ever been done before. This was the goaltender who introduced himself to Rangerstown on the first day of training camp in 2015 by assuring everyone that he was not, “The biggest douchebag in the whole word.” This was the goaltender who stole Game 1 of the conference semifinals on Wednesday night by holding his badly outplayed club in the match through the first 40 minutes until his teammates struck for the tying goal late in the third period before getting the winner early in overtime. This was Antti Raanta, the 33-year-old Finn who has been a backup throughout almost all of his career, which included two seasons in New York, and who ascended to the No. 1 spot for Carolina when Freddie Andersen went down with a lower body injury on April 16. “You’re always thinking, ‘Am I good enough to be playing these games?’, when you haven’t gotten the chance to play these, you know?” Raanta said after his sparkling performance allowed the Hurricanes, after a 2-1 victory on Ian Cole’s OT winner at 3:42, to get a 1-0 jump in the series. “You are always questioning yourself about, ‘What if I get the chance to play?’ ” continued Below are the game highlights.

The Hurricanes went 3-1 against the Rangers in the regular season meanwhile Calgary and Edmonton had two wins each. Feel free to discuss the games or anything NHL

from Sportsnet, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman said he doesn't anticipate stepping down from the job he's held for three decades anytime soon. "If I wake up in the morning and I'm not excited about what I've got to do and what lays ahead of me for that day, I shouldn't be doing this anymore," Bettman said during an appearance Tuesday on the Marchand and Ourand sports media podcast. Bettman, who turns 70 on June 2, has been commissioner of the NHL since Feb. 1, 1993. When asked on the podcast what criteria would have to be met for him to want to step down, he said he needs two things to be successful: the continued support of the league's owners and good health to foster the "energy and the desire and the passion" for the game. He cited his recent week as an indication he still has that energy and passion: He went from Carolina to Montreal for Guy Lafleur's funeral, to Calgary to Edmonton to South Florida to Tampa, finishing up on Tuesday in New York for meetings after getting back at 4 a.m. "Even when I was in my 20s, that would be a pretty good trek," he said. "When I can't do that anymore because I don't feel physically or mentally up to it, (if) it doesn't excite me to be at games... "(I)t's about the game, it's about how I feel about the game and my connection to it that will determine how long I do it. Obviously, I can't do it forever. But I'm enjoying the run." continued

from George Richards of Florida Hockey Now, Florida Panthers coach Andrew Brunette says his team’s power play is going to score one of these days. He almost guarantees it. It has to, right? It had better. Florida once again did not score with the man advantage in this postseason and it was costly on Tuesday night as the Tampa Bay Lightning took Game 1 with a 4-1 win. While the Panthers went 0-3 on the power play on Tuesday, the Lightning scored three of its goals on it. The Panthers had a 1-0 lead in the game until late in the second — with the Lightning scoring three in the third. Two of those goals came on the power play. continued, Florida's power play is 0-21 during the playoffs... Game highlights are below.

from Ted Kulfan of the Detroit News, The Wings are deep in defensive prospects, but if a defenseman that they like falls, they will gladly select him. But the Wings are comparably slimmer in the amount of quality forward prospects they possess, so a center or wing is possibly where they go. Here are 10 forwards who have been linked to the Wings, make sense for where the Wings are drafting and are suited for what the Wings are looking for or need in their depth chart. This is a first look at this process. Don't be surprised, given the fluidity of the draft process and likely rises and falls of certain players, if this list changes in the weeks ahead. Possible Wings targets Cutter Gauthier: center/left wing, 6-foot-3, 194 pounds, United States National Team Development Program: If Gauthier falls to the Wings, you would think they'd grab him, being that he is projected to go in the top five or six selections. With his size, Gauthier is projected to be an NHL power forward and he has a dangerous shot, as evidenced by his 53 goals in 76 games between two teams last season. Gauthier can play either wing or center, which the Wings would love. Gauthier is committed to Boston College. read on

NEW YORK (May 18, 2022) – Florida Panthers defenseman Ben Chiarot has been fined $5,000, the maximum allowable under the Collective Bargaining Agreement, for head-butting Tampa Bay Lightning forward Ross Colton during Game 1 of the teams’ Second Round series in Florida on Tuesday, May 17, the National Hockey League’s Department of Player Safety announced today. The incident occurred at 10:13 of the second period. Watch below.