Capitals deny Alex Ovechkin retirement report, say email claiming it was his final season was a mistake
The Washington Capitals are in damage-control mode after an email suggested the 2025-26 season would be Alex Ovechkin's final year in the NHL. The Capitals quickly denied that report, saying Ovechkin has not made a decision on his future.
Reports emerged Thursday claiming the Capitals sent out an email that referred to the 2025-26 season as "Alex Ovechkin's FINAL NHL SEASON." That entire statement was highlighted in red, with the final three words appearing in all-caps in the email.
The Hockey News reached out to the team, which said those reports were not accurate. The team then issued a statement of its own, confirming an email was sent out, but saying Ovechkin's plans are undecided at this point in the offseason.
No decision has been made on Alex Ovechkin's future following the 2025-26 NHL season. An email was sent from an individual with the corporate sales department that mistakenly alluded to next year being Alex Ovechkin's final year.
— Capitals PR (@CapitalsPR) May 29, 2025
The team said the email came from "an individual with the corporate sales department," but did not provide any additional details on why it was sent or how many people received it.
An Ovechkin retirement announcement wouldn't come as a major surprise for a number of reasons. While he's still playing at a high level, Ovechkin is 39. He's already played 20 seasons in the NHL — all of which with the Capitals — and is nearing the end of his playing days.
There's also a strong argument that retiring after the 2025-26 season is the right move. It will mark the final year of the five-year, $47.5 million extension Ovechkin signed with the Capitals in 2021. The completion of that contract could mark a natural stopping point for Ovechkin.
While there are reasons to believe next year will be Ovechkin's final year in the NHL, he is apparently not ready to make that call just yet. Either that, or a Capitals employee ruined Ovechkin's announcement by sending out an email too soon.
Whenever Ovechkin calls it a career, he'll leave the game as one of the greatest players of all time. Ovechkin is a 12-time All-Star, nine-time Maurice Richard Trophy winner, three-time Ted Lindsay Trophy winner, three-time Hart Memorial Trophy winner and the 2017-18 Conn Smythe Trophy winner. He also led the Capitals to a Stanley Cup championship during the 2017-18 NHL season and surpassed Wayne Gretzky to set the NHL's all-time goal-scoring record last season.
The Hockey Hall of Fame is undoubtedly in Ovechkin's future once he hangs up his skates. While he and the Capitals weren't ready to make an announcement on that front Thursday, it probably won't be long before Ovechkin is ready to call it a career.
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New York Times
2 hours ago
- New York Times
Maple Leafs' offseason to-do list: Cement Matthew Knies into core, upgrade at centre
The Shanaplan is out. In its place? Well, that remains to be determined. That's what this offseason for the Toronto Maple Leafs will establish: a new direction for the franchise after 11 years with Brendan Shanahan at the helm as team president. What needs to be done with general manager Brad Treliving now leading the charge? A lot. Advertisement All indications are that Marner intends to go elsewhere July 1. 'We'll have to see,' Treliving said when asked about Marner's future Thursday, noting Marner had his 'say' in a process that had yet to really start. The Leafs already know Marner was unwilling to sign an extension during the season. Will they — will Treliving — try to change his mind in the coming weeks? Try to sell him on coming back and finishing his career at home in Toronto? And if they manage to do so and/or Marner reconsiders, how much are they prepared to pay him? We know the Leafs, when they were still run by Shanahan, were determined to keep Marner. Has that changed now that he's gone? Is Treliving as desperate to bring him back? While noting, not for the first time, Marner was 'a star' at his year-end media conference, Treliving didn't come out and state his desire for Marner to return. It might not matter if Marner has already made up his mind, which seems to be the case. Can the Leafs squeeze anything of value from Marner's exit in a sign-and-trade? Adding an eighth year to Marner's contract, the maximum term possible, should have some value to the team he decides to sign with. Maybe that team even needs to clear salary to bring in Marner and would send a player(s) of value back to the Leafs. Or maybe there's a team out there, on the eve of July 1, that wants to keep Marner from even getting to market and is willing to give up something (a draft pick?) to acquire his rights. The Tampa Bay Lightning paid a third-round pick to the Carolina Hurricanes for Jake Guentzel's rights last summer. More imposing for the front office is procuring a replacement for Marner. Not an actual replacement per se, since there will be no replacing all of Marner's varying contributions with any one player, but a top-six winger who can maybe play with Auston Matthews. Advertisement One of the interesting wrinkles of Marner's presumed exit is what it means for that top-line right wing spot. Craig Berube was openly against playing William Nylander with Matthews in his first season coaching the Leafs. Will he give it a chance if Marner isn't around and Nylander is the clear-cut top option? Or does Treliving need to find a right winger (or two) who could conceivably line up with the two Arizona boys, Matthews and Matthew Knies? Treliving seemed to allude to his front-office staff's already beginning to look at options. The Leafs had their pro scouting meetings this week. One intriguing short-term fit: Patrick Kane, the player whom Marner grew up emulating and who could replicate the playmaking dimension Marner brought to Matthews. The Leafs have almost all of the leverage here. John Tavares will be 35 in September; he has a young family and seems to have every intention of finishing his career (and continuing his pursuit of a Stanley Cup) at home in Toronto. To what degree can the Leafs use all that if not against him then to their advantage? How much of a discount is Tavares willing to take to stay? In 2018, it was suggested that Tavares took a discount to join the Leafs as a free agent. However, that 'discount' still had him drawing one of the biggest cap hits in the league at $11 million — still tied for the ninth largest this past season in the seventh and final year of the deal. Tavares is still too good to take a Jason Spezza-like discount (i.e., the NHL minimum), so what's the number and term he's willing to accept to stick around? And how hard will a Shanahan-less front office push to get it? The Lightning had a line they wouldn't cross with Steven Stamkos, the captain of their Cup-winning teams, last summer and ultimately let him walk as a free agent. Will the Leafs be similarly cutthroat? Advertisement Anze Kopitar signed a two-year contract, with a $7 million cap hit, with the Los Angeles Kings two summers ago when he was turning 36 and coming off a 74-point season. Joe Pavelski signed a three-year deal with the Dallas Stars, with a $7 million cap hit, in 2019 when he was almost 35 and coming off a 38-goal season. Both had much stronger playoff resumes and all-around games than Tavares. The cap is also going up. The Leafs could try to bring the cap hit down by stretching the contract out as they did with Chris Tanev last summer (six years, $4.5 million cap hit), though there are definitely long-term downsides to that approach. What if they can't agree? What if Tavares won't dip below, say, $6 million on a multiyear deal? What then? Are they prepared to let their former captain walk? And if so, what's the plan to replace him? That's Tavares' leverage in all this: It would be difficult (though not impossible) for the Leafs to replace him. The big question with Knies at this point: What's his ceiling? The floor might be what he showed this past season: A 29-goal, 58-point physical top-line monster who kills penalties, dominates around the net on the power play and elevates his game in the playoffs. Knies told me once he hoped to become like Mikko Rantanen one day. That's top-10-player-in-the-league territory, a pretty grand aspiration for Knies. The biggest obstacle to his getting there might be his playmaking. Rantanen, who scored 55 goals in one season, has six seasons of at least 50 assists. Knies hasn't shown that kind of creativity as a passer yet, not even close, really. He had six primary five-on-five assists this past season playing on the Leafs top line — the same amount as David Kämpf and tied for 328th in the NHL. He did leap from 20 assists overall as a rookie to 29 as a sophomore. A straight-line battering ram at this point, Knies figures to improve as a passer as he grows in the league, but to what degree? It will be the difference between his becoming a perennial 60-70 point player or an 80-90 point superstar. At minimum, this is already a special player, an 'important' player in Treliving's estimation and someone set to headline a changing core of the Leafs. Advertisement The team's leverage in contract talks? Knies is a restricted free agent with no arbitration rights. Knies has the threat of an offer sheet, but he has to actually be willing to sign that offer sheet, and risk going elsewhere, to get what he wants from the Leafs. How hard does management try to push someone so foundational to the future? 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It's a position the organization has struggled to improve over the years. It gets no easier this summer with a thin pool of free-agent centres. Whether they bring back Tavares or not, the Leafs need an improvement in the No. 2 spot. Tavares' 38 goals were impressive but also kind of beside the point. He struggled again to produce and drive play in the playoffs, particularly against the Florida Panthers. It was part of why the Leafs unraveled in that series: Their second line, Nylander included, was increasingly outplayed by the Panthers' top three units. Advertisement Matt Duchene is one potential free-agent target. Sam Bennett could be another. Does either one want to play in Toronto? And if so, for what? Does a trade for a new 2C make more sense? Is it even feasible? The Leafs need to adopt a more creative approach to solving this puzzle, especially now with Tavares about to enter his mid-30s. More creativity, more bold thinking in general, is what this franchise needs. They'll need to procure a more legitimate 3C on top of that so that swinging Max Domi back there doesn't become the answer once again for Berube. (There's no chance the Leafs give Nylander another run in the middle … right?) Maybe that's Tavares, with someone else coming in to play directly behind Matthews. The front office and coaching staff can probably pencil Bobby McMann into a third-line left wing position and Scott Laughton into a fourth-line role of some kind. All bets are off otherwise. Paying $4.5 million cap dollars for Kämpf and Calle Järnkrok to play with Laughton ($1.5 million) on the fourth line doesn't make a lot of sense. The Leafs probably need to look at moving at least one player this offseason. Injecting more size, physicality and bite into the forward group, to better align with the Berube Way, figures to be part of the equation for Treliving. 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If they can't get anything of value — what's that bar even? — they can decline to make him a qualifying offer and let him walk as a free agent. The fact Robertson is a restricted free agent, with arbitration rights, could make trading him a tad more difficult. Letting him walk for nothing doesn't feel like good asset management, but does it make sense to bring back a player who doesn't fit this roster and clearly needs a fresh start? It was only last summer the Leafs tried hard to trade Timothy Liljegren, failed to do so and then signed him to a two-year contract. Liljegren promptly lost his job and the Leafs were eventually forced to trade him to the San Jose Sharks for whatever they could get It's worth noting Robertson won't turn 24 until September. And it's not as if this team has lots of young talent coming at forward. That's the argument for keeping him a little while longer. Steven Lorentz and Max Pacioretty are the other forwards set to hit unrestricted free agency. Though Pacioretty seems destined to play elsewhere, if he decides to keep playing at all, Lorentz warrants a discussion for Treliving and company. He was pretty close to the ideal fourth-liner last season. His motor was always running. He packed a physical punch. He defended well. He killed penalties. And he kicked in some offence, scoring as many goals (eight) as Domi in about 200 fewer minutes. And he did it all with a smile on his face for $775,000. To keep him would require a raise, and paying that much more for a fourth-liner, when fourth-liners are easily replaceable, doesn't make a whole lot of sense. The Leafs also have to be mindful of the fourth-liners they already (maybe) have — Laughton, Kämpf, Järnkrok and Pontus Holmberg. They don't exactly need Lorentz back, even if he brings his own distinct dimension. Advertisement The Leafs do need to qualify Holmberg, a pending RFA, and get him signed to a new contract. Part of the discussion with Holmberg: deciding whether he's better off playing centre or wing. Related to that discussion perhaps is what happens with Kämpf. If Holmberg is playing centre, it should be on the fourth line. Now that he's No. 1 on the front office depth chart, Treliving might want to tweak and/or trim the group in his image. Shane Doan and Derek Clancey were Treliving hires. Brandon Pridham, Hayley Wickenheiser, Darryl Metcalf and Ryan Hardy, all of them assistant GMs, were not. Meanwhile, the Leafs might be inclined to alter their designated leadership group. If Marner departs, does the team simply continue with Morgan Rielly and, assuming he stays, Tavares as alternate captains? Or is it time for something different, if only as a symbolic gesture to change? Given that he's under contract longer than anyone else (2032), Nylander belongs in the discussion and so might one of Tanev or Jake McCabe if the Leafs do decide to go in a different direction. — Stats and research courtesy of Hockey Reference, Natural Stat Trick and Puckpedia. (Top photo of Matthew Knies: Mike Carlson / Getty Images)
New York Times
2 hours ago
- New York Times
Lane Hutson's next contract with Canadiens is minefield that might need to wait
As the Montreal Canadiens work on organizing their financial structure for the coming seasons in a rising salary-cap world, there are two players' contracts they will need to plan for that are somewhat abstract. The first is Lane Hutson, and the second is Ivan Demidov. The Canadiens are still a year away from needing to worry about Demidov's contract, and he still has a lot to prove. But in Hutson's case, he could sign a new contract as of July 1, and he has already proven a lot at the NHL level. Advertisement He is the type of play-driving, puck-moving defenceman the modern game requires, but he also doesn't fit the archetype of the big, bruising defenceman that playoff hockey requires. To be fair, there aren't really any defencemen who fit both categories, and there are few in the NHL who fit the first category as well as Hutson. But the second category is something that will also surely come into play in the Canadiens' evaluation of what Hutson's next contract looks like, and there are different examples of how to approach his second contract across the NHL. Hutson mentioned in his exit interview with the media that he would like to have his contract settled sooner rather than later, and part of that is because he is frankly uncomfortable talking about it. The longer his next contract remains unsettled, the longer he will have to answer questions about it. But when general manager Kent Hughes was asked about Hutson's contract at his end-of-season news conference, he didn't make it sound like it was an urgent matter that necessarily required immediate attention and made a point of mentioning that this administration waited for the end of Cole Caufield's entry-level contract before negotiating an extension, while Juraj Slafkovský and Kaiden Guhle each signed as soon as they were eligible last summer. 'For sure we'll talk to his agent,' Hughes said. 'I saw that he mentioned he'd like to get his contract settled sooner rather than later. So we'll call his agent and we'll see. But it's not like it's a priority. I find it's important to communicate, to learn what's important to Lane, and from there we'll see if there's a way to agree on a contract. With Cole, we waited to the end of his (entry-level) contract. With Slaf and Guhle, it happened with a year left. So, I think we'll start talking and see where it goes.' Advertisement What happened with Slafkovský and Guhle was that they accepted contract terms that were viewed as somewhat team-friendly by the Canadiens. They were comfortable with the annual average value for Slafkovský ($7.6 million) and Guhle ($5.55 million), even if it represented a bit of a risk. So when Hughes mentions learning 'what's important to Lane,' this is surely what he means. Is Hutson willing to work with the Canadiens on accepting less money and falling in line with their internal salary structure in exchange for the security of a long-term contract? Or will he look to be paid what his production in his rookie NHL season demonstrated he is worth, particularly in the context of a rising salary cap? Looking at this in the most basic terms possible, it is not very difficult to find a group of comparable players to Hutson that we can use as a basis for this exercise. Filtering NHL defencemen who are 26 years old or younger, played at least 50 games and had at least 0.5 points per game last season (remember, Hutson had 66 points in 82 games as a rookie in his age-20 season) gives us a list of 14 players. Of those, three were still on their entry-level contracts: Hutson, Luke Hughes and Jackson LaCombe. That leaves 11 defencemen playing on their second or third contracts to use as a basis for comparison: Rasmus Dahlin, Cale Makar, Moritz Seider, Mikhail Sergachev, Miro Heiskanen, Owen Power, Jake Sanderson, Quinn Hughes, Noah Dobson, Thomas Harley and Evan Bouchard. That might seem like a random order in which to list those players, but it's not. They are listed in order of the cap hits on their current contracts, from a high of $11 million for Dahlin to a low of $3.9 million for Bouchard. That list represents three different approaches to a second NHL contract. The bottom three names on the list — Dobson, Harley and Bouchard — as well as Dahlin and Sergachev, signed two- or three-year bridge contracts out of entry-level, with Dobson and Bouchard due for new contracts this summer and Harley up next summer. All three of them are about to become very rich men. Sergachev signed his third contract in 2022 for eight years at $8.5 million per coming off a three-year bridge deal at $4.8 million a year. Dahlin signed his eight-year, $88 million contract in 2023, also coming off a three-year bridge at $6 million a year. Dobson, Harley and Bouchard each signed bridge deals at or just below $4 million a year, with Dobson signing for three years and the other two for two years. Advertisement Both Makar and Hughes signed six-year deals out of entry-level a couple of months apart in 2021 that walked them right to unrestricted free agency, with Makar's contract buying one UFA year and Hughes' none. They signed for $9 million and $7.85 million a year, respectively, and both can hit the UFA market in 2027. Their next contracts will be monsters, but they also demonstrate a mechanism to keep the cap hit reasonable while locking in prime years. The trade-off is the stress in Vancouver about what Hughes will choose to do when his contract expires, and the Avalanche having to trade away Mikko Rantanen in anticipation of Makar's next contract. The rest of the players on that list — Seider, Heiskanen, Power and Sanderson — signed long-term right out of entry-level. For many reasons aside from this very rudimentary exercise, Sanderson's eight-year contract worth $8.05 million a year signed in 2023 can serve as a basis for comparison here, and demonstrates why this could be a complicated negotiation between Hutson's camp and the Canadiens. It would be easy for Hutson's representatives to argue he is a more productive player than Sanderson and is therefore worth more than him. That's not a knock on Sanderson, of course, since only three defencemen in NHL history had a more productive rookie season than Hutson's 66 points this season. But it would be just as easy for the Canadiens to argue Sanderson fits both categories of defencemen described above, merging a play-driving puck-mover with a big body who can drive playoff success. For instance, no defenceman who played at least 75 minutes at five-on-five in these playoffs had a higher offensive zone start percentage than Hutson's 87.5 percent, according to Natural Stat Trick. In fact, only two skaters were higher, Washington's Dylan Strome and Alex Ovechkin at 97.3 (!) percent. The next highest defenceman was Carolina's Shayne Gostisbehere at 78.6 percent. Sanderson, however, only started 47.62 percent of his shifts in the offensive zone in the playoffs, suggesting his value to the Senators goes beyond his production, which is also evident in Sanderson's predominant role on both the power play and penalty kill. The same argument could be made about Seider ($8.55 million) and Power ($8.35 million), though neither of them played in the playoffs. The reality of the NHL, however, is that offence gets you paid, and Hutson's offence is truly special. Combine that reality with the new financial landscape of the NHL with the salary cap expected to rise to $113.5 million by 2027-28 — which would be the second season of Hutson's next contract — and the conditions are ripe for Hutson to seek a big payday based on what he's already demonstrated and also what he is expected to do offensively in the future. Advertisement Sanderson was in the first year of his new contract this season, and it took up 9.15 percent of the $88 million salary cap. That same percentage in 2026-27 — when the cap is expected to be set at $104 million — would represent an AAV of just over $9.5 million on a long-term contract, and that's assuming Hutson's camp doesn't feel he should be paid more than Sanderson. It should also be noted that of the 11 defencemen we are looking at here, Sanderson was one of only two — Power is the other — who signed his second contract before the entry-level deals expired. So if the Canadiens and/or Hutson decided to wait until next year, it would hardly be unprecedented. Something else Hughes said at his end-of-season news conference seems to apply, when he evaluated Slafkovský's season coming off his big contract extension last summer. 'I think he came in this year with new expectations, a new contract, and also sometimes, when you have success for the first time, sometimes you get here and you're not ready for what's waiting for you,' Hughes said. 'You hear often about a sophomore slump, and I think that's something we'll need to pay attention to as a team and not expect we'll be back next season and it will be easy.' All of that could easily apply to Hutson, though if we're being honest, it doesn't seem all that likely. Hutson's ability to adjust and find creative ways to not only survive at his size but find new and innovative ways to thrive has defined his hockey career. There's no reason to believe that will change. But one possible reason why Hughes seemed unrushed in talking about Hutson's next contract is the list of defencemen we looked at for this basic exercise. It is a group of the best young defencemen in the NHL, one that doesn't include Adam Fox because he was a year too old to be included, even if he is likely to be Hutson's closest comparable in terms of size, impact and production. Fox, it is worth noting, signed his seven-year deal at $9.5 million a year in November of 2021, in the midst of a career-high 74-point season and before the expiry of his entry-level contract. If Hutson were able to follow up his tremendous rookie season with an even better sophomore season, would those comparables change much? He's already put himself in very select company. Advertisement If we look at the contracts signed by Hughes since he arrived, one theme has emerged: He often gets what he wants. He wanted a short term on Sam Montembeault's contract, and that's what he got. He wanted a certain number for Jake Evans' contract, and that's what he got. But most notably, he wanted Caufield's and Slafkovský's second contracts to come in under Nick Suzuki's $7.875 million cap number, and that's what he got in both cases. If Hughes wants that to happen again with Hutson, it seems rather evident it won't happen this summer because Hutson would be leaving a significant amount of money on the table if he agreed to something like that, perhaps as much as $2 million a year, or even more. And the threat of a potential offer sheet didn't impact nine of the 11 defencemen we looked at here signing their second contracts at the end of their entry-level deals. In other words, as Hughes suggested a few weeks ago, there is nothing pressing, and it would appear to be in the best interests of both parties to wait and let things play out a little longer.
New York Times
2 hours ago
- New York Times
The Oilers' tweak that could change Stanley Cup Final rematch vs. Panthers
This week has been an overwhelming one for Edmonton Oilers fans. The injury to Zach Hyman that will cost the team its best winger for the rest of the playoffs, the return of Mattias Ekholm to the lineup and Calvin Pickard stepping in as backup goaltender were all explosive developments. Add that to the strong showing at home versus the Dallas Stars, and then closing out the series on Thursday night, and heads are spinning in Oilers Nation. Advertisement It's been the equivalent of trying to take a drink from a firehose. Now, after the Florida Panthers flattened the Carolina Hurricanes to win the East, talk will move on to the Stanley Cup Final. Oilers fans got one answer on Thursday night in the game versus Dallas. Corey Perry was deployed in Hyman's role on the No. 1 line and flourished. Some answers will come in the days ahead. Key among them? How to overcome the Panthers, who are as close to the 1970s Philadelphia Flyers 'Broad Street Bullies' as we're likely to see in the modern hockey era. What can the Oilers do in order to defeat the Panthers' suffocating forecheck and fantastic skill on quick turnovers? The key to winning is already evident. The Oilers are enjoying an impressive run at five-on-five during this spring's playoffs. The SA-60 numbers in the game state are almost identical to last spring's playoffs, and the expected GA-60 is slightly higher than one year ago. With those facts in play, one would expect a higher GA-60, but the results in this year's playoffs are running counter to prevailing wisdom: All numbers five-on-five, via Natural Stat Trick There are a few reasons this could be happening. Luck is often overlooked, and impossible to accurately measure, but it's important to acknowledge it exists and may skew the math. If regression hits during the Stanley Cup Final against Florida, we can safely credit luck and the natural order of things (regression) for it. The eye test suggests the Oilers are defending less, and more specifically, are running around in their own zone less often during this spring's postseason. The team's save percentage year over year has improved markedly, but there's reason to believe (visually) the Oilers are doing a better job in puck retrieval and breakouts. Advertisement Why are the Oilers better at five-on-five goal suppression this spring? After Game 3 of the series against Dallas, Meghan Chayka of Stathletes published some powerful numbers. Ignoring the outstanding offensive numbers on the Edmonton side, Chayka pointed to the Stars' inability to get shots, scoring chances and goals off the rush. The Stars thrived in this area of the game during the regular season and have several proven drivers in this area of the game. The Oilers' SA-60 numbers at five-on-five haven't changed much since last year, but the club is surrendering fewer goals. The Chayka numbers tell us that while Dallas was shooting the puck, the Stars were not, in fact, making the goalie move, nor scoring goals. Low percentage shots from opponents and Edmonton playing less in its defensive zone are keys. Both innovations are helping the goaltenders. The year-over-year save percentage for the Oilers: .896 in 2024's playoffs, .922 this season. Stuart Skinner and Pickard are (as Chayka describes in her graph) in motion far less than last year. The Oilers invested $3.6 million of the overall cap in goaltending in 2024-25. That's the lowest among true Stanley Cup contenders. When general manager Stan Bowman arrived, he didn't look for an upgrade in net (although there were calls for it from many fans and media). Instead, he addressed defence, and added men who could handle the puck. One of his first moves came when he acquired Ty Emberson. During the regular season, Bowman signed veteran John Klingberg, who struggled early but has emerged as a playoff giant in puck retrieval, outlets and finding seams for passes. It is Klingberg who gives the Oilers' second pairing a dangerous offensive edge. Finally, at the deadline, Bowman acquired Jake Walman, who has a complete skill set. Walman is a puck mover, passer and creative thinker offensively, and has grown over the years as a coverage defenceman. Edmonton's defence is better for his presence, and the second pairing (Walman-Klingberg) has often been the best one during this year's playoffs. All numbers five-on-five, via Natural Stat Trick The top three unduplicated pairings (in blue) show exceptional goal suppression. The formula Edmonton is currently using for retrieval and outlets, matched to the defensive pairings that are doing well (as above), gives the Oilers an advantage fans did not see one year ago. Advertisement That advantage should be on display against the Panthers in the final. Ekholm's presence will also be felt. Ekholm and Evan Bouchard played 10 clean minutes defensively at five-on-five against Dallas on Thursday night and were on the ice for one Oilers goal. The idea of moving the puck expertly and deploying veteran defencemen isn't new to Edmonton management. The same summer the Oilers drafted Connor McDavid, new (at the time) general manager Peter Chiarelli signed veteran two-way defenceman Andrej Sekera. He was a perfect fit for the organization, and with young and astute puck movers like Oscar Klefbom in the system, the club appeared set for the next several years. Injuries had an impact, but Edmonton managers could never find enough of this player type, let alone get ahead of the problem. Chiarelli added Adam Larsson, who was a quality shutdown type but not a pure passer. Nurse had passing issues. When Ken Holland arrived in 2019, he immediately went to work on the problem. His solutions were expensive (Duncan Keith) and too old to have a sustained impact (again Keith). Once the organization signed Brad Holland as pro scouting director, and the analytics department held more sway, more capable names (specifically Ekholm) were added. It should be noted that Bouchard was an astute draft selection by Chiarelli and his scouts in 2018. His growth in all areas over the last two seasons, and especially the playoffs, has been a key element in Edmonton's success in puck moving. The Florida forecheck is suffocating. Stuart Skinner has improved as a puck handler, and that may come into play in an effort to aid the defencemen. Using the middle of the ice for outlets has been effective for the Oilers, but Florida will have scouted Edmonton, and new wrinkles may be required. Advertisement The bottom line for the Oilers: Bowman's acquisition of puck movers, specifically Walman and Klingberg, has tilted the ice in the Oilers' favour through three rounds of the postseason. Will it work against the Panthers? Stay tuned. (Photo of Roope Hintz and Jake Walman: Steph Chambers / Getty Images)
