NHL

7:00 AM ET The Edmonton Oilers are going to win the 2023 Stanley Cup. Granted, this might not be the best news for the Edmonton Oilers, as evidenced by the lack of a Stanley Cup parade for the New York Islanders last June. So, I reached out to Edmonton general manager Ken Holland to either

11:22 AM ET John BarrESPN.com Close Joined ESPN in June 2003 Winner: 2013 Peabody Award; 2011 Edward R. Murrow Award/Video Investigative Reporting Covers breaking news, investigative pieces and human interest features A Palm Beach County, Florida, doctor at the center of a massive health care fraud scheme that victimized patients seeking help for substance abuse

7:00 AM ET If there’s one thing the NHL league office is obsessed with, it’s competitive balance. Parity rules in hockey, and the league often emphasizes that it treats its 32 teams equally. That’s fostered by a hard salary cap. There’s a fixed amount teams can spend on players — and as the league recovers

4:40 PM ET Associated Press OTTAWA, Ontario — Hockey Canada’s board chairs, past and present, played defense when questioned Tuesday by the House of Commons about how it handled alleged sexual assaults and how money was paid out in lawsuits. Former chair Michael Brind’Amour, who resigned Aug. 6, and interim chair Andrea Skinner appeared via

12:57 PM ET Mathew Barzal signed an eight-year extension that will keep the star forward with the New York Islanders. The contract is worth $73.2 million, carrying an average annual value against the NHL salary cap of $9.15 million, his agent confirmed to ESPN’s Emily Kaplan. In six seasons with the team, Barzal has 311

7:00 AM ET The NHL didn’t exactly have goalie tandems last season. It was more like gaggles of goaltenders. Due to COVID-19 absences, injuries and ineffectiveness, a record 119 goalies appeared in 2021-22 regular-season games, from Akira Schmid to Zach Fucale. As a result, NHL scoring numbers climbed to their highest levels in nearly 30

3:27 PM ET Cam Talbot will miss five to seven weeks with an upper-body injury, as the Ottawa Senators are forced to reshuffle their goaltending before the NHL regular season begins. Talbot, 35, was acquired by the Senators in July from the Minnesota Wild for goalie Filip Gustavsson. Talbot is entering his 10th NHL season,

9:00 AM ET The NHL is debuting digitally enhanced dasherboards (DED) for all games this season that will “erase and replace” the advertising found on arena rink boards with virtual ads on broadcasts. The DED system allows for the digital replacement of camera-visible arena dasherboards within local, national and international NHL game broadcasts. While overlaying

7:00 AM ET PITTSBURGH — SIDNEY CROSBY DOESN’T scare easily. But the future of the Pittsburgh Penguins had him unnerved. Center Evgeni Malkin and defenseman Kris Letang, Crosby’s teammates on all three of his Stanley Cup victories, were at the end of their contracts last season. Free agency loomed. Rare was the team, in hockey

9:37 PM ET SEATTLE — A presentation was taking place inside a conference room at the Seattle Kraken‘s practice facility when one of the doors began to slowly open. Panic began taking shape at that moment. This forced a 6-foot-tall, furry, blue troll with an anchor hoop earring dangling on his left side and a

10:53 AM ET The Montreal Canadiens signed goaltender Jake Allen to a two-year, $7.7 million contract extension on Saturday. The deal has an average annual value of $3.85 million and runs through the end of the 2024-25 season. Allen, 32, was 9-20-4 with a 3.30 goals-against average, .905 save percentage and two shutouts in 35

12:19 AM ET Associated Press ANAHEIM, Calif. — Ducks defenseman Urho Vaakanainen was taken off the Honda Center ice on a stretcher after he crashed into the end boards in the first period of Anaheim’s preseason game against the San Jose Sharks on Friday night. The Finnish defenseman was conscious and alert with full movement

7:00 AM ET In hockey, it’s hard to go from the outhouse to the penthouse, because playoff contenders refuse to move out. Of the 16 teams that made the 2022 Stanley Cup playoffs, 12 of them were in the midst of multiyear postseason appearance streaks. If you include the COVID-19 bubble qualification series in 2020

4:39 PM ET Associated Press TORONTO — Rasmus Sandin has signed a two-year, $2.8 million contract with the Toronto Maple Leafs, the club announced on Thursday. The 22-year-old from Sweden was the 29th overall selection in the 2018 draft. Sandin had 16 points in 51 games with Toronto last season. He’s played in 88 career

11:19 AM ET Russian NHL players from the San Jose Sharks and Nashville Predators will be permitted to play games in Prague, despite the Czech government having previously said they weren’t welcome there due to the war in Ukraine. Nashville and San Jose are set to play regular-season games Oct. 7 and 8 at Prague’s

8:00 AM ET Expansion of the Stanley Cup playoffs is my hill to die on. My last breaths will be spent mouthing the words “play … in … round.” I’ve explained my philosophy and procedures before in this column, but to reiterate: There are now 32 teams in the NHL. In the pre-Gary Bettman expansion

5:30 PM ET ESPN News Services PHILADELPHIA — Veteran forward Sean Couturier will not need surgery on an upper-body injury, the Philadelphia Flyers said on Wednesday. Couturier remains week-to-week with the injury, which was revealed when training camp opened earlier this month. He has not taken part in drills or preseason games. The Flyers have

8:28 PM ET Toronto Maple Leafs captain John Tavares will miss the start of the regular season with an oblique injury. The veteran center will be out at least three weeks, coach Sheldon Keefe said Tuesday. The season opener is Oct. 12 at Montreal. 1 Related Tavares, who turned 32 on Sept. 20, is entering