Associated Press – CanucksBanter

By STEPHEN WHYNO | Associated Press

August 10, 2023

Kyle Dubas had just completed the biggest trade of the NHL offseason, landing defenseman Erik Karlsson in a three-team deal that furthers the Pittsburgh Penguins’ desire to win now, when he was asked if other moves might be in store.

The team’s new general manager and president of hockey operations said he thinks he’s done this summer. Still, he acknowledged: “You can never make any promises. You always want to try and improve the team.”

Rival GM Brian MacLellan of the Washington Capitals is still busy working the phones, not giving up on the hope of landing a top-six forward before NHL training camps next month.

“We’re still talking to agents,” MacLellan said after signing Tom Wilson to a seven-year extension. “We’re still talking to a few teams about a trade, so we’ll see how it pans out at the end.”

KUZNETSOV TRADE?

For the second time in three years, Evgeny Kuznetsov is in trade talk chatter. The talented but inconsistent Capitals center changed agents after putting up 55 points in 78 games —more than a 30-point drop from the previous season.

Kuznetsov is 31 and has two more years left on his contract at a hefty salary cap hit of $7.8 million. The Capitals, who like the Penguins are trying to get back in the playoffs and remain contenders, aren’t going to give away the player who led them in scoring on their 2018 Stanley Cup run.

But if something makes sense, Washington could move on from Kuznetsov or trade underachieving forward Anthony Mantha.

“I think we had a few discussions at the draft that might carry forward or might not carry forward,” MacLellan said. “We’re comfortable with where we’re at. We’d still like to change. We’ll see where it goes here.”

TRADE TALK

The Carolina Hurricanes and Calgary Flames are also worth watching.

Carolina brought back defenseman Tony DeAngelo following his buyout by Philadelphia and could look to trade Brett Pesce or Brady Skjei to clear a blue-line log jam. Each player has just a year left on his contract.

“My job as the general manager is just to stay on the phone every day and continue to look to see if we can make our team better — hard to do right now,” GM Don Waddell said recently, citing the Hurricanes’ salary cap crunch. “But certainly we’ll continue to talk to different teams and free agents and see what shakes out.”

Elias Lindholm, whom the Hurricanes traded to the Flames in 2018, is entering the final year of his contract. New Calgary GM Craig Conroy has already traded forward Tyler Toffoli to New Jersey as part of the team’s retooling process, and Lindholm could be next.

The Winnipeg Jets have yet to trade two key players a year before they would be unrestricted free agents: 2020 Vezina Trophy-winning goaltender Connor Hellebuyck and top center Mark Scheifele. They bought out former captain Blake Wheeler in the first step of a roster overhaul, but don’t expect Hellebuyck or Scheifele to stay in Winnipeg too much longer.

FREE AGENTS

Toronto on Wednesday signed one of the veteran goaltenders left on the market, giving Martin Jones a $875,000 contract for next season. Jaroslav Halak, Brian Elliott and Aaron Dell are among goalies in their 30s still available.

Phil Kessel, the NHL’s ironman fresh off winning the Stanley Cup with Vegas and getting his name on the trophy for the third time, is also unsigned. The 35-year-old forward was a healthy scratch for the vast majority of the playoffs, though his regular-season streak is intact at 1,064 consecutive games played.

Eric Staal, who reached the final with Florida and turns 39 in October, is another veteran option, as is center Derick Brassard. For teams looking for a defenseman, 36-year-old Nick Holden is out there, along with Seth Jones’ brother, Caleb, was not tendered a qualifying offer by Chicago and is a young unrestricted free agent at 26.

Among restricted free agents, Anaheim’s Trevor Zegras, Philadelphia’s Morgan Frost and Edmonton’s Evan Bouchard are among those who still need a contract.

KANE WATCH

Kane underwent hip resurfacing surgery June 1, an invasive operation with a recovery time of four to six months. While that rehab continues, rumors have swirled linking Kane to his hometown Buffalo Sabres, who are on the rise and could use a player with three Stanley Cup rings.

The 34-year-old Kane is expected to garner significant interest around the league from teams hoping he can return to All-Star form.

Longtime Chicago teammate Jonathan Toews is also a free agent, though he could decide to retire at age 35 after missing significant time.

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AP Sports Writer Will Graves contributed.

Source: Associated Press

BY KAREL JANICEK | Associated Press

July 7, 2023

PRAGUE (AP) — Russian and Belarusian athletes must state loud and clear they condemn Russia for the war in Ukraine or be banned from next year’s Paris Olympics, hockey gold medalist Dominik Hašek told The Associated Press.

Hašek, who won gold with the Czech Republic team at the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, said he is certain their presence at the Paris Games would otherwise result in “a huge promotion of the Russian war.”

The NHL great has been a prominent and vocal critic of the International Olympic Committee’s recommendation that Russians and Belarusians compete in international competitions as neutral athletes.

“Everybody knows where those athletes are from,” Hašek told the AP in an interview. ”They would represent the aggressive, imperialistic war and the crimes and killings linked to it.”

He said it would be like supplying Russia with tanks, aircraft and ammunition.

The IOC and president Thomas Bach have shaped the definition of neutrality — not publicly supporting the war, nor being contracted to the military since the invasion began in February 2022, competing without flag, anthem or national colors — that sports governing bodies must decide how or if to apply.

“I’m convinced that we all, the whole democratic world, have to do all we can to prevent the Russian and Belarusian athletes from participating under the current conditions,” Hašek said.

IOC officials have said the Olympic body could take its own decision on the Russian athletes issue “at the appropriate time” but also said that excluding them on the basis of their passports alone was discrimination.

The 2024 Olympics open next year on July 26.

HAŠEK’S PLAN

A public and repeated condemnation of the war would be a necessary condition for the athletes to be included in the Olympics, Hašek said. Just signing a declaration with the same content wouldn’t be enough.

In exchange, democratic countries should be ready to offer them and their families asylum and safety. Hašek also floated the idea of creating team of refugees — a common practice at recent Olympics — because accepting them on Russia’s terms would signal approval of the invasion.

“It’s an unbelievable promotion of the Russian war and it costs a lot of lives,” he said. “It’s necessary we stop it.”

Hašek has been invited to visit the European Parliament next month to present his views.

“I can’t predict what impact it might have but I want to do the best possible job to convince them, and then they can go on to convince others,” he said.

Hašek has been proposing the exclusion of the athletes since the start of the Russian invasion in February 2022 and appealed particularly to the NHL and the two tennis tours in an open letter to take part in it. That has not happened.

He is particularly disappointed with the reaction of the NHL and commissioner Gary Bettman.

“Of course, I’m really sad about it because the NHL is still in my heart,” said Hašek, who was known as the Dominator during his NHL career.

Hašek won six Vezina Trophies as the league’s top goalie, and twice won the Hart Trophy as the NHL’s most valuable player — the only goalie to win the award twice — during a nine-year stint with the Buffalo Sabres.

He later helped the Detroit Red Wings win the Stanley Cup in 2002 and 2008 and led the Czechs to the Olympic gold in 1998. He was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2014.

He proposed to Bettman that the NHL should pay off the contracts the Russian players signed as a way of banning them. Otherwise, he said, the NHL is partially responsible for what’s going on in Ukraine.

He said he would demand the league contributes a significant amount of money for Ukraine’s post-war renovation.

“It wouldn’t be just a few million but a large share of its income,” he said. “My goal is not to harm the NHL but to make it pay for its behavior.”

Hašek said tennis and other sports governing bodies accepting the Russians should do the same because “they support the Russian war.”

NO BOYCOTT

Hašek said he personally is not in favor of boycotting the Paris Olympics because he doesn’t want to deprive the athletes of their Olympic dreams.

He said the last chance to stop the Russians and “save a lot of lives” will be in the hands of France, noting that as host country it has the power to deny them entry.

In early June, Hašek spent five days in Ukraine, including in Kyiv and Kharkiv and in the towns of Irpin and Bucha that are recovering from a brutal occupation by Russian forces.

His aim was to express his support for the country in its fight against Russian aggression and encourage the local hockey community, including youth players, when a half of all ice rinks in the war-torn country are unavailable.

Hašek has dismissed the critics who say sports should not be mixed with politics, noting countries use their successful athletes to achieve their goals.

“That’s been common and there’s nothing wrong about it until a state is engaged in killing and murdering and the athletes become a propaganda tool for it,” Hašek said. “That’s the case of the Russian and Belarusian athletes. And we have to stop it.”

Source: Associated Press