7:00 AM ET Emily KaplanESPN On the eve of last season, Jack Eichel and the Buffalo Sabres agreed on a maximum eight-year, $80 million extension. It was a cause celebre in Buffalo. The 18-year-old had arrived, after all, shouldering massive expectations as the No. 2 overall pick, and despite his first two “mediocre” seasons —
NHL
11:19 AM ET Emily KaplanESPN The Montreal Canadiens named defenseman Shea Weber as their new captain on Monday. Weber is the 30th captain in franchise history. He succeeds American-born winger Max Pacioretty, who was traded to the Vegas Golden Knights this summer. Pacioretty had been Montreal’s captain since 2015. Weber’s captaincy was decided by management;
8:37 PM ET Emily KaplanESPN Washington Capitals winger Tom Wilson has been offered an in-person hearing with the NHL’s Department of Player safety. Wilson was ejected from Sunday’s preseason game against the St. Louis Blues for an illegal check to the head on Oskar Sundqvist. After the hit, Sundqvist laid motionless on the ice and
7:00 AM ET Emily KaplanESPN Who is the best team in the NHL now? Who will it be four years from now? Sidney Crosby has been the face of the league for more than a decade, but has 21-year-old Connor McDavid taken over? ESPN spoke to more than 50 players, front-office executives and coaches before
7:10 AM ET Emily KaplanESPN The 2018-19 NHL season opens Wednesday, including the Stanley Cup banner raising for Alex Ovechkin and the Capitals. Here’s how our panel stacks up all 31 NHL teams, plus a reason for optimism for every fan base. Note: These rankings reflect which teams the voters think would win head-to-head matchups.
5:05 PM ET Los Angeles Kings right winger Dustin Brown broke his finger in the team’s last preseason game Saturday night and is out indefinitely. He suffered the injury when he was hit by a shot on the power play from center Anze Kopitar in a 3-0 loss to the Anaheim Ducks. Dustin Brown, out
7:00 PM ET Associated Press TORONTO — Greg Terrion, the former NHL forward who played six seasons for the Toronto Maple Leafs in the 1980s, has died. He was 58. The Maple Leafs confirmed Terrion’s death Saturday. Terrion, from Marmora, Ontario, had 93 goals and 150 assists in 561 NHL games in eight seasons with
4:34 PM ET Associated Press HALIFAX, Nova Scotia — How’s this for a slap shot to the ego: Sidney Crosby is not getting a road named for him in his home province. It seems one of hockey’s greatest players does not meet the criteria for commemorative naming because he has not yet retired. The Pittsburgh
2:00 PM ET Greg WyshynskiESPN Does Joe Thornton watch the NHL standings? “A little bit,” he told me, sitting in his stall after a recent San Jose Sharks practice. Get ready for the upcoming hockey season with team-by-team previews, bold predictions, position rankings, prospect reports and fantasy nuggets. A new NHL season is here, and
7:00 AM ET Greg WyshynskiESPN With the 2018-19 season fast approaching, we’re running snapshots of all 31 NHL teams, including point total projections, positional previews, best- and worst-case scenarios and more. The Vegas Golden Knights couldn’t have done much better in their inaugural campaign. What do they have in store for an encore? How they