Shea Weber emerged from the dressing room following Canada's practice Monday at Ricoh Coliseum in Toronto prepared to deflect questions about Team North America.

"Packers and Vikings. Great game. Vikings played well," the defenseman said, his wry smile demonstrating just how much pride he took in derailing the line of questioning.

After the young upstarts stole headlines at the World Cup of Hockey with an undeniable performance Sunday against Finland, inquiries about Team North America are to be expected.

The buzz hasn't quite infiltrated the Canadian locker room, though. Besides, everything would have to fall perfectly into place in order for Canada and North America to square off at the tournament, in a contest that would generate interest akin to the Sochi Olympic final two years ago.

Maybe later

So, while each recognized the ease with which North America dispatched one of the best national programs in the world, just one of four Canadian players polled Monday were willing to admit they even set aside time to tune in.

Brad Marchand said he came away impressed with the performance, how the 23-and-unders organized themselves in the defensive zone, and backchecked with purpose. He noticed the discipline they had within their system, noted the "insane" amount of passes completed in the lead-up to Jonathan Drouin's goal, and said that, overall, he had fun watching the kids play.

But he never pondered just how Canada might fare against the group.

"It's a ways away, so I haven't thought about it, but they are obviously a great team," Marchand told theScore. "They play with a tremendous amount of speed and skill."

Alex Pietrangelo was another player who chose to watch Aaron Rodgers and Sam Bradford sling it instead of keeping his eye on Group B.

The St. Louis Blues captain wasn't making inferences from the 4-1 score when touting North America's balance up and down the lineup. He's been convinced the kids would show well since the pre-tournament.

"They might have caught us off guard at first with how quick they were in those exhibition games, but it's no secret now," Pietrangelo told theScore. "We know what they're capable of."

One at a time

It's characteristic of a Mike Babcock-coached team to have blind focus, and not look too far ahead. What's immediately in front of the Canadians is Tuesday's clash with the United States, and a chance to not only earn a semifinal berth, but also eliminate their biggest rivals.

Babcock, of course, is following that doctrine. But considering the manner in which he praised Team North America, and the idea to bring those kids together in the first place, it suggests he'd welcome the challenge of toppling the game's future stars.

"What a great way to showcase the NHL 10 years from now," Babcock said about the North America concept. "That to me is one of the most exciting things about this tournament."

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The Vancouver Canucks are set to add some Skille to their training camp.

Jack Skille, that is, after the 29-year-old winger signed a professional tryout contract with the club.

Originally selected seventh overall by Chicago at the 2005 NHL Draft, Skille appeared in 74 games with Colorado in last season, recording eight goals and six assists.

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Valeri Nichushkin may be heading home.

The restricted free agent, who remains without a new contract from the Dallas Stars with training camp set to open, is closing in on a deal with KHL club CSKA Moscow, according to Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet.

Earlier Monday, Russian reporter Igor Eronko said CSKA, which acquired Nichushkin's KHL rights, was set to sign the winger to a two-year deal.

For his part, Stars general manager Jim Nill said he hasn't heard anything concrete, but believes there's a KHL offer on the table.

Nichushkin is free to sign a KHL deal, while the Stars would retain his rights should he return to the NHL.

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Who says hockey won't sell in the desert?

The Las Vegas franchise - who has yet to announce its official name - announced Monday that they have received deposits for all 16,000 available season tickets for the 2017-18 season.

"We launched a season ticket drive in February 2015 to demonstrate the long-term viability of an NHL franchise in Las Vegas and were able to surpass our initial goal within months. Since then, we have hired an outstanding general manager, assistant general manager, director of player personnel, director of amateur scouting, capologist, director of analytics, and many highly qualified scouts. Today, we are proud to announce that season tickets for the 2017 season are sold out," said majority owner Bill Foley said in a release. "This is a truly historic event for the Las Vegas community, the NHL and all of our fans. I would like to thank everyone who has supported and continues to support our efforts to make the Las Vegas NHL franchise a success."

The milestone comes 18 months after the tickets first went on sale as part of a drive to see if there was enough interest in the city.

Las Vegas will become the 31st franchise in the league and will begin play in the 2017-18 season.

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Who says hockey won't sell in the desert?

The Las Vegas franchise - who has yet to announce its official name - announced Monday that they have received deposits for all 16,000 available season tickets for the 2017-18 season.

"We launched a season ticket drive in February 2015 to demonstrate the long-term viability of an NHL franchise in Las Vegas and were able to surpass our initial goal within months. Since then, we have hired an outstanding general manager, assistant general manager, director of player personnel, director of amateur scouting, capologist, director of analytics, and many highly qualified scouts. Today, we are proud to announce that season tickets for the 2017 season are sold out," said majority owner Bill Foley said in a release. "This is a truly historic event for the Las Vegas community, the NHL and all of our fans. I would like to thank everyone who has supported and continues to support our efforts to make the Las Vegas NHL franchise a success."

The milestone comes 18 months after the tickets first went on sale as part of a drive to see if there was enough interest in the city.

Las Vegas will become the 31st franchise in the league and will begin play in the 2017-18 season.

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It would appear the future draftees weren't the only ones sweating buckets as names were called at this year's NHL Draft.

St. Louis Blues defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk admitted he watched intently as with the never-ending trade speculation, he figured a deal involving himself was forthcoming.

"You're waiting for (commissioner Gary) Bettman to see if he's going to say, 'We have a trade to announce,'" Shattenkirk said, according to Jeremy Rutherford of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Shattenkirk remains with the team for the time being, and as general manager Doug Armstrong hinted last month, might not be going anywhere any time soon.

The 27-year-old led all Blues defenders with 44 points last season, and is entering the final year of a four-year deal that will see him make $5.2 million this season.

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Patrick Roy's sudden departure caught the Colorado Avalanche completely by surprise.

“He didn’t tell anybody," Matt Duchene told Yahoo Sports' Greg Wyshynski at the World Cup of Hockey on Monday.

"Nobody knew until he announced it. But he’s not going to burden anybody with that secret before he announces it. I think it was pretty shocking for all of us, but you close that chapter and you move on.”

Related - Duchene denies rift with Roy: 'There (were) never any problems'

"It caught us off guard," goaltender Semyon Varlamov said. "We knew he had just signed a new deal for two more years, and then he resigned a couple of weeks later. I’m not going to lie. Patrick has been very helpful to me and to the whole team. I was in a good spot.”

Roy resigned in August after three seasons as Avalanche head coach and vice-president of hockey operations, citing philosophical differences between he and the organization and claiming he didn't "have a say in the decisions that impact the team's performance."

Colorado won the Central Division title in Roy's first season, after which he received the Jack Adams Award as the league's top coach. However, the Avalanche failed to make the playoffs in the two subsequent campaigns.

Captain Gabriel Landeskog acknowledged that the players deserve some of the blame for Roy's exit.

“A big part of the responsibly of us missing the playoffs for two years in a row has to be on the players,” Landeskog said. “Patrick had his strategy on how he wanted to lead the team, and he did it 100 percent. But at some point, the players have to take some responsibility and unfortunately Patrick felt he had to step down and move on. We feel like that a part of that is on us."

The Avalanche named Jared Bednar the club's new head coach in late August, two weeks after Roy's resignation and mere weeks before the start of training camp.

"How late it was in the summer … I don’t think Patty did that to make it difficult on the Avs to hire a new coach,” defenseman Erik Johnson said.

“I think he took his time with his decision. Had he stayed, he would have made it worse than him leaving the way he did. So you have to respect that decision, even if it was made close to camp.”

Roy said in April that he had no plans to vacate the bench for the 2016-17 season, but wrote in his farewell statement that he "thought long and hard over the course of the summer" about how he could improve the team.

Bednar became the first Avalanche head coach with no previous ties to the organization.

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Unrestricted free agent Tomas Fleischmann signed a professional-tryout contract with the Minnesota Wild on Monday, general manager Chuck Fletcher confirmed to Michael Russo of the Star Tribune.

The news comes a week after Fleischmann's agent noted his client had been in serious talks with eight teams.

The 32-year-old will serve under the team's new bench boss Bruce Boudreau, a man Fleischmann is certainly no stranger to.

Fleischmann spent four seasons under Boudreau as a member of the Washington Capitals, scoring 56 goals and 128 points in 240 games under his direction.

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theScore is previewing each team leading up to the 2016-17 season.

The Dallas Stars iced one of the most lethal squads in the league last season.

The team found the back of the net a league-high 265 times - an average of 3.23 times per game - while peppering the opposition with the third-most shots per game. Up front, the team is sound and the addition of Jiri Hudler should only help.

The back-end, however, remains a bit of a question mark. The team chose not to address its questionable goaltending tandem, and while Dallas added Dan Hamhuis on defense, it came on the back of three key departures.

Here is how the club's depth stacks up heading into the 2016-17 season:

Forwards

• There are few forward positions up for grabs, if any, and few players challenging for them. Three names with the most likely chance at nabbing a roster spot would be Curtis McKenzie, Brett Ritchie, or Devin Shore.

Defense

• The Stars' blue line provides the most uncertainty. With Alex Goligoski, Kris Russell, and Jason Demers out, and only Hamhuis brought in, spots could be had for any young pivot who can impress at camp.

Goalies

• Jim Nill at least continues to portray confidence in the duo of Lehtonen and Niemi. Wisdom, however, would suggest there could be a short leash before the team looks to make a change.

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