"The Olympics are incredibly meaningful to Alex and his family," Leonsis told Alex Prewitt of Sports Illustrated. "So my commitment to them was, I will always do what's in Alex's best interest, and I said it 10 years ago, I'll say it today: If Alex Ovechkin says this is really important to me to go represent and play for my country, I'm going to support him.
"What's the worst that could happen? We'll get fined or something. I hope it doesn't get to that. But I've got to have my captain's back, and I will."
Ovechkin isn't the only Capital who plans to play in the event. Last month, teammate and countryman Evgeny Kuznetsov said he will join Ovechkin in 2018.
The International Olympic Committee has set a Jan. 15 deadline for the NHL to commit to the games.
As for Hitchcock, he's looking forward to integrating Yakupov into his lineup.
"I have a lot of experience in dealing with this type of player," Hitchcock said. "Given the opportunity he's going to get here, I think we can work with him. We did our homework."
Still, Hitchcock cautioned that fans shouldn't expect Yakupov to turn into a 200-foot player overnight.
"He has a skill set and we want to enhance the skill set. The stuff without the puck, it's going to take time, and we're in no hurry," Hitchcock said. "We're not going to turn a player into a defensive specialist and we don't anticipate doing that at all. We want to take what his strengths are and get him to really focus on that. The other stuff is teachable and we'll work with him."
The bench boss believes Yakupov will benefit from being surrounded by a veteran core in St. Louis.
"It's not a lot different than Robby Fabbri, or these type of players," Hitchcock added. "What (Yakupov) does well, we're going to really enhance and try to augment with the people we play him with, then turn him loose, and then nudge the other stuff that's the team part and see if we can get him up to speed here in a couple months."
The Blues acquired the former first overall selection Friday, sending prospect Zach Pochiro and a conditional third-round pick to the Edmonton Oilers. Yakupov scored 23 points in 60 games with the Oilers last season.
Zetterberg missed training camp, as well as the World Cup because of a knee injury sustained while training in the offseason, and he's excited to be back on the ice.
"This game tonight's going to be huge for just to be back playing games," Zetterberg said, per the team website. "You can only do that much in practice but you need to be out there and play games. So we're happy I was able to come back here and play tonight, and it will help me for Thursday."
The soon-to-be 36-year-old scored 13 goals and added 37 assists in 82 games for the Red Wings last season.
Peter Chiarelli shined the NHL's spotlight back on the Edmonton Oilers Friday, making a pair of significant moves days before the puck drops for the regular season.
First, he orchestrated the trade that sent 2012 first overall pick Nail Yakupov in exchange for a conditional third-round pick and prospect Zach Pochiro, a move Chiarelli believes could benefit the 23-year-old.
"We decided Nail deserved a fresh start ... We told him he's a good kid but it just didn't work out here," Chiarelli told media Saturday.
Shortly after trading Yakupov, Chiarelli added another piece to their developing blue line as the Oilers signed free-agent defenseman Kris Russell to a one-year contract.
Chiarelli said Russell's "speed and puck retrieval" are two of his strongest assets, and can see the veteran on either side of a defensive pairing.
theScore is previewing each team leading up to the 2016-17 season.
Renewed optimism should be the theme for the Winnipeg Jets, who return this season with a prize to show for the disappointment of missing the playoffs - the ultra-talented No. 2 overall draft pick Patrik Laine.
But impact players are littered throughout the Jets' depth chart, even with Jacob Trouba deciding he doesn't want to be one of them.
Here's how the Jets stack up for this season:
LW
C
RW
Nikolaj Ehlers
Mark Scheifele
Blake Wheeler
Drew Stafford
Bryan Little
Patrik Laine
Kyle Connor
Mathieu Perreault
Alex Burmistrov
Shawn Matthias
Adam Lowry
Joel Armia
Chris Thorburn
Andrew Copp
Marko Dano
Nic Petan
Anthony Peluso
Brendan Lemieux
With Laine in the fold, the top-six looks set, but decisions remain with regards to Paul Maurice's support fleet. Connor has to be considered the biggest question mark, but has provided every indication that he's ready to contribute, scoring in his first three preseason games.
LD
RD
Tobias Enstrom
Dustin Byfuglien
Ben Chiarot
Tyler Myers
Mark Stuart
Paul Postma
Brian Strait
Josh Morrissey
It's obviously a group that looks substantially different without Trouba. Fans would certainly like to see former first-rounder Morrissey at the next level, but his task is usurping a veteran on a one-way deal.
G
Ondrej Pavelec
Michael Hutchinson
Connor Hellebuyck
Perhaps the most intriguing storyline in camp, Jets' netminders could be deployed in inverse order of their capabilities. Pavelec has one season left on his deal, while Hellebuyck's the heir apparent with minor-league options.
It feels like only yesterday. Remember when the Edmonton Oilers were finally poised to climb out of the basement of the NHL? They had the most young talent in the league, after all, and just spent their third consecutive first overall pick on Nail Yakupov - an Ilya Kovalchuk-esque offensive dynamo who notched 170 points in 107 games for the Sarnia Sting.
Now, the day after Yakupov's departure from the City of Champions, the Oilers are still in the process of finding a fresh identity. Rather ironically, with two of those three No. 1 picks now out of the picture, Edmonton finds themselves in a better position than ever before.
The X-factor forcing the upswing, of course, is Connor McDavid. The youngest captain in NHL history. The savior. The future. The fourth No. 1 pick.
Now, with Yakupov in St. Louis, a true verdict can be established. Was he a victim of four different head coaches and an inept upper management in Edmonton, or is he just a bust?
When Edmonton drafted Yakupov in 2012, they failed to address a need. Eight of the next nine players selected were defenseman, the outlier being Yakupov's linemate in Sarnia: Alex Galchenyuk, who is fresh off his first 30-goal season.
Yakupov enjoyed a strong rookie campaign, notching 31 points in the 48-game lockout-shortened season, but other than sliding into the highlight reels after his first NHL goal, he failed to create much else in three frustrating seasons.
No matter what Yakupov goes on to accomplish with the Blues, his tenure in Edmonton will quickly be forgotten. Partially from a lack of success, but mostly because of what the Oilers have in store.
Sure, trading a No. 1 pick for a conditional third-rounder and a player who scored 26 points in the ECHL last season seems like a typical Oilers move, but the deal signifies another positive step on the road to sustained success.
Yakupov will be a restricted free agent come season's end, and trading him before a potential struggle to establish a reasonable contract makes sense for the Oilers.
Edmonton made a huge splash July 1 in landing Milan Lucic. They were practically gifted Jesse Puljujarvi with the fourth overall pick, and while it may have been for a steep price, the blue line is in better shape with Adam Larsson in the fold.
It may have taken a few extra years, and the luck of a real golden ticket in landing McDavid, but with season two of the new era on the horizon, the culture surrounding the Oilers continues to develop for the better.
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Here are the fantasy repercussions following the news that defenseman Kris Russell has inked a one-year deal with the Edmonton Oilers:
As @FriedgeHNIC first speculated, hearing that Oilers are finalizing one-year deal for $3.1 million with UFA D-man Kris Russell.
If your league includes blocked shots as a category, scoop up Russell near the end of your draft to round out your D-core. If you have already completed your draft, considering adding the veteran from the waiver wire.
Russell, 29, is a true shot-blocking artist. Since 2013-14, he has totaled 694 blocks in 209 games, leading the league in 2014-15. If your league uses a head-to-head, category format, Russell can single-handedly win you blocked shots in multiple weeks.
Though he still shouldn't be considered in non-blocked-shot leagues, Russell won't completely hurt your team in other categories. He is just two years removed from a 34-point season, where he took 111 shots and was plus-18. He isn't dynamic offensively by any stretch of the imagination, but he is a very good puck-mover.
Russell is accustomed to seeing a lot of ice time, averaging 23:05 last season and 23:57 the year prior. If he can get off on the right foot with head coach Todd McLellan, it wouldn't be surprising to seem him log heavy minutes, register 30 points and, of course, be among the league leaders in blocked shots.
Daily Fantasy
The majority of daily fantasy sites award a half-point for each blocked shot a player takes, in addition to a half-point for each shot on goal. This gives a player like Russell, who will certainly be priced very low to begin the season, great value. His high floor makes him an ideal candidate for cash games.
Street was released from the hospital Friday night and will return to Detroit on Saturday, reports Sportsnet's John Shannon.
The 29-year-old center played in the Colorado Avalanche organization last season, suiting up in seven NHL games, as well as 15 for the AHL's San Antonio Rampage.
theScore is previewing each team leading up to the 2016-17 season.
After delivering fans in Winnipeg postseason hockey for the first time in almost two decades, the Jets fell short of adjusted expectation last season, quickly falling out of the race in the perpetually ultra-competitive Central Division.
With lessons learned and a new lease on life, along with second overall pick Patrik Laine leading a whack of quality prospects who've inched closer to contributing, there's plenty of reasons for optimism.
And yet that division remains.
Here are three questions facing the Jets:
Who breaks out?
For good reason, all eyes will be on Laine when the season begins. This is the magnetic, pure, lethal goal-scorer Winnipeg has been without in its most recent history - except this team isn't limited to its big-ticket draft night addition when it comes to assessing breakout candidates.
Well-established, but not yet in the upper echelon of NHL stars, Mark Scheifele created offense at an astounding rate over the final eight weeks of last season. He scored 17 times and contributed a league-best 29 primary points over that span, showing every sign that he's capable of being a dominant No. 1 center in the NHL.
There's also Nikolaj Ehlers. On a line with Scheifele and Blake Wheeler late in the year, the dynamic attacking talents that made him the ninth overall pick began translating before an eye injury stalled his momentum. And along with Laine, we're expected to see the rookie season of Kyle Connor, the Hobey Baker runner-up who led the nation in scoring in his dominant final season at Michigan.
The Jets are loaded with fresh faces primed to make an impact, a luxury that's become paramount in the NHL.
Trouba: Will someone flinch?
Leverage may be on the Jets' side in their standoff with a 22-year-old defender with four more seasons of organizational control. But make no mistake: Jacob Trouba's conviction that his development is being curtailed because of his affiliation is an enormous blow to the Jets.
While his request is borne out of the fact that right-shot defense is a clear position of strength, without him, Winnipeg is rendered dangerously thin on the backline, and a team with an enduring inability to stay out of the box would be without its minutes-eater on the kill.
If the two sides remain at an impasse, the Jets are seriously undermining their ability to contend for a postseason spot, in the same way Trouba's risking his own career trajectory. And if they appease his request - and the return is anything short of a direct comparable in terms of contract, control, position, and ability - then the Jets risk squandering one of their more valuable assets in a league that tends to punish such mistakes.
Who's in net?
The biggest question emanating from the actual happenings at Jets camp is centered around a cluttered crease. Ondrej Pavelec, Michael Hutchinson, and Connor Hellebuyck all had turns shouldering the load last season, and each made cases to return in that capacity with encouraging performances in camp.
The veteran Pavelec is entering the final season of his current deal, valued at $3.9 million. He's likely not part of the future, and, statistically, he's been a subpar starter throughout his career with the Jets. At the same time, his peak late in the 2015 season was the driving force behind this team's lone playoff appearance.
Hutchinson's destined for the backup role; this is defined by the two-year, $2-million extension he signed over the summer. While that transaction cleared up his situation, it introduced more uncertainty for Hellebuyck, who posted the best numbers among Jets goalies last season.
Hellebuyck remains on a two-way deal, so the goaltender with options - who many consider the best option - figures to start in the minors for at least one more season barring a trade, an injury, or the rare decision to roll with three goaltenders.
