George McPhee got an important clarification from the NHL recently that should be noted by every general manager in the league.

Deputy commissioner Bill Daly told the Vegas Golden Knights GM that other teams will not be allowed to retain salary on players selected in the expansion draft, according to ESPN's Pierre LeBrun.

Salary retention on expansion-draft picks would've made it easier for McPhee to choose players with large or simply unfavorable contracts, but the Golden Knights can still explore that route in trades.

Once the franchise has made its final expansion payment, it could be given the go-ahead to begin making deals, according to LeBrun.

That's expected to happen around March 1 - coincidentally the trade deadline - which would give the Golden Knights a much earlier trade window than previous expansion clubs.

The expansion draft is scheduled to run June 18-20, and selections will be announced June 21.

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Columbus Blue Jackets captain Nick Foligno received an unexpected dousing during Thursday's game against the Colorado Avalanche.

Foligno's response?

He may have lost that battle with the bottle, but the Blue Jackets won the game, so balance was indeed restored.

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Joe Sakic is staying the course.

The Colorado Avalanche president and general manager isn't ready to give up on his team's core group - made up of Matt Duchene, Gabriel Landeskog, Nathan MacKinnon, Tyson Barrie, Erik Johnson, and Semyon Varlamov - and is laying responsibility for a last-place start on every last player on the roster.

"I have faith in them," Sakic said Thursday of the core group, per Terry Frei of the Denver Post. "But to me, the start is not a core thing; it’s a team thing. I think you see we’re trying to hold people accountable. We know we have certain guys who can give more, and those guys know they can give more.

"We’re not as consistent as we need to be. We didn’t win two straight Cups and have that leeway. We have to play with that urgency every night on a consistent basis to be successful."

Sakic added the players are still adjusting to the system being implemented by first-year head coach Jared Bednar, one that he fully endorses.

When asked if he was contemplating shaking up the roster, Sakic indicated it's not the time to consider such moves.

"It’s (still) early in the year," he said. "First of all, changes are hard to do, especially this time of year. We’re two games under .500, but a four-game swing and you’re two games over .500 and right back in it."

This statement was made prior to Thursday's loss to Columbus, dropping Colorado's to 9-12-1, keeping the Avalanche in a tie with Arizona for last place in the NHL.

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Cam Atkinson might need to see a replay to know what exactly he did to set up Boone Jenner's game-winning goal on Thursday.

The Columbus Blue Jackets forward made an insane behind-the-back pass to Jenner who tapped in his third goal of the season, which would hold up as the game-winner over the Avalanche.

With the win, the Blue Jackets now have 30 points in 22 games to start the year, the most through that stretch in franchise history.

(Video courtesy: NHL.com)

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From an elite point producer to one of the game's greatest two-way wingers, it's Marian Hossa's versatility that has him on a path to the Hall of Fame.

His latest transformation? Overtime specialist.

Collecting a pass from Patrick Kane on a slow-moving zone entry, Hossa cut to the middle and fired in another overtime winner, this time past a screened Cory Schneider.

Hossa, who scored the 500th goal of his career earlier this season, now has three of the club's five walk-off winners on the year.

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He makes it look so easy.

St. Louis Blues forward Vladimir Tarasenko scored his third hat trick of his career Thursday night, while adding an assist as the Blues skated to a 5-4 victory over the Tampa Bay Lightning.

For Tarasenko, the four-point outing was just the latest in a season that has seen the 24-year-old carry his club towards the top of the Western Conference standings thanks in part to three game-winning goals.

His four points push him up to third in league scoring behind some guy named Connor McDavid and the Lightning's Nikita Kucherov. However, what has made Tarasenko's season truly something to behold is his incredible consistency.

With Thursday's effort, Tarasenko has a point in 11 of his last 13 games and a total of 18 points during that span. In fact, he has gone pointless just seven times in 24 contests this season.

Considering his season thus far, it should come as no surprise that Tarasenko is well on his way to recording career highs in both goals and points.

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Useful repetitions.

After almost nine minutes of power-play opportunities went to waste in their loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs on Tuesday - in a game where they failed to score with the man advantage for the ninth time in 11 tries - specialty teams was a focus at practice for the Edmonton Oilers leading up to Thursday's clash with the Winnipeg Jets.

And whaddya know? Mark Letestu scored twice and Connor McDavid picked up a pair of assists under the condition, as the Oilers converted three of their four power-play opportunities to set the table for a 6-3 victory at MTS Centre.

Letestu, McDavid, Leon Draisaitl, and Milan Lucic was the forward group that produced all three goals, bumping the team's unit above the league average after their conversion rate sunk to 16 percent during their recent slump.

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It's no secret that Patrik Laine grew up idolising Washington Capitals forward Alex Ovechkin.

The Winnipeg Jets rookie was back doing what he does best Thursday night, firing rockets from the same spot a certain Capitals' forward has found success at over the years.

Not only is Laine scoring like Ovechkin, he is scoring at a pace nearly identical to his rookie season.

Laine hammered home is 14th and 15th goals of the season on one-time blasts, giving him four multi-goal games on the season, tied for the most with Pittsburgh Penguins forward Sidney Crosby.

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