The award is given out annually to the player "who exemplifies great leadership qualities to his team, on and off the ice, during the regular season."
Foligno is coming off his second-most productive season, tallying 26 goals and 51 points, while helping lead the Blue Jackets to the best finish in franchise history.
Away from the rink he and his wife committed $1 million to be shared between the Nationwide Children's Hospital and Boston Children's Hospital. He also continues to work with Papa John's pizza to raise money for the Janis Foligno Foundation.
Getzlaf led the Ducks in scoring for the fifth-straight season, helping the team capture the Atlantic Division. The 31-year-old continued his work with the Anaheim Ducks Learn to Play Program, with help from teammate Corey Perry.
Getzlaf also hosted the fifth annual CureDuchenne golf tournament in which he and his wife have now raised $1.675 million for Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy.
Giordano helped the Flames to their second playoff berth in three years. The 35-year-old continued his work with Team Giordano, which helps promote fitness and academics to students in high-need schools.
Henrik Lundqvist was a brick wall during the Rangers' first-round series against the Canadiens and has carried the strong play over to the second round against the Senators.
Sens right winger Mark Stone was alone in front with a yawning cage, but was unable to lift the puck over a diving Lundqvist.
Even at 35, Lundqvist is still one of the best goaltenders on the planet. He's searching for his first Stanley Cup ring and seems more determined than ever.
Some players in the NHL aren't selfish enough. They may be great playmakers, but sometimes they don't utilize their elite shots with enough frequency.
Sidney Crosby, for example, shot the puck more this year than in recent seasons, and it paid dividends, as he scored a league-high 44 goals.
The following players shouldn't necessarily change their total philosophy, but if they were willing to shoot the puck more, it would benefit them and their team.
Ryan Getzlaf, Ducks
Getzlaf averaged just 1.86 shots per game this season despite having an absolute bullet like this tucked away in his arsenal:
Everything about this shot was unreal. The release was quick, the accuracy was on point, and the velocity looked hard.
Getzlaf has just two 20-goal seasons since scoring 25 in 2008-09. That number would likely be much higher if he was willing to shoot at least 200 times a season.
Jason Spezza, Stars
Spezza is cut from the same mold as Getzlaf: big-bodied, right-handed shot, excellent passer, soft hands, and a very underrated shot:
Spezza is willing to shoot more frequently than Getzlaf, but Stars fans would probably love to see this slap shot put on display more often. Even from tough angles, he can he can beat goaltenders with this bomb.
Evgeni Malkin, Penguins
Is it a coincidence the one year Malkin won the Hart Trophy as the league's most valuable player was his only season ever recording 300 shots on goal? He scored a career-high 50 goals that year.
During that magical season in 2011-12, Malkin averaged 4.52 shots per game. Since then, he hasn't averaged more than 3.19 shots per game in a single season.
Malkin is an incredible player, but it wouldn't hurt to utilize this clapper coming down the wing more often.
Nicklas Backstrom, Capitals
It's hard to fault Backstrom for always looking for the pass, considering his linemate, Alex Ovechkin, might just have the best shot of all time.
Backstrom set a career-high with 33 goals and 68 assists back in 2009-10. Unsurprisingly, his 222 shots were also a career high.
If Backstrom were to display this wicked wrister at least 2.5 times per game, it would make him a much more dangerous player, and might even open up more space for Ovechkin to shoot the puck.
The Colorado Avalanche's season was pathetic enough, but their social media staff is only making it worse.
Losing 60 games, finishing dead last with 48 points in the standings, and posting the worst record of the salary-cap era aren't exactly accomplishments worth bragging about, so the team's Twitter account has instead been touting other "achievements."
Rather than focusing on how disappointing Matt Duchene's season was (he posted his worst goal and point totals in a non-lockout campaign since 2011-12) the Avalanche went with something a little more positive.
Both teams have areas of their rosters to address, and oddsmakers have already begun crunching the numbers on the likelihood of certain transactions.
Here are Thursday's odds for how each team will deal with certain pending free agents and possible acquisitions, as well as how they'll fare next season.
Will the Canadiens acquire Ilya Kovalchuk before Game 1 of the 2017-18 NHL season?
Yes +400 (4-1)
No -700 (1-7)
Will the Canadiens re-sign Alexander Radulov?
Yes +110 (11-10)
No -150 (2-3)
Will the Maple Leafs re-sign Brian Boyle?
Yes +250 (5-2)
No -400 (1-4)
Who will have more regular season points in the 2017-18 season?
When Canadian athletes are working south of the 49th parallel, they always seem to find each other.
Toronto Blue Jays catcher Russell Martin, who grew up in Montreal, knew exactly where to look in Busch Stadium after hitting a solo home run off St. Louis Cardinals starter Carlos Martinez on Thursday afternoon. Upon returning to the dugout, Martin found one of his biggest fans - Nashville Predators defenseman P.K. Subban, a Toronto native and noted Blue Jays supporter - sitting nearby. When he heard Subban's cheers, Martin stepped out and gave his hockey-playing friend a personal mid-game curtain call.
Subban was cheering on his favorite baseball team a day after several Blue Jays, including Martin, used Wednesday's rainout to hop over to the Scottrade Center and watch the Preds take a 1-0 series lead on the Blues in their Western Conference semifinal.
Selected 11th overall in 2014, the 20-year-old winger had been brought along slowly by the Predators, and was just now starting to live up to the potential seen in him on draft day.
"(Fiala's) gone through a process where he finally had some stick and was a guy that we were counting on," head coach Peter Laviolette said Thursday, per Robby Stanley of NHL.com. "He was now on a power play, he was now in the top-six mix, he was now taking down 16 or 17 minutes a night and he's earned that. He's worked hard, he loves the game, works hard at it in practice."
"He wants to get better, and it was getting to a point where he really was a difference-maker with the puck on his stick, as you saw in that overtime goal in the first round," Laviolette said. "It was a really, really nice play and a patient play. It's unfortunate for an accident like that to happen on the ice."
It appears as though Colin Wilson, who scored in Game 1 against St. Louis, will take Fiala's place on a line with Mike Fisher and James Neal, at least to start.
Fiala, meanwhile, will begin rehabilitating the injury in hopes of being ready to pick up where he left off next season.
In what's being heavily billed as another chapter in the Alex Ovechkin-Sidney Crosby rivalry, Evgeni Malkin is more than happy to let his game do the talking.
The somewhat forgotten superstar led all players with 11 points in the opening round, but isn't averse to stepping out of the off-ice spotlight in lieu of No. 8 and No. 87. When the puck drops on a second-round series between the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Washington Capitals, however, it's a different story.
"I like to be quiet," Malkin said Wednesday, per Wes Crosby of NHL.com. "I just try not to be quiet on the ice.
"It's good for me. I try to be quiet. I just try to play. I read a lot about Sid and Ovi, you know? They started the same year. They played for the Calder Trophy. They're always the best two players in the (NHL), but I try to show my best game."
His best game, of course, ranks right up there with any player of this era, the Top 100 NHL players of all-time snub nothwithstanding.
Malkin has won two Stanley Cups, the Conn Smythe, Hart, Art Ross, and Calder trophies, and ranks second only to Crosby in terms of points per game among active players over the course of his career.
If the Penguins are to once again do away with the Capitals in the postseason, it'll be due in no small part to Malkin's quiet greatness.
The NHL's fifth-leading scorer with 85 points, Kucherov, 24 in June, is poised to become one of the game's best players, but he's apparently not too enamored with some of his mates. The first-time 40-goal scorer vented to a Russian newspaper after a lost season that some of his teammates "got their money and stopped working," relays the Tampa Bay Times' Joe Smith.
Hardly subtle.
The comments even extended to the organization, which according to Kucherov is not providing competition for positions on the team, so guys are apparently coasting.
"You can see it in their stats and way of play," he reportedly said.
The thing is, you can't - not in their stats, at least.
All this after the Jonathan Drouin drama last year. Never a dull moment in the Lightning dressing room.
(Photo courtesy: Action Images)
Name names
Here's a look at Kucherov's teammates who had at least 20 points this season, comparing their 2016-17 points-per-game averages to their career averages (which includes this past season):
Player (Position)
2016-17 GP
2016-17 PPG
Career PPG
Victor Hedman (D)
79
0.91
0.55
Drouin (F)
73
0.73
0.58
Ondrej Palat (F)
75
0.69
0.71
Tyler Johnson (F)
66
0.68
0.69
Brayden Point* (F)
68
0.59
0.59
Alex Killorn (F)
81
0.44
0.49
Valtteri Filppula** (F)
59
0.58
0.54
Vladislav Namestnikov (F)
74
0.38
0.39
Brian Boyle** (F)
54
0.41
0.27
Anton Stralman (D)
73
0.30
0.33
Steven Stamkos (F)
17
1.18
0.99
* Indicates rookie ** Indicates player traded at/before deadline
Some quick takeaways:
Hedman's career high in points before this season was 55 - he had 56 assists this year. He finished with 72 points - one more than Erik freakin' Karlsson - and is nominated for the Norris Trophy.
Drouin turned 22 in March. He's going to be a star.
Point's a rookie. You didn't hear about him because this season's freshman crop was insane.
Killorn's 19 goals were a career high. How dare he.
Even Filppula was producing. Heck, Boyle was going to challenge some career highs had he stayed in the south and not been traded to Toronto's fourth line.
Ask anyone: They'll gladly take another dip in Stralman's production if it means Hedman's a 70-point Norris contender.
Stamkos' line says it all. He played 17 games, and there's your issue.
Bad luck and poor 'tending
It was a frustrating season for Kucherov, and understandably so. It was an exasperating few months for everyone involved with the Lightning - they missed out on the playoffs by a point, finishing with only three fewer points than they had in 2015-16, when they were Eastern Conference finalists.
But Kucherov, he put the Lightning on his back down the stretch, almost willing Tampa Bay to the playoffs - he had a remarkable 12 goals and 22 points in 14 games in March. They came up short. That's hockey. That's life. And the truth is, injuries and poor goaltending were to blame.
If Stamkos played even half the season, the Lightning are in. If he played 10 more games. If he was able to play just one more game.
If Johnson played a few more games, if Boyle wasn't traded ... you can go on and on. But another and more obvious reality is that Tampa Bay didn't get the goaltending it needed to ensure a postseason berth.
(Photo courtesy: Getty Images)
The Lightning finished with a .910 save percentage, 16th in the league. Playoff teams that finished lower were St. Louis (.907), Calgary (.907), and Boston (.905), so, yeah, more frustration for Kucherov.
Problem is, Kucherov didn't call out his goalies. He made a point not to. He's apparently on record - again, in Russian - saying the following about his teammates up front:
"When we played together and I made a pass, they even were not expecting this. That's why this season was hard for me despite (my) good stats."
He wasn't passing the puck to Ben Bishop, who certainly had not been paid, set to hit unrestricted free agency July 1, and was traded at the deadline. And Kucherov wasn't passing the puck to Andrei Vasilevskiy, who finished with a .917 save percentage (decent, but not worth writing home about) in his first season as Tampa Bay's starter - after signing a three-year, $10.5-million contract extension. In other words, he was one of the guys who did get paid.
Numbers aren't everything ...
No one's arguing this is as simple as points-per-game averages, on an annual and career level. A heck of a lot more than that goes into what makes a hockey team successful. And the truth is, Tampa Bay has some work to do in its own end:
But this can't be what general manager Steve Yzerman wants to be dealing with ahead of a crucial offseason - arguably the most important in franchise history. Drouin, Johnson, Palat are restricted free agents July 1.
"I'm not going to make a big deal out of everything," Yzerman said about the reported comments, according to Smith. "Kucherov is a great player, been a great teammate. And we'll get things sorted out after the World Championships."
He's looking forward to it, no doubt.
Next time, Mr. Kucherov, help us out and name names. Or simply blame the hockey gods. That'll go over better in the room.
Washington Capitals blue-liner Karl Alzner is frustrated by an upper-body injury that has kept him out of the lineup since Game 3 versus the Toronto Maple Leafs, but admits it's a price he's willing to pay.
"I hate watching games. Ask (healthy scratch) Taylor Chorney," Alzner told Tom Gulitti of NHL.com. "We're just losing it up here. It's tough to be a spectator, but at the same time it doesn't really matter if we're winning games. I'd sit out the rest of the playoffs if we can win the Cup. That's fine with me."
The Capitals were even in their opening-round series with him in the lineup, splitting their first two contests against the Maple Leafs. Washington won three of the next four to eliminate the Maple Leafs, and now face the Pittsburgh Penguins in the second round.
Blue-liner Nate Schmidt has drawn into the lineup in the absence of Alzner, recording two points in four games.
The Capitals are aiming to win their first Stanley Cup in franchise history after earning their second straight Presidents' Trophy with a league-best 118 points.
