The Carolina Hurricanes have signed 2017 first-round pick Martin Necas to a three-year, entry-level contract, the team announced Friday.

The Hurricanes selected Necas with the 12th overall pick in this year's draft.

The center appeared in 41 games last season with Kometa Brno of the Czech Extraliga, netting seven goals and eight assists.

Necas also skated in five games with the Czech Republic at the world juniors, where he recorded a goal and two assists.

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Nice touch.

Upon officially introducing Rich Tocchet as head coach Thursday, Arizona Coyotes general manager John Chayka presented the former player with his own jersey from his on-ice tenure with the team.

Tocchet appeared in 213 games for the Coyotes from 1997-99, and equipment manager Stan Wilson kept his jersey around all these years.

One can't help but wonder what other treasures Wilson has hidden inside Gila River Arena.

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The Calgary Flames have signed forward Curtis Lazar to a two-year extension worth $950,000 per season, the team announced Friday.

The Flames acquired Lazar from the Ottawa Senators at last year's trade deadline, parting with defenseman Jyrki Jokipakka and a second-round pick in this summer's draft.

Lazar was a first-round pick by the Senators in 2013, but struggled to gain footing with the organization. He appeared in 33 games with Ottawa last season, tallying a single point. Following his trade to the Flames, Lazar notched a goal and two assists in four games.

Lazar won the Memorial Cup with the Edmonton Oil Kings in 2014, and a year later, was a part of Team Canada's gold-medal squad at the world juniors.

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Nikita Gusev won't be suiting up in the NHL anytime soon, as the 25-year-old winger re-signed with SKA St. Petersburg of the KHL on Friday, according to the club.

Gusev's NHL rights are owned by the Vegas Golden Knights, but, following the new two-year pact, it appears as though Gusev is at least a year or two away from hitting the Strip.

In 57 regular-season games for SKA last season, the former seventh-round pick of the Tampa Bay Lightning tallied 24 goals while adding 47 assists - good enough for fourth in league scoring.

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Phil Kessel knows a thing or two about what it's like to play in the intense hockey market that is Toronto.

So when the former Maple Leaf and current Penguin returned to the Big Smoke for his offseason workouts with fellow Leaf alum Gary Roberts, Kessel was quick to offer advice to a much-improved Toronto club that will face much higher expectations next season.

"It's always tougher the second year. There's a little more pressure," Kessel told TSN.ca this week. "They got good players there and you never know what happens, but, tough league ...

"Every year is different. You never know who's going to make the playoffs - even the best teams might miss the playoffs."

The Maple Leafs experienced a complete 180 over the past two seasons. After finishing dead last in 2016, they made the playoffs a year later and took the Presidents' Trophy-winning Washington Capitals to six games - five of which were decided by sudden-death overtime.

With success comes the pressure to sustain it. Maple Leafs fans are aware of their talented young squad's potential, and expectations in Toronto are higher than they've been since Doug Gilmour rocked the "C." But opposing NHL clubs have taken notice too.

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If you're not 10 years old or into seeing celebrities covered in slime, you probably didn't realize the Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Sports Awards were taped on Thursday night. Don't worry, you didn't miss it; the events are being broadcast on July 16.

Reigning NBA MVP Russell Westbrook was in attendance to (spoiler alert) pick up his award for "Clutch Player of the Year," but more importantly, the Long Beach, Calif., native donned an awesome Mighty Ducks of Anaheim throwback jersey, fittingly customized with his nickname, "The Brodie."

Russ' sartorial gesture has created more questions than answers. What are his thoughts on "The Flying V?" If he's the alternate captain, who has the captain's C on their chest? Was he covered in green slime right after these photos were taken?

We may have to tune in Sunday to find out.

Copyright © 2017 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

If you're not 10 years old or into seeing celebrities covered in slime, you probably didn't realize the Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Sports Awards were taped on Thursday night. Don't worry, you didn't miss it; the events are being broadcast on July 16.

Reigning NBA MVP Russell Westbrook was in attendance to (spoiler alert) pick up his award for "Clutch Player of the Year," but more importantly, the Long Beach, Calif., native donned an awesome Mighty Ducks of Anaheim throwback jersey, fittingly customized with his nickname, "The Brodie."

Russ' sartorial gesture has created more questions than answers. What are his thoughts on "The Flying V?" If he's the alternate captain, who has the captain's C on their chest? Was he covered in green slime right after these photos were taken?

We may have to tune in Sunday to find out.

Copyright © 2017 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

The Nashville Predators will celebrate their 20th anniversary with a fancy new commemorative logo.

"The logo, featuring the eye of the Preds' saber-toothed tiger representing the '0' in 20 years, will be used in a variety of ways to celebrate and commemorate the 2017-18 season," the team announced.

The logo will likely be featured on the shoulder of both the home and away jerseys next season.

The Predators joined the NHL as an expansion team in the 1998-99 season.

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Rick Tocchet has been head coach of the Arizona Coyotes for less than 72 hours, but he knows from personal experience just how badly their fans want a winning club.

So when Tocchet addressed the media Thursday for the first time as the Desert Dogs' bench boss, he said Arizona - which isn't generally considered a hockey town - is willing and ready to support its team.

Related: 3 takeaways from the Coyotes' introductory press conference

"This is an underrated hockey market," Tocchet said, according to Jerry Brown of NHL.com. "I've seen a lot of old friends from when I used to live here and they are starving for a winner. Then you take the commitment by the new front office and ownership to a new start … you mix all that in together and it was an easy choice for me to come back."

Tocchet will be counted on to revive a Coyotes club that's missed the playoffs for five consecutive seasons, and 11 out of the last 14. Unsurprisingly, Arizona's attendance has also been poor, consistently ranking among the bottom three teams in the NHL.

Support was significantly higher during Tocchet's playing days in the desert - Arizona averaged over 15,000 fans per game from 1997-2000 - something the 53-year-old remembers fondly.

"We had a good, smart, competitive team that played a fast style and that's what this fan base wants," Tocchet said. "We had offensive players with skill and the fans really connected. When we played downtown (at America West Arena) and the building was electric, we had a good advantage."

If Tocchet can manage to turn around the Coyotes, perhaps Arizona fans will connect with them all over again.

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Jim Rutherford is tapping the brakes on any trade speculation surrounding Phil Kessel.

The seeds of that conjecture were planted by local columnists in recent days, most notably Ron Cook of the Post-Gazette. Cook suggested the Penguins could look to ship Kessel out of town in light of the departure of Rick Tocchet, with whom the winger had a close relationship.

But in an interview on 93.7 The Fan on Thursday, the Penguins general manager affirmed Kessel's significance to a team coming off back-to-back Stanley Cup wins.

"Phil Kessel's an important part of the Penguins," Rutherford said, according to Jonathan Bombulie of TribLive. "He gets a lot of points. He scores big goals. He sets up big goals. The more impact players that you have, like we have, the better chance you have of winning. ...

"I don't want to sit here and say that a certain player's not going to get traded at some point in his career. I mean, Phil already did. But that's not something that I foresee happening right now."

Rutherford did qualify his assessment of Kessel by pointing to an apparent lack of consistency.

"It may not be on a regular basis, but it may come at a certain time in a series or whatnot, just like it did against Ottawa," Rutherford said. "Kessel came up with the big goal in that 1-0 game (in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference finals)."

In two seasons since being acquired from the Toronto Maple Leafs, Kessel has averaged 0.79 points per game during the regular season, and contributed 18 goals and 27 assists in 49 postseason appearances. Those 45 playoff points put him one behind both Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin over the same span.

According to Cap Friendly, Kessel has five years remaining on a contract that carries an $8-million annual salary cap hit, $1.2 million of which was retained by the Maple Leafs. His deal also contains a modified no-trade and no-movement clauses that allows him to submit a list of eight teams he'd move to should he agree to be traded.

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