The team's longtime captain disclosed he left his front-office job with the club "to be a stay-at-home dad for awhile," according to Ken Warren of the Ottawa Sun.
He'll remain in the Ottawa area, but with a focus on becoming more involved in the lives of his four sons, specifically helping coach them in the game in which he made his name. Alfredsson added he's looking to renew a sense of stability after uprooting the family for his brief tenure with the Detroit Red Wings prior to retirement.
"We just bought a house and (there) is school and sports," he said. "We're not going anywhere for a lot of years, if ever."
However, he's not closing the door on working at the NHL level again in the future.
"Who knows? If that opportunity would come back again, I would look at it very hard," he said. "It's what I know best. It's what I love, as well. I can see that in the future at some point. But when, I don't know."
Over the past two seasons, Alfredsson worked closely with former general manager Bryan Murray, current GM Pierre Dorion, and assistant GM Randy Lee, learning the ins and outs of hockey operations.
Alfredsson's No. 11 was retired by the Senators on Dec. 29, 2016.
Will Butcher is taking his time choosing his first NHL team.
The free-agent defenseman will trim a list 12 interested teams to three or four, and plans on personally visiting the finalists, according to Kevin Allen of USA Today.
The decision-making process could therefore take another week or so, Allen adds.
The reigning Hobey Baker Award winner as college hockey's top men's player chose not to sign his entry-level deal with the Colorado Avalanche, who drafted him 123rd overall in 2013. He became an unrestricted free agent on Aug. 16.
To the surprise of many, Ryan Reaves was at the center of one of the most talked about trades at the 2017 NHL Draft.
The 30-year-old tough guy was traded by the St. Louis Blues - along with a 2017 second-round pick - for a 2017 first-round pick (No. 31, used to select forward Klim Kostin) and forward Oskar Sundqvist on June 23.
Reaves initially didn't believe reports suggesting he was being traded for a first-round pick, thinking "obviously that's a bunch of garbage." But now that reality has set it, he's obviously a proud Penguin.
"I'm obviously very honored and humbled that a team that good and that's won the last two years wanted me on their team and traded for me," Reaves told Lou Korac of NHL.com. "I'm excited to do whatever they need me to do to help them win a third one.
"Sometimes you look at trades and sometimes it's dumping salary, sometimes it's just getting rid of a player. I think the feeling was however I can go in there and help, they wanted me that they traded for me. I don't think this is a getting-rid-of-me kind of move. It's something they thought they needed in their lineup and I'm excited to bring it."
Reaves had been with St. Louis since being selected in the fifth round of the 2005 draft. He racked up 695 penalty minutes in 419 games with the Blues, along with 27 goals and 24 assists.
The thought of a more potent offensive attack makes Tyler Seguin a happy man.
Seguin was one of few bright spots in a lost season for the Dallas Stars in 2016-17, recording 72 points in 82 games. However, the Stars made it their mission to improve this summer, and on paper, they did.
First, Dallas replaced Lindy Ruff with Ken Hitchcock at the head coach position, and then improved player personnel in all areas of the ice by bringing in goaltender Ben Bishop, defenseman Marc Methot, and forwards Martin Hanzal and Alexander Radulov.
Based on roster improvements, the Stars' outlook for next season is undoubtedly promising, and it was the signing of Radulov that put Seguin's excitement over the top.
"I was really happy to get a goalie and when we got Hanzal, I thought to myself, that's the forward we probably need and that's going to be huge, but when we topped it off with Radulov, it got me a little giddy. I was definitely excited to see that," Seguin told Dave McCarthy of NHL.com.
Radulov bagged 54 points with the Montreal Canadiens in his return to the NHL last season, and Seguin is hoping to have the hulking power forward playing on his wing going forward.
"Obviously with him playing in the Eastern Conference, you don't see him too much. I'll be honest, I've looked at some YouTube clips and stuff and I can see how good a player he is," Seguin said. "He's so good on the puck, he's a good playmaker, and he's a guy who always has good puck possession numbers. You can see he controls the play so I'm looking forward to that."
Fans of offense will surely look forward to that as well, but the rest of the Western Conference may reserve their excitement.
The Florida Panthers goaltender is back on the ice preparing for a new season after missing the final six weeks of 2016-17 due to lingering hip issues, and is expected to be a full participant in training camp.
The nagging injury stemmed from hip surgery in May of 2016, and Luongo partially blames the complications on not being as diligent in his off-ice physical therapy as he needed to be, according to George Richards of the Miami Herald.
It's a misstep the 38-year-old doesn't plan on repeating.
"I'm going to come in earlier than everyone else every day," Luongo said.
"I have to stay on top of this, manage it," he continued. "It's going to be important for me to stay on top of it and sometimes last year, I was feeling and good and wasn't on top of things as much as I should have been. That was a mistake on my part. After what I went through last year, I know I have to stay strong do the exercises to make sure the muscles around (the hip) are strong."
Luongo further acknowledges the need to listen to his body, especially at this stage in his career.
"Last year those muscles started to weaken and everything started to tighten up. I want to make sure that doesn't happen again. I have to remember I'm not 25 anymore. Once I started feeling better, I thought I was good to go. I've never had an operation like that before. I acted like nothing was ever wrong. Again, a mistake."
Luongo appeared in 40 games for the Panthers last season, posting a record of 17-15-6 with a .915 save percentage, numbers well off his capabilities, even at this stage in his career.
James Reimer remains in the mix as a capable backup able to carry the load if and when need be, but for the Panthers to return to the postseason after missing in 2017, they'll need Luongo to be at the top of his game.
This newfound commitment to taking care of himself should go a long way toward that end.
The New York Rangers could potentially add another Harvard product to their roster this offseason, as the Blueshirts are one of the final teams that college free agent Alex Kerfoot is considering signing with, reports Larry Brooks of the New York Post.
Last summer, the Rangers dipped into Harvard's hockey program and nabbed winger Jimmy Vesey, who recorded 27 points in his rookie campaign on Broadway.
Kerfoot, a Hobey Baker nominee as a senior last season, recorded a team-high 45 points in 36 games. The 23-year-old center was originally drafted by the New Jersey Devils in the fifth round of the 2012 draft, but officially became a free agent earlier this month.
The Rangers are well-suited to pursue the young pivot, as the club's center depth took a hit upon dealing Derek Stepan to the Arizona Coyotes in June. New York later signed David Desharnais to help fill the void down the middle, and Kerfoot could prove to be another cheap, low-risk option for general manager Jeff Gorton.
Beauchemin, 37, could reportedly earn an additional $500,000 in performance bonuses.
The veteran blue-liner was originally acquired by the Ducks in the 2005-06 season as a part of a midseason trade with the Columbus Blue Jackets. He won a Stanley Cup with Anaheim in 2007 before signing in Toronto as a free agent in 2009. His tenure in Toronto was short-lived, as he returned to Anaheim in 2010-11 and spent the last two seasons in Colorado.
Joining one of the league's deepest blue lines, Beauchemin will likely find himself in a dog fight for playing time this season. Here is how the Ducks' defense projects:
Pairing
LD
RD
1
Cam Fowler
Sami Vatanen
2
Hampus Lindholm
Josh Manson
3
Branton Montour
Kevin Bieksa
Extas
Beauchemin
Korbinian Holzer
Beauchemin recorded 18 points in 81 games with the Avalanche last season.
Monday's total solar eclipse is a big deal. Unless you're going city to city chasing these things down, chances are you will only see the moon completely cover the sun once in your lifetime - if at all.
Hockey has it's own versions of total solar eclipses. If you've witnessed the following five things, consider yourself lucky, as there's a very good chance you'll never see them again.
Wayne Gretzky
There will never be another Wayne Gretzky. Not just because of how skilled a player he was, or because so many of his records won't ever be touched, but no player will ever transcend the game the way The Great One did. Gretzky helped grow the game worldwide, but perhaps made his biggest impact in Los Angeles and the southern United States.
A player as big, dominant as Zdeno Chara
You might think the 6-foot-9 Zdeno Chara - the tallest player in NHL history - is on this list because he's actually big enough to block the sun and create his own Zdeno Eclipse, but no. Will there ever be a player as tall as Big Z? Maybe. Will there be players more dominant? Certainly. But it's difficult to envision a player ever matching his combination of size and influence.
Any 6-foot-9 players that come into the league will be hard-pressed to match Chara's skating ability - obviously crucial in today's NHL - for such a large human being.
The 40-year-old has been remarkably durable throughout his 19-year career, while big men across all sports often find their bodies breaking down at a much younger age. He has logged 1,350 regular-season games and 147 playoff contests. He has done so with style, too, winning the Norris Trophy as the league's top D-man in 2008-09 and captaining the Bruins to a Stanley Cup in 2011.
Teams averaging 4 goals per game
In the 1981-82 season, teams averaged 4.01 goals per game - the sixth-highest total of all time. Much of the '80s was the same way. Many fans claim '80s hockey was the NHL at it's peak, and there is zero chance hockey will ever be this high-scoring again.
No matter what the NHL does in the future in an effort to increase scoring, whether they make goalie equipment even smaller or make the nets bigger, the game is far too structured, goalies are too good, and there is too much player-wide parity across the league for games to become river hockey. Even if they went to 4-on-4 full time, coaches would figure out how to defend it.
2 rookies recording 100 points in same season
In the 2005-06 season, an 18-year-old Sidney Crosby tallied 102 points, not be outdone by a 20-year-old Alex Ovechkin, who recorded 106 points and took home the Calder Trophy.
Since then, no rookie has reached the century mark in a campaign. The likelihood of two rookies doing so again is virtually nil. Not only are Crosby and Ovechkin generational talents, but their point totals were aided by the high-scoring first season in the post-lockout era. All the new rules led to a league-record 5.85 power-play opportunities per game by team.
The rookie class of 2016-17 is regarded as one of the best ever, and not a single player even sniffed 100 points.
A player racking up 300 PIMs in 1 season
As recently as the early 2000s, it was routine for a player to register 300 PIMs in a season. The most recent member of the 300-PIM club was Zenon Konopka back in 2010-11. He will undoubtedly be the last.
Enforcers are few and far between in today's NHL. Teams value players with skill on their fourth lines. Once every player is wearing a visor, it will be difficult to imagine a player recording 200 PIMs, let alone 300.
In an effort to add some depth on their back end, the Florida Panthers will have veteran KHL defenseman Nikolai Belov at their upcoming training camp on a tryout basis, according to George Richards of the Miami Herald.
Belov stands at 6-foot-3 and weighs 194 pounds. He's never played in the NHL - or any North American league - but has spent the last 10 seasons playing in the KHL.
The 30-year-old is coming off the best offensive season of his career with Chelyabinsk Traktor, as he recorded eight goals and 15 points in 59 games.
Florida's top six defensemen seem to be set in stone, but it's not beyond the realm of possibility that Belov cracks the opening-day roster as the team's seventh D-man.
