The NHL has postponed three key offseason events, with the draft, scouting combine, and awards show pushed back due to coronavirus concerns, the league announced Wednesday.

The 2020 draft was slated for June 26-27 in Montreal, with Quebec native Alexis Lafreniere the projected top pick.

The scouting combine was to take place June 1-6 in Buffalo, and Las Vegas was set to host the annual awards show for the 11th consecutive year on June 18.

New dates for the events are yet to be determined, but the release states "the location, timing, and format of the 2020 NHL Draft (and draft lottery) will be announced when details are finalized."

The NHL shut down all operations on March 12, and the league is still in the process of determining its next steps.

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Hockey manufacturer Bauer is pivoting from on-ice equipment to producing face shields for medical workers during the COVID-19 crisis.

Bauer hopes to ship out the shields to hospitals throughout Canada as early as next week, CEO Ed Kinnaly told ESPN's Emily Kaplan. By Wednesday morning, Bauer's facility in Quebec had taken orders for 100,000 units, and the company is looking to expand sales to the United States as well.

"In the U.S., honestly, the word is not out yet," Kinnaly said. "We've been doing outreach to various medical entities."

"We're also going to use our social channels to basically let the medical community know that we have the ability to produce these," he added.

The project is helping Bauer keep a portion of its workers employed during the pandemic. The face shields will be shipped on a first-come, first-served basis.

"Frankly I wish we could do more," Kinnaly said. "Any way we can help, we're going to try."

Bauer is one of the most popular hockey manufacturers in the world. The company's list of sponsored NHL players includes Patrick Kane, Jack Eichel, Henrik Lundqvist, and Nikita Kucherov.

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On Dec. 10, David Pastrnak was atop the NHL leaderboard with 25 goals. He was on an unfathomable scoring pace and appeared untouchable in the Rocket Richard race.

Of course, that pace was unsustainable. We dove into the reasons why he wasn't worth backing at the time at 5-2, and who was most likely to catch him.

Let's take a look at how we did.

David Pastrnak (5-2)

At the time, Pastrnak had 12 power-play goals thanks to a 34.2% shooting percentage with the man advantage, which was double his 18% average from the previous three seasons. He was also aided by an unsustainable 16.7% shooting percentage at five-on-five. We noted that "it's too much to expect him to continue this rate of production," and that the likely regression would open the door for those chasing him.

Pastrnak's pace predictably slowed. After scoring 25 goals through his first 27 games, he managed 23 tallies over the next 43 contests. When the season was suspended, his five-on-five shooting percentage had dropped to 13.8%, and his power-play shooting percentage experienced an even bigger dip, dropping to 25.3%. The lead he had built on Alex Ovechkin had evaporated, while Auston Matthews had pulled to within one.

Connor McDavid (7-2)

McDavid missed seven games due to injury, effectively knocking him out of the Rocket Richard race. Of course, that's somewhat of a cop-out, as his scoring rates also decreased.

The biggest culprit to McDavid's decreasing goal rate was a downtick in power-play production. He had eight power-play goals through the first 25 games, one shy of his career best of nine. When the season was officially suspended, McDavid was sitting at 11 goals with the man advantage, having managed just three through his next 39 games. That's not going to cut it.

Alex Ovechkin (7-2)

On Dec. 10, Ovechkin was Pastrnak's closest competitor with 21 goals to the Boston Bruins sniper's 25. It didn't take a genius to predict Ovechkin would be near, or at, the top of the NHL goal leaderboard at the end of the season, with the Washington Capitals captain having won the award in six of the past seven seasons.

Ovi was on pace for 54 goals and, as we pointed out, just about all of his underlying numbers were on par with his career averages, with the exception of his five-on-five shooting percentage, which was a bit lower than his average from the previous three seasons. We concluded that it was realistic to expect his scoring pace to continue and for him to finish right around 54 goals, if not a tad higher, should his shooting percentage experience some positive regression.

Ovechkin was on pace for 57 goals when the season was suspended.

Auston Matthews (7-1)

When we checked in on the race in December, Matthews was trailing Pastrnak by seven goals, but we really liked his value at 7-1.

As per his team's direction, Matthews was shooting a lot more on the power play, but his shooting percentage with the man advantage was 3% below his career average of 18.4%. We noted that with some positive regression in that area, the Toronto Maple Leafs sniper could be in for a monster second half of the season, and given the Leafs' uptick in power-play production under Sheldon Keefe, it was likely to happen.

While Matthews' power-play production remained the same over the next three months - recording five power-play goals through the first 31 games and six through the next 39 - his five-on-five production catapulted to lofty heights. His even-strength goals per game jumped from 0.42 to 0.59 as he closed the gap on Pastrnak, but he didn't do so with an elevated shooting percentage. He simply shot the puck more. His 214 shots (3.1 per game) were a lot more than the 2.8 and 2.5 per game he managed in his previous two seasons.

Let that be a lesson to all the kids out there. Shoot the puck and good things will happen.

Alex Moretto is a sports betting writer for theScore. A journalism graduate from Guelph-Humber University, he has worked in sports media for over a decade. He will bet on anything from the Super Bowl to amateur soccer, is too impatient for futures, and will never trust a kicker. Find him on Twitter @alexjmoretto.

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Delaware North, the company that owns and operates Boston's TD Garden, will be laying off several dozen full-time Bruins and arena employees and indefinitely reducing the pay of many others, the organization announced Wednesday.

Effective April 1, 68 full-time salaried associates will be placed on temporary leave with one week of paid leave and eight weeks of full benefits coverage. As of the same date, 82 other full-time salaried associates will receive indefinite salary reductions.

The changes are due to the "unprecedented impact" of the coronavirus pandemic on the organization's operations, Deleware North said in a statement.

"As relayed to our associates today, none of these decisions were reached without difficult and painful deliberations," read the company's statement. "These measures are intended to be temporary with associate employment and compensation returning once our business resumes to its normal state from this unprecedented stoppage."

The Bruins were the last NHL team to announce a plan to compensate their arena workers with the rest of the 2019-20 season in limbo.

The owners of the New Jersey Devils announced Monday they were planning to ask full-time employees to accept pay reductions and work four-day weeks. They backtracked and apologized Tuesday, scrapping the idea in the wake of public backlash.

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With the NHL throwing around myriad options regarding a return to action this season, teams are starting to get really creative.

At least one NHL club has submitted a proposal featuring a tournament in which lottery teams would play for the first overall pick of the draft, according to The Athletic's Craig Custance.

The idea may seem radical, and arguably unfair to teams like the Detroit Red Wings, Ottawa Senators, and other bottom-dwelling clubs. But Custance suggests the tournament could work if its format left room to increase those teams' odds of winning.

"Without knowing the exact details of the proposal, there would have to be some assurances for the teams at the bottom of the standings that their odds of winning a lottery tournament resemble their odds of winning the lottery drawing now," Custance wrote.

"That would mean home games for Ottawa and Detroit, with a fairly easy path to the championship. And likewise, a bubble team would have to go on an all-time run of games to win the lottery."

The proposal could allow all teams to continue playing if the season were to resume, rather than limiting the action to teams that entered the hiatus in playoff spots, Custance notes. It could also prompt fans to tune back in were it to take place over the summer months.

"Radical times call for radical measures," one NHL source told Custance.

With the NHL on an indefinite hiatus and the status of the 2019-20 season uncertain, commissioner Gary Bettman has confirmed all options are being considered.

"In terms of where we go from here, we're modeling all sorts of options and everything is on the table," Bettman said, according to The Hockey News. "But we're going to have to be flexible and react to things that are beyond our control."

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As self-isolation and social distancing continue, San Jose Sharks forward Logan Couture is looking for a new way to engage with fans.

The Sharks captain is starting a book club.

"I know everyone wishes we were playing hockey, but right now we need to take the necessary precautions to stay safe and healthy," Couture wrote. "With this added free time on my hands, I often find myself getting lost in a good book. I'm really into psychological and legal thrillers, as well as murder-mysteries."

The first book Couture will be reading is "The Rule of Law" by John Lescroart. The 18th book of Lescroart's Dismas Hardy series, it follows an attorney who has to defend his assistant, who is being charged as an accessory to murder.

"If this sounds interesting to you, I encourage you to read along. Once I finish the book, I'll be back to give you my official book review," Couture wrote. He'll also share a list of some of his favorite books.

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Brendan Gallagher is showing off his comedic chops while self-isolating at home with the NHL season on pause.

The Montreal Canadiens forward recreated a famous scene from the television series "Brooklyn Nine-Nine" in his first TikTok video.

Well done, Gally. Here is the original scene for those unfamiliar with the show:

The 27-year-old winger contributed 43 points while sharing the team lead in goals (22) through 59 games before the season was suspended on March 12.

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The KHL has canceled the remainder of the Gagarin Cup playoffs due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the league announced Wednesday.

The outbreak forced a pause after the first round when two of the eight remaining teams, Finland's Jokerit Helsinki and Kazakhstan-based Barys Nur-Sultan, withdrew due to travel restrictions.

The KHL originally announced it would take a week's pause to re-format the second round for the six remaining teams before deciding to suspend the playoffs until April 10.

It's not the first hockey league to completely forgo its playoffs. The CHL announced Monday that it has canceled all of its leagues' playoffs and the Memorial Cup.

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