The Arizona Coyotes may be looking between the benches for their next general manager.
"An interesting name surfaced this week, Ron, and that's Pierre McGuire," Sportsnet's Chris Johnston reported while addressing host Ron MacLean on "Saturday Headlines."
"The longtime broadcaster working at NBC has had some conversations with the Coyotes about that opening," Johnston added.
"What's interesting here, to me, is that Steve Sullivan, who's holding the job on an interim basis, is taking calls right now ... I know he's getting a lot of interest in (goaltender) Darcy Kuemper ... so in the background of this GM search, (Sullivan) is also talking to some teams about trades."
McGuire has been a broadcaster since 1997, and with NBC since 2011. The 59-year-old previously held coaching, scouting, and executive roles with several clubs, including the Pittsburgh Penguins and Hartford Whalers.
Arizona also reportedly interviewed Penguins assistant GM Jason Karmanos for the Coyotes' GM job.
John Chayka, Arizona's previous GM, terminated his contract in late July, and the team accused him of "quitting" on the club as postseason play was beginning.
Motte exited the game briefly but eventually returned. Reaves received a five-minute major penalty and a game misconduct for the hit.
Reaves has played a vital role on the Golden Knights' fourth-line this postseason, collecting four assists and adding a league-leading 74 hits. He was also suspended once before in 2016 for boarding.
Vegas will take on the Dallas Stars in Game 1 of the Western Conference Final Sunday night at 8 p.m. ET.
Riikola, previously a pending restricted free agent, receives a slight salary increase compared to the $850,000 he's earning this season.
The 26-year-old has played his two NHL campaigns with Pittsburgh, serving primarily as a depth defender. He signed with the Penguins in May 2018 after suiting up for parts of six seasons in his native Finland.
Even after signing Riikola, Pittsburgh has nine remaining pending free agents, though only Conor Sheary, Patrick Marleau, and Justin Schultz are soon-to-be UFAs. Penguins general manager Jim Rutherford said earlier this week the team plans to "move on" from Schultz.
Goaltenders Tristan Jarry and Matt Murray are among the Pittsburgh players set to become RFAs, but Rutherford said in August that there's a "very, very good chance" he'll have to trade one of his netminders.
After spending over a month in the NHL's bubble, some players and staff will get the chance to reunite with family members ahead of the conference finals.
NHL commissioner Bill Daly announced the league is allowing Canadian family members to join the Edmonton bubble but is waiting on the Canadian government regarding the possibility of also allowing those who aren't citizens, according to The Associated Press' Stephen Whyno.
Family members will be free to join as long as they adhere to quarantine regulations. The two remaining Eastern Conference teams will travel from Toronto to Edmonton to play out the remainder of the playoffs.
The plan from the outset was to grant family members access ahead of the conference finals. Discussions have been ongoing for weeks, but the league has yet to hear back from the government about the additional exemptions.
Every year superstars deliver in the postseason to cement their status as clutch performers, while fourth-line grinders and backup goalies alike emerge from obscurity and make an impact when it matters most. And although the 2020 playoffs have been much different than year's past, unsung heroes are as relevant as ever.
With that in mind, here are some of the most surprising playoff performances thus far.
Joel Kiviranta, Stars
Dave Sandford / National Hockey League / Getty
Raise your hand if you had heard of Kiviranta before he single-handedly punched Dallas' ticket to the Western Conference Final on Friday. Don't feel bad if he was off your radar, as it's hard to keep tabs on a 24-year-old with only 11 games of NHL experience before he produced the performance of a lifetime.
Kiviranta recorded a hat trick versus the Avalanche in Game 7, with his third tally coming in overtime. He became the first rookie in NHL history to bag three goals in a Game 7, and Kiviranta was the first player to do notch a hatty in a winner-take-all game since Wayne Gretzky in 1992-93. Not bad for a player logging his third career playoff game.
Perhaps most impressively, Kiviranta accomplished his feat in just under 15 minutes of ice time, with all his goals coming at even strength. Talk about making the most out of an opportunity.
Thatcher Demko, Canucks
The Canucks were shut out three times in seven games while consistently being outplayed and outshot, but they were able to take the top-seeded Golden Knights to a Game 7 thanks to Demko's surprise breakout.
Vancouver's backup was thrust into action to start Game 5 after an injury to Jacob Markstrom, and he was nearly invincible for three contests. Demko earned two wins with his club trailing 3-1 in the series, which included making a whopping 48 saves during a Game 6 shutout.
His play in Game 7 alone was nearly enough to carry his team to the Western Conference Final, as Vegas scored a single goal - on the power play late in the third period - on 34 shots.
Mark Stone's message to Demko in the handshake line says it all:
Mark Stone’s reaction to Thatcher Demko is my reaction to everything in 2020. pic.twitter.com/zKdNWsCb3R
Kubalik set the tone in one of the biggest upsets of the playoffs with a breakout showing in Game 1 of the qualifying round versus the Edmonton Oilers. The Blackhawks' rookie sniper exploded for two goals and three assists in only 13 minutes, making his presence known in front of a national audience during his first postseason appearance.
Kubalik's production isn't a surprise, as he's a Calder Trophy finalist and 30-goal scorer. But bursting onto the playoff scene with five points against the heavily favored Oilers certainly wasn't anticipated.
Joonas Korpisalo, Blue Jackets
Mark Blinch / National Hockey League / Getty
After Korpisalo posted a .956 save percentage versus the Toronto Maple Leafs in the qualifiers, his success carrying over into the first round wasn't shocking. Still, an 85-save effort against the Tampa Bay Lightning in Game 1 is one of the most jaw-dropping performances in NHL history.
The Blue Jackets' puck-stopper set an NHL saves record during the five-overtime marathon, turning aside a remarkable 7.03 expected goals from Tampa Bay in all situations, according to Natural Stat Trick.
It ended in a loss, but the Herculean night from Korpisalo was the most impressive outing of the postseason to date, and easily the signature game of his career. It'll forever be difficult to fathom a goalie making 85 saves in a single contest, and Korpisalo's record could be untouchable for a long time.
Denis Gurianov, Stars
The Stars appear to have a knack for finding depth players who can step up in key moments.
Gurianov was the hero with a chance to eliminate the Calgary Flames in Game 6 of the first round, registering four goals and one assist in 13:27 of ice time. He did enjoy a 20-goal regular season in 2019-20, but for him to break out on a Dallas roster full of elite offensive talents was stunning, especially after the 23-year-old had only posted four multi-point NHL games previously.
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Round 2 comes to an end on Saturday, and it's a shame because it's been quite profitable for us - not to mention wildly entertaining.
Friday's games were outstanding, and we've got one more Game 7 to enjoy on Saturday before it's off to the conference finals.
New York Islanders (-125) @ Philadelphia Flyers (+105)
How did we get here?
Up 3-1 in the series and in complete control on the ice, the Islanders looked like a lock to meet the Tampa Bay Lightning in Round 3. Left for dead, the Flyers have resurrected their Stanley Cup hopes, but for how long?
Carter Hart has been immaculate for Philadelphia to help force Game 7, standing on his head in a pair of overtime wins. The Flyers were outshot 42-17 in regulation of Game 6; they were trailing 4-3 heading into the third period and were still outshot 14-4 over the final 20 minutes despite their playoff lives hanging in the balance.
Philadelphia has looked good during spells in this series, but the Islanders have ultimately been the much better team since the puck dropped in Game 1. They've controlled a much larger portion of the expected goal share and are fully deserving of a spot in the conference finals. I touted them to win this series before it began, and nothing I've seen through six games has me doubting that selection.
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.
The Vegas Golden Knights eliminated the Vancouver Canucks from the NHL playoffs on Friday night. Here are three takeaways from Vegas' 3-0 Game 7 win.
Demko's hot streak will live on
Hockey is amusingly illogical sometimes. Nothing made sense about Thatcher Demko turning rock solid in Game 5 and 6. The untested rookie backup came in cold to deny 90 of 91 shots against the league's most relentless offensive team. All Vancouver needed to complete the postseason's unlikeliest turnaround - to beat Vegas a third time in four nights - was for logic to remain suspended a few more hours.
Well, that happened, and the Golden Knights advancing nonetheless is almost the secondary story here. This week's breakout star in the Edmonton bubble turned aside the first 32 pucks he saw in Game 7, and he made 33 stops in total. Demko exits the playoffs with a .985 save percentage. Let's just say that wasn't expected from him.
Consider the route Demko took from Boston College, out of which Vancouver drafted him No. 36 overall in 2014, to the postgame handshake line at Rogers Place, where everyone from Mark Stone to Robin Lehner to Vegas coach Peter DeBoer greeted him with bulged eyeballs and a shake of the head. Demko had only appeared in 10 NHL games before 2019-20, and he was pedestrian this season as Jacob Markstrom's regular backup, logging a .905 save percentage and a minus-3.67 goals saved above average mark.
Andy Devlin / NHL / Getty Images
Prior to Game 5 against Vegas, Demko had played all of eight competitive minutes - the length of his mop-up appearance in the series opener - since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in March. But rust didn't faze him then, nor did fatigue on Friday on the latter half of a back-to-back. In Game 7, Demko stymied early Vegas pressure with glove, shoulder, and pad saves. He summoned a kick stop from his back and stoned Jonathan Marchessault and Nate Schmidt in close. He made 98 straight saves in all going back to Game 5, before Shea Theodore's late winner interrupted the streak.
Vegas absolutely swarmed Vancouver in Game 7. That they laid siege in the offensive zone - we'll get to the gory numbers shortly - enabled Demko to outshine the goalie who recorded three shutouts in the series. That's not to disparage Lehner, who vindicated DeBoer's confidence in him and surely made the save of his life with Brock Boeser bearing down. Demko's brilliance got Vancouver this far, and Lehner did what he had to do to ward off a collapse.
For more than a month now, zaniness has governed a good chunk of the action in the NHL bubble. Each conference's 12th-ranked team butted into the first round at the expense of Connor McDavid and Sidney Crosby. This will be remembered as the postseason that featured a five-overtime epic and three clubs squandering 3-1 series leads simultaneously. The Dallas Stars redeemed themselves earlier Friday after 24-year-old rookie Joel Kiviranta became the first player since Wayne Gretzky to net a Game 7 hat trick.
Demko's star turn was a belated subplot of this spirited playoff run. It came after the Minnesota Wild were ousted and the defending champion St. Louis Blues coolly dispatched, and it lasted just four days, a quirk of a compressed series. But it was yet another prime example of this tournament's prevailing weirdness. It will be remembered, and if Vancouver's Demko era starts in earnest next year - Markstrom is set to hit unrestricted free agency - memories of Sept. 1-4, 2020, will boost the confidence of everyone involved.
Vegas' dominance was laughable but not meaningful
Andy Devlin / NHL / Getty Images
Game 7 was decided when Theodore struck on the power play, rendering moot 42-plus minutes of goalless five-on-five action.
Per Natural Stat Trick, here are some stats of note from that principal phase of the game: Vegas attempted 60 shots to Vancouver's 20. The Golden Knights lapped the Canucks in scoring chances (28-12) and nearly quintupled them in high-danger opportunities (14-3). If not for a late Vancouver surge following Theodore's goal, the expected goal percentage differential - Vegas finished at 75.7% - would have wound up even further out of whack.
It's hard to overstate how lopsided the run of play was in Game 7 and across the two Vancouver victories that preceded it. Had the Canucks managed to score and win again despite this disparity, the result would have gone down in history as an inconceivably strange way for a favored team to flame out of the playoffs. It would have been on par with last season when Cody Eakin went to the box for cross-checking and the San Jose Sharks scored four goals on the ensuing power play, costing Vegas a Game 7.
For such a young franchise, the Golden Knights have already flirted with their fair share of playoff anguish. Even in victory, with passage to the Western Conference final booked, it has to gnaw at Vegas' stable of accomplished scorers that no degree of O-zone dominance unsettled Demko.
Obviously, it's better to slam the opponent in puck possession and scoring chances than the alternative, and the Golden Knights' propensity to inundate teams is what makes them so dangerous. They led the league in shot share in the regular season, which translated to a top-three finish in the conference and the opportunity to snag the No. 1 seed in the playoff round robin.
The Golden Knights' approach to driving offense - wearing down defenders in waves that don't abate - is designed to bear fruit over long stretches. Small samples are unpredictable, and that almost doomed them. For now, Vegas can be heartened that Demko's departing, and by the likelihood that Dallas' Anton Khudobin, a goalie with a far greater track record, won't come close to duplicating his astounding form.
Theodore deserved his spin in the spotlight
Andy Devlin / NHL / Getty Images
All four teams that reached Game 7s in the Western Conference bracket featured one of the sport's finest blue-liners. Calder Trophy co-favorites Quinn Hughes and Cale Makar leave the bubble having each surpassed the playoff scoring record for rookie defensemen. (Hughes' 16 points bested Makar by one.) Miro Heiskanen retains a leg up on both of them, and not just because the Stars are still playing - his five goals and 21 points are the most of any skater not named Nathan MacKinnon or Mikko Rantanen.
If Heiskanen is Dallas' de facto Conn Smythe Trophy nominee at this stage, he has competition with Theodore, the only Golden Knight to solve Demko in Game 5 and 7. On a squad with a deep forward corps that tends to get lauded for tilting the ice, Theodore has asserted himself in these playoffs as an essential offensive catalyst. His six goals lead defensemen league-wide, and his 16 points are most on the team.
Every Golden Knight drove positive offensive figures against the Canucks, but it's Theodore whose 72.9% expected goals percentage topped the club for the series. The precision of his wrister from the point on the man advantage stood in contrast to the aimlessness of Vancouver's power play, which by going 0-for-4 in Game 7 failed to compensate for the Canucks' even-strength woes.
That Vancouver got this deep a full year before Hughes and Elias Pettersson's entry-level contracts expire is doubtlessly positive. They unseated the champs and startled a juggernaut that might yet win the Stanley Cup. Nothing is assured in hockey, though, as Demko reminded Vegas, and every lost playoff opportunity hurts, no matter how long the Canucks anticipate they'll contend. Credit Theodore - who in retrospect might be the catch of the 2017 expansion draft - with delivering that blow.
The Vegas Golden Knights eliminated the Vancouver Canucks from the NHL playoffs on Friday night. Here are three takeaways from Vegas' 3-0 Game 7 win.
Demko's hot streak will live on
Hockey is amusingly illogical sometimes. Nothing made sense about Thatcher Demko turning rock solid in Game 5 and 6. The untested rookie backup came in cold to deny 90 of 91 shots against the league's most relentless offensive team. All Vancouver needed to complete the postseason's unlikeliest turnaround - to beat Vegas a third time in four nights - was for logic to remain suspended a few more hours.
Well, that happened, and the Golden Knights advancing nonetheless is almost the secondary story here. This week's breakout star in the Edmonton bubble turned aside the first 32 pucks he saw in Game 7, and he made 33 stops in total. Demko exits the playoffs with a .985 save percentage. Let's just say that wasn't expected from him.
Consider the route Demko took from Boston College, out of which Vancouver drafted him No. 36 overall in 2014, to the postgame handshake line at Rogers Place, where everyone from Mark Stone to Robin Lehner to Vegas coach Peter DeBoer greeted him with bulged eyeballs and a shake of the head. Demko had only appeared in 10 NHL games before 2019-20, and he was pedestrian this season as Jacob Markstrom's regular backup, logging a .905 save percentage and a minus-3.67 goals saved above average mark.
Andy Devlin / NHL / Getty Images
Prior to Game 5 against Vegas, Demko had played all of eight competitive minutes - the length of his mop-up appearance in the series opener - since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in March. But rust didn't faze him then, nor did fatigue on Friday on the latter half of a back-to-back. In Game 7, Demko stymied early Vegas pressure with glove, shoulder, and pad saves. He summoned a kick stop from his back and stoned Jonathan Marchessault and Nate Schmidt in close. He made 98 straight saves in all going back to Game 5, before Shea Theodore's late winner interrupted the streak.
Vegas absolutely swarmed Vancouver in Game 7. That they laid siege in the offensive zone - we'll get to the gory numbers shortly - enabled Demko to outshine the goalie who recorded three shutouts in the series. That's not to disparage Lehner, who vindicated DeBoer's confidence in him and surely made the save of his life with Brock Boeser bearing down. Demko's brilliance got Vancouver this far, and Lehner did what he had to do to ward off a collapse.
For more than a month now, zaniness has governed a good chunk of the action in the NHL bubble. Each conference's 12th-ranked team butted into the first round at the expense of Connor McDavid and Sidney Crosby. This will be remembered as the postseason that featured a five-overtime epic and three clubs squandering 3-1 series leads simultaneously. The Dallas Stars redeemed themselves earlier Friday after 24-year-old rookie Joel Kiviranta became the first player since Wayne Gretzky to net a Game 7 hat trick.
Demko's star turn was a belated subplot of this spirited playoff run. It came after the Minnesota Wild were ousted and the defending champion St. Louis Blues coolly dispatched, and it lasted just four days, a quirk of a compressed series. But it was yet another prime example of this tournament's prevailing weirdness. It will be remembered, and if Vancouver's Demko era starts in earnest next year - Markstrom is set to hit unrestricted free agency - memories of Sept. 1-4, 2020, will boost the confidence of everyone involved.
Vegas' dominance was laughable but not meaningful
Andy Devlin / NHL / Getty Images
Game 7 was decided when Theodore struck on the power play, rendering moot 42-plus minutes of goalless five-on-five action.
Per Natural Stat Trick, here are some stats of note from that principal phase of the game: Vegas attempted 60 shots to Vancouver's 20. The Golden Knights lapped the Canucks in scoring chances (28-12) and nearly quintupled them in high-danger opportunities (14-3). If not for a late Vancouver surge following Theodore's goal, the expected goal percentage differential - Vegas finished at 75.7% - would have wound up even further out of whack.
It's hard to overstate how lopsided the run of play was in Game 7 and across the two Vancouver victories that preceded it. Had the Canucks managed to score and win again despite this disparity, the result would have gone down in history as an inconceivably strange way for a favored team to flame out of the playoffs. It would have been on par with last season when Cody Eakin went to the box for cross-checking and the San Jose Sharks scored four goals on the ensuing power play, costing Vegas a Game 7.
For such a young franchise, the Golden Knights have already flirted with their fair share of playoff anguish. Even in victory, with passage to the Western Conference final booked, it has to gnaw at Vegas' stable of accomplished scorers that no degree of O-zone dominance unsettled Demko.
Obviously, it's better to slam the opponent in puck possession and scoring chances than the alternative, and the Golden Knights' propensity to inundate teams is what makes them so dangerous. They led the league in shot share in the regular season, which translated to a top-three finish in the conference and the opportunity to snag the No. 1 seed in the playoff round robin.
The Golden Knights' approach to driving offense - wearing down defenders in waves that don't abate - is designed to bear fruit over long stretches. Small samples are unpredictable, and that almost doomed them. For now, Vegas can be heartened that Demko's departing, and by the likelihood that Dallas' Anton Khudobin, a goalie with a far greater track record, won't come close to duplicating his astounding form.
Theodore deserved his spin in the spotlight
Andy Devlin / NHL / Getty Images
All four teams that reached Game 7s in the Western Conference bracket featured one of the sport's finest blue-liners. Calder Trophy co-favorites Quinn Hughes and Cale Makar leave the bubble having each surpassed the playoff scoring record for rookie defensemen. (Hughes' 16 points bested Makar by one.) Miro Heiskanen retains a leg up on both of them, and not just because the Stars are still playing - his five goals and 21 points are the most of any skater not named Nathan MacKinnon or Mikko Rantanen.
If Heiskanen is Dallas' de facto Conn Smythe Trophy nominee at this stage, he has competition with Theodore, the only Golden Knight to solve Demko in Game 5 and 7. On a squad with a deep forward corps that tends to get lauded for tilting the ice, Theodore has asserted himself in these playoffs as an essential offensive catalyst. His six goals lead defensemen league-wide, and his 16 points are most on the team.
Every Golden Knight drove positive offensive figures against the Canucks, but it's Theodore whose 72.9% expected goals percentage topped the club for the series. The precision of his wrister from the point on the man advantage stood in contrast to the aimlessness of Vancouver's power play, which by going 0-for-4 in Game 7 failed to compensate for the Canucks' even-strength woes.
That Vancouver got this deep a full year before Hughes and Elias Pettersson's entry-level contracts expire is doubtlessly positive. They unseated the champs and startled a juggernaut that might yet win the Stanley Cup. Nothing is assured in hockey, though, as Demko reminded Vegas, and every lost playoff opportunity hurts, no matter how long the Canucks anticipate they'll contend. Credit Theodore - who in retrospect might be the catch of the 2017 expansion draft - with delivering that blow.
Motte exited the game but eventually returned to action in the third period.
Reaves has racked up four assists in 15 games for the Golden Knights this postseason, and leads all skaters with 74 hits. He has one prior suspension, receiving a three-game ban for boarding in 2016.
The Golden Knights advanced to the Western Conference Final on Friday, and will take on the Dallas Stars starting on Sunday night.
