The Nashville Predators have a roster seemingly built for success, but as the team continues to struggle, ownership is looking for answers.

"Whether you’re an owner of the team, if you’re (general manager) David Poile, if you’re me, if you’re a player, it feels the same way. Everyone’s angry and confused," team president and CEO Sean Henry said to The Athletic's Adam Vingan. "We all believed that this roster would produce more."

The Predators currently sit in seventh place in the Central Division with a 6-10-0 record. The team finished fourth in the division last season but ultimately failed to make the postseason after losing in the play-in qualifying round.

Poile has made quite a few big moves over the last few years and has earned a reputation around the league as a general manager not afraid to shake up his roster. Most recently, he made a big splash in free agency in 2019 by reeling in Matt Duchene and signing him to a seven-year, $56-million deal.

Despite some moves that may have not played out as expected, Henry reaffirmed the organization's faith in Poile moving forward. When asked if ownership has the appetite to make significant changes, including potentially moving along from Poile, he was quick to dismiss the notion.

"He is not afraid to make moves, but he doesn’t make them just to make them," Henry said. "He makes moves to be calculated, and it’s been a pretty good run that we’re on.

"If any of us weren’t seeing things the same way, we’d obviously have to look at different changes, but there is no discussion about, 'Oh, let’s get an axe right now,' because that’s what we’re seeing on Twitter."

Poile has been Nashville's only general manager since the team began playing in 1998.

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The NHL has faced numerous hurdles with COVID-19 since the season's start just over a month ago. The league has postponed more than 30 games so far, and nearly a hundred players have appeared on the COVID-19 protocol list from 27 different teams.

Despite the setbacks, NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly is confident the league will complete its 56-game schedule and finish the campaign on time.

"We have postponed and had to reschedule 35 games. We've been able to do that fairly seamlessly," Daly told ESPN's Greg Wyshynski and Emily Kaplan on Monday. "I hope that the number of postponements and rescheduling goes down as we go forward, but we haven't even really eaten at all into the buffer period we built into the end of the schedule."

Prior to the beginning of the season on Jan. 13, the NHL announced that the regular season would end on May 8, with playoffs starting May 11. The Stanley Cup is expected to be awarded by July 9.

The league has yet to reschedule some postponed games, and the postseason may get pushed back to make up contests at the end of the regular season. Daly said the league prepared for this scenario and included some flexibility when it created the schedule.

"We've always said we want to be done by the middle of July," Daly said. "Whether that's July 10 or whether that's July 20, I couldn't tell you. As I sit here, we have some flexibility. But that's certainly the zone that we're targeting."

Eighteen teams have already played at least a quarter of their season (14 games), while a club like the New Jersey Devils has hit the ice for just nine contests.

With a wave of players being affected by COVID-19 since the season's start, Daly added he isn't shocked by the numbers given the league's size.

"Quite frankly, we have a lot of players involved, right? We have a lot more than the NBA - around 725 players on active rosters plus taxi squad players plus AHL players. There are just a lot of players around," Daly said.

"Would I have hoped for less cases and fewer outbreaks among clubs? The answer to that is yes. Whether I can say it was a surprise to me, I'm not sure it necessarily is."

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Montreal Canadiens general manager Marc Bergevin expects one of his team's top prospects, Cole Caufield, to turn pro once his college season with Wisconsin wraps up.

"He has progressed a lot in the last year, but again it's too early to tell you exactly what the plans are but expect him to turn pro after this year," Bergevin told reporters Monday. "Now where can he play once his season is over? That remains to be seen."

Bergevin was noncommittal on when Caufield could slot in. He pointed to the mandatory 14-day quarantine that Caufield will likely have to fulfill entering Canada and the Canadiens' status around the April 12 trade deadline, at which point the college season would have concluded.

Montreal drafted Caufield 15th overall in 2019. He has 17 goals and 33 points in 22 games with Wisconsin this season and captured a gold medal with Team USA at this year's world juniors.

Bergevin recommended last year that Caufield spend another season with the Badgers to potentially develop into a player who could make the leap to the pros.

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Tampa Bay Lightning captain Steven Stamkos says he's ready to return to action Monday against the Florida Panthers after a two-game absence, according to team reporter Bryan Burns.

Stamkos confirmed he had a false positive test that placed him on the league's COVID-19 protocol list Friday.

The 31-year-old was a late scratch Thursday due to a lower-body injury, and head coach Jon Cooper revealed the ailment would have kept the veteran out of Saturday's victory over the Panthers anyway, according to the Tampa Bay Times' Eduardo A. Encina.

Stamkos has recorded seven goals and seven assists in 11 games this season.

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San Jose Sharks goalie Martin Jones is having yet another rough start to his season, and head coach Bob Boughner is letting him know.

"That's not up to our standard, that goaltending," Boughner said, according to The Mercury News' Curtis Pashelka. "I mean, we've given him a chance here to grab the net, especially with (Devan Dubnyk) being hurt. Again, we're not expecting him to win hockey games for us, to stand on his head. But we've got to have solid goaltending, especially at the beginning of games.

"It's not up to our standard and I'm sure it's not up to his own."

Jones allowed three goals in the opening period of Thursday night's game against the Los Angeles Kings. He let in another three in the third period before being pulled. Overall, Jones stopped 20 of the 26 shots he faced.

The 31-year-old has the league's third-lowest save percentage (.865) and a 4.09 goals-against average through eight games this season. He also owns the NHL's second-worst goals saved above average (-8.85).

Jones has struggled after three impressive seasons with San Jose from 2015-18. He recorded a league-worst .896 save percentage over the past two campaigns.

The Sharks acquired Dubnyk, who's day-to-day with an injury, during the offseason. He's recorded a .917 save percentage and 2.71 goals-against average through six appearances this season.

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It appears the NHL's current draft lottery system will undergo more tweaks in the near future.

Deputy commissioner Bill Daly confirmed Thursday that the league is working on changing the draft lottery, which will be discussed with the Board of Governors when the time is right, reports The Athletic's Pierre LeBrun.

"There are a lot of people around the league that simply felt that a team like (the) Detroit (Red Wings), undergoing a real rebuild, 23 points behind the 30th-place team last year, should not have been picking fourth," LeBrun said on Thursday's edition of TSN's "Insider Trading."

In October, a number of the league's general managers reportedly called on the league to increase the odds of winning the draft lottery for the teams that finish lowest in the standings.

The NHL introduced a weighted lottery system beginning in 2015 to discourage tanking. Since then, the last-place team has chosen first overall twice: the Toronto Maple Leafs in 2016 and the Buffalo Sabres in 2018.

The league has made small tweaks since, giving the bottom-ranked teams higher odds of moving down and other lottery clubs better chances of moving into the top three.

Daly didn't divulge what changes the league is considering.

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The Pittsburgh Penguins have hired Ron Hextall as the team's new general manager and have also named Brian Burke the team's new president of hockey operations, the club announced Tuesday.

More to come.

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Tuesday night's contest between the Philadelphia Flyers and Washington Capitals has been postponed, the NHL announced.

The postponement comes after a Flyers player tested positive for COVID-19 late Monday night, according to TSN's Darren Dreger.

Flyers defenseman Travis Sanheim was added to the NHL's COVID-19 list Sunday, and the league confirmed that a second player has now entered the protocol.

The Flyers played the Capitals on Sunday after the league announced the team underwent rapid testing prior to the game and returned all negative tests.

Philadelphia is now the fifth team in the league currently on pause due to the coronavirus. The Minnesota Wild, New Jersey Devils, Buffalo Sabres, and Colorado Avalanche are all currently dealing with outbreaks.

Last week, the league enhanced its in-arena safety protocols in an attempt to reduce the spread of COVID-19. The NHL removed the glass behind the bench and enforced more social distancing in locker rooms.

While the NHL has been testing players daily, the league has recently started investigating into expanding rapid testing on game days to identify positive cases faster.

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Chicago Blackhawks defenseman Brent Seabrook has battled a number of injuries recently and hasn't seen game action in well over a year.

"We’re very concerned for him," general manager Stan Bowman said, according to The Chicago Sun Times' Ben Pope. "He’s been a warrior for us. Think of his time in Chicago - he never really missed any games. But now we’re realizing he was playing through a lot of pain those years, and it’s caught up to him.

"He was dealing with his shoulders and his hips to the point where he probably should have had (the surgeries) done years ago, but that’s how he’s always been driven - to keep moving forward, don’t worry about injuries, play through it."

The blue-liner was limited to 32 games last season. He underwent three different major surgeries for his right shoulder and both of his hips over a six-week span starting in December.

The 35-year-old had recovered from the surgeries over the summer and was planning to return to the lineup this season. However, he suffered a setback after tweaking his back right before training camp was set to begin, Bowman added.

The setback has held Seabrook out of Chicago's lineup this year, and there is no timetable for his potential return. In November, Seabrook said he had no plans to quit hockey due to his injuries and he wanted to prove his doubters wrong.

The 15-year veteran has spent his entire career with the Blackhawks, helping the club win a Stanley Cup in 2010, 2013, and 2015. Beyond this season, he has three more years remaining on his contract at a cap hit of $6.875 million.

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Dallas Stars goaltender Anton Khudobin apologized for being late to practice Saturday, which ultimately resulted in him being benched for Sunday's game.

"I'm happy to be back," Khudobin said Monday, according to NHL.com's Tracey Myers. "Yes unfortunately, that happened, but it's not really a big deal. I talked to the coaches, it's all fine, all settled, so I'm back."

Khudobin revealed he missed his alarm on Saturday morning and showed up late to practice. Head coach Rick Bowness said he doesn't have many rules "but you damn well better follow them."

Despite the incident, Bowness made it clear on Monday that it's now water under the bridge.

"It's over," Bowness said. "We've dealt with it, we move on. That's yesterday's news."

Khudobin wasn't dressed for Sunday's tilt against the Chicago Blackhawks, as Jake Oettinger took the crease with Landow Bow serving as backup. Dallas lost 2-1 in overtime.

Bowness reaffirmed his trust in Khudobin as the team's current No. 1 goaltender with Ben Bishop sidelined, but declined to say whether it will be him or Oettinger in the crease for Tuesday's game.

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