When you need to get away from it all, head to the Gem State.
That was the offseason destination of choice for Ottawa Senators winger Bobby Ryan, who, along with his wife and two children, packed his bags for quaint Coeur d'Alene, Idaho as a way to escape the rampant rumor mill.
"Honest to God, I wanted to throw a dart at the map and be off the grid as much as I could. Somewhere remote so nobody wanted to visit," Ryan told Sportsnet's Luke Fox. "There's no people. I need(ed) to get away from hockey for a couple months. I need(ed) to recharge."
Ryan's name was thrown around throughout the offseason as a possible addition to a potential Erik Karlsson trade.
With Karlsson gone and the offseason in the rearview mirror, Ryan has returned to the Canadian capital for training camp and is ready to start anew after a 2017-18 campaign in which he tallied just 33 points.
There will be plenty of opportunity for Ryan, as the Senators usher in a new era with coach Guy Boucher readying a more offensive game.
"I'm really encouraged. I had a couple meetings with coach, and he showed me what's going to change, where we're going from here," Ryan said. "It's stuff I think our team will relate to and get. It's going to be very simple and it's going to work."
Montreal Canadiens associate coach Kirk Muller isn't going anywhere, as he and the team agreed to a two-year contract extension on Sunday.
Muller spent the past two seasons behind the Canadiens' bench, working alongside former coach Michel Therrien and current bench boss Claude Julien.
Previously, Muller spent two years as an assistant with the St. Louis Blues and parts of three seasons as head coach of the Carolina Hurricanes. He was also an assistant coach with the Canadiens from 2006-11.
Prior to joining the coaching ranks, the longtime NHL veteran skated in 1,349 games, including four seasons with Montreal, where he served as a captain during the 1994-95 campaign.
Morrissey was the Jets' only remaining restricted free agent.
In 81 games with Winnipeg last season, the 23-year-old netted seven goals and 19 assists. He also finished fourth among Jets defensemen with just over 20 minutes in average ice time.
In 164 career games, Morrissey has notched 13 goals and 33 assists.
The Jets selected Morrissey with the 13th overall pick in the 2013 draft.
Upshall is attending Oilers camp on a professional tryout offer. While the failed physical doesn't automatically end the tryout, it did reveal a knee injury that will prevent Upshall from participating in the coming weeks.
The Oilers are slated for eight preseason games, beginning Monday against the Calgary Flames, and will open the regular season Oct. 6 versus the New Jersey Devils.
In 63 appearances with the St. Louis Blues last season, Upshall tallied seven goals and 12 assists.
For nine seasons in the Canadian capital, Erik Karlsson's offensive creativity captured the imaginations of Ottawa Senators fans.
Following Thursday's trade to the San Jose Sharks, the Swedish sensation will now be taking his show to the Bay Area. Still, it's not too early to revisit some of his finest moments suiting up as a Senator:
The knuckleball
The Edmonton Oilers are known for scoring goals, but it was all Karlsson on this play, as the two-time Norris Trophy winner went end to end through a group of Oilers and fired a knuckleball by Oilers netminder Ben Scrivens.
Playoff performer
After Karlsson missed nearly the entire 2012-13 campaign with an Achilles injury, he'd have been forgiven for playing at a slower pace in the playoffs. But that wasn't the case in the opening round against the Montreal Canadiens, thanks to Karlsson's ability to simply take over shifts. The Senators went on to beat the favored Canadiens in five games.
The bank shot
Typically reserved for the billiards lounge, this crafty bank shot stretched nearly the entire ice to set up veteran forward Milan Michalek. The winger scored a nifty goal in his own right, but the play will be remembered for Karlsson's wizardry.
All eyes on Erik
Karlsson played through the 2017 postseason on a fractured heel, but the injury seemingly didn't take away from his ability to pull off the incredible. Here, he took the Boston Bruins for a ride before setting up Derick Brassard for a magnificent game-tying goal in Game 2.
Hail Mary hero
Dumping the two-line pass rule opened up more creative avenues for puck-moving defensemen. Karlsson took it to the next level on this play with a Hail Mary setup that landed right on the tape for former teammate Mike Hoffman.
You won't see Cory Schneider's name on a lineup card this preseason.
The Devils netminder continues to rehab from offseason hip surgery and will be sidelined for all six of New Jersey's exhibition games, general manager Ray Shero confirmed to NHL.com's Mike Morreale.
Shero added that he's not sure about Schneider's status for the Devils' regular-season opener against the Edmonton Oilers on Oct. 6.
The 32-year-old netminder battled a nagging groin injury last season that limited him to just 40 games. Backup Keith Kinkaid stepped up in Schneider's absence, putting together a 26-10-3 record across 41 appearances.
However, Schneider returned in time for last year's playoffs and impressed through four appearances against the Tampa Bay Lightning, posting a 1.78 goals-against average and a .950 save percentage.
After beginning preliminary discussions about an extension in late August, Canucks general manager Jim Benning said Thursday that the two sides will now wait until the end of the 2018-19 campaign to finalize a deal.
"(Boeser) loves playing in Vancouver and wants to be here long term," Benning told Rick Dhaliwal of Sportsnet 650. "At the end of the day, we both agreed that he will play out the last year of his entry-level deal. At the end of the year, we'll circle back and figure out a deal long term."
Despite appearing in just 62 games last season, Boeser tied Daniel Sedin for the team lead in scoring with 55 points. His 29 tallies finished second among all rookies, trailing only Winnipeg Jets forward Kyle Connor, who netted 31 goals.
That sort of production could mean Boeser is due for a major raise. This season, the 21-year-old will carry a $925,000 cap hit, but he can also pull in another $850,000 in performance bonuses.
Over his tenure, the first-time GM remade the Lightning into a Stanley Cup contender, built out of keen draft choices, clever contracts, and a handful of major trades. While the top job in Tampa Bay now belongs to Julien BriseBois, it's not too soon to look back at the best moves made over Yzerman's time:
Dealing with Drouin
In January 2016, disgruntled forward and 2013 third-overall pick Jonathan Drouin revealed he'd requested a trade, citing frustration with a lack of playing time and the organization. But Yzerman refused to bow to public pressure, as Drouin was later demoted to the minors and subsequently suspended after failing to report.
Drouin eventually suited up for the AHL squad and was later recalled to the Lightning towards the end of the season. In the playoffs, he was one of Tampa Bay's top scorers, posting 14 points in 17 games. However, it wasn't enough to keep Drouin in Tampa Bay long-term. A deal finally materialized in June 2017, with the Lightning shipping Drouin to the Montreal Canadiens for young blue-liner Mikhail Sergachev.
Sergachev has particularly impressed in the early goings of his career. The 20-year-old wrapped up his rookie campaign with the Lightning in 2017-18, notching 40 points to finish second among freshmen defenders.
Signing Stamkos
Much like this offseason's John Tavares sweepstakes, Steven Stamkos experienced a similar showcase two summers ago. Despite big-time interest from heavy hitters like his hometown Toronto Maple Leafs, Stamkos re-signed with the Lightning.
Not only did he stay in the fold for eight more years, Yzerman was also insistent on Stamkos agreeing to a more affordable salary structure, leaving more cap dollars for the GM to maneuver.
Stamkos is the face of the Lightning, and with a bout of injury challenges now behind him, he's poised to lead the team to its first championship in more than a decade. The Lightning captain finished with 86 points last season, good for 12th league-wide. Stamkos needs just 35 goals in 2018-19 to leapfrog Vincent Lecavalier for first all-time in franchise goals.
Drafting Kucherov
The Russian factor evidently wasn't a consideration at the draft tables for Yzerman, as the Lightning called Nikita Kucherov's name with the 58th pick in the 2011 draft.
Kucherov was dominant in his draft year, finishing with 58 points in 41 games with Krasnaya Armiya Moskva, a KHL junior league club. He then exploded at the under-18s, leading the Russian squad with 21 points in just seven games.
It didn't take long for Kucherov to translate that success to the Lightning. The Russian sniper has seen his production climb across five seasons with Tampa. He notched a career-high 40 goals in 2016-17 and followed that up with a 100-point campaign last season. The 25-year-old recently inked a big-money deal that will pay $9.5 million per season beginning in 2019-20. But in the meantime, he'll continue to outperform the steal of a deal - a $4.8-million ticket - that Yzerman inked him to in 2016.
The Hedman contract
Imagine having the reigning Norris Trophy winner under contract for the next seven seasons for less than $8 million a year. Of course, it's not a dream for the Lightning, after Yzerman inked star blue-liner Victor Hedman to an eight-year, $63-million pact in July 2016.
While the salary cap has since increased, the Swedish defenseman will enter the coming campaign outside of the NHL's three highest-paid blue-liners, while only taking home a shade more than the likes of Shea Weber, Dustin Byfuglien, Ryan Suter, and Aaron Ekblad.
Hedman has emerged as a reliable, dominant defenseman, regularly finishing in the upper echelon in ice time. While his effectiveness is never in question, Yzerman also took the extra strep to enhance his game further, building up his blue line and surrounding Hedman with other top minute munchers like Ryan McDonagh and Anton Stralman.
Bringing in Bishop
The net in Tampa Bay now belongs to Andrei Vasilevskiy, but it wasn't that long ago when the Lightning went through a carousel of netminders. Lightning fans will recall the likes of Dwayne Roloson, Mathieu Garon, and Mike Smith manning the Bolts' crease.
But at the 2013 trade deadline, Yzerman pulled off an intriguing deal with the Ottawa Senators, parting with forward Cory Conacher, who put up 24 points in 35 games in his first season with the Lightning, for goaltender Ben Bishop. Conacher's scoring touch didn't keep up in Ottawa, as he later bounced to two other teams and had several stints in the minors - interestingly enough, Conacher is now back with the Lightning on a two-way deal.
As for Bishop, he solidified the Lightning between the pipes and offered the most consistent presence in Tampa Bay's crease since the days of Nikolai Khabibulin. Bishop went on to spend four more seasons with the Lightning, becoming a two-time Vezina Trophy finalist who guided the team to the 2015 Stanley Cup Final. Though since departed, Bishop still ranks first in franchise wins.
Honorable mention - Inking undrafted free agents
While not nearly as remarkable as the five major moves outlined above, it's still worth acknowledging that Yzerman went beyond the more traditional avenues of trades and free agency to acquire assets.
The former Lightning GM was especially active when it came to recruiting undrafted free agents, kicking things off in March 2011 with the signing of Tyler Johnson, who had been passed over after attending camps for two other teams. With the Lightning, Johnson has developed into an effective No. 2 pivot whose 72 points tied Stamkos for the team lead just four seasons ago.
But the signings didn't stop there. There's also Yanni Gourde, who agreed to terms in March 2014 and became a full-time player with the Lightning this past season. Gourde appeared in all 82 games, posting 64 points and even picked up a few votes in the Calder Trophy race. New GM BriseBois hopes Yzerman left him one more gift in Alex Barre-Boulet, a 21-year-old who led the QMJHL in scoring with 116 points last season. In March, Barre-Boulet signed with the Lightning as an undrafted free agent.
If George McPhee paid too high of a price to add Tomas Tatar at last season's trade deadline, credit the Vegas Golden Knights general manager for quickly cleaning up that decision.
Parting with first, second, and third-round draft selections to acquire Tatar, the former Detroit Red Wings winger proved to be a flop with the Golden Knights, managing just six points in the 20-game stretch toward the postseason. His lagging production made him an easy scratch for all but eight games of the Golden Knights' run to the Stanley Cup Final.
While Tatar may have bounced back over a full season in Vegas - he's under contract for the next three years - he'll now have that opportunity in Montreal after an early Monday deal sent the Slovak forward, prospect Nick Suzuki, and a second rounder to the Canadiens for Max Pacioretty.
It was a short stint for Tatar in Sin City, and a possible shot at a redemption wasn't enough to hold up a deal for a perennial 30-goal scorer in Pacioretty.
"The (Tatar) deal we did last March was market driven. That was the price," McPhee told reporters Monday. "We did it to help our hockey club. We can't allow what we did months ago to affect a good decision today."
In acquiring Pacioretty, the Golden Knights add to an offensive collection that had no trouble finding the back of the net last year - Vegas' 272 goals were the third-most last season. The team will have a new look this season after James Neal and David Perron signed elsewhere, but summer additions like Pacioretty and Paul Stastny will help fill the void.
For Tatar, he'll have a shot to skate in the Canadiens' top six and rediscover the scoring touch he had in Detroit before his trade to Vegas. Prior to the 2017-18 campaign, Tatar averaged 25 goals and 49 points across three seasons with the Red Wings.
A common occurrence in hockey circles is for unsigned players to avoid the ice - and potential injury - while awaiting a new contract.
But that's not the case with Buffalo Sabres forward Sam Reinhart. The 22-year-old remains a restricted free agent, but has been skating alongside teammates in the lead up to training camp on Thursday.
That willingness to participate has general manager Jason Botterill feeling optimistic that a deal can soon be reached with Reinhart.
"I'm excited that Sam's in town here working out with our guys, being a part of things," Botterill told Bill Hoppe of Buffalo Hockey Beat. "We continue our dialogue with his agent and (we are) still very hopeful to get a deal done."
Reinhart is coming off of his three-year entry level deal and is likely due for a sizable raise after finishing last season with career highs in both goals (25) and points (50).
