Ottawa Senators general manager Pierre Dorion traded away forward Mike Hoffman for the sake of his team, he told reporters Thursday.

"Trading Mike Hoffman was something we needed to do, our dressing room was broken" Dorion said, per TSN. "We have to have a dressing room that wants to win together."

Dorion made the move after Ottawa defenseman Erik Karlsson and his wife, Melinda, filed a peace bond against Hoffman's fiancee, Monika Caryk, for allegedly harassing the two on social media over a lengthy period of time.

Related - Sens GM: Trading Hoffman improves team chemistry

While Dorion admitted he was forced to deal the 28-year-old, he stopped short of implicating Hoffman and Caryk.

"This was not an indictment on Mike Hoffman," the GM said. "We needed to go in a different direction.

"In all this, the victim is Melinda Karlsson. Whoever did this needs to be brought to justice."

The Senators traded Hoffman on Tuesday to the San Jose Sharks, who then flipped him to the Florida Panthers just hours later.

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Edmonton Oilers general manager Peter Chiarelli isn't married to the club's first-round pick.

Ahead of the first round of the NHL draft on Friday, the team has discussed trading its 10th overall selection.

"We would look to move the pick if the right player is available," Chiarelli told reporters. "I've had some discussions with some teams."

"There's been a lot of chatter this week and we've been involved in the chatter," Chiarelli added. "We'll see where it goes."

If Edmonton does elect to keep its first-round selection, Chiarelli says he plansto pick the best player available, even if outside wisdom suggests the team should use it on a defenseman.

Keeping the selection would also mark the ninth time in the last 11 years that the Oilers have picked in the top 10.

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The New York Islanders and Barry Trotz are closing in on an agreement that would see the free agent become the team's new head coach, sources tell TSN's Darren Dreger.

The deal is believed to be for five years with an annual average of at least $4 million, according to Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman.

More to come.

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While they'll certainly miss him, both Alex Ovechkin and Nicklas Backstrom had nothing but praise for Barry Trotz following his resignation as head coach of the Washington Capitals.

"It’s hard when it happen right away, you know?" Ovechkin said, according to Isabelle Khurshudyan of The Washington Post. "First of all, thanks for him to be with us, to give us a chance to win the Cup. All of what he did was only for the team, not for personal-wise. But I’m pretty sure he will be fine and he will find what he wants. It’s sad, but it’s a business."

Nearly two weeks after Trotz coached the franchise to its first-ever Stanley Cup victory, he elected to resign from the role following fruitless contract negotiations. Still, Backstrom believes the 55-year-old will always be a popular figure in D.C.

"Something you can't take away from Barry is what he's done to this team," Backstrom said. "Him and the coaching staff has been doing a tremendous job to just get us together. He's been schooling us good these four years and we got a good finish out of it. ... Hopefully, there's no hard feelings. He's always going to be remembered in Washington as a champion, which is great, which he deserves."

The Capitals will now look to find Trotz's replacement. General manager Brian MacLellan has already stated that assistant coach Todd Reirden will be interviewed for the position, and if he's the successor to Trotz, Ovechkin would be just fine with that.

"If it's Todd, I'm sure lots of guys, everybody, going to be really happy," Ovechkin said. "He's a guy who's a very good communicator, very good specialist and have lots of respect from us."

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Nashville Predators netminder Pekka Rinne was named this year's Vezina Trophy winner at Wednesday's NHL Awards.

The 35-year-old finished the year with 42 wins - two back of fellow nominees Connor Hellebuyck and Andrei Vasilevskiy for the league lead. This is the third time in his career that he has amassed 40-plus wins in a year, one shy of his career mark, which was set in the 2011-12 season.

Rinne helped lead the Predators to their first career Presidents' Trophy. He finished the year with a .927 save percentage, a 2.31 GAA, and eight shutouts, which tied Vasilevskiy for the most league-wide and also set a franchise record.

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Vegas Golden Knights head coach Gerard Gallant was named winner of the Jack Adams Award as the league's best coach at Wednesday's NHL Awards.

Gallant coached Vegas to one of the most remarkable seasons in NHL history; the team captured the Pacific Division in its inaugural NHL campaign, the first expansion team from any of the four North American sports leagues to accomplish the feat. Meanwhile, the team also earned the most points ever by an expansion team.

Under Gallant, 11 players hit career highs with the Golden Knights. This is his second nomination for the award after finishing as runner-up to Washington Capitals' Barry Trotz in 2016 when he was with the Florida Panthers.

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New York Islanders forward Mathew Barzal was awarded the Calder Trophy as the league's top rookie on Wednesday night.

As expected, the voting wasn't particularly close:

Barzal had an impeccable first season, finishing tops among all rookies with 85 points (20 more than Arizona Coyotes forward Clayton Keller, who finished second in rookie scoring). He also led his team in scoring, notching one more point than captain John Tavares.

Barzal's 85 points mark the most by a Calder Trophy winner since Pittsburgh Penguins forward Evgeni Malkin tallied 85 during the 2006-07 season.

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Barry Trotz is stepping down as head coach of the Washington Capitals, the team announced on Monday.

Trotz reportedly had a below market two-year extension automatically put on the table upon winning the Stanley Cup, but both sides were unable to come to an agreement on new terms, according to Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman.

The 55-year-old is now a free agent and the Capitals have granted him permission to speak to other club, adds Friedman.

"After careful consideration and consultation with my family, I am officially announcing my resignation as Head Coach of the Washington Capitals," Trotz said in a statement, according to Sportsnet's Chris Johnston. "When I came to Washington four years ago we had one goal in mind and that was to bring the Stanley Cup to the nation's capital. We had an incredible run this season culminating with our players and staff achieving our goal and sharing the excitement with our fans. I would like to thank Mr. Leonsis, Dick Patrick and Brian MacLellan for giving me the opportunity to be a part of this great organization. I would also like to thank our players and staff who worked tirelessly every day to achieve our success."

More to come.

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The Tod Leiweke-led group that's bidding to bring an NHL expansion team to Seattle has hired Dave Tippett as a senior advisor, according to Geoff Baker of the Seattle Times.

Tippett, who last served as the head coach and VP of hockey operations with the Arizona Coyotes, is expected to help oversee the expansion process and give feedback on items such as the construction of a training facility and acquiring an AHL affiliate.

"There are a lot of times where you need somebody with some hockey experience, whether it be infrastructure like the dressing rooms, the training facilities, or putting together the groundwork of what a skeleton hockey staff would look like," Tippett told Baker.

"First and foremost, operationally, you have to set the culture of the organization,’" he added. "There are a lot of key things, like where the infrastructure of the team is going to be and figuring out the market. But the ability to define the culture of a team that can really grow and prosper, that's first and foremost.

"It comes before you start hiring people. Before you start getting players and doing drafts and stuff like that."

Some have also speculated that Tippett could become the team's first head coach, but no decision will be made on that front until the franchise is awarded, which won't happen until at least September.

"We'll see, I'm not ruling it out," Tippett said of returning to coaching. "It would have to be the right situation.

"But also, I'm intrigued about getting into another part of the game with this."

The NHL Board of Governors will meet this week, but commissioner Gary Bettman has already noted that Seattle expansion won't be on the agenda, leaving the meetings in September and December as the earliest the Seattle group can be awarded a franchise.

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Unless the trade market cools down over the next week, it seems rather unlikely that the Calgary Flames will be making a first-round pick this year.

The Flames don't have a pick in the first three rounds of the draft and while general manager Brad Treliving would love the chance to make a deal for a first-round selection, that's easier said than done as the asking price appears to be too much to stomach.

"Would we like to have a pick? Sure. The reality is it's expensive to get into the first round of the draft and for a reason," Treliving told Sportsnet 960, according to Sportsnet's Josh Beneteau. "If there's something that we can get done and a player sitting there that we like and a deal makes sense, we'll try to do it. But I wouldn't be holding our breath right now.

"The cost right now is a really good young player that's on your roster. And we can all connect the dots to those names," Treliving said. "And to move somebody like that just to go up and pick a player and hope and pray that they turn out to be at the level of the guys you have right now, that doesn't make a whole lot of sense."

The Flames are without a draft pick in the first three rounds due to dealing this year's first- and second-round picks to the New York Islanders as part of the Travis Hamonic deal, as well as trading away their third-round selection to the Arizona Coyotes as part of the Mike Smith deal.

Barring a trade to move up, the Flames' first pick of the draft will be in the fourth round, 105th overall.

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