Brantt Myhres' eyes widen when he's asked about the shiny motocross bike in his living room.

"This is the fastest production dirt bike ever made," Myhres said during a recent Zoom call, moving his head away from the camera so his Kawasaki KX500 could fill up more screen space. "They stopped making it 18 years ago when the four strokes came out."

The 65-horsepower, neon-green bike isn't merely a toy for the former pro hockey badass. It's also a reminder of his childhood in Alberta - the good and the bad.

"When I was little, it was a way for me to escape from what was going on at the house," Myhres, 46, said. "I'd head out to the alley nearby and ride for hours on my dirt bike."

Myhres is the author of a new book, "Pain Killer: A Memoir Of Big League Addiction." In 2006, the NHL handed him a lifetime ban after his fourth drug-related suspension. The autobiography chronicles his difficult upbringing with a distant father and an abusive stepfather, as well as a childhood encounter with a sexual predator he met through the Big Brothers Big Sisters program. It dives deep into the rise and fall of an NHL tough guy who not only went toe to toe with all-time heavyweights like Georges Laraque but also squandered millions of dollars while battling anxiety-induced addictions to alcohol and cocaine.

"This isn't about Brantt Myhres," he said of sharing his life's story. "Yeah, I wrote it, but at the end of the day this is way bigger than me. My hope isn't about book sales; I couldn't care less about that. I've got enough money. This is about the 15-year-old sending me a message, saying, maybe I saved his or her life or their parent's life.

"That, to me, is the juice. Nothing else."

During a journeyman career stretching from 1993 to 2006 and featuring minor-league stops in the IHL, AHL, and EIHL, Myhres picked up six goals and two assists in 154 NHL games as a 6-foot-4, 220-pound winger. He fought 55 times, according to HockeyFights.com, racking up 687 career penalty minutes as a member of the Tampa Bay Lightning, Philadelphia Flyers, San Jose Sharks, Nashville Predators, Washington Capitals, and Boston Bruins.

Off the ice, alcohol became "more important than food." For years, Myhres says, he “couldn’t fathom not drinking again” as most social interactions turned into lengthy parties. Over time he even figured out how to temporarily hide his substance abuse from NHL officials, by either supplying fake urine samples or cozying up to the league’s testers.

"I was just loving it. I was a kid in a candy store," Myhres said of his ability to skirt the testing system. "But there's a line in the book that's never left me: The NHL told me, 'It's going to come to a point where we're not going to have to bust you. You're going to bust yourself.' And it's so true. I kept grabbing the rope and grabbing the rope, and then eventually I didn't have good urine. I busted myself at the end of the day."

Rock bottom arrived around 2:30 a.m. on Feb. 18, 2008. Myhres, recently retired after an unsuccessful half-season playing in England, was handcuffed in the snow outside of his sister's house. He had blacked out from drinking alcohol for the first time in his life.

"The stuff that I did during the blackout was very scary. I mean, having a knife out and having my sister by her throat … the kids were hiding in the closet upstairs," he said, relaying his sister's recollection. "When I got home that night I remember waking up and just hysterically crying for, I would say, a solid hour. Maybe an hour and a half."

With his daughter Chloe due to be born in five days, Myhres entered rehab for a fifth and final time. He spent six months as an inpatient and another two in an outpatient program.

"At that point I had no hope. I was completely broke financially, and spiritually, and physically. I was broke every which way you could be broke. I think that would have been the turning point," said Myhres, who last week celebrated 13 years of sobriety.

He started writing about his struggles in that Oregon treatment center. Originally, it was purely therapeutic, not meant for public consumption. But eventually his openness and willingness to attack his problems head-on led to a counseling position with the Los Angeles Kings in 2015. He worked as the club's player assistance director for three years.

Ex-Kings coach Darryl Sutter was instrumental in bringing Myhres into the organization. Sutter believed in him then and throughout his dizzying career. Myhres counts Sutter, who coached him in San Jose and became a father figure, and Dan Cronin, the director of the league's substance abuse program, as heroes of his story.

"Dan was a guy who called me on the morning of the 18th, and said, 'Hey, we heard what happened last night. Would you commit to long-term treatment?' I'm like, 'You guys are going to pay for treatment again?' I couldn't believe it," Myhres said. "And he said, 'Don't worry about anything. Just get yourself on a plane.' So I owe so much to the league and the NHLPA for not only investing in the treatment center, and all of that, but they also paid for me to go back to school. They gave me a monthly stipend through the emergency fund. They gave that to me for like four years, and I'm like, 'OK, I've been three years sober and they're still sending me $1,200 a month. Incredible.'"

Armed now with education in substance abuse and behavioral health from Calgary's Mount Royal University, as well as the practical experience from his time with the Kings, Myhres hopes to catch on with another NHL team. He doesn't see the downside in hiring an ex-player to help shepherd active players through issues relating to mental health, substance abuse, or both, like the Kings did with him and the Calgary Flames are doing with alumnus Brian McGrattan.

"I just don't understand," Myhres said of the lukewarm response from a group of 20 teams he's approached since parting ways with L.A. "When you're talking about additional support - they bring in all the nutritionists, health experts, sleep experts, and all of this - they don't really pay enough attention to the mental health side of it. The reality is, one or two guys are going to have issues on every team. That's a guarantee."

Ahead of the launch of "Pain Killer," Myhres felt compelled to tell Chloe - who turns 13 on Thursday - that the person portrayed in the first half of the book isn't the person he is today. Those nights of hot tubbing with strippers and brawling in bars are long gone.

But Myhres is fully aware of just how powerful addiction can be.

"I've done a lot of work on myself the last 13 years. It's a daily thing for me," he said. "I never look at my sobriety and say I'm out of the woods. Because I'm not."

The dirt bike, which Myhres calls "the beast," is one of the ways he maintains his sobriety. He plans to visit a friend in British Columbia in April to test it out before the weather warms in his hometown of Edmonton.

"Me, with the need for adrenaline, I want the fastest thing that is made," he said with a giant smile. "If I go out on a dirt bike, great. That's OK with me."

John Matisz is theScore's national hockey writer. You can follow John on Twitter (@MatiszJohn) and contact him via email (john.matisz@thescore.com).

Copyright © 2021 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

Ty Smith remembers his dad's sales pitch like it was yesterday.

It was 2007 or 2008 and his minor hockey team was short on defensemen in the middle of a tournament. None of Smith's teammates were eager to drop back and help out, so, as the coach's son, he became the default choice.

"It's fine, don't worry - you can still go end to end," Smith recalls his father telling him during a largely one-way conversation.

Smith, all of 7 years old, was soon blown away. In that first game of spot duty, he learned playing defenseman provided a quarterback's perspective.

"I loved it," the New Jersey Devils rookie told theScore in a recent interview. "I loved seeing the ice from back there, so from then on I was a defenseman."

In 2021, it's infinitely easier to sell the position. Young hockey players can watch Smith and his peers do their thing and conclude that being deployed as a defenseman is by no means a downgrade over being a forward or goalie.

The modern defenseman has a ton of fun. He's in constant motion and often has the puck on his stick. The job description has changed so drastically over the past 10 years or so that it's evolved into a highly influential position in all three zones on the ice. Most game action now flows through defensemen.

Cale Makar, Quinn Hughes, Miro Heiskanen, and Rasmus Dahlin are arguably the four faces of the evolution. Guys like Shea Theodore, Charlie McAvoy, Zach Werenski, and Ivan Provorov are a bit older but nonetheless check off the boxes associated with this modern breed. And then there are dozens of lesser-known 25-and-under defensemen solidifying the movement.

There's no denying a new archetype of defenseman has been established and is thriving in today's game. But how did we arrive at this point? What exactly is the skill set and role of a modern defenseman? And what comes next?

Sift through a stack of scouting reports from the early 2000s and you'd occasionally spot phrases like "moves the puck well" and "makes a good first pass." More often, you'd read "clears the front of the net well" and "sacrifices the body to block a shot" on other reports. Back then, possessing strong puck skills was a qualifier for a few kinds of defensemen - some but not all.

That delineation is now gone.

All defensemen must be mobile and proficient in handling the puck. This applies to 5-foot-9 Erik Brannstrom, 6-foot-6 Nic Hague, and every size and style in between.

"It's not a benefit anymore to make a good first pass. That is a requisite feature that D have to have," former Florida Panthers scout Rhys Jessop said.

Added an amateur scout currently working for an NHL team: "We've realized playing D in the NHL is a much more puck-intensive position now. So you're looking for the guys who are the best at moving pucks up the ice (and) on the tape. The days of drafting a 'stopper' high are over, I think."

There have long been unicorn defensemen who were stellar offensive players, from Bobby Orr to Ray Bourque to Brian Leetch to Nicklas Lidstrom to Brent Burns, and so on. Now, entire groups of defensemen are capable of playing a fluid style and their coaches, for the most part, are on board.

The evolution of the position is a chicken or egg phenomenon. Which came first, modern defensemen or modern coaching? The correct answer might be that one thing wouldn't exist without the other. Slow, bumbling defensemen can't keep up with modern forwards. The rulebook promotes action that's more free-flowing and rooted in skill. The game has welcomed with open arms players who grew up admiring the all-situations wizardry of Roman Josi.

Instead of defensemen assuming a supporting role in the transition game by firing the puck off the glass or making a simple outlet pass, they have become a focal point. More of today's defensemen can skate the puck out themselves, facilitate an exit pathway for their partner, or bolt up the ice to join the rush.

"Even times where our wingers get it on the wall, if I'm in the middle I always want the puck," said Smith, the current points leader among NHL rookie defensemen. "Ten years ago, I don't think it was a very common play to go from the wall in your own zone to the net-front D. I think that's something that's come along these past few years here. It's something that gets the D involved."

"Involved" is the operative word. Previously, the offense-obsessed defenseman (such as prime Erik Karlsson) was usually the only kind of defenseman roaming around the entire ice surface. Being able to skate and handle the puck as well as or better than forwards has made today's blue-liner tremendously valuable.

"You talk about centermen being 200-foot players. It's almost like defensemen today are like 180-foot players because no longer is it a skill just to make a good first pass," Tampa Bay Lightning head coach Jon Cooper said. "You have to make a good first pass and then you have to be in that rush. And then when that play happens, do you have an ability to play offense?

"I talk about this as a philosophy: When you don't have the puck, five guys are playing D, and when you do have the puck, five guys are playing offense. It's not whether you're a forward or a defenseman."

Brendan Taylor helped mold Hague of the Vegas Golden Knights and Dallas Stars top prospect Thomas Harley into pros during their stints with the Mississauga Steelheads. He says a primary reason why coaches are so accepting of defensemen joining the rush - and sometimes staying on the attack for an entire shift - is that they have the skating chops to zoom back into coverage if something goes awry. There is a built-in trust factor.

"When you skate that well, it allows you to take more calculated risks. You know you can catch that guy (on the backcheck)," Taylor, an assistant coach for the Steelheads, said of Harley in particular. "As long as it stays calculated, it's a huge positive. I think Thomas has evolved into thinking that way."

"Everything you've learned for your entire career goes into each of those decisions," Harley explained. "I guarantee each pinch that a defenseman makes, they've seen (something similar) about 50 or 100 times before, whether it's in practice or earlier games. So they know what's happening and are just calling on that to decide if they want to pinch, make a play, take a risk."

The same goes for puck management. Whether it's on a regroup in the neutral zone or amid a high cycle at the offensive blue line, the modern defenseman doesn't always feel obliged to act on the first set of circumstances presented to him. He's poised. He'll shimmy and shake, change speeds, dangle the puck, or deceive in some other way in an effort to create time and space.

This probing style can put defensemen in troubling situations - we've all seen the turnovers - but versatility in decision-making from these intelligent, mobile players tends to lead to positive results over the long haul.

"D-zone coverages have changed and that's all, I think, based on you having defensemen in the league now that can play as forwards and can be really, really effective," said Paul Maurice, the longtime Winnipeg Jets bench boss who first coached in the NHL back in 1995. "So skilled, so fast, their lateral movement so good. It's absolutely changed the game from breakouts to neutral-zone counters to the play in the offensive zone across the line."

New York Islanders head coach Barry Trotz recently noted at a coaches conference that he believes the modern D-man "can be a great skater" and "can have really good puck skills, but the ability to problem-solve is, to me, key."

Jessop, who puts an emphasis on problem-solving when scouting, describes it this way: "How do you take a puck in a high-pressure, swarming environment and work it to a lower-pressure area to maintain possession for your team and enable your team to keep control and move forward?"

Hughes is an elite problem-solver. And while the 21-year-old's sophomore season has been far from perfect on the defensive side of the puck, former stay-at-home defenseman Ken Daneyko points out that Hughes' approach to defending is in stark contrast to the techniques used by offensively inclined blue-liners of his era. Hughes is not overly physical, but he ends up in the right place at the right time by using his mind and legs to eliminate gaps.

"He's not a liability defensively because he's smart. It's about positioning and using your stick and then going the other way quickly," said Daneyko, a TV analyst for MSG Networks after nearly 1,300 games for the Devils. "He's already as good as anybody in that transition game, as well as Cale Makar."

Body checking remains a part of the game and is a tool these modern defensemen still use. Yet angling an opponent off the puck with little to no physical contact has proven the better alternative in many scenarios. Again, this is linked to rules changes and coaching. In general, hockey is less physically aggressive in 2021, and its players have adapted.

Case in point: In 2002-03, Daneyko's last season, 29 defensemen made their NHL debuts and the average height and weight among those players was 6-foot-2, 214 pounds. In 2019-20, 32 D-men debuted. Their average height and weight was 6-foot-1, 191 pounds - an inch shorter and 23 pounds lighter.

In another era, 6-foot-5 K'Andre Miller might have been steered toward a hard-nosed style focused on booming hits and simple plays with the puck. But, through 13 games with the New York Rangers, the smooth-skating Miller has asserted himself as a responsible defender and a dynamic attacker.

At 5-foot-11, 175 pounds, Smith's closer to the other end of the spectrum. He doesn't view his size as a disadvantage on puck retrievals and the like.

"I'm kind of like a Smart car," Smith, 20, said. "I can get around and in and out of traffic a lot easier, off the line a little quicker. This is opposed to being a semi truck, where it's tougher to get around but you're a lot stronger and bigger. That's always been my reference because I value being a smaller guy."

In junior, Smith studied tape of 5-foot-9 defenseman Jared Spurgeon (in part because he lived at Spurgeon's old billet home) and is trying to apply a few of the Minnesota Wild captain's defensive habits to his own game.

"He positions himself exceptionally well in the D zone," Smith said of the now 31-year-old Spurgeon, who was ahead of his time. "Even with gaps, he uses his feet, his stick, and his body positioning to take away from the team's offense. It's the way he thinks the game, too, the way he reads plays and meets the puck before the guy even gets it or as the guy is getting it, which kills plays earlier. Doing things like that are probably more important to me than being big and physical because there's a bunch of big, strong forwards in this league (who) I can't really take the puck from by being physical."

With the Colorado Avalanche, the NHL is witnessing a defense corps comprised almost exclusively of new-age defensemen who can contribute in all three zones. When at full health, the club's seven best defensemen are Makar, Devon Toews, Samuel Girard, Bowen Byram, Ryan Graves, Erik Johnson, and Conor Timmins. Johnson is the only one who's older than 26 and whose style is a little outdated. That makes six NHL-caliber modern blue-liners skating for one of the league's best teams.

Some of them - Byram, specifically - could easily play forward. Byram's skill set is basically interchangeable with that of today's prototypical two-way winger. Perhaps at some point, we'll see the Avs adopt the 2F-3D configuration recently promoted by Jack Han of The Hockey Tactics Newsletter. It's a long shot, but the ascendance of the modern D-man certainly makes it possible.

"We're going to start seeing less emphasis on positional responsibilities and more emphasis on what I'd call rotational responsibilities," Jessop said of the next step.

"When your defensemen are less equipped to be specialists, such as just defending in the defensive zone, and more equipped to be about a bunch of things - like operate in traffic and make creative passes, handle the puck, shoot, attack in the offensive zone - that'll enable more options with regards to joining rushes and attacking and jumping up into cycles. Of course, that necessitates coverage for them (from the wingers)."

Daneyko, for one, remains a proponent of mixing old-school rearguards (think Ian Cole) with those from this new wave. "You need balance," he said. "I love Quinn Hughes. He's one of my favorite guys. But you can't win with six Quinn Hugheses on your back end. You look at the championship teams and (it's obvious) you still need balance."

Regardless, it'll be fascinating to watch the position over the next decade.

"We're nearing an interesting nexus point - or transition point, I should say - where defensemen are being able to fill more roles," Jessop said. "In order to take that next step to bring out that value, in terms of a player development standpoint, we're going to have to see more wingers and more defensemen be able to be interchangeable and rotate in and out of each other's positions."

John Matisz is theScore's national hockey writer. You can follow John on Twitter (@MatiszJohn) and contact him via email (john.matisz@thescore.com).

Copyright © 2021 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

Technically, Chris Gerrie is a professional hockey player, having appeared in two ECHL games for the Wichita Thunder over the past 11 months. However, with his roster spot gone and the province of Alberta in lockdown mode, the only ice available to him right now is at outdoor facilities open to the general public.

"I've tried to use all the resources I can," Gerrie said.

At the mercy of weather conditions, ice quality, and crowd size at the two rinks closest to his apartment in Calgary, he's learned it's best to train under the lights after the neighborhood kids have retired for the night. Alone, bundled up, and wearing only half of his equipment, he'll skate laps and fire pucks at a vacant net:

Gerrie, a 24-year-old forward from Mount Royal University in Calgary, made his pro debut last March, just before the ECHL pulled the plug on its 2019-20 season. Throughout the summer and fall, he relied mostly on the Canada Emergency Response Benefit for income as he trained on and off the ice.

"You just kind of have to come to terms with it, I guess. It's so out of your control, right?" he said. "I definitely have my moments where I feel really sorry for myself, but you've just got to remember everyone's in this pandemic and people are in way worse situations."

The Thunder welcomed Gerrie back for training camp in December. He was sent packing shortly thereafter, though, because the club had received four AHL players on loan from the Toronto Marlies. He made $160 for two days of work.

"I'm starting to get experienced in all of this craziness," Gerrie said, with a nod to his place in pro hockey's pecking order. "It seems like there's new obstacles every week. But I've definitely gotten more mentally strong."

Groups of hockey players scattered across North America have either fallen through the cracks or had to reroute their 2020-21 plans.

Amid a flurry of NHL postponements, the AHL on Friday will open its regular season four months later than usual. Three U.S. franchises opted out of a campaign in which league-wide ticket revenue will be negligible and teams are playing between 24 and 44 games. Meanwhile, the AHL's all-Canadian division is in limbo while some clubs await approval from government officials.

The ECHL is arguably worse off, with only 14 of 26 teams competing in its 50-game regular season. Across both leagues, that's 15 teams and more than 300 roster spots temporarily slashed at the two levels directly below the NHL.

"There's only so many jobs. We feel for those guys. Believe me, we feel for them," Professional Hockey Players' Association executive director Larry Landon said in an interview. "They're members, they're part of the family."

The PHPA is the minor-league equivalent of the NHLPA. Last week, it wrapped up negotiations with the AHL on a return-to-play agreement, which includes a guarantee that players on one-way contracts will be paid 40% of their salaries in 2020-21. The minors rely heavily on game-day revenue, and without full buildings - or a plan to hold a Calder Cup playoff tournament - there's simply not enough money in the system to justify a better deal for the players.

Nick DeVito has business and accounting degrees from SUNY Morrisville, so he understands the math. The out-of-work ECHLer isn't pointing the finger at minor-league owners as he spends his days training off the ice and making a few bucks on the side shooting on goalies and teaching kids how to skate.

DeVito signed with the ECHL's Adirondack Thunder this past November. The team opted out within days. "That was a blow," he said. "You get the highs of being like, 'All right, I'm set!' and then all of a sudden you're at rock bottom."

On Nov. 17, he vented on Twitter, saying, "I just want to play a hockey game."

"Literally. That's all I want to do," DeVito said about the tweet three months later. "I just want to play a hockey game. That still resonates. And that tweet meant everything."

DeVito, 25, is open to any opportunity at this point, including trying his luck overseas if there's a last-minute fit somewhere. The layoff has given him plenty of time to research the financial job market and, in general, contemplate his life path, though it's been impossible to shake the feeling that he was on the cusp of finding his groove at a new level of hockey.

Last March, DeVito, a smart, quick forward, registered an assist for the Worcester Railers in his first ECHL game. He's watched the replay "probably, I don't know, 150 times? Just to feel the happiness of getting a pro point and being a pro hockey player. It's tough to sit by and not play."

Participation in the PHPA's Career Enhancement Program has skyrocketed during the pandemic. Everyone from well-paid AHL veterans to cash-strapped ECHL newcomers is reaching out for career counseling, resume preparation, and connections to the real estate, firefighting, and construction industries.

"It's rough out there. Guys are definitely scrambling," said Steve Carney, the program's coordinator. "Some guys are panicking because they haven't really planned for anything else. There's nothing else they've ever known."

The American college and Canadian major-junior ranks are in states of flux, too. For instance, Big Ten teams have played between 16 and 18 games while all six Ivy League schools canceled their seasons months ago.

Phil Kemp, a 2017 seventh-round draft pick of the Edmonton Oilers, was supposed to captain Yale this season before turning pro in 2021-22. The big defenseman now finds himself competing for Vasby IK in the Allsvenskan, Sweden's second-best pro league. He has five points in 18 games so far.

Kemp left Yale three credits shy of a history degree, so between workouts, practices, and games, he's been firing up Zoom to attend classes. In his mind, there's no reason why he can't continue his education virtually. "I could be in Antarctica and they wouldn't even know," he said with a laugh.

In general, Kemp can't really complain about how the last few months have unfolded since the Oilers were able to find him a comfortable place to develop. Still, the lack of closure on his college career, which ended abruptly last March, is "an absolute heartbreaker and it won't stop stinging for a while."

"'Chaos creates opportunity' is kind of the way I'm looking at it," he added. "Chaos opens up new pathways because it's unplanned. So I'm just trying to take advantage of those opportunities (because it) can be huge (for me)."

In Canada, the QMJHL season has been off and on due to numerous COVID-19 outbreaks, the WHL committed to a 24-game regular season but doesn't have a firm start date, and the OHL has yet to release a concrete plan.

These delays have affected every type of player in junior hockey - from the kids graduating minor hockey to more experienced athletes looking to get on the radar of pro scouts to the top prospects eligible for the 2021 NHL Draft.

Logan Mailloux of the London Knights falls into that last bucket. The 17-year-old defenseman's agency sent him to Sweden in November, and he's managed to get decent exposure to NHL scouts in the country's third-tier pro league. He's way up in Skelleftea, almost 500 miles north of Stockholm.

"It's a good learning experience," Mailloux said of the "unorthodox" scenario of battling with and against men as old as 30.

"It's a different path than a lot of other people have taken. Even though it might just be a taste of coming over, it could be the only time in my life that I get to play in Europe or in Sweden. I'm definitely trying to take it all in."

Mailloux tested positive for the coronavirus earlier in the season but says he's fully recovered after facing minor symptoms. "I've had colds that have felt worse than that," he said. "But obviously everybody takes it differently."

Erie Otters forward Colby Saganiuk is also eligible for the 2021 draft. He left the United States National Team Development Program and decommited from Penn State last spring in order to join the Otters. Unfortunately, he's still waiting for that debut shift in the OHL, and it might not come until 2021-22.

"It's just been really weird," Saganiuk said. "But I'm doing what I can."

Saganiuk, who turned 18 on Friday, considered some kind of European adventure, but the travel and living expenses coupled with the uncertainty of COVID-19 kept him in Pennsylvania. In the meantime, the 5-foot-8 forward has added enough muscle to tip the scales at 160 pounds, and he hits the ice three times a week, including once for scrimmages. He and other Pittsburgh-area juniors and pros are forced to gear up in the lobby, spaced 6 feet apart.

One silver lining for Saganiuk has been spending time with his grandpa Rocky Saganiuk, a former NHLer. The duo rents ice once a week to refine Colby's shot.

"What have I taken away?" he said. "You have to live in the moment."

Count Gerrie among the pros who are trying to tap into a similar mantra: "I have the mindset of, 'I'm going to play until they take away my skates.'"

John Matisz is theScore's national hockey writer. You can follow John on Twitter (@MatiszJohn) and contact him via email (john.matisz@thescore.com).

Copyright © 2021 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

Kurtis Gabriel has always been the type to take things to the extreme.

As a child of the "Jurassic Park" era, he obsessed over dinosaurs, watching, reading, and talking about them to no end. Even now, he's fascinated by "super predators" like the Tyrannosaurus rex, Allosaurus, and Utahraptor.

"Could tell you way, way more about dinos than the average person," Gabriel recently told theScore. He added with a laugh: "What's not interesting about dinos?"

By 16, though, Gabriel was hooked on something else: nutrition. He started buying his own groceries, teaching himself how to cook, and portioning meals. Going all-in on his body was obligatory if he one day wanted to make a living in hockey.

Never an elite talent, Gabriel has leaned into his obsessive gene to crack junior and pro rosters. He made the AHL in 2014 and has appeared in 317 games at that level - plus 38 in the NHL - while splitting time between the Minnesota Wild, New Jersey Devils, and Philadelphia Flyers organizations. The hard-nosed right-winger signed a one-year, two-way deal with the San Jose Sharks in November but has yet to play a regular-season shift this season due to the AHL's hiatus. Currently, he's a member of the Sharks' NHL taxi squad.

Gabriel's predisposition for going to the extreme is evident in his work away from the rink, too: He's become one of hockey's leading voices on human rights issues. Publicly on social media and privately behind the scenes, the 27-year-old is taking the initiative to educate himself while lending support to groups who regularly face prejudice.

It's a rare day when Gabriel isn't contributing in some way or another to online discourse about equality or mental health.

"Just an ongoing part of my life now," he said. "It's an obligation that we all have as humans - and I really believe this - to help out with these issues."

This wasn't planned. Gabriel "fell into" LGBTQ+ activism on Feb. 25, 2019.

After rolling rainbow tape onto the shaft of his stick for warmup on Pride Night in New Jersey, Gabriel decided to keep it on for the game because re-taping seemed like an annoying task. Tape is tape, regardless of color.

Then he scored a goal, and the replay of his exuberant celebration went viral.

"I wasn't comfortable doing this right off the bat. I just wore the Pride Tape and - boom! - I'm an activist …," Gabriel said. "I had to work at it. I had to get comfortable."

Around this time, one of Gabriel's friends became estranged from her family after coming out as a lesbian. That injustice motivated Gabriel to march in the 2019 Toronto Pride parade. Today, he continues to use Pride Tape, and he recently became the proud owner of two pairs of skates featuring rainbow decals.

Gabriel has also developed a strong bond with Brock McGillis, the first out men's professional hockey player. Though he was initially intimidated by McGillis' outspokenness on LGBTQ+ issues, Gabriel's passion for the cause went from casual to intense once he began to understand McGillis' perspective.

"I started to see somebody who really wanted to learn, who had taken the time to learn, and who wanted to learn even more," McGillis said. "Kurtis was open to not just hearing what I said and taking it as reality but investigating it on his own and making decisions for himself. I really respected that."

McGillis and other community leaders, influencers, and academics are in the process of finalizing a not-for-profit support group for empowering LGBTQ+ people in sports. Gabriel attends meetings for the group whenever the Sharks' schedule allows. On his own time, he offers his takes on the good and the bad of sports culture through Instagram and Twitter.

Gabriel said parents of minor hockey players have contacted him to say his unabashed allyship has provided their kids with a well-rounded role model. One young Sharks fan messaged him during training camp, informing Gabriel that his work gave him the courage to speak up against the use of homophobic language at the rink.

"That was pretty cool to me," Gabriel said. "I sent that one to Brock. He told me I was making my own little shift-makers from what I was doing."

Then there are these types of unsolicited messages:

Of course, Gabriel's activism isn't well-received by everybody. His inboxes aren't immune to hateful messages sent mainly from anonymous accounts. This particular part of his life can be both frustrating and infuriating.

"Why does anybody care how anybody else lives their life?" Gabriel said. "It just shows how insecure our society is, how rampant the mental health problem is because people just can't worry about themselves."

He added: "You've got to extend compassion to them if you want them to meet you in the middle and, at least, learn. You can't just attack them."

On the ice, Gabriel isn't afraid to stick up for his teammates. Standing 6-foot-4 and 200 pounds, he's been assessed 11 NHL fighting majors, according to HockeyFights.com - roughly one fight every three games. Off the ice, he's managed to channel that protective energy in other ways.

When George Floyd's killing in the custody of white police officers in May sparked a global civil rights movement, Gabriel joined peaceful protesters in his offseason home in London, Ontario. When the NHL postponed games during the 2020 postseason, he published a spirited video urging fans not to look at Black Lives Matter as a political campaign ruining sports. It's strictly about human rights, he pleaded.

"I was naive to these things," he said in the video. "Now I'm woke to them."

Jordan Dabney, a graphic designer for the Black Girl Hockey Club, applauds Gabriel for his continuous support of Black people, and he wishes other white players - and the NHL itself - would follow suit. The BGHC launched its Get Uncomfortable Campaign in September, and it uses the word "uncomfortable" for a very specific reason. "Progress is rarely easy and often requires being open-minded and vulnerable," the BGHC states on its website.

"No one is born hateful," Dabney said. "Everything, from racism to homophobia, is a taught habit. So if you don't put in the time and the effort to change that way of thinking, to change that way of living, then there's not going to be a change."

Gabriel and his mom Kim have been reading Layla F. Saad's book, "Me And White Supremacy." Together, they've learned about terms like white fragility, white superiority, and white exceptionalism. "It's everywhere," Gabriel said of white fragility, the kind of defensiveness and dismissiveness that prevents progress.

"The first part of being an ally is the willingness to listen, the willingness to be aware of things that you, yourself, cannot or do not experience," Dabney said when asked about allyship in general. "Listening is a huge part. And so is starting conversations you wouldn't normally have. That's huge."

Gabriel is an advocate for mental health awareness in large part because he lost his father to suicide when he was 10. Last week, ahead of Bell Let's Talk Day in Canada, he shared the story in a Twitter thread about being "sick, not weak."

"He ended his life by running at a full-steam-ahead train," Gabriel said of his dad, who had a doctor's appointment scheduled for the week after he died.

He continued: "My dad would still be here if he asked (for help) again. He asked once, and it wasn't enough. He needed to ask again. He didn't have that in him. Or, he had it in him, and he just thought that (asking for help) would be showing weakness or vulnerability as a man."

In 2019, Gabriel made a video with the Shared Grief Project about dealing with the loss of a parent at a young age. "I think it (has) connected that he had such a major loss, such a major trauma," Shared Grief co-founder Todd Arky said of the video's impact on other grieving kids. "When you live your life through that and don't let it knock you too far off course, you already exhibit some significantly important capabilities. That's one of the reasons he is who he is."

Whether it's human rights or mental health, Gabriel has some hard and fast rules: Treat people well. Be empathetic. And don't be afraid to step out of your comfort zone. That's what he's tried to do lately, and though he's the first to admit he hasn't mastered allyship, he feels like a "guinea-pig ally" who's laid out a template for others to follow.

Gabriel's hockey career may never advance past the margins of the NHL, but his perspective on life has grown beyond that after he went deeper into something other than dinosaurs, nutrition, or hockey. Instead of stressing about a turnover the day after a game, he can direct that energy elsewhere.

"Before, it was like, 'Hockey sucks so life sucks. I identify as a hockey player,'" he said. "Now, it's like, 'I'm a person who helps out with much bigger things than me,' which gives me a lot of meaning.

"And then I step out of that and can be a crazy dude on the ice who can fight. It's awesome."

John Matisz is theScore's national hockey writer. You can follow John on Twitter (@MatiszJohn) and contact him via email (john.matisz@thescore.com).

Copyright © 2021 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

The final score will paint an optimistic picture: The Winnipeg Jets defeated the Calgary Flames 4-3 in overtime on Thursday night. Patrik Laine scored two goals and added an assist. The Jets are off and running with a 1-0 record.

The real takeaway is that Winnipeg's blue line wasn't the story. After a shaky opening 20 minutes, the unheralded six-pack of Josh Morrissey, Neal Pionk, Tucker Poolman, Derek Forbort, Nathan Beaulieu, and Sami Niku did an adequate job insulating goalie Connor Hellebuyck. Calgary mustered just four high-danger shot attempts at even strength.

That last stat is not something you could write often last season. The Jets were a train wreck in their own end, ranking near the bottom in virtually every defensive metric. After a relatively quiet offseason, they've brought back basically the same personnel.

In an interview on Tuesday, Pionk spoke about how the blue line must change its approach to defending. Being proactive is at the core of the game plan.

"I wouldn't say it's necessarily a magic potion that we have," Pionk said. "But, for myself personally, just watching video in the offseason, a lot of it is going to have to do with anticipation.

"There's a big difference between anticipation and guessing. You can't just guess a play is going to happen. But if you know a guy is going to cycle down low, then go confront that player, go down low, and kill that play as fast as you can. The best defense is when you have the puck and can get going on offense, right? We've talked a lot about that in training camp. As long as we can kill plays in a quick way, we're going to eliminate a lot of those chances."

Pionk's words immediately came to mind Thursday as I watched Morrissey confront Sean Monahan deep in Winnipeg's end as the Calgary forward tried to generate a scoring chance in the third period, with the score tied 3-3:

Morrissey's aggression and Poolman's quick cross-ice pass to Kyle Connor is exactly what the coaching staff is asking for. Kill the play and get the puck to one of the team's talented forwards as soon as possible.

So the first game went well - all things considered. Only 55 remaining in this offense-first division. We'll see if this grounds the high-wire act the Jets played last season.

Mental challenges ahead

Binging on live hockey these past two days, it's been easy to forget how fragile the whole operation is amid a raging pandemic. The NHL is, to nobody's surprise, running into the same COVID-19 outbreak issues as other pro sports leagues that staged games outside a bubble.

A list of "players who are unavailable to play or practice" is being released by the league office on a regular basis. Wednesday's opening-day report included 22 names. That count doesn't even include Dallas, where the Stars are dealing with a significant spread that's sidelined 14 players, causing the postponement of their first three games.

"We're all human beings. You can't do a bubble for an entire hockey season. I think that's well-known," San Jose Sharks goalie Devan Dubnyk said earlier this week.

"You can drive yourself crazy if you're overanalyzing and overthinking every single move you make - who you're talking to, what you're doing," added Dubnyk, a longtime NHLPA team representative. "But it's just about being smart and not taking unnecessary risks, and just following the (NHL/NHLPA COVID-19) protocols that have been laid out as best as you can."

The bubbled postseason was tough on mental health. The current setup is a little kinder overall, though players, coaches, and staff are still confined to the rink and hotel while on the road for their multi-game series.

"The mental side of it will be a trade-off. There's pros and cons," Anaheim Ducks defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk said. "The ability to play a game in, say, Arizona, and then even if it's a back-to-back, staying in town and being back in your room at 11:30 after your game rather than flying overnight to play the second game in a back-to-back, that'll work out in your favor. So there are ways in which the baseball-style schedule is good.

"But the fact that we're playing 56 games in 118 days, or whatever it is, that's going to be a grind. Guys will get used to it, and it'll be a lot of what we experience in February and March of a normal year. But to do it for such a long time is going to be something where we have to make sure we're keeping our minds fresh and keeping our bodies as healthy as we can."

Svechnikov's the 'full package'

If Andrei Svechnikov's name was Joe Smith and he played for the Vancouver Canucks, I'm convinced we'd be hearing about him ad nauseam.

Last season, Svechnikov very quietly bagged 24 goals and 37 assists for 61 points in 68 games as a second-year winger for the Carolina Hurricanes. He did it by skating the equivalent of second-line minutes, ranking fourth among Carolina forwards at 16:44 a night. In the bubble, the Russian was dynamite before getting injured midway through the second round.

"He's got so many top skills. I don't know if you can say just one," Hurricanes teammate Warren Foegele said of Svechnikov, who scored a goal in Carolina’s opener on Thursday. "He's the full package. The skating, it's really good. He's strong. He's physical. His shot, his skills. He's just a special player."

"I think he initiates a lot, too," Foegele continued. "If you watch some of the games closely, you can see that he's laying some big hits out there. I know that in the playoffs you can just see him knock some big guys. He's battling against (Zdeno) Chara before he got hurt. He's not afraid. He's not stepping down. He just wants to win."

That physicality is rare for a guy who's skilled enough to pull off two lacrosse-style goals in one season. In fact, according to Natural Stat Trick's database, Svechnikov finished fourth in hits per 60 minutes (6.12) among the 46 players who scored at least 24 goals last season. Not bad.

Slow death of the slap shot?

Micah Blake McCurdy, the creator of the indispensable HockeyViz.com, ran the numbers recently on shot types and found that slap-shot use in the NHL declined significantly over the past decade or so.

In 2007-08, when the league began tracking shot types, slap shots represented 35% of all shots at even strength and 35% of all shots on the power play. Those percentages have sunk to roughly 15% at evens and 22% on the PP.

Asked for his take on this trend, Flames defenseman Noah Hanifin opined that a dramatic shift in game speed is one of the driving forces.

"As a defenseman, you have such limited time when you get the puck at the blue line. Guys are right in your shooting lane. Guys are getting out quick on you and they're trying to take away the ability for you to shoot extremely fast," Hanifin said, before adding: "The time to wind up and take a slap shot just isn't there anymore."

Hanifin also noted that thanks to advancements in stick technology, players in 2021 can generate almost as much velocity and accuracy on a well-taken wrist shot or snap shot as they can with a rushed clapper. The difference, of course, is the length of time it takes to get rid of the puck.

Pionk agreed while offering another theory: Defending players deploy their sticks differently nowadays, with more versatility, which is stymieing more slap-shot attempts from the point.

"My guess is that the stick detail has improved so much that there's not as much (attention on) hooking or hitting. Especially for a small guy like me," said Pionk, who is 6-feet, 186 pounds. "Your stick is your biggest weapon. You can kill a play, you can deflect a puck into the netting. So maybe that's the reason?"

Norris and that booming shot

In the Ottawa Senators' opener Friday night, head coach D.J. Smith is expected to unveil a top line featuring 21-year-old Josh Norris at center alongside Brady Tkachuk, also 21, and Drake Batherson, 22. Norris, a 6-foot-2 speedster, arrives with plenty of hype after dressing for three NHL games and winning the AHL's top-rookie award last year.

"The one thing, for me, that's always caught my eye, is his shot," Senators defenseman Thomas Chabot said. "He's not the biggest guy when you look at him on the ice, but to see him use that release is amazing. It's really impressive. That goes with all the other tools he's got, too. He's going to be a big piece of our team. He's going to really help us right away this year, and he's going to be well-surrounded. Very talented kid."

For a team projected to finish last in its division, the Senators are still watchable. Norris' shot is just one of many curiosities.

Ottawa's top six is being filled out by Tim Stutzle, Derek Stepan, and Evgenii Dadonov, all of whom are new to the team and, in Stutzle's case, to the NHL. Chabot is a magnetic player due to his incredible skating and puck skills, and his yin-and-yang partnership with veteran Erik Gudbranson should be interesting. Most intriguing is goalie Matt Murray and the direction in which his career trends over the first season of a four-year deal.

ELDOA offers another off-ice option

Long gone are the days where running hills and lifting dumbbells were the only options for NHLers looking to stay fit and healthy. The modern NHLer is open-minded about what kinds of off-ice exercises are worth their time and energy.

"There's so many things now, off the ice, that everyone's doing. Whenever you can find something that works for you, it's nice to stick with it," Arizona Coyotes defenseman Jakob Chychrun - a physical specimen at 6-foot-2, 210 pounds - said in reference to yoga, Pilates, and other new-wave exercises.

The latest craze is ELDOA, a French acronym that translates to longitudinal osteoarticular decoaptation stretching. Stars Connor McDavid and Connor Hellebuyck are noted proponents, while Foegele says he added ELDOA into his offseason training regime at former pro Gary Roberts' gym in Toronto in an effort to refine his core and enhance his stability.

"It's something you can always work on to prevent injuries in the future. More (research) is coming out on that," Foegele said. "It's something I wanted to try. I hadn't focused enough time on that, and ELDOA is pretty cool to learn."

Hockey hair bonanza

Cody Glass is rocking a mean mane to mark his sophomore season.

As a group, the Vegas Golden Knights score high in the hair department. Top center William Karlsson's had long golden locks for years. Captain Mark Stone isn't Mark Stone unless that mop of hair is spilling out of his helmet. Goalie Robin Lehner is sporting a lengthy, slicked-back look at the moment.

So who is Vegas' king of flow right now? "Probably Karlsson," Glass said with a hearty laugh. "He's held the title for the longest time."

With fewer trips to the barbershop during COVID-19, the Toronto Maple Leafs' core players are also channeling their inner Jaromir Jagr and Al Iafrate. Travis Konecny and Ivan Provorov of the Philadelphia Flyers apparently got the memo, as well. It'll be tough to match the level of complexity we see each year at the Minnesota state high school hockey tournament, but this is quite the start.

"You're going to see a lot of long hair coming out of the bucket, especially with the times we're living right now," Glass said.

"I think it's going to be the Year of the Hockey Hair."

3 parting thoughts

Auston Matthews: I was watching the Leafs game Wednesday night and noticed Matthews wearing some unique CCM skates. The big and bold logo catches the eye, and the thick red streak pops. It'll be interesting to see where this goes in respect to adding bolder design aspects on skates.

Glass ads: I don't mind the helmet ads. The corporate logos on the seat coverings and behind the bench are fine. Make your money, NHL. But the advertisements on the glass above the boards in some rinks are distracting.

David Puddy: Even if you don't cheer for the New Jersey Devils, you've gotta love this message using an image of the legendary "Seinfeld" character. Mask up, indeed.

Takes, Thoughts, and Trends is theScore's monthly hockey grab bag.

John Matisz is theScore's national hockey writer. You can follow John on Twitter (@MatiszJohn) and contact him via email (john.matisz@thescore.com).

Copyright © 2021 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

The 2020-21 NHL season could very well end up being the most unpredictable season in recent memory thanks to COVID-19, division realignment, and other factors. With that in mind, let's get to 21 predictions - some complete long shots and others that are realistic. Here goes nothing:

1. Auston Matthews earns his first "Rocket" Richard Trophy

There are three reasons why Matthews will lead the NHL in goals. One, the Maple Leafs sniper has shown he's worthy: Since debuting in October 2016, Matthews ranks second in goals and goals per game with 158 and 0.56, trailing only Alex Ovechkin (181, 0.58) while edging out David Pastrnak (155, 0.53) and Nikita Kucherov (153, 0.50). Two, Matthews' wingers to start the year - Joe Thornton and Mitch Marner - are elite playmakers. Three, perennial "Rocket" Richard winner Ovechkin could finally hit a wall, Pastrnak is starting the year on the sidelines, and Kucherov is out for the entire regular season. Leon Draisaitl, Jack Eichel, and Nathan MacKinnon will surely provide stiff competition for the scoring crown, but Matthews is the preseason front-runner.

2. Penguins' Zucker-Malkin-Rust line is unstoppable

Pittsburgh's top-six forward group is almost unfair. Sidney Crosby and Jake Guentzel power a line with Evan Rodrigues, while Evgeni Malkin anchors a second trio with Bryan Rust and Jason Zucker. That "second" line is going to destroy in 2020-21. Malkin and Rust jelled in 2019-20, with the Pens outscoring opponents 45-30 with both on the ice at even strength. Zucker, who spent most of his 15 games alongside Crosby after coming over from Minnesota, should be a perfect fit. All three are strong on the puck, capable of scoring 20 goals in a 56-game season, and skate like the wind. Don't be surprised if it's the Malkin-led line - not Crosby's trio - that paces the NHL in production.

3. Connor McDavid/Nathan MacKinnon debate quiets down

After a couple of years on top, McDavid's been demoted to arguably the best player in the world thanks to a tremendous 2019-20 showing from MacKinnon. In 2020-21, though, McDavid will remind us who's boss. He had a whole five months to stew over the MacKinnon lovefest and the corresponding chatter about McDavid's shortcomings as a defender. Motivation, individually and at a team level, will be at an all-time high. And, unlike his summer of 2019, which was dominated by rehab, McDavid spent this offseason working on his game. Now, this isn't to slam MacKinnon - he'll be his usual force of nature. He might even lead the league in scoring. Who knows. The point is, McDavid will regain his best-player-on-the-planet status.

4. 2020-21 becomes the year of the rookie goalie

Listen, Alexis Lafreniere is going to absolutely kill it on Broadway. Ditto for Kirill Kaprizov in St. Paul. The two most highly anticipated members of the incoming rookie class shouldn't be ignored. But with a pair of promising goalies - Igor Shesterkin of the Rangers and Ilya Sorokin of the Islanders - also eligible for the Calder Trophy and playing in good team environments, it's not a stretch to suggest the rookie-of-the-year conversation will end up focused on the crease. With small sample sizes due to the shortened regular season, a hot stretch from one - or both - of these 25-year-old Russians could go a long way in winning over voters and NHL fans at large.

5. Tkachuk brothers post Gordie Howe hat tricks in the same game

Recording a Gordie Howe hat trick (one goal, one assist, and one fight in the same game) is a rare feat these days. Fighting is nearly extinct and the list of NHLers who employ a rough-and-tumble style and contribute offensively is about a dozen names long. Brothers Matthew Tkachuk and Brady Tkachuk are definitely on that list, however, and if their health allows, the sport's best sibling rivalry will be a go nine times in 2020-21. This prediction is admittedly a long shot, considering neither has a Gordie Howe hat trick right now. But if there was ever a scenario in which the Calgary Tkachuk and the Ottawa Tkachuk posted one, it would happen during a North Division battle.

6. Patrick Marleau sets record for games played, promptly retires

There won't be much to celebrate in San Jose this season. The Sharks have relocated to Scottsdale, Arizona, to start 2020-21 and on-ice expectations are relatively low. Marleau's pursuit of the games-played record, then, counts as excitement. The 41-year-old is set to play his 23rd NHL season - and 21st in a Sharks uniform - with 1,723 games to his name, good for fifth all time. The record, held by Gordie Howe, is 1,767. That 44-game difference is 79% of the regular-season schedule. It's a difficult but doable task for a guy who's on a league-minimum contract and not nearly as effective as he once was. Marleau is an icon in the Bay Area and beloved across the NHL. He deserves this chase and one last moment as he, presumably, skates off into the sunset.

7. Taylor Hall finds better chemistry with Eric Staal than Jack Eichel

As of this writing, the Sabres' top line features Jack Eichel between Taylor Hall and Tage Thompson. The second line has Eric Staal centering Victor Olofsson and Sam Reinhart. It's an enviable top six, especially by Buffalo's perennial bottom-feeder standards. Stylistically, though, swapping the two left wingers - Hall and Olofsson - would make a ton of sense. Both Hall and Eichel excel at transporting the puck through the neutral zone and, generally speaking, love to possess the puck in the offensive zone. So there might not be enough puck to go around if they're sharing the ice on a regular basis. The coaching staff obviously knows this, but you can't blame the Sabres for loading up the top trio to start. Watch for some line juggling in Buffalo as the season moves along.

8. Pierre-Luc Dubois stays longer than Patrik Laine

The reported trade demands made by Dubois and Laine are similar but different - similar because they're two 22-year-old stars trying to force their way out of small markets, different because Dubois is under contract for this season and next while Laine is a restricted free agent next offseason. With the Artemi Panarin and Sergei Bobrovsky sagas of 2018-19, the Blue Jackets showed that they're capable of plowing through drama. The Jets, on the other hand, have a strong leadership group that must be frustrated with the timing of Laine's request. Winnipeg's core won't be intact forever and the North Division is wide-open. If a team ponies up a high-end defenseman, there's incentive for the Jets to trade Laine ASAP, whereas the Dubois situation appears to be headed for a divorce further down the line - perhaps next offseason amid the expansion draft, entry draft, and free agency.

9. The Wild are exciting - for a change

Year after year, we bemoan the boringness of the Wild. They're always in the mushy middle of the standings and their players don't often capture the attention of folks outside of Minnesota. This year should be different. The arrival of Kirill Kaprizov instantly makes them must-see TV. Same for the presence of Marco Rossi, who's out with an upper-body injury to start the year but is expected to see at least six NHL games. Kevin Fiala scored 14 goals in the final 18 games of the 2019-20 regular season, so he's a player to monitor closely. Jared Spurgeon and Jonas Brodin could be one of the most effective defense pairings in the league. The meh goaltending duo of Cam Talbot and Alex Stalock will be an adventure. And the Wild are favored to claim the fourth playoff spot in a top-heavy West Division.

10. Jack Hughes leads all second-year players in points

Last season wasn't pretty for Jack Hughes. He had a Patrik Stefan-level rookie campaign, picking up just seven goals and 21 points in 61 games. His underlying numbers weren't encouraging either. Still, expect a redemptive 2020-21 from the 2019 top pick. The Devils, as an organization, have stabilized, which couldn't be said last year, when the coach and general manager were both fired and Taylor Hall was traded. Hughes, who struggled with the physical elements of the NHL, has added 14 pounds of "pure muscle" to his 5-foot-11 frame over a 10-month break. And, to be frank, he's simply too freaking good - that skating, that vision, that playmaking - to repeat those icky results. Hughes' competition for top point-getter among sophomores includes Victor Olofsson, Dominik Kubalik, Denis Gurianov, Nick Suzuki, Cale Makar, and his brother, Quinn Hughes. Yep, Jack 2.0 can lead this group.

11. Coyotes finish last in offense; Blackhawks finish last in defense

It's not every year that you can look across the league ahead of opening night and confidently identify the teams likely to finish last in goals for per game and last in goals against per game. There's usually plenty of competition for these lowly distinctions. But in 2020-21, the firepower-deprived Coyotes and the Blackhawks, with no true No. 1 goalie and a subpar blue line, are easy targets. Seriously, who on Arizona's roster beyond Phil Kessel, Clayton Keller, Nick Schmaltz, and Barrett Hayton is going to ignite the attack? How exactly is Chicago, a club that allowed a league-high 30 scoring chances per 60 minutes of five-on-five action last year, going to keep the puck out of its net when Collin Delia and Malcolm Subban are sharing the crease?

12. Josh Anderson outscores trade buddy Max Domi

October's Anderson-for-Domi trade was a classic change-of-scenery swap. In moving to Montreal, Anderson cleansed his palate after recording just four points in an injury-ravaged 26-game season. Meanwhile, Domi fell out of favor with the Canadiens, barely playing in the bubbled postseason, but has managed to slide into the Blue Jackets' No. 2 center spot. Both forwards are attempting to recapture their form from 2018-19, when Domi bagged 28 goals and Anderson potted 27. Now, who bounces back in a greater way? Anderson feels like the smarter pick. His rare combination of size, skating, and sniping should mix well with a Habs forward group that has multiple playmakers but could use another natural finisher. Plus, Domi might be forced to alter his style a bit within John Tortorella's defense-first system.

13. Predators sell at trade deadline

In terms of timelines and trajectories, the Predators are one of the league's most perplexing teams. Nashville competed in the 2017 Stanley Cup Final and won the President's Trophy in 2017-18 but has since advanced past the first round of the playoffs only once. The roster, as usual, lacks dynamic forwards; Ryan Johansen, Matt Duchene, Viktor Arvidsson, and Filip Forsberg don't quite qualify as "game breakers." Then again, the team has no issues between the pipes or on the back end, with Roman Josi leading possibly the NHL's best blue line. Still, the Preds might miss the playoffs in a Central Division featuring Tampa Bay, Carolina, Dallas, Columbus, and Florida. Is this the year David Poile, the club's GM since 1997, pivots to a deeper retool? He already has $5 million in cap space, which could be used during next offseason's transaction period. If things go south on the ice, moving more money out and adding more draft picks at the deadline would be the right call.

14. Analytics darling Ondrej Kase (finally) breaks out

Two summers ago, Ondrej Kase, then a member of the Ducks, led The Athletic's list of the top 10 breakout candidates for 2019-20. Last winter, The Hockey News dubbed Kase a "potential breakout star" after Boston acquired the right winger from Anaheim. Those are only two examples, as Kase has been a so-called "analytics darling" as far back as 2018. The case for his imminent emergence has largely focused on the potential of him seeing more ice and playing with high-quality linemates. Kase, who is in his prime at 25, has shown flashes of brilliance, posting a career 53.5% Corsi For rating and elite per-60 minute stats through 204 NHL games. This coming season, with star David Pastrnak expected to miss a few weeks of action, the Bruins will be moving pieces around on the lineup card. Kase could have a golden opportunity.

15. Norris Trophy voting pits youngsters against mid-career guys

A season removed from a fascinating Calder Trophy battle between Cale Makar and Quinn Hughes, as well as a brilliant postseason from Miro Heiskanen, the Norris Trophy debate is going to be heated. You have the 23-and-under cohort - Makar, Hughes, Heiskanen, Adam Fox, Rasmus Dahlin, Thomas Chabot - colliding with a mid-career group headlined by Jaccob Slavin, Seth Jones, Alex Pietrangelo, Roman Josi, John Carlson, and Victor Hedman. (If such a thing were possible, there might be too many excellent defensemen in the league right now.) The 2019-20 Norris voting process spit out a top five of Josi, Carlson, Hedman, Pietrangelo, and Slavin. Count on at least two of the 23-and-under guys to crack the 2020-21 list.

16. 2020-21 determines if Alex Ovechkin has a real chance at goals record

Alex Ovechkin enters the season 188 goals behind Wayne Gretzky on the all-time list. His 706 tallies in 1,152 games are a remarkable feat, yet outside factors have once again conspired against the Capitals captain. COVID-19 robbed Ovechkin of 13 games last year and is limiting him to a maximum of 56 games in 2020-21. (Also of note, he appeared in only 48 games in 2012-13 because of the lockout.) In other words, the 35-year-old is running out of runway. If he hits 34 goals this year - the equivalent of 50 goals in an 82-game season - the Russian marksman would still be 154 goals short of the record. That's roughly five more 30-goal years or roughly three more 50-goal years. So, even if the goals continue to roll in, simply scoring often won't be enough. Ovechkin will need to score a lot this season and then continue to score a lot while remaining healthy for another three to five years.

17. Upcoming UFA class loses luster

Relative to the transaction-happy NBA, the NHL stages a tame free agency period. The brightest stars tend to stay put, curtailing the number of jaw-dropping developments. The upcoming UFA class probably won't reverse that trend when the market opens on July 28. The list of pending UFAs who qualify as a "big name" includes Alex Ovechkin, Dougie Hamilton, Gabriel Landeskog, Taylor Hall, Ryan Getzlaf, Tuukka Rask, David Krejci, Paul Stastny, Phillip Danault, Eric Staal, Kyle Palmieri, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Pekka Rinne, and Frederik Andersen. On the surface, that's an average UFA class. But, the issue - from an entertainment standpoint, anyway - is that Hall, Getzlaf, Danault, Staal, and Andersen are the only players from that group of 14 who seem destined to test the market. The other nine appear primed to either re-sign with their current clubs or, in the cases of Rask and Rinne, maybe retire.

18. League save percentage dips below .910

The average save percentage in the NHL has been slowly sliding over the past handful of years. It's gone from .915 in 2015-16 to .910 the last two seasons. In 2020-21, a perfect storm of factors could push the league SV% below .910 for the first time since 2008-09 and closer to the post-lockout lows of .905 and .901. The absence of exhibition games should lead to extra goals in the early going. Historically, scoring is high in the first month or so of action anyway, and that first month should have a greater impact on the final numbers in a four-month season. Plus, we can use the 48-game 2012-13 campaign - where the league save percentage drooped to .912 from .914 - as precedent.

19. Tyler Johnson has huge year, ends up in Seattle

The "Tyler Johnson Revenge Tour" has a nice ring to it, doesn't it? The twist is that the Lightning forward hasn't been traded or left Tampa Bay via free agency. He's still a member of the only pro hockey franchise he's known. So, oddly, the revenge tour will be against his own club and GM Julien BriseBois, who placed him on waivers this offseason because of the roster's cap constraints and again Monday just to slip under the cap for opening night. In both cases, Johnson went unclaimed, which is awkward and can't be an easy pill to swallow for a useful forward.

Johnson was never drafted and, at 5-foot-8, is one of the smaller players in NHL history. This latest setback won't knock him down. With the Seattle expansion draft looming, there's no better time for the Spokane, Washington, native to strut his stuff and produce at a high rate as he has done in the past - notably in 2014-15 when he put up 72 points in 77 games. Johnson has been taking reps on both of Tampa's power-play units and lining up with Anthony Cirelli and Alex Killorn at even strength, so the table is set.

20. Joe Sakic wins Jim Gregory GM of the Year Award

You can see this one from a mile away. Joe Sakic, revered in NHL circles for his work diligently building the Avalanche into a contender, is not only "due" to be named GM of the year, but he's also closed some impressive deals. In recent trades, he's acquired top-six forward Brandon Saad and top-four blue-liner Devon Toews for, essentially, Nikita Zadorov and two second-round picks. The continued development of Ryan Graves - a defenseman Sakic signed to a nice three-year extension in October - and the expected emergence of rookie Bowen Byram will help pad Sakic's case. Overall, the Avs are structured to win the Stanley Cup now and for the foreseeable future. Sakic, who has never won the Gregory, finished fourth in voting last year. If Colorado lives up to expectations, Sakic's the obvious choice in 2020-21.

21. Owen Power is NOT drafted first overall

Power, the towering University of Michigan defenseman, is a terrific young player. A Victor Hedman clone of some kind, he has a tantalizing on-ice toolbox and gaudy physical attributes. Several pundits currently have him penciled in as the best prospect in the 2021 draft, and any NHL team would be lucky to select Power first overall in July. That being said, there is a handful of other contenders for the No. 1 pick. Taking the field is currently the better bet, with the likes of Matthew Beniers, Brandt Clarke, Simon Edvinsson, William Eklund, Dylan Guenther, and Luke Hughes also in the running.

John Matisz is theScore's national hockey writer. You can follow John on Twitter (@MatiszJohn) and contact him via email (john.matisz@thescore.com).

Copyright © 2021 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

When the NHL unveiled its 2020-21 divisions, the headlines wrote themselves.

The North? Novel. The league's seven Canadian teams, six of which are highly competitive and all of them possessing star power, competing exclusively against each other? Buckle up.

The East? The Metropolitan on steroids. Only four teams out of Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Washington, both New York clubs, and Boston will make the playoffs. And Taylor Hall's in Buffalo.

The Central? Layered. Tampa Bay, Carolina, and Dallas are in contention for the division title. Three teams are vying for the final playoff spot. Detroit and Chicago will lose a lot.

The West? Top-heavy. The Stanley Cup could very well be awarded to Colorado or Vegas. Or St. Louis, a third top-10 team in the NHL. Otherwise, nothing to see here.

As the season approached and teams settled into their respective training camps, it became clear that, no, actually, there's plenty to see in the West. In fact, as a general rule heading into Wednesday's opening night, don't sleep on the West. It's spicier, messier, and more interesting than it looks at first glance, bursting at the seams with storylines and subplots.

Let's start with the Golden Knights, who made the biggest offseason splash by inking star blue-liner Alex Pietrangelo to a monster deal. Pietrangelo, who finished fourth in 2019-20 Norris Trophy voting, instantly became the club's best player, though shipping center Paul Stastny and defenseman Nate Schmidt out of town to fit Pietrangelo under the cap stings.

Since joining the league in 2017, Vegas management hasn't been shy to pull the trigger on big-time transactions. They've built a perennial Cup contender off creativity, aggression, and, in some ways, being cutthroat. The original core - what remains of it, anyway - is absolutely dying for a championship.

"100%," said sophomore center Cody Glass, who, along with speedster Chandler Stephenson, is tasked with filling the void left by Stastny's departure. "Ever since Day 1 when I got here, that's all they've been talking about: Being that last team standing and winning the Stanley Cup."

Part of the fun this season will be watching Vegas strive to hit another peak in Pete DeBoer's first full campaign behind the bench while simultaneously wondering if last season's drama involving goalie Marc-Andre Fleury is completely in the past or simmering beneath the surface.

The Golden Knights alone make the West spicy, and the schedule maker's greatest gift is an outdoor game versus the Avalanche at picturesque Lake Tahoe in February. It'll be one of eight head-to-heads between the two powerhouses in a span of 10 weeks.

"They've got that top line, of (Nathan) MacKinnon, (Gabriel) Landeskog, and (Mikko) Rantanen, and you've just got to maintain them the best you can and try not to give up many scoring chances because they'll burn you on the scoresheet," Glass said of the Avs' attack. "Luckily for us, we have two really good goaltenders. I think that's playing to our (advantage), but you can't take them lightly. Every game's going to be a playoff game against them, and it's going to be a good season series that we have against them this year."

Colorado's top line - MacKinnon, in particular - is going to feast on the division's lower-end teams. The Avs boast a lethal offense padded by the recent additions of top-six winger Brandon Saad and top-four defenseman Devon Toews. The defense corps is as mobile and versatile as any in the NHL. Goaltending is the only true question mark for coach Jared Bednar, but anything better than average will be gravy for this team.

The Blues are in a similar spot, with the jury still out on netminder Jordan Binnington's capabilities as a surefire NHL starter. His safety valve - Pietrangelo - is gone, and St. Louis' top goal scorer, Vladimir Tarasenko, is sidelined indefinitely. However, the arrivals of dynamic defenseman Torey Krug and sniping winger Mike Hoffman help offset some of the value lost. The 2018 Cup champs, led by new captain Ryan O'Reilly, are still to be feared.

"For everyone in the division, those are the measuring sticks," Ducks defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk said of Vegas, Colorado, and St. Louis. "Those are the teams that we're going to have to gear ourselves up for and take some notes as well since they do so much well to get to that point."

The division gets messy after the Big Three. Minnesota, Arizona, Anaheim, Los Angeles, and San Jose are all grasping for the final playoff spot. The Wild, buoyed by a strong defensive unit and dazzling rookie Kirill Kaprizov, should claim it. Yet, as a retooling team with virtually no center depth and a checkered recent past of on-ice success, there are no guarantees.

"It's been a lot of ups and downs," Wild defenseman Jonas Brodin said. "We've been really good for 20 games, and then we've been bad, and then we've been good again. We need to be more consistent. Like, same level all the time, almost. This year, I think we have a great team. I'm excited."

The Coyotes are difficult to peg, as well. The organization has changed dramatically off the ice after hiring GM Bill Armstrong, but their opening-night lineup doesn't inspire much confidence, especially on offense. Still, there's a very real scenario where Arizona is in the thick of the playoff hunt. If healthy, the team's stellar goaltending tandem of Darcy Kuemper and Antti Raanta can keep them in most games, raising its ceiling.

"We're a group that people probably count out, and people aren't probably expecting us to do much. We're going to roll with that, thrive off that," said Coyotes defenseman Jakob Chychrun, who is entering his fifth NHL season. "We like our team. We like the group we have here. Our core has grown together over the last number of years. We're just going to continue to look to take the next step. We believe that we should be in the postseason."

There's a decent chance L.A., San Jose, and Anaheim occupy the bottom three spots in the West by season's end, so it's tempting for those outside the local markets to dismiss them. But each franchise, in their own unique situations, are fascinating.

San Jose, for instance, is on the road for all of January - and possibly longer - because a regional stay-at-home order has locked it out of the SAP Center. The Sharks staged their training camp in Arizona and have opening-month series scheduled against the Coyotes, Blues, Wild, and Avalanche. They went from competing in the Western Conference Final in 2018-19 to missing last year's 24-team bubbled postseason after a horrendous regular season. The Sharks' long list of moneymakers, from Erik Karlsson and Brent Burns to Logan Couture and Marc-Edouard Vlasic to Timo Meier and Tomas Hertl, need to perform, or the shortened season could get away from them quickly.

In the crease, Devan Dubnyk joins incumbent Martin Jones following an offseason trade between San Jose and Minnesota. Both netminders have years of starter's experience but are fresh off poor statistical seasons. It's not a matter of one showing up. Dubnyk and Jones must form a solid tandem.

"In order for us to be successful, we both have to play well," Dubnyk, 34, said. "There's no one way around it. Maybe, at the end of the year down the stretch, if someone gets hot, they're going to (become the unquestioned No. 1). For the most part, every team is going to need two goalies. That's an exciting opportunity for him and I."

He added: "The parity in the league is crazy. I don't think that there's any reason why you should count a team out or guarantee a team in. ... I think this group has shown a ton of consistency in the past as far as being successful and making the playoffs. There's been some changes, yes, but I think we also have some huge pieces back that make us healthier than they were in the past. If you click and you get on a good roll, every game is difficult."

The Kings, meanwhile, are on an upward trajectory. This season will help determine how close they are to moving out of a rebuild and into the playoffs again. Former Norris Trophy winner Drew Doughty is a player to watch after his strong comments about being "written off." The same goes for all the young or new players who'll see ice, including Jaret Anderson-Dolan, Andreas Athanasiou, Lias Andersson, and Kale Clague. Will Quinton Byfield debut?

L.A. and Anaheim face off five times over a 12-day period in late April/early May. It could either be a heated, playoff-style battle or a cluster of games for lottery seeding. The Ducks' fortunes, probably unfairly, might hinge on goaltender John Gibson. Having missed the playoffs in consecutive years for the first time since the early 2000s, there's no shortage of motivation.

"I think there's a hunger here, after what happened last year and the year before with the results, to get back on track and be a formidable team to play against," said Shattenkirk, who signed a three-year deal this offseason. "We have a lot of guys who are just competitors. That's what it's going to come down to. Teams are going to learn early on that maybe we're not the Anaheim Ducks that they were used to playing these last couple of years.

"Playoffs, for sure," he added. "That's certainly a goal of ours."

In this top-heavy division, there's a spot waiting for one of these other teams.

John Matisz is theScore's national hockey writer. You can follow John on Twitter (@MatiszJohn) and contact him via email (john.matisz@thescore.com).

Copyright © 2021 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

It's Jan. 9 and the NHL is about to drop the puck on a new season.

Feels weird, doesn't it? Yes, the 56-game 2021 regular season starts Wednesday. It will be played amid a global pandemic and within a temporary realignment that's pitting regional rivals against each other exclusively. This setup - for various reasons, including a playoff format change and unavoidable COVID-19 outbreaks - is completely unique.

To help break down some of the major talking points associated with the start of this unpredictable season, theScore enlisted four hockey analysts:

• Jeff Ulmer - former NHL player and NHL development coach (most recently with the Arizona Coyotes)
• Mike Kelly - analyst for Sportlogiq and NHL Network
• Micah Blake McCurdy - creator of HockeyViz.com
• Kevin Woodley - NHL.com correspondent and contributing editor to InGoal Magazine

Interviews were done individually and the answers were edited for brevity and clarity.

What are your top storylines to start this strange year?

Ulmer: For me, I think it's just going to be the COVID adjustments. That's going to be the biggest hurdle for the teams this season. It'll be a lot of coaches having to rest players, keep them healthy. Goalie usage is going to be big. Obviously, if you play 56 games and it's almost every second night, you're going to have to have a clear plan.

There'll be a lot of long stretches, too, where teams don't have practices. You have so many games and you want to rest the players the next day and then get them ready for the next game. So, there's going to be a lot of coaching on the fly and I think that's going to be something every team is going to have to deal with. How do we keep these guys fresh? If we get into some bad habits, how do we correct these habits without having a lot of the on-ice practice you'd usually have?

Another thing that teams are going to have to deal with that you wouldn't have thought about before is that you're probably going to have to keep your goalies away from each other off the ice, just in the event that one gets COVID-19 and spreads it. You don't want to be playing 10 games with your third or fourth goalie if that happens. So, there are going to be a lot of adjustments on the fly. It's going to be a season like nobody's ever seen.

McCurdy: I think the rivalry component is heightened with no cross-division play. Every year people quote season series. Like, 'They played twice last year and this team won both of them!' It's two games, who cares. But this year you're going to go into a game toward the end of the regular season, and you're going to be like, 'Well, all they need is a win against this team, and they're really bad, but they actually lost six straight against this team. In fact, six of their nine losses are against this one team, so this is a tough matchup.' You're going to get some statistical curiosities like that, which I think are going to be really, really fun.

Kelly: How the league handles the COVID situation, overall. Well, not even really how they handle it but how it unfolds with the uncertainty of the whole pandemic, in general. There's going to be, more than likely, players who test positive during the season. There are contingency plans in place, obviously, but nobody really knows how it's all going to unfold. That'll be something to keep an eye on. But also, with 56 games, the potential for variance is greater than an 82-game season. I do think that you'll see a team or two who you might not have high hopes for, or a team you do have high hopes for, surprise. Just because there's less time to make up games or falter, overall, in a season of 56 games.

Woodley: I'm focused on the goalies with new teams and in new situations. Jacob Markstrom and how he plays in Calgary versus what we saw in Vancouver. I was really looking forward to seeing Henrik Lundqvist in Washington and am really sad we won't get to.

Beyond that, in terms of around the league and something that will hold true for a lot of different teams, is the three-goalie setup and how teams manage it. I think you're going to need three NHL-caliber goalies to get through a season. We saw in the playoff bubble, with guys dropping left, right, and center, that a condensed schedule doesn't lend itself to riding a No. 1 start to finish. We saw teams split games on purpose during the bubble.

I think you're going to see an even bigger shift toward tandem play, despite the fact that it's going to be tough because the playoff races are going to be so heated so fast that coaches might be thinking they can't afford to play their backup. But if you don't use your backup, what kind of risk is put on the No. 1? So, how do you manage not just No. 1 and No. 2 but also the fact that they might need No. 3? The schedule is intense. There's a lot of this pattern in the schedule: Three-in-four, one day off, and then another three-in-four. That's six games in nine days.

Where do you fall on the Connor McDavid/Nathan MacKinnon debate?

Ulmer: We all watched MacKinnon dominate in the bubble. And I had a front-row seat there, watching him against Arizona, just how dynamic he is. But for me, shuffling McDavid off the top rung is tough to do. MacKinnon's definitely closed the gap. Right now, heading into this season, it's a 1A/1B with those guys.

McDavid has less around him. He does have (Leon) Draisaitl, obviously, and it helps to have the Hart Trophy guy on your team, but you can basically play him with third-liners and he's going to still lead the league in scoring. Having said that, they're probably the only two guys in the NHL that teams really have to center their game plan around, just with how explosive they are. You always have to stay above them, make sure they don't get behind you, because once they get a step, they're gone.

MacKinnon's the more well-rounded player and he adds the ability to bowl you over along with his skill and his skating ability. For me, I think it's still Connor by a hair but MacKinnon's really closed that gap with how he's played recently, especially deep into the playoffs.

McCurdy: I understand the natural temptation to debate this kind of thing but I think it's a fool's errand to be like, 'This hockey player is quote-unquote better than that hockey player, straight up.' Now, both of those guys are dramatically better than pretty much the rest of the league. But I think you can get sloppy with that sort of thing, as if you're ordering all of the players in the league as if they're DVDs on your shelf or something. … I'm not trying to dodge the question, I swear. I prefer MacKinnon at the moment.

The point numbers are not the same as McDavid but I think he's a lot stronger defensively, and a lot of the specific aspects that McDavid is better at, MacKinnon is really not that far behind. McDavid is a tremendous shooter and MacKinnon is the tiniest step behind. I think MacKinnon's defensive impact is so much stronger that it really pushes him over the top for me.

Kelly: I think you can have the debate but, for me, McDavid is still the best player in the world. I would have given a first-place Hart Trophy vote last year to MacKinnon. With where Colorado finished, some of the injuries the team had to guys he's used to playing with, and with what he did to elevate that team to be great, he shined. Individually, I think he had the better season. But I still think McDavid is the best player in the world.

They're incredibly similar in how they generate offense and their points. They're explosive off the rush. MacKinnon's more powerful, while McDavid's straight-ahead speed is unmatched with what he can do with his hands. They're very close. And look, they both give up a little defensively. People get on McDavid and Draisaitl and say they're not good defensive players or that they can't play defense and how it should hurt them in these types of discussions.

But you have to consider as well what those two players are asked to do on that team. Wayne Gretzky, people would agree, is the greatest hockey player of all time. Go count how many times in Edmonton and L.A. where he was below the hash marks in his own end. He was asked to create a ton of offense because of who he was and what he could do, and he did that at a greater rate than anyone in the history of the game. So, does McDavid or Draisaitl push for offense a little more than even MacKinnon or some other top players in the game? They do. It's a big part of what they're asked to do and what they believe they need to do to be successful overall.

Woodley: I will plead ignorance on this. I will defer to the other gentlemen on this panel. My thing is, as a goalie guy, and I did reach out to a couple of NHL goalies about this, I don't want either guy coming in one-on-one. They both have incredible speed but McDavid's is another level and what he does at high speeds scares the crap out of goalies.

The flip side of the question, and this is where I got more pro-MacKinnon answers back, was about who you would rather have as a teammate, as someone who is defending and coming back in front of you. I think, defensively, MacKinnon, whether it's him or who he's out there with, the performance seems to be a little bit better. In looking at some numbers, I didn't see a huge discrepancy but enough of a difference from an expected-goals metric at both sides of the rink. At the end of the day, neither guy would be fun to see coming down on you as a goaltender, but the answers I got from guys in the NHL is that MacKinnon might be the guy they'd prefer to have defending in front of them at this point in his career.

Who among Taylor Hall, Alex Pietrangelo, and Jacob Markstrom will find the most success on his new team? Which situation is the best fit?

Ulmer: I liked all three moves. I think, having seen Taylor Hall up close last season, and how he prepares and works to be his best ... he's going to do really well alongside (Jack) Eichel. Markstrom finally gives Calgary its No. 1 goalie the team's been missing since (Miikka) Kiprusoff.

For me, I think Pietrangelo is the guy who fits his new team the best. With Vegas, he's a guy you can trust with defensive-zone starts, he can play on the penalty kill, you can put him on the power play. I know they have (Shea) Theodore, who is an up-and-coming, great offensive player, but you can also play Pietrangelo on the second unit or even the first with Theodore. What they missed in the playoffs, especially against Dallas, and it can be a little thing and also a big thing, was having a righty-lefty combo.

It's nice to have that right-handed shot to pinch down on pucks and keep plays alive. Having him as a right-handed player in that lineup, I think that's going to really add to Vegas' attack offensively, and he's so good defensively, also. I think Vegas is built really well with the team that it has and the two goalies it has, especially for a season like this. That strong goalie tandem and adding Pietrangelo put the team right there with Colorado in that division.

McCurdy: I actually like the fit of all three of those, although I don't think the total benefit of Hall in Buffalo is going to matter as much as the other two. Just because Buffalo is a really weak team even with Hall. Ralph Krueger, the coach in Buffalo, has pretty good defensive results in his recent return to the NHL. I think that makes Hall a decent fit there because he provides a lot of offense, which is what the Sabres really need now. But I don't think he's going to be able to make the impact that they really want. You put him with Eichel and you can find a half-decent third person for that line. But there aren't really any solid defensive pairs in Buffalo, at all.

The total amount of good Hall can do is very limited by the total team quality, whereas Markstrom is going to look really good in Calgary, although goaltending wasn't the worst of the Flames' deficiencies. So, I guess the answer really comes down to Pietrangelo in Vegas. I think he's going to be an excellent fit there. The team is very, very strong all around and I think that's going to give him a really good place to shine.

Kelly: Fit-wise, I like Markstrom in Calgary. I think the Flames really needed a goalie they could go to with no questions asked. Cam Talbot had a great stretch toward the end of the year last year, but Markstrom, for me, was a top-five goalie in the league. I would have probably had him third on a Vezina ballot on a Vancouver team that was very leaky defensively. He's got to do it again.

We don't have a huge sample of Markstrom being elite but he's going to a better defensive team in Calgary. The Flames certainly got better defensively as last year went on and into the playoffs. They went from below average to above average to pretty good. So, over 56 games, I think he helps them knock that goals-against average down.

Woodley: I'm going to go with Markstrom because it's the only thing I can really talk about in an educated manner. … How he manages a low-shot environment is one of the few remaining questions about Markstrom. One of the few times Vancouver had a low-shot environment last year, where you saw some of those happy feet from Markstrom and some things cost him on goals, you started to wonder.

When I look at the number of outside chances and easier, low-danger chances that the Canucks give up and I look around the league, guess what, Calgary is one of the few teams in the league that gave up even more. So, I think that is going to be a fit. As odd as it is to say, I think Markstrom will have this situation where he's seeing low-danger shots and it's making him feel good. … Fewer chances and fewer shots, that should be a good thing for a goaltender. But the reality is, it's the goalie's job to manage it and different goalies manage not being overly busy differently. … From that perspective, I think this is a good fit for Markstrom. ... I think he'll fit well in Calgary.

Which team confuses you at the moment? Who's hard to get a handle on in respect to their ceiling and/or direction?

Ulmer: I would have loved to see Philly add a little bit more. That East Division is going to be a nightmare because it's going to be a dogfight with how many good teams are in that division. Having (Matt) Niskanen retire hurt the Flyers a little, but I still find them a top team. A guy like (Zdeno) Chara or (Mark) Borowiecki or a physical right-handed defenseman may have fit really well there, especially for this season. I still think they'll be one of the top teams in that division but maybe could have added one more physical piece there on that back end.

As far as direction, I mean, it's been in the news lately with the (Pierre-Luc) Dubois situation in Columbus. The Blue Jackets will be a team to follow for this season just with how their center depth is going to evolve there, especially if they have to eventually move Dubois. He's one of the top young centers in the league, so if you take him out of your lineup you've got (Max) Domi, who's a good player but probably better suited to be on the wing, and (Mikko) Koivu, who at his age is a very good add for this season, but down the line, what are they going to end up doing at center? That's one that's tough to prepare for, though. You can't really expect this situation, so you can't really put that on (general manager Jarmo) Kekalainen and his staff there.

McCurdy: Vancouver's probably the best one for that. My read last year is that the Canucks overperformed in a huge way, both in terms of shooting and in terms of goaltending. So, the shot rates were pretty weak last year but they rode the tremendous seasons from Markstrom and Elias Pettersson and Quinn Hughes, among others. They have a lot of other good players but those three guys, in particular, were tremendous.

Now Markstrom is gone, Pettersson ... is part of every team's pregame now, for sure. And Hughes was alongside Makar in those Calder talks, and for good reason, throughout last season. Can those guys repeat what they did? Especially when a part of what they were so good at last year was shooting. It's the most difficult-to-repeat skill in the whole league. I feel like the variance is there, where they could crash and burn really hard.

Kelly: There are a lot of teams. I'll try to narrow it down to just a couple. So, I picked Vegas last year to win the Stanley Cup. I watched the Golden Knights and I know why maybe I shouldn't have picked them. I know they got Pietrangelo but ... their forecheck and getting to the front of the net was a problem last year. Winning that net-front battle is something that matters in the playoffs and I didn't see enough of it from them. I want to watch them first to get a better handle on how they'll be this year.

Montreal has had a huge turnover. What if a lot of things go right for Montreal? I think the Canadiens can win that division if Carey Price plays as well as we know he can … if (Tyler) Toffoli and (Josh) Anderson come in and get 20-plus goals, or whatever that number is prorated on a 56-game schedule. (Alexander) Romanov could step into a top-four role. They could be a legit contender to win that division.

The New York Rangers are another team. Igor Shesterkin and (Alexandar) Georgiev getting a full season. How does that go? Shesterkin was unbelievable last year. You bring (Alexis) Lafreniere into the mix, you've got (Kaapo) Kakko going into his second year. Plus, their established stars. If they can get better defensively, not even good, just not second-worst in the league ... can they make a little bit of noise and get into the playoffs?

Woodley: I'm probably missing somebody because I'm narrow in my focus as a goalie guy but the easy answer is San Jose. It's interesting. I like the move for Devan Dubnyk. He gets reunited with (goalie consultant Adam Francilla), who he worked with during the offseason in terms of biomechanics and body mechanics. I think you're going to see a guy who is very good, very motivated, back on the top of his game. And you could see, over time, Dubnyk and Martin Jones feed off each other in a very positive way.

Yet I look at all of that and then I look at Brent Burns and I look at Erik Karlsson and remember the fact that one of them is on the ice for almost the whole game, and it's not such a great place for a goalie. Jones had the third-lowest expected save percentage among starters last season. It was a tough environment with a lot of odd-man rushes. … You're putting him in an environment that doesn't necessarily fit what he excels at. So, unless that environment changes ... that is a confusing move. Even if I like it from a personnel standpoint and think he can bounce back, goaltending never exists in a vacuum.

Which of the four new divisions would you NOT want to be in?

Ulmer: No question, it's the East with the competitiveness and the depth in that group. You've got Boston, the Islanders, Rangers, Philly, Pittsburgh, Washington. Two of those teams aren't going to make the playoffs. Even Buffalo's improved. ... But, with those top six teams, for two of them to miss the playoffs, you're talking maybe Pittsburgh, with the team taking one of its last few runs with that core.

Same thing with Washington. The Capitals made a few good additions. I liked the Chara addition for them, especially when they have to compete against these teams eight times. The East, for me, would be the division where it's going to be a competitive game every night other than, possibly, the Devils and sometimes the Sabres, depending on how their goaltending is.

McCurdy: All of the American divisions look about the same to me. They seem slightly stronger than the North. I think I'd probably prefer to be in the West or the Central because there are some easy teams to beat up on. Especially in the Central, where you've got both Chicago and Detroit, which I think are going to be reasonably straightforward victories for their opponents most nights.

But all of the divisions have this. San Jose is going to be reasonably easy to beat as well this year. The Sharks had terrible goaltending and then they decided to make it even worse. You've got a lot of confusion with Los Angeles, which isn't particularly good but now has several extremely good rookies. If the Kings decide to play none of them, they'll be really easy. If they decide to play all of them, it'll be bizarre because younger players give you more variance.

In terms of places I would not like to be, though, I'd say the East. It'd be my least-favorite choice. Both Pittsburgh and Boston look extremely good and likely to win a lot of games. And then after that, you have the Flyers, Capitals, Rangers, and Islanders. All of them look OK, at least. Even Buffalo and New Jersey have enough talent where, if you get the wrong night, you could be made to look really silly. Hall is going to score a handful of hat tricks and so is Eichel. If both of them have one on the same night, that's not your night to be whoever is on the other side of the rink. The East is kind of the Metropolitan Thunderdome, Take 2.

Kelly: It's the East. New Jersey's going to struggle again. Buffalo should be a bit better. But then you look at the other teams: Boston, the Islanders, the Rangers, Philly, Pittsburgh, Washington. That's a grind. There's a lot of good teams in that mix. Then you look at the all-Canadian division, write off Ottawa, and say the rest should be competitive. Although I am not high on Vancouver. I'm surprised how high a lot of people seem to be on Vancouver. So, I think it's gotta be that East Division. There are just so many teams who on any given night could and should win a hockey game.

Woodley: Probably whatever the old Metro was. The East. I just think that's the easiest answer in terms of where the teams are at. Even looking at the strength of the goaltending tandems, I think the toughest will be the East and the most interesting one might be the North.

Who are your picks for Cup finalists? Who's your Cup winner?

Ulmer: It's hard to go against the Colorado-versus-Tampa Bay final with the reseeding. I think they'll be the No. 1 and 2 seed. I just don't see a forward group with the depth of Colorado, and then Tampa Bay is built so well, especially on the back end.

This is a perfect year for Toronto to make it to the semifinals, and then we'll see what the Maple Leafs do once they get there. That's not for certain, though. I think Montreal's close to them and will make it close. I think it'll be either Toronto or Montreal in that division, and then it's kind of a toss-up with Washington, Philly, and Pittsburgh all competing for first in the (East) division.

Final four: Colorado, Tampa Bay, Toronto, and the Chara addition I think might get Washington there. One last kick at the can with that core as it's aging, and I think the Capitals will figure out a way with their rookie goalie to get there.

McCurdy: I expect Carolina to win this year. I think Carolina is going to take it over Las Vegas. That's my guess for the Final. Carolina has a lot of the foundation that makes it very easy to win consistently. The Hurricanes have a really strong offensive generation. The knock on them has always been that their goaltending has let them down and they haven't had the finishing talent to really clean teams up. So, you have lots and lots of shifts where they're dominating in the offensive zone but they don't actually score because they don't have anybody who can actually finish a play. And then they get attacked on the counter and their goalie does not help them out. That's been the Achilles' heel for Carolina, and I see that as being minimized now.

The team has some younger players, in particular, who are much better shooters of the puck, with (Andrei) Svechnikov being the most obvious example, and (Sebastian) Aho as well. I think the Hurricanes are going to be able to generate the kind of consistent offense of two or three or four goals every night that will let them actually win games instead of dominating and losing.

Kelly: Can I say no idea because it's a cluster of a season and who the hell could possibly know the answer to that? You know what, it could be the most random thing ever because of the shortened season and the weird playoff setup and all of that.

I've put some thought into this, though, and I'm going to say Colorado and Pittsburgh. The only real question last season with the Avalanche was the goaltending. I didn't know that it could hold up. (Philipp) Grubauer got hurt and he tends to do that. You're going into the last game of the season and you're playing a goalie who probably shouldn't even be in the league. That's still a question mark for me. But I think Colorado can do it. I know Vegas is in the division, St. Louis, too. But the Avs went through the grind last year and I think they've got the ability to do it.

Pittsburgh, for me, is another one of those teams that has one more push. The Penguins are a better defensive team than I think maybe they get credit for. I think (Evgeni) Malkin, if he can stay healthy, has another monster year in him. You know what (Sidney) Crosby is. I look at Pittsburgh's second line of Malkin, (Jason) Zucker, and (Bryan) Rust. In my opinion, that's the best second line in the league. I like the team's defense: (John) Marino, (Marcus) Pettersson, (Kris) Letang, etc. And then (Tristan) Jarry, to me, is pretty good. Not great, but he plays behind a good defensive team. I could pick Tampa Bay here but I think if some things go right for Pittsburgh, the team has another push left.

Woodley: Could we see a repeat champion in Tampa Bay? I mean, (Nikita) Kucherov comes back for the playoffs after his surgery. The Lightning would be an easy and safe pick. (Coach Jon) Cooper got their attention, clearly. As much as the focus has been on their big, heavy forwards and that offense, the numbers say Cooper got their attention defensively in terms of the high-danger chances they gave up in 2019-20 compared to the year before. Sometimes it's hard to keep that attention for a long period of time, but he got it done for a year. So Tampa Bay is a safe pick. It's hard to go against Colorado, too. But a big part of the Colorado equation is going to be its goaltending. The team didn't change much.

John Matisz is theScore's national hockey writer. You can follow John on Twitter (@MatiszJohn) and contact him via email (john.matisz@thescore.com).

Copyright © 2021 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

As sports fans, we obsess over the numbers five and 10, and their multiples: five-year dynasty, 10-year anniversary, 25-year era, 50-year title drought.

A notable recent anniversary came and went quietly: Oct. 8 marked five years since Connor McDavid played his first NHL game. The occasion got lost in the shuffle during the busiest week of a weird offseason.

McDavid has either met or exceeded expectations - depending on who you ask - as he approaches his sixth NHL season, which begins on his 24th birthday next Wednesday. And while the Edmonton Oilers have competed in just 17 playoff contests over McDavid's tenure, that's a reflection of the organization's overall performance, not the play of its high-flying superstar.

On a purely individual level, how does McDavid stack up against some of the NHL's all-time greats? Is he on a Sidney Crosby-esque trajectory following five seasons? How far off is he from benchmarks set by Wayne Gretzky?

Using the Hockey Reference database and borrowing ESPN football writer Bill Barnwell's "blind items" format, we're going to break it all down by comparing McDavid's statistical profile with those of Crosby, Gretzky, and other luminaries over the first five seasons of their NHL careers.

Feel free to play along by guessing which stat line represents McDavid in the four groupings below.

Blind item No. 1

Player A: 371 games played, 506 points, 1.36 points per game

Player B: 396 games played, 529 points, 1.34 points per game

Player C: 351 games played, 469 points, 1.34 points per game

It's only natural to start with McDavid, Crosby, and Alex Ovechkin. These transcendent forwards have run roughshod over the competition in the salary-cap era while being marketed as faces of the sport.

Player A is Crosby, McDavid's childhood idol. He went tit for tat with Ovechkin when the international rivals burst onto the scene together in 2005-06. Crosby posted 100 or more points in four of his first five seasons, including a career-high 120 points in his sophomore campaign to earn his first haul of hardware, namely the Hart Trophy. He was unstoppable.

Player B is Ovechkin, the self-proclaimed Russian machine that never breaks. Impressively, Ovechkin missed only 13 regular-season games during his first half-decade in North America. Over that stretch, he averaged an incredible 54 goals a year, including a loony 65-goal barrage in 2007-08. Ovechkin also established the Ovi Spot inside the left circle, which he utilizes to this day.

Player C is, obviously, McDavid. The heir to Crosby's throne as the so-called Next One has, astonishingly, kept pace with the younger versions of Crosby and Ovechkin. McDavid battled through multiple major injuries but his points-per-game rate reflects Ovechkin's and is a sliver behind Crosby's. Each player deploys a different style: McDavid's bread and butter is his next-level skating, Crosby is the perfect blend of power and grace, and Ovechkin is a sharpshooting wrecking ball. But from a production standpoint, all three arrived at essentially the same destination five years into their careers.

When adjusted for era, the rates and rankings change. McDavid becomes the most productive at 1.43 points per game, Crosby slides to second at 1.41, and Ovechkin sits third at 1.39. All three have technically played in the same era, but the NHL's post-lockout jolt of offense in the mid-2000s docks Crosby and Ovechkin within Hockey Reference's adjustment formulas.

No matter the order, the main takeaway is the same: Little separates these three stars, which is high praise for McDavid.

Blind item No. 2

Player A: 351 games played, 161 goals, 0.46 goals per game

Player B: 352 games played, 158 goals, 0.45 goals per game

The mystery player is an active NHLer which means, despite a 10-and-a-half-year age gap, he's a McDavid contemporary of sorts.

Player A is McDavid. Player B is Evgeni Malkin. McDavid edges out early-career Malkin ever so slightly in both total goals scored and goals per game. Injuries also hampered Malkin early in his career, notably a knee injury that cost him half of the 2010-11 season, so they played a similar number of games in their first five years. (As for total ice time, however, McDavid skated for an extra 192 minutes.)

This side-by-side comparison also underlines McDavid's underrated goal-scoring ability. We don't typically think of the Oilers captain as an elite finisher since his crafty playmaking is unparalleled and he doesn't have a 50-goal season to his name. But he does have two 40-goal seasons, and he's one of only eight players in the salary-cap era to put up multiple 40-goal seasons within his first five years in the league.

Malkin, for what it's worth, ranks fourth in goals since entering the league in 2006-07, with 416 in 907 games. And McDavid has kept pace with him through their first five seasons. Malkin was also a year-and-a-half older at his NHL debut than McDavid, who played his first game about three months short of his 19th birthday.

Blind item No. 3

Player A: 324 even-strength points, accounting for 69.1% of all points

Player B: 290 even-strength points, accounting for 74.6% of all points

As lethal as McDavid is on the man advantage, the majority of his production in the NHL has come during even-strength action. To be precise, 69.1% of his total points have been recorded at evens, which includes five-on-five, four-on-four, and three-on-three.

Player B is Jaromir Jagr, arguably the most overqualified sidekick in history. Like McDavid, Jagr - who, at the age of 48, is still playing pro hockey in the Czech Republic - also relied heavily on even-strength ice time to generate offense early in his NHL career. That eye-popping number (74.6% of Jagr's points coming at evens) paces all eight comparison players mentioned in this piece.

Here's a full rundown:

No player falls below 54%, which suggests the greatest offensive players in the world are great in part because they outduel the competition night after night. Special-teams production is certainly important - a point is a point - but it clearly isn't the entree, especially in the extreme cases of McDavid, Jagr, Lindros, and Gretzky.

Blind item No. 4

Player A: 469 points, 1.34 points per game, 503 era-adjusted points, 1.43 era-adjusted points per game

Player B: 436 points, 1.47 points per game, 461 era-adjusted points, 1.55 era-adjusted points per game

Player C: 715 points, 1.94 points per game, 586 era-adjusted points, 1.59 era-adjusted points per game

Player D: 914 points, 2.33 points per game, 722 era-adjusted points, 1.84 era-adjusted points per game

This exercise wouldn't be complete without placing McDavid's era-adjusted point total and per-game rate beside those of Gretzky, Lemieux, and Lindros. The Great One, Super Mario, and Big E were all unique talents - unicorns, even - in the period of hockey history preceding McDavid's career.

The easiest player to identify is Gretzky (Player D). The start of Gretzky's career coincided with an offensive boom across the NHL. Yet those 722 era-adjusted points jump off the page just as much as the unadjusted 914. Gretzky is the high-water mark in any discussion about one skater's impact on the game, regardless of era. The NHL could wipe every goal from Gretzky's resume and he would still hold the record for most career points.

Lindros and Lemieux are Player B and Player C, respectively. Both were 6-foot-4, played center, and shot right. Both also possessed a force-of-nature aura that's lacking from McDavid, Gretzky, and virtually every other great. Unfortunately, Lindros and Lemieux ran into serious injuries in their 30s. Looking back, Lindros' first five seasons stand as his best run, while Lemieux, who rattled off five straight campaigns with 100 or more points to begin his incredible career, boasts an even better era-adjusted point total and per-game average.

All of this is to say McDavid (Player A) has thus far produced offense at a level close to early-career Lindros, at least based on Hockey Reference's calculations. McDavid hasn't been quite as dominant - he's 0.12 era-adjusted points per game behind Lindros - but the statistical comparison is fair. That's a giant compliment, especially since McDavid's situation has been less than ideal in terms of getting support from teammates not named Leon Draisaitl.

To recap: McDavid's first five years in the NHL line up almost seamlessly with the first half-decade of Crosby and Ovechkin's careers in point gathering, his goal-scoring is on par with Malkin's early work, he's dined out in Jagr-like fashion during even-strength action, and Lindros offers a decent cross-generation comparable in era-adjusted points.

Let's not forget McDavid has picked up plenty of hardware through his first five seasons: one Hart Trophy, two Art Ross Trophies, two Ted Lindsay Awards, and three first-team All-Star nods. Plus, he's produced countless highlight-reel plays. He's well on his way to the Hockey Hall of Fame and still in his prime.

Where does McDavid rank on the all-time list of NHL players? Top 50? Top 25? Top 10?! Just kidding. Relax. We'll save that discussion for 2035.

John Matisz is theScore's national hockey writer. Contact him via email (john.matisz@thescore.com) or through Twitter (@MatiszJohn).

Copyright © 2021 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

It's officially go time - soon.

On Sunday, the NHL unveiled preliminary information about its upcoming campaign. The league will begin a 56-game regular season on Jan. 13, start its playoffs May 11, and award the Stanley Cup - if all goes according to plan - in July. Of course, in the COVID-19 era, everything is subject to change.

What's new and exciting? The 2020-21 campaign calls for temporary realignment due to border closures. The seven Canadian NHL teams are set to form a one-time North Division, while the 24 American clubs are to be split into three other divisions - the East, Central, and West.

Here are some initial thoughts on the four new groups.

North Division

Teams: Canadiens, Canucks, Flames, Jets, Maple Leafs, Oilers, Senators

You can argue the Canadian teams have lucked out, seeing as the top four clubs from each division qualify for the playoffs and the North Division features only seven teams. In the same breath, you can argue they didn't luck out, seeing as right now, the North is the most difficult division to handicap.

Forget the All-Canadian tag; it should be known as the All-Chaos Division.

It's true, none of Toronto, Calgary, Edmonton, Vancouver, Winnipeg, and Montreal are top-of-mind Cup contenders. Yet, in a normal season with 82 games and traditional divisions, all six franchises would absolutely challenge for a playoff spot. And the difference in high-end talent and depth between the six squads is essentially negligible. Something will have to give, every night.

The Flames, Canadiens, and Jets all boast first-rate starting goaltenders. The Maple Leafs, Canucks, and Oilers all have offensive dynamos in Auston Matthews, Elias Pettersson, and Connor McDavid. And each team is flawed in some way or another. Take Toronto, for instance. Based on how all the Canadian clubs currently look on paper, the Leafs probably deserve the slight edge. But their recent playoff history inspires the opposite of confidence, so, again, there's little to no difference to be found ... right?

Ottawa is a different story. The Senators are still rebuilding, but they shouldn't be taken too lightly. They proved to be a hard out in 2019-20 under new head coach D.J. Smith, and moving forward, the Sens will be bursting at the seams with hungry youngsters. After a productive offseason, it's not outrageous to think Ottawa could claw its way to a sixth-place finish in the North. A run of bad luck and/or a slew of injuries could tank one of the playoff-worthy teams' momentum during the truncated season.

The division's top rivalry is clearly the Battle of Alberta, or super pest Matthew Tkachuk versus Calgary's cross-province pals in Edmonton. The Flames and Oilers typically meet four times a year; in 2020-21, it'll be more than double that. The schedule has yet to be released, but Canadian teams will face each other nine or 10 times over a four-month period. For this reason, also keep your eyes glued on the Toronto-Vancouver season series. There's zero chance fans and media in both cities will able to behave themselves.

The main takeaway: Realignment guarantees a Canadian team will make the final four for only the fourth time in 10 years. It's fair to say Canada - which last watched one of its teams win the Cup way back in 1993 - will take those odds.

East Division

Teams: Bruins, Capitals, Devils, Flyers, Islanders, Penguins, Rangers, Sabres

If the North consists of six good-but-not-great teams plus Ottawa, the East projects similarly but with New Jersey subbing in for the Senators as the division's lone non-threat and Buffalo playing the part of the disruptive wild card.

The normal Metropolitan Division projected to be a dog fight in 2020-21, and now Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Washington, and the two New York teams must deal with Boston, the reigning Presidents' Trophy winner. On the flip side, perhaps we should temper our expectations for the Bruins, given the departure of Torey Krug (and possibly Zdeno Chara), the long-term layoffs for offensive spark plugs Brad Marchand and David Pastrnak, and the overall wear and tear on a consistently elite team that's played a ton of hockey over the past decade. It's hard to get a feel for how good (or bad) Boston will be when the club is due to engage in 56 hard-fought regular-season games.

The Sabres, meanwhile, will be coming off a 10-month break and headlined by the bombshell acquisition of former MVP Taylor Hall. And while the overall strength of the roster is questionable, at best, Buffalo's top-six forward group of Hall, Jack Eichel, Eric Staal, Sam Reinhart, Jeff Skinner, and Victor Olofsson/Dylan Cozens could do some serious damage. Ultimately, it may not be enough to rock the boat in this revamped Metro, even in a small sample, but the Sabres' appeal is real. Oh, and don't forget about Rasmus Dahlin.

From a league-wide perspective, Sidney Crosby and the Penguins meeting Alex Ovechkin and the Capitals eight times - or, on average, twice a month - to start 2021, will be awesome. Crosby's 33, Ovechkin's 35; the generational talents won't be sharing the ice forever. Cherish this rush of must-see action.

Central Division

Teams: Blackhawks, Blue Jackets, Hurricanes, Lightning, Panthers, Predators, Red Wings, Stars

At the moment, "predictable" is the best descriptor for the Central.

The Lightning will likely finish first in the standings; Carolina and Dallas will probably end up occupying second and third, respectively, with the two clubs fitting the "scary at full potential" mold quite well; and Columbus and Nashville will surely jockey for the final playoff berth. The Blue Jackets, led by Pierre-Luc Dubois, Zach Werenski, Seth Jones, and two young goalies, are more reliable than the sputtering Predators at this point, so even the drama surrounding the No. 4 spot should be subdued.

That leaves Chicago, Detroit, and Florida out of the hunt. It's possible the Panthers get their act together and find themselves competing in meaningful games down the stretch for once, but that would have to coincide with both Nashville and Columbus underperforming. Put another way, there's a clear divide between the Central's top five and bottom three, and the end-of-season gap between the Lightning and lowly Red Wings should be gigantic.

Realignment has robbed us of the potential for a rematch of the 2020 Cup Final. Having the Lightning and Stars duke it out for eight regular-season contests is a nice consolation, however, and you wonder if any tension from the six-game bubble series will boil over into the new campaign.

West Division

Teams: Avalanche, Blues, Coyotes, Ducks, Golden Knights, Kings, Sharks, Wild

The first thing that comes to mind after scanning the West Division is the solid chance that the Cup is presented to one of these clubs if the NHL can make it to July. Vegas and Colorado are arguably two of the best three teams in the league, and St. Louis is in the top 10, too.

It will be very interesting to monitor the West standings and see who among those three teams claims the top seed ahead of what should be a wild first two rounds of the postseason. The Golden Knights are firmly in win-now mode; the Avalanche are on a seemingly unstoppable trajectory; and the Blues are just two years removed from a Cup win. At the individual player level, there's no reason why Colorado's Nathan MacKinnon won't continue to make his case for best-player-on-the-planet honors, while Alex Pietrangelo is about to make his debut for Vegas after a 12-year run with St. Louis. It's possible the Art Ross, Hart, Lindsay, and Norris trophies are handed out to West players.

Minnesota and Arizona are primed to battle for the fourth playoff spot, with the three California teams appearing bound for the sixth, seventh, and eighth positions in this top-heavy division. Two Cali-related side plots out of the gate: 1) Are the Sharks playing in San Jose or in a safer community? And 2) Is the Evander Kane-Ryan Reaves rivalry alive and well in 2021?

John Matisz is theScore's national hockey writer. Contact him via email (john.matisz@thescore.com) or through Twitter (@MatiszJohn).

Copyright © 2020 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.