On Feb. 23, 1985, rookie Patrick Roy made his first NHL appearance against the Winnipeg Jets. Dressed as the Montreal Canadiens backup since Steve Penney was injured, he expected to spend the game on the bench, but after veteran Doug Soetaert gave four goals on only 11 shots through 40 minutes, coach Jacques Lemaire decided he had enough.

Having watched both players for quite some time now and covering Matvei Michkov this season, I think I have some perspective. Both players will be stars in the league. To me, that’s an easy call. But they are different players and when talking about development one player’s stumbling block isn’t for another.

As we get nearer to the March 7 trade deadline, there will be a lot of chatter about pending unrestricted free agents. There’s already been a lot said and written about Jake Evans, Joel Armia, and David Savard. Very little has been written about Christian Dvorak, however.

TVA Sports Anthony Martineau spoke to Montreal Canadiens left winger Juraj Slafkovsky at the Bell Centre on Wednesday and the big Slovak made an interesting declaration:

As the Montreal crowd watched Team USA dismantle Finland on Thursday night, one of the biggest mistake of the Bergevin era.

Ivan Demidov has improved his record of most points in a KHL season by a player under the age of 20.

The last time The Athletic produced its top 20 NHL draft goaltender, Jacob Fowler was ranked number three; this time, he's in second place.

What did Lane Hutson do with the first few days of his 4 Nations Face-Off break? Hockey of course.

The Athletic's Scott Wheeler published his top 100 NHL Drafted prospects and unsurprisingly, Ivan Demidov tops the list.

Armia's contract year continues to get better.