Leading up to the start of the 2020-21 season, theScore is counting down the top 100 players in the game today, as voted on by our NHL editors. Injuries affecting players entering the season have been taken into consideration. We'll reveal 20 players every day until the top 20 is unveiled Jan. 12.

100-81 | 80-61 | 60-41 | 40-21 | 20-1

100. Sean Monahan, Flames

Monahan is coming off his worst season since his rookie year. He'll need a bounce-back campaign to crack next year's list.

99. Jordan Binnington, Blues

Binnington continues to prove he's among the league's top netminders. He finished top seven in Vezina Trophy voting for a second straight season in 2019-20 and is still only 27 years old.

98. Nico Hischier, Devils

Hischier hasn't blossomed into a superstar just yet, but 2017's No. 1 overall pick is steadily developing into a solid two-way center. A better New Jersey Devils supporting cast would likely help him climb this list.

97. Ryan Suter, Wild

Suter may be turning 36 later in January, but the veteran proved last year that he can still play at an elite level. His 48-point total last season was the third-highest of his career, and he could have easily eclipsed his career-high of 51 if the campaign wasn't cut short.

96. Jamie Benn, Stars

Benn's game has noticeably declined over the last couple of seasons, and his production has diminished accordingly. The Dallas Stars captain still needs to be monitored by opposing defenses, but at 31 years old, he's far from the player he once was.

95. Filip Forsberg, Predators

It's hard to believe that Forsberg's career-high in points is just 64 despite all of the skill he possesses. Perhaps his age-26 season will be the year he puts it all together.

94. Aaron Ekblad, Panthers

Ekblad is still just 24 years old as he heads into his seventh NHL season. The 2014 first overall pick put up a career-best 41 points in 2019-20 and continues to improve in all areas.

93. Brendan Gallagher, Canadiens

Gallagher is a player all 31 teams would love to have. He's a relentless forechecker, a pest to opponents, and is capable of putting up goals in bunches. One of the NHL's most underrated wingers.

92. Ivan Provorov, Flyers

With the sudden retirement of Matt Niskanen, Provorov will have to do even more heavy lifting for the Philadelphia Flyers this season than he did in the last campaign. He led the team in 2019-20 with 24:51 minutes of ice time per game, 189:30 shorthanded minutes, and was second with 210:05 on the power play.

91. Brent Burns, Sharks

It's easy to forget Burns is 35 years old, but the versatile defenseman's strong play is a big reason that happens. The San Jose Sharks blue-liner showed last season that he still had something left in the tank, ranking among the league leaders at his position with 12 goals and 45 points in 70 games.

90. Mark Giordano, Flames

Giordano continues to age like a fine wine. Though he didn't put up the points in 2019-20 like he did during his Norris Trophy-winning season the year prior, he remains one of the smartest two-way defenders in the league.

89. Colton Parayko, Blues

At 6-foot-6, 230 pounds, Parayko is one of the league's most menacing blue-liners and has cemented his status as a valuable two-way defenseman who's capable of logging top-pairing minutes.

88. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Oilers

Nugent-Hopkins is coming off the most productive season of his nine-year career and is a terrific complementary piece to the Edmonton Oilers' superstar-led attack.

87. Drew Doughty, Kings

It feels like a lifetime ago that Doughty was a perennial Norris Trophy contender and among the best defensemen in the league. Despite some lackluster play the last few seasons with the Los Angeles Kings, the 31-year-old remains solid and will look for a big bounce-back season.

86. Logan Couture, Sharks

Couture remains one of the league's more underrated players, and it didn't help his cause that his 2019-20 campaign was derailed by injuries. Playing for the Sharks also contributes to the skilled forward being overlooked. While he certainly isn't one of the NHL's biggest stars, he does deserve some recognition.

85. J.T. Miller, Canucks

It's amazing that even a team as deep as the Lightning couldn't find a way to utilize Miller's strengths. The versatile forward became an integral part of the Vancouver Canucks during his first season in Vancouver, leading the team with 72 points (yes, more than Elias Pettersson) in 69 games.

84. Dylan Larkin, Red Wings

Larkin has produced 0.82 points per game over the last three seasons while also picking up recognition for his defensive efforts. The Detroit Ded Wings are in good hands with the 24-year-old as one of their main pillars going forward.

83. Rasmus Dahlin, Sabres

It's hard to fathom Dahlin is only 20. The Buffalo Sabres' youngster plays with poise and instincts well beyond his years and appears to be on the cusp of becoming one of the league's most dynamic defenseman.

82. Darcy Kuemper, Coyotes

Kuemper looked like a legitimate Vezina Trophy candidate last season before an injury derailed his season. He finished third in the league in save percentage (.928) and goals-against average (2.22) but was limited to just 29 games. If the 30-year-old can stay healthy, he can be one of the league's best.

81. John Klingberg, Stars

Klingberg was overshadowed by Stars phenom Miro Heiskanen throughout Dallas' run to the Stanley Cup Final last season. However, Klingberg is still a very solid blue-liner in his own right. He would've topped 40 points in an 82-game campaign based on his 2019-20 output, and he's only 28.

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The Western Hockey League committed to a 24-game regular season, the league announced Friday.

"The Western Hockey League is committed to providing a season for WHL players," commissioner Ron Robison said. "This commitment ensures WHL players will receive the opportunity to compete at the highest level in the system and continue to pursue their hockey goals in the world's finest development league for junior hockey players."

A start date will be determined once final approval is received from health officials in all provinces and states with teams.

The WHL has Canadian franchises in British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba, as well as American teams in Washington and Oregon.

All three leagues in the CHL canceled their 2019-20 seasons in the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic in North America. The WHL initially targeted a Jan. 8 start for the 2021 campaign but health and travel restrictions across Western Canada and the Pacific Northwest continue to delay the process.

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Edmonton Oilers captain Connor McDavid is excited to watch teammate Jesse Puljujarvi excel at training camp after the winger's roller-coaster NHL journey.

"He's a huge part of our team," McDavid told reporters Friday.

He added: "I think if he can make strides like he looks like he has then that's big for our team ... I think (it's) just communicating with him, keeping his confidence up."

The Oilers selected Puljujarvi fourth overall in 2016. He's struggled to carve out a permanent role with the club and spent last season playing overseas.

The 22-year-old led Karpat of the Finnish League with 53 points through 56 games in 2019-20. Oilers head coach Dave Tippett expressed his confidence in Puljujarvi's growth, calling him "a different player" in the fall.

McDavid believes the 6-foot-4 winger will thrive if he can maintain his positive demeanor on the ice.

"He's got the biggest smile and is such a happy guy playing hockey," he said. "He loves the game, loves to be out there so you've just got to keep that love for the game.

"I mean you could see he was probably losing it a little bit at the end of his time with us in his first stint, so it's great to see him come back and look so excited and so happy playing the game."

Puljujarvi has amassed 17 goals and 20 assists over 137 career contests and should get an opportunity in the Oilers' top-six forward group to begin the season.

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The Colorado Avalanche and captain Gabriel Landeskog both hope to put pen to paper on a long-term extension once the NHL's economic landscape comes into clearer view.

"Gabe is looking forward to staying his whole career with the Avs," his agent told The Athletic's Pierre LeBrun. "(General manager) Joe Sakic's intention is the very same ... we are looking forward to signing long term when we all know where COVID-19 is taking us."

Landeskog will be an unrestricted free agent for the first time following the 2021 season. He signed his current deal in 2013, which pays him $5.571 million per season.

The Avalanche hold a projected $26 million in available cap space for next season but only have 12 players signed for 2021-22. Superstar blue-liner Cale Makar (RFA) and goaltender Philipp Grubauer (UFA) are other key pieces that will need new contracts after the campaign.

Perennial MVP candidate Nathan MacKinnon is eligible for an extension after the 2021-22 campaign, too, so Sakic's navigation of the salary cap over the next few years will be key in keeping Colorado's Cup window open.

The Avalanche drafted Landeskog second overall in 2011. He won the Calder Trophy as rookie of the year and has collected 460 points in 633 career games.

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Get ready for your season with theScore's fantasy hockey draft kit.

It's tough to win a fantasy hockey championship without a true superstar, but it's not impossible. Below, we identify five players to target this season who should be available later in the draft or if you get stuck with a late first-round pick.

1. Andrei Svechnikov, LW/RW, Hurricanes

2019-20 Stats: 68 GP, 24 G, 37A, 20 PPP
Yahoo! ADP: 17.0

Svechnikov had a breakout campaign in 2019-20, averaging nearly a point per game as a 19-year-old, and he's barely scratched the surface of his potential. The young Hurricanes winger carries a ton of value as a late-first or early second-round pick considering he's dual-eligible and is poised to see more ice time than the 16:44 he averaged last season.

He may not get full-time first-line duties alongside Sebastian Aho and Teuvo Teravainen, but he'll be a fixture in the top six and should be on Carolina's first power-play unit. On top of his raw stats, Svechnikov provides solid value for a scoring winger in banger leagues, registering 27 blocks and 116 hits last season.

2. Torey Krug, D, Blues

2019-20 Stats: 61 GP, 9 G, 40 A, 28 PPP
Yahoo! ADP: 70.6

Krug became a cornerstone player for the Bruins over the last seven seasons, and he shouldn't have an issue settling into his new role with the Blues. He'll get the opportunity to play top-pairing minutes thanks to Alex Pietrangelo's departure, and his power-play production shouldn't take much of a hit if he shares a man-advantage with the likes of Ryan O'Reilly, David Perron, and Mike Hoffman.

Several defenders are projected to fly off the board before Krug, giving managers a terrific chance to score some value in the middle rounds.

3. Igor Shesterkin, G, Rangers

2019-20 Stats: 12 GP, 10 W, .932 Sv%, 2.52 GAA
Yahoo! ADP: 49.7

Deciding when to take your starting goalie is always one of the toughest decisions in a fantasy draft. If you're on the fence with Shesterkin available, it would be wise to nab the Rangers' new starting netminder. His career sample size is small, but the 25-year-old put up incredible numbers in his brief rookie campaign and flashed the potential of becoming a bonafide No. 1. Don't be surprised if he's a hot commodity early in drafts.

4. Jake Guentzel, LW/RW Penguins

2019-20 Stats: 39 GP, 20 G, 23 A, 10 PPP
Yahoo! ADP: 26.4

Getting a superstar in a draft's first round is easy, but who you surround him with is the key to a championship run. Enter Guentzel, one of the top complementary pieces available. The Penguins' first-line winger registered 40 goals in 2018-19, then was having an even better campaign last year (0.51 goals and 1.10 points per game) before an injury cut his regular season short. Guentzel is one of the NHL's most underrated goal scorers and slots in beside Sidney Crosby at even strength and on the power play.

5. Taylor Hall, LW, Sabres

2019-20 Stats: 65 GP, 16 G, 36 A, 18 PPP
Yahoo! ADP: 53.5

Hall is coming off a lackluster season split between the Devils and Coyotes, and his 2021 fantasy value is being undersold. His situation is immensely improved by joining the Sabres as he's projected to ride shotgun with Jack Eichel at five-on-five. He's also playing under a coach he's familiar with in Ralph Krueger and can share a power play with Buffalo's aforementioned captain, Rasmus Dahlin, and Victor Olofsson. Hall is one of the top sleepers available this year, and you should snag him if he's available anywhere near the middle of your draft.

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Six players and two staff members of the Dallas Stars recently tested positive for COVID-19, the club announced Friday. As a result of the positive tests, the league is in the process of reviewing and revising the team's schedule "with the expectation that the team will not open its 2020-21 season earlier than Tuesday, Jan. 19," a statement said.

The Stars were scheduled to open the season with two games against the Florida Panthers on Jan. 14 and 15 and then two games against the Tampa Bay Lightning on Jan. 17 and 19. The plan is to reschedule all games affected by the delay, according to Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman.

Dallas canceled the team's practice on Friday morning as a result. The Columbus Blue Jackets also held out a large number of players from practice Friday due to COVID-19 protocols.

The Stars' training facilities have been closed and will remain shut for several days while more daily testing and contact tracing occurs. All players and staff who tested positive are self-isolating and following appropriate protocols.

The NHL successfully held its playoffs last season in two secure bubbles in Edmonton and Toronto with 24 teams playing. There were no positive COVID-19 tests recorded throughout the two months of play. This season, the league realigned its divisions to minimize travel and implemented a number of rules to try to curb the spread of the coronavirus.

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Expectations are a part of sports, and hockey is no exception. The most talented teams believe they can win the Stanley Cup, and anything less is a disappointment.

Then there's the middle of the pack, comprised of teams fighting for a playoff spot and hoping for the best when they get there. For these clubs, their expectations are lower, but failure to meet them usually has consequences.

No one takes the fall for their team's inability to meet those standards more than head coaches. Whether or not they deserve it, NHL bench bosses are often the first to go when their squads don't achieve what it'd hoped, regardless of how realistic the expectations were.

Heading into the new season, several head coaches are under more pressure than others for one reason or another. Here's a handful who could find themselves out of work if their teams underachieve:

Jared Bednar

The Colorado Avalanche head coach wasn't entirely to blame for the way last season ended for his club. Colorado's Game 7 loss to the Dallas Stars in the second round was somewhat forgivable because injuries ravaged the Avalanche throughout the 2019-20 campaign.

Bednar got a pass after losing starting goaltender Philipp Grubauer for the abbreviated regular season's final month and most of the aforementioned playoff series while also playing without two-thirds of the team's dominant top line for extended periods. In fact, he deserves praise for guiding the club to the NHL's third-best record amid all the injuries.

However, expectations are even higher for Colorado this season. If the team stays healthy but fails to reach the final four, Bednar's future will undoubtedly come into question. The Avalanche are absolutely loaded with talent, and as such, they're a Stanley Cup favorite. It's reasonable to expect them to at least knock on the door of the championship round. Failing to do that could spell doom for Bednar.

Paul Maurice

Maurice has enjoyed plenty of job security with the Winnipeg Jets over the years, and for good reason. He's one of the NHL's most widely respected head coaches, so it's not much of a surprise that only one bench boss (Tampa Bay Lightning's Jon Cooper) has held his current position longer.

That being said, it won't be too shocking if Jets management feels a change is necessary if the club underachieves this season after getting bounced from the qualifying round in August. Winnipeg reached the conference finals in 2017-18, but besides that result, the Jets haven't made it past the first round since Maurice took the helm in 2014.

Last season's postseason format was an aberration, but there'll be no excuses if a team featuring the Vezina Trophy winner and a dynamic group of forwards fails to go on a deep postseason run in 2021.

Mike Sullivan

Sullivan built up plenty of goodwill in the Pittsburgh Penguins organization and among its fans for guiding the squad to back-to-back titles in 2016 and 2017.

However, things have gotten progressively worse for him and his team since then. The Penguins lost in the second round of the playoffs in 2018, got knocked out in the first round the following year, and then suffered a humiliating defeat at the hands of the underdog Montreal Canadiens in August's qualifying round.

Pittsburgh's championship window is clearly closing. Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin are 33 and 34, respectively. While Sullivan's not the one building the roster (that's general manager Jim Rutherford, who made several questionable offseason moves), he'll be expected to guide the Penguins further than they've gone since their championship years.

Sheldon Keefe

Keefe has only been behind the Toronto Maple Leafs bench since November 2019, when team president Brendan Shanahan fired Mike Babcock and replaced him with the club's current head coach, who'd worked wonders alongside Leafs general manager Kyle Dubas in the OHL.

It doesn't seem likely that Shanahan and Dubas would have a quick trigger finger with Keefe unless things significantly deteriorated in Toronto. However, it's also clear that expectations are high for the Leafs bench boss in 2021 after the Columbus Blue Jackets knocked Toronto out of the qualifying stage last season, thanks in part to a stunning Game 3 comeback.

Dubas addressed several needs in the offseason, bringing in TJ Brodie to bolster the defense as well as Joe Thornton, Wayne Simmonds, and Jimmy Vesey up front. Given how last season ended and the fact the roster's been upgraded, it's on Keefe to get his players to perform. If they don't, the head coach's abilities will surely be scrutinized even more heavily than they were after last season's collapse.

Geoff Ward

Much like Keefe, Ward hasn't been his team's head coach for long. The Calgary Flames promoted him to the top job on an interim basis following Bill Peters' departure last November before removing the interim tag in September. But the length of Ward's tenure may not matter if the Flames sputter out of the gate or fail to improve on last season's results, which ended with a first-round exit.

On the one hand, the pressure cooker is hotter for the Canadian teams, and the competition between them will be as fierce as ever in the realigned North Division.

On the other, the Flames are expected to take a step forward after landing goaltender Jacob Markstrom in free agency, and they still have a solid core in front of him. Whether or not it's justified, Ward could pay the price if Calgary doesn't progress given their upgrade in the crease and the skill the club already possesses.

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