Following Monday's rundown of the Eastern Conference, here's every Western Conference squad's most valuable player to this point in the season:

Anaheim Ducks

Pick: Adam Henrique

There hasn't been a whole lot to cheer for this season in Anaheim, and with usual team backbone John Gibson putting together a campaign well below his typical standards, Henrique earns the honor for the Ducks. The 30-year-old leads the club in points to go along with a career-high 26 goals.

Arizona Coyotes

Pick: Darcy Kuemper

The Coyotes were comfortably in contention for a top-three spot in the Pacific before Kuemper went down with an injury, and their season cratered once he hit the shelf. During his 28-game absence, Arizona managed an 11-13-4 record. Kuemper's numbers for the season are Vezina-like - a .928 save percentage and 2.22 goals-against average in 29 games.

Calgary Flames

Pick: Matthew Tkachuk

Calgary's stars have taken a significant step back in terms of production, and Tkachuk emerged to lead the team in points and rank second in scoring. Between his highlight-reel goals, overall offensive development, and agitating on-ice antics, Tkachuk is quickly becoming the face of the Flames.

Chicago Blackhawks

Pick: Patrick Kane

"Showtime" continues to rack up the points. The 31-year-old Kane ranks eighth in league scoring with 84 points - 24 more than Jonathan Toews, who's second on the Blackhawks. There's much to be desired about Kane's defensive impact, but where would Chicago be without his offensive contributions?

Colorado Avalanche

Pick: Nathan MacKinnon

Apart from a couple of Edmonton Oilers stars, it's hard to make a case that anyone is more deserving of the Hart Trophy than MacKinnon is. The Avalanche have been without key players all season, but it hasn't slowed him down, as he's registered 93 points - an incredible 43 more than the second most for Colorado - in 69 contests.

Dallas Stars

Pick: Ben Bishop

The Stars have struggled mightily to score goals this season, so it's a good thing they have Bishop to hold down the fort. The 33-year-old posted a .920 save percentage along with a 21-16-4 record. It's worth noting backup Anton Khudobin has a .930 clip to help form one of the best goaltending duos in the NHL.

Edmonton Oilers

Pick: Connor McDavid

The Oilers are one of the only teams that have two legitimate MVP candidates. Both McDavid and Leon Draisaitl have been sensational this season, but the captain gets the edge. Draisaitl has been magnificent and may have saved Edmonton's season with his Herculean performances while McDavid was out with an injury. But then No. 97 casually put up 16 points in nine games when he returned to bring his total to a fitting 97 in 64 games.

Los Angeles Kings

Pick: Anze Kopitar

This one's a layup. The Kings occupied last place in the West for the majority of the season, but Kopitar has been solid the entire campaign. The captain leads the team in scoring by a landslide with 62 points in 70 games and logs over 21 minutes per night against top competition.

Minnesota Wild

Pick: Kevin Fiala

Many wondered what former Wild general manager Paul Fenton was thinking when he flipped Mikael Granlund for Fiala at last year's trade deadline, but the 23-year-old forward has come into his own this season. Fiala leads the club in scoring with 54 points in 64 games, including 29 in 24 once the calendar flipped to the new year.

Nashville Predators

Pick: Roman Josi

A lock to be a Norris Trophy finalist for the first time in his career, Josi's marvelous season being halted is among the more disappointing consequences of the NHL's postponement. The Swiss defender leads the Predators with 65 points and ranks second among all blue-liners in scoring. Josi also sits third at his position with a whopping 25:47 of average ice time.

San Jose Sharks

Pick: Brent Burns

Burns has been the constant during a trying and injury-plagued season for the Sharks. The veteran blue-liner has managed 45 points in 70 games - a decrease from his normal pace but still 11th among all defensemen - while averaging over 25 minutes per contest.

St. Louis Blues

Pick: Alex Pietrangelo

The Blues have a few worthy candidates, but it's difficult to imagine the defending champions leading the Central Division if Pietrangelo missed any significant time. The captain is on pace to set a career high with 60 points and already set a new personal benchmark with 16 goals.

Vancouver Canucks

Pick: Jacob Markstrom

Much like Kuemper in Arizona, an injury to goaltender Markstrom was a devastating blow to the Canucks' pursuit of a playoff spot. Before going down, he posted a .918 save percentage and 11.4 goals-saved above average in 43 starts.

Vegas Golden Knights

Pick: Mark Stone

Stone has been a perfect fit in Vegas, and his first full season with the Golden Knights was going swimmingly before a lower-body injury caused him to miss the final handful of games before the league paused. Stone has developed tremendous chemistry with Max Pacioretty on the second line and has 63 points in 65 games while dominating at both ends of the ice.

Winnipeg Jets

Pick: Connor Hellebuyck

The defensively porous Jets hold the West's top wild-card spot primarily because of Hellebuyck's contributions in goal. The 26-year-old netminder is 31-21-5 with a .922 save percentage and remarkable 22.4 goals-saved above average.

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

Projected No. 1 overall pick Alexis Lafreniere isn't letting his journey to the NHL be ruined by the league's decision to postpone the 2020 draft.

The NHL announced Wednesday the draft won't take place as scheduled due to coronavirus concerns. However, the uncertainty isn't bothering Lafreniere.

"You know, for sure, it would be a little bit different," Lafreniere told TSN's Frank Seravalli. "I think it's still an honor to get drafted by an NHL team. It's really special.

"Maybe it's going to be different, we don't know yet. But day by day, we'll see what happens."

The 18-year-old winger put up 112 points in 52 games this season with the QMJHL's Rimouski Oceanic and earned a gold medal and tournament MVP honors at the world juniors.

Lafreniere admitted it was difficult to hear the QMJHL canceled its season, ultimately cutting short his junior career before the playoffs.

"For sure, it was tough news for me. We all understand and it's serious," he said. "It's a little bit sad that the season came to an end quickly like this. We had a great team this year and we believed we could do something special.

"It went by really quick. It's sad that I won't get to play with these guys again, but it's hockey and you've got to move on at some point."

Lafreniere spent three seasons with Rimouski, tallying 297 points in 173 games.

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

Pittsburgh Penguins general manager Jim Rutherford is confident Jake Guentzel can play again this season if it resumes.

The talented forward was given a four-to-six month timetable following shoulder surgery after he was injured Dec. 30.

"If you take the shortest period, that would be the end of April," Rutherford told reporters Wednesday, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette's Mike DeFabo. "I would expect, knowing Jake Guentzel, that he's going to be ready."

There haven't been any setbacks in the 25-year-old's rehab, Rutherford added.

Guentzel was leading the Penguins in scoring when he was injured, collecting 20 goals and 43 points in 39 games. The Nebraska native is coming off a 40-goal season in 2018-19.

He inked a five-year, $30-million contract extension with Pittsburgh in December 2018.

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

Dallas Stars president Jim Lites and general manager Jim Nill have agreed to trim their salaries in half during the pause in the NHL season amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Nill told ESPN's Greg Wyshynski on Wednesday.

"As soon as this virus hit and we started to see where things were going, we knew it was going to hit (Stars owner Tom Gaglardi) hard, as he's in the hotel and restaurant business," Nill said. "And that it was going to hit all of us. We just thought this was the right thing for our organization to do."

The pay cuts are voluntary and not connected to any club staffing reductions, according to Wyshynski.

On Tuesday, ESPN's Emily Kaplan reported the NHL is temporarily decreasing league office employee salaries by 25%.

Several clubs are also taking cost-cutting measures. The Montreal Canadiens are temporarily laying off 60% of their employees as of March 30. The New Jersey Devils, meanwhile, had planned to trim full-time staff salaries by 20% before co-owner Josh Harris reversed course and apologized.

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

Carolina Hurricanes owner Tom Dundon denied a report that his team will stop paying full-time employees amid uncertainty caused by the coronavirus.

General manager Don Waddell sent out a directive to full-time employees explaining that the club is evaluating many scenarios for its employees during the NHL's postponement.

"We have been exploring multiple options on how best to take care of our employees while being mindful of the business challenges we face," Waddell said in the notice obtained by Chip Alexander of the Raleigh News & Observer.

The Hurricanes announced March 17 they'd cover lost wages for the arena and part-time events staff for the seven remaining home games on the schedule, which was officially paused by the league March 12.

Multiple teams across the big four North American sports leagues have cut employee payments due to the unprecedented stoppage. The Boston Bruins' parent company, Delaware North, announced Wednesday that 68 full-time salaried employees will be put on temporary leave, and 86 full-time employees were given an indefinite salary reduction.

The owners of the New Jersey Devils and the NBA's Philadelphia 76ers recently announced they were planning to cut full-time workers' salaries but rescinded their respective decisions and publicly apologized shortly thereafter.

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

With the 2019-20 NHL season on pause - and potentially finished - there are a number of questions that will need to be answered in the coming months.

One of the biggest unknowns is how the league will handle the draft lottery should the season be canceled. According to The Athletic's Craig Custance, at least one team has proposed an unorthodox solution - a tournament in which lottery teams would play for the first overall pick.

The idea is a no-brainer for fans and television networks. A tournament for the rights to a talent like Alexis Lafreniere would draw a ton of eyeballs and get fans re-engaged after the long hiatus. But for the teams involved, there are some serious questions that would first need to be answered.

1. How would teams be seeded?

If the regular season doesn't resume and the standings remain as they are, how would teams be seeded in this suggested tournament? Clubs have played a differing number of games, so seeding would likely need to be determined based on points percentage.

That's simple enough, but how would the tournament proceed? It wouldn't make any sense to have the worst teams in the tournament (presumably the higher seeds) competing against the better teams (the lower seeds) right off the bat. Would a bye be in order for the last-placed Detroit Red Wings? What would make it fair?

2. How would the worst teams be given better odds of winning?

We can almost guarantee that Red Wings general manager Steve Yzerman would be appalled by this proposal. His team has the best odds of winning the draft lottery under its current format specifically because Detroit doesn't win a ton of hockey games. Now the team would have to win an entire tournament? It's a little backward.

On the flip side, imagine a team like the New York Rangers - who looked more like Stanley Cup contenders than lottery players when the season was suspended - running wild in this tournament. How would the league make their path to the final reflect their odds (2%) of winning the lottery under the traditional format? Would they need to win by a certain number of goals? Begin each game with a deficit? It seems difficult to translate those minuscule odds into an on-ice scenario.

3. What happens if a lottery team doesn't own its pick?

This is one of the proposal's major hurdles. Take the San Jose Sharks. They dealt their 2020 first-round selection to the Ottawa Senators as part of the Erik Karlsson deal. Each team sits 29th and 30th, respectively, in the overall standings. The Sharks wouldn't be afforded a lottery ball in the traditional format, so it wouldn't make sense to have them in the tournament. That's easy, but what about Ottawa?

Under the current lottery structure, the Senators would have an incredible opportunity to claim the top selection. Their pick alone gives them a 13.5% chance, and the San Jose pick yields odds of 11.5%. Assuming the tournament is single-elimination, would Ottawa be afforded more than one loss? What happens to the team's second lottery pick? How are the Senators' odds best reflected on the ice?

4. When and where would the games be played?

As Custance notes, holding this tournament during the summer, with fewer competing sports in play, could end up making this idea very successful and give the league something to build on. However, the league's priority is completing the playoffs, and the summer is the most likely time for that to happen. The NHL could hold both events simultaneously, but that would take some serious logistical savvy.

Another important question: Where will the games take place? It would only be fair to grant the worst teams (the Red Wings, Senators, Sharks, Los Angeles Kings, etc.) home-ice advantage, but where do you make that cutoff? How many home games does each of those teams get? Are their buildings even available? It would take a ton of brainstorming on the league's behalf to get this right.

5. How would picks 5-15 be determined?

Under this proposal, we'd assume the loser of the championship game would get the second pick, while the losers of each semifinal contest would square off for the third and fourth picks, like a bronze-medal game at the Olympics.

What happens to selections five through 15, though? If the league were to default the remaining standings based on points percentage to decide the order, what's the purpose in playing the early games in the tournament if the results only matter for teams that at least advance to the semifinals? The most logical approach would probably be for the "eliminated" teams to continue playing one another until a definitive order is reached based on those results.

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

Henrik Lundqvist is doing his part during the coronavirus pandemic.

The New York Rangers goaltender and his wife, Therese, will give $100,000 to the Food Bank For New York City through their foundation, he announced Wednesday.

Lundqvist said he and Therese were inspired after seeing so many people "doing so many good things for others right now."

The longtime netminder added that the food bank "always (does) a great job but now more than ever they need that extra support while they feed New Yorkers in need."

Other athletes across the sports world are also donating to causes aimed at mitigating the effects of the pandemic. PGA golfer Brooks Koepka pledged $100,000 toward COVID-19 relief efforts in Florida, while NBA players Devin Booker and Karl-Anthony Towns each committed the same amount toward supporting various non-profit organizations and increasing testing capabilities, respectively.

The Food Bank For New York City has been the area's primary hunger-relief organization since 1983.

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